Nate & Kate

Katelyn wanted to know where they were on my blog so I'll give you an update on what they're up to...

Economic hard times has hit Nate lately. Finding himself without a job right at the moment has made him Curt & my slave. I'm kind of liking hard times. :-) Vehicles are being kept clean, all my snow is being shoveled and pretty much anything else I ask gets done by the end of the day.

He's been finding time to ride his 4 wheeler quite a bit and for some reason thought it would be fun to turn a riding lawn mower into a racing vehicle. I think he's been watching CMT's redneck shows a bit too much. I'll let you know when he's become a professional mower racer!

Katelyn

What can I say about Katelyn..

14,000 text msgs, never home, Dutch Diva, lives as if economic times are not hard!

Let me explain. :-)

Her cell phone is constantly attached to her hand, I didn't even know it was physically possible to text that many times in one month but Katelyn has shown me it is. We told her to knock it off and we went over on our talking minutes soooo back to texting she went.

She has embraced high school life, involved in show choir or Dutch Divas (which is really cool and if you can watch a competition some time I recommend it!) sports, concerts and anything else she can get involved in or go to.

Which brings me to spending money, unfortunately being involved requires money which she doesn't have so my checkbook gets opened. Anybody need a babysitter??? :-)

She's a good kid, I'm not seriously complaining! Here she is in her Show Choir costume.

Cruisin

Curt and I just got back from an awesome cruise with Becky & Dave a couple of weeks ago. It was a little tough leaving 80 degree weather and landing in DM w/ 4 in. of snow and COLD!

This is our 4th cruise and decided to cruise with Holland America on an Eastern Caribbean route this time. Our first port of Grand Turk was awesome! This small island of approx. 6 miles of land was hit by a hurricane last fall but unless you looked closely it was overly evident. Our excursion was swimming w/ sting rays and snorkeling. Becky being 5 months pregnant decided sitting in a lounge chair on the beach close to bathrooms would be the way she would spend the day but as our boat pulled up to our beach her plans went out the window as you can see by this picture of our beach. :-)

San Juan, Puerto Rico was our next stop and we were there from 10 AM-11 PM. Bacardi Rum Distillary was our first stop and it is now the boys' favorite place of all time. Curt discovered his new favorite drink the mojito and Dave LOVES that Becky is pregnant and can't drink. How and why did we discover this you ask....We had to wait an hour for tour and they felt bad for us so instead of two free drinks between the four of us we got 12 free drinks. Bacardi peach rum and coke, Bacardi coco rum and coke, Bacardi raz rum and coke, mojitos you get the idea! By 10 AM the boys were feeling fine. :-)

That afternoon I took the boys shopping while Becky sat w/ her swelling feet up and then we picked her up and went on a horse drawn carraige ride around Old San Juan. It was pretty cool to go around this city that is so full of history and cobblestone streets that date back hundreds of years. We can't even pave roads to last 10 years but these streets last hundreds. HMMM...

On to our next port, St Thomas. If you'd like to buy jewelry this is the place to go! Every other store for blocks is jewelry, the guys ran the other way. :-)

We visited a ocean park and beach here which was not a Sea World by any means but pretty neat. Our taxi ride to the park reminded me of our upcoming trip to Honduras and winding through the large hills or mountains. Our taxi was a F-250 truck with rows of seats in the bed w/ a canopy. Not sure how those drivers got in and out of some of our tight curves and turns but they were amazing. I told our driver that she needs to come back to Iowa and teach drivers ed.

Relaxing on a day at sea followed this whirl wind of ports. We prett much ate, played UNO, ate, played UNO some more, let's see ate again, slept on a lounge chair on the Lido deck and then went to the captain's dinner and ate lobster tail, steak and baked alaska. YUMMMMY

One last port, Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island. It was a little chilly, 65-70 dgrees and cloudy when we docked and I hate to admit I was whiney about it but gosh darn it I wanted a great tan and this was my last day! By 10 Am it was 85 and sunny and I had found my position... On a lounge chair baking myself for the next 6 hours.:-)