Bastings Buzz Picture

Bastings Buzz Picture

10 Year Anniversary Trip

 Last June was our 10 year anniversary and although we had wanted to take a big trip back then I was very pregnant with Brooklyn and so we postponed it until now. So on April 19th we flew to Florida. We took a stroll along the beach the next morning getting excited for the next 7 days.
Our vacation home for the next 7 days.
 View of Port Canaveral from the Cruise Boat
 Leaving the harbor and out to sea
 Our cruise began on Easter Sunday
Upper deck of the boat
Every time we were on the top of the boat there was something always beautiful to look at.
After going to bed that night we woke up the next morning to these views.
 
Our first stop was CocoCay Bahamas which is Royal Caribbean's private island.
We took a small boat over to the island
 The beach and the color of the water was absolutely beautiful
 We chose to do the Jet-Ski tour of the island which was so much fun. The jet-ski's speed topped out at 46 mph and our instructor took us at that speed most of the time. It was hard to keep up and a few times I thought I was going to fly off the back of the jet-ski when we hit the waves. It was definitely a thrill. It was a fun way to view the island, hear some historic stories and we saw some stingray and amazing large starfish.
After our jet-ski tour we enjoyed the cookout and relaxing on the beach.
A storm started blowing in that afternoon but we made it back to the boat before it started raining.
It was a fun day together.
Back on the boat we enjoyed doing some of the things they had available. There was rock-wall climbing, mini-golf, basketball and soccer games.
 
We even took some time to try out the flowrider boogie-boarding.
It took several attempts and some instruction before we finally figured it out.

But we finally got up to our knees
 

And I even managed to boogie-board hands free
Wipe-out!! 
Our second port stop was at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
 

 
This excursion was Craig's pick and he really wanted to do the ATV tour of the El Yunque Rain Forest so that is what we did. Can you sense how excited he was.
We followed our tour guide on the trail roads through the rainforest and stopped a couple times along the way too look at the views.
At first I thought it would be fun riding with Craig but we actually ended up each riding our own ATV and I'm glad we did cause it was actually pretty easy to drive and a lot of fun.
We took a break at the river and some people jumped into the water. It was pretty hot outside so it was a nice way to cool off.
 

 Neither one of us had ever done anything like this before so it was fun doing it together.
 More pictures from the boat

 This magician won "American Idol" one year and put on a great show!
We also went to the ice-skating show and it was fantastic too!
Of course we enjoyed the food and I think I put on 5 lbs in one week. The food was so good and I wanted to try it all. This picture is from the Windjammer CafĂ© where we ate breakfast and lunch.
In the evenings we enjoyed a more fancy dinner in the Leonardo's dining room. 
There were three levels of dining tables....it was a pretty spectacular room.
 
 And the waiters were exceptional.
 Every night we would come back to our room and find fun towel animals left by our housekeeper.
 Our 3rd stop was St. Maarten 


It was absolutely beautiful and my favorite stop of our trip.
For this stop we got on a speed boat and they took us around the island telling us facts and the history of St. Maarten.
We stopped at this place and jumped out of the boat to do some snorkeling.
After snorkeling we got back in the boat and continued the tour. 
Crossing over from the French side of the island to the Dutch side.
The views were amazing.
We also saw many famous celebrity homes on our tour such as Denzel Washington and Janet Jackson. I can't remember whose home this was but I remember being told it cost $250,000 to rent it out for one week. Not far from this home we stopped at the beach for a while to do some swimming then it was back to the cruise boat. I thought it was a great excursion!!
The last night on the Cruise ship we had a great view of the sunset.


 It was an amazing trip and it was so nice to have no distractions and just be able to spend time together and focus on us! It has been a great 10 years of marriage and can't wait to spend eternity with this handsome husband of mine!
 
(And a big thank-you goes out to Jeff and Andrea who watched our kids on Easter weekend, Craig's mom who helped with Brooklyn and took our dogs for the week, Kelsey and Todd who spoiled our dogs with walks, and my mom who lived at our house for the week and took care of the kids shuffling them to school and activities, and also a couple other friends who helped with the kids....this trip would not have been possible without all of them).
It was nice coming home after being gone so long and seeing these cute faces!!

Happy Easter

 For years I have dreaded the thought of dyeing eggs. Having to hard boil eggs and then dip them into the dye seemed like so much work and mess. And nobody in my family likes to eat deviled eggs except for me. But this year I decided to give in. Pleasant surprise was I found these white plastic eggs so there was no need to hard-boil eggs that no one will eat. YES!!  And the coloring packets have changed over the years--we didn't have to dip eggs the old-fashioned way like I had to do growing up. Instead it was super easy and mostly mess free. PERFECT!!
 We had a fun time doing this together and they turned out pretty nice.
 Easter weekend turnout out to be a bit different this year. Me and Craig were out of town (more on that in the next post) so the kids spent the weekend with their cousins. On Saturday, Austin and Klayton had a couple soccer games in Tulsa. Andrea snapped this photo of these two after she walked into the living room and found them intense in conversation, legs wrapped around each other, enjoying each others company. Love that they are so close!!
 While the boys were at the soccer game, Kayla and Kambria went to the church Easter party and I am sure she had a great time.
 At church on Easter Sunday with their cousins who were in town.
 Everyone went out to Dave and Debbie's house for dinner and the traditional Easter Egg Hunt.
 I was kind of sad to miss out on the Easter fun with the kids but I am sure they honestly didn't care that we weren't there. They were surrounded by family, cousins, and candy!!
Happy Easter!!
Love this picture!!

Pre-K Field Trip

In April, Kayla went with her Pre-K class to the Tulsa Zoo. 
Looks like Kayla and Jackson are showing off their elephant interpretation 

Jackson feeding the giraffe
 Watching the penguins swim
 

 Showing off their Jaguar faces
 We always make sure to stop and pet the goats when we come to this zoo.

And the most exciting part about the Zoo field trip......riding the bus!! It was Kayla's first time to ride the bus and she was super excited about it!!

Run the Streets

Been trying to get back into my running habit post baby #3. Me and Kelsey set the goal to run the Jenks half-marathon in April so in preparation for that we worked on distance and speed. We ran the Shamrock the Ville 5K in March and I finished with a time of 28:05---my fastest 5K so far!!
A couple weeks after that we ran the Run-the-Ville 10K and I finished with a time of 58:42--again my fasted time for that race!
Todd and Kelsey both got Iron-Man Medals. 
Then in April we ran the Jenks half-marathon and Todd ran the 10K. He finished with an great time and won 3rd place for his age group. Me and Kelsey set the goal to try for a 10 min pace. Unfortunately it wasn't a good run day for me and I had to slow down and finished with a time of 2 hr 26 min. Kelsey however kept her 10 minute pace and finished with an awesome time! Maybe next time I will be able to keep up with her.