June's big dip.

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago. (They turned out awesome, we'll post some soon.) But we didn't get very many good shots of all 5 of us, so our awesome photographer offer to reshoot the family shots. They were great until something very unfortunate happened to June. Here she is to tell you about it.

The garden we were shooting in had a small, but deep, round lily pond full of tadpole. The kids had a great time running around it. I don't even know how it happened, but somehow June managed to run straight at it and flip head first into the pond. Better the pond than face first onto concrete, in my opinion. Brandon fished her out and she actually wasn't that upset, though she will tell you with little hesitation that she does NOT want to swim with the frogs again. Luckily, she wasn't hurt, though her clothes may never smell the same again.

Baseball fail- Henry.

We all went to see June play baseball this week. If it's even possible, it was worse than last week.

When it was her turn to practice throwing, she only wanted to hit. And when she finally got to hit, she gave up after 5 minutes.

If only she wasn't so darn cute out there.

We're debating about giving up and trying again next year. We can listen to June whine at home without having to pack up the whole family every Saturday.

Getting ready for Easter- Georgie.

The period between Valentine's Day and Easter is the best for kids because it's full of candy. (Valentine's Day, June's birthday, St. Patrick's Day, Fat Tuesday to name a few.) It drive mama crazy because Henry and June feel constantly entitled to candy for trivial things such as "not throwing a fit before bedtime." Not likely, kid.

Junie got this cute sucker from her teacher.

Henry dyed an Easter Egg at school.

More impressive- he ate it! Well, he ate the egg white and gave the yolk to mama. We'll take what we can get.

I didn't get any candy. I was stuck chewing on an envelope while I watched the spinning flower. Our flower is in pretty rough shape, but mama can't throw it out because i love watching it and it can usually buy her a few minutes if me sitting by myself.

Last day in the Bahamas- Mama.

On our last day in the Islands, we did a little searching for some of the more historic landmarks on the island. First stop- the Queen's Staircase.

Cut from solid limestone by slaves using pickaxes in 1793, its 65 steps commemorate the 65 years of Queen Victoria's reign in England.

That's quite a gesture.

Next up- Fort Fincastle, also built in 1793. It never saw battle and its cannons have only ever been fired in celebration. More impressively, look at how HUGE those cruise ships are!!!! We've seriously never seen anything to big in our lives.

A front view of the fort.

Papa thought it was funny that government offices were housed in a strip mall with a perfume bar. That's Nassau for you- jewelry shops and liquor stores.

It's like being in a Corona commercial.

Too bad we didn't find this place until our last day. Arawak Cay- or the "Fish Fry"- was a group of restaurants that served fresh fish and conch salad. Popular sides were plantains, peas and rice, and baked macaroni and cheese. I also got a pina colada frozen daiquiri. Delicious.

We waited for the bus to get back to the hotel.

All the buses were on the "Georgianna" line. So much for giving our kid an original name. We predict "Georgiana" will go the way of "Henry," gaining popularity until she'll have to be distinguished by her last initial in school.

Stateside- Georgie.

While mama and papa were living it up in on the islands, we were left to fend for ourselves.

Henry was left with instructions that he ws man of the house. He had a list of chores to do every day so he could earn $2 every day ($1 from mama and $1 from Grams). When he wasn't working, Grams bought him a gic Tree House book to read on her Kindle.

I spent my week spreading germs (sorry, Grams). If you click on this picture to blow it up, you can see all of the yellow eye gunk that I accumulate throughout the day.

Grams had one obligation that required her to pack all three of us up to leave the house at the same time- Henry's baseball practice. We were on our best behavior.

We were at the park with the playground right beside the field, so Grams was able to watch everyone.

Henry's t-ball practices are much more enjoyable than June's practices.

Rounding third and heading for home.

Our first game was on Thursday. Luckily, no one keeps score at these games.

Snorkeling- mama.

On our third day on the island, I convinced Brandon to play hookie for the morning so we could go snorkeling. We booked a trip with Stuart's Cove and headed out on the ocean. (It's worth noting that many famous people have dived and snorkeled with Stuart's Cove including the Mythbusters guys and Craig Ferguson- favorite of the Taller girls and Grams).

Us on the boat before our first stop. We stopped at two different reefs. It's unbelievable how clear the water was. We were probably in 50 foot deep water and could see all the way to the bottom. There were TONS of fish and you actively had to try NOT to touch them. (I made sure I didn't touch a one.)

Brandon wasn't so careful and caught the wrong end of an aptly named Snapper.

Our third stop was in deeper water with sharks!

We didn't buy the $22 underwater camera, so we don't have any water footage, but essentially, a diver went down about 30 feet to feed the sharks and we all slid in the water to watch for a few minutes while they ate, then got back on the boat before they came back up. It was awesome!

Again, this is in deep water. Look at how clear it is and how many fish are in there!

The instructors said papa's beard might make it hard for his mask to get a good seal around his face. Luckily, this lucious facial hair didn't cause too much of a problem.

Mama's supermodel pose. I don't think supermodels stay wrapped up in big towels, mom.

After we got back to the hotel, we swam for a while and took out the aquabike. I have a fondness for any watercraft that allows me to paddle with my feet and hold on to my beer. The ride wore me out, so after Brandon went back up to the room, I grabbed a raft and floated for a long while. Periodically, I'd wash up on the shore and paddle myself back out. I did this one too many times, because my shoulders did end up getting a little burnt. Despite my burn, this may have been my favorite part of the trip.

In the between times, we hung out on our balcony and relaxed. We both adapted to the kidless lifestyle quite easily.

Nice bruise, lady.

Island time suits us.

The Bahamas!- Mama.

You may be wondering why Grams was back down in South Carolina so soon after her last visit. Well, we brought her back down so she could babysit while we were in the Bahamas!

Brandon was invited to a conference and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tag along as this is papa's first conference that wasn't somewhere like Pittsburgh or South Bend. (Though we have tagged along to many an event in Washington DC.)

We're very glad to say that the Bahamas are just as beautiful as the pictures and about 10 times more expensive than we could ever have imagined. Thank goodness we used up all of Brandon's research money to pay for the conference and hotel room.

As Brandon spent a good deal of time in talks and presentations, it was my job to scout out the island. On the first night, I went in search of water that didn't cost $4 a bottle. (Did you ever notice that hotels have NO water fountains? It's a racket. We filled our water bottle with ice from the ice machine.) My search led me to the next hotel which not only had a convenience store with cheaper drinks, but a casino. We were feeling giddy with our freedom, so we risked $5. Brandon took $2 and made it 6 at the poker machines.

And mama's first quarter at the slot machine netted $15! The Coopers may remember from a trip to the casinos at Niagra Falls 6 years ago that I am the least fun person to gamble with, so not only did I make Brandon cash out our winnings, I also made him go back to our hotel to get the camera to document them! We took our lucky $15 to the bar to buy 2 beers. Then we realized we couldn't afford $7 beers.

So on our second day, I ventured out farther. I hopped on a bus and headed downtown. I took it as a good sign when the bus let me out on George Street. (I did periodically think about my children.)

I peeked inside Christ Church Cathedral to find it was a perfect mix of St John's Church and St. Michael's the Ridge. It was almost surreal.

I visited the Straw Market (I found this picture on the internet), a very tightly packed tent full of booths where the locals hawk their wares to Americans fresh off cruise ships. From what I read online, the key is bargaining, because they'll always tell you a very high price first. So I had a fun afternoon bargaining and buying dolls for the girls, a turtle made out of a coconut for Henry, a bracelet and straw basket for myself and a coffee mug for Brandon. I'm sure even with my bargaining, they still made a fortune off of me, as everyone was selling the same thing, probably imported from China. (I did see them sewing the straw baskets, so I'm fairly confident that was authentic.) I had a great time in the Straw Market. When I took Brandon back another day it only took about 5 minutes for a local to approach him, wrap a necklace around his neck and weasel $3 out of him. (He would have paid more if I hadn't stopped him.) Brandon would have kept them all in business for a month if we hadn't left immediately after that.

The internet was also right when they said the rum was cheap in the Caribbean. I found a $10 bottle and we saved a fortune making our own rum and cokes in our room for the rest of our trip. Take that, hotel bar!

Pickens County Fly-In- Henry.

On Saturday, mama announced that the local airport was having a "Fly-In."

It's a small airport and we got to park on one of the runways. We immediately went into the hangar to check out the model planes.

And we got this great picture in front of a little plane.

We were pleased that it wasn't just a fly-in, but also a cruise-in. I couldn't make up my mind about which car was my favorite.

We packed our lunch and decided to sit by the runway and watch planes take off. They were selling tickets for plane and helicopter rides, so someone was taking off and landing every minute.

We walked back through the cars.

June was brave enough to climb into the fire truck. I wouldn't do it.

But I did stand next to a wheel.

Can you believe it!?! Every year, the Seibert family puts together a calendar and every year the Turner kids are missing from the standard "sitting inside a big wheel" shot. After 5 years, we finally got someone to sit in a wheel!

I preferred a helicopter to a wheel!

We took the girls home for a nap. It was quite warm outside and the heat must have gotten to mama and Grams because they hatched up a plan to take me back to the fly-in to get a plane ride.

This video is worth watching just to see the look on my face.

I was SO excited to ride in a plane!

Again, the look on my face at take-off is priceless. Mama says she now understands why people spend ridiculous amounts of money to make their kids happy.

The flight was so fun and we were the last ones to ride. That's good luck because I said I wouldn't ride on a helicopter because it didn't have any doors.

Finally, here's a video to prove that even a plane ride at a thousand feet can't stop a 5 year old from picking his nose.