Cruisin' together

So I went on a cruise, unexpectedly.  A friend of mine decided to go as a much needed escape, and another friend decided she needed a break, too.  So I threw caution to the wind and went, too.  It was a whirlwind, to say the least.  My passport was long expired, I got an infection in my tooth, and that needed to be dealt with, plus I had to not only get time off but get babysitting while husband was at work.  It was an ordeal.  Fortunately, it all worked out (the passport office for the whole state is only like 10 minutes from my house!  Who knew?)

my first of many desserts: two different types of cake while waiting for our cabin to be ready.  For those wondering, we got a triple on the first level.  It meant a lot of climbing stairs to offset the food.

Our first day trip off the boat was to an island off of Honduras.  Excellent snorkling.  We saw a ton of fish and coral.  And yes, that's a coconut next to me that I drank. 

This is the boat we were on.  It's like an apartment building on the sea. 15 total stories tall!

The second day, we went to Belize.  The highlight of the whole trip was this: a series of caves that have been carved out of limestone.  We'd hired a tour guide to drive us there (don't ask me where.  I didn't arrange anything) and kayak through the flooded caves.  The Mayans had used the caves in their worship as a representation of the underworld.  At least according to the guide, and he seemed like he knows.

The entrance into the cave.  It's super wide in some places, and shallow enough, an adult could walk.

At the Mayan ruins in Belize.

We also went to Mexico, where one friend went scuba diving while the other friend and I went to a dolphin park and swam with manatees.  It was crazy cool.  I don't have access to the pics at the moment, so I'll have to add them later.

Some of the fancy food we had on the boat.  This is a crab cake with a guacamole-ish sauce on the side.  There was a lot of fancy fancy food on the boat, as well as a 24/7 pizza, a burger place, and a taco place.  Nevermind the buffet.

And then I came back home to a sick kid, a tired husband, laundry and real life.

I also got laid off.  According to them, they needed more than the part time position I was filling. And my "priority has to be with my family", so there you go.  It was sort of out of the blue.  They hadn't 

goin to costco, goin to costco

Costco is a favorite, plus it has hot dogs and sometimes other kids to play with.

Doggie in the park

This is from a couple years ago.  We went to Greeley to see Husband's aunt, and the boy and I went to a fun little park to pass the time.  A neighborly man came through the park with his little dog that was super patient, and liked kids.  The boy got to hold the leash and he was so excited, and couldn't get enough.

grabbing a quick workout

Touchdown

Bunch o pics

I haven't posted in a while, but we have been doing some stuff.  The end of year will always be tricky for our little family, because of husband's work schedule, general Christmas/New Year busy-ness, stress, baking, and etc.  But we try to squeeze in some fun things, too.

I was looking through a recipe book, searching for a treat for Christmas brunch, and the boy says "tada"  I looked up to see he'd made a humunculus from play-dough.

Adventures in the back yard: a bucket had filled with snow, the snow melted then hardened to ice.  Here's the boy doing his best John Henry impersonation.

My friend Megan got tickets to a special ice show at this new enormous hotel and invited the boy and me to go.  They supply these over coats to go over your own coat because it's super cold in there to keep the ice pristine.  It covered the boy down to the ankles and I thought it was hilarious.  They also had an ice slide that the boy loooooooved.  Video to come.

After the ice show, we decorated ginger bread people.  This is the dog.  Then someone came in dressed as a ginger bread man, who greeted the kids and invited them to dance.  The boy and our friend's daughter went up and danced around while Megan and I talked.  

Then after New Years, we finally got around to decorating our own ginger bread train. The kit came with white icing and a little tube of green gel.  I mixed up some extra icing in more colors with my new mixer. :)

You might recognize this area, or not, but the boy and I have hung out here before.  It's the wilderness area behind his school.  In the fall, it was covered with tall reeds.  Now the reeds have died back, exposing all these rocks, and the brooklet.  He had a blast and very wild half hour climbing allover them, and nearly braining himself on the giant rocks.  At one point, he dunked a hand in the brooklet, and soaked his shirt and jacket at the wrist.  He got fed up with the wet wrist and took off the jacket and shirt and was running around for a few minutes with no shirt which is so boy, I can't stand it.  I didn't post a pic because evidence.

Fun times

It was pajama party day at the boy's school.  Someone handed this suit to us, I have no idea who, so he wore it.  His teacher's aide was trying to get him to make a wookie noise, but he just looked at her in confusion.  We've never let him watch any of the movies yet, so it was news to him.

Roar was super dirty.  The boy decided it needed a bath.  Can you see the washcloth in his hand?

He had to come with me to book club.  Husband has been working long hours, it being Christmas time, so they couldn't have usual boys night.  For some reason, the boy thought wearing a small down blanket was preferable to wearing his coat, like a weirdo.  

One new thing he's been doing lately is "big kisses", which are kisses on each cheek and them sometimes on the nose, too.  

The boy and I went to our ward Christmas party.  Husband was working, sadly. So after a quick burrito and grapes, plus a couple knocked over cups of water, then running in the halls with a pack of children, we went to see Santa.  While we waited in line, he ran off with a couple other kids and didn't come back with those same children.  So, i went to find him.  He was curled up against the wall of the dark portion of the hallway, wailing.  When I picked him up, he told me tearfully "I couldn't find you!"  Good news, he wasn't scared of Santa at all this year.  Or, as he calls Santa, "HoHoHo"