Castaway Key

This is us on Disneys own private island, Castaway Key. We loved it here. We all snorkled (no zach)This is the youngest chillin while byron, gpa and mikayla were out snorkling. The sand here is nice not muddy like ours. Zach didn't like it at first but got used to it. We also got unlimited choc chip cookie dough ice cream. Yummy!
Mikayla wasn't feeling so good, so Zach went over to cheer her up, I thought it was such a sweet picture.
On the island they have a game pavillion with ping pong, shuffleboard, bball, chess and more. We loved playing ping pong, even buddy was trying to play, he actually hit the ball a few times. Mikayla really liked it to.
This is not a backdrop! I will proudly say we may look like dorks, but only kenzie got a little burned on her legs.
This is the real ship used in the movie Pirates of the Carribean.

The princesses

At different times during the day the princesses and other characters will take pics with the kids.
As you can tell Kenzie loved it.
This is the girls eating breakfast on the outside deck in their princess pjs. We went up to eat waiting for buddy to wake up.

Nassau Bahammas-First Disney stop

Each night there was a broadway show to see, toy story, disney dreams with all the princesses singing and dancing and the golden mickeys. We loved all but toy story. We come back to our room each night about 9:45 (late for our kids kenzie still kept waking up at 6:20 every morning. by the last day she was so tired she wailed most the way home and threw fits on the floor while standing in the custom lines to get off the boat) To find a different animal each night on our bed, I didn't get a pic of the monkey.

One day we spent in Nassau Bahammas, nothing really there but a flea market with overpriced fake purses and the Atlantis resort. So Byron wanted to take the girls to the Atlantis resort. They have a aquarium (in the background) that you can see for free with manti rays (it used to be bigger but now they charge to see all of it) and we toured the beautiful grounds.
As you can tell the lack of sleeping is really getting to Kenzie. Boy were we glad to be gone only 3 nights!

Disney Cuise

They even had Mickey shaped pasta and waffles!
We were blessed to be able to go on a 3 night disney cruise and have Ambers dad joins us. We found a really good deal were 2 rooms was cheaper than 1 room with all 5 people.
Gpa and Kenzie enjoying thier dessert! Of course cruises are all about the eating so here are some pics of us enjoying our awesome food. The choices are sitdown dinners with like 5 courses, buffet, wraps/salad/fruit bar, pizza parlor, grill. You can eat from all of these places all day as much as you want. To our suprise we did not gain any weight, must be because we were climbing lots of flights of stairs with kids all day! One night they had a pirates party with fireworks at the end over the ocean and 56 desserts to try, and all the disney characters were dressed up as pirates dancing to music.
Poor Mikayla started to feel sick on the way down and then had a high fever the whole time we were there, but it actually made her much easier to handle. She was more cooperative and took nap/rest time for a few hrs during the middle of the day to recoup. She still seemed to have fun.

Gosh hes so cute!
The sad thing is I wasn't ready for reality yet so for our first meal (dinner) back home we ate cereal, popcorn, and sweet potates. Oh how we missed the good stuff.

Easter!

Easter for us included Amber speaking at church, scones for breakfast, the kids finding their candy trail to their Easter baskets, turkey dinner and Easter pics. Poor buddy with his pink butterfly basket! You can kenzie's personality showing thru on most of her pics...can we say silly princess??

Buddy turns 2

This is what a 2 yr old looks like eating his cake and opening his presents. He got a bubble mower from Amber's parents (which he wanted to use more as a stool to reach things on the counter with), a tiger flashlight that goes ROAR and another noise making toy. The girls decorated his cake before I could even make frosting for it (so I just noticed it had 3 candles which Byron and the girls put on while I was trying to listen to confrerence, he is only 2. this is how the conversation went...hurry up mom we are trying to have buddys birthday cake for a snack, "lets wait till after conference--NO (everyone else)--wait I need the camera then,"(Amber)--just hurry he is already starting to blow the candles out (everyone else)...does anyone wait for the Mommy? so that is why there are 3 candles, cuz Byron was in charge!) But of course Buddy didn't care as he reached up on the counter and grabbed a fist full to eat. Then he is off to explore the world with his tiger flashlight. It feels like I am saying "NO buddy" and "stay Zach" (as he steps in the banana or water that he spilled all over the floor) all day long as he tries to get into EVERYTHING. He just wants to be big so badly. I sure do love my cuddly, curly haired cutie though. (I go between the golden locks and the mowhawk, I just hate to cut off the cute curls cuz none of my girls had them)

Welcome to Aruba

Byron and I were so blessed this last week to get to go to ARUBA with his company, all expenses paid! We thank our friends from church the Pittmans who were willing to stay at our house and take care of our 3 crazy kids for 5 days!

This is a picture of the tour bus we took around the island the first day, for 8 hrs! but it was well worth it, street signs do not exist, and dirt roads are everywhere. We saw wild goats and donkeys, a cave, indian writings, and went snorkeling and saw a lot of beautiful fish. In Aruba there is a constant cool wind off the ocean, so it never gets hot and bugs don't exist.

Just for Mikayla I was chasing iguanas around the pool one afternoon trying to get a good shot.

We had 2 dinners on the beach, which was awesome. I had the best food ever! For breakfast we had made to order omelets and fresh fruit, for lunches we usually had fajitas, salads, fresh fruit. For dinners we had chicken and steak and fish. One night we went to a Japanese tepanaki grill where they cook and do tricks with fire and knives in front of you, that was a fun and new experience with awesome food! Best food ever! We also had an unlimited supply of pina coladas, and strawberry daiquiris, virgin of course!

One is a picture of our hotel the Westin (the one on the right) from a snorkeling cruise we went on the 2nd day after scuba diving in the morning, that was a busy and tiring day. The seas were kind of rough so I panicked and wanted to get back in the boat but Byron said no way you are going down! This was my 8th time scuba diving and this time the snorkeling was actually better. I think I have decided I don't like scuba diving anymore its too scary and claustrophobic feeling. We saw a school of squid on one of the snorkling trips (we went on 3). Diving we saw a eel and octopus.

On the last day Byron learned how to windsurf and I opted for a back massage. My back felt so much better after that and not lifting Zach all the time. then we tried to relax on the beach but only lasted a couple of hours before getting ancy. (we aren't use to getting to just sit!) I have to boast I did not get burned at all! That was probably becuz I was the only dork wearing a towel around my shoulders most of the time cuz I was cold (I get cold easily), wish I had a picture. The last night we had another group company dinner and then packed to come home. This is the day we started to miss the kids.

We loved our vacation and really enjoyed each others company. It was so nice to do what we wanted without having to fight with the kids.

It has been kind of hard returning to reality. The first 2 nights home Zach has had a fever and been waking us up in the middle of the night, not taking naps and just whinning/crying all day. The house is already a mess and I so do not want to do the dishes! Did I already mention I really loved not having to cook, clean, do dishes or pick up after anyone??? Makes me want to plan another one already!

I would recommend ARUBA to anyone for a vacation for a few reasons: everyone there speaks English, they accept US dollars, its safe, beautiful, perfect temperature year round and from Miami only 2.5hr flight.