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.....