Grand Cayman Mom's Weekend OFF Trip!

 My AWESOME friend Lynette and I were able to have a Mom's weekend off thanks to our AMAZING husbands who held down the forts at home! 

We went in March which seemed to be perfect in Grand Cayman - and we were able to squeeze in SO many late night chats, yummy food, fun excursions, and LOTS of smiles and laughter! 

Lynette and I on Seven Mile Beach - just out from our hotel...

 These chickens and roosters were EVERYWHERE - literally and were even the local "road-kill."  No one should be hungry there - if so - they should just take a walk and they'd have a dozen chickens for dinner!

 This was another common site - and they were HUGE -- about 1 & 1/2 to 2 feet long!

The BEST WORST DINNER ever - at Roland's Garden - which is supposedly one of the BEST places to eat on the island - either we know NOTHING about German food - or everyone who eats here enjoys the alcohol first and doesn't realize what they're eating!  OH BOY - we had so many laughs and possibly even a few tears trying to force ourselves to eat the food!  EESH!

 We had a fun time just driving around to different sites - this is  a popular spot named "Hell".  It was neat to see but we thought it was a little anticlimactic for all of the hype.

 One of our favorites was snorkeling at Cemetery Beach.  The fish were amazing here!  We did a lot of laughing too - probably mostly at ME because it took me awhile to get the hang of snorkeling!

 This is one of my favorite pictures - closest to capturing the laughter or me trying to snorkel!

View of the fish...

Lynette snorkeling - she is a PRO!

 fish in the water...

STINGRAY CITY...

We took a boat ride out to Stingray City - which also included a few stops to snorkel as well.  Here we are with the stingrays ... AMAZING!  We got to feed them as well - which kind of felt like a vacuum brushing over your hand!

 

Stingray back rubs...

AND ... we both got to kiss the stingray as well!

 One of our stops was to see these incredible starfish ... a super nice man dove down and got one for us to hold - so many amazing animals in the sea!

One of our site-seeing tours was to the Turtle Farm ... they had all sizes of sea turtles - from big to tiny!  It was fun to hold these little guys!

 Our last day was a drive out to Rum Point and then a night kayaking ADVENTURE to a Bioluminescent Bay!  INCREDIBLE!  

This was the RENTAL CAR aka "the egg" that we RENTED while we were there - did I mention they drive on the OPPOSITE side of the road!  Thankfully when we first got in it - Lynette suggested that we say a prayer (she must've been a little nervous about my driving skills!!) but we did GREAT and only drove on the wrong side ONCE I think!!

The kayaking trip was by FAR one of the hardest things I've ever done - but probably one of the most "fulfilling!"  We had to paddle in the open ocean which was a little tricky - and VERY tiring - but we did it!  We were able to see 3 different types of bioluminescence - my favorite were the SHRIMP - they kind of looked like lightening in the water when you hit the ground with your paddle!

Before our trip... and before we were exhausted!

Fun sign at Rum Point!

One of my favorite pictures of the beauty of the island ... heading to Rum Point!  Definitely the trip of a lifetime and SO many memories!  Loved every minute!

Jacob's First Haircut!

 Jacob came with the MOST hair of all 3 of my boys... so he also happens to be the YOUNGEST of all three to get his first haircut!  He DIDN'T LIKE it at all!

He was smiling before we got going...

And was THRILLED to play with Micah when we were done!

Cabin Days with the Mitchells!

We had a blast with the Mitchells at the Cabin!

Here are the kiddos (minus Jacob) at Mercier! It was customer appreciation day - so they REALLY treated us nice...

We took a little hike to the Swinging Bridge ... it was a little chilly (but FEBRUARY right!)...

The kids were troopers and we had a fun little picnic on some logs right off of the trail!

My FAVORITE was that the older cousins got to sleep in the same bed and would wake up in the morning giggling and playing! LOVED IT!

So happy for cousin time at the cabin!

Ski Trip 2012!!

Had such a fun time on our ski trip ... despite me being sick, the boys not getting the BEST nights' sleep, and not having "day-care" for Jacob one of the two days - we made WONDERFUL MEMORIES! The weather was AMAZING and many more fond memories!!

Here is Benjamin riding up the chairlift at Deer Valley with me at the end of the day! Hopefully he learned more than how to throw a snowball and drink hot chocolate!

Victoria actually took me all over the blues and greens as quick as we could go in the last 2 hours we had to ski!! It was fun having her lead the way!

Here's a quick picture at Alf's Lodge at Alta ... where we stop for leftover COLD pizza, french fries, hot chocolate and candy/granola bars!!

The lady skiers this year: Jenny, Rachel, Lindsey (soon to be MARRIED!) and Victoria!

So we never got a picture of Micah up on skis ... SAD! And we only have a little video of Benjamin - better luck next year with video/photos!

One of MANY pictures over the years of Jonathan and I atop Alta!

AND to end the trip with a cherry on top ... we were able to be at Miss Hazel Hobson's blessing - what an honor! I LOVE Laura - I still call her and all of the other ladies I roomed with at college - ROOMMATES!

Because I was sick I missed/forgot to take other key photos ... BYU basketball game with Jonathan, photo with my friends Shelley and Emily, family dinners, Uncle Jared baby-sitting the boys, and of course Micah on skis for the first time! Thank goodness for sweet MEMORIES!

ps... The boys LOVE LOVE anything about the walkie talkies - and especially when Grandaddy or Dad talk to them via walkie talkie!

"The Beach House!"

ALMOST a YEAR later... I'm hopefully back to blogging...

but with 1000's of pictures to edit - this may take awhile!

We celebrated the NEW YEAR at St. George Island at:
"The Beach House!"

Here's a sweet picture of Jacob and me!

Micah really did chase those seagulls probably a 1/2 mile down the beach!
Thanks to Aunt Laura for going to get him!!

Here are the Ray and Owens cousins!

William and Benjamin had lots of fun together this trip!

Aunt Laura got lots of quality nephew time and helped me out LOTS!

I LOVE when I catch these two playing TOGETHER!

Thankfully Jonathan was able to join us for the weekend and they made a fun sandcastle!

After Jacob ate fist-fulls of sand, I resorted to bringing crackers for him to eat!

Uncle Scott is pretty much a big KID! He LOVES building things...
and explaining things - even to Benjamin to asks a MILLION questions!
The "Great Wall" was just one of the many sand features that were made!

Enjoyed our time - like always at "the Beach House!"

The Christmas Jammies and Cookies!

Since we've had three boys born at about the same time of year ... they've all had the chance to wear these fun striped Christmas jammies ... two of which we've taken their cookie eating pictures in! A fun little family tradition - they are brothers but definitely you will see all have their very own look!

So here's our newest little guy... Jacob...

Third child TOTALLY gets to eat the cookies!!

Micah (2 years ago!)

Benjamin (5 years ago) ...

and he only got to smell the cookies!

And we'll see if in a few more years ... we'll get to add any more to this fun little family tradition!

Since we've had three boys born at about the same time of year ... they've all had the chance to wear these fun striped Christmas jammies ... two of which we've taken their cookie eating pictures in! A fun little family tradition - they are brothers but definitely you will see all have their very own look!

Christmas 2011!

Our Christmas Festivities started out at the Hunter Christmas Tree farm where we got a BIG tree for the Family Room and cut down a little tree for the playroom! Here's the best family picture we could capture...

This is one of my FAVORITES...

Here are all THREE boys and the norm for trying to get them to look at the camera - still so cute of them!!

This is the kids tree - and Micah would NOT help Benjamin - what a little stinker!

Santa has a house JUST up the road that we went to for FHE one night! You put your name on the list and then you get your OWN one-on-one time with him (for as LONG or short as you want!) It was WONDERFUL!
Here's our family waiting to see Santa...

Here are all three boys with Santa! My favorite was that Santa explained the REAL reason
that we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus Christ! LOVED IT!

Nana and Uncle Albert came with us - which was a special treat!

Here's little Micah at his preschool program! He was an angel ... with a runny nose! He LOVES to sing but didn't sing in the program!
His class sang "Jingle Bells" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!" So cute!

We rode the Christmas train in Blue Ridge!
i
Christmas sweaters...

Gingerbread houses!

Christmas Jammies on Christmas Eve!

This is one of my FAVORITES ... the boys getting Santa cookies and milk!

Boys on the stairs waiting to see what Santa brought!

LOVE this one of the boys "rounding" the corner ... little Jacob with feet in the air!

This is Benjamin THRILLED to see that Santa brought him HERMIT CRABS!

Our Christmas Tree just after Santa came ;)

Here's a picture of my Mom and Jacob on Christmas night...

Our Family Christmas Picture... 2011!