Cruise 2010

We just got back from an awesome cruise to Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica with the kids and their friends Derrick & Ashley.

Our first stop Key West started out cloudy but really warm so we headed off to our excursion Parasailing. The girls got harnessed up and we looked out and saw a huge black cloud wall barrelling down on us. Unfortunately that was as close as we got to parasailing, the kids were really bummed but I have to admit I was OK with it. :-)

After a day at sea full of eating, playing cards and watching shows we docked at Grand Cayman. I LOVE Cayman! It is absolutely beautiful and we spent the day with my favorite activities, snorkeling, swimming w/ sting rays and sunbathing on a white sand beach. it was a bit windy and there was talk of closing Sting Ray city sandbar but our tour guide decided to chance it. Last time we were there we shared the experience with 200 other people this time we were the only boat out there and we only had 10 people on our boat. A little freaky jumping into the middle of the ocean all by yourself but pretty cool not being crowded out by hoards of people. We did have 5-6 foot waves hitting us standing on a sandbar w/ water to our chest but it was a a cool adventure. Then we went snorkeling which was pretty new to the kids but they absolutely loved it. The rest of the day was spent on the beach while the kids rented jet skis, perfect day!

Off to Jamaica...shopping, climbing Dunns Rivers Falls and lunch, a great way to spend our anniversary. We reserved a 3 hour tour and ended up spending almost 6 hours full of different shopping experiences ( markets where the girls got a little intimidated and later the guys being offered drugs to an awesome Harley Davidson store w/ a bar in the middle of it) climbing the falls ( fun but ended up really painful with a hugely banged up knee cap when i tangled with a sharp rock) and ending with a buffet lunch w/ free beer for the boys ( that totally made up for all the shopping :-) )

When we got back to Ft Lauderdale Saturday we drove to Palm Beach and spent the afternoon on an air boat looking for alligators. Curt & Nate felt like Horatio Cane from CSI and we saw tons of alligators up close and personal.

We had a great time and it helped make this never ending winter feel just a little bit shorter. :-)



Lido deck on our ship the Freedom, we got to watch the playoff games on that big screen which was pretty cool.

Group shot at Sting Ray City in Cayman




The boys not too sure about our friendly sting rays.




Happy 21st Anniversary at Dunns Rivers Falls!

Random thoughts

Here we are snowed in once again and it's only January 7, this is going to be a really LONG winter I'm thinking!

What can we do hmmm.....

1. Clean closets-I know it's not time to spring clean but it might fool your brain into that happy place of imagining it' spring.

2. Make a pile of DVDs that you've been meaning to watch and haven't had the time. I have afeeling by the end of this winter you'll make it through your pile. Some of my top picks so far this winter have been Julie & Julia, The Proposal, MasterPiece Theater Wuthering Heights, Confessions of a Shopoholic & The Ultimate Gift.

3. Check out Smilebox, make some fun greetings for your nephews & nieces w/ pictures you've taken over the year. They've got some fun templates.

4. Re-read a series of books by your favorite author. Any of Nora Roberts are great, Suzanne Brockman and Linda Lael Miller. If you need any come on over and check out my "library"!

5. Try a new recipe for supper or make up your own recipe. It's fun to experiment!

6. Or do what we did and book a cruise and start packing early. God knows you won't be needing your summer clothes in this tundra. It's making us feel better starting to pack making us think it'll be here before we know it!

Stay Warm!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Curt pointed out that I haven't updated this since we went to Florida so here's a quick one (sorry no pictures). :-)

1. I decided it's a great thing that my kids are now teenagers and our house has a lot of rooms...After being snowed in for 3 days we all found our happy spots in the house and made it out alive. I really don't know how you moms of younger kids survived, my hats off to you!

2. Winter may have started but my workaholic hubby hasn't figured out that winter is supposed to be his slower time. But then if he'd be home more we'd probably drive each other nuts.

3. 36 days 14 hours 24 minutes until we leave for our cruise with the kids and their friends. Not that we're counting!

4. Life is crazy busy getting ready for our huge church event, Night in Bethlehem, volunteering at the PATTH boutique (my Honduras fundraising gift shop) shopping for presents and oh yeah trying to fit work into that :-) but I still love Christmas and can't wait to spend time with all our families.

5. Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Clearwater Beach

We went to Clearwater Beach last weekend for Curt's niece's wedding. Stacey and Scott live near Tampa and decided they would get married on a yacht down in Clearwater with just a few friends and family. We stayed right on the beach and had a wonderful time. Curt's brother Dean and his wife Betty, our nephew Marlo and his wife Stef came with us.

We got there Thursday night and went straight to a great restaurant on the pier, Crabby Bills, I highly recommend going if you ever get down there. I started in on my seafood diet, and I was in heaven!

My pictures are backwards but here are some highlights.

Curt and I on the beach at Frenchy's restaurant on Saturday night Friday morning we all met on the beach and enjoyed the 95 degree, 150% humidity weather. I have never felt humidity and heat like this, Iowa summers have nothing on Florida's.

This is before I got fried from being out there 3 hours, ignore my icky white legs! :-) i have a great tan now, too bad it's 60 degrees now here at home!

From left-right: Stacey the bride, Stef Van Wyk, Betty Van Kooten & Me.

On Saturday we went on a boat ride for dolphin encounters and shell finding through the bay. Here is the island we stopped at and picked up some great shells. This isn't just the tip of the island, that's the whole island. :-)

At the reception on the dinner cruise after the wedding. We had a 3 hour cruise around the bay while we ate, danced and enjoyed a wee bit too much champagne, wine etc... :-) Lucky for us the hotel was down the street and within walking distance. :-)

Stacey, the bride, taking pictures in the beach before the wedding at sunset.

view on our beach Friday night right before the wedding and then we walked to the Pier where the yacht was docked.

View from our balcony in our room Friday AM, I think it was 85 degrees already at 8 AM.

Labor Day Weekend

Turkey Roost Cabin and our camper

Family pic in front of the cabin Red Oak Cabin, the main food head quarters for our weekend

Water Wars at Fun Land in Prarie Du Chien

Bumper Cars at Fun Land - Shelley out for blood :-)

Mom racing Go-Karts




Curt & Nate dueling it out

Enjoying the campfire with our local bats

Kate & I in front of the Mississippi

Curt & Nate taking a break on our 2 mile hike through Effiggy Mounds

I had no idea NE Iowa was so beautiful. We headed to Monona (north of Strawberry Point) this past weekend to stay at Natural Gait Cabins. My whole family shared two cabins and we pulled up our camper loaded with food, drink and just a few more sleeping areas. :-)

The weather was awesome and we had a great time going to Effigy Mounds and a lock & dam on Saturday & Prarie Du Chien to an awesome go kart/minature golf place on Sunday, which ended with a concert at the lodge at our cabins by a Western singer, TJ Casey. It was pretty cool sitting outside by a campfire listening to old time Western music.
We had to drive 10 miles down a gravel road to get to the cabins so you woke up to no traffic sounds, horses neighing and beautiful scenery.

It was fun watching all the cousins hanging out and playing and catching up with family.

KC

A couple of pictures from mowing my lawn today that I thought was pretty

ORC's fearless YF leaders minus the Fosters

Our awesome YF minus a few that couldn't come with us

Curt, Shayla & Kate on merry go round at Toot Toots

Royals game from the nosebleed section

Katelyn w/ a few brave souls are on the ride while Curt and a couple of the guys watched from the ground where your stomach actually stayed where it was supposed too

Thunder Hawk, after 5 loops in a row I was glad I was taking the picture

The front row is our group, notice the big kid on the end. The rest of the leaders chickened out.

Being a YF leader is a lot of fun and going on trips with the group is always a bonus! We had the kids work towards 5 points (through attendance, working at Tulip Time, service projects and sponsoring our Compassion child, Juan) all year and if they reached it we'd take them to KC and hit Worlds of Fun and a Royals game.

So last weekend off to KC 6 leaders and 10 kids went. Worlds of Fun all day and the Royals game that night. I now know I'm getting too old to go on all the roller coasters! We broke the Royals from their loosing 10 game streak, a little slow to begin with but it ended up being pretty fun.

Sunday AM we took them to a church in NW KC called "The River". A lot different from ORC so that was good for them to see.

On the way home we stopped in Bethany Missouri at our new favorite YF restaurant, Toot Toots. I highly recommend it, a huge buffet for a low price. A YF leaders dream!

Fun Weekend!!

Katelyn has been in Missouri for the last week and will be until Friday so it's been really quiet around the house. :-) This ended up being the first weekend that we had no concrete plans this summer and turned out being really fun and relaxing!

Friday afternoon Curt called and said his brother Dean had invited us to ride Harleys to Indianola's Bike night that night. It was a bit chilly but SO much fun! I'm thinking after having to borrow our nephew's Harley we're going to have to get one ourselves but if we do that I definitely need to get some Harley Chick garb. :-)

Saturday brought absolutely nothing except eatting our first batch of sweet corn and steaks that we just picked up at the locker. Yummy!!

Jasper and Marion County Fairs are both going on this past weekend so with several YF kids involved in each we decided to head to them Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day and fun to see how talented those kids are. I think Thursday we'll head to the Mahaska County Fair and watch the Combine Races/Derby. If you've never seen this I highly recommend it, it is a total hoot!

Competing against Grant on Wii bowling over Jersey Freeze ended our weekend. Too bad I don't bowl that well in real bowling!