Me and My Hula Girl

Since September, Paige and I have been taking a Hula/Tahitian dance class at The Spark of Creation Dance Studio. I signed Paige up for a 5-week session this past summer to see if she would like it. She had been taking ballet at the community center, but seemed to be getting bored. She ended up loving the hula class! I had been planning on signing her up for a dance school, which runs weekly classes for the duration of a school year and has performances. When it came time for enrollment, I noticed they had beginning adult Hula/Tahitian and thought, hhhhhmmmm...that is something I have always wanted to do!

Here is Paige on her first day of class.

So here we are, 4 months in and we are both loving it. We recently had our first recital on December 10th. We had so much fun. It was Paige's first time on a stage ever and my first time on stage since High School. Paige was in a terrible mood all day and then she melted down in the dressing area because she didn't like the tube top she had to wear. I was convinced she was going to get on stage and stand there. But she didn't! She danced the whole dance the best she could and she did such a great job. I was able to watch her from back stage and I was just beaming with pride! It was awesome!

Paige is on the far right.

My group went on two groups after Paige's. I was so nervous. I was part excited, part nervous and part teary-eyed from watching Paige. At the beginning, I was shaking so much from nerves, my arms didn't feel very graceful. About a few lines in, I started to relax and have fun. It was a great experience and I am very much looking forward to our year end recital in June.

I am so glad to have gotten into this. My plan is is to stick with it for some time and see how far I get through the classes. As for Paige, I hope she sticks with it too. Right now she loves it, but we will see what the next year brings! Aloha!

 

Thanksgiving Islamorada Trip

Thanksgiving this year was absolutely amazing. We had the wonderful opportunity to spend 8 days with Doug's family in Islamorada, which is located in the Florida Keys. His cousin Michael has lived there for many many years and when we had the opportunity to see him on our New Jersey trip in August, he mentioned the possibility of hosting Thanksgiving for the family at his soon-to-open new restaurant. I was doubtful it was actually going to happen, but alas, it did. And anyone who knows me, knows I never pass up a tropical vacation!

We flew into Fort Lauderdale on a red eye. The kids did great, they slept the whole flight. I, however was a walking zombie for 24 hours. We picked up our car, stopped for breakfast and some playtime at the park before picking up Doug's parents and driving the 2 hours down to The Keys.

The drive down was long, but when we arrived at our condo, I was in awe. I thought I died and went to some version of heaven. The whole family was able to rent condos in the same complex that cousin Michael lived in. We had a 5th floor unit with panoramic views of the ocean!

The view from our living room and balcony.

Even though there were a few windy days, the temperature was about 83 degrees with the water temp at about 73. The kids got to swim every single day in the complex pool, which was located right on the beach.

View from the pool.

Paige had the opportunity to go out on a boat for the day with daddy and most of the family. She had a great time getting sprayed in the face and swimming in the ocean.

Thanksgiving Day was amazing! Of course we spent the morning swimming with the kids and hanging out. Then in the afternoon we headed over to Michael's restaurant. He had two long tables nicely set for dinner and a huge buffet table set up. We had appetizers out on the deck of crab cakes, baked brie and chips & dip. The whole family was there. I think there was about 25 of us. It was amazing to spend time with everyone and share this holiday and time together. Dinner was out of this world! Aside from turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the fixings you can dream of, we also had stuffed lobster tails! Dessert consisted of authentic key lime pie, pumpkin and apple pie with ice cream! My stomach feels full just thinking of all the food I ate!

My kids are in love with Cousin Michael!

The munchkins on Thanksgiving.

The whole family at Michael's new restaurant.

The trip was extremely relaxing. We spent the rest of the time doing nothing but hanging at the pool and spending time with everyone. One of the days, we spent the entire day at Founder's Beach Park. This beautiful beach with a playground and bbq area. Most of the family came out to spend the day and enjoy the sun. We had an awesome bbq lunch and the kids had a blast playing in the sand, the playground and swimming in the water. The water was so shallow, that the kids were able to explore the water and play. Even Alyssa, she could walk pretty far out and it only reached her chest. They found other kids to play with and build a water fall on the sand hill. They borrowed a kid kayak and their cousin Christian pulled them around in it. From 9:30 am to about 3pm we soaked it all in!

Playing in the water with Cousin Michael.

The Keys are stunningly beautiful. The crystal blue all around you.

Building the waterfall.

Doug relaxing with his aunt.

Being pulled around in the kayak with cousin Christian.

This was a common site for most of the trip. Not a bad place to be in the middle of November!

On one of our days there, Doug's parents took the kids for the day and we drove the extra 2 hours down to Key West. The drive was beautiful and Key West is very nice. It was a little too touristy for our taste, but it was very quaint and pretty to see. We actually liked Islamorada a lot better. The coolest thing we did was take a 28 mile wave runner tour around the island of Key West. We saw bottle nosed dolphin frolicking among the waves within 2 feet of us. We went from the Gulf to the Atlantic around the southern most tip of the Continental U.S. and back to the Gulf. Doug threw us both off the wave runner at 30 mph because he banked a turn too sharply! It was amazing and beautiful and by far the coolest thing we did down there!

This was truly an amazing trip! To be able to spend that kind of time with family and in such a beautiful place, it really was priceless. The Keys are a beautiful place and we hope to be spending a lot more time with Cousin Michael in Islamorada in the years to come! Our utmost thanks go out to him for being the wonderful, warm and gracious person that he is. That being said, I will leave you with a few more fun photos to enjoy!

The sunrises there were breathtaking!