Cruisin, Beautiful Cruisin!!

In Roatan, Honduras we gave windsurfing a try. We had a great instructor named Micky, from Chile. He wasn't too impressed with our 'style' but he did say Jason had better style than Jason's 2 brothers who have both tried windsurfing before. It was a lot of fun and Jason picked it up really quickly. We had a blast trying something new and can't wait to try it again sometime.
This was the first formal night which was on Monday night. It's always fun to have a chance to dress up every once in a while. Especially because Jason looks so hot in a blue shirt and suit!
This is at dinner for the formal night. I don't remember what we ate, but I'm sure it was delish!

This is the fruit drink we got in Santo Tomas de Castilla. Guatemala. I think it's blended pineapple, papaya and mango, or something like that. I had never drank something out of a baggie and straw like this before.
In the background you can see the bikes we rented for the day.
In Guatemala we rented bikes to bike up to some waterfalls. Right below us there is a 'slide' that goes straight into a deep part of the pond this emptied into. It was a short ride, but very fun. The water was so beautiful. Crystal clear and so pure and clean looking. It was absolutely incredible.

Once we rode up to where the waterfalls are, we locked up our bikes to a tree and hiked through this little stream to get to the waterfalls in the above picture. Hiking with flip-flops in water is not the easiest thing to do!
Right after we got the bikes, we had a whole herd of little Guatemalans accompanying us. All our little tour guides rode (or ran) with us all the way to the waterfalls. There was a lot of uphills and it was a pretty good distance, a few miles at least. I was amazed that those on foot kept up. Jason took a liking to this little guy named Mario. He rode with Jason most of the way. Such a cutie. Most of the kids were really hoping for a little tip for all their work, so we gave them about $1 a piece at the end and they were pretty excited.
These are jumping around a bit. This is in Roatan again. This is a good summary of my windsurfing experience... not that much time on top of the water! Micky's wife, Lorena became my personal assistant and she was so patient with me! The wind was very strong, so I kept getting blown into a dock, so I'd have to put the sail down and start over. By the time I got into the water it was nearly dark, so it made it a little more difficult for me. It was still so much fun even though I wasn't that great at it.


In Cozumel, Mexico we did a little snorkeling off shore. We saw one fish that was probably about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. It sure is beautiful under water.
At the 'beach' we were at in Cozumel, Corona Beach, we ordered our long awaited Strawberry Daquiri. Yum Yum! And the alcohol... just kidding, we got virgin.
This was our ship, the Norwegian Spirit. This is at the Port of Cozumel. We did a little bargain shopping (Mexican-style) in the morning and then we went to do some snorkeling in the afternoon.
Another close up in front of the ship but this one is at Guatemala, right before we got back on the ship at the end of our day's adventure.
We asked all our mini tour guides if they knew where we could find a nice beach with sand, and this is what they had in mind! I don't know what they think sand should look like, but I never pictured it to be green, mossy rocks. These chairs are basically cement lawn chairs! Not exactly what we had in mind, but it made for funny memories!!
















For anyone who is confused, we went on a family cruise the first week in December. In celebration of Jason's dad's retirement, they paid for all their kids and their spouses to go on week long cruise. It was amazing and wonderful!! It was great to be able to spend so much time with each of Jason's siblings and their spouses and his parents. It was strange, and yet very refreshing, that there were no children with us! We missed Sam so much! But I knew he was in very good hands. My sisters, Ronda and Leesa, took care of him the week and a day that we were gone. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful and helpful and supportive sisters.
We also made a stop in Belize. Jason went scuba diving and I went shopping with Jason's brother and his wife for the day. We both did one of the things that we love best! That was the only day we were apart, so we had a lot of good, quality time together. It's amazing how that really can strengthen a marriage. I feel so much closer and even more in love with Jason. And I'm pretty sure I love Sam more too!
Even though we had such an awesome week, we were definitely ready to come home. It was nice to see Sam again and sleep in our own bed. It was a week full of wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences with lots and lots of memories. Jason's parents were just in heaven to be with every one of their children for so long. We're just glad we could provide them with that opportunity... especially with it being in the Caribbean!! We are grateful for them and the dream we all fulfilled together as a family.

Happy Halloween!

Sam loves wearing his cowboy boots, so for Halloween we decided to dress him up as a cowboy/sheriff.
He picked up on trick-or-treating pretty quick. He thought it was pretty neat to stick out your basket and someone just gives you candy. We're just glad he doesn't think you can do that everyday. (I know the basket is lame, but I totally forgot to get him a real trick-or-treating bucket.)
Daddy helping Sam trick-or-treat. We had a lot of fun with it being our first year to take someone out.

Fun with Papa and Nana

Sam was a little nervous about such a big and noisy 'car' but I think he enjoyed the ride.
Again, a little nervous, but Papa made it fun.
Feeling a lot more secure... and warm! Sam helped Papa move lots of things with this little bobcat.
Sammy with Papa and Nana. He sure misses them now. He thinks they should come to Utah for Christmas!

Yes, it is as it seems. Naughty Aunt Donna brought him breakfast... Oreos and Cheetos, Yum, Yum! Only Donna can get away with that! Sam warmed up to her really fast.
Going for a little horse ride on Candy, Donna's horse. Sam is even wearing his cowboy boots for the special occasion.
Ride 'em cowboy!
Aunt Donna, I think it's for you.
My beloved little Tuttle, it gets smaller each time I see it.

sad day for the cooks

Well, we will no longer be thinking about how we want to change the cute-little-old-perfect-for-Sally house. A few days ago we backed out. We were both very sad about it, but we felt that we made the right decision in backing out. As much as I loved it, I'll just have to hope that another one will come along sometime that has our names written right on it! (Actually, if that was literally the case, it would mean there's graffiti on it, so we probably wouldn't want to be in that neighborhood, but you know what I mean...)
Well, just needed to get that out so people don't start asking me for our new directions....

the house we might buy

Here it is! It's a cute, old, little house. You get inside and you know that there were sweet, old, little grandparents living there! I think that's one of the reasons I love it, it feels so homey.

Here's a shot in the basement. The cupboard on the left is a laundry shoot from the bathroom upstairs. The door to the right side of the picture leads to a big food storage room.
Here's a shot of the attic. There's a cute little fireplace up there too. I believe they used it as a family room for a while. The stairs leading up to it pull out of the ceiling and become a ladder, so it's a fun part of the house, sorry mom, you'll probably never see it.

The kitchen reminds me of a cabin. The cabinets are pretty solid. I love the counter space, and there are tons of cupboards. (The other 2 walls have more.) The oven doesn't work, so we'll need to replace that, oh darn!
These are the doors leading to the largest bedroom. As you can see it's not all that big, but the walls round up as they touch the ceiling like lots of old homes do. I think it looks really cool! I would have to make use of any sewing talents I have to quickly make some curtains for the see-through doors.
Here's part of the back yard. It goes back to the bushes in front of that other house. I don't know why, but it is all sectioned off into some sort of garden-like plots. We'd like to have grass though. The building we're standing by is the work shop. It's a fun little work space... but who knows what we'll do in it. Maybe Jason can think up a few projects.

Brownie face!

I made brownies for the first time in a long time and decided that Sam was old enough to enjoy the spoon. He definitely enjoyed it! He couldn't get enough apparently because he was pretty upset when it was all gone.
The spoon was a little big, so he got plenty around his mouth... and as it is with most 16 month olds, it only traveled from there!
That would be him giving mommy back the spoon with the hopes of getting more... which he did.
A very happy little brownie face!

Uh-oh! Spaghetti-o!

We have recently been trying to help Sam learn to eat by himself, since my food always seems to be cold by the time I get to eat. Maybe we shouldn't have given him spaghettios... he was doing really good until he decided to eat straight from the bowl! Then it just became a game since we couldn't help but laugh.

our happy little family after a Labor Day of fun
Sammy loved to drink out of the lion's mouth, he didn't want to give anyone else a turn!
This is after we left, he was asleep in my arms before we made it across the parking lot. Needless to say by the time he was put in his car seat, he was long gone.

That elephant could eat him alive! Lucky it's just his bones...

Like daddy, like Sammy

The Ghost of the Bayou...oooh
Sally and Allyson pretending to be strange creatures. You can actually see a skunk up to the left of my peep hole, lucky we weren't face to face

Zoo fun

Sammy's first time seeing the giraffes. He thought they looked pretty crazy with those big long necks!

our cute baby bird... he just had fun throwing out the wood chip stuff.
So big!
our little monkey