Look at me sneaking a March post in at the last minute! It's Easter Sunday and Jordan and Alana are downstairs fighting over pom poms and Hendrik and Steve just left for volleyball practice. You'd think sports would be on hold today (this morning at least), but their provincials are next weekend in Waterloo, so they need to sneak in the practice time. Alana's team's provincials aren't until the end of April in Ottawa, so that will be a bit of a trek, but we're all planning on going! The Easter bunny came and the kids hunted down a big haul of eggs this morning - they've also been treated to chocolate bunnies and more treats from both grandparents so there's no shortage of chocolate around here. Yesterday, for the first time in 10 years I played in a volleyball tournament, and I can walk today, yay! There were 7 women's teams made up of former college, university and women's league players, and the level was good. We played 8 sets in all and lost in the semi-finals, so everyone on our team felt fairly satisfied with how we did. The other big event of the weekend, besides Grandma and Gramps coming and an Easter dinner tonight, was Friday's trip to the Sweet Sixteen games in Detroit. Steve, Hendrik and I left in the early afternoon and made it to downtown Detroit with enough time to walk around and enjoy a delicious Greek meal before attending a Gonzaga alumni event. Hendrik and I got our pic with Spike, tattooed our faces (yeah!) and mingled with some other fans before heading over to the game. It was a great first half and really so fun to see such a big game in person. We even ran into people we knew! Unfortunately both Zags basketball teams lost, so no Elite Eight this year for the men or the women; they both had a great post-season run though, and we get to watch games from the couch today.
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| made it onto the Jumbotron! |
My real motivation for getting to the computer this morning was to share photos of our March break trip to the Cayman Islands. It was an incredible trip! Because Steve has had Nationals over March break coaching with McMaster, this was the first year we had the option of going away. After a busy winter with volleyball and activities, we wanted a vacay but had a hard time figuring out where and what... all-inclusive? Airbnbs? Mexico? We made a bit of a last minute decision to look at the Cayman Islands, and Steve spent quite a bit of time researching how we could make it happen, and then we just took the plunge! Because it was relatively last minute, we split our time between two Airbnbs on Grand Cayman and then visited friends from Tokyo on Cayman Brac, one of the two smaller islands that make up part of the British Overseas Territory. And it did not disappoint!! It was great seeing Marili and Hendrik and our kids got along really well with their two, Benji and Miki, so that was fantastic. Highlights of the trip were beach time (we loved the beach by our first Airbnb in West Bay), swimming with dolphins, the boat trip (this might be a fave day for most of us; we snorkeled at a few spots, swam with sting rays, saw starfish (Alana got stung by a jellyfish at Starfish Point - boo!), and swam in Bioluminescent Bay - this part was incredible!!), a beach day with the Jansens, and hanging out in the Brac with friends. It was fairly expensive there, and if we go back I'll have a better idea of what we'd do differently. I will say that the Airbnb and grocery thing didn't feel cumbersome at all and I definitely still felt like I was on vacation even though we were doing breakfast and lunch at the apartment. The weather was amazing, and it was so nice to get away!
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| fishing on the wharf on Cayman Brac |
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| in one of the many caves on Brac - it was HOT in there! |
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| the boys! |
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| the Hendriks :) love this! |
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| kids on the porch at Marili and Hendrik's |
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| the adults! |
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| coconuts on the beach, with the wharf in the background |
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| jumping into the tidal swimming pool on Brac - we loved this spot! |
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| taking flight on Grand Cayman |
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| a small cove / beach morning - the water was so clear and warm... |
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| enjoying the view on 7-mile beach |
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| boat trip dinner - Alana was recovering from her jelly sting at this point. dinner helped! |
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| Hendrik was definitely comfortable holding this big sting ray... super neat experience! |
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| dolphin day!!! |
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| what a highlight - the big kids LOVED it! |
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| boat ray day |
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| the coral beach in front of Marili and Hendrik's had SO many of the conch shells! |
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| fishing together |
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| play time at home |
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| the beaches were amazing! |
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| mornings at the beach in West Bay |
I have more photos I could post but for some reason they're not loading. I might have to sneak them into the next post! Happy Spring and fingers crossed weather warms up soon - I liked being on the beach!!
