Cruise Day 2 - 4 St. Thomas, At Sea & Barbados

We woke up on Monday at the beautiful St. Thomas! This was one of the stops of our honeymoon cruise and we were excited to be back!

Since this was our first day of vacation, I requested we have a chill day on the beach this day. St. Thomas is so beautiful, completely green with rolling hills and mountains. We went to Magan's Bay which ended up being the most picturesque setting for a beach that we went to all week. It was a bit crowded but we walked about 200 yards down the beach from the parking lot and found a more quiet spot that even had a picnic table and some shade.

We spent the day laying on the beach, in the water, walking along the beach ... that's about it! We ate a big breakfast and packed some snacks and fruit from the boat so we really didn't need lunch. We stayed until early afternoon and then headed back to the cruise terminal. The only thing I bought for myself the whole trip was a beach hat in a tourist store at the cruise shops here. I wore it every day for the rest of the trip :)

Right after being dropped off by the taxi, we're in paradise!

It was pretty crowded on the beach to our right

But not too many people on our left

View from our cab ride back to the terminal, this was the only day we saw other ships

My baby belly and me as we sailed away

St. Thomas is right next to Puerto Rico so it was a quick little trip there, but then on our next day we spent at sea as we traveled to the most southern of the islands, Barbados. This was a pretty chill day - we slept in a bit and then headed to a fancy brunch in the dining room. We ended up sitting next to 2 couples that we ended up making friends with and saw repeatedly for the rest of the trip. One couple was my same age, LDS and were celebrating the end of Medical School, about to head off to Maryland for a Residency - so funny they ended up being seated right next to us. The other couple was also young, recently married and were both chiropractors from Melbourne, Australia. We ended up running into them everywhere on the boat, especially in the Serenity adult area just about every evening during sunset. We even did the same excursion as both couples in St. Lucia. Tyler is friends with them on facebook now. After our breakfast we laid by the pool and read our books for a while, eventually had some lunch and at some point ended back in our room for an afternoon nap. That night was a formal night and while the entertainment was pretty lame on the ship, one of our favortie things to do was to watch the people taking the professional posed pictures which were so awkward! We would look through the photo galleries and try to find the most awkward poses and people. Might sound lame but it was pretty hilarious.

Our next island day we spent in Barbados! Tyler had looked up what to do on all the islands, and we were most interested in doing the snorkel with turtles! We were going to book it with a boat tour company but then he realized the turtle spot is less than a mile off the shore from a really nice beach. So instead we spent the day at the beach, and paid much less to have a smaller boat take us out to do some snorkeling for an hour or so. It was awesome to swim with turtles! There were probably about 8 swimming with us, and they go to this area every day because they know they'll be fed, but they are indeed wild! One of my favorite moments was swimming along with a baby turtle alone for about 5 minutes. It left the main area and went off and I just followed him or her, and it probably wasn't really a baby but it was much smaller than the others so I called it a baby :)

We "splurged" and paid for the chairs and umbrella - much needed shade for our ghost white skin.

About to jump in the water with our underwater camera!

We could have paid $100 and been on this party boat all morning with unlimited alcohol - although Jackson would have loved the pirate ship, I think we made the right choice with our day on the beach and a $20 boat ride out :)

The boat also took us to 2 sunken ships to snorkel!

The view back to our beach

Tyler snorkeled out and found a star fish!

These pics of us holding it were Jackson's most favorite ones we showed him surprisingly!

We did our same routine of eating a big breakfast and brought some fruit to snack on during the day. We went back to the boat in the afternoon for a late lunch, then walked back down to the cruise terminal with free wifi and were able to facetime with our kids :)

Abbie was so cute, and excited to show us her new purple elephant :)

About to head back to the boat and say bye-bye to Barbados!

Southern Caribbean Cruise

The last week of April, Tyler and I went on an amazing trip to the South Caribbean. I guess you could call it a babymoon, aka the last time we'll go on a trip for at least a year or more without baby girl :) This was by far the longest and farthest I'd ever been away from my babies but it all went great. Jackson and Abbie spent 7 days with Grandma and 3 of the days with Grandpa too. They were so excited they hardly noticed we were gone. OK I think Abbie noticed a little bit, but Jackson had the week of his life it sounds like. We were able to get text and picture messages every day except our one at sea day (Tuesday) and even face-timed with them a few times. Vicki was so great to come out and take the week of work to be with our kids! 

We went to the first bit of church on Sunday morning, then left early while Abbie was in nursery and Jackson was in primary. This made the goodbye far less dramatic than it could have been at home which was probably best for all involved, especially me.

We got a direct flight on Jet Blue so made it down to Puerto Rico late that afternoon and boarded our ship, the Carnival Valor, an hour later. Probably one of the strangest feelings was flying without kids for the first time in over 4 years. I have been on probably 50 or so flights since Jackson was born ... all which included Jackson. And then Abbie too. So flying without extra bags, strollers, diaper bags oh ya and kids was pretty nice. I read, did Sudoku, watched a movie, closed my eyes - what is that?

Where is all our stuff?

Ready to go to Puerto Rico!

In the harbor - Old San Juan!

The ship didn't even leave the harbor until 10 pm so a little different schedule than the typical Florida cruise. It was a 7 day cruise with 5 different stops, the first was St. Thomas the next morning. I really didn't take any pictures on the boat. It was nice enough, but seriously we weren't there because of the boat - we went for the islands! We had a late dinner, watched the boat start to leave the harbor and waved goodbye to a dark San Juan. Then we headed downstairs, went to bed and woke up in St. Thomas :)

Easters

We had such a great Easter this year, our first in Connecticut and boy was it beautiful weather! This year we were able to really talk a lot about the meaning of Easter and we did this advent calendar from the Friend magazine the week before. The kids were excited to sing a song and read a scripture about Jesus' life every night after dinner. By the end of the week I'm pretty sure they knew we celebrated Easter because Jesus was resurrected and lives in heaven, and we can too! I was also able to teach sharing time on Easter in primary so for Jr. Primary I did the 12 egg idea floating around the internet, just adapted it a little bit. I was impressed with how much Jackson really understood about Easter compared to last year, how much he's grown up!

The day before Easter we had a brunch and egg hunt with several families from our ward. The Giffords hosted and their backyard was perfect for an egg hunt!

The little kids got to start hunting first

The Big Kids are Off!

Tyler helping Jackson

Love these cuties

Lining up his 12 eggs

Short sleeves and no jackets, thank you!

Kind of obsessed with this little girl

We came home around noon and did not want to go inside! It was so nice we took a blanket out in the backyard and just laid in the sun until nap time. The kids eventually went inside but would keep bringing us food from the play kitchen so Tyler and I could have a picnic. It was the first time we'd really just laid outside in the sun for months and it felt glorious!

When Abbie woke up we died Easter Eggs - and I made the mistake of putting the colored dye in flimsy plastic cups so Jackson spilled his first color and it got all over his pants and shirt. He then spent the rest of the activity naked, but insisted he wore an apron so he wouldn't spill again... Luckily it was still beautiful weather outside that it was ok to be naked ;)

putting stickers on all the eggs

Easter morning, the kids were excited to check out their Easter baskets and go on an Easter Egg hunt in the house! They were intrigued with the game of looking for eggs so the week before they'd been practicing with empty eggs that I'd hide around different rooms. So they were thrilled that on this, the main event, they had eggs with chocolates and jelly beans inside.

After they had found all their eggs!

Ready for church!

Just because I can't resist how tender they are...

We might have been a minute late for church, but I had to snap this pic!

During Sacrament Meeting the Primary kids sang "He Sent His Son" as a musical number. Jackson had been practicing all week in the car along to our primary hymn CD. Luckily he didn't get stage fright and was so excited to go up to the front for the performance. My little sunbeam stood in the front row and sang the song so well! Too bad I was also standing up there with the kids so I couldn't really watch him sing, but according to those in the audience he looked cute and was the only sunbeam singing. Tyler got to watch him and admitted he teared up watching his little buddy up there singing the song. After church we attempted to take some more pics in our front yard with Daddy, but they mostly just wanted to run around and play. I love the pic of Tyler and Abbie below though :)

For dinner we hosted the Giffords and Freys for dinner and then took a walk around the neighborhood before eating our bunny cupcakes for dessert. It was a great Sunday with the family and a nice kick-off to Spring :)

Abbie at Age 2

Wow, so much has changed in the past year with Abbie. When she turned one she wasn't quite walking yet, had absolutely no hair, lived in Florida and was totally a baby in every way. Now she's running around keeping up with Jackson, speaking in sentences, singing primary songs & nursery rhymes, identifying her ABCs and is a princess enthusiast.

Her Favorites, interviewed with Jackson present so he helped her with a few answers I think...

Color-     Purple and pink
Letter-     A
Number-  2
 Toy-       Her Baby Doll
Game-     Elmo Game (I'm assuming the Elmo's ABCs on Jackson's iPad)
Snack-    Goldfish
Book-     Noisy Nora (Current Library checkout, she picked it because of cousin Norah)
Day-       Daddy Day aka Saturday
Shape-    Circle
Song-      ABC Song
Movie-    Cinderella
Thing-     Goldfish and Daddy
Animal-   Hippo (purple baby hippos to be exact)

This girl is pure joy or pure drama. Luckily the pure joy times far outweigh the drama ones. But it has been fun to watch her little personality develop this year! She loves her family, the first thing she says when she wakes up is "I wanna see Jackson." She loves her Daddy so much and has him wrapped around her cute tiny finger. She is still pretty attached to me too, but she is getting a little bit better about not needing to be held all the time...

At her 2 year old check up she weighed in at 24 pounds, 9 ounces - 40th percentile. I am shocked it's not lower honestly - she weighs 5 pounds less than Jackson did at this age and just seems so little to me! She's 33 inches tall - 20th percentile, so maybe that's why she seems so little. But dont worry, her head size is still in the 95 %!

For her birthday, she received some dress up jewelery and shoes and a new favorite game is dressing up in them, putting on her fancy shoes and going to the "grocery store" which is just a lap around the kitchen. She then comes back and tells me everything she bought.

After a grocery store trip

Thank goodness for green smoothies bc its her main source of veggies.

She loves singing and her favorites to sing along to are the Frozen Soudtrack, nursery rhymes and the primary songs. She basically knows all the words to I am A Child of God already. She has been described as the most attentive and best participant in nursery singing time, as she will sit and sing the whole time. She now can sing the whole ABC song just quickly grazing over LMNOP of course but she's got it down. And she can identify about half of the letters already too.

Our bathroom counter makeup assistant and a 19 week prego mom

She still is really good at puzzles, but isn't quite as interested in them now as she was a few months ago. Most of her play time has shifted to her princess castle, doll house, magnet dress up dolls, etc - but she still love love loves books.

It wasn't raining, but she insisted on holding her princess umbrella this day.

She speaks in sentences and pretty much can say anything, although it might be hard to understand her. Her favorite phrases are "Watch Abbie" as she does a trick and "I want Mama hold me" I'd say.

She still is a great sleeper at night and naps and I'm hoping she continues on the over 2 hour nap train for another year like Jackson did!

This girl loves all things baby! Her baby dolls, baby doggie stuffed animal, baby animals and basically everything that's small she calls a baby. She'll eat most of her cracker then show me the little piece that's left, baby cracker! Whenever she sees something that she classifies as a baby that's by itself she'll say - "oh baby misses its mama, daddy and brother!" She also loves talking about and to the baby in mama's tummy. She calls her "baby in mama's tummy" or "baby sister" maybe we should decide on a name to keep things simpler. But either way I think she'll be a great big sister and hopefully not too jealous :-/

kisses for baby from snow white and ariel

Her relationship with her brother is one of the best things in her life and I am so grateful that she has Jackson as an older brother. Sure they fight here and there but most of the time they get along so well it's actually shocking. He normally leads the way and she'll go along with whatever. One of the sweetest games they play together is the preschool game. He is the daddy and she is the little girl that he takes to preschool. He helps her pick out something for show and tell to put in her backpack, then helps her get it on her back. Then they drive in a "car" and come to preschool (which is in the kitchen with me the teacher). He gives her a hug as he drops her off then goes to "work" while Abbie and I learn about ABCs. Then he'll come pick her up, say the sweetest things to her like, "I'm so proud of you Abbie", or  "I'm so happy to see you again Abbie" and take her back "home." Once home he'll read her books and tuck her in for a nap on the couch. She'll go along with all of it and loves the attention from her brother. Sometimes they'll repeat the game time after time and I love it!

Jackson normally needs more attention from Tyler or me whereas Abbie can sit and play by herself and entertain herself much better. She does not sit down to watch tv or movies for more than 5 minutes, and when Jackson watches a show or movie she'll just play with the toys or books in the family room to be near him but doesn't really watch much. She'll watch short video clips on my phone for as long as I'd let her, though. She normally watches Sesame Street clips, escpially with Elmo, songs and letters.

She gives the best hugs ever and I am so lucky to be her mom! We are enjoying these last few months with Abbie as the baby of the family :)

Abbie turned two!

Baby Abbie is not a baby anymore, she's a two-year-old! April 12 fell on a Saturday this year so we got to spend the day together as a family.

Excited to have Daddy back in town

She woke up to balloons and presents and a pink doughnut for breakfast! She got two big presents, the first, her purple polka-dot everywhere chair from Grammy. Jackson got his red chair when he turned two, so I guess we've started a tradition. And we got her this larger than life doll house, I ordered it on a killer deal months ago and we'd been saving it for her birthday. She also got some princess dolls, books and clothes along amongst other things :)

She woke up in such a cute and happy mood!

 She learned the birthday routine from Jackson and would keep saying, "nother present" after she opened each one.

Squinty Eyes, Cheesy Grins

Loving her pink birthday doughnut

 

After breakfast we got ready for the day ahead and for Abbie's party that we hosted at 11 am. She had a combined party with her friend Ariana from our ward, who happens to share the exact same birthday as Abbie!

Most of the kids with the bean bag toss game

It was a beautiful day and we ended up playing outside for a while

The food table, including snow white not-poison apples and Christina made an owl cake.

Having fun with some Princess coloring pages and stickers

Happy Birthday to you!

About to dig in to her snow white cupcake

It was a pretty low-key party with a couple games, some pizza and fruit for lunch followed by an owl cake for Arianna and Snow White Cupcakes for Abbie :)


After a nap, the birthday girl had fun in the sun for the rest of the day. The temperature was 70 degrees for the first time all year and it seemed like the whole neighborhood was outside that day. We played at the park, tried out Abbie's new helmet and chalk she got as presents.

So proud of herself on her "new" bike

A fresh box of chalk to start the season!

 We had one of Abbie's favorite meals - Mac & Cheese from Panera Bread, for dinner. We all ordered food and got it to-go so we could eat it at a park. We weren't about to sit inside on a day like that!

Her new nightgown from Nana was a big hit!

All in all it was a perfect day with our purple, princess loving girl!

General Conference

This April, I think it's safe to say we had our first successful general conference weekend with the kids! Well I should rephrase that, "I had the first successful general conference weekend with the kids" since Tyler was out of town all weekend. But that almost makes it more impressive, right?

After our weekend of the gender reveal and Jackson's birthday party, Tyler began 2 weeks of work travel. Monday morning he flew to Utah and was there for 36 hours before flying to Vegas Tuesday night. He worked there for a few days and then met up with Tom & Mike for a couple days of boys fun. He went to the temple, went golfing, played tennis & just lived it up with his college buddies. He didn't fly home until early Sunday morning Vegas time, but with the 3 hour time difference and cross country flight he didn't get home until Sunday evening, right after the Sunday afternoon session ended actually!

So home on the ranch, I had a fun week with the kids who normally behave really well when Tyler is out of town which I am so grateful for. We had some nicer weather so the kids and I were able to play at outside again which always makes for more fun days.

Last General Conference we were in Vermont with the Cooks for our leaf-peeping trip so it wasn't the norm. We attempted to watch on Sunday but Jackson didn't watch much at all and it was frustrating for me since the Cook kids were coloring and listening and Jackson just wanted to run around and play on the iPad.

Oh the difference 6 months makes. Things that we did that made a great weekend:

I brought the picnic table into the family room. This is normally in the basement and having it in the middle of the family room was a special treat.

Saturday morning session starts at noon for us.

They ate lunch during the "morning" session.

I also had three buzz words to listen for "Jesus" "Family" and "Temple." We started with 3 blank pages and as soon as they heard that work, they got to pick a sticker to stick on that page. I should have taken a picture but by the end, the "Jesus" page was overflowing with stickers! That was all we did for the first morning session and then about halfway through Abbie needed a nap and Jackson went upstairs for quiet time.

For the afternoon session, I knew they'd be awake and ready to play at 4 pm eastern time so this is when I brought out the big conference packet.  Most of it was too advanced for Jackson but since it had the A-Z theme he liked picking out a letter and he'd color on the pages that were tricky. I made him right his name on each page when he was done. Then he was still listening for the buzz words and would get stickers from me if he heard those words said.

Abbie even helped color a few pages

He really stayed engaged for basically the entire 2 hour session and I have to say that was our most successful session! He would get so excited if he heard a phrase he knew, such as "holy ghost" "Child of God" or just words he recognized like baptism, resurrection, or state names obviously :) Abbie even heard her friend's name "Mariah" mentioned in a talk and would get excited when she heard it repeated. I didn't even point that out to her, she noticed it on her own.

So proud of my sunbeam

As soon as that session ended we went out to dinner at 5 Guys for a special treat. A whole week of Tyler out of town and that was our first meal of eating out - props to me! ;) Then we stopped by the grocery store real quick to get some easter candy that we would use the next day.

Sunday morning, since conference didn't start until noon, we got together with some friends for a brunch at 10 am. It was perfect weather so we were even able to do it outside as a picnic! I made this California Breakfast Casserole that I pinned years ago and finally got around to making. It was a hit and I've already made it again since, Tyler wanted to try it of course! But it was a great way to start the morning, Jackson got to play with friends, Abbie got to see Alice & Mariah and had fun smiling and flirting with all the adults like normal, and I got to spend time with adults which is always nice when you are husband-less.

When we got home we had a little snack but the kids were pretty full from the brunch so no lunch was needed. That day I busted out the church bag, so special books, color wonder books, puzzles, etc that they only see once a week. This session also happened to be the one that my entire family was at since my Aunt Jean was speaking! Jackson spent a lot of the time scanning the audience trying to find Grammy, Grandad, Paige, Ben, Michael, Annika & Steven. No luck sadly.

Where's my family!?!

They kept listening for the buzz words to add stickers to our papers and they also had two more words to listen for. If they heard the word "pray" they got a jelly bean, the word "love" got them a chocolate cadbury egg.

Still  loving that the table was in the family room luckily.

Sunday afternoon they got a little distracted, but who could blame them. The highlight was Jackson hearing the MoTab perform I Stand All Amazed, he was thrilled they were singing his favorite song and even sang along. They stayed in the family room for most of it but then I sent them upstairs to play near the end so I could start preparing dinner and actually listen for a bit. We ate dinner as the session was ending and then Tyler got home about 15 minutes later. 

We were all very excited to see Daddy and show him what we'd been working on all weekend, especially the sticker pages!

The next day (Monday) I put the picnic table back downstairs and Jackson was sad to see it gone, I told him that was only something we did for conference. So when he got back from preschool that day he dragged it back up the stairs and requested to watch conference again. He even requested a talk he had remembered about the Oklahoma Storms - they sat and listened to the talk and I was so happy to see that they have an understanding already about the importance of conference and listening to our prophet and apostles speak :)

Monday morning Session :)