Cruise

Day 1: Leave home at 5:15am.  Fly from Cleveland to Atlanta to Tampa.  Take an Uber to the port, and board the ship!
(We covered a LOT of modes of transportation in five days.)
We explored the ship, settled into our rooms, and spent some time on deck.

Scott and I had our own room next door.  We used our baby monitor to keep an eye on them at bed time.

leaving Tampa

 Day 2: Sadly, a mostly rainy day.  We kept ourselves busy with various games, entertainment, and eating.

photo credit: Micah

Micah added some accessories to this towel animal.  Hannah and I took a class on a later day; we can make bears and bunnies out of towels.

Dress-up night at dinner, then an "80's pop music" show

Day 3: Our best day of weather!  We were incredibly thankful for sunshine and warmer temperatures.  We took a taxi to a resort on the beach that also had a pool.  There were supposed to be a bunch of floating inflatables in the ocean to play on, but it was too windy for the staff to put them out.

 Day 4: Another cooler, very windy day.  We played card games, participated in a few ship activities, and had mom-mandated homework time.
Micah and I both struggled with feeling a bit dizzy/queasy throughout the trip.  I had to lie down occasionally.  Now that we've been on land for two days, I'm still not completely back to normal.  We did not let a little queasiness stop us from eating lots of ice cream, though!

Day 5: Breakfast, disembarking, customs, and a bus ride to the airport.  We had a few hours to kill before our first flight, then spent a few more hours in Atlanta before finally flying back to Cleveland.  We arrived back in Tallmadge just in time for showers and bedtime! 

At the Tampa airport - finishing the homework that required WiFi and doing logic games to kill time.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure, a small photo collection of Matthew posing with junk food:

banana split

lucky charms mixed with fruit loops

pizza

cheeseburger and ice cream swan

Field Trips

Matthew is finishing up peak field trip season.  His class has done hikes, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, the teacher's house, and more.  I have only gone on one trip so far, but thankfully other parents share their pictures.  You may notice two themes: Matthew is almost always making a funny face or pose, and his buddy Luke is usually nearby.

this one might be my favorite

 

future cover for their band's first album 😄

the boy loves to photo-bomb

And a couple of Hannah...

Halloween

We had a lot of fun and creativity in carving pumpkins this year.

Nana was here helping with Fantastic Friday at Cornerstone, which is how I'm actually in a picture. 

Let's pretend that they always work well together and help each other.

Matthew's football

Hannah's "Boo" owl

Micah's very ambitious "ND" in a shamrock

It was a wet and windy night for trick-or-treating.  Hannah the fox walked with our neighbor and her friend.

Micah the pedestrian crossing sign walked with Bob Ross (aka Henri).  He found it too difficult to walk with the sign, though, and ditched it almost immediately.  

Matthew/Batman had two buddies from school come over to walk with him.

one house always gives out full-size candy bars

For school the next day, Micah dressed as a soccer player with a bunch of his teammates.

Scott and I got dressed up, too, for a fundraiser we attend annually.  It had a superhero theme this year.  I borrowed a cape from Matthew to wear, but I didn't have it on for these pictures.