Julia took a class this semester, Literature for Children, and her final project was to make a children's book. She came up with the concept, did all the illustrations herself and her partner wrote the story. It always amazes me how creative and artistic she is. Look at how cute!! She cut all of it out of construction paper and drew the expressions on their faces! So adorable...
She just finished up her sophomore year of Nursing. She did her clinical this year at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and loved it. Time is flying by!! She did great this year. We are always so proud of how hard she works! She came home last night with a packed car and completely exhausted after a long week of finals. Hopefully she'll wake up refreshed this morning and ready to start her summer. Nicholas will also be home in a few days and our house will be full again. Yay!!
After 13 years of dance competitions at Mohegan Sun...this was our very last one...
It was Gianna's last regional competition...ever. : ( I wrote about this before, but it was probably my last time going to Mohegan Sun (unless I go to a concert). There are just too many memories of dance competitions starting when Julia was just 8 years old. We also had her Sweet 16 birthday party there too. Nationals was supposed to be there but they moved it to Hartford. Anyway, it was a great day! Gianna was so good!! I love all her dances this year! She has been filling in for the senior acro routine. She had to quickly learn a few parts for a boy with a broken ankle this time. She did great!
Here were the placements:
Senior Small Groups:
3rd place Lacrimosa - also won a Golden Ticket
5th place Recovery
Teen Large Groups:
7th place RiRi - also won the 12 and over Excellence in Hip Hop for the highest scoring hip hop routine
Senior Large Groups:
1st place Bond Girls
4th place The Ritz - also won 12 and over Outstanding Tap Group for the highest scoring tap routine
6th place One Last Breath
12-14 Lines:
1st place Year of the Dragon - also won a Golden Ticket and SDA Regional Champion
Gianna has decided to go to Sacred Heart University! And she received a dance scholarship!
It's such a beautiful campus and a wonderful college! It was my favorite campus (other than Endicott) since day one of looking at schools back when I took Julia on her tours. It was originally Julia's number one choice, but the cost was too high so she ended up choosing Endicott (which she also loved just as much). It was so hard to let SHU go. I loved it so much that it was the first college I took Gianna to see, even though I knew the cost would be high. Turns out she received enough money (after I went back to ask for more) and it was equal to her other choice, Quinnipiac. She had a tough decision between the two, but ended up choosing SHU...and I am so incredibly happy and excited for her!!! I can picture her there way more than I can picture her at Quinnipiac. QU did have her program and offered her a great scholarship, but she just didn't love the campus. Anyway...YAY!!! She's planning to study Health Science with a Radiography track.
Just look at how beautiful it is! Literally not a blade of grass out of place!
We have to take Mikey out of the house when we go on vacation because he isn't very nice to KoKo. I found a great place to board him. He seems very happy while he's there. I can tell from the pictures they post of him on Facebook. He gets a big room to himself. No cages! They have cat trees, chairs, beds and toys. He can sit in the cat tree and look out the window. It's so nice! The staff know him now and really look forward to seeing him : ) He's been through some changes in his life so he's used to being in different places and around different people. He's not a nervous nelly like Eli or super needy like KoKo. So I've learned to just not stress too much about dropping him off there as needed.
Look at these cute pictures they posted while we were in Cancun...
"The Superman" means he's very relaxed and happy...
Oh my goodness...Mr. Moo....he's so stinkin' cute!!! : )
Julia's dance team had their end of the year banquet on Sunday. I can't believe year two is done already. Crazy how time flies! Julia looked beautiful as ever...
Sophomore class...
Season recap video...
It was a great year for her and the team. Looking forward to year three!!
We had the easiest time traveling to Cancun this year. I thought Logan airport would be crazy crowded as it was April school vacation, but it wasn't at all! Last time we traveled to Mexico was two years ago and there were all these Covid protocols. So we arrived 3 hours early just in case and it literally took us no time at all to make it to our gate. Arriving in Cancun was super easy too. No crowds at all! We found our driver to take us to the Royal Sands and we were there in 15 minutes! We were hoping to get the villa of the woman whose timeshare we were using...and we did!! It's right on the ocean!! This is what we saw walking out of our sliders...
Unbelievably beautiful!! I still can't believe it...
This was our villa with my back to the ocean. All three bottom sliders were our rooms. The far left was our room with a king bed, center was the living/dining/kitchen area and where Nicholas slept on the murphy bed. Far right is where Gianna and her friend stayed. It had two double beds.
Room 5046!!!
After we got settled, I went to lunch with Gianna and her friend while Nicholas and Danny headed straight to the pool for sunshine and cold beer. Sadly Julia couldn't join us this year as she had a very full school schedule. Nicholas was almost done with his classes and was able to do some of his on-line classes from Mexico.
That night we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants Captain's Cove...
Danny and I woke up every morning at 6:00 a.m. to watch the beautiful sunrises. I took way too many sunrise pictures...haha...so I'll just put a few of my favorites here...
That's Danny...
Danny would quickly head down to grab his coffee and hold some chairs by the pool. By 6:30 a.m. all the chairs are taken. I absolutely need an umbrella and palm trees to keep my fair Irish skin out of the direct sun. Danny did a great job saving us chairs everyday. I wore a hat all week and used tons of sunscreen. My legs got a little pink the first couple days but otherwise I did good!
My view from my lounge chair by the pool....
Yummy breakfast...we feasted every morning...
Lunch was typically poolside and we ate at a bunch of different restaurants for dinner.
I loved having The Boy with us for a few days. He arrived just before us on Saturday morning and left on Wednesday morning. I hadn't seen him since Christmas...
We went to Sidelines at our resort a few nights to watch the Bruins in the playoffs. They had great food and yummy popcorn...
Another favorite restaurant of ours is Sisal which is on the property too. The food and drinks are amazing. I took these pictures on the walk over. It was the most glorious weather that night...
We went there on the nights they had entertainment. We saw the musicians two years ago and loved them. So glad we got to see them again! The lead singer is just so fabulous!!
The second time we were there for dinner on Thursday...
The pool at night...
Random pictures...
I think I look like my Mama in this picture...
One night we went to the Royal Cancun for an Italian dinner but it was just OK. Not great. But it was fun to see another Royal hotel. We walked down to the beach after dinner and the girls found these swings...
We stopped for some ice cream on the way back...
The last night we went to another one of our favorite restaurants...
We saw one of the huge alligators that hangs around the restaurant...yikes!!
Her silly face...
The beautiful Garden Lobby just before heading back to the airport...
I was ready to go home this time as I was well rested and very much done with the sun! Traveling home was just as easy as getting there. We can't wait to go back again!!
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