Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas from our house!!

I love Christmas! Our tree is so beautiful this year.



Jessica, TJ, Mindy and Jake spent the night with us for Christmas Eve. We woke up at seven a.m. to Mike playing Christmas music really loud.

Mike gave me a laptop computer, from which I'm writing this post. I LOVE IT!

Santa also brought our family a Wii so here's what's going on at our house today:




Thursday, December 3, 2009

Vacation Week 2: Caribbean!

Our favorite thing to do for vacation is to cruise. This was the fifth cruise Mike and I had been on and Joey's second. In Fort Lauderdale we boarded the MS Eurodam and headed for the Caribbean.


Mike and Joey played a little basketball on the ship.


We docked first in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


We toured two forts in Old San Juan. The forts were built in the 1600s and were used by military until after World War II. They were beautiful. The first one we went to was Castillo San Felipe del Morro.


Wild iguanas wander all over the place in Old San Juan.


Here I am sitting on a big pile of hot balls.


The second fort we toured was Castillo San Cristobal, named for Christopher Columbus.


I gotta admit, the dungeon creeped me out a little


and the tiny tunnels were a little scary.


The view was beautiful as we walked around Old San Juan.


Our next stop was St. Thomas. Locals really do drive around on these narrow streets and they drive on the "wrong" side of the road. It's amazing and more than a little frightening to ride in a taxi.


The beach at St. Thomas was gorgeous, even when a tropical storm blew in very suddenly, drenched everything, then suddenly blew out.


Mike on the beach, before the storm drove us to downtown.


Tropical paradise!


Our last stop was Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, which just so happens to be the most beautiful place on earth without question. Here we are on the ship's tender to shore.


I love this place!


This is the most beautiful beach in the world. The water is shallow and warm and the sand is white, and soft and fine as powdered sugar.


Here's Joey getting ready to snorkel with the sting rays.


The sting rays were awesome! We snorkeled in their little corner of the ocean. We fed them squid. It was sort of creepy. They suck the gross little things right out of your hands. We stood in the water and the sting rays swam between our legs. The are soft and slimy. It was an amazing experience.


Joey reluctantly posed for a picture.


Time to say good bye to our vacation. Boo hoo!!! I gotta figure out a way to live in the Caribbean!

Florida Vacation




This is the infamous bathtub where Joey got electrocuted. I will be forever grateful for those little switch thingies they put in bathroom outlets that trip when too much electricity goes through the system. I think that little thingie saved our boy. I will never leave a plugged-in curling iron on a counter next to a tub again!
Our little Andrew loved the sand.




Grandpa Mike helped the kiddies build sand castles.




Jessica and TJ enjoyed the beach.


Oh, how we all love this little guy.




Joey loves the surf. I tried to boogie board and got one good run but the waves were incredibly strong and they wore me out very quickly.


Andrew and Megan playing at the pool at the resort.


Joey is trying to decide what strategy to use when blasting Megan with the water cannon.





We just can't keep Joey away from video games, even on vacation.


The resort had a tiny kiddie pool that Angela, Andrew and Megan enjoyed...


and a fun water slide. That tiny head at the top is Joey.


Angela, Jessica, Mindy, Mike, Kathy and Andrew chillin' at the pool.


"This looks like a dead fish." Oh, Megan, that's because it IS a dead fish!


Angela, Megan and Andrew buried Ryan in the sand.



Telling secrets on the beach while Joey plays.