Monday, May 27, 2013

Grand Cayman: Day 2

On day two in the Caymans, Trent and I rented a Jeep and drove around the island all day.

Our first stop was the Tortuga Turtle farm.

 There are iguanas all over the island.  This is the blue iguana which are only found on Grand Cayman.
 And we got to hold baby sea turtles!
 It was a very cool place.  They had a big swimming area for all of the big turtles with a beach for laying eggs and everything, then these smaller tanks for the babies.  It was sad to think that most of these turtles get eaten up as turtle soup.  They do release a percentage of them out into the wild though.  

 Some views of the ocean from our drive.

Road kill.  Instead of dead bunnies and prairie dogs like we've got here in Colorado, there are dead chickens and iguanas in the Caymans.  During the last hurricane there, a whole bunch of chickens got loose, so now they have wild chickens all over the island.

 We went to Hell and back while on our drive.

 Here it is, the place they call Hell.  That is all coral.
This was on the side of a building in Hell.
 All around the island, they have cemeteries along the beaches.  They build the cemeteries on the beaches because it is easier to dig in the sand than the limestone bed that is further inland.  They also believe the island winds will wash the souls out to sea.

We made a stop at the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory to buy some rum cakes, although I don't have any pictures.  My taste buds sure remember the rum cake though.  So yummy!  My personal favorite was the coconut flavor.

 We also made it over to Rum Point.  They have hammocks all over the beach there.  We stopped and had a bite to eat while we were over there.  I don't know if it was the fact that I didn't have to cook anything while I was there, but all of the food I had was so good!
 Iguana statue.

 Views of the ocean from the pier at Rum Point.

 We saw this tree while driving along South Sound.  You can read more about the story behind it if you like.
 We also found a real pirate ship while we were out exploring.
 After driving the whole island, we went back to our room to get our suits on so we could head down to the beach again.  This is the view from our room.
 Here's that pirate ship again!
 A beautiful end to day two.

Grand Cayman: Day One

Trent and I were so lucky to spend almost a week in Grand Cayman at the end of April.  Trent's region did so well last year, that he won the Regional Manager of the year for 2012, so he won the trip!  The only thing better than an awesome vacation is a free awesome vacation.  Prepare for a ton of photos.

Day 1:
Picture from the airplane window just before landing.  We were so happy to finally get there.  We had left our house at 6:30 that morning, and after a layover in Houston, we made it to Grand Cayman by 4:30 in the afternoon.  (With the time change, we were only an hour ahead since they don't observe daylight savings in the Caymans.)
From the balcony off of our hotel room.
We didn't waste any time getting our suits on and heading straight for the beach.




We found Heather and some of our other friends that were on the trip with us while we were out on our walk along the beach.
That night, there was a welcome dinner for all of us.  Trent and Jonelle got in a quick steel drum lesson before dinner.



Last 4 photos by Jim the photographer
Heather, Trent and I.  We love Heather.  She is such a fun gal!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Birthday Girl!

Back in April, our sweet little Jillian turned 2!  We are so grateful for the day she came to join our family.  She brings so much joy and laughter into our home.
I didn't have to do any decorating for her birthday.  Vivian took care of everything in that department.  She made the streamers and everything!  On the left, she wrote some things about Jilly.  The signs read:
"Cute baby girl"
"So silly and loves Shaun the Sheep"
and, "Snuggles a lot with others"
She sure loves and knows her baby sister!  Vivi was especially glad for the day Jilly was born, after begging for a sister for years.

We had a homemade mac and cheese dinner and cake and ice cream over at grandma and grandpa Stock's house with everyone.
This was Jilly trying to blow the candle out.  She had her lips pursed tight and would try to blow through them.  I think a sibling ended up helping her out. ;)
Yay!  Wow, I forgot just how dirty her clothes were that day.  Ah well.
That's some serious static electricity!
Opening presents.
She thought her new dolly needed a taste of her lollipop.  Such a good sharer!
The balloon launch.  Jilly was so excited for the "doons", as she calls them.

Hooray!  Jilly kept saying, "Bye doons!"
The whole fam damily.  We were so happy that grandma Chapman was in town and could celebrate with us.  We were glad we were still in town too!  Our original move date had been April 8th.
A little fun in the back yard together.  We decided to ditch Jilly's clothes since they were so filthy.  She was much happier running around practically naked anyway.
Jilly is the most loved little girl I have ever known.  Her older siblings are always there loving on her, and they all help to take such good care of her.


So Jilly has had a few fetishes in her life.  Her first was her belly button.  She loved to dig in her belly button for the longest time!  If she had a onesie on, it drove her crazy because she couldn't get to her 'belly butt', as she called it.  Next was her nose.  She had her finger in her nose an awful lot for a while there.  Then it was her eyelashes.  She would, ever so softly, rub her fingertips along her eyelashes when she was tired.  Lately, it is her nipples.  The second you take her shirt off, that is right where her hands go.  I won't even tell you what she does when you change her diaper.
There she is again, hands to the chest.  This girl is a crack up!

Here are a few things about our little Lou:

She is so gross!  When Colson was in preschool, there was another mom I had gotten to know pretty well.  She had a daughter that was in Colson's class, and boy did she have some stories to tell about her little girl!  She had been dubbed with the nickname of Poocasso because she loved to make lovely art creations on the walls with her poop.  At the time, I remember thinking, “I’m so glad my kids don’t do gross stuff like that".  Eight years later, that thought has come back to bite me in the butt.  While Jillian hasn't resorted to drawing on the walls with her poop, she does like to dig around in her diaper.  I have just been lucky enough so far to have caught her in the act, and it has gotten no further than her hands.  I also had to buy a garbage can with a lid that locks, and not because she would throw everything away in it.  It was because she kept pulling things out of it to eat.  I think we have finally gotten through her toilet obsession.  On more than one occasion I have either found her playing in the toilet, or drinking out of it.  Ick!

She says “Hi mama” in the sweetest voice you have ever heard when she knows she is about to get in trouble.  And then guess what?  She doesn’t get in trouble.  Because it is so cute and so sweet, it melts my heart like butter, and there is nothing I can do except mug on her.

The other day she started saying, "Happy day!"  Except she says it like it's all one word.  "Happyday!" And now all of us go around saying, "Happyday!"

She has the best belly laugh ever.  I have several sound clips of it recorded, and if I'm having a down day, all I have to do is listen to that, and I can't help but smile and laugh.

She is very sweet, but she also has quite a bit of spunk and sass in her.  I’m telling you right now, you don’t’ want to cross her!  She has recently figured out how to stick her tongue out, and she does exactly that to anyone who is doing something she doesn't like.  Either that or she'll blow raspberries at you.  Little stinker!

She gives the best snuggles.

Her favorite thing to do at the park is swing.  The slides are a close second.

I love how she says please.  It's not just the word please.  It's, "Please, yeaaaaaah".  And she signs it as she says it too.  I hope she never stops saying it like that!

She loves her books.  Especially "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "Moo, Baa, La La La" by Sandra Boynton.

She has the cutest, biggest, bucky beaver teeth!  I love to see her smile!

Her favorite show is “Shaun the Sheep”.  This show is my saving grace.  It is the only way I can get things done some days.  You know, like taking a shower and maybe getting dressed.


I am so glad we had her.  There was a lot of debate whether we should have baby number five.  And Trent and I were never on the same page about it. Either I was ready and he wasn’t, or he was ready and I wasn’t.  Until one day, we were both ready and we both knew it had to be then, or never.  When we first told the kids we were going to have another baby, Trenton said, “Another one?”  He was less than thrilled.  But by the time we had her and he came to the hospital to visit us, he was a changed boy.  He sat down to hold her and said, “I wish I could hold her forever!”
I can’t imagine life without her.  She completes our family and has brought all of us closer together.  Every one of her older siblings dotes on her.  She brightens our world in a million different ways.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Destination Imagiantion

On Sat., April 13 was the Affiliate Destination Imagination tournament.  Colson and his team, otherwise known as The Sugar MOUSTACHES Playing Halo 4 While Eating Jelly Beans with Bilbo the Tiger! (longest team name ever) chose the science problem this year.  It was called Wind Visible.  They had to build a piece of kinetic art and it had to be set in motion by an Invisible Visitor using wind energy.  They had to do a lot of research on wind energy as part of the problem.  We even took a field trip up to ENREL back in December to help them with their research.  They had to create a performance that was 8 minutes or less involving these three key elements.  And the kids have to do it completely on their own.  They have to come up with the ideas for how to solve the problem, the script has to be written by them, and any props that are made have to made by them.  You name it, they have to do it.  And there can be no interference from parents, siblings, or anyone else or they could be disqualified.  These kids worked so hard and did such a good job.  I had the wonderful opportunity to be the co-manager for Colson's team this year.  It was a fabulous experience, and I hope he'll be willing to do DI again after we move to Georgia.  If he doesn't want to, I know Vivi does. :)
 Here they are at the staging area, all prepped and ready to go!
In the performance, they were all enchanted and lived in an enchanted garden.  Their magic flower that kept them all enchanted (which was the kinetic art piece) had stopped moving, and the enchantment on the garden was going to wear off unless they could get it moving again.

They did so great!
The tournament was up at Auraria Campus, and took ALL DAY!  We got there at 9:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 5:00.  Colson and I would have been there until close to midnight, but we opted not to go to the awards ceremony since Trent was only in town for one day and we needed to get him home to get packed and let him get a good nights rest.

Poor guy.  He was so exhausted after being away all week, he fell asleep on the concrete with just a backpack under his head for 45 minutes.  Reminds of when he was working midnights and going to school at the same time.  He took a lot of naps on that same campus just like this.  Lol!    He was such a good sport to take all the kids down to the tournament so that we could be together as a family all day.  I sure love him.

It was a fun day, and we are so proud of Colson and his team for all of their hard work and the wonderful job they did this year.  Way to go Sugar MOUSTACHES!