Speers Family Summer Olympics 2016

My mom is great about trying to make a summer Olympics happen for the kids each year. They sure do love it. This year we got rained out, so it didn't happen til the weekend after school started. Nonetheless, she made it happen! The kids were really excited as it is so much more fun with cousins close to compete with. The kids made their flags a couple weeks before and were ready to go. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the events, but they had fun regardless. They started with the Olympic Flag March led by Grandma to the Olympic music. 

They are adorable kiddos!

Deacon was carrying the American flag while shouting "Go Germany Go!" Everywhere we go he sees the flag and says Go Germany! I think he's a tad confused which country he lives in (and I think his dad has indoctrinated him)! haha!

The first event was the Obstacle course. Caden ended up taking the Gold in that event. Then their was the Javelin throw which Cavin won, and then shot put which Cavin and Caden tied on. Then they did archery.

We had a small problem with the target as it was too close to the neighbors fence and the first arrow when over, so we had to change the target and then Cavin took the archery medal. 

They also tried some Hockey. Then, it was so hot outside and so many mosquitoes that we headed to the pool to finish out the rest. We did individual swimming events which Ella won one and then water polo which Ella and I won. Ella is good in the water. Then when we came back, we ate Greek food for lunch and had Popsicles and then finished with a round of fly swatter balloon volleyball instead of beach volleyball. I am so grateful that my mom took the time and effort to keep the summer "tradition" going. I love it and the kids have a great time.

Back to School ....

Can I cry through written word? I seriously am so sad the kids are back in school. I love that they love learning and going, but man I miss them! They were all excited about their first day and did awesome. 

Ella is the big woman on campus. She is in 5th grade now. She was most excited about seeing her old friends. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Reynolds. She, however, will have three teachers. Mrs. Drew will teach Science, Social Studies, and spelling, Mrs. Reynolds will teach reading and writing, and Mrs. Schnurpel will teach Math. At least that's what I think they all said ;) She will do great. She is a great student and always eager to learn.

Cavin is in 3rd grade. He has Mrs. Lowry. He also enjoys school, but mostly for the competitive aspect. He loves to try and work hard and compete with others to be the best. I am hoping he will continue to learn healthy competition and work on being the best he can be and not worrying if that is still better than others. He is a good kid with a kind heart and although he is big, he is very much a gentle giant. 

Channing is in Kindergarten this year with Mrs. Ortolano. I can't believe it! She was thrilled to be going with her older siblings! When I asked her what she was excited to learn, she was way more concerned about her outfit and what shoes and necklace would match. So, not my child! Hopefully she will gain a love of learning like her siblings. She comes off shy, but is very far from it. I hope she will open up enough to make friends and have fun, but not be too sassy to her teacher! She is my first child who will have all day Kindergarten, I think that is such a long day. She did have a great first day.

My adorable children. I hope they go off into the world and make a difference and learn to be kind and giving. I hope they will always enjoy school and learning.

And then there was one....

I am excited to have one on one time with Deacon, but hopefully can keep him from a life of this! Ipads and technology have taken over our children! I look forward to finding time for him away from the screen! He sure was missing his siblings today. He kept looking in each room saying "Ella, where are you.." It will take some getting used to being just the two of us!

End of Summer Fun!

The last few weeks of summer flew by! We tried to get in as much playing as we could! We went to the pool a few times and splash pad, but it rained a lot the last couple weeks.

We of course spent day and night watching the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics!

We realized, however, even though we live in America, we only have German attire! We need to work on that!

We had our very own gymnasts in the house. Gymnastics is one of my favorite sports to watch! We loved watching all the athletes. So inspiring to me. They are so strong!

We also got in a quick trip to Baton Rouge, LA to visit Aunt Daphne who has been gone all summer. 

She is seriously the most fun Aunt you could ask for. The weekend we went Baton Rouge had one of the worst floods in history. While so incredibly devastating, Daphne was safe and her home was spared. So, she took the time to dance in the rain with the kids.

She also prepared fun crafts for them to do. 

We are so glad she is home and only 4 hours away again!

The last weekend we celebrated my sister Natalie's 40th birthday. She will be 40 tomorrow so we celebrated all together a little early.

Chira, Natalie, Mom, and I went shopping and to the Cheesecake Factory, and to get pedicures. It was a nice day to spend with Natalie.

The kids loved celebrating with her. Chira made her beautiful Snow White cake. 
We had such a great summer and I will seriously miss these cuties while they are at school!

Deacon is TWO!

Deacon turned 2 on July 30, 2016! He was super excited for his special day. He kept saying "Happy Day, Happy Day!"

He loved his traditional birthday donut and we always enjoy eating with the birthday child! We had a party with my family in the evening. We tried to do some water games outside, but it started thundering so we came inside and played a couple games. My brothers family came with my dad and sister Natalie. Deacon loved having his favorite cousin, Coleton over. He is always, always talking about Coleton or going to Coleton's house.

We opened presents and he loved his Donald duck.

This is one of my favorite pictures. My dad always does his donald duck voice, so I find it very fitting that Donald is in the picture with the two of them. Deacon loves being around "b-pa" and asks where he is often.

He was actually pretty good about opening the presents.

He loves the cars that Natalie got him, he said "oooooo cool cars!!"

"Cool Car!"

We got him this big cozy coupe to ride in. He hasn't quite figured out how to make it go, but loves to sit in it.

He loves basketball so we had a ball themed cake.
Some of his favorite things are:
- Mickey and Minnie Mouse (b-mouse)
- Basketball, he always runs around saying "Go Rockets Go"
- He loves the IPAD
- Colors. He is always telling you what color everything is..even if it's the wrong one.
- Germany. He loves Germany! Anytime he sees a flag, he says "go Germany, go Germany!"
- Ice. He only wants water with ice!
- He loves the kids bop channel and always wants to listen to kids bop in the car
- He loves dogs. Whenever he sees one he will scream "dodgy"
- He is constantly playing with balls and is always throwing them around. He is pretty coordinated and when he aims at you he often hits his target. He also is pretty good at dribbling the soccer ball. 
- He loves his blanket and sleeping with Mickey, Minnie, and Donald. 
- Every morning he wakes up saying "Daddy where are you??"

Deacon is 31 pounds and 35 inches tall. He is such a sweet kid and sure loves his siblings.

I just love his cute curly blonde hair and his big blue eyes!

This is where he goes to hide when he's not supposed to be on the Ipad ;)

Yet he is also sweet and loves to play with babies. He will be a good daddy one day. We are sure lucky to have this little boy in our family!

Our FIRST cruise!

Ragnar and I had the pleasure of going on our first cruise last week. We had a wonderful time!! It was a great experience to remember ourselves as a couple and remember that we came first. We sure love our kids and missed them, but it was a great time to refocus on ourselves for a short time. 

We were off. After a couple hours to board and some anxiety about leaving the kids, we made it on board. I decided to trust in my parents ability to take care of the kids, because they are quite capable, and try and relax and enjoy myself. 

Here was our boat. Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas.

We spent the first night enjoying our view and the beauty of this amazing earth.

There was such a pretty sunset and the weather was great all week.

Monday we woke up and worked out and then went to watch a soccer competition. In the afternoon we watched an ice skating performance called "Encore." It was really good and I was amazed at what those ice skaters could do on such a small piece of ice. We really enjoyed it! 

That night was our first formal night. We weren't sure exactly what to expect, but I think we found ourselves somewhere in the middle of the attire worn. We were seated at a table all week with 3 other couples. At first I wasn't too excited about having to come up with conversation with strangers, but after a couple of awkward nights, we ended up really enjoying the couples we sat with. They were all about the same age as us, and on their first cruise as well. Misty and Mark were from Dallas, Erin and Aaron were from Indiana, and Marilyn and Ben King were from Maryland. The last couple actually ended up sharing our religion and they were LDS too, so that was nice to have that in common. We also had a fun waiter whose name was Robby. He would always ask if we were ready for our "yummy yummy". He was from Indonesia and his assistant Tatiana was from Russia. They were both great.

Don't we look dashing ;) That night we went to a show by Travis Ledoyt which was pretty good. 

Tuesday we went running again, but this was the only day I actually noticed the rocky seas. I was running on the treadmill and man I was having a hard time running without falling off, so I finally just called it good and went to the bike! Ragnar managed fine. That afternoon we went iceskating which we were actually pretty good at. I knew Ragnar was good because he is very coordinated, but even I held my own ;) We read and napped and visited the ice cream machine and then that night after dinner went to the show "In the Air". It was amazing. It was almost like a cirque du soleil. I was very impressed by the tricks.

Our room attendant had left us some fun towels for a couple days. 

On Wednesday we had our first port day. We were in Costa Maya Mexico. 

I had never been to Mexico, so it was fun to visit the country so close to Texas. 

We had a nice welcome band. Our first stop was the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. We had a really funny tour guide named Lisbeth who was great to tour with. We were on the first bus with no problems. 

We made it and the structures were pretty impressive.

We saw a monkey carrying her baby jumping through the trees. 

The tour was super hot, but it was very interesting learning about the Mayan people and their customs. Our guide was half Mayan and was very proud of her heritage.

I can't imagine how long it took to uncover this and even build it in the first place.

I am glad my room is larger than that small area to sleep.

We enjoyed the tour and when we got back we did a little shopping for the kids.

I spent a little time trying to find wifi to see if the kids were behaving. I managed to check in and say hi! Sadly Deacon wanted nothing to do with us! Thankfully he had Bpa as he calls grandpa to make him feel at home. 

Some fun things to see about the culture as we were shopping.

First stop was complete and a success!

The next stop was Roatan, Honduras. We went on a beach excursion this day.

 It was a beautiful little beach and was not busy at all!

We facetimed the kids and relaxed on the beach.

Such a nice day with my man!
After reading and laying out we went back to the port and shopped around and then headed back to the boat! We had another formal night and then went to a show with Scott Record. Sadly he was funny for about 30 min and then it got slow and ronchy, so we headed out early. We played some games and hung out.
Friday was my favorite stop, Cozumel, Mexico. It was the prettiest stop in my opinion. We got off the boat early and headed to our dolphin excursion. 

This is the resort area we went to swim with dolphins. 

This was our trainer, Fabula, and our dolphin Naunica.

We were excited to get in.

Ragnar was loving the dolphins. He was happy to be kissed...

And kiss the dolphin.

Me...not so much. It was neat to watch them do tricks, and feed them, and shake their hands and such. Ragnar and I were most surprised by how soft they were. They look kind of slippery and rough, but they almost feel like suede. They were so soft. We had a great time. We got to eat there, and kayak and it was wonderful! We made it back to port without a hitch and then naturally shopped again, and then headed back to the boat. We ate and then went to the night show of the comedian Sam Fedele. He was pretty funny. I was laughing pretty hard. After him we went over to the battle of the sexes show, and of course, the women won ;) 
Saturday we just relaxed. We went for a long run, read, napped, ate, watched karoke, and then went to the last show called Saturday night fever, the musical. It was not my favorite, but we made it through. Sunday morning we woke up and got off the boat early as we were eager to see the kids and relieve my parents. It was such a fun week. Ragnar and I had a blast together, and everything went so perfectly. It was a great trip and I am so grateful for my parents. They are the best. The kids had a great time, and when I got home, their laundry was done, the car was filled with gas, the house was clean, food was in the fridge, and there was even dinner in the crock pot! Talk about service!! We are so grateful to them! We have the best family and are so glad to be home to the kids!