How is it already April?

Happy Easter to everyone! We had a wonderful conference weekend and were grateful to witness such an historic event! I was past my exhaustion point so the kids picked out their own candy in the Walmart order and I got the bag half opened. I eve got the worng jelly beans and their baskets are still in the storage room. Oh well.

Thank heavens for Skyping!  Brandon got an internship in Provo this summer.  We are so excited for them!

Marisa graduates in a couple of weeks!!!  She is also preparing for her awesome trip to Great Britain in June!

Ellie turned 5 months old and is rolling over, grabbing for things, and very interactive!

Alayna won her 1st tennis match but we have had snow and horrible weather since.  Hopefully they will have tennis this week (after the snow storm Monday)

We have been busy in the library doing Battle Bots. It was a huge hit!

Plus, I have been invited to speak again at the Iowa Reading Association/Iowa school library STATE conference in Ames this summer about all my work in the library with global connections. Im super excited!

Heading Home

We have a fun story- they treated Corey and I like royalty since we were named after their 1st female president in the Philliines and her daughter – Corey and Kris !

https://www.biography.com/people/corazon-aquino-9187250

It was so sparkly and still and I couldnt quite capture the beauty!

Had a long 15 hours of travel home.  We were exhausted but happy! Look at the gorgeous Chicago skyline!

Grand Turk- Part 2

Horses in the water too

Softest white sands and clearest water!

Grand Turk- my new favorite place in the world!

By the time we got to Grand Turk, Corey was sick too with  head cold that later turned into pneumonia!  So both she and Hal missed the best place!

View from our room!

Our excursion went to the most amazing snorkeling place and then to a beach to play with sting rays!

Seriously….the water!

The reef where we snorkeled

Puerto Rico- Part 2

Panoramic of the beach

San Juan, Puerto Rico

We didn’t do an excursion in Puerto Rico.  We decided to just walk around and explore. I think next time I would like to do one of the excursions in the rainforest on the other side of the island.  It had way more buildings than I thought it would!

Here is my panoramic view from the boat:

View from our room:

We loved visiting the oldest historic fort in the US- built in the 1500s and a huge part of the Spanish empire!

Panoramic view of the fort