Our Cruise

Dewey is easily the hardest working person I know. He has not taken a vacation in two years, believe me he was more then due. So when we found out in December that we did well enough to qualify for our companies fully paid for (that's free to us woop-ee) cruise we were thrilled. OK I was more then thrilled and may have danced around the house for a solid week.

Luckily grandma and grandpa stepped in the watch the boys for the week we were gone. Grandpa also had our animals to take care of. (if you read an earlier post about our 23 animals you know its no easy task)The amazing Winnie also ran the office for us. Yep our boys the office, our animals they deserves sainthood. It was SO nice to be able to go away and know everything would be fine. We are so very thankful to dad and Winnie.

Now on to our amazing cruise.We did the Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean seven day cruise out of Galveston. We went with a wonderful group from different offices of Axiom, it was so fun getting to know everyone in a relaxed setting.

Our first stop was Cozumel, that's our ship on the right. I could not get over how huge it is

BEAUTIFUL

So happy to have my feet in a warm ocean. We rented a scooter and rode all around the island,stopping here there, taking our time and exploring everything.

Near the top of my favorite things, laying in a hammock on the beach drinking a fresh coconut drink.

Toes in the sand.....

Beach we stopped to play at.

We came across a Tequila making tour. I'm a nerd a just love tours showing how things are made/done.

For instance did you know Tequila can only be made in a few regions of Mexico. If the very same drink was made in say Arizona it could not be called Tequila. Who knew right :)

We also stopped and toured a Mayan ruin. We hired a guide to give us a deluxe tour of what is possibly Kolby's heritage. I loved it! Please see above nerd comment.

How many Iguanas can you see? We took a ton of pictures thinking the boys would think they were pretty cool. (we were right) They were everywhere, after I had stopped several times our guide said "we used to eat them where I grew up". Clearly she did not find them picture worthy :)

By the way there are five Iguanas in the picture.

People not iguanas

Our ship

I LOVE the colors in these shots, they still don't look real to me.

How is this water so blue? This was in Grand Cayman, a beautiful white sandy beach island. We snorkeled and swam with Stingrays.

Our last stop was Jamaica, a lush green Island, that was just beautiful. We rode boards down a river, rapids and all to the ocean. Hopefully we have pictures coming of the water activities. My camera stayed safe and dry.

Our group stopped at a Jerk shack so everyone (NOT ME) could try the native food. I should say I did try something called "bammy" made from a root. It was the only thing without meat, not bad kind of like a thick pancake.

I know that going on a cruise is not everyone's thing. But I have to say that I LOVED IT!!!

I can see how people get hooked. I can't wait to go on another. Maybe a Disney cruise with the boys.....

Happy Birthday Kolby!!!

Our sweet baby boy turned 5 on Friday. And unlike Luke he said its ok that I still call him "my baby boy". We hung up lots of balloons and banners for him to wake up to Friday morning. They did not survive even long enough for them to leave for school. Hanging balloons are simply irresistible for whacking purposes.

Kolby picked Spider man cupcakes that we made Thurs night for him to take to preschool on Friday to share with his friends. I told him he had to wait for dad to get home Friday night before he could open presents. He literally stood at the door waiting. He had the door open until I made him close it and just look out the window. Excited does not even begin to explain this child :)
He was thrilled with his gifts, thank you everyone!!

Grandpa and Grandma came over on Sat afternoon for cake, also spider man. He got to pick whatever kind he wanted for me to make. He choose Vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.

After cake we all went to see Star Wars 3D. (Kolby fell asleep 3/4 of the way Thur) And then out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. It was also Grandpa's birthday on the 6Th. He very kindly shared Kolbys choice of movie and dinner for his party too.

Kolby LOVES looking at pictures so for his birthday I put together a baby book and had it made at Shutterfly. It starts with the very first pictures we received of him only a week old and goes Thur both trips to Guatemala to bring him home. He was ten months old when we met him and 14 months old when we brought him home. Its funny looking at the pictures he has changed so much but hasn't changed at all. He still has the darling little face I just adore.

Kolby is my little snuggler, he gives the very best hugs. The kind where he holds on tight and hugs with all his might. (the kind that melts my heart) I pray he stays that way for as long as possible.

He is getting ready to start kindergarten in the fall, so he is working on writing the alphabet. He loves writing letters (random) and then asking me to read it to him. I'll say "why don't you tell me what you wrote" (again because they are random letters with an occasional number thrown in) "No mom just read it" He has almost all our names down so it is usually a story about the family that just takes a little imagination to figure out.

When they are home Luke and Kolby are never apart, they do everything together. It amazes me how they are such perfect little buddies. Kolbys laid back easygoing personality fits Luke's um lets just say NOT laid back and easygoing personality perfectly. They really are just the very best of friends.

Happy Birthday Kolby we love you!!

Zions Hiking

I know I have said it before but one of my favorite things about living in Utah is the National Parks. We LOVE being so close to such spectacular hiking places. Last weekend the weather was unseasonably warm so we ran down to Zions for a day of hiking. As we were walking to our first trail head we saw this guy looking down at us. How cute is he? Needless to say the boys were thrilled to see a Mountain Goat up close and personal.

One of our favorite hikes is the overlook trail. This is the first time the boys did it hiking on their own. Some parts are a little tricky so we wanted to wait until they were old enough to pay attention to the trail. They both did great!
Once you get to the top you get a truly breathtaking view of Zions.

Check us out hiking in short sleeve shirts in Jan

Its a popular trail and we were lucky to have someone else at the top with us to take a family shot. (pretty rare to see all four of us)

Because the Overlook trail had gone so well we decided to do the Riverwalk too. Maybe a little to optimistic on our part. Its much lower in the park and shaded for most of it. (which makes it wonderful in the summer) There was still snow on the trail and it was c..o..l..d. We did plan ahead (well Dew did) and brought hats, gloves and sweatshirts.

Even cold temps could not deter from the natural wonder. I just love how Zions changes with the seasons, each one has a beauty all of its own.
We noticed (after someone passed us and said "oh what cute twins") that they boys were dressed almost exactly alike..oops. We do get that comment a lot and Luke now answers back "we aren't twins I'm older".

Throwing rocks in the stream was a highlight for the boys.

So was climbing on every available rock.

Because things are never dull with us we did have some "excitement" at the end of the day. I won't go into details here but will say yet another "opportunity" (I have had lots of them I should have learned by now) for me to learn that I need to be prepared with extra everything before we leave the house.....

Does your Bath tub......

Look like this?

I took this after I told a certain son (Luke) that it was bath time and he told me "hold on I need to go find some toys to play with in the tub". Silly mom thinking the tub already had toys in it.

I have mentioned before that Lego's are HUGE right now at our house. One of them is always reading this book "Lego Ideas". I find it all over the house. Great book by the way I highly recommend it for Lego fans.


And how to know if a child really really likes Lego's.....

That's right that's Luke asleep with one of his Lego creations in his hand. The funny part about this is that he swore to both Dewey and I that he just wanted to sit it on his bed he would not touch it or play with it. Putting it away in the playroom was simply unthinkable. Since neither of us were born yesterday we knew the pull of the Lego would be mightier then the will of a 7 year old boy but figured what harm could it cause. We both laughed and I grabbed the camera when we checked on them and found Luke like this.

Electronics

Ok so everyone knows I have a love hate relationship with electronics, I love having them I hate using them. I'm pretty sure there is some part of my brain that is missing, I can at best minimally use most of them. I just this week figured out I can listen to music on my phone. My lap top crashed (I guess that's the word it doesn't work anymore) this is the same laptop we bought after returning from Kazakhstan 5 years ago. (My laptop got fried the first week we were there from one of them many power surges that happened all day and night.) So I realize that 5 years is like 95 in laptop years but I'm pretty basic in my use (see above) so I'm thinking its still fine. I asked (told) my brother Steve to fix it for me. I think the exact words I used was "make it be able to turn on and let me play with my photos, do whatever it takes it make that happen". Good thing hes my brother and is well aware of my um...personality :)

So in thinking about electronics I noticed how much we use them.

Dewey on his laptop sneaking in work before bed.

Who can resist a cute kitten in the picture?

Leapsters are BIG at our house. The boys kind of go through phases with them. They are on a constant use phase right now.


If I don't hear noise I go looking.... This was a morning last weekend after breakfast.

I walked past their room a few times before I did a double take and finally noticed the legs. (funny how piles of blankets, stuffed animals and a play tent work as camouflage)

Oh there he is..... some things I just don't ask. Hes playing, and happy I don't need to know :)

Kolby LOVES taking pictures. He has dropped a few of my cameras so this past Christmas Santa decided it was time he got his very own...very sturdy...camera. He loves it. It was a video record feature that he just loves to turn on ALL the time. Like when you are telling them to clean their room or pick up the playroom. Sheesh who knew my voice sounded so shrill.

It goes without saying that my very favorite electronic toy is my camera, which I love love. Its slow going finding time to learn how to use it. And I have not even started on the photo editing software I got. (see above laptop issues) Even so I'm happy as can be with every picture I take.

No snow and slightly above freezing temps...

What else is there to do but go for a bike ride??

Kolby is still a little unsteady so Dew decided to run along side him. (crazy I know, you didn't hear me offering)


There is a really nice bike/walking/running path in town, that we like to frequent. Of course the boys had to stop at the bridge. I swear bridges are like great big magnets to boys, irresistible.

Who says you can't have fun at a park in the winter?

I LOVE this picture. And my new camera that allowed me to take it.

Fun fun day getting some much needed fresh air.

On Saturday I got to take an Artisan cheese making class. And almost as good as me getting to take the class was the fact that my three boys stayed home, cleaning and doing laundry so I didn't have to.

The class was so fun, I had no idea it was that easy to make cheese. I can not even tell you how much cheese I ate, we got to sample everything we made. And people they were YUM!!! I will let you in on a little secret...... I LOVE cheese not like a little but L....O...V...E. I have not had meat or seafood of any kind in 20 years. (lets not worry about how old that makes me)I have had not one once of regret, no cravings, nothing. So you would think it would be an easy jump to go Vegan, and I would love to.....except......there is the cheese thing. So my plan is similar to the eggs I eat. The chickens we have I see happily playing out in the yard doing what chickens do all day eating good food. Thus happy healthy eggs for us. So if I can make my own cheeses, from oh lets say a cow happily playing and doing cow things in our yard. (we have 6 acres I promise there is plenty of room) Happy healthy cheese. Good plan right? So right now I'm in the research phase, we will see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Luke!!

My baby boy is 7!!

Oops I let it slip again. As of his birthday Luke said I could no longer call him "my baby boy". He informed me that now that he is 7 he is not a baby boy. He was very firm on this point. I countered back that even when he is old enough to be a grandpa he will still be my baby boy. However he could not be swayed by mere sappy mom emotions....... so I'm trying hard not to do it. (at least to his face :)

We decorated his door and the entryway so when he woke up this is what he saw.

I mean really how much fun is it to smack around balloons??
Just look at this face that I love so much.

The boys decided that instead of having separate friend parties they wanted to combine their Birthday party into a Ski day. Luke went skiing for the first time on his 5th birthday since Kolby is turning 5 next month it only seems right to carry on the tradition. We plan on going in a few weeks and can't wait. We also hope that by that time there will be snow for us to ski on. Notice I said Ski, Luke is apparently old enough to know that snowboarding is the much "cooler" option now-a-days. However we are Old school (old being the key word there) Dewey is a REALLY good skier, I mean double black diamond, jumps and all. I can get down the mountain, I'm not saying its pretty but I can get to the bottom in one piece. So skiing is what we will be teaching them. Hopefully once they have those skills down they can teach themselves how to snowboard :)

Since Lukes birthday was on a school day, Kolby and I drove into town and picked up a couple dozen doughnuts (per Lukes request) for his class treats. It was so cute when we dropped them off to his class. All the kids jumping up and down and hugging Luke.

For our family party Luke wanted to go bowling with Grandma and Grandpa. So Fri night we all met at the local bowling alley for dinner and bowling.

We all had such a good time.

And I'm not saying that having the kid bumpers up didn't improve the adults scores. A few of us even broke 100 :) But Grandpa pulled it out the win in the end.

Then it was back to our house for cake and presents. Luke picked out a sprinkle cake mix that he wanted "stacked". I think it turned out pretty cute.

I love this picture.

Yes the boys are sitting on the counter again. I swear I don't know how it happens, the little monkeys scamper up there and before I notice we are well into our way of some activity

Kolby was so sweet getting as close as he could while still letting Luke have his moments.

Lukes class put together a Birthday book for him. All his classmates had written him a Birthday letter. SO STINKIN CUTE! I personally think Luke is a HILARIOUS kid, but apparently so do a lot of his friends. There were quite a few "luke you are so funny, you make me laugh" type comments. Such a cute idea for his teacher to do.

Luke amazes me everyday. He is one of the more stubborn people I have ever met (next to my sister) he is a little to good a being the boss, its a role he really likes. We spend a lot of time reminding him hes not. He is fiercely protective of Kolby. Once they are both home they are never apart they do everything together, play,laugh, fight. He loves to make us laugh, he made a little dance the other day that he loves to do because he said he "likes to see us laugh". His reading is really coming along and he is a wizz at math. And don't get me started on legos. I think every room in the house has one of his creations in various states of being done. He loves creating ships, and everything else you can think of.

The love I have for this boy is simply boundless.

Happy Birthday Luke,

We love you!!