The Lucky One

I don't know which one is luckier....

Getting to spend all your days with your best buddy is pretty sweet!

More Christmas Fun...

On Christmas Eve, Grammie reads 'Twas The Night Before Christmas every year...

Reese decided he needed 10 carrots for Santa's reindeer. No less would do!

Christmas morning, and Reese shows us that this year, he is SIX!

Austen & Sissy came over and then the present-opening fun began...

Mommy was so busy enjoying the morning that she didn't get any more pictures of our Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Grammie & Reese having a fun Christmas Eve...

Random Pictures From The Past Few Weeks :)

Working hard at homeschool....
Family picture, Thanksgiving 2009

Jessie, Reese, & Austen, Thanksgiving 2009

Brothers!!

The Christmas tree is decorated & we're excited about Christmas!

Concentrate....Concentrate

My boy is exactly like his Daddy...

When he's focused on a task...

Out comes the tongue!
Exactly, exactly...just like Daddy :)

Trip Report

We left August 8th for our first cruise out of the Port of Galveston. We usually leave from Port Canaveral, FL but decided that since Galveston was a driveable location & we were bringing Jessie & her BFF, we'd give it a shot.

The drive from home to Galveston took about 5 hours but it was a great drive. No traffic. Straight shot down the highway. Definitely more convenient than having to fly to Orlando!

When we got to the port, we used EZ Cruise Parking. I would highly recommend using their service again (and we will when we cruise out of Galveston in a few months). They have gated parking for a reasonable fee. For an additional fee, you can have your car covered or washed while you are gone. We made our reservation ahead of time online which saved money, and they offer a free shuttle to the cruise terminal which is just a few blocks away. The only negative about EZ Cruise Parking was that the parking spaces were small. We drive a Mazda CX9 crossover SUV and when we returned to the car after the cruise, Jeff had to crawl over the passenger side seat because a huge pick up truck had parked too close to the driver's door.

Since we were limited on our time choices (the girls had to be back for school), we went with the 5 day cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy. We had 5 people and didn't want to split into two rooms (I wasn't comfortable taking someone else's child along and putting two teen girls in a room across the hall!), so we were left with the Penthouse Suite as our only option. Poor, poor me...I know. *wink*

We have cruised a handful of times and I had no idea what to expect from a Penthouse Suite. When Reese, Jeff, & I cruise we get a balcony room, and it's fine for the three of us. But I was concerned about us all being on top of each other now that we had 5 people.

Boy was I wrong!

This room was the biggest cruise ship room I've seen! We had two Queen beds (the second bed was the couch that folded down) and Reese's roll away twin bed, and there was still ample room for walking around. During the day, the room steward folded Reese's bed up and moved it to the side (you can see it in the far left corner) which left even more room.

The other thing I wasn't sure about was storage space...especially since we were bringing two girls with lots of clothes, shoes, & accessories! No worries though here either...there was a walk in closet. Wowza!

That picture was only half of the storage space...there was more on the other side! Even though this cruise cost about 3 times what we typically pay (we cruise off-season and don't bring 5 people!) I felt like the room was worth the extra cost.

Our cruise itenerary took us to the ports of Progresso & Cozumel, Mexico. I suppose we aren't typical cruisers, because we don't get off the boat. We love port days, when the ship is empty and there aren't many people in the pool, at the restauraunts, or just around the ship in general. It almost feels like we have the whole boat to ourselves!

Day 1 was port day & at sea, Dayy 2 at sea, Day 3 Progresso, Day 4 Cozumel, Day 5 at sea.

Reese relaxing and watching a movie before going back to Camp Carnival.

The beds were amazingly comfortable & we all slept like rocks.

Look at those lips...

Reese moved up to the next age bracket at Camp Carnival and was now with the 6-8 year olds. The first day he didn't like Camp Carnival, but I think it was mostly because there were so many more kids in there than he was used to. When we cruise off-season, there's a handful of kids but this time it was packed.

Well, the above is true for Carnival cruise lines. On the Disney cruises, the kids club was packed all the time with lots of kids!

By the second day though he decided we were too boring and that he'd give Camp Carnival another try. Lo and behold, it was better :) From then on out, we brought him back with us for meals and some afternoon resting time but that was about it!

The girls were completely entertained as well. I was thrilled as they searched out every free activity they could find...samples of makeup & perfume at the shops, tasting rum cake samples, eating sushi, singing kareoke, taking naps on deck, playing tag with the walkie talkies, trying on jewlery at the jewlery shop, taking in shows, ordering room service, going to high tea...and these were just the stories we heard about.


We don't ever go to the sit-down dinners, because frankly, they take too long and we don't like to eat a 2 hour dinner! But the girls enjoyed getting dressed up and going to dinner...

Reese loved blowing bubbles on the balcony...

And of course there's always yummy food and towel animals!

Seeing Red

Found this picture that Mom sent a few months back...

That's Reese & Uncle Jeff with a red finger nail. I was getting ready for the day & my little brother, Uncle Jeff, decided he would yank my chain and paint my son's fingernail red.

Well, Uncle Jeff's is red because I painted it when he fell asleep on the couch the night before.

But he thought I would get my feathers ruffled about him painting Reese's red.

Meh. Life is short. Rock a red nail now & then son!

Reese's Tiki Party

Reese decided a few months ago that he wanted a Tiki Party based on a picture he saw from a Family Fun Magazine article on cakes I had saved. It was actually a luau cake, but we had to make it more "boy"...so it became a Tiki Party!

Daddy baked the cake, & Mommy and Daddy decorated...

I can't believe he has 6 candles!

We used a rock cave from the fish bowl decoration section at Walmart,

a HotWheels beach van, a "beach dude" toy we found in the toy bin at home,

the whales & shark were from Hawaii,

and you'll notice the monkey Reese thought should go on the top!

Pottsie & Grammie came to town for the party & were so helpful in getting everything ready on Saturday! Thank you Mom & Dad!

Ready for friends to arrive...
Daddy was a good sport and wore a lei...

Jessie & Austen came to the party, & Reese invited Jessie's two best friends

Caitlyn & Miranda.

Austen asked off work & drove them all to the party.

What an awesome brother & sister!

Everyone had a fun time swimming...

After lots of pool time, it was pizza time!

Everyone grabbed towels and came up to the patio for pizza & fruit salad...

but mostly pizza...

I hate pinatas, but Reese found a palm tree pinata at WalMart and really, really wanted one.

So I couldn't say no.

I thought I stuffed that thing with tons of candy, but once everyone had collected it all there wasn't much to go around.

How did that happen??

Pottsie offered to make the pinata sticks & Reese thought they were awesome and looked like ninja swords.

They are currently hidden under his bed...

Thanks to my friend Deb who took the next few pictures...

My camera died just as we were starting to sing Happy Birthday!

Are you kidding me?

So I have no video of blowing out candles...

and I am beyond thankful that Deb was there with her camera!!

Make a wish baby!!

Time to cut the cake & share...

Do you want blue water or cookie sand?

After cake, everyone hopped back into the pool for more swimming...

Reese had a great night, with wonderful friends, & fun new presents.

Thanks to all his buddies & their families for coming over to celebrate!

Now, Reese....can you please stop growing so fast????

A Tale Of Our Trip...Completely Out Of Order!

I wish Blogger would allow you to upload more than 5 pictures at a time, because when it comes to trips and I have a bunch of pictures to share, it's so hard to figure out the order to upload. See, Blogger also inserts the pictures (five at a time, mind you) in reverse order that you put them.

So not only do you have to take your pictures five at a time, but you also have to consider the order you want them in because Blogger will reverse the order for each group of five.

Ugh.

So, today, I didn't feel like fighting Blogger or counting backwards a whole bunch of times to put these in the right order. So here's the tale of our trip, in who-knows-what order!!

See, like this one.

We went to France Park the evening after the family reunion to visit with Jeff's Mom, her husband, and Jeff's brothers and their family.

This was one of our last days.
But the first picture. Whatever.

I tried to get these three to smile and here's what I got...silly...

This was at the family reunion on Sunday.

Reese had such a great time playing with all the cousins/second cousins there.

Here, they found a pile of sticks and were making "fires". And roasting Crocs.

Up to no good I'm sure....
There were all sorts of games out. The bean bag toss was a big hit with Reese.

Same visit to France Park. We walked down to the waterfall & Jessie was teaching Reese to read the street sign.

The waterfall was really, really pretty...

This was the day we arrived in Logansport (Saturday).

Jeff drove us around this quite little town in the middle of a zillion acres of corn.

When we passed by his elementary school, I said we should stop so the kids could play on his old playground.

So we did.

It was a blast!

Nobody has these spinny things anymore. I remember as a kid playing on one in Zilker Park in Austin. One of my favorite rides. Guess it's too much of a liability these days for some places.

But not Rural Indiana!

We missed some pretty big rain by a day, but there were still wet spots.

Jessie stuck her toes into some water while trying to spin Reese on the tire swing...

Mr. Happy Burger (or Haps if you're a local) was a childhood favorite of Jeff's.

There are two.

We ate at both in one day!

This was our 2nd stop at the Haps that has a soda fountain.

They had "Phosphates" on the menu, which we've seen on the Food Network, so we had to try one.

I asked what flavors they have, and the girl said "Anything you want."

So I asked for an Orange Phosphate.

Nope, don't make that.

I ordered a Lemon Phosphate. They could make that!

The verdict?

Sort of like a flat pop.

Meh.

Back to the family reunion...

Reese climbed this tree for about an hour with his cousins.

And how sad is it that this is the first tree my child has climbed?

All the trees in our yard are oak trees that are tall and straight with limbs up high.

This was a perfect climbing tree!

I liked this picture because Reese was just taking a break from all the running, climbing, yelling, playing, & silliness.

Here we are at the hotel in Logansport, IN.

Reese loves it when I take pictures of him splashing into the water...

And this was a great way to burn off energy from riding in the car for two full days!

About half way through our drive, we passed the St. Louis Arch.

I tried to get a picture of Reese with the arch in the background, but he wouldn't cooperate.

He really hates pictures sometimes...

Here was our visit to the first Mr. Happy Burger.

Inside they have a Happy Trolley for the kids to eat in, and

Reese hosted a radio show the whole time he was in there, talking to himself the whole time he ate.

It felt weird that Jeff, Jessie, & I were at a table next to him and he was eating all alone. But he clearly was in his own world!

When Daddy walked by, Reese stuck out his pretend microphone and said "Would you like to say a few words about Mr. Happy Burger?"

More pictures from the elementary school playground...

They also had teeter totters!

Except Reese kept calling them a "Cecil" (see saw?) and I kept saying it as we went up and down..

Cecil! Cecil! Cecil!

Reese, Jessie, & I were laughing so hard.

And then I fell off the back. Which was a sight to see and made us laugh even harder.

Ahhhh...memories....

They are spinning really, really fast in this picture, but I forgot to turn off the high shutter speed to get the blurred effect.

This was a trip to remember for sure. The kids are awesome travellers and made the trip a piece of cake.

We stopped in Branson on the way home for the night, & played Indoor Glow-In-The-Dark Mini Golf before heading home. I would share pictures of Branson, but I didn't take any. Imagine a hotel out of the pages of Hee Haw, decorated in mauve & teal and you get the idea of what Branson was like.

The walls of our hotel were pink.

Very, very pink.