Cruisin!!!

A cruise. 4 nights to Cozumel, Mexico out of Galveston, Texas. Basically a trip with no kids, cool experiences, interesting things to see and lots of laughs.

First order of business- find our friends!

We felt blessed Aaron's eye surgery went well and we flew to Houston on Wednesday May 5th. The girls stayed with Barbara and Kevin while we headed to port with old buddies from law school. Left to right- Adam and Jaime Peterson, Chad and Amy (with baby girl debuting in Sept) Hatfield, Bryan and I and the parrot named Eduardo. Oh wait, that was our scuba instructor. I don't know who that parrot belonged to. Maybe to the funny-smile-grandpa we loved.

{Just writing about our cruise makes me start smiling.}

Food- the endless yummy buffet.

Bryan and I each weighed 3 pounds heavier on the cruise scale than at home. Maybe it was the humidity? or different gravitational pull while in the gulf? wonky home scale? Or the yummy pizzeria? And a 6 p.m. snack followed by 8 p.m. dinner of bread, two appetizers, one entree, and two desserts followed an 11 p.m. snack? Hard to say. My favorite was a dessert called melting chocolate cake. It was warm chocolate cake that when you poked your spoon into it, you found a fudgey sauce underneath. Put that into the vanilla ice cream and it was so heavenly!! We tried to eat two in one night- too much. But man they were good!

Next up sleep

And lots of it. Notice Bryan on the bed with the window shades drawn tight. Well actually there is no window behind there, just a wall. So we slept a lot in our den. We even had one nap from 6:30-8 p.m. Now I am a big fan of napping a lot but a nap at dinner time? Well on a cruise there are no rules and we loved all our naps.

Boating Fun

We danced hip-hop, sang, water slided, played cards, danced country, played shuffleboard, played 2 rounds of mini golf, read, gambled, made silverware art, played sodoku, hot-tubbed, made new friends of some staff, enjoyed Mother's Day, laid out. Here Bryan and I volunteered for a impromptu guitar/ dance at the karioke bar.

Discovering Mexico

This was a litte slice of paradise on a gorgeous beach with the tiki huts. We also watched a sea lion show and saw a bunch of dolphins and a manatee. Very tropical. Also a few wild huge lizards.

Bobbing Along in the Beautiful Sea

We went to Chankkanaab State Park and got a pass to do some snorkeling. The water was gorgeous, the fish touching me was unpleasant, the stuff to look at was cool. We had a snorkel tour guide show us the ropes and then offer us scuba if we took a short 30 minute class. We took the opportunity and later went scuba diving. I got certified back in 2000, but everyone else was trying something new. It was a cool reef and we even did a cave dive. The cave was crazy scary cool with a cloud of sardines and a fish the size of a man and a funky fresh water/ocean water cloud we swam in. There were a few minor jelly fish stings and I actually got sick and threw-up while scuba diving. Overall a cool underwater day.

Saying Goodbye

On the bus ride back to the car; a little tanner and fatter than we were before. It was great to get back to our kids, but after the first 30 seconds of Ashley screaming in my ear I started dreaming of when we could do another get-away. Thanks friends for a fun time!

This part is for everyone who asks me- "How was the cruise? Was it just the best ever?" Actually we figured out that the cruise while really nice, it not our dream vacation b/c we are into 'doing' more than 'being'. We hope to see the world and though a cruise is very relaxing with good food and great peeps, we would rather sign up for great food and fun peeps in a tropical location and play there the whole time.

April

Okay so it's almost June and I am ready to catch up. My last post was Aaron's surgery stuff and what I guess I didn't indicate it that it all went well. When I said, "Welcome to my life after stress regarding Aaron's surgery." I meant was that the stress was over because everything turned out great! By that night his appetite and disposition were back to normal and the next day his vision looked pretty good. The redness in his eyes was mostly all gone by 10 days.

Ashley learned a new trick of a head stand. She is the best big sister to Aaron.

She loves him so much! She loves to have him grab her eyes/tongue/face with his (sometimes sharp) fingernails. I don't know why but that's their game. She has gotten retaliatory so I know the it's going to be a healthy give and take relationship. You can see her self-portrait picture hanging on the wall from Joyschool.

Ashley got a new build-a-bear doll for her birthday. Her pink and gold bear is her new favorite toy. Her name started out as Goldie and then changed to Mylee Sirus (splg?).

Donation station

I want to tell you about my amazing cousin Staci Hopkin. She lives in Massachusetts with husband Andrew and two kids. Their blog http://ashopkin.blogspot.com/

They decided to adopt a child from Ethiopia and then found out they were pregnant. The adoption went through and they are getting a little boy Jesse age 6 months very soon and she is expecting baby #4 in the fall. When I asked her if I could do anything to help she said,

"I want to say to folks who want to help us out "we have everything we need. But the orphanage where Jesse is staying doesn't." We are hoping to give some donations for the orphanage, clothes, diapers, formula, pencils and pens and soccerballs for the older kids, etc. These children without parents and the shorthanded nannies are those who really have needs. When we arrive there we will ask the pediatrician and orphanage director what they need, and then go on a shopping spree for them. We can't wait. If you would like to contribute anything to that cause, it would be wonderful! Even $15 goes SO far in Ethiopia. If it is helpful for your girls, you guys can even pick out what you'd like to donate. school supplies, or toys, or formula, clothes, etc, and I will make sure we take pics of the process for those who donate so they know what they were able to contribute."

When I heard this I got really excited! I love the idea of giving to charities and helping people in other parts of the world who don't have a lot and could really use some help. I don't love the idea of paying a middle man to do the delivering and don't always know if the program is really helping. My cousin's offer fulfills a desire in my heart to give through a trusted giver. I just thought I'd pass on the news in case anyone else is interested too.

Surgery News

Welcome to my life after stress regarding Aaron's surgery.
Yesterday was the big day for Aaron's eye surgery. He has/had esotropia we were trying to correct (only uses one eye at a time) and so both eyes had one muscle cut and then reattached further back on the eye ball.

The hardest part of the day pre-surgery was being hungry. He couldn't have anything to eat all day. Formula until 7:45 am, then juice until 12:45 pm and then nothing until surgery at 3:45 p.m.

We reported to Primary Children's Hospital at 2:15 and were a herded to registration (a totally fun playroom which put us all at ease). Then we headed to check out his vitals and get him changed into baby hospital scrubs. Aaron was totally happy playing and checking out stuff at the hospital. Here he is up close and personal with Nana from Peter Pan.

The hardest part of his day in all was coming out of anesthesia. He was tired and confused and getting checked by another nurse and was screaming so much I didn't recognize his cry from down the hall. When I got to hold him I sang to him until he fell asleep. What this picture doesn't show is my tears of gratitude that I knew he was going to be okay. His oxygen got a little low occasionally but that was the only concern and it corrected by itself fairly quickly.

We left the hospital at 6:40 p.m. and were home by 7 p.m. The girls stayed at my friend Char's house. They had a blast playing with her yorkie dog, painting nails, mac and cheese dinner, and pink ice cream. They were mad when I got them because they didn't get to finish their movie.

The hardest parts of my day- 1) Aaron waking up 2) me stressing out 3) the girls whining on the drive home. Of all the things I can complain about- these are the ones I would chose.

We won't know for 4-6 weeks if the surgery was successful. We go back to the Dr. in a month to check. Aaron kept his fake sunglasses on for a full 3 minutes before ripping them off.

Before and After

Aaron's first haircut was on Friday April 16th. Ashley decided that since she was there, she wanted to get a haircut too. She got a trim and her first bangs. I think the bangs look so good on her and it reminds me of Carlie (my sister) when she was little.

If you notice the green rectangle on our mantel, it contains our new pet ants. Bryan bought the kit at Toys R' Us for Christmas and they just shipped us our ants since the weather warmed up. There about 30 new red females and they are very entertaining to watch, although I think Bryan loves them the most of any of us. They eat and live in the green gel. They will die out in a couple months since it's against the law to ship queen ants.

In the spirit of warmer weather and haircuts, Bryan went today and got a bunch cut off. The girls both voted they like it better now than before.

My Big Boy

This is Aaron with his first two teeth- both on bottom middle. The first tooth came in Easter and the second a week later. Here he's using his left eye to see so his right turns in.

And today Aaron took his first steps! Ashley first noticed him in the piano room. Then we staged it; Ash was the photographer as he walked to get my watch (in my mouth). This isn't the best quality, but it's what we got and I'm lovin' it.

Spring Time

I absolutely love our front yard in the spring time. The lady who lived here before me planted most of our bulbs so thanks Erin. But last year Bryan got the excited and we planted the red ones. We have 3 colors of tulips, 4 colors of crocus, 2 hyicinth, daffodils, yellow and red roses, strawberries, 2 pink tulip trees, 4 different beautiful bushes, the red are a type of tulip, etc. We also have a plethera of weeds so we try and get out every so often.