Intermission

This post is an intermission to the cruise. I've been working on the cabin out by the river that Devin and Garrett made. We've been trying to get a fence up around it to keep the cows out. I finally got a start of a fence up all of the way around, so hopefully that will keep the cows out until we can get back to finish up the fence. I'll have to post some pictures when we get finished.

McKinley, Gavin and I stopped at my parents house on the way home and was in the house getting a few things that we had left, and when I came outside, McKinley had turned the hose on and was washing the sidewalk. The water runs out to the driveway along the road and makes a big puddle. Gavin was laying on his stomach in the puddle/mud trying to get a drink. He ended up with the funniest mud goatee I have ever seen. They the two of them took turns spraying the hose and laughing. Luckily I had my camera to take pictures of Gavin. What a funny little boy! Thanks McKinley for always getting into something and creating this moment for us!

Cruise.....Finally!

I was sitting here trying to decide what to do. I had thought about starting Gavin's truck book, and then I thought that I should update our blog. We went to Yellowstone over the weekend with Morgan and Sophie, then I realized that I had better write a little bit about our cruise and put up some pictures. So, here we go.

We flew into Miami on Saturday night and got there around midnight. We spent the night in a hotel. A cheap one at that. It was kind of like an old college dorm. I guess you get what you pay for. Lesson learned. We crashed around 2am but it only felt like midnight or so because of the time difference, only it felt a little later than midnight because flying for 6 hours on a plane sucks.

Sunday morning we found out that there was no complimentary breakfast. Stupid cheap hotel. After a delicious breakfast of granola bars and some jerky that we brought with us we made our way to the Port of Miami where the cruises leave from. Our hotel had a shuttle that ran from the hotel to the port. That I think was the reason that we stayed there, other than the fact that Erica was at the computer and she picked it because it was the cheapest. The port wasn't too bad. We had to wait in line for a while, but it went pretty quick. We boarded just after noon I think and went on board and found some food and sat up on the deck and watched things happen.

The Carnival Triumph sailed out at 4:00 and we left at 4:30 right after they got turned around and headed out to sea. The beaches outside the port were pretty cool looking. It would be pretty awesome to live right there.

See what I mean. So we sailed off into the sunset. That night we met our dinner mates. You are assigned a table with other couples. We had a smaller table that sat eight. They do some matching and put you with people who are similar ages. Two of the couple have been married for two years and the others just got married the week before and this was their honeymoon, although I think that they have been together for a while. We made good friends with all of them and enjoyed our meals together so much that we started hanging out with them most of the time we were on the ship. Here is a picture of the gang.

Monday we spent at sea. They are supposed to be "Fun Day at Sea", but to me they were just day at sea. I don't really remember too much of what we did, we sat outside on the top deck and got sunburned. Another lesson learned, that makes #2. We had gone tanning and it helped but we should have put sunscreen on sooner. I'm sure that we took a nap, we made a habit of an afternoon nap for the rest of the trip. It was marvelous.

Tuesday we made it to Grand Cayman Island. We rode a tender ship to shore and sat in the crappy port area because nothing was open yet. We waited for a while before our excursion left. We went to the Stingray Sandbar and then to a small coral garden and then to see some starfish. It was a lot of fun to see the stingrays. Fisherman had started stopping there and cleaning their fish so the stingrays started coming to eat the leftovers and now they are accustomed to people and just want a little snack. They tell you before you get off of the boat that once you are in the water, the stingrays will brush up against you. They said that you can scream as loud and high as you want but not to jump, stomp, or kick at the stingrays. It was pretty awesome to be in the water, which was about chest deep, and have some 4 -5 ft diameter stingrays brushing up against your legs! The tour guides took pictures with a nice waterproof digital camera but they charged quite a bit for them, so we took a few with a waterproof disposable camera. The guides catch a stingray and then let each couple hold it and give it kisses. It was pretty exciting.

The snorkeling wasn't too exciting for Erica but I just enjoyed being in the water. I have never been to the ocean. It really is just like salty water! Who knew?! The underwater cameras are real great at taking pictures unless you are pretty close. Lesson #3. We did get a cool picture of the star fish, which were huge. I've only ever seen small ones, about the size of your palm, but these ones were as big as a dinner plate.

We had fun on Cayman but we walked around some of the shops looking for souveniers, but everything they had was pretty lame. Erica said it was like they had no culture, it was just a tourist place. They have a pretty nice beach called 7 Mile Beach, which we should have gone too instead of walking around the shops. Lesson #4.

Well, Gavin has decided to wake up from his nap, so that concludes this blogging session. I got up through Tuesday. You'll have to tune in next time.

To be continued.....

Well...

Well, we've been up to a lot but haven't stopped to write since we've been kind of busy this week. We still need to write about our cruise but I don't have time to do it justice right now. It was a lot of fun and took us a week to recover. We promise pictures soon!

Earlier this spring I had an idea as I was reading Gavin a book about trucks and tractors. He really liked it so I thought that it would be fun to make him his own truck and tractor book with him in all of the pictures. We have scoured Rexburg looking for various things. We have done pretty well finding most of the things on our list. I have really had a lot of fun doing it. I like our new camera we got last fall. It is a Kodak Z1012. Here is a few of the pictures that we have collected.

Fairies

So Erica is not real big on the whole Santa Claus and Easter Bunny thing. She thinks that these holidays need to be more focused on the real reason for them, Christ. I agree also but I have to joke with her a little bit, just for fun. The other day I asked her about the Tooth Fairy and she shot that one down too. But I finally came up with something that she will support. I would like to introduce you to the Cleaning Fairy. She is the fairy that comes at night and throws all of McKinley's papers that are scattered around the house. The Cleaning Fairy also threw away the bird nest you made Sophie. It also got the house made out of paper towel rolls. The Cleaning Fairy and I are becoming good friends. Now McKinley doesn't get mad at me for throwing her stuff away. I can also tell her to put her stuff away or else the Cleaning Fairy will come and get it in the night. It's great!!
For you aunts and uncles of McKinley, please don't abuse this new found friend of mine. It works too good to have you guys ruin it. We love you.

Ahhh, the joy of dirt!

Today I rediscovered Tonka trucks. We went to help Garrett work on the cabin and I realized that we would need something to keep the kids busy while we worked. There is quite a bit of sand from when the river flooded so it is kind of like a big sandbox. I asked Garrett if he knew where our old Tonka trucks were and he said that he had an idea. When we got home, we found them and Gavin and I had to try them out. We have two trucks, a bulldozer, and a truck with an excavator arm on it. It was great to push them around in the dirt. I love the bulldozer more than anything. I remember playing as a kid for hours in our sandbox. Piling up dirt with the shovel and digging holes and then using the bulldozer to make roads around everything. We used to have a front end loader but it must have gotten broken and thrown away. There is nothing quite like a pile of dirt and some cool toys to play with. I'm going to search around the web right now and look for a front end loader and maybe another bulldozer. I can't wait any longer!!

It's a boy!!!

So, I grew up on a farm but never really learned much about farming. We learned how to drive tractors and bale hay and feed cows, but never really learned when or why. Same thing with cows. We would always help in the spring to drive them into the corrals and give them their shots, eartag them, dehorn the ones that needed it, and brand them. We knew that Grandpa kept a herd to breed but we never really got too involved, only that we knews the cows had their calves in the spring. I had the lucky opportunity to go help pull a calf. I have never helped before so it was quite the experience.
The cow had started to have her calf earlier in the day but she hadn't progressed much. There were two of the calf's feet sticking out but that was it. We got her into the pen (after some chasing around) and Dad donned his birthing coveralls and some shoulder length plastic gloves. Yep, that's right, shoulder length. We roped her and I held her in the corner so Dad could work. We tied some strings on the calf's feet and tried giving a little tug to see what would happen. Not much was the answer. Dad and Grandpa decided that it was the calf's back feet that were coming out and that he was not turned right inside the cow. Dad made full use of the gloves and got the calf turned right side up. With a few more tugs on the strings the calf came right out.
He was a bouncing 62 lb 13 oz baby boy with dark red hair. The mother is doing fine in case you were wondering.

It was quite the experience! It's not quite what you see in the hospital when your own children are born.

Look at her go!!

I do have to say-I'm a very proud mama right now! McKinley's training wheels broke off her bike 3 or 4 days ago. We figured it would be a good time to see if she could ride without them. Matthew didn't really think she was ready and so we thought we would just find some new training wheels. Matthew couldn't find any at Wal-mart and we haven't been anywhere else. Alas-today was beautiful and we convinced her to try again - and she did it!! She can ride her bike without training wheels! We have to help her start-but she is getting closer! She can ride like the wind!

It's such a satisfying feeling to see your child accomplish something new! Especially when I don't really have any idea of how to teach a kid to balance on the bike. Have you ever noticed that parents don't tell their kids how to balance? They just say, "don't tip over, your leaning too much!" How do you tell a kid what balance is? Anyhow-McKinley has always been talented in the physical aspect of growing-and fast for her age. Walking at 9 months, climbing at 12 months, and riding a bike just shy of 4 years old!! She's going to be an awesome athlete! (if she wants)

Matthew and I are proud to annouce that we are taking a vacation! Without the kids! We have booked a cruise to the Western Carribean and fly out to Miami the 2nd of May. That just happens to be my 28th birthday! The kids are going to stay with my parents in Salt Lake for eight nights! Hope my parents survive! Hee, Hee, Hee!! I'm a little concerned about Gavin as he has never been away from both of us overnight. He is definitely a home body. McKinley will be fine I think. All her cousins live in Salt Lake-so she has plenty of playmates! We will take lots of fun pictures and post them after we get home.

Happy Easter to all! We don't remember holidays very well. We even forgot our anniversary! Okay-we didn't forget. We celebrated early in Logan, UT by going to Le Nonne-the best Italian restaurant ever! We just forgot the day of! It was actually quite humorous. We didn't remember until the day after. Look what 5 years of marriage and two kids does to our memories! Its been a fun, exciting 5 years. This is a picture of us on our honeymoon!

The bottom picture is the only picture of us together that we've taken! All our pictures our of our kids now! Even in our last Christmas letter-we didn't have any of us together!

Well-I'd better sign off. We don't blog often-but when we do, you can't stop me! Hope all is well. May we all be better people and remember the reason we celebrate Easter!