I KNEW I shouldn't put "tomorrow" on my last post...:) It took me a couple of days just to get all of these pictures in this post uploaded to Blogger! I think I left off from my last post in April...Here are our family Easter pics (next time someone remind me to remove the yellow hose):
The cousins...
Our summer started at the end of May (school ended on May 26th or something like that)! After planning and attending Henry's "End of Yr." party, we jumped into our packed mini-van and headed to Nashville. We thought we would drive all the way in one afternoon (8 hrs.), but stopped at a car dealership in Columbia, MO which caused us to stop in my parents [empty] house in St. Louis for the evening. (Because I "HAVE" to get the best deal, I priced out Kia Rondo's in every big city enroute to & from NC!--We ended up buying one from Dallas.) Anyway, we got up the next morning, and had a nice visit with our friend Victoria Sherman (my friend Sandra's mom). Victoria's husband, Gil Sherman, passed away a couple of weeks before, and I was so sorry that I would miss the funeral while we were on our cross country vacation. It was nice for me to reminisce about the time they visited us in Italy, and give some hugs, as I really wanted to let her know we cared so much!! (We were able to visit a little more with Sandra and her family--and her mom over Labor Day weekend, this September...more to come on that!) After eating powdered sugar donuts that tasted like cardboard from Trader Joes, we stopped for lunch in Metropolis, IL, home of the gigantic Superman.
Anything to keep a 2 yr. old entertained for 20 hrs. of driving over 2.5 days--Wendy's frosty anyone? :) We stayed with David & Rachel in their home in Nashville for one night before continuing on (caravanning with them) to NC (via a small detour thanks to our Craigslist GPS--ugh)!
We stayed in an eccentric but fun large home in Wilmington, NC with some of Mike's cousins, his parents, and his siblings. It had it's own backyard pool (complete with Buddha statue) which our boys frequented every day...even Shelby (our dog niece) enjoyed the pool! :) It was nice to wake up and head to the pool while everyone else slept in a little. :) The wedding was beautiful at a church on Wrightsville Beach. Here is a pic of me and my stud bro-in-law Matt, waiting for the wedding to begin!
My boys with "second cousin Isaac" (the ring bearer) picking up where they left off last Thanksgiving...
My beautiful mother-in-law and me--I think Andrew may have taken this! :)
Family pic onboard the trolley:
Cousins onboard the trolley:
My littlest stud...drinking Sprite. :)
My middle stud, sporting the shades:
My two littlest studs passed out on the floor after a fun evening of dancing, eating dinner, and devouring the biggest chocolate bars they have ever been given. Needless to say, they weren't awake for the awesome sparkler send off.
The day after the wedding, Aunt Beth (groom's mom), invited everyone to her rental beach house for lunch. Our family of 5 also spent the following day at the beach house with them, which was super nice. Here are some pics of my beach bums:
Thank you Aunt Beth for all of the extra food/drinks you sent us home with too! And I'm glad Eli was able to board the plane with his shot records! ;)
From Wilmington, we drove to Raleigh, NC, where we enjoyed a quick but sweet visit with my friend Beth. We played some mini-golf, had some snow-ice (Spiderman flavored!--meaning red/blue), ate some burgers, played with her animals, and met her fiance! I'm sorry I didn't get a picture while I was there!!??
From Raleigh we drove to Dayton, OH (ALMOST via Columbus to see another car--but the guy didn't come down in price)! In Dayton we stayed with our Navy friends (who we met when we lived in WA state)...Dan & Holly. Although Dan wasn't there (deployment looming), we were able to meet their two sweet, adorable, well-behaved girls! We toured the HUGE Wright-Patterson Museum...VERY fun!! I had not seen Holly since she helped me move out of our duplex in WA state--which means we had a LOT of catching up to do! SOOOO wonderful to have such wonderful friends all over the country!
From Dayton, we drove to Indy, to see our good friends the Lenihans and Hagans and meet the newest Hagan! :) I took some good pictures, and cannot find them on the computer right now... We once again enjoyed the Lenihan hospitality, and we hope that pool noodle fights will be a little less vicious (atleast on our end) next time! While we were only 40 min. from Purdue, we had to take a day trip to the alma mater...
A Purdue visit is not complete without a fountain run...especially a cold one!
The "echo" spot:
Ross-Aide
Mike's name plaque in Cary Quad - meaning he lived in this room the yr. he graduated. Good thing he moved to that room, as the room he lived in the previous 3 yrs. was turned into a staircase.
Getting a feel for the Quad Dog life (they even tried out the urinals):
We were so lucky to get to go inside of the AXO house too! We literally pulled up right as one of the Alumni House Directors was going in! I had not been inside in 12 years! The living room was "exactly" the same, although there are new windows in the whole house! :) They had renovated the bathrooms, bum room, and computer room...and they have plans to redo the main floor this yr. in time to celebrate the house's 50th (?) anniversary in 2013.
The Engineering Fountain wasn't on, but they could still climb around on it...
Purdue Family pic:
From Indiana we drove to Hannibal, MO and stopped to tour the Mark Twain Cave (our boys first cave tour), see downtown Hannibal where we had some yummy ice cream in an old fashioned parlor and then were talked into painting a fence white by some boy named Mark Twain. :) (We had read them some Mark Twain books on the journey to Hannibal.) Oh, and while we waited for the cave tour, we heard a few [long] stories from a Mark Twain impersonator. I was actually more impressed by a man in the front row that looked a LOT like my father! Mike thought so too! He resembled my dad so much that I wanted to introduce myself and get a picture after the "stories", but somehow we let this long lost twin/relative slip away. :) We spent a wonderful evening in Quincy, IL, where a friend of mine (since 3rd grade!) now lives with her family.
And that was our 10 day tour at the beginning of June!
The next few weeks in June included buying our car in Dallas, swim lessons and Andrew's baseball debut (pictures in the NEXT post). On June 23rd, we headed out on a 14 hour trip to New Orleans to catch a cruise with the rest of my family for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We made a stop in Alexandria to Mike's Favorite Aunt Ellen's home. It was a quick visit, but a very fun way to start our vacation!!
Before boarding the ship, we spent a fun day in New Orleans...meeting up with my parents and sister Jan and her family. We took a free ferry ride, rode on the street cars, ate some binets, received lollipops from a "silver man", ate some Jambalaya and went on a horse drawn carriage ride down Bourbon Street! Doesn't get more New Orleansy than that!
The next day we began the cruise onboard the Carnival Conquest.
We enjoyed all that the ship had to offer...the pools, the sports, the kids activities, the adult salsa class, the food, the family friendly comedy shows, and the not so family friendly night show. Not to mention the scavenger hunts...I am a SUCKER for scavenger hunts! Here is one of my winning teams! (If you had fun, then you won!)
Not the greatest pic, but here is the family at the first cruise stop, Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras. My parents and my family of five hired a private van/tour guide who showed us the highlights of the island.
Our highlight (and which I'll remember most about Roatan) was our monkey visit. I LOVE this pic of my mom with one of the monkeys...
They gave us something like Cheetos to feed the monkey and to get them to jump right on you. Henry liked it. :)
Along with 3 (or 4?) monkey cages, we went in a sloth cage, and some bird cages. Andrew makes about the cutest perch that bird has ever seen!
Although the cows were not part of the monkey tour, (they just happened to be grazing in the pasture behind it), Kyle REALLY wanted to "pet the cows." He had to settle for a picture.
We had lunch at this tourist restaurant and then went snorkeling in one of the many "bays" of Roatan--where my sister's family was just finishing up snorkeling. The boys bounced on a huge inflatable slide, I changed into my swimsuit on the beach (carefully and modestly), and saw a few fish.
Other thoughts about Honduras...although we were only there a "few" hours, we saw the "rainforest like" landscape they have. Very green, big leafed plants everywhere. Because it is an island, it reminded me (and Mike) of Sicily a bit...and the issues they have with being separate from the mainland. Our minivan tour guide was very nice and had actually lived in OK for 13 yrs or so--until he was deported. Our monkey tour guide said that he loved reading English books, although it was hard to get his hands on many copies. My dad recommended a website for him to do some online reading... We did not see many touristy areas on Roatan. I think they pointed out a hotel where many Italians come to stay. These impoverished countries just remind you over and over how INCREDIBLY easy we have it.
Stop #2: Belize
We had a late start in Belize. And then after we took the ferry from the cruise ship to shore, I basically melted down and couldn't make any decisions about which tour to take or where to go or what to do for what amount of money. It was soooo hot too. Eventually we toured a chocolate factory (for free) and then took a taxi to "Old Belize" because all the boys wanted to do was swim. Old Belize was just a big pond with a huge slide, and then a nice restaurant and store attached. Henry and Mike went down the 50 foot slide AND jumped off the trapeze over the pond...AS did Kyle! (The trapeze...not the slide.)
The taxi driver was very nice and the drive to Old Belize gave us a pretty good picture of the countryside! Again we saw poverty...over and over again. We saw the "downtown" area with their market...it all seemed dirty and hot and crowded and poor. There was a nice sculpture on our drive which is supposed to represent the Belize commitment to their environment or being one with nature...
We had some tired, hot boys on the ferry back to the cruise ship.
The formal dinners were fun because all of the family was together. Since my sisters have older kids they did some of the more "adventurous" excursions--scuba diving, ruin climbing, etc...so it was nice to sit down at the end of the day and hear about their fun adventures!
My nephew Timmy showing Henry the dance moves...
This summer my parents were celebrating their 50th, my sister Jill & her husband=their 25th, and Mike and my 10th anniversary.
Stop #3: Cozumel, Mexico
Cozumel is much more touristy than our previous stops. I think this was my third (maybe 4th?) time in Cozumel. We chose to go to the Chankanaab Park, which I had been to before and remembered the awesome snorkeling. All of us (minus Kyle) tried it. Henry did pretty well. A & K enjoyed the warm pools they had there as well as the Sea Lion show.
Here is the picture Andrew drew on the day of the anniversary.
And the happy anniversary couple. Married 50 yrs....known each other since they were 13!
Another happy couple...of boys!
And ANOTHER! :)
One of the highlights of getting "dressed" for dinners was meeting in my parents room with everyone else for a glass of before dinner wine (or soda)! Boy would my boys throw on those fancy clothes! :)
(Yes, the white shirts were coordinated for the anniversary day for a family pic...) :)
The boys fell in love with dancing. There was a Henry's NightClub that had Thriller lessons one night. I will have to find the video for you on that too.
Hot chocolates for everyone after dinner:
My mom and sis enjoying their last hours onboard the Conquest...
Waiting to leave.
We travel light. It must have been those Sunbrella stakes that we had to leave behind.
We drove all the way back to Springfield, MO the day we got off the ship. Here are some worn out travelers!!
Thanks for hanging in there (or not, and just skipping to the end). :) Many thanks to my parents for making the cruise possible, memorable, and most importantly for the example they've provided in marriage!
Another happy couple...of boys!
