Highschools Against Cancer - Pumpkin Painting with Paige

Paige and Kendall started a new club at their high school "Highschools Against Cancer" and they hosted their first event at the Hope Lodge last week. In 2024 we helped with a similar event at Hope Lodge where we carved pumpkins, and it was a bit messy and dangerous. For 2025, Paige's club collected pumpkins, supplies, and goodies for a pumpkin painting event. 

We were a little nervous at first that nobody would come, but we ended up having to bring in extra chairs and we ran out of mini-pumpkins, which turned out to be the most popular size.

Paige and friends did a nice job engaging with the residents, helping them with their ideas and painting, and cleaning up afterwards. It was quite a bit of work, Andrea helped quite a bit to get it all together, and Paige and her club officers did a wonderful job. We're proud of them for making it a fun experience and we are glad that their first event went so well. We're already planning the next event.

Fall Weather

 

The weather's cooled off lately and our favorite time of the year is beginning. We've had some nice tennis temperatures in the mornings, and while it still gets a little warm on some days, it's not nearly as humid and muggy. 

This past weekend, Andrea went to Kansas City to hang out with her mom and sisters. Connor's busy with fraternity shenanigans. Paige and I had a relaxing day at our house, where I did a lot of work on random things, but mostly relaxed. Paige's friend Keira was over and she and Paige ran around at Town Center to do a little shopping. She also came to lunch with us at the beach club. 

On Sunday, the Jaguars and Chiefs weren't playing, so Millie Mae and I spent the afternoon with Grandpa and Grandma at the beach.

Homecoming 2025 Paige's Sophomore Year

 

Homecoming this year was quite the event, an it was actually a year ago at Homecoming 2024 that Andrea and I met a lot of Paige's friend group when they came to our house to get ready and to stay the night. This year, the girls got ready at Kendall's house. They each brought some food, and Kendall's mother made it super special for them by getting fresh cut flowers for them so they could make their own custom bouquets. 

After finishing their flowers, getting their makeup done, getting in their dresses, the girls did a lot of social media work. Lots of pics, poses, videos, and lip synching involved. 

We insisted that Paige let us know when they were doing pictures so we could show up and snap a few with the Nikon. I think that what made it more acceptable for Paige is that we also brought Millie Mae so she could be in some pics too. 

The girls didn't really stay very long at the dance and they all came over to our house afterwards for a sleepover. Andrea picked up some pizza for them, they snacked on some of their food that they had leftover from earlier in the day, and at some point they may have slept. Paige had a fun time and we love the friendships she's made and all of the memorable experiences she has had so far as a highschooler. 

Disney Wish Cruise - October 2025 Halloween on the High Seas

This past weekend we kicked off our October with a Halloween themed cruise on the Disney Wish. Connor actually came home for the weekend from college, but decided to stay in Jacksonville and hang out with friends instead of cruising with us. We certainly missed our guy and it wasn't the same without him, but we still had a good time. 

Our first evening on the boat we watched the new Pixar movie Elio. Although it was a bit odd and wasn't our favorite movie of all time, we enjoyed it in the end. 

Paige and I pigged out on the "Chipotle" style Mexican food on the 11th deck, while Andrea enjoyed the pizza. We were too stuffed for dinner and while the boat was fairly quiet we took some pics of the spooky tree in the lobby, of the sunset, and Paige and I worked out in the gym.

Saturday morning, we left the boat early in Nassau for our excursion to Baha Mar. It wasn't a cheap excursion at $200 per person, and it was a long process getting organized and off the boat with the group that was going to be bused to the resort. While waiting in line, the ladies taking our names were telling us that there was a high likelihood of rain, that the attractions would be shut down for 30 minutes after any lightning strikes, and that it was our last chance to cancel the tour. The weather radar showed rain around us and it wasn't clear if it was going to head our way. We decided to cancel at the last minute and instead we wandered around the shops.

For lunch, we enjoyed the Mexican food again, and then we relaxed on the boat and went to the gym again. 

In the afternoon we went to a fairly boring Villains game show, watched some movies in our room, and then got dressed for our only night when we went to the sit-down restaurant.  

After dinner we saw the sun setting and decided to take a few more pics and we're glad we did because the lighting was amazing and the sky was beautiful.

After pics we changed in to some comfy clothes and watched The Little Mermaid musical before heading to bed.

Sunday was our day at Castaway Cay and we had planned to do some deep sea fishing to try something new. Unfortunately, most of the excursions were canceled. It seems like most times we visit Castaway Cay that everything's canceled, so we weren't very surprised, but we were disappointed. We got a raft and the water was nice and pleasant, so we went out together for a while and then Paige and I played catch with a football. 

We ate on the upper deck for a late lunch and early dinner, so skipped the formal dinner again. Paige and Andrea got their nails done in the spa and then I snapped a few pics of Paige in her cute outfit as the sun set.

In the evening, we went to the Halloween Party on the top deck. It started off strong and it was entertaining with all the characters in their costumes, but about eight minutes in to the party it started to absolutely pour on us and we ran inside.

We went to the Alladin show in the evening, which was well done, although it started off uncomfortably as a hillbilly lady sassed me for grumbling and being a "butt" because I wasn't happy that she asked me two times to move seats for her family. 

Overall it was a fun cruise with some good times. The Wish is a nice boat, and we liked the Halloween theme, although we didn't dress up ourselves or really participate as much as we would have if the kids were little. It was something we always had wanted to experience, so I'm glad we were able to check it off our list, and it was a fun weekend getaway with Paige.

Paige's favorite parts of the cruise:

1. Chipotle
2. Ice cream
3. Gym
4. Nails
5. Castaway Cay

Shawn's favorite parts of the cruise:

1. Chipotle bowl
2. Pechurs wiff siss 
3. Breakfast with sissy
4. Maxin & Relaxin
5. Castaway Cay