Our final port of call was St Kitts.
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We didn’t really have a game plan for St Kitts. All we knew was we wanted to find monkeys and a beach with some shells and snorkeling. We found a taxi driver who could take us to both!
After getting a chance to hold the monkeys, we set off for the beach.
Here we enjoyed several hours of sand, sun, swimming, sea shells, and snorkeling.
When we found out the itinerary for the family cruise, Scott and I were super excited to see that the ship would be stopping at St Thomas… this meant that we could take an excursion to St John and visit US Virgin Island National Park!!!
That’s right, another vacation with a sign pic for the circus crew!!
National parks rarely disappoint and St. John was no exception. St John was our family’s favorite day of the vacation (and there were a lot of good days)!
Our youngest daughter turned 10 during our vacation. It was the second year in a row that her birthday fell during our vacation. At first she wasn’t very excited about having to celebrate her birthday away from home….but turns out a Caribbean cruise isn’t too bad a place to celebrate ones birthday.
She has told me in the past that SOMEDAY, she would like to have an ice skating party. Um, Ice skating parties in July can be a tad tricky….
About a month ago my youngest asked when we would see the Statue of Liberty again. We visited it a few years ago on our way to our Boston Vacation, and it has been a highlight memory of our youngest child ever since. He loves when we spot it on tv or in a picture somewhere. I replied, “Probably the next time we go to New York City.” To which he of course replied, “When can we go to New York City again?
During our trek across California, we wanted to also make time to see some of Scott’s family that live here. Scott’s aunt, uncle, and his cousin and her family live a few hours from Pinnacles National Park and graciously offered to meet us there and spend time with us at the park.
We met at a restaurant called Togo’s… we had never heard of it before, but Scott’s cousin described it as “like subway only better.
The kids and I escaped down to VA for just shy of 24 hours to spend some time with my SIL and her family. I adore Scott’s sister so a visit to her house was a bright spot in our week. We arrived in the early afternoon with time for me to take the 4 boys to the park while Aunt Karen took the girls to run a few errands.
I absolutely love apple picking with my kiddos.
This year I found a great price on delicious locally grown honey crisp apples at the local grocery store and we enjoyed them all fall and I was so tempted to skip out on apple picking b/c we had already enjoyed such delicious apples this fall. But apple picking is about so much more than the apples for me.
It’s the memories.
Ever since we signed our 4 year old up for soccer, he has asked when fall is… and my answer is always, “After Labor Day.”
So with Labor Day behind us, I guess I must officially bid farewell to summer.
If I am honest, summer break is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling… we work hard during the school year, but when our curriculum is done mid to late May, we play hard until fall.
I love, LOVE picking fruit with the kiddos. Apple picking in the fall and strawberry picking in the spring are two of my favorite annual excursions with them. I was delighted when I found out that a family from our tutorial owns a pick your own blueberry patch. The younger three and I went Monday morning while my oldest was a day camp with the cub scouts.
I hope to go back with all four of them and really stock up on some berries.
It seems to be that when you have more than one child… their differences sometimes seem to shine out, and they can kind of fall into different roles. The peacemaker, the organizer…. not that I am advocating type casting your children or anything. I know they can all play different roles at different times.
However, when I asked the kids to pose for a picture at the strawberry patch the other day, my youngest displayed his true colors…