Saipan!

We had a little vacation in Saipan over Thanksgiving break--it was lovely. I think I will need to break up these pics over the next few days. I'll start at the beginning:

Taking off--you can see Tumon Bay.

Saipan is only a 35 min. flight-north of Guam. It's slightly less humid there....other that that, it really feels like a little Guam. (roughly half the size of Guam)

This pic is overlooking Tinian--a very small island just south of Saipan-

& here is Saipan-

The girls are SO excited after seeing that the Pacific Island Club is THE place to stay if you are a kid!! (a huge outdoor waterpark-plus lots of things to do at the beach.)

A little unexpected treat when we got to the room--a bottle of wine and a fruit basket. Perfect. So nice that Scott has 'connections'. ;) One of the ladies that works for him knows the manager of the hotel. :)

Kate's Bff, Maddy was also there with her family. That's made Kate's vacation fabulous.

Pretty flowers-

Instead of a bible-

giant chess board--very cool!

Ella enjoyed entertaining at the beach bar with her new friend, Kimberly-

I fell in love with stand up paddleboarding-

Boogie board- If you've never done this kind of thing, you've got to try it! This was called the 'Flow Rider' & it's not as scary as it looks. I never wiped out.

Everyone is sleeping-

Ella and Martin (Maddy's little brother)-these two got along very well.

BEAUTIFUL sunsets every night---love that.

On our last full day in Saipan, we rented a car and drove around the island. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive from one end of the island to the other. :)

Checking out the cliffs on the northern tip of the island-

Bird island-

I think that will be all the pictures for this post. I have so many more. The history of Saipan is so interesting, Kate and Ella were so interested in learning everything they could about WWII. It was wonderful.

pics

Ella in class---they were all clapping for her because of a special project she did. She wrote her own book, and presented it to a kindergarten class. Now it's in the school library, and there is even an audio version in her voice. Love it. I'm very proud of her.

Tea party time--guess we need to go over proper tea party etiquette-

swim meet

We had a short course meet this morning, and I'm so proud of my girls. Kate ROCKED her 50 fly---she is SO graceful to watch.

Okay--busy weekend. Must go do something productive. I can't believe Thanksgiving is nearly here.

catching up a bit....

I know I have not been blogging lately, so I thought I'd post some everyday pics I've taken recently.

Bath time with Gracie:

After school, Just Dance 2-

Everyone loves to snuggle with Gracie:

Love this dog-

Tropical flowers in my yard-

Okay--feeling a little more caught up now. We've got a swim meet this weekend--it's a short course, both Kate and Ella will be doing at least 3 events. I love being a swim team mom. :)