January Cruise... Finally!

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I know, I know, another long delay in posts.

By now, you may already know that Robin and I had a great week's get-a-way in January. We cruised seven days out of Miami with four fantastic stops.

Caymen
First, was Grand Caymen. We did an underwater walk, but didn't want to risk our camera, so we used a disposable, that we haven't developed yet. It was a really neat outing, after which we walked to seven mile beach and back, found a little restaurant that overlooked the bay, and headed back on board.

Roatan
Stop two was Isle of Roatan. We weren't greatly adventurous here, but that's ok, the day was fantastic! We took a ski lift to a beach that was minutes from our dock. As you can see from the pictures, we were among the first there, but it did fill up. Amazing sand and water, and equally amazing banana beverages!

Belize
We had an afternoon snorkel trip, which gave us some time in the morning to check out the shops near the peer. This and Caymen were "tender ports" which means we actually stepped from our boat to a small boat that took us ashore. That was a small adventure by itself.

We'd made friends of Ed and Karen, and they were on the snorkel trip with us, which included a stop at a man made island on the way back. Way fun day, and a great chance to use our waterproof camera - thanks mom!!!

Cancun
We'd been to Cancun a couple times, so there wasn't much to report or take pictures of here.... that and..... well.... many of the pictures taken weren't really to be shared. Ed - I'll mail you a CD, those pictures shouldn't even be emailed!

Overall, we had a great trip. Links below will show some of the sights of the Carnival Valor, our newest friends, Ron & Betty and Ed & Karen, and of course, the nightly bed buddy called a towel critter:

Around the Boat

Towel Critters

Cheers!

Time with Family and Friends

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Yesterday we had a wonderful visit by Grammy, Kurt, Cherie, Harper, and lil' Vaughn. It was a little after Christmas, Christmas and a great meal. It's always fun to see the kids getting together and playing. They're a great group of cousins.
Pictures of the kids from the day.

Then the kids took off for Christmas with their father, and Robin and I went out to meet her friends Skye & James. I've seen James play one other time, but hadn't met Skye. They live in Australia and he gets the band back together when ever he's home. It was a great night with great friends.

Now, the 26th will also be known as the three shovel day, and I thought it was over when we went out for the night, but we woke up to a couple new inches of snow and it was coming down again. The best part.... we're going no where all day long! Might be hard to go back to work tomorrow though. Here are a couple pictures from this morning and keep in mind at midnight last night the drive way was clear.

Fall Activities

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Just catching up and sharing some pictures of the munchkins and all they've been doing the last two or three months.

In November, Jillian had another gymnastics show and tell event, the parents even got to go out and stretch and do yoga!

We also went to Tanners - it was too late for the maze, but we had a ton of fun on the mini-maze and of course we got a car full of goodies. Tanners is a must for every fall!!

Jackson had a great flag football season. These pictures are from the final weekend's double header and end of season party at Culver's. Game 2 was full of sugared up kids!

Jordan's reached the age of having full blown concerts for band and choir. This year, she made the audition style extra-curricular choir and sang with her class as well. We didn't take pictures at choir, they were on back to back nights, and the band shots were good.

Robin and I saw a few great concerts!!

The dogs are still spoiled, and have given us some health scares but continue to live the life of luxury. These are just some miscellaneous shots from around the house the last couple months.

Happy (early) New Year all!

Boys Hockey Weekend

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Last Saturday, Blaze and I took our boys on their first hockey retreat! Something he and I have done a few times - meet in St. Louis for a Stars / Blues game.

This one was Jackson's second and Brendan's first Stars game. If I can find it, I'll add the picture of them each going to their first ever game in Bloomington.

But for now, here's a picture of the highlight of the night - Trevor Daley flipped a puck over the glass during warm up for both of the boys.




See all the pictures here.

Weekend Down Memory Lane

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Great weekend in Chicago this last weekend.

Friday, after dinner with Robin's mom and her Beau, Chuck, it was off to Joe's Bar for a Pat Green Concert. Great setting, it totally reminded me of the Groovy Mule in Denton, TX. Aaahhhh, college days. I don't even think the Mule is still in existence. The line up was.....

Opened by Whisky Falls...


Then Randy Houser...


And finally Pat, click here for those photos.

For the rest of the weekend, we took it easy, spent some more time with Grammy & Chuck, and had a great dinner at Red Stone with Joanne & John, who we've needed to catch up with, for, well, like two years!