Is Santa for real?

While driving today, Jocelyn broke her most favorite pink headband that "Santa" brought her for Christmas. She was sad, but announced that it's okay because she was sure that Santa would bring her another one for Christmas this year. At that point, Genevieve asked me if I thought he would. I replied to them both that it depends on whether she is naughty or nice. Genevieve replied, "Well, that's not true because last year, we were naughty, and he still brought us stuff! That's weird huh mom?"
Man. If only Santa could follow through with his promises!

A better video...

Ski days

My baby girl has recently become quite the little skier. At 5 years old, she can almost ski more comfortably, effortlessly, and confidently than her mother. :) Hey, now, I said almost.

Taking a break from the slopes to get our faces painted. While we were there, we ran into a friend and babysitter.

Genevieve (up front) mastering the obstacle course.

The rest of the trip...

This picture is cool because you can see our ship way in the background. Princess Cays is a private island owned by the Princess Cruise Company. It is a very tiny, but BEAUTIFUL little island. So tiny, and shallow, that there is no place to dock. So they anchor the boat out in the ocean and tender us in on the life boats. So, yes, we got to ride in the life boat, but not because our captain hit ground and our ship was sinking, requiring our immediate evacuation, but rather, because we were being whisked off for a day of basking in turquoise, Caribbean water.
Isn't it gorgeous!?!?
At each port, the crew takes pictures of you with different "characters." I was extremely impressed with the size of Popeye's muscles. I have since increased the amount of spinach I eat.
One of the most incredible things for us was to watch how they "park" the ships. Especially at port when there are 8 other ships already there. They basically parallel park these things. It was quite a sight. These aren't little boats with a gas pedal and a brake. There is a science to it. I'm impressed just talking about it.
Oh yes, the rainbows in St. Thomas were beautiful! We got quite a bit of rain that day, but we were by no means complaining. The rain would pelt down on us for 3 minutes and then within 30 seconds, the ground was dry.
Magen's Bay is a beach in St. Thomas known as 1 of the top 10 beaches in the world. And I swam there.

Puerto Rico! A very colorful island! For some odd scheduling reason, our port time was only from 4-10pm. So, instead of finding a beach for relaxing, we did a lot of sight-seeing.

We had a minor mishap... Just kidding, but there were some definite "sketchy" areas in San Juan. In fact, we heard there is an 80% unemployment rate there. Yikes! Fortunately for us, they treat the tourists better than their vehicles.

The Famous "San Delipe del Morro Fort" was an interesting area to walk around in. It has been there since the 1500's to protect the island from any European invaders.

Its a pretty massive sized structure and only 10% is left standing now.

Sam even did his part in defending the invaders. He takes his job very seriously.

And now we are back to life. Back to reality. And honestly, we couldn't be any happier than to have our beautiful girls back in our arms! We are very blessed to have such a close family that kept our girls safe and comfortable while we were gone!!

Future Chefs?

10 years of marriage! But better yet, 30 years of friendship!

If the above picture looks photo-shopped, it's because it is. The company that took it of us on our anniversary, wanted $35 from us so badly, they had to make sure it looked good!

Sam and I spent our 10th Anniversary on a 10 day trip to the Caribbean. Rough. Yes, I know. So rough that I thought I should share it with you.

1 of the 4 pools on the Grand Princess

There is our room, you see it, with the balcony, towards the top. Yeah, that one.

Just another one of the pools.

If you want to swim, and watch a movie at the same time, you can! The movies at night are even better when they bring you around blankets, popcorn, warm cookies and milk.

A life boat, that we actually had to hitch a ride on! More to that story later.

1 of the 3 "Theatres" where nightly shows performed. Amazing talent is brought onto the ships. Things you would see in Vegas or NYC. This was one of our favorite things on the ship!

A view from our balcony. Nothing but wide open Atlantic Ocean and beautiful sunsets!

Don't worry, we had a Captain that was able to sail around the large rock clusters in the Ocean.

Another view from our balcony.

It's not Thanksgiving! :)

I know I have been neglectful in the blog department, but to be perfectly honest, I feel so behind, that I don't even know where to start. And then I ask myself, "Do I even bother posting Christmas pictures. From both family gatherings. From New Years. From the kids playing in the snow. Do my kids open presents differently than your kids? Are they more excited and surprised than yours? Do they make cooler snow man? Do you really care?"

So, I don't know where I will start, but I do know that I will continue to blog because of my good friend Thomas Dyer that encourages me! In fact, he mentioned that he still checks in on it, only to be let down when he sees the latest post of "Thanksgiving." So this is for you Thomas!

I am only choosing to blog about the 26.2 miles that Sam and I ran 3 months ago because the pictures recently came across my computer. I realize that I have already complained to my faithful readers about the grueling 5 hours spent running, so I will not go through all the intense, horrible, pain-filled details of how we ran a freakin' marathon again. Instead, you can see the proof for yourself. And then I will shut up about the event I did,which I can honestly say was more difficult than...brace yourselves...childbirth!

The picture at the top of the blog is only there, because Blogger is difficult to work with and doesn't let me move it around very easily. I also like that picture of me during the race because of the 133 that they took of me, it is the one where I am actually smiling...not something I did frequently that day. I am also smiling in the picture below because I am crossing the finish line. Unfortunately, the picture has a time clock in the back ground showing an inaccurate finish time. That is how long it took me to cross the finish line from the start of the race. But with 10,000+ people running, I didn't start at the gun. I started about 30 minutes later. And a person that runs a marathon in 5 hours and 10 minutes is disgusted to see their picture with a clock time of 5 hours and 41 minutes. So please, for my sake, disregard the time clock!

And here is Sam at the most scenic part of the race, crossing the St. John's bridge. Notice the rain? Yep, it did that a lot that day, but does it look like it phases Sam? Nope, he's a trooper and not a complainer. I make up for us both. :)