John Handcock

At preschool Vada is responsible for signing herself in on a long sheet listing all the classmates. Her name is at the end (she asks why her name is always last – oops). She usually chooses to artistically fill the entire balance of the paper below her name rather than writing her name on the line space provided. I thought her name within a big V was especially creative this morning.

Chocolate ice cream

This little girl loves her chocolate ice cream… Down to licking the last bit from the bowl.

Mitchell Park

There was a break in rain today so we ventured out to find a nearby park.

Grand Cayman

Earlier this month we escaped the gray wet Portland weather to bask in the warm Caribbean sun on Grand Cayman.

With only 8 hours of travel time from Portland we were able to leave in the morning and make it to the beach by sunset!

We were lucky enough to be joined by Twila and Jim on this trip! Jim fly fished with Toban and Twila enjoyed the beach, pool, and ocean with Vada and me.

Vada packed quite a bit of jewelry for the trip so she could dress up for dinners. The wait staff at restaurants were so impressed.

We took an afternoon boat trip one day to visit Sting Ray City…. a shallow sandbar that is frequented by stingrays. Apparently the stingrays have been trained to visit this sandbar over the years as fishermen stopped to clean their daily catch. It was creepy to have the stingrays brush past you! Jim was brave enough to feed them.

We also stopped at a nearby snorkel spot where I got to see a 7 foot bright green eel!

We applied sunblock multiple times every day but apparently we missed a couple spots around Vada’s eyes. She was forced to keep her hat on the rest of the trip!

The ocean water was warm, clear and calm most of the trip. (A storm moved in later in the week and there was a bit more chop.) I was able to snorkel right off the beach and even saw a sea turtle.

We tried to play in the ocean as much as possible but Vada’s heart was with the pool. We spent so many hours in that pool! Vada got to where she could jump in off the side and doggy paddle like mad back to the stairs. It wasn’t pretty but she was happy!

We got lucky again in booking an online vacation rental condo right on the beach. Our unit was on the main floor so we could walk right out into the sun and sand.

We were able to pull Vada away from the pool one afternoon to visit a turtle farm. They had huge (4 foot diameter) turtles in a big pond area for breeding and laying eggs. And then smaller pond areas with various age turtles that you could touch. There were also lizards everywhere!

Jump

Vada got invited to join a trampoline party with her old friend Parker!

Zaik

We finished the bathroom remodel project which started with a plan to just replace the vanity and ended up with a complete gut job down to the studs. We finished just in time to sell our house! Not really what we intended timing wise but that is how things worked out. It will be a bit sad to leave this house we have done so much work on but at least we have this great photography from the realtor to look back at it someday!

Sunset on Grand Cayman Island

Weed

Somebody has grown a bit since the last time they had these pants on.

Pump it up

The typical Oregon rains have finally appeared this winter so Vada was glad to have a friend’s birthday party at in indoor bouncy house place today.