Spring Break Cruise 2011

Each year for our Christmas gift from my parents we take a trip.  This year we decided on a cruise.  Royal Carribean- Liberty of the Seas.  And for the first time we had to go during spring break so the kids wouldn't miss school.

It was the BEST!  We went down to Florida a few days before the cruise to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa (they live in the Everglades for 4 months during the winter).

Six days spent on the boat and we stopped in Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel.  Our favorite things were the beach, the characters on the ship (it was a Pixar films featured ship- so Shrek & Madagascar characters were on the ship with us!), the food, games on the ship, waiters, room service, not lifting a finger for a whole week and the sun!  It was a perfect week!

We love airplanes.

 Billie's Swamp (Everglades).  They re-captured this croc while we were there!  It escaped 8 years ago!

Airboat ride.

 Our Swamp buggy.

Grandma LOVES games.  We had a fun time playing UNO attack.  Parker was the funniest loser ever!

Our family.  Blessed to spend some quality time together.

Waiting to get on the ship!

Walking the plank!

Our boat was spectacular!

Bye Bye Miami!

Life doesn't get much better.

Instead of watching the character show Jackson & Daddy were watching a heli circling the ship leaving Miami.

Fancy dinner every night!  The kids got used to ordering a five course meal!

Jackson suited up to rock climb

Parker or Addi snapped this shot!

Yea!!

LOVED the towel characters!

Belize.  Perfection.

Puss.

Character breakfast= chocolate on everything!

Our ship is the HUGE one!

Our transportation around Costa Maya.

Costa Maya= fish tacos on the beach.  A-MAZING!

bad coloring but love the picture.

Boxing... until we got told they had to be 16 years old.

bye bye blissful cruise.

our cool SW plane on the way home.  have i mentioned we're REALLY into planes?!

Gratitude.

I have started a journey.  It began a few weeks ago when I started this book study.  The book is called One Thousand Gifts and it challenges you to create a thankful list (of 1000 gifts) of your own.  So, I have started my list.  I will  blog every once in a while (my goal is once per week) about a few of my grateful things.  They are extremely random.  I have so many obvious things to be thankful for.  I love to think of the not-so-obvious things in my life.  And to find gratitude in the smallest of things.

Here we go:

A tough girl.  That can play with 4 older boys for hours.

Living in the semi-country on 3 acres where my kids can explore and have a creek and dirt and sticks.

Game night.  

Sunshine on a cool, crisp winter day.  Spring it coming!

Cooking in my big kitchen.  

Christian music.  I never knew there were such amazing christian artist.

Co-op dinners w/ sister (and neighbor).

Feb.17 2011

Yesterday, Ashton & I were both diagnosed with strep throat.  Today, we got to spend some time together.  I had been in bed for 2 days straight (not including a few days last week too when I was just thinking I had a cold) and so as soon as the ibuprofen & antibiotics kicked in this afternoon we had to get out of the house.  We had a record high of 74 today.  We did a short exploring adventure (as much as two sicky's can manage), played UNO (outside), puzzles and built a car something-or-other.

I love this boy SO much!  I love that I was too sick to worry about laundry, cleaning or anything else but  just laying around and enjoying time with my first born nephew!

Love Day

In the past, Nathan & I go out to dinner or I make a romantic dinner at home  on Valentine's Day (and kids spend the night w/ Gram).  This year we decided to switch it up a bit.  We did a fancy night at home w/ the family.  It was so much fun- and the kids LOVED it.  They both dressed up fancy (addison's favorite part) and Addison picked out both Nathan & I's outfits.  She has been wanting me to wear this velour/fur dress I have in the back of my closet and so I finally found the perfect place to wear it (home!)!

This is definitely a new tradition!

Menu: Sparkling pink lemonade

Aspargus w/ parm cheese (kids fave!)

Chicken & a simple pasta

bread &  butter

Sprinkles Cupcakes.  The look pretty.  I overbaked them :(  booo.

Blizzard fun

Last week we experienced our first official blizzard (that I know or remember).  A state of emergency was declared by our governor.  We ended up getting 20" in less than 24 hours.  We only went to school 1 day (the day before the storm came) that week.  We loaded our cupboards chock full of food.  We were prepared!

Nathan cleared the deck & drivepad (our driveway is very long and impossible to do by hand) about once every 2 hours.

I began the snow week with making cinnamon rolls for the entire neighborhood (okay, only 4 households).  Everything in the city was shut down.  Snow was falling & blowing at a rate of 2" an hour.  Chapman's had one 4 wheel truck on the road for a few people that had a real emergency.  I can only remember one other day that Nathan did not go into work (and that other day he might have gone to work in the afternoon??).  It was a day of building monster forts & spending time with the family.... eating cinnamon rolls.



This is the second time he did this!  I was upset because I wanted a nice picture & he has to go & clean it off!

Nothing stops the Figs from cinnamon rolls!  A HUGE thank you to Phil for plowing our driveway... at

least 3 times last week.  And a week later & it's still a bit dangerous!

BEAUTY!

This is the second day/evening.  The kids decided to wait until the sun goes down to enjoy the cold, snowy weather.  They were out 10 degree weather for over an hour just playing away.  In fact, when they came in Jackson was sweating!

I swear these kids are polar bears!

She loves a good challenge.  Tell her she can't get out of her driveway.... well, you see what happens... this is at my house.  And tell her that cinnamon rolls just came out of the oven.  She'll go to extreme measures!

Daddy/Uncle built the COOLEST, BIGGEST FORT EVER!  Seriously, it was a 4 bedroom condo with lofts!

Yum!  This is a mix between PW's cinnamon rolls & Nathan's sticky buns.  Amazing!