St. George Air Show

Last Saturday we went to the THUNDER OVER UTAH air show in St.George with Grandpa and Grandma. It was A----WESOME.

The Blue Angel F/A 18Hornets sitting pretty as you please all in a row.

I like this one with all the "boys" in it.

Dewey LOVES the F-22 Raptors. There just happened to be two of them parked right in front of where we were sitting. (there was still rows of people between us and them) I made my way through the crowd with a lot of "excuse me, pardon me" trying to get a couple close ups for him. Right as I make it to the very front I hear a plane coming and start clicking..... I'm THRILLED I was able to get this shot.

Ok you are about to see way more pictures of planes then I'm sure you want to. However I can tell you that I shot 942 pictures while we were there so it could be a lot worse :) It was seriously so cool to watch this amazing airshow AND have a camera nice enough to be able to catch a lot of really great shots.
May I introduce the United States Air Force F-22 Rapter

Having this plane fly so close and show off all it can do was pure pleasure. If I was a plane expert I'd use big technical words about its maneuver's, but I'm not so I'll just say it did some super cool stuff. Want to know what it likes look from its underside, doors open? Here ya go

They did a salute to the troops with an "old and new" display. A 60 year old P-51D Mustang performing with the Rapter. Hardly a dry eye to be seen.

And the "Transformer" The United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey.

With the looks and speed of a airplane and the maneuverability of a helicopter this thing rocked.

In the midst of snapping (my nearly 1000 pictures tehee) I turned and saw Kolby on Dewey shoulders playing with his plane...love it

And now the Stars of the show.... the United States Navy Blue Angels.

I was simply in awe the whole time watching them. I still don't even know how what they do is possible.

Breath taking........

Are you kidding me with some of these moves, these jets are screaming through the air sometimes a mere 18 inches apart.

And then flying straight at each other to come within inches, causing the entire crowd to collectively gasp.

I think its safe to say Dewey and I were way bigger kids then the boys, we loved every minute. So so glad we were able to experience it.

It was an all day show with lots more to the show. And believe you me I have the pictures to prove it.

A fun filled day for all of us with a yummy dinner to follow. Huge thanks to Dad and Winnie we had a wonderful wonderful time!!

Stingrays two posts in a row!!

I'm still trying to catch up from vacation, so this is from two weekends ago. My grandma was in Salt Lake City visiting from Texas so the boys and I drove up to spend time with her. (Dewey has been working around the clock...weekend what weekend? So he did not join us) It also just so happened to be little cousin Amelia's first birthday party. So of course we wrangled an invitation. Here she is opening presents with the help of grandma (Aunt Becca to me) her big sister Ellie and Kolby. Look at Kolby face, he is so funny around girls all shy smiles.

And icing on the cake was meeting baby William, how stinking cute is he? He is Samantha and Steve's brand new son.

Its not a birthday party with a pinata. Amelia's little tap was a little less then my own darlings who whacked the poor little ducks head off.

I know you were waiting for it....the stingrays. I have never so much as mentioned them in the 5 years we have had this blog and now you get them two posts in a row. That's just how we roll :)

So after the birthday party the boys and I took grandma with us for the day. For those of you that know the parties involved you know what a struggle it was to come up with something that grandma and the boys would enjoy. The best I could come up with was visiting Salt Lake City's new aquarium. None of us had ever been there and grandma was all for it. I would like it noted that I stand by my good idea, if fact I know it was a good idea because half of the valley had the very same idea. It was JAMMED packed wall to wall people. Not the ideal situation for a grandma or a 5 & 7 year old. I'm sure I had my "crazy lady" face on the whole time. (I myself don't notice but those that know me point it out....a lot)

However...... we got to see Stingrays (after much waiting/pushing/pulling/wiggling to the front)

The boys especially Luke thought they were so cool since we had just told them about swimming with them. He was all for reaching in the pet one. Kolby said he would like to wait until the next time we come.

Under the sea pics

Cute pic of grandma (G.G) and the boys.

It actually was a pretty cool place for the boys, well set up lots of creepy crawly things. A lot of educational material about all the animals and various creatures. (We will for sure go back when it is less crowded so we can read some of it.)
A great big disgusting (to me) snake that Luke thought was the coolest thing ever.

And real live Penguins.

This was Kolbys favorite part.

I hope that we made the best out of the day we had. We ended up at Liz and Gary's where Steve and Miki met us for a very nice dinner with Grandma. Then breakfast the next morning with Grandma and the Allreds before the boys and I headed home.

Stingray adventure

This was the first time I had ever snorkeled, that being said I can not stress to you enough just how big of a dork I am. While still in the boat Dew gave me snorkeling 101 lessons. Me "I can't breathe" Dew "open your mouth, you breathe out of your mouth not your nose" "oh yea, got it that's what the mouthpiece tubey thing is for". Once in the ocean I put my head in the water and then immediately popped back up to explain "hey you can see fish down here, its like being in an aquarium". I'm pretty sure this was not news to anyone but me. I LOVED snorkeling, every minute and didn't care about my dorkiness in the least little bit.

How cute is this stingray? Their tops feel a little like sandpaper and their underside feels like velvet, so so soft.

One of the guides said "want a stingray massage?" who wouldn't say yes to that? He preceded to place one of the stingrays swimming by on my back. I might talk a brave talk but you can see on my face I'm not altogether sure if this is the bestest idea. It was quick and was the soft side, actually felt kinda cool.

They gave us squid to feed the stingrays. Gross holding the squid and very strange to have the stingray swim over your hand to suck it up.

Dew was a master at it. Much better at holding the squid and not being freaked out about the stingray sucking in a whole hand like I was.

As we were leaving the guides informed us its seven years good luck to kiss a stingray. I ask you who can pass up the chance of seven years good luck? And just look at that sweet kissable face :) And no I wasn't the only one to do it me and another woman in our group jumped at the chance. Well not jumped exactly but were standing near the guide holding the stingray. Let the good luck start.

Oh how I love this picture and the blue blue water, it was taken by Jeff in our group. I can't believe we were just there. So glad he shared it.

Dewey and I had a little disposable water camera that ran out of film right after we got in the water with the stingrays. (in my defence we snorkeled first, see above dork comment and I did get lots of cool fishy pics) A complete stranger took the picture of my "back massage". She heard Dew say we were out of film and offered to take the pictures for us. As we were standing in the ocean without pens to write down names and numbers she gave us her email to remember. We got in contact once we were home and she sent us several pictures she took, how nice is that?
Wonderful memories of Grand Cayman.

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.....