Jackson vs. the Hockey Stick

PE today was floor hockey. The hockey stick won!  5 stitches right above the left eye. At least he didn't have to go back to school.

Happy Birthday Jason!!

Hope you have a great one!

Just call me Jim!

Chase's primary teacher come up to me and asks me if Chase's middle name is Jim. A little worried I asked her why. Chase told her that he likes to be called Jim. When she calls him Jim he snickers. His teacher thinks it is funny that he wants to be called Jim so she continues to call him that. I asked Chase why and he said that he thought it would be funny. Jason and I got a kick out of it. As I was walking him to class today his teacher walked passed him and said. "Hi Jim, How are you today?" Chase got a big ole grin and said "Doing good." 

D O--R K!!

Jason and I went out last night. We hadn't been alone together for awhile so we went out and ran errands and got dinner. Jason wore his Ohio State sweatshirt. In the parking lot some guy rolls down the window and yells  O H and Jason yells I O. WHAT? Apparently, that is what you are supposed to do if you love Ohio State. I have been married to him for almost 15 years and I have NEVER seen this. "It happens all the time" Jason tells me. As we are leaving Smashburger (A new yummy hamburger joint that just opened up) it happened again. O H someone yells. Jason yells back  I O. I started spelling four letter words to him -- NE  RD  DO  RK  DU  MB- you get the picture. I guess that is why you go out on date nights. You get to see the dorky things your spouse does when you aren't around. 

Day 7 -- Castaway Cay

I think I prolonged writing about our last day because then the cruise would be over ...  again. Castaway Cay (pronounced key) is Disney's private beach and it is awesome. The place is HUGE and beautiful and a lot of fun. Disney really outdid themselves with this place. We parked at the family beach and played. The sand was awesome. They had places to snorkel. The food was really good -ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, all the diet coke you could drink etc. They had a soft serve ice cream machine that had chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream that was TO DIE FOR! It was windy so Jackson couldn't go para-sailing but we had a blast anyway. 

This may be our Christmas card picture if I can't come up with anything better!

Kaci enjoying the yummy ice cream.
The kids loved playing on the sand and Disney loves that every parents comes and buys a stupid $9 pail and shovel.
Grandma loved being on the beach and went snorkeling with Kaylee.
Here are the girls.
Grandpa loved the diet coke and reading in the shade.
Isn't she cute?
Kaci continued her picture taking quest with all of the characters. Here are chip and dale.
Here is Minnie.
I love this picture with Mickey because it had has the ship in the background.  
We had such a great cruise. It was a truly once in a lifetime event and we loved it!!

Day 6 -- Ship day

Still not as warm as we would like, but we could not get Kaci out of the pool. That girl loves to swim. All the other kids were off doing different things on the ship but Kaci swam and swam. She did take time out to visit the princesses and eat but that was about it.

As we were headed back to our room to bathe and get ready for dinner, Daisy Duck came out. Kaci was excited to see her.
Here are Kaylee and Minnie all dressed up and ready to go!
This is how you received your ketchup every night.
Chase ordered the surf and turf off his kid's menu that night. He informed me that shrimp was okay but that he only needed to eat one. He also let me know that "Mom, this is roast not steak. The menu said steak." How sad that my 7 year old knows the difference. The kids ordered steak, fries and rice almost every night. Kaci even asked for steak on a couple of nights. (They were real steaks off the adult menu and the kids liked those.)
I just thought that this picture was funny. I love the look on Chase's face.
Here we are all with Mickey. 
We had a great day on the ship, just relaxing and enjoying our time together!

Day 5 -- PIRATES!!

So, Wednesday night was pirates IN the caribbean party. I had brought some eyepatches from home and at dinner they had headbands for everyone to wear. The menus were all pirate related along with a pirate party on the rooftop and a firework show. We had a lot of fun!

This will be the only time that mom says an earring is okay!!

They had pirates tattoos and grandpa and the kids had fun putting them on.

Can you tell that I was behind the camera? There were no pirate pictures of me. Sorry! I know you are disappointed.
Here is Minnie and Chase in one of her many costumes. Tonight she was Pirate Minnie.
The deck show was a big party and the fireworks were way cool. They also had a big pirate buffet but all Kaci wanted was ice cream. Kaylee and Grandma liked the BIG turkey legs. What a fun night we had!

Day 5 -- Cozumel

Cozumel was spent swimming with the dolphins, which was the kids favorite part of the whole cruise. We have a video that we can bore you with next time you visit our house and I also have pictures. We couldn't take our camera or video with us because you are in the ocean and they don't want you to take pictures because then you have to buy their pictures. But it was way cool and the kids loved it. They even let Chase go out and ride the dolphin, which he technically wasn't tall enough to do.  One look at his sad face and the lady let him. You swim out on a bogey board and hold still and then the dolphin pushes your feet back to shore. Kaci got to kiss a dolphin so she was excited to do. 

Here we are just getting off of the boat and heading into Cozumel to shop. They have great little souvenir shops and the kids had a fun time picking stuff out. 

Jackson liked the Senor Frog statue.

As we walked into the dolphin place they had iguanas and birds for the kids to hold.  Of course, after they hold it they tell you its 5 bucks. Oh well, we got one picture and told Chase to pet the iguana because we weren't paying another 5 bucks for him to hold it.  He was okay with that.  

Chase thought this hat was funny. We got it for spending $25 in the pirana joe shop. Chase wore it around all day.
After the dolphin thing, we headed to the beach.  Kaci loved playing in the sand.
Kaylee loved to snorkel.
Here is everyone getting into the water ready to snorkel. They had some great little snorkeling spots and the kids and Jason really enjoyed themselves.  

Day 4 -- Cayman Islands

The advantage of the Disney Cruise is that they allow you to leave the boat while your child is in their class. SCORE! Kaci was only going to be able to sit in the boat as she was too little to do Stingray City or snorkel so she stayed with Mickey and the gang while we headed into Cayman. It was REALLY WINDY and not as warm as we would have liked --although it is hard to complain about 70 degrees instead of 80, especially when Colorado is getting pounded by snow while we are away.  

Stingray City is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean that stingrays live on. The boats bring you out and feed the rays and let you touch them pet them etc. We had done it a couple of years ago and it was a blast. Perfect water, no waves, tonz of stingrays. Not today. The water was choppy. Chase couldn't even touch the bottom of the sandbar and not as many stingrays. I think the kids still had fun but it wasn't as cool as before. The pictures aren't that great because I had to take them from the boat as the water was too deep to take the camera in to the water like last time.  

Here are some pictures from our cruise in May 2007.  They are so much cooler.  Here is grandma getting massaged by a stingray.

Jason even kissed a stingray and he got 7 years of luck.

Here are Tami and Mike holding the ray.
Okay back to our cruise. The highlight for Chase was spotting all of the iguanas on the sea walls.
After Stingray City, we headed out to the reef for some snorkeling. The kids thought it was pretty cool but the water was really choppy and the current was taking you far away so you were exhausted swimming back. This is Jason and Jackson.
Here is Jason and Kaylee.
Grandpa, Jason and Chase riding on the boat.  Check out the beautiful blue water!
Here are Kaylee, Jackson and Grandma. They were cold after snorkeling.
Overall it was a fun day. Kaci would have been miserable in the wind and the boat so I was glad that she stayed on the boat. When I got back, Belle was doing story time in her class so she didn't even miss us and she made me wait until Belle was done before I could pick her up.