My little surprise for Ryan

I figured it was about time to plan a nice date for Ryan and I. Usually IF we get a date it's the typical dinner and maybe a movie. A couple in our ward offered to watch Skylee for us so we could take a little time out. I asked Ryan earlier in the week if he would go on a date with me, but I was going to plan the whole thing and it would be a surprise for him. Dinner was a given, when we celebrated our anniversary a few months ago, we found a really nice restaurant "Bonito Sushi and Grill" in close by Fernandina Beach, FL. It was the best sushi I had ever eaten, so for my own personal reasons I wanted to go back. It wasn't just for me, I knew Ryan would like it too. Dinner ended up really nice, we got there before the Friday night rush, it was romantic and relaxing to be together. After we finished dinner I wanted to take him to the beach. I had prepared a small picnic basket with dessert and a beach blanket to lay out along with a kite. The kite took a while to get up, we lost the frame of it, so we tried to improvise with sticks we found on the beach. It didn't really work, but just as we were going to give up, I saw the pieces sticking up from the sand. Once we had all the parts, it went right up. Ryan was like a little boy out there, it was the perfect weather with just enough wind! I made him come sit with me for dessert, I bought a nice box of chocolates, but sadly they were really melted :( We again had to improvise, but it all worked out. I would have loved to stay a little longer to enjoy the sunset, waves, and just being together, but we had to get home. We love each other everyday, but it was fun to show it to him on our date. Thanks to Lesa and Trevor Elder for watching Skylee so we could go out, Ryan... I love you!

Our Date

Skylee's Memorial Day 2008

Wild Child

Skylee is a wild child these days. She loves climbing on anything and everything she can. I guess it's fairly "normal' but it scares me half to death when she attempts scaling the dinning room chairs. There is always an accident waiting to happen! She's at an age where she knows when she shouldn't be doing something, but does it anyways. Why does that have to start so young? Don't they have teenage years to do all that stuff? She'll be playing in a different area than where I am, and when I call her name to see where she is, she'll automatically start freaking out when she's into something she knows she shouldn't. It's actually pretty funny.
Ryan caught a frog while he was cutting the lawn this weekend, and just had to make an experience out of it. It was a hot day, so we put Skylee in the bath with the frog. She did NOT like it. The picture here shows her the very moment before she flipped out, I would too! Who takes baths with frogs? Enjoy the pictures below :)

Little Monkey Skylee

Recent videos

I just love this video, she loves being silly. Here she is fresh out of her bath before going to bed. When I first started giving her bites of the banana, she would shake her booty on the couch. I guess that was her way of telling me that she liked it and wanted more. I'm sure every little kid has there own silly antics, but now she does this all the time. She loves watching this one of her, she cracks herself up!

I've gotten so many e-mails and comments about the last Strawberry Shortcake video of Skylee! I had this one and thought I'd share it for some more laughs.

The not so "Itsy bitsy Spider"

So Ryan and I were enjoying our time together after putting Skylee to sleep one night last week, when we saw this thing run across the carpet. We are still horrified at the thought of how this monster got into the house in the first place! Apparently, here in the "south" these large creatures, among others, are pretty normal. Somebody save me!

Straw-bop-bop-bop-berry Shortcake

Before viewing, scroll to the bottom and pause the playlist.

Skylee hyperventilates anytime we mention Strawberry Shortcake. She dances in front of the TV and says "bop bop" and points to her DVD. Nothing in the world matters if Strawberry Shortcake is on. Not a healthy habbit of being so hynotized by a cartoon character, but it is pretty funny.

Our April

Skylee loves to help whatever way she can. We are attempting for a third time this season to grow some flowers in our front yard. The soil here is sand, not the best for growth, but with lots of top soil and Skylee's watering skills, it looks promising!

Skylee and I hanging out

Ryan and Skylee at "Giligan's Island", a nearby recreational park.

After our trip from Brazil we got to spend a day with my parents before they left on a cruise from Miami. Skylee loved spending time with both Nana and Papa and still wants to talk about them all the time.

The Kings Bay Naval Station where Ryan works, always has fun family activities. Early in the month they had a little carnaval we attended with a petting zoo, face painting, inflatable slides...food, and all kinds of other activities for children. Skylee got this beautiful butterfly painted on her face, we had a really fun day.

The People We Visited In Brazil

Most of our time spent in Sao Paulo, Brazil was with members that Ryan has kept in touch with since coming home almost 3 years ago. It was an experience for me, that I will never forget. These loving people gave us the absolute best they had to offer even if it wasn't what here in America, we would call very much. All of them remembered Ryan and expressed their love and appreciation for him, but I know that they gave much more to Ryan ( and I) than the other way around. Members that had nothing are now thriving in the gospel with great callings, and testimonies. Their lives have truly been changed by the gospel and their prayers are answered. The experience this last week strengthened my own testimony, it was very humbling and gratifying. They automatically loved me because I love Ryan and so do they, that was enough for them.

We left Skylee at home with my mom who was kind enough to come out here to watch her for the week. We were constantly on the go! I felt like we were serving a mission with all the appointments we had and walking around that we did. We built up some good mileage! The bus system is outrageous, but efficient. We had to take it quite a few times to get everywhere we wanted to when there wasn't anyone to drive us around. Sometimes the buses got so packed that you couldn't move. It's a different world there, or at least country.

In that short week we were there, I grew to love the people there as I know Ryan did when he sereved his mission. I did my best with portugese, I learned a lot, but have a long way to go. Thank you Ryan for taking me on a trip that has enriched my life so much already. I love you.