The Yard, part 1

We have begun the task of growing grass in our yard. It was feeling really overwhelming to me but then my family offered to come and help us with some tractor work and get us started. My dad brought a tractor from the farm and helped us get the big rocks off our lot and do some grading work. Here's the only picture I got that day because the camera battery died. If you look close you can see the boys riding with grandpa in the tractor. Behind the tractor is an empty lot--that's what our lot used to look like with tons of weeds and rocks. Next door to that is what we want ours to eventually look like with some actual grass!

Then, this weekend the dirt man cometh! We ordered some fill dirt to get our yard more level and they delivered it yesterday. The boys were in dirt heaven!

Below is a picture of the truck that delivered the dirt. It was awesome. It had a boom out the back that could throw the dirt really far and it was fun to watch. The driver could even drive the truck with a remote control while he was standing outside of it. We were impressed.

So, now we need still need some more dirt and then we can move on to the next phase: sprinklers.

"Hide and Sink"

A few weeks ago Mike, Carson, and Blake were playing hide and seek in the house. Carson actually calls it "hide and sink". Anyway, Blake decided to hide under Carson's bed. All was well and funny while Mike came to show me and grab the camera, but it was a little tricky trying to get Blake out.

Our Trip--San Juan, Puerto Rico

We took a fabulous trip/cruise this month to the Caribbean without our kids. Don't worry they were very well taken care of (spoiled!) by their grandparents.

First stop--San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We arrived in Puerto Rico and had a day to explore old town San Juan before boarding the ship. It was awesome. Well, except for the fact that it rained--which explains my hair/makeup in the following pictures.

Here's a picture of Mike at the San Cristobal Fort. It was really fun to spend time with just the two of us. He is so sweet--on the airplane ride to Puerto Rico he got bumped up to first class and he didn't hesitate to trade with me cuz I've never flown first class before.

Here's some more pictures of us and the forts we went to in Old San Juan. We also ate some yummy food (mallorcas and fresh OJ) and rode on the city bus before heading over to our ship--the Caribbean Princess.

St. Thomas

The first stop our ship made was in St. Thomas. We went into the downtown area and did a walking tour. Here's a picture of me overlooking some boats and then a picture of Mike in front of Blackbeard's castle. We didn't want to pay $12/person to go inside the castle, so this was as close as we got.

After the tour we took a taxi to Coki Beach and enjoyed snorkeling. The sand was so nice and the water was so clear. It was lots of fun.

Tortola/Virgin Gorda

Next stop--Tortola. In Tortola we took a boat to another island called Virgin Gorda. This is us on the boat--we had front row seats!

Here's our ship as we rode past it. All these pictures were taken with our underwater film camera, and the quality isn't the best but it gives you an idea of what we were experiencing.

Once at Virgin Gorda we headed to The Baths. It's a place on the beach with really large granite boulders that we climbed on and through. We walked on the sand and in places we also waded through water. It was really amazing and really fun. A lot of our pictures didn't turn out, oh well!

Antigua

In Antigua we went to the beach. It was very relaxing and hot.

St. Lucia

In St. Lucia we went on a driving tour. Our guide had lots of information about the island and it was interesting to learn about it all. I couldn't believe all the windy roads though!

We saw a banana plantation.

We stopped at some fishing villages and bought banana ketchup. In this picture Mike is being shown how cassava bread is made.

We also got a great view of the Pitons, the pointy mountains in the background.

We visited a botanical garden with this waterfall. We saw lots of different types of plants and flowers and trees. We toured a drive-in volcano, went to a beautiful beach with black sand and saw where parts of the most recent Bachelor TV series were filmed. We also went snorkeling and saw some neat coral.

Barbados

In Barbados we went snorkeling with sea turtles. It was amazing! I couldn't believe how big those turtles were.

The Ship

The two of us on one of the formal nights:

Our dinner companions. The ones pictured here were from New Brunswick, Canada.

This next couple was from Buffalo, New York. We thoroughly enjoyed everyone's company.

The view out of our obstructed view window:

We met a lot of nice people everywhere we went. Most often their first comment to us was, "Oh, so you're on your honeymoon?" Nope, folks, not even close!

Back to Puerto Rico

We loved Puerto Rico! It was so pretty and fun. When we got off the ship, we rented a car and drove to the rainforest. We hiked some of the trails and had a good time exploring.

After the rainforest we checked into our hotel. It was so nice. Below is the view from our balcony. I got it on Priceline for a really good rate.

That night we went to a bioluminescent bay. Simply put, it's a place where bacteria (or something!) live and they glow bright neon colors when they are agitated. So, we went swimming in it, in the dark, and we glowed and the water around us glowed. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We couldn't take any pictures cuz our camera wasn't able to capture the images. But, if you're interested, I found some pictures on www.biobay.com/cd/webhtml/right.htm

that might give you an idea of what it was like.

We flew home the next day and we were glad to get back and see our kids. A big thanks to our parents who took such good care of them.