VACATION!

If your name is AMIE and you are bitter about missing your cruise, skip this post of mine! :-)

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Jeremy and I just went on a great (much needed) vacation with some awesome people. It was a rather random mix of friends, but we had a great time. We wish that some people....Amie....my sister Kayla.....and others didn't have to miss, but that just means we'll have to plan another cruise. It was so fun having my mom and Kelsey on the trip with us. Vacationing with my mom is a trip in itself!

This was how the majority of our time was spent while we were at sea. The weather wasn't the best on our trip, but our sea days always managed to have some sun!


Cheyenne proved to be the "entertainment" each night at dinner. He would play "Where's the bread?" every night with Jonathan.

This, combined with the night that David felt like a giant with his demi cup (a whole other story), we were constantly rolling with laughter in our chairs. Our fabulous friends, David and Jodi.

Oddly enough, this is the one picture I have of them. A cruise with my BFF and I have no pictures of us. Oh well, we'll just have to go on another!

Formal night picture.

You can see I got a little sunburned the first day!

*Jamaica*

A group of us went from Montego Bay to Negril.

Our first stop.....

Margaritaville in Negril

Mom in the pretty water....her first time in Jamaica.

Next stop:

Rick's Cafe in Negril

(Famous for their cliff jumping)

My husband was CRAZY enough to do it!
He's the blue trunks walking up to the edge.....

Did I mention it was a 40 foot jump???

Safely back on the ground!

Kelsey and I opted for the less daring 10 footer!

Kelsey wanted to do the big jump, but smart mom was there and convinced her that a person that just broke their neck probably shouldn't risk it!

A view from another cliff

Our group:

Cheyenne, Kelsey, Kendra, Jeremy, Kathy, Shelly, Jonathan

*Grand Cayman*

We were supposed to swim with the sting rays again, like we did last September. The weather wasn't cooperating. It was rainy and super windy, so they completely closed the sting ray reef to everyone. We hopped in a cab and decided to go to Hell instead. Yup, you can even get your passport stamped saying you've been to Hell. They have a post office and a couple of souviner shops. Other than that....it's a really big tourist trap of.....

.....nothing!

A field full of lava rocks?!

A genius called this place Hell and is now making a fortune off of:

"I've been to Hell" t-shirts, hats, mugs, and Christmas ornaments!

Smart person!

After Hell we went to a turtle farm. It was pretty cool. Probably not worth the almost $100 for us to get in, but still fun. There was lots to do, including....

holding turtles!

This is actually one of my favorite pictures. I've cropped it for a fram at home, but thought I'd leave it un-cropped for you to see how excited David was! Seriously, his face cracks me up!

Turtle Lovin'

This may have been taken once the turtle started flapping his wings(?) / fins(?)

More turtle love!

The cool part of the turtle farm was the lagoon you could snorkle in. There were lots of fish to swim with.

And there were sharks!

There was piece of glass between our lagoon and their tank, but still, it was cool to swim up to the glass and see sharks swimming right in front of you!

Mom

Me and Jeremy

That night we tried to take a picture of the three of us.

That one was good of the two of them.....

Then we all started laughing....

Mom finally gave up!
Sisters with sunburns!

*Cozumel*

Worst weather day!

Despite the rain, we had fun. We decided that we were going to get wet regardless, so we went to the beach to have some fun!

We snorkled....

Jumped on the trampolines in the water.....

Tried running from one tramp to the other....

Kelsey made it.....

I didn't. :(

We slid down the water slides....

And Jeremy, Shelli, Chey, and Jon rode some rocket thing. After seeing Jeremy get launched off, I didn't even try!

It was pouring, but we had so much fun!

Mom and I kept saying, "Atleast we aren't at work!"

There was putt-putt on board. With the rocking boat and wind, no one did too well!

I did get a flower balloon hat thing in Cozumel....what every 31 year old wants. I was going to bring it to Cass, but Jeremy convinced me that it wouldn't pack well. Here's her picture instead!

All in all, despite friends not getting to come and bad weather and rocking boats, we had a ball!!!

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The only thing that made it okay to come home, besides my own kiddos, was this sweet thing!

I got to keep her one day last week and she was fantastic!

She loved talking to herself in the mirror and taking a bath with Cassidee.

I have a picture of all my kids wrapped up in a towel after a bath, so I thought I'd take one of her too!

Here is Cassidee at two months.
She and Blayze don't necessarily look alike, but they sure are cute all wrapped up like that!

Big Boy!

This is what a "sneak in and try not to wake him up" kind of picture
looks like. Yup, that's my little man in his big boy bed, with no
problems whatsoever. Excuse me.....I'm off to have a good cry!

From the month of April....

Let me start by saying, if you see Cason out and around town wearing a helmet, don't be surprised. If you saw my previous post about his finger and you thought he might have slowed down a bit....well, that's not the case. Yesterday, in a matter of five minutes, Becky and I watched Cason injure himself not once, but twice! He now has no fingernail, a busted fat lip, and a goose egg on the back of his head. I'm worried about the upcoming years.....worried......

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My sweet friend Nikki invited my kids to be in the Nordstrom's fashion show a couple of weeks ago. We didn't know what to expect, especially behavior from my kids, but we had lots of fun!

Here is Cassidee with Nikki's daughter Alix.

Not only did my kids get cute, cute clothes to wear, but there was also a hair/makeup person! Cassidee was in heaven getting all dolled up. Jeremy was less than thrilled that a man was doing her makeup!

And these are my kids on the runway. Yup, holding my hand and making me walk down. They froze when they came out and saw all of the people. Cason was wailing and Cass was (from what I can guess) embarrassed. Luckily that was a very short runway. But aren't they cute?

Happy camper once he got a balloon!

The Easter bunny was there. Prime photo opp so that I don't have to stand in line at the mall somewhere! Once again, Cason was wailing!

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We bought zoo passes this year for the first time. I know I may be taking the kids a few times by myself and I was really curious how it would go. We tried it out, and I'll say, I'm totally fine with it. My kids were so great! Cass asked for souvenirs, but after one "no" she never asked again. Cason rode in the stroller when he was told to. Both were just great! I'm now thrilled that Jeremy got the passes for us and we can't wait to go back and take daddy!

This pic makes Cason look like a big boy standing on the fence with sister!

Another big boy shot of him wearing his baseball hat!

My crazy girl and her love of snakes. YUCK!

She wanted her pic in front of every snake and I finally had to "fake" taking pictures of her!

I told Cason to sit by Dee Dee and this is what he did!

This is where she asked the man if she could just hold it. Really? Freak child!

It actually cracked me up that the kids were ready to go before I was! Here, at the penguin house, Cass was over looking at the glass and Cason just sat by me and asked for a drink. He was done, but still behaving so well!

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Cass had an egg hunt at school.

I love that they came out in bunny ears and bunny tails!

Cutie girl who specifically asked for her "rainbow stripey dress" for easter day at school!

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Literally one of the only pictures I took of her at Disney on Ice. I took pics of the show but they never turn out great. She just sat and watched, enjoying her $14 snow cone (!?). She had a complete blast!

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At a birthday party....

I think I have some thrill junkies in my kids. When we got on the carousel I was trying to hold onto Cason, just in case. He kept swatting my hand and saying "no no momma." Okay big stuff! I think his mohawk gives him an attitude!

Driving the pink car, of course!

Mr. Hot Rod

Cass and I on the Tilt-A-Whirl......this is obviously before it started, because afterwards she was crying! It started going a little fast even for me!

Why is pea gravel so fun for kids???

On Easter Sunday we went to church with my parents and then out to my sister's house for brunch! There was a huge egg hunt for the kids!

Cason wanted to play more than hunt eggs, so.....

.....Evan and Kelsey ran off with his basket. Thanks to them he had tons of eggs!

We, of course, dyed eggs. Cal and Cass seem to be pros at this now!

Cason had to give it a shot too!

Despite Cason's goofy smile (he takes you literally when you ask him to say Cheese!), I really love this picture! All the cousins with baby Blayze!

My favorite picture of all day!

Cason loves his baby "Baze" and is constantly "checking on her!" He loves looking at her picture at home. I had kinda hoped Kayla and Camron would have a boy so Cason would have a playmate, but I think he is going to have tons of fun with Blayze and may be her biggest protector when they get older!

No more posts for over a week.

Jeremy and I are leaving on a cruise on Sunday and the kids will be with Nana and Poppy!

I know we will have fun stuff to share when we all get back home!