Long Past Due

Life has this way of speeding on, especially when you just want to sit and soak up the moments. Such is life.

The last few months have gone so fast and, now, just seem like pockets of memories that seamlessly run together. I could kick myself for not keeping up with this blog better. Besides keeping everyone else up-to-date, they've become the only way that I can relive some of my memories that I never would have been able to recollect at this point in my life. Mom-brain is legit, guys. I barely remember what I ate for breakfast most mornings or if I remembered to wash my hair in the shower (if I got one that day). Add in trying to work a full-time job remotely and I amaze myself most days that I can even put together full, coherent sentences. 

So, what's been going on besides the normal day-to-day in casa de Guthrie?

After Rory and my's cruise at the end of April, we've concluded that we can't go back to normal vacations. Why would anyone want to spend thousands of dollars on a few days of being in one place when you can spend less (which includes all the food that you could want) and go to multiple foreign destinations without having to constantly pull up Google maps or Waze?! We've been spoiled. We totally understand now why people book cruises while still on their current cruise. Apart from a day and a half of rough seas, it was amazing! We learned a few tips and tricks to use on our next cruise to make it even better, but it was the most relaxing vacation I've had in a while. Don't get me wrong, I still want to go to all the "normal" places like Disney World and overseas to Europe, but with two small kids, cruises are the way to go for us right now! We're already looking at where we'd like to go next. Rory's plan - find the biggest, baddest ship out there and book it!

Headed out to sea on night one!

Now this is the way to travel...

Formal Night - ignore the terrible lighting :/

Such delicious food!

Our first animal of the trip!

Heading into Nassau for a little bit!

A fun morning of shopping in the BAHAMAS!

Nassau was pretty cool

Now this is a beach!

The private island of Half Moon Cay (aka Little San Salvidor)

This beach even puts Gulf beaches in Alabama and Florida to shame!

Sting rays in the bay

Only the coolest family ever!

I had to keep all of the animals intact until the end!

The girls loved their week with Reesee and Pop and still talk about their trips to Target and the park. I love that my girls get to have such fun times with their grandparents! I have such great memories of mine from when I was little, so it makes my heart happy to see them continuing on the traditions. Selfishly, I pray that my parents will move a little closer in the coming years so it's not such a trek for them or us to visit, but we're blessed that they're still within driving distance.

Our family was also hit with sadness a few weeks ago when my grandfather (mom's dad) passed away. It wasn't necessarily a shock, but any loss is tough, even when you know it's coming. Paw had suffered a massive stroke a year and a half ago after undergoing a shoulder surgery. The stroke changed him significantly. I've heard instances where strokes can change personalities, but I'd never witnessed it myself. I really feel that Paw's changes were due, in part, to him realizing that he could no longer do things himself. If you knew my Paw, he was ALWAYS the one to do everything. He was forced to grow up young after his dad passed away when he was 18 and that work ethic never stopped. He really struggled after his stroke to find some semblance of that independence. This weighed heavily on my grandmother. She wanted things to go back to the way they were as much as he did, but after a little while, she realized it was too much for her to handle alone. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday and made the brave decision to move herself and my grandfather to Tupelo with my cousin's family and put Paw in an assisted living facility. This was a devastating blow to my grandfather. It wasn't until he fell and broke his hip about a month ago, that he realized that the life he now had was not the one he wanted. He was a stubborn and determined man, all the way to the end. He went on his own terms. Even though I only got to visit a couple of times after his stroke, the memories of the man that I knew are still fresh. We'll all miss him, but I know death is just the next part of life.

Swinging at our cousin's house in Tupelo

And with that, we're now inching into another summer in Tennessee. I'm trying to find things for myself and the girls to get into since Emma will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I would love nothing more than to spend all day, everyday getting into hilarious shenanigans with the two of them, but alas, I have to make money "to buy chocolate milk" for them ;) at least, that's what we tell the girls when they ask why I have to work. Looks like Saturdays will be 'Family Fun Day' for the next couple of months!

A little lake fun

Fun with friends!

She's getting braver!

This girl did great for her first lake visit!

A little sandbox fun at the park

Fun on our bike and 4 wheeler

Taking in some Vandy baseball

Family baseball outing

We stayed a whole two innings before these two were asking to go home lol!

Hopefully I can keep up with regular postings during the summer, but don't hold your breath. I do good to keep my house from being overrun with Barbies and Lego on a daily basis, so blog postings are down near the bottom of the list of "to dos", along with putting on normal clothes most days. You think I'm kidding. One day I'll go back to wearing clothes worthy of more than Walmart outings and makeup for more than date nights, but for now, this is my season; and God bless this season!

God bless you in whatever season you're in! Soak it up!