Cruisin' with the Family!

We recently got home from an amazing family reunion!  This was a dream that we've been trying to coordinate for 2 years.  We imagined the kids having a blast on a cruise ship with their cousins, meal after meal that we wouldn't have to plan, prep for, or clean up after.  We imagined sunshine and the beach and with the kids happily entertained, hours of visiting.  This trip was all that we imagined, memories that will last a lifetime!

Thanksgiving Week

11/23/14 - 12/3/14

 For my kids, travelling on an airplane was part of the excitement of this vacation.  We rarely fly anywhere and for Austin, this was his first time being on an airplane (besides being a small infant).

The Butler cousins flew out of Spokane, but had a stop in Seattle which meant we were all waiting in the airport together!  That was a really fun way to begin our vacation!!

The cruise ship was HUGE - thousands on board.  Because it was Thanksgiving week, there was an exceptionally large number of kids, over 900!

It was so much fun to share this trip with all of my family, all except Phil.

Each evening we had dinner together.  We had an adults table, and a kids table.  Our waiters were so great to keep the kids happy, they pretty much just gave them whatever they wanted.  Any meal they asked for, fries, 2 or 3 desserts - wait, they did that for us adults too.  It was pretty amazing!

Grand Cayman was our first stop.

We went swimming with stingrays.

And, we did some snorkeling.

  

Our second stop was Cozumel.

Beautiful place, the kids enjoyed a beach day and some cheap souvenir shopping.

Thanksgiving Day:  Our next stop was supposed to be Belize, but we woke up to discover that the weather was bad and they had cancelled it.  That was a bummer, not what we had planned that's for sure.  I'm so glad we were vacationing with family though because having an extra day at sea turned out to still be lots of fun!  

 

Some of the kids didn't mind the wind and rain.

We played all sorts of card games: Spoons, Scum, Monopoly, and a new game Anthony and & Elina taught us called Werewolf.

Most of the day was just dark and gloomy, but by evening the waves were pretty big and the boat was definitely swaying back and forth.  As you walked down the hallways, you were forced to hold the wall next to you to keep your balance.  The pool turned into a wave pool.  It would empty on one side and cause a wave to over flow from the other side, dumping water that would splash the people lounging in the chairs on the sides of the pool.  Hunter and Zach had a blast!

 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner was actually pretty comical.  Many were feeling a little queasy and no one had much of an appetite.  We could see the waves out the windows rising and falling, I don't know how the waiters kept from dropping plates, I guess they've had practice carrying those large platters and keeping their balance on an unsteady floor.  It didn't help that  a boy at the table next to us lost his lunch all over the floor.  We passed around Dramamine like candy and one by one, people excused themselves from dinner.  Thankfully, things calmed down and later that evening we were all able to enjoy a nice soak in the hot tub and watched a movie on the big screen over the pool.  

Our last stop was Roatan, Honduras

We went on a zipline tour!

(My brother Anthony and his wife Elina)

 We checked out a small zoo, saw some monkeys and exotic animals.

We spent a little time at the beach too!

(My brother Doug, his wife Desiree, and cute baby Maximus)

Our days at sea were also a lot of fun!  There was plenty to do on the cruise ship, that's for sure.  It had pools, hot tubs, a water slide, outdoor movies, ping pong, basketball, an arcade, mini golf, food, food, and more food.  Ice cream 24/7, pizza at midnight, it was all pretty unbelievable.  We started off those days at sea by going to breakfast together and then the kids all went with their cousins and a walkie- talkie and we made plans to meet back up for dinner.  We'd see the kids throughout the day off and on, usually at the ice cream machine.  In the evenings we enjoyed comedy shows and movies, the kids loved checking out the events for their different age groups - everyone was happy!

On our last night we celebrated my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary.

I'm so glad to be part of such a wonderful family.  

This vacation definitely brought us closer together and gave us so many fun memories!

It was hard to part ways and say goodbye.  

Once we got off the cruise ship, we stayed an extra day in Miami and had fun exploring South Beach.

 We stayed til it grew dark.  Emma was sad to learn that we were missing snow back home, but the rest of us were thrilled to be in our bathing suits, soaking up some sunshine in December!

Halloween

Halloween was perfect!

I worried it would be too cold, or that it would be rainy.

The week leading up to Halloween was both of those things.

It ended up being the perfect night.

Emma had been trying to coordinate with these three friends for weeks to all meet at her house so they could trick or treat together.  I wasn't sure they would all actually be able to come, but they did and she was so happy!

Austin tagged along with the girls for a bit, but he happily joined some of his friends that they ran into along the way.  That made the night perfect for him!

Check out all that candy!

Linsey and her friend Rylie went to a Halloween party with some friends.  They came up with this cute costume idea and I thought it came together perfectly!

After changing his mind 4 or 5 times, Hunter decided on his costume at the very last minute.  It was so last minute that he slipped out the door with his buddies who were waiting and I missed getting any pictures.  That was less than perfect, but he had a lot of fun collecting candy and hanging out with friends so we will call that a win.

I'm glad the weather was so nice, especially for people like this who went ALL out!

We got our pumpkins carved just in time for Halloween and no one stole or smashed them.

A Perfect Halloween!

Surviving Fall Sports

I love Fall, especially here in Washington where it is so beautiful.  I love watching my kids play Fall sports!  There are so many positive things that come from being involved in sports and from being part of a team.   I love that my kids are active and healthy.  

I did my best to get them all to and from their practices (although there were several times I joked that I needed to find a way to clone myself) I tried hard to support them in all their games and meets, but I admit... it was CRAZY!

This is the first year where all 4 of my kids were involved in some type of sport, all at the same time. Between all of them we had 11 weeknight practices and that did not include piano lessons, youth night activities, or homework!!!

Emma is in a dance class that meets for one hour once a week so that seemed easy as pie.  Only thing was, it conflicted with 2 other practices for Austin and Hunter so it didn't end up being quite that simple, caused me to have to juggle things a bit but we managed.  She was my right hand, number one supporter as we cheered everyone on in their different games.  I'm sure she would have loved to have been home playing with friends, but she rarely complained about the hectic weeknights and especially busy Saturdays.

Linsey ran cross country as a freshman at Riverside High School.

I'm so proud of her and I know that she worked really hard.  She had her last big meet on Saturday and finished off the season with a new personal record.  Way to go Linsey!

I was impressed with Linsey's coaches and a really nice group of girls.  They were so polite and positive, she had a great experience!

 

This is pretty much what Emma and Austin did at her meets, they just planted themselves somewhere and had fun playing together with whatever they could find.  At this particular meet in Yakima they collected acorns, sorted them by shape and size, filled their shirts with them and then danced to shake them out, and in the end left a giant pile to help out the squirrels with their collecting.  I love that they were able to entertain themselves and have a great time in their own way.  

 Miners in Yakima

Hunter just finished playing tackle football.  Jared was one of the assistant coaches this year and it was a lot of fun to watch them out on the field together.  

Hunter really loved playing with this group of boys and considers them all to be great friends.

I LOVE this picture. I love the genuine happiness in the expressions on their faces.

Towards the end of the football season, Hunter started playing middle school basketball.  

Hunter doesn't just play sports.  He had a choir concert last week too!  

Oh boy!   Austin really, really loves soccer!

 It was so much fun to watch this little team play!  They had so much enthusiasm and all LOVED playing soccer.  At this age, there are no goalies so there is a lot of scoring, and a lot of cheering!

And thankfully, I survived all of this!