What's new with us?

Darin and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary back in August.  It was a low key midweek dinner out but it did start us on a trend. We now take time out of our busy schedules to meet for drinks and/or appetizers once a week without the kids.

In November the four of us had the honor of attending another Bat Mitzvah. The host teased us that as a family we do "clean up nicely."
 


Darin will be turning 50 in March and we have a unique celebration planned - more details to come.

What's new with Mackenzie?

Mackenzie's junior year homecoming quickly came and went. With a driver's license and her own car, she was able to purchase her dress with out my assistance this year. I must admit that she picked a winner.





As you have heard me say before, Mackenzie hangs with such a great group of kids.  They are already making plans for the Junior/Senior prom this Spring.



Mackenzie was inducted into National Honor Society in October.  What an accomplishment! Did you know that the minimum grade point average is a 3.9 and that it is just one of the criteria?  We are so proud of her.



Mackenzie just returned from a marching band trip to Chicago -more details to come.

What's new with Mason?

Mason turned 13 back in September.  He just completed a successful tackle football season with his team winning the senior division championship.



Mason was #81 and spent most of his time on the defensive line. Each game he wore bright colored socks so I could spot him easily on the line.



Darin was always there pacing on the sideline and offering advice whenever Mason asked for it.



Now that Mason is in 7th grade he has moved up to Intermediate band. One perk of being in the intermediate band is that you get to dress up for Halloween and perform at the school's Fall Festival.





No rest for the weary, Mason has already moved on to his next sport which is basketball-more details to come.

We're Back!

Sorry, it has been almost three months but we are finally back. Back of course from our Washington, DC trip and back to blogging.  Our second to last day in DC was spent visiting the Ford Theatre, Arlington Cemetery (to see the Changing of the Guard) and our last Smithsonian (the Air and Space Museum).

Mackenzie had some fun at the Lincoln Memorial recreating a picture of Michael Clifford from her favorite band 5 Seconds of Summer.



On our last day we were able to take Mackenzie on a quick college tour of Georgetown University.



After Georgetown, we decided to make one last stop at the National Art Gallery before it was time to head to the airport.  Just as soon as we exited the Metro, guess who drove by? Yep, President Obama. Talk about perfect timing!

Check out the video here

Overall it was a fantastic family vacation to DC.

Travel Diary: Washington DC Day 4

*We started our morning with the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Since the food trucks wouldn't reappear until Monday we figured the weekend was good time to use our limited breakfast vouchers.
*After spending 3 days in the city we decided it was time to venture out.  Even though we didn't have a car, we were able to visit Mount Vernon by taking the metro to a connector bus.



We timed our visit perfectly because just as we were exiting the main house we were entertained by a colonial marching band.



*After Mount Vernon we headed back to the National Mall for an up close look at the Washington Monument.
*We had already "squeezed" in so many sights and sounds in DC on this trip but it was far from over.  However, up next was a dinner with family.  The Virginia Morgans to be exact.



*While waiting in the metro station for our train Mackenzie thinks we witnessed a marriage proposal. There was a large crowd and cheering but the couple ran off afterward so I'm not sure if it was a hoax or not.
*We took the train to the very last stop where Trevor and Joni Morgan picked us up and drove us to the Melting Pot for dinner.
*We all met our niece and cousin, Bryn, for the very first time. Bryn was born four months before Mackenzie. I really enjoyed meeting Bryn and sharing tidbits of information with her.  She had no idea that Darin and I had been in her parents wedding, and she didn't know that she was the first granddaughter born to Jim and Carolyn after five grandsons in a row.
*We also had the pleasure of meeting Joni's daughter and Joni's future son-in-law.
*The Melting Pot was the perfect place for a three hour family reunion of eating, drinking, laughing and reminiscing about the past. Although, it was after midnight before we arrived back at our hotel, we had a great time.



Next Post: Ford's Theater, Arlington Cemetery and an Obama sighting

Travel Diary: Washington DC Day 3

*We started our morning with what Darin likes to call "the breakfast of champions" - a donut food truck outside the hotel.
*By now I was beginning to feel old while riding the metro. Mackenzie pointed out everyone in DC is young, white, and professional. Even the other tourists on the metro seemed to be younger than Darin and I. DC appears to be one of the safest and healthiest cities that we have visited. Washingtonians are constantly running and/or biking on the streets. These young urban professionals are extremely friendly and offer advice and directions without even being asked.
*Thanks to our Senator, Marco Rubio, we had a tour of the Capitol at noon. After the tour we were debating whether or not to walk across the street to our House of Representative's office to get tickets for a House Gallery tour. A gentleman overhead us talking and offered us a private tour of the gallery. He worked in the legal department of the House and a tour group had stood him up. Man, did we feel special! Our own private guided tour of the gallery.
*So, where and what do you eat for lunch when you are on Capitol Hill? Good Stuff Eatery and of course you order the Prez Obama burger (Applewood Bacon, Onion Marmalade, Roquefort Cheese). If you're not in the mood for that you can always order the First Lady's favorite, the Michelle Melt.



*Did you know that Florida is the only state with an Embassy in DC? It is a beautiful 1891 Victorian Home overlooking the Capitol Dome. We dropped in and met a young George Washington University intern named Mackenzie from Sarasota.  She served us glasses of cold Florida orange juice during our visit.

*After the Florida House, we walked down the street to see the Library of Congress. By far, the Library is the most beautiful building in all of DC.

*No trip to DC would be complete without the obligatory visit to the White House.  No, we didn't see President Obama that day but our paths would soon cross. 

*For the first and only time during our trip, the metro let us down. We were in a rush to get to our hotel but a train was disabled in the station so we had to hail a cab. Little did we know that this was the first time our kids had ever ridden in a taxi.
*We were in a rush because we had tickets to see a political satire group called Capitol Steps that night.  They had us laughing in our seats while listening to their political song parodies. It was the perfect evening event after spending the day on Capitol Hill.  If you would like to hear some of the song parodies you can visit the Capitol Steps website at www.capsteps.com.



Next post: Mount Vernon and the Virginia Morgans

Travel Diary: Washington DC Day 2

*The Le Meridien complimentary morning coffee bar was the bomb.
*We began our morning with breakfast at a crepe food truck outside our hotel (this wouldn't be our only food truck of the trip).



* First we hit the National Archives to see the Bill of Rights, Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
*Next it was over to the The Museum of American History to see the Star Spangled Banner.
*Our third stop was The Museum of Natural History which is the most visited museum in the entire United States. By far it was my favorite museum of our trip. I mean, seriously, who wouldn't love seeing the Hope Diamond? However, the museum was so large that towards the end we began to loose steam.
*In total exhaust we sat on the steps of the Natural History Museum discussing dinner, I remembered Mackenzie's one "must" for this trip. She had to try a restaurant called Nando's Peri-Peri. Mackenzie quickly grabbed her phone and discovered that her restaurant was within walking distance of the museum. You might be asking what is Peri-Peri? It is actually a hot spice from Portugal. I was so proud of Mackenzie for introducing us to a new cuisine.  That's my girl - one who is willing to try something new while in a new city.



*Since we started our day with a food truck, we decided to end our day with a food truck. This time it a was a cookie truck. Did you know that DC food trucks could be rented for private events? We actually had to wait 10 minutes for an event to end before we could purchase our desserts.



Next post: the capitol and Capitol Steps

Travel Diary: Washington DC Day 1

My sister-in-law, Angie, created a travel diary for her summer adventures and encouraged her friends and family to create their own diaries.  So, here begins our summer trip to Washington D.C.

Travel Diary Day 1:

 *It began with a flight delay at the Fort Myers airport, ugh!  With a number of hours to kill and limited food choices we had to eat at Nathan's Famous.  Hot dogs and  french fries wouldn't have been my first choice of meals to begin this vacation.
*Running behind schedule we arrived at the Le Meridien hotel in Rosslyn, Virginia.  We were greeted with a complementary wine bar at check-in. Already, my mood was beginning to improve. Before I continue with our itinerary, I feel the need to give you a little background on our hotel. Darin had found a good price on airline tickets and booked them prior to making any other travel plans.  He asked me to start looking for a hotels within walking distance of the metro since we had no desire to rent and drive a car in DC.  Little did I know that finding a hotel would become a major chore.  All the hotels I found were either too full, too far from the metro or too expensive.  After days of researching, I was finally able to find a Groupon for the Le Meridien in Rosslyn.  I was able to book 4 out of the 5 nights that we needed. The 5th night had to be booked separately through the hotel at 3 times the price of the Groupon nights. The Le Meridien ended up as the best decision of our entire trip.  The hotel was beautiful!  We had a room on the 10th floor with a view of the Washington Monument. Best of all, it was only one block from the Rosslyn Metro station and only 3 stops from Reagan airport.
*We quickly checked in and jumped on the metro to Union Station. After a meal at the Union Station food court (which is on steroids) we boarded the Old Trolley "Monuments by Moonlight" tour.
*While at the FDR Memorial we witnessed our first bride and groom taking wedding pictures (this wouldn't be our last).
*By far, the biggest crowds of our trip were found at the monuments at night.  We have never seen so many tour groups and tours buses in our lives but the views at sunset and the evening were amazing.







Next post: Day 2 - museums and food trucks

The Morgans

We hosted our fourth and final set of visitors for the summer, The Morgans. The eight of us spent the majority of our time in the water either at the beach, pool or water park. We chose the perfect evening for a sunset cruise aboard the Double Sunshine which took us on a tour of the million dollar homes in Port Royal prior to entering the gulf for sunset. Numerous dolphins joined us on our return to the dock which made the evening even more exciting.



On the last day of The Morgan's visit we had planned to paddle board but ended up boogie boarding instead. It is rare that we get a rough surf in Naples so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at the beach only to find out that paddle boarding wasn't going to be possible. No worries, everyone had a blast boogie and body surfing in the waves. By far it ended up as The Morgan's favorite day at the beach.









It was awesome for Mackenzie to spend quality time with her cousin, Kate. Ashlan had come to stay with us earlier in the summer but we hadn't seen Kate in over a year. These two are growing into such beautiful young women both inside and out.

We were sad to see The Morgan's head back to Dallas. For one, it signaled the end of our summer break. Secondly, we probably won't see The Morgan's for an entire year. The good news is that my sister-in-law, Angie, and I have already begun planning their return visit to Naples next summer.

The Parrish Family

We had the pleasure of hosting a third set of visitors, Deborah and Lindsay Parrish. My sister, Deborah, had not been to Florida since Mackenzie's First Communion which was over eight years ago.  My niece, Lindsay, had not been back to Florida since the Griffin/Kiefhaber wedding which was four years ago.



While they were here we hit a number of happy hours, viewed a few sunsets and squeezed in a little shopping. However, our best activity was a shelling excursion. The excursion lasted three hours.  It was a public excursion; however we were the only ones to book it that day.  It ended up as a private tour, just us and the boat captain.  We sailed  down the Gordon River through Naples Bay and stopped at Keewaydin Island for shelling.  We had the island to ourselves as far as the eye could see to the north and ...



... far as the eye could see to the south.



There were shells all over the island.  We could have stayed there longer but we had to stay on schedule so we quickly grabbed as many interesting shells as possible.



Mason had decided to tag along with us but I knew he would quickly loose interest in looking for shells so I encouraged him to bring his new cast net.







We were sad to see the Parrishs leave after three short days but we hope this visit set the foundation for more frequent future visits.

Tennessee Guskes

We just said goodbye to the Tennessee Guskes after a week long visit. The boys attended a five-day fishing camp but were also able to squeeze in a midweek excursion to Venice for shark teeth hunting.



And the girls, well, they shopped til they dropped. For a day I was able to convince them to take a break from the malls and attend a matinee at our dinner theater.



What was it like having three teenagers and one pre-teen in the house?  No worries, everyone got along perfectly.





Much thanks to my brother, Derek, for driving his family to Naples. We were sad to see the Tennessee Guskes head back home but we look forward to our next two sets of visitors. More details to come.

Nine Armed Sea Stars

Since the month of May we have been blessed with a massive amount of nine armed sea stars inhabiting our Naples beaches. Because they don't have a backbone or fins they are referred to as sea stars, not starfish. We have found all of our sea stars in "knee deep" waters. Mason has become an expert in finding them.  He doesn't have to actually see them in the water, he knows them by the "feel" as he walks in the sand. I still can't get over how large they are. By the way, none of these sea stars were harmed for the photos. Sea stars are easily stranded when the tide goes out but can survive if the sun doesn't dry them before the next tide.





We have not only been blessed by sea stars but also by a visit from our 10 year old niece, Ashlan. We are so proud of her! She flew by herself for the the first time and came to stay with us for an entire week. We had so much fun that we were sad to see her leave.  Thankfully, she will be back at the end of July with her entire family.



Life is good...at the beach :)

VBS Rocks

I am so proud of these two for once again participating in Vacation Bible School as crew and jr crew leaders. Each summer I begin to wonder if this will be their last time and if they are getting tired of giving up their first week of summer break to volunteer. But at the end of the week at the dinner celebration they always tell me they will be back for more next year. I guess no matter how old you get, VBS still rocks!

Totally Jaw-Some

We knew someday that Mason would be a Gulf Coast Shark, we just didn't know it would happen in 6th grade. This Spring Mason joined a start-up team of an established youth football league. On the plus side, all of the equipment and jerseys were brand new. On the negative side, our newly formed team was up against more seasoned players. Even though Mason's team didn't fair well against the other teams we sure enjoyed watching him play in the Gulf Coast High School stadium.

The Big Reveal

Friday was a very exciting day for Mackenzie. First, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade organizers surprised 300 members of the Gulf Coast High Shark Marching Band with news that the band has been selected to march in the 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They are one of just 10 bands chosen from a field of 175 bands nationwide. Collier County Schools released a slide show of the big reveal and Mackenzie was featured in one of the photos. Take a look here.

That night the band held its annual banquet where Mackenzie was presented with her second varsity letter. All sophomores received the number "16" because they will graduate in 2016.



Mason has been busy progressing from one sport to the next.  His flag football team ended their successful season as the championship winners.  However, there is no rest for the weary, Mason's spring tackle football season has already begun.