VACATION!!

Yes, we splurged.  Yes, we did the unthinkable - a cruise with 4 kids.  Yes, Grandma and Grandpa came to keep the adult/kid ratio in control!  And yes, we had a FABULOUS time.  I have over 250 pictures, and I still need to get more pictures from Lara and Grandpa - but here's what I captured on our AMAZING get-away. 

The procession, from one place to the next - we are quite a troop.

Checking out the city that floats - Cole was smiling until I pulled out the camera.

See that Disney cruise over there, yeah....  that wasn't ours.

Our boat did have a water splash pad and water slides though!

We also found a hot tub - look at all those cute boys!!  I'm so LUCKY!  

Our living quarters - Shayne and I had Skyler and Danny with us.  Grandma/Grandpa had Hunter/Cole stay with them.  It was cozy - but doable!

Our first port was Freeport, Bahamas.  It was suprisingly a very dry, desert (rather ugly) port.  I was surprised.  We took a cab to "Paradise Beach" which was a slot of land that someone decided to call paradise and charge every person $3 for going there!  The beach wasn't impressive, but the snorkeling turned out to be a big success!  Shayne, Cheryl, and I went out first (Grandpa was happy to keep Skyler happy in the shade) - we saw amazing fish, coral, plants and then I saw a HUGE stingray!  I thought it was a stingray - but it didn't have a pancake flat nose - it was deep.  So we decided it must have been a manta ray - but when I look up images of manta rays, it doesn't match.  Whatever it was, it was HUGE, and a HUGE tail too.  Just swimming around and around.  I also found a couple turtles - but they saw away rather quickly.  Shayne took Hunter and Cole out snorkeling next, and they found some turtles too - but they swam with them and even got to touch them.  That experience was definitely a highlight for the boys!

Hunter made this sculpture

Danny, Grandma, and I went exploring along the shore line.  There were HUGE conch shells everywhere - and we got to see the creatures that live in them - reminds me of a bat, snail, and crab all in one.  It was WEIRD!!!

Danny is holding a sand-dollar, and that creature is trying to get away from him!

Look at that beautiful couple!

The gang and our boat in the background.

Our next port was Nasau, Bahamas.  This is the same place where "Atlantis" resort sits - and it was a beautiful place.  Much more of what I expected to see on this trip!  We took a taxi to the beach by Atlantis and spent the day enjoying the waves, sand, and even the seagulls.

Back on the ship, they had activities for kids and Danny LOVED his "class."  Every night he'd come back with painting on his face and prizes.  They had great employees in the kid area.

Now about the food, the best part of the cruise is definitely the eating, and eating, and eating.  The fancy dinner at night always provided opportunities to order 2 or more entrees and plenty of desserts too.  Hunter regularly ordered 2 shrimp cocktails every night - his favorite!  Here Cole is eating 3 different dinners - during this week, they never heard Mommy say "eat your dinner."  I figured they'd eat if they were hungry and I didn't have to prepare it - so it was my vacation too.

Hunter is too full to even touch tonight's meal.

After our cruise, we went straight to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure.  We love this park and we were SO excited to take our family there!  Shayne and I had been there in 2004, and the newest addition is the Harry Potter section.  It was AWESOME - seriously, awesome.  Hogsmeade was perfect - in every detail.  The Harry Potter Broom ride (not sure of its technical name) was a blast.  And the line to get on the ride, takes you through the castle - I should have had a camera with me to snap photos on our way in, I'm positive I missed more than half of it.  

Hey, look who showed up in Hogsmeade!!  My sis and her fam!  What are the chances?!?!  

I should frame this, ALL FOUR ARE SMILING AT THE SAME TIME!!!

If you look through my 200+ photos with me, you'll see that Hunter and Cole are CONSTANTLY doing bunny ears - ugh.  CONSTANTLY.  Well, Spongebob got Cole back - love it.

Our family favorite - the Simpson's ride.

During the parade, MANY of the dancers stopped to talk with pretty Julia and Skyler too -yeah, we think our babies are cute too.

Cole enjoying a Butterbeer (Harry Potter specialty)

Shayne is helping Danny grow a couple inches here - to go on a water ride.  He made it!  Thanks to napkins and long pants covering up the raised ankles!

We all wanted a stroller to do this...

We couldn't have done all the rides without the amazing help of Grandpa - he did not want to do the rollercoaster rides, but was more than willing to stay with babies in strollers and sometimes, even the 4year old.  We LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa with us - everything is twice as much fun with them around.  And we loved having Aunt La-La and Uncle Greg meeting us there too!  They were soooo willing to do what the masses (kids) wanted to do and we led the gang around and around those parks till our feet fell off!  

Now for a vacation from the vacation....

tis the season...

Zombie Run, 2012

Halloween Party 2012

The highlight of the party was when Shayne was explaining the games and that there were $10 gift certificates for the winners.  Immediately, Greg hollers, "Shayne are these just $10 coupons?"  

I'm amazed that both Shayne and I kept a straight face for the next hour knowing very well that he had clipped $10 off coupons for the "prizes."  Shayne is the one who keeps us laughing and having fun - I'm so lucky!!  Happy Halloween! 

You know, THAT house...

It's that favorite time of the year to get out the BOXES and BOXES of decor!  We continued the tradition and did our Haunted Garage again - the neighbors say they love it.  We had a few new surprises this year and lots of fun putting it all together in those last fleeting moments!

What do I stand for?

He started to stand for the very first time and Cole ran the camera over to me, I got it!!  Then he did it again, and again, and again.  sniff sniff....

100 MILES

In August, Sarah and I did a 50+ mile bike ride and crazy me says, "hey!  If we can do 50 and feel so good, let's go do a century!!"  And crazy Sarah says, Ok!  And off I went to the computer to find us a Century Ride and that's how I found the Wonder Woman Century Ride.  I was thrilled it was all women (sorry guys, but I'm not a fast rider and you make me feel slow), it was also close to home, and it wasn't competitive.  I talked Rach into doing the ride too - and lucky us, another dear friend of mine, Susan, was looking for someone to do the ride with!  That's how our group came together.  

Here is a pic of us that morning - smiling and ready to ride!  Susan has already decided that today is not a good day for 100 miles (due to knee surgery) so she'll do the shorter loop.

THE RIDE WAS LONG!  LONG!  LONG!!  I've done a century before - but I did it alone.  It was a very different experience to ride with friends -- lots of great conversations and I'm glad they were there to encourage me along.  Overall, I wasn't as prepared for this ride as I was two years ago.  I hadn't planned or prepped for a century ride - I think we had a month of "preparation"!  I think we all had our moments of discouragement - but since everyone else was still going, we just stuck together.  Susan had her chance to turn off for a shorter ride, but she turned to the left with us!  We were so happy to have her along for the long haul, but I'm afraid it really did hurt her knee (and she is still having issues).  I'm so very sorry about that!  But, she wasn't in pain while riding, so she kept enjoying the ride!  The effects were felt later...  

Most of the ride was beautiful.  I need pics from Rach - she was good about taking pics with her phone along the ride.  We rode up in a canyon at the break of dawn - LOVED THAT!  And we rode past orchards that smelled SOOOO good.  There were also stinky fields followed by a strong head wind that made you feel like it would never end.  After lunch, I was riding along and I thought to myself, I can do this.  Then I looked at my spedometer and realized that I had only gone 5 miles since lunch and it felt like HOURS.  I wasn't so sure of myself at that point in the ride.  But, the end of the ride was the hardest.  We were coming towards the finish line and we knew we were close.  We also knew there were 15 more miles to get on those spedometers, but when the path started sending us BACKWARDS and further from the finish line, it was very disheartening.  The miles worked out in the end, but to go the opposite direction after so much riding was honestly a huge frustration and it made me so discouraged.  But, we kept pedaling and eventually we were heading back the right direction.  

As I came around the corner for the final block, I saw my dad standing there with his camera.  I felt the tears well up and I couldn't stop them!  I'm so glad he was there for me (Shayne had other committments)!  Here I am riding to the finish - 100 miles on my bicycle.

Here's our group at the finish line - we did it!!

Was it hard?  Yes!  Was it worth it?  Yes!  I love being on my bike.  And I also love knowing that I can do hard things.  I'm hoping my example of doing hard things will help my boys know that they can do hard things too!  It felt very empowering to go beyond myself and I plan to do it again!