Marching on to some Epic Adventures this month! It's a big one for Miss Katelee!!
Our little leprechaun is now 18!!!
She is a delight and we adore her. She celebrated with us and also with a little overnighter with some close friends downtown. I want to say I can't believe she is an adult, but the truth is I can. She is strong, motivated, smart and killing it at lacrosse this year.
She's permanently on defense and while it wasn't her first choice, she is embracing it and started out as a captain on the team. (then there has been some girl drama-bleh- and now every senior is a captain). Anywho...she is a leader and is pushing through hard classes, challenges in life and looking forward to college. Ahhhh...can't belive that's getting close. She went to another school's prom...
with Porter Sorenson's friend. We love Katelee and Porter reunited our families at their chance meet up at In-N-Out. Here she is with Angel looking dapper and gorgeous. She is growing up in the best way and 18 looks good on her!
Our poor little Brenna is still struggling with her back injury. She pushed through the last convention,
but now she is out for the next one. We've been doing PT, a massage and went to a chiropractor after a suggestion from another parent. Brenna liked it originally, but when we went back a second time, we are certain she was more severely hurt. We are just doing all we can (and praying a lot!) so she can rest up and hopefully be ok for auditions in April.
Her back was suffering and this kid's eye turned red and goopy. We have never had Pink Eye at the McArthur house. We almost made it through 4 kids without that experience. Harrison busted our record. We had to get that cleared up before our Spring Break trip, which we did but then Katelee got it right at the end of the trip, so we were pretty lucky.
Our Christmas present to the family was a trip to JAMAICA! We wanted to do something fantastic for Katelee's last high school spring break trip- and boy was it ever!
We started off the vacation in true McArthur madness...forgetting Harrison's luggage. We even said before hand, make sure to get your luggage to everyone! (we have had more than our share of mishaps-but the luggage forgetting of the mcarthur cruise was coming to mind). When we got to the car park, we all searched for the silver suitcase with Harrison's belongings, but with no success. He had brought it out to the car, but placed it on the side to be loaded and it was overlooked. So, it sat in our garage.
Luckily, we had noticed our neighbor, Matthew pulling in when we left, so we bribed him to speed over to the airport and he arrived just as we got checked in and needed to head to security. Phew...we like to stay on our toes!
We spent the night in Atlanta and Anna and Curt were able to meet us for breakfast before we left for the island. That was fun! Brenna had been saving her turn for the window seat so she could fly in and have a tropical view...not quite what she saved herself for. hahahaha
We didn't get a bird's eye view, but once we did get to reggae land, we loved it!
We stayed at the same hotel Dave and I did in 2017-we even upgraded one of our rooms (us girlies') to the swim up for the last couple of nights, like we had on our ADP trip.
Our first night we jumped right into the swimming...
and the partying. The resort dancers put on a great show and then it was a 'silent disco' where Katelee and I had a blast with Brenna while trying to constrain her and not cause further injury. ha!
It is the most bizarre party cuz it feels like a club, but you take off your headphones and it is silent. Everyone looks off beat and ridiculous so you can just go for it!
We woke up and went to church-same building as we went to 8 years ago- new paint, same great people!
This little gal wanted to be in our pictures. She must be just like our girls because half of their waking moments seemed to be a photo shoot everywhere we went. There are currently hundreds of photos of McArthur ladies (sans mother) posing throughout the island.
When we got back to the resort, we took it easy and enjoyed our time. We had awesome dinners together each night, at a hibachi, a french restaurant,
an italian place and we ate a lot of jerk chicken with our fruity drink concoctions as we lounged around. But out favorite things to eat came from the locals at the fruit stands. Our driver would pull over and let Dave shop around and we also bought a whole bunch of produce at one of our excursion destinations.
The Jamaican apple and star apple initially made Harrison gag a bit in their texture being similar to snot, but even he came around to the heavenly taste.
We brought it back to the hotel and they cut it up for us. We left them the cocoa seeds and our server took them home to grind. It worked out for everyone.
Besides church, we left the resort for two places. One of them was for our swim with DOLPHINS!
It was so fun!
Each of us got to pet one of the dolphins, touch their noses and dance with them (mostly they just splashed us all),
get kissed by the slick creatures
get pulled by two at the same time, (Harrison tried to pull this mewwing face in EVERY photo, gotta keep the memories)
and get rocketed in the air by them with their noses at the soles of our feet.
They are so well trained,
so fun
and really helped Brenna prepare for her first smooch.
The water color was a little sus right up against the building...we witnessed why with the feeding and the processing of that food by the dophins ;)
but you can't beat these genuine smiles.
We didn't even need to stage a photo op, cuz they sucker you big time. Totally worth it - we loved every minute.
We showered off the salt water and fecal matter and chilled at the hotel but did not want to miss out on the exciting/terrifying Michael Jackson impersonator. That was something.
He had children in the audience screaming in fright during Thriller- I guess it was just so authentic. He sat by Brenna for a brief moment, but she wasn't scared, Harrison however, looked unsure.
The other time we left the resort was originally to go to the tourist spot Dunn's River to swim and hike around. Katelee's friend had told her they went to a different place close to and similar to Dunn's River. When we asked our driver about it, he said Dunn's River is great but Blue Hole is best of all. So...we changed course and ended up at Blue Hole.
It was such a stellar move because it was the highlight for all of us.
You hiked up the rocks through the waterfall and had a great place to jump into the falls. It was a lot higher than this picture makes it look. There was a couple that was there at the same time and Dave ended up jumping with the lady to help her overcome her fears.
Our river guide had asked us if we wanted to try and swim under the falls and into the little cove. We thought we could do it...false...only Grant and Dave could actually swim there. That current was a bugger and we are apparently not the strongest of swimmers. With the help of our guide and Grant, we made it under and it was incredible!
I lost a shoe, which was later recovered, swallowed a whole lot of water and thought perhaps I just might tread water against the current for all of time,
but we all completed the entire course.
The water was perfect, the scenery was pristine and the adventure was spot on.
There were a lot of vendors all over and Grant and I were joking that Harrison should as Dave if he could get some brownies. Dave said yes without a second thought. We were giggling and I had to explain to him what type of brownies the Jamaicans were selling. He was going to get way more than chocolate in that treat.
We loved watching the sunset, walking the grounds, taking a catamaran out into the ocean where the boat captain laughed at Brenna when she asked if there were sharks. It was a fantastic blend of thrills and relaxation. While we loved the activities, I mostly loved getting so spend time together!!
We loved watching the sunset, walking the grounds, taking a catamaran out into the ocean where the boat captain laughed at Brenna when she asked if there were sharks. It was a fantastic blend of thrills and relaxation. While we loved the activities, I mostly loved getting so spend time together!!
We Love Jamaica!
But mostly I love these people of mine (yes-please note the mew on the youngest's face)!
