ooooo....st. thomas!

Five days in the Virgin Islands. Most of it paid for courtesy of the Cincinnati Bar Association. (The whole point of the journey was Lou attending a legal conference.) Special guests "Super Nanny" Carissa and her mom Lisa.

Sun. Sand. Surf. Sailing. The stuff blog posts are made of.

500 or so pictures later. Now whittled them down to about 100.  Come along with us to St. Thomas and St. John...

So, we forgot the car-seat (yep, even with three adults in charge of Josie) but it ended up being much easier without it. Josie *loved* the idea of sitting in the "grown-up" airplane seat. And we were able to rent one on the island.

First morning on the island. Josie woke up well before 6am.  Not fun. But totally worth it to see the sunrise over St. John.

Josie's first view of the ocean from the balcony. *Mesmerized*

After first day at the beach, rocking that "beach hair" we all try to recreate -

Magen's Bay on a gorgeous day

Josie made friends with a large group of local kids having a birthday party. They built one heckuva "foot pool" and Josie even got birthday cake and goody bag.  (She was pretty sure she was invited all along). Such sweet kids.

More fun on the beach

Sunset

"Modeling" at the pool

Carissa & Lisa watched Josie one whole day so Lou and I could take a sailboat over to St. John for some of the best snorkeling in some of the most beautiful water we've ever seen!

A night out for dinner

The ferry ride to St. John (Josie thought it was hilarious that we got to drive our Jeep onto a boat and float across the ocean "out with the mermaids.")

St. John is GORGEOUS!

A day at postcard-perfect "Trunk Bay"

One of my favorite memories of the whole trip.  Josie and Lisa played and played and played in the waves. I wish I could've canned that giggle.

Josie totally passed out, completely soaked, cuddling her iguana - as Lou and I "trekked" across St. John.

The outfit Josie wanted to wear for our last night out (complete with tantrum because we wouldn't let her wear the "floaty-scarf" she fashioned).

"Reading" the menu (and I can't tell you how excited she was when we told her they had ham sandwiches)

It was late, so Josie suggested that she and Sisis "rest" on the placemats -

And that's about the time that Josie went bonkers and decided she was over her shirt. So she stripped down right that at "Wikked" Restaurant in the shadow of these giant yachts. And the little girl next to our table kept pointing and whispering to her mother about the crazy baby with her shirt off.  And that's when Carissa sprung into action and convinced Josie that sharing her shirt was a good idea.  And that's the shirt she wore the rest of the night.

Showing off her muscles in her special shirt

Our last night on the island -

(Still to come...the photos from our last day on the island.  Coming soon. Although we move in 12 days. And not a single box is packed. Oh well. I must've brought back some of that island-attitude with me. No worries.)

Quick note - the title of this post is a quote from Josie before boarding the ferry back from St. John.
Josie: "Where are we going now....Ooooooo....St. Thomas!"

(Actually, there are more pictures if you click on "older posts." The blog is set to show 30 days on the main page, but it bumped them because this one had so much content.)

Thanks!

I just noticed that this is my 500th blog post.  That and the 28,000+ hits on the blog are certainly something worth celebrating. Thanks to all of you for "tuning in" and sharing our lives with us.  Your "Three Schneiders" love you! :)

Quick Quote

More vacation photos coming soon. In the meantime...

Josie to Lou & I, looking at the Batman action figure that she bought her buddy Griffin for his 5th bday: "Batman looks really grumpy. I don't like him. Maybe when I'm a boy I will like him."

Back from the Islands

We're back from our trip to the Virgin Islands!  And I have about 500 pictures to prove it was five days of pure bliss!!!  Look for lots of pictures coming soon. Here's a little sneak preview.

Farewell for a few...

We're going to be off the computer for a week or so and promise *lots* of pictures when we return. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of doll-faced Josie.  I'm not-so-patiently waiting for the new Photoshop to come out in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime I've been having fun playing with Picasa.  Enjoy! And see you all next week.

A girl and her worm

I can't tell you how happy it makes me that Josie's comfortable with her hands in the dirt. Here she is with her "pet worm" (lovingly named Pogo Stick) from her gardening class.  Now she has her own worm to love and to hold as well as her own mini-compost jar. 

(Could've just as easily called this post "the reason Josie will never use live bait.")

Cinco de Mayo - Cincy Style

Last week we headed over the Fountain Square for the annual Cinco de Mayo party featuring our buddy Nick Radina and his band Zumba! (Sidenote: Nick is also of "Bailando Desnudo" fame from my early 20s - Carrie & I were total groupies and then later found out that Lou went to highschool with Nick. Lou is now Nick's lawyer on top of still being friends and it's all just funny how it all overlaps.)   Anyway - it was definitely one of those "Aww man, why are we leaving the city" moments.  All this fun - right in our backyard.  As usual, Josie spent most all of her time dancing with other kids.  We were so proud of the way she just walked right up to the kids, grabbed their hands and started dancing.  Here are some of our favorites from 5-5-10.

(Looks like I'm not the only downtown mom who shops at TJ Maxx - both girls were thrilled when they realized their dresses matched!)

Check out Nick's website & definitely check him out if you're in the Cincy area - www.nicholasradina.com

 

"Can I have this dance?" (Jack from our building showed up to party, too.)

(Ya know, it won't be too much trouble at all to come down the hill from our new house to the city next May....)

Some Silliness

Just a few photos from the camera, as I clear it out before vacation...

Here is Josie playing "hair cutting Lauren" with her ponies.  Here she is washing their hair in the "sink."

 And here she has set up "Pony Lauren" washing "Pony Josie's" hair.  The imagination is an amazing thing to watch!

I got these masks on Amazon months ago for very little money and they never disappoint. (We've have lots of great finds like these, I'll try to get better about posting them on the blog.)

Artist at Work

Honing new skills

Josie loves her Grandma & DD!  Last weekend she stayed with them on Saturday so Louie & I could start getting organized for the big move and go see Phish 3D (which was awesome btw, but I digress).  Here are a couple of pictures of our little future rockstar 'tickling the ivories' in DD's music studio.

Equally as awesome in these pictures - DD's Chuck Taylor's on the floor & Josie's Polly Pocket purse on her arm (courtesy of Grandma - which Josie loves because it makes her "a big girl like Claire").

I also have to share the scene of Josie practicing her sweet baton moves.  The story goes something like this: Josie saw a certain cartoon bunny on TV with a baton & was very curious about it. I explained to her that her awesome Grandma is a baton master (and former majorette). She couldn't believe it.  Grandma produced said baton at Easter, showed off her skills & Josie has been practicing ever since. 

(Carissa's faces in the background are pretty priceless, too.)

And while I'm on the topic of Josie's dancing skills. I'd like to offer a special shout-out to one Kalie Roundtree who Josie is absolutely obsessed with. After attending Kalie's dance competition a few weekends ago (where her team became National Champs), Josie has also been busy working on her straddles and splits. We also had to download "Put your hands up in the air" from Itunes because she insisted on adding it to the Schneider Family Dance Party Playlist.

Her splits:

And straddles:

And kicks:

And a little fun with Mom:

Yep, I think our fate has been sealed. This girl was born to dance.

Sparkling little piggies

Miss Josephine had her first pedicure.  (It was actually out of necessity more than it was out of trying to perpetuate gender roles, considering that I had to use sparkly polish as the "carrot" to get her way-too-long toenails clipped.)

New 'do

Josie has had a few haircuts in her almost-three-years on this planet, but yesterday's was the first one by a professional.  Carissa & I talked it up for weeks as a "girl trip to the salon" and yesterday the three of us walked down to Paragon where Lou & I have been getting our hair cut for the last five years.  Josie has met who she calls "Hair-cutting Lauren" several times, but this was Josie's first time in her chair. Here are some photos from Josie's first "real" haircut - all the way from the shampoo in the fancy sink, through the cut, to "real" blowdry & final new 'do.  (Why does she look so grown up?!?!)

The hardest part was getting her to keep her head down. All she wanted to do was to admire herself in the mirror...

Viola! The big finish -