What a vacation!

Ahh, I'm finally blogging again!

We had a great time these last few weeks. I just seriously need a vacation from my vacation! I came home Saturday night and felt like I hit the ground running. Girl's camp is this week in our ward, so I was running around Sunday morning having meetings, then all during church I was trying to make sure everyone had everything ready to go to camp! I am going up tomorrow night for their testimony meeting. I had to find someone to watch my kids though, because. . . Randy is already TDY again! Gotta love the Air Force. . . He volunteered for this one, but he called and asked first if it was okay with me and I couldn't say no. He is in Fort Worth, TX right now with a B-52 all ready to fly to England. He is the backup jet to fly to England for two airshows there. I didn't want him to miss an opportunity to go over there. He's been all over Europe, but never to England. I thought it sounded like a fun possibility for him. So, he'll know tomorrow if he's going or not. The reason he had to go to Fort Worth to do all of this, is because the runway here is closed for its annual cleaning. This backup jet was planned ahead of time, and was brought out to Ft. Worth before the runway here was closed. So, I was back to putting the kids to bed by myself tonight. It actually felt more normal than having Randy put them to bed (which he has done every night since he's been home!). So he'll either be home tomorrow night, or in a week. We'll see!

I'm putting vacation pictures in chronological order. Our cruise was AMAZING! I gained about 7 pounds on the cruise. I ate like crazy. I'm sure I consumed more calories in the week on the cruise than I did the entire time Randy was gone (no exaggeration!). We still worked out on the cruise (Randy was much more disciplined than I was. He ran every morning except two mornings, which were two of our three port days. I ran two days, and lifted weights on another day), but I still cannot believe how much I ate! As you look at the pictures, you can see I'm progressively larger!

It sounds like the kids did really well while we were gone. Randy's mom kept them so busy, I don't think they had time to miss us! Kate had oodles of craft projects to show me when we got back. She could do some sort of crafty project 24/7!

Luke has had a harder time adjusting. He has been throwing so many fits, I don't know what to do with him! Yesterday and today have been better as we've been getting back to normal life. Randy had to go back to work today. That was when we found out about his TDY.

Here are some details from our vacation. I'll put up as many pictures as Blogger will let me! It seems like there aren't very many pictures of Luke, which is because I don't have very many of him! He hardly ever holds still long enough for me to take a picture!!!!!!!!

Here is what our itinerary was:

Wed. June 17-- Randy came home
Sat. June 21-- Off to the zoo and College Station to drop of Kate and Luke
Sun. June 22-- Off to Galveston, cruise departing
Mon. June 23-- At sea
Tues. June 24-- At sea (our first formal night)
Wed. June 25-- Montego Bay, Jamaica
Thurs. June 26-- Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Fri. June 27-- Cozumel, Mexico
Sat. June 28-- At sea
Sun. June 29-- Back to College Station to see our babies!
Mon. June 30-- To San Antonio, TX
Tues. July 1-- Sea World!
Sat. July 5-- Home at last!
Caldwell Zoo, Tyler, TX--Sat. June 21, 2008


There is the cutest aviary there. My kids love to see the birds. One of the cockatiels bit Luke next to his eye when we has 4-months-old, so I'm a little wary to let him get too close!


Luke jst really cared about running and jumping (as usual)
Admiring some fish.

Galveston, TX-- Sunday, June 22, 2008


Right after we boarded the ship.

The best thing was having our swimming suits with us right away. We got to the ship really early, then just hung out all afternoon catching some sun. It was a very nice way to begin the cruise!

My hair was done for after being on the deck at sunset!


Our first formal night. I didn't end up with any pictures of our second one because Randy didn't like the dress I was wearing. He said it looked funny on my stomach, I know that was his way of saying it made me look pregnant (it was empire waisted with a fuller skirt).

Montego Bay, Jamaica--Wednesday, June 26, 2008


In the craft market in Montego Bay. It was VERY humid and the people were SO annoyingly pushy for you to buy everything. We were anxious to get out of there. Randy did get his dorky tourist hat. That was our goal for that stop.


After dirty Montego Bay, all I could think of was showering! I didn't mind saying good bye to Jamaica! We had quite the experience in the middle of downtown Montego Bay. It was a little scary! I was really missing the states at that point.

Georgetown, Grand Cayman-- Thursday, June 27, 2008


The only shore excursion package we bought was a snorkeling trip combined with a trip to Stingray City. Here is Randy holding one of the stingrays. He was very disappointed in the snorkeling overall on our entire trip. We went snorkeling every place we stopped. He got spoiled going snorkeling every weekend in Guam. He didn't get his scuba certification as he had originally planned. He was very busy in the beginning working on classes for his master's degree, then he was flying a ton at the end.


Wow, do we look like tourists or what? This is in Grand Cayman, that is our ship in the background.

Cozumel, Mexico-- Friday, June 27, 2008


We rented a jeep in Cozumel (I love that my husband is fluent in Spanish. . . he got us a great deal on it!) and found our own private beach. We were the ONLY ones there! It was beautiful! Now I'm wearing the dorky tourist hat. I think I was just holding it for him for some reason!


Randy on top of some ruins in Cozumel, Mexico. (He wasn't supposed to be up there)


Our favorite peaceful spot at night on the ship-- there were a bunch of plastic rocking chairs at the bow of the ship. It was fun to sit out there at watch the ship crash through the huge waves.

I don't have any cruise pictures past Friday night. The ship sped up and it was really rough water. I'd never gotten motion sick before. . . but I ran out of dinner and was puking my guts out! I had to take dramamine, which totally knocked me out. I slept basically for the rest of the cruise!!!!!!!

College Station, TX-- Sunday, June 29, 2008


Luke thought he needed a little piece of the dorky tourist hat action (at Grandma and Grandpa's house)

SeaWorld, San Antonio, TX--Tuesday, July 1, 2008


Randy and Kate on the miniature ferris wheel.


What was Luke's favorite thing at Sea World? The place where you can run and jump and no one is telling you not to! He could have stayed in there forever. It was QUITE the fit when we left!


Posing with the fish at Sea World


Kate's first roller coaster ride


Randy and Kate feeding the dolphins at Sea World