Summer Whereabouts...

Hello friends!
It's been pretty quiet here on my blog for a few weeks now. Summer is in full swing and we've already been on a huge family vacation and completed a week of summer camp. Life has been very busy, but full of great times and exciting adventures.

The second week of summer break, Brian's parents took the whole family on a cruise to the Bahamas! It was a retirement gift to themselves and I sure am glad we were the lucky recipients!

I haven't been on a family cruise since I was about 16, so this was a totally new experience for our family. The kids had an absolute blast hanging out with their cousins and hitting up the endless ice cream machine.

Okay, maybe I enjoyed the ice cream too. :)

Cousin Alex, Payton, Cousin Zachary, Parker & Brian

The cruise was the perfect mix of entertainment and relaxation. The cruise director, Tom, was very friendly and more than happy to come say "hi" during the cocktail  hours. The kids loved the shows every night and by the end of the cruise we were allowing them to go to the arcade by themselves as long as they came back to check in after 30 minutes or so.

Snapping a pic with the Cruise Director one night before dinner.

Brian with his parents

The first day we were at sea all day, so we hung out by the pool and got to know our way around the ship. The second day we docked in Nassau and got off to explore the Atlantis hotel. It was quite amazing and definitely is now on our family bucket list of a place we'd like to stay!

Exploring the Atlantis aquarium

Looking at the resort's new aqua park, which opened the weekend after we were there.

Crossing the giant rope bridge (which overlooked a pool of hammerhead sharks!)

The second day, we docked at Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay. The kids had such an absolute blast playing at the aqua park there!

The water was so clear - it was a tropical paradise!

Seriously, you can't get much more beautiful than this!

Back on the ship that evening, we enjoyed our last formal dinner. Our waiter out did himself and served Parker an enormous cookie sundae. He was in heaven!

We all disembarked the next day feeling so grateful for such a wonderful family vacation. I highly recommend a cruise if you are planning a vacation with your extended family. It provided such easy entertainment and wonderful mealtimes together without anyone having to cook or clean or shop for anything. Just pure relaxation!

It was a bit rough readjusting to "normal life" when we got home. But Payton did a fantastic art camp that week and Parker did a little mini camp at My Gym, so they were both happy to have some planned activities mixed in with plenty of free time.

Payton's art camp was so wonderful, I wish she offered more camps this summer. He created several really unique beautiful pieces that we will be displaying in our home.

They learned out to make a silhouette of themselves, and then melted crayons to make the "water" effect. I LOVE this piece! 

He also recreated Van Gogh's Starry Night. Another beautiful piece.

How cute is his teacher? She was so fabulous with the kids.

Last weekend, my parents took the kids to their house, so Brian and I had some much-needed alone time. It was so nice to go out to dinner and not worry about babysitters, etc. 

Dinner Friday night at Catch 23

Saturday morning we drove out to the beach and ate breakfast on the beach. It was a gorgeous morning with a nice breeze and barely anyone was there because it was so early.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to St. Petersburg for lunch at Locale Market with our neighbors. Wow - this place blew my mind! I could seriously spend HOURS just roaming around that store looking at all of the fabulous local goodies they sell.

We ended up ordering the conch fritters, warm olives and two different flat bread pizzas. It was all incredibly delicious.

After lunch, we went out on our neighbor's sailboat. It was the most perfect day for sailing. Warm, with a good breeze... heaven!

Me and my friend, Bahama.

Brian steering the boat for a few minutes.

We even stopped the boat at one point and all jumped off the back into the water for a swim. It was so refreshing and fun! Then we headed to a local restaurant on the water for dinner and a 70's beach party. We had such fun watching all the people in their 70's costumes. It was neat to just pull the boat right up to the restaurant and walk on up!

Meanwhile, at my parent's house, Parker somehow lost a tooth over the weekend! We're still not completely sure how it happened, but he says, "I just bit down really hard and it fell out!" 

I know he shouldn't be loosing teeth at 4 years old, and certainly not his bottom right incisor. So needless to say, we have an appointment with the dentist later this week. :)

So, in a nutshell, that's what the Heckmans have been up to the past few weeks. Now you know why I have been completely absent from the blog. As usual, my summer blog posts will continue to be few and far between since I rarely have any "free time" while the kids are home. 

But if I come across a great recipe or a fun craft, I'll be sure to post it. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a fun and safe summer. Have a wonderful 4th of July this weekend!