First Day of the Last Day of Middle School for Colton and Elementary for Cady

Well, the first day of school came fast!  Summer seems to go by quicker every year.  We had a fabulous summer though, and that probably made it that much harder to start a new school year.  Another thing that made it harder for Colin and I, though, is that the kids are both Top Dogs at their schools this year, as Colton will be finishing up Middle School and Cady finishing up Elementary.  That is definitely bittersweet for us!

 

Here are the 1st Day of School Pics for our 8th grader:

 And our 5th Grader:

 Our good lookin' kiddos:

 With Daddy:

 With Mama:

 Then it was off to Cracker Barrel for our annual tradition of breakfast on the first day of school:

 

 Praying a good and safe year to be had by all!

Closing Out the Summer in Luxury

Colin had one more surprise for the kids and I planned for the last weekend before I had to go back to work.  He planned a weekend at the JW Marriott Star Pass Resort in Tucson, AZ. He and I stayed there last Fall for his work trip to the National  Meeting of the ASFMRA and we loved it and couldn't wait to go back!  The kids had never stayed at a resort like this before and we knew they would fall in love with it, too!  The plan was to get there Friday afternoon and stay there until Sunday, without any trips into town to shop or anything.  And we did it!! It was so nice and relaxing!

 

Here are a couple of shots of the resort, taking from the sky bridge:

 This was the view from our room, and Cady checking things out after we arrived Friday:

 Saturday morning, we went out on our balcony and watched some of the very friendly javelina paying visits to those on the bottom floor:

 After a delicious breakfast, it was off to the lazy river where we stayed for most of the day! Well, Colin and I stayed there - the kids went back and forth between there and the pool.

 

 We even spoiled the kids by ordering lunch and having it brought to us poolside!  I think I was in my thirties before I ever got to experience that!!

 When we returned to our room early that evening, we saw deer on the mountain from our room:

 Cady loved the hotel robes and stole her Daddy's:

 Then, we got cleaned up and went back downstairs for dinner:

First, a few pics, though! Such a cool place!

A beautiful double rainbow appeared while we ate dinner:

 That night, we sat out on the beautiful terrace and the kids roasted marshmallows while we took in the view of the city.It was raining, and this was taken with my cell phone, but here is an idea of what the view was:

 
 

We then ended the night with the kids going for a night swim:

 The next morning, we watched another doe from our balcony - much closer this time:

 Then it was time for another scrumptious breakfast and back to the pool for the last few hours before checkout:

 The pool was two levels, and the kids loved playing chicken in the middle, right on the ledge:

 

 They had the best time!

 Here's one last shot, of a local bird I snapped while the kids and Colin were enjoying the pool that morning.

 It is such a wonderful resort and we hated to leave!  We will be back, though!  We are all spoiled now and don't want to stay anywhere else - oops!!

A Day in Cloudcroft with Gramma Mary

 We'd been wanting to do something with Gramma Mary all summer, so the week after we returned from vacation, we loaded her up and took her to Cloudcroft for the day to show her all our favorite places.  She hadn't been up there in years and was excited to go up where it was cooler and greener.  We went to lunch at Big Daddy's where she got to try the steak fingers and sweet potato fries that we all love so much.  It rained pretty much the entire time we were there - and hard - so all we could really do after lunch was go for a drive and look for animals.  We didn't see any elk or turkey this time, but we did see this pretty doe, and if you look closely, you can see her fawn to the right. 

We then got ice cream and drove to a little trailhead we like and parked there to eat.  The rain finally stopped so we hopped out and took a couple of quick pics.  Then, of course, we had to show her the Old Apple Barn on the way down the mountain!

It was a quick day, but a great day spend with Gramma.