Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Just as I thought we were about done with pirates, they come down dressed like this… I took Gabe to my office to help me on a work project. He was glad to help and made sure to tell me that it was a good thing he was tiny because he didn’t think I’d fit down there. He loves playing on the bear. Sometimes parenting is choosing to let them eat breakfast on the counter, right? Twice in one week Bryson flew up for a couple of weeks and this was Gabe’s super excited face. Turn Bryson decided to try it. These two definitely aren’t related or anything… We had a couple more baseball games. Sometimes I forgot just his tiny Gabe is… I really appreciate that he isn’t the only one that pays in the dirt… Jokes aside, he loves playing baseball and he’s doing so well at it. Yes, he gets distracted and digs in the dirt, but when the play starts he’s focused and makes sauce great plays. He’s been doing a great job hitting and has had a great attitude even when he gets out. We’re so proud of him. The bo

One of the perks of living in a cruise ship town is that every once in a while, people show up on cruise ships that you haven’t seen in forever and you get to hang out with them for a few hours. A couple of weeks ago, I got a message from Isayana. I met her when she was living in the orphanage in Nicaragua on my first trip, back in 2003. She was there for a couple of trips and then she went back home and lived with her mom for a few years. I’d go to their house every year to visit her and her siblings. Then when she was 11 she and her twin sister got adopted by a lady in Washington and that was the last I saw of her. Occasionally she’d pop up on Facebook and we’d chat, but I haven’t seen her in person in close to 15 years. But this week her, her mom and her nephew were all on a cruise ship and wondered if I’d want to meet up. Oh man yes. So I picked them up and gave them the tour of town and we got some coffee and sat and talked for hours and it was so much fun. 

Daycare was closed on Monday, so I took the day off to play.  First up was swim lessons. Gabe is doing so great that his teacher actually thinks he could qualify for swim club. I’m not sure about that, but the kid has made incredible progress and I’m super proud of him. Next we had to go rescue Freddy from the pound. He’d followed us to Gabe’s game on Saturday and a last thought he was going to get hit by a car and took him in to animal control. But the good news is that we realized while trying to get him home that his rabies shot had slipped through the cracks, so we got that taken care of. We definitely don’t want to be dealing with rabies… Then we all hiked out to the waterfall: the boys and I, Laurie and Nathan and Bryson and Katilyn. Between the three boys, there was no concern about bears, as they made so much noise that all bears had probably left a 5 mile radius… Gabe and Bryson particular enjoyed hiding behind rocks to scare us. They weren’t nearly as excited about it when Na

I turned 40 last week. I shouldn’t be too shocked since after Pat turned 40 three years ago I found myself thinking “now that we’re 40… No. He is 40. I am not 40!!” So really, I’ve been mentally preparing to be 40 for the last three years… But now I am officially 40 and it’s weird. Pat and I went out for dinner to celebrate. It was supposed to be just the two of us, but when we got there Laurie and Nathan were sitting at the table too. Best surprise ever!! They’re staying with us all week, which is great fun and should be another post all by itself. Lets just say that the boys are having so much fun that they’re going to be devastated when they leave… Then Saturday Pat planned a big birthday with all of our friends and neighbors. Half of the people couldn’t shore up due to family trips or covid, but that’s okay. It was a lot of fun and a really good way to start this new decade.

We had big plans for our last full day in Mexico. We had to get covid tests so we could get back in the US, but then we were going to actually explore xcaret. We wanted to swim in the infinity pool at the hotel and Gabe wanted to swim in the octopus pool again. But that is not what happened. Instead, Gabe tested positive for covid. He was completely asymptomatic, so we were all shocked. But that meant that we instantly all had to quarantine in our hotel room. We spent the afternoon trying to figure out what to do. All we really knew was that we couldn’t fly in Saturday. But the US rules had changed that morning and the airlines were changing their policies while I was on the phone with them. We ended up canceling tickets and changing airlines, buying new tickets and then changing them. Meanwhile we were stuck in a hotel room with two little boys who were looking at the pools they couldn’t swim in and felt perfectly fine. We ended up checking out the next day and going to a different ho

We decided to spend the day at Isla Mujeres. It was about an hour away by bus, but the boys handled it pretty well. It helps that Gram had given them a special toy for me to break out at some point when they were feeling bored, and this felt like a good time for that. Once we got to Cancun, we got on the ferry. It was only about 20 minutes and it was lovely ride on perfect blue/green seas. Once we landed, we found lunch on the beach. I found a pelican and sent the picture to my dad, since he has a pelican obsession. The shark completed the picture nicely. I don’t remember why the boys needed to make these faces, but I think that lunch was taking too long. Gabe has been asking for a coconut the entire trip. So when we found a guy selling coconuts on the street, we had to take advantage of it. There was much argument about whether or not he had to share… Then we headed to the beach. It was crazy hot out, but the water felt amazing. Unfortunately I forgot to pack Josy’s swim suit so he ha

The last couple of days have been a little crazy. It’sa long story, but we ended up leaving our airbnb and moving to an all inclusive resort, which has been really good, but it was rather unexpected and had us feeling a but like we were in two separate vacations. We’re also definitely not used to be pampered quite like this… Some highlights from the last couple of days… We went to the Xcaret part and they had macaws. Gabe was thrilled!! We floated down a lazy river and it was a much better experience. There were no tears! In fact, the boys had fun, even though they were going a little cold by the end… They also had flamingos. And Gabe decided to make bunny ears… We attempted to take naps, which didn’t work at all, so instead we went down to the pool. It turns out that Gabe has no fear of the water and Josy enjoyed it, but also liked to sit in the chairs. We went to a Brazilian place where they bring the meat to your table and you tell them if you want it or not. Um, Gabe wanted every s