Sick!

We broke a bad record this week -- most people sick in our family at one time.  And the answer is (drum roll please) 9 and a half.  Out of 11. The half is Lydia, who has a runny nose but is mostly doing fine. I'm not sick yet.  EVERYONE else.  Ugh.

Coughing, fevers, fatigue, and crankiness, oh my.  It is really been quite the few days of yelling and crying and people lying on couches. No one will die, no one is badly ill, we're just grumpy and sick.

The coughing has been very intense at times, Joseph especially.

We will survive this. I am thankful I am healthy.  It was a quiet and simple weekend since taking our crew anywhere would have been some kind of social crime.

Kevin has it though he isn't coughing too much thankfully. He has been really tired though.

I pray we heal up quickly.

Growing Creatures

Kittens remain incredibly cute.

Caterpillars are in their cocoons

Tadpoles getting bigger, but no little legs yet.

Creatures

Painted Lady caterpillars

Kitten

Pollywog.  Or tadpole.  The eggs are laid on our pool cover and grow into tadpoles. This year, I took a bunch of them (about 20) and put them in a bin outside under a tree. We'll see if they grow into frogs!

3 Little Kittens

Some dear friends of ours kindly took in a pregnant cat which was dumped on their property.  She produced 5 healthy kittens.

Our older kids have been wanting a kitten for a very long time.  A few days ago, we prayed and felt that adding a kitten or two or three would be a good thing.

So yes, we took 3.  All males, all adorable.

We'll figure out where to get them neutered fairly soon, though they aren't quite 2 months so we have a little more time.

They are totally cute and a lot of fun!

St. Croix pictures part 1

So many pictures.  So many GOOD pictures. I just decided to throw some on here.

There were feral chickens everywhere!

These giant fish were swimming around the boardwalk area of Christiansted.

Um, sugar thing?  Or something?  Old, obviously.  We think it was originally designed for making sugar.

This is on the parapet of a fort in Christiansted.  It is refurbished and very neat!

The view from our balcony.

Tasty meal. Kevin cooked. I did the dishes.  I think I did well with that deal!

Air Zoo and Good-bye

Here are some pictures of our family at the Air Zoo.  The Air Zoo is in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is a combination of rides and planes.

We went there with my parents the day before we flew out to St. Croix more than a week ago.

Rose was very dubious about the rides.  She warmed up and when my parents took her to the Air Zoo again later in the week, she was way more excited.

Weird infinity room with mirrors.

Everyone waved good-bye to us as we headed off to the airport.

Back from St. Croix

We're home!

Kevin and I spent the last 2 weeks driving to Michigan, leaving the kids with my parents, flying to St. Croix, hanging out for a fantastic week, and then flying home on Thursday. We pulled our stuff together and drove back to Ohio yesterday.

We had a GREAT week.  St. Croix is a lovely place for a couple wanting to just hang out at the beach.  We did a little more than that, but we spent a lot of time in the water snorkeling and on the beach walking on lovely wet sand.

We stayed in a little place that had the air of a mom and pop establishment.  Each room is individual and our room, while not large, had a lovely king sized bed, an adequate bathroom, and a charming little kitchen.  It oozed personality and creativity. We napped every day, I think, and waking up to the beamed ceiling with the knowledge that our kids were 1500 miles away and being cared for well was a delight.  I am so happy to be home now, I missed my kids, but just being able to nap whenever we wanted was a little bit of paradise!

The place where we stayed had a curious little group of people who are monitoring the egg laying of giant leatherback turtles at a nearby preserve.  They are staying for 3 full months and spend the night out on the beach, looking for turtles.  They tag the turtles and move the eggs if they are in a dangerous place (in terms of shifting sands and erosion.)  A young lady gave an interesting talk on Tuesday night about the turtles.  They are huge -- full grown like 900 lbs. But when they are laying eggs, they enter some kind of trance and don't care if humans mess with them.  Most interesting.

Well, today is super busy so I'm going to sign off.  Pictures later.