Jamaica stories/pictures

A rundown of our week (lots of detail, be prepared to do some reading!! LOL):

SATURDAY we finally landed in Jamaica around 3:30pm their time, after having left our house around 1:30am our time (so we'd been traveling for approximately 12 hours at this point), had to clear customs and immigration, and then still had to take a 2 hour shuttle ride to the resort. and THEN we still had to check in, get to our room, and find our way around the place in order to EAT (which we basically didn't get to do all day due to funky travel times and LONG flights). It gets dark by 7pm in Jamaica, so we had to wait until Sunday to get a real clear idea of what the resort looked like and what our views would be.

SUNDAY we slept in until about 9:30am. We were EXHAUSTED from our travels. We spent most of the day wandering around trying to get a feel for the layout of the two locations (Manor side, which is where our villa was, and the Riviera side... you take a shuttle bus between the two, which are across the street from each other). We spent quite a bit of time in the pool as well, sipping at drinks from the pool bar, meeting other couples, etc.

MONDAY we signed up to take a glass bottomed boat out to go snorkeling. They take you out and "dock" up to WWII mine sweeper sunk below the surface, with a nearby reef. Dan jumped into the water and had no problem getting the hang of using the snorkel gear. I, on the other hand, had a terrible time trying to convince my body that even though my face was under water, I'd still be able to breath. I think it took me about 7 tries of putting my face in the water before I could actually take in a breath without panicking and lifting my face up instead. LOL! For the first few minutes, I was breathing very quickly, still struggling to relax. Everytime I'd feel the water lapping up against my face while I had my face in the water, my gut reaction was to lift my face back up to breathe! I eventually got things under control and REALLY enjoyed puttering around looking at little fishes and other sea life. Nothing spectacularly colored along the reefs, but still neat to look at. We didn't have a waterproof disposable camera yet at this point, so no pictures of the minesweeper, unfortunately. I got extremely nauseous on the boat ride back to the resort and decided that one round of snorkeling was plenty for me! Later in the day Monday, we wandered over to the climbing wall and each took a turn climbing up. Dan went up quite quickly. I had more difficulty (shorter arms and legs, and not as strong!!), but made it to the top. The pictures of Dan are blurry because the camera lense kept fogging up in the humidity!! The lense had finally heated enough that it was no longer foggy for my turn up the wall. After dinner that night, we attended a show where they hosted a "couples game show" which was quite hilarious! and THEN we found our way to one of the piano bars for a sing-a-long. FUN TIMES!

TUESDAY we had signed up for tour where you ride on a 65ft Catamaran (sp?), which would take you snorkeling, and then take you to Dunns River Falls to climb the waterfall. We had paid for this tour BEFORE I got nauseous beyong belief on the boat the day before so I was very nervous about doing any more activities involving boats. I ended up buying some very over-priced Dramamine from the gift shop, which worked GREAT. They motored us out to a totally different reef than the one we'd snorkeled at the day before. This time we had a waterproof disposable camera, so we took a few pictures. Nothing fancy, nothing high quality, but proof that we went snorkeling at least!! I had no problems sticking my face in the water and getting to business this time around. After about 30minutes, they called us back to the boat, and then continued on to Dunns River Falls. At the falls, you put on your water shoes (which you can either buy or rent...), strip down to your swimsuit, tie back your hair, and stand with your assigned group. Each group has a guide that leads you up the waterfall, and takes pictures and movie footage of the group along the way. Again, we used the waterproof disposable camera, so the pictures aren't that great, but better than nothing! It took about 45 minutes to climb the waterfall (wouldn't have taken that long, except they stop you at different places along the way and pose each couple for pictures and video footage). At the top, you can buy a DVD of your group climbing the falls for outrageous amounts of money ($40!), but we opted to go ahead and do it since it was sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity to climb a waterfall and have video footage of it! After we were all back on the boat, they motored us out pretty far, then put up the sails and sailed us back to the resort. The whole way back in, they've got the music cranked up, people were dancing, food and alcohol were being served. We quickly understood why the tour was nicknamed "The Booze Cruise" or "The Party Boat". LOL! It was TONS of fun, and thanks to the Dramamine, I didn't get the slightest bit sick!! We saw a Raggae band play that night, but I was miserably tired (side effects from the Dramamine) and we ended up calling it an early night.

WEDNESDAY we puttered around the pool inbetween bouts of rain. I think this was the day we played Bingo by the pool, but it might have been Tuesday (they have daytime activities scheduled, weather permitting, and you get points for participating, and whoever accumulates the most points for the week ends up winning some sort of prize. We never really sought out the daytime activities, we just happened to be in that pool when they brought out the Bingo cards!). I WON the first of three rounds. I had to have a "picture frame" BINGO. I won two cheesy sandal necklaces (skinny leather strap, with leather sandals hanging down), but it was fun to win!! Wednesday afternoon and evening POURED like you wouldn't believe. Just poured and poured and poured. We ended up just hanging out in our room reading and napping most of the afternoon. It was soooo LOUD from how hard the rain was coming down. Dan ended up deciding to go swimming anyway in our semi-private pool, so we tried to take some pictures to show just how hard it was raining, but the pictures don't do the rain justice. We were supposed to have our complimentary photo session in the afternoon, but we ended up calling and rescheduling for Thursday instead. There was supposed to be a big street fair and carnival outdoors, along with a buffet, but the street fair and carnival got canceled, and the buffet got moved into the covered pavillion area. Even with an umbrella, we got pretty soaked heading over there! We sat next to a neat couple named Melissa and Brad (I took a picture of them), and after the rain finally subsided around 10pm, we headed back to their room for a drink, and then wandered over to do some more sing-a-long stuff at the piano bar.

THURSDAY we had signed up for a tour to do ziplines through the rain forest canopy. I KNEW I would be terrified upon arrival, but also knew that I really wanted to do it, and would be glad of the experience after the fact. We had to be ready to leave by 8:10am. The tour bus picked us up, then we headed to another hotel/resort to pick up a few more couples, and then headed out. To get to the area where you get your gear and start the "nature walk" portion of the tour to get to the first zipline, we had to drive along this very narrow, terribly maintained, steep, and windy road. Crumbling houses lined the street, many just feet from the road. LOTS of little kids walking goats... I didn't take my good camera for fear it would get damaged or dropped or something, so we only had the disposable camera, and I didn't have many pictures left, but I would have liked to have taken a picture of some of the houses we saw, and the adorable little children with their goats, just as a reminder to myself about how blessed I am in life, and a lesson to my children that they really don't have it all that bad! I was excited getting ready that morning, and I was excited on the bus ride, and I was excited getting my gear on, and I was excited on the nature walk to the first platform, but stepping onto that first platform, I suddenly panicked. I was shaking like a leaf (my hands were quivering rather violently), my chin was quivering as I was fighting back tears of panic, and tears were streaming down my face. Dan tells people I was sobbing, but to me, sobbing is very loud crying, and I wasn't making a sound!!! Except maybe a strangled, "I think I just changed my mind!!" ha ha! Patrick, our main guide on the zipline tour, was AMAZING. He was very calm and gentle and reminded me to take some deep breaths, assured me I'd be okay, hooked me to the line, and sent me on my way. It was seriously over before I knew what hit me, and it had never once occurred to me to look down, or around me, as I zipped along. I was just focused on paying attention to where the other platform was and reminding myself how to "brake" when they told me to. LOL After they unhooked me from the first line, there was such a RUSH of satisfaction that I'd done it, and I was supercharged to hit the 2nd line. Until I realized that it was almost completely STRAIGHT DOWN! I will admit to being scared at that point, but the adrenaline rush from the first line was still pumping through me and the tears had stopped. They sent me down nice and slow, thankfully. The people who weren't seemingly nervous got DROPPED down the line and stopped with inches to spare. LOL After that, I had a BLAST and would do it again in a heartbeat. One of the lines WAS straight down and they asked me if I wanted them to go regular speed or slow me down and I opted for regular speed. I was so proud of myself for setting out to do something that I knew would scare me, but also for enjoying the heck out of myself WHILE I was doing it, and not just afterwards once I was safely back on the ground! The 9th and final line was 600ft long and you really pick up some speed while you're going. It was AWESOME! I would LOVE to get to do it again, and take more time to enjoy the surroundings (and to take my good camera, it would have been fine, and I could have been taking neat pictures from the platforms and along the nature walk portions). They do take pictures of you along the way with a nice camera, and you can buy the pics for $25, so we went ahead and bought the pictures because we knew the ones from the disposable camera were going to be junky... When we got back to the resort, we spent about 30 minutes in the pool before it started raining again. It was still raining at the time of our photo session, but we showed up anyway, figuring we may as well get rainy day pics since it would be representative of what our weather was! The photographer had us wait about a half hour, at which point, the rain stopped and she rushed us outside to do some poses. We bought five of the pictures she took (PRICEY as heck, but because we were either out in the rain, or hanging out in the pool, or on tours where we didn't want to lose or ruin the camera, we truly didn't have many pictures of ourselves, so we wanted to be sure and come home with SOME pictures of the two of us together!).

FRIDAY we purposely got up early because we had heard it was supposed to be nice and sunny for the morning and we wanted to get every last bit of sun that we could. We were waiting at the door at 7:30am when they start breakfast, and were out in the pool by 8:15am at the latest. It was sunny and hot and amazing!!!!!!!!!! The couple we met on the bus ride from the airport and had hung out with here and there through the out week showed up at the pool not too long behind us, so we all hung out and visited for about 4 hours before the rain started coming in again. We headed inside for lunch together, then headed back outside to sit under the little covered area to visit and read and relax some more. Eventually the rain picked up enough that it was blowing in under the covered area and we called it quits and headed to our own rooms for awhile. There was a "Soon Come Back" Farewell dinner with a Fire Breather for entertainment afterwards. I think that all ended around 8:30/9pm or so. We had to be packed and ready to start checking out at 6:30am the next morning, so we went straight back to our room to pack as much as we could the night before and to get to bed early so we'd be rested for a LONG day of travel the next day.

SATURDAY we were on the shuttle to the airport by 7:15am. We arrived at the airport around 9:15am, breezed through security, ate Dominos pizza for breakfast (we'd left the resort before breakfast was served so we were starving and pizza was the only thing we could find at the airport that was near our gate), then waited for them to start boarding the plane. I'd taken a Dramamine again so as to avoid getting sick on the shuttle ride, or the airplane ride. I was so groggy from the Dramamine, that I seriously fell asleep once I got on the plane and slept right through take-off! I NEVER sleep on planes (too uncomfortable), but dozed off and on quite a lot throughout or travel home, which was a major blessing, because it was a LONG LONG day of traveling. We landed around 8:30pm, got our bags, took the shuttle to the place we parked Dan's truck, then headed home to get the kids. It was just shy of 10pm as we pulled in to get them and they came FLYING out of the house to greet us. It was the perfect end to a wonderful vacation!

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Yeah Mon!

After a week in Jamaica, that phrase is stuck in my head!!

Dan and I stayed at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios resort last week and had an AMAZING time. Landing in Montego Bay, you just see GREEN everywhere. I expected it to be more built up (but I've heard Kingston, the capital of Jamaica and on a totally opposite coastline, IS a lot more built up), but there is tons and tons of green. It was a two hour drive from the airport to the resort, and the shuttle bus drove us through some seriously poverty stricken areas. You see this stuff on TV, but it doesn't hit you quite the same way as seeing it in person.

We saw building after building that you'd swear was abandoned, until you'd notice there were clotheslines hanging out, and people standing inside. Many had no doors or windows, and were TINY, clustered in no apparent order, within mere feet of each other. There were wealthier pockets here and there, but overall, it was a very sad sight to see the level of poverty.

Upon arriving at the actual resort, you're suddenly in a whole different world. The building is huge and beautiful, everything is large scale (high ceilings, huge chandeliers, detailed carvings in the woodwork, etc). You are treated like royalty (you are not allowed to carry your own bags, the service was amazing, the food was great, and served up beautifully, etc).

We stayed in one of the villas on the Manor side, which had a semi-private pool (only three other couples had access to it), which worked out really great! Sometimes the main pools are just too populated and you want to be a bit more on your own, so we'd head up to our own pool. It was also nice on rainy days, because even though it was rainy, it was still WARM, and we'd have our villa as a place to keep our towels dry while we'd swim (if we used the main pool, there was no place to keep your stuff dry if it was raining).

Speaking of rain, there was a nasty storm hovering over Cuba for the entire week, and Jamaica got hit by the edge of the storm, so it RAINED. We'd been told it typically rains around 4pm everyday for an hour or two, but would clear out and be gorgeous and hot the rest of the time, but that's not quite how it went down for us. It was gray skies and windy all day Sunday, with rain off and on. It rained like crazy most of Monday, was sunny for the first half of Tuesday, and rained the second half. Was mostly gloomy for the first half of Wednesday and then POURED POURED POURED the last half of Wednesday. The big street fair and carnival the resort has planned was canceled because of how hard it was raining. Thursday was spotty sun and gray skies for the morning and then rain all afternoon, with short breaks, but gray skies. Friday FINALLY was GORGEOUS. We spent 4.5 hours in the pool soaking up as much of the sun as we could before having to leave early the next morning! So it definately rained, but the outdoor temps were still nice, so it was totally fine being outside in the gray skies! We still got to do a TON of great things; we just didn't get the SUN we'd been hoping for.

We ate great food, enjoyed some yummy drinks, participated in or watched many fun events, swam, snorkeled, sailed, climbed a waterfall, did a zipline tour through the rain forest canopy, relaxed... It was truly a wonderful experience, but I was thrilled to come home to my kids, and to "normal" food, and my own bed!!

I'll post up a slide show tomorrow, just putting some final touches on picture order, etc. I am realizing that it doesn't allow me to add much in the way of text, so I will start out tomorrow's post with some more detail about our week. It started turning into a REALLY REALLY LONG POST, so I broke the week down in tomorrow's post, along with adding the slideshow.

Innertubing!

The kids got to experience innertubing behind a boat for the first time earlier this month. They LOVED it! We had driven up to a friend's cabin on a lake to hang out with them for the day. They put the boat in the water and offered the kids tube rides. Jared was ADAMENTLY not going to take a turn, but I told him that he was going to take ONE short turn and if he still thought he didn't like it, I'd get him rigth back off again, but he WOULD be trying it. Connor, Mr. Fearless, Adrenaline Junky, Full Speed Ahead kid that he is, volunteered to go first and insisted it be a fast ride. It was NOT a fast ride by any means (my kids are kind of young still and are non-swimmers at thsi point so I figured the slower rides were a much safter/smarter idea!), but Connor had a BLAST.



Em was up next, though after watching how much fun Connor was having, Jared was feeling pretty ready to give it a try afterall, and was a little upset to have to be LAST afterall. LOL



Finally his turn, and he could have hung out having his turn all day long!


Tubing was always something I enjoyed growing up and it was fun sharing it with my kids now, too!

A little obsession

Connor came home from his trip to PA with an obsession for snorkel gear. My in-law's ended up buying him a mask, snorkel, and fins for his birthday as a result. Connor insisted on testing them out ASAP, so after wandering around for a long time on dry land at my in-law's house, we got him back home and filled the tub for him.



I was recently packing him up to be gone for a week at my friend's house, and the little punk came along and dumped his suitcase in order to pack up his snorkel gear instead. I was extremely irritated to have to repack him, but it was rather hysterical at the same time that in his little mind, the snorkel gear carried WAY more importance than silly things like clothes, toothbrushes, etc. LOL!!!

1, 2, 3...JUMP!

I'm still blown away that Connor even agreed to do this! The week prior, we'd stayed at a friend's house in Eastern Washington, and the first day Connor was barely even willing to get in, or even let go of the wall, and a week later, he's jumping off a dock?!?! (granted, he refused to do it again, but it was pretty huge he did it in the first place!!!)

Ready...Set...


GO!


Now get me the heck out of here; don't know what I was thinking!!

Crazy8

A new store just opened in our local mall and the boys are IN LOVE with it!!! Some of the stuff is really pricey, but they seem to always have a sale or special deal going on. I got these shirts for the boys for $6.99/each:



Jared's says "Rocker 4 Life" and Connor's says "Skull and Bones Rock School". I found them right before their party and wasn't even actually shopping for the boys, but the shirts caught my eye on the way past and I had to go in and check them out. Couldn't resist for $6.99, knowing how much they'd enjoy the shirts!

My boys would have flipped over just about everything in that store (in the boy section, that is!!). I agonized over the black hooded zip-up sweatshirts with flames up the sleeves, because I was DONE shopping for them, and don't have my fall/school clothes budget set up yet, so the kids' "Auntie" Monica volunteered to buy the sweatshirts to be the boys' birthday gifts from her. Turns out the stuff runs big in that store (at least in our experience) so Connor needs to do some more growing, but Jared doesn't mind in the lesat and has had his on at nearly every opportunity, and is now asking when we can go look at the rest of the stuff again. *grin*

Crazy8 will definately be getting more of our business (we'll be watching for sales, though!).

WOOPS!

While I was picking up one of the cakes for the boys' birthday party, I remembered that we were running low on candles, so I walked over and saw that one of the packs had a bunch of red candles in it, which would work perfectly with the color scheme of the party (black, red, white, silver).

The boys blew out their candles, we all clapped, and suddenly, the candles had relit themselves. The look on the boys' faces was PRICELESS, and had I not been just as stunned as they were, I would have thought to take pictures of their expressions! I was so excited to have found red candles, I never even paid attention to the packaging to see that I'd bought trick candles. LOL!!!!

Poor boys!

Build-a-Bear

Where Best Friends are made!

Connor has had a thing for monkeys for a very very long time now, and we've called him our Little Monkey from the time we realized he was an adventurous little fella (which was EARLY ON...LOL). I'd been eye-balling the monkey at Build-a-Bear for his entire life and finally couldn't stand it and purchased it for him for his birthday. I put the monkey sound in it's arm/hand and dressed it in swim trunks and a shark tank top. Connor could not have been more pleased with his monkey!!



Not that my stuffy-loving-soft-blanket-collector NEEDED another buddy in his bed with him, but there was just NO WAY that monkey wasn't coming home with me for Connor...

Party like a rock star! (part 2)

Jared requested I share more of the party pictures, so here you go!







My kids are still talking about this party!!!

Funny Friday "Foto"

I giggle everytime I see this picture of Connor!!!!

Party like a rock star!

We threw a rock star themed party for the boys at the end of June. I had mailed out invitations I'd created in Photoshop that looked like concert tickets (which were pretty darn cool if I do say so myself!!). We got a bunch of decorations off OrientalTradingCompany.com and from Party City and decorated a local community center for the occasion. I'd laid out red plastic on the entryway floor to be the "red carpet" and we had silver mylar fringe hanging down from the doorway. I had my brother stationed at the door, checking names and stamping hands. My SIL Vicky was in charge of spraying colored hairspray into kids' hair as they arrived, and "Auntie" Monica was in charge of putting temp tattoos on. BIL Corey was helping keep kids in line. I had all four adult helpers wearing black shirts that I'd painted "SECURITY" in white on the fronts. My shirt was black and said "PAPARAZZI" since I was running around taking tons of pictures. *grin* We had fun posters on the wall, a "stage" area, blow up guitars and fake microphones, and I think the kids all had a really good time!!

Dan dressed the part and came as a rocker as well...


Jared and some of his friends:


Connor and some of his friends:


Some of the GIRLS from the party:


I have to say this did not end up being much work AT ALL and the kids had a BLAST! I did my best to salvage some of the decorations in case Emily wants to do this for HER next party. Boys and girls alike were having a lot of fun!

Kindergarten Grad

The four Kinder classes at Jared's school participated in a little grad ceremony on their last day of school. The kids decorated tagboard hats and got called up one by one to receive a cute little diploma.





Way to go Jared!

Jack and Jill

went up the hill to fetch a pail of water... Jack fell down, scratched up his arm, and his mother nearly had a heart attack after!



I'm still amazed this is all he ended up with after his ordeal of falling headfirst and backwards partway down an embankment! This kid is like a cat and has multiples lives or something. Scary that he's already used up so many in only the pregnancy and four short years! *Grin*

Happy Birthday Connor

My computer wasn't working at the time of Connor's birthday, and we've since been doing the mad scramble of LIFE (and enjoying the week of actual SUN and HEAT we finally ended up with last week!!), but I wanted to make sure I had a nice post for Connor for his birthday, even if it IS late.

Mr. Connor Bonnor,

I can't believe that four years have passed since you came into our lives. It seems like just yesterday we were first welcoming you into our family! You were amazing then, and you are amazing now.

In the past year, you have done some pretty great things! You've learned how to ride a two-wheel bike, and there's just no stopping you now... You've also learned to roller skate, and you and Emily and Jared LOVE to skate around and around and AROUND the house! You finished up the 3's class of preschool, and now only have the 4's class left before you head off to Kindergarten (Mommy is a little emotional over that fact!). You're making good attempts at blowing a bubble with your gum, and we're hoping to finally get you to focus on some academic stuff instead of just all the physical stuff. *grin*

You HATE chicken (except Orange Chicken from Costco, and dinosaur or Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets), you LOVE "flower" (vanilla, but there is a flower on the container) yogurt. Your favorite breakfast is either oatmeal or omelets, but you tend to only eat a few bites and say you're full. Your favorite lunch is grilled cheese, mac and cheese, or PBJ. Lunch is your biggest meal of the day and you can EAT... You are hit and miss with dinner, but are generally a good eater. I can't say that you have a specific favorite meal for dinner at this point.

You have MANY stuffed animals and blankets that crowd your bed at night. Your very favorites are your two monkeys, the lion, your bear, the frog, a dragon, "Big Bunny", a tiny puppy and tiny kitty, an ostrich, a small "soffy green blanket", a larger "soffy green blanket", a monkey blanket, and a blue/white crocheted blanket. You would add to the stash if I let you! You are the collector of all things soft and snuggly

You have a variety of interests at this point. Bike riding, rollerskating, playing Legos, playing dress-up, digging in the dirt, wrestling with daddy, using your toolbox Grandpa Dan gave you, and using your snorkel set (in AND out of the water!). You also ask us multiple times a day if we'll scratch your back for you, and you're very keen on getting your own way.

You still throw a larger number of tantrums at age four than your siblings ever did, but you've gotten much more manageable, agreeable, cooperative, etc in the past 6 months. You're generally helpful, you tell me no less than 20 times a day how much you love me (and I love YOU, too!), and you are fearless!

Happy 4th birthday Connor! You are such a joy and I love you SOOO MUCH! May this year bring you many fun and exciting adventures...

XOXO

Did you miss me?

My computer crashed nearly a month ago and I haven't had enough computer access to be able to update my blog. How many times have things happened that I wanted to update about since then??? UGH!!!!

1. Jared graduated Kindergarten, and got to wear a white paper cap and tassel, which he'd decorated in class by drawing a moose and a guy dribbling a basketball. LOL He was the only kid in his class that knew all 100 Fry Words (the sight words they'd like the kids to know before entering 1st grade). Several were very close (missing the word "were"), but J was the only one that knew all 100. Crazy how fast this year went by...

2. Emily had her dance recital on June 19th. She did a ballet performance in a Tinkerbell ballet that her ballet teacher created. Em's group was "Pixie Dust" that got sprinkled on the baby's laugh in order to turn it into a fairy. She was also in the evening variety show; her tap class did a routine to Footloose. I enjoyed seeing her onstage for both performances, but LOVED the Footloose routine. SO FUN!! This year's show marked her 5th full year of dance, and her 7th recital event.

3. Connor celebrated his 4th birthday on Father's Day. My goal was to try to create a laid-back day for Dan, and a fun day for Connor. We ended up spending the first half of the day dealing with a broken washing machine... Then we went and saw Toy Story 3, which made me CRY at the end. And before you start making fun of me, I saw MANY other moms wiping their eyes as we were heading back out to the car. *grin*

4. In addition to the broken washing machine, my garage door opener broke, my blender broke, and so did my food processor. The broken swing set still hasn't been replaced either. Our luck has not been great! As to the computer, I'm currently using my hard drive in a borrowed computer while we wait for a new motherboard for our usual computer.

5. We spent a week in Eastern Washington visiting one of my friends. The kids enjoyed swimming in her backyard pool, playing in the nearby park, seeing a free movie, and just plain hanging out. Jared was thrilled to get to play the new Lego Harry Potter game that my friend's husband purchased. I suspect he'll be using his gift card money to purchase that game himself ASAP... LOL

6. Hung out at a lakefront cabin for the day yesterday with some friends. Kids had a blast splashing around in the lake, running around with friends, going for a boat ride, cooking hot dogs over a fire, staying out late, etc. The only real bummer was Connor falling headfirst on his back partway down the embankment as we were saying our goodbyes at the end of the night. Thankfully, he fell on the part that had lots of tall grass and bushes and tree branches to keep him from falling all the way down. Scared the pants off me, for sure! He was quickly rescued, and minus some long scrapes on his neck, torso, and one arm (nothing that even bled, just roughed up and reddened skin), he's totally fine. Within less than a minute of being rescued, he'd moved on to being ticked that he'd dropped his cheese in the process of falling... LOL Once he had a new cheese in hand, he ran off like nothing happened. My heart raced for quite a bit longer while I waited for the adrenaline rush to wear off. SHEESH!

7. Looking forward to celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends today!!

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There, that's my last month in a nutshell... *grin*