March - the rest of the story

Once we flew back to Utah, we had another day long drive home to Arizona, but we had a great trip and the kids did really well (except for Spencer, but we kind of expected that!)!

We got home, got settled back into life and our daily routine and busy schedule that comes with kids and life and all that...

Keltsy had a field trip with her preschool - the best part was getting to knock a cone over with the fire hose!

She enjoyed climbing on the trucks with her friends and little brother.

She listened intently to the firemen explain what they had to do for their job.

Overall a really great day!

One of the perks of where we live is that we're close to an airforce base and daily see fighter jets flying overhead. We were able to attend a free airshow that the airforce put on, saw a lot of really cool military aircraft and some really amazing and awesome stunts performed.

And here's one of our cute kids getting ready to help mom cook some dinner! I know it turned out a little blurry, but I love it anyway.

There's this thing called blogging...

Sorry, guess life has gotten in the way of blogging for the last few months. I'll be playing catch up for awhile!

As promised, here are some pictures from the everglades:

My sister Kathy, her husband James, my brother Mark and his wife Debbie, myself didn't have plane tickets home until the day after the cruise ended, so we spent that last day of our trip together seeing the sights around Florida. Mainly the Everglades and an aligator farm. This gentleman pictured above drove a fan boat tour that we went on through the everglades.

One of the gators cooling himself at the gator farm we went to.

My sister Kathy pretending to get eaten by a gator statue...

The farm also had some pretty exotic creatures. These geese were beautiful, made me want to put on a frilly white dress and go eat some crumpettes.

These are some baby gators. They were just all over each other in their habitats enjoying the sunshine.

This gator was going back into the water for a swim!

Here we are at the Everglade National Park. It was an amazing place, recommend if you ever get the chance to go see what's there. It was beautiful and exotic!

Here's a pretty cool bird we saw at the everglades.

This was the coolest thing ever. We were sitting there enjoying the view and someone in our group noticed this bird sitting there with a fish it had speared. It sat there for awhile making sure we all had noticed and were paying attention to it, then it shook the fish down it's beak and then with a quick flick and jerk of it's head grabbed it in it's mouth without dropping it. It was very cool!

The Cruise!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOM & DAD!

50 years and counting...

As previously mentioned, my parents have their 50th anniversary this month. To celebrate they wanted to take a cruise with their adult children and spouses. It was fantastically fun, we loved the beaches and the sun and sand - but the best part was to be together and talk like Hubbard talk. Lots of fun and laughter and good natured teasing all around with a sprinkling of politics here and there.


The day we left the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze in the air. That breeze turned into a gusty wind that blew the whole week and caused 10 ft swells on the water. The day we were docked, but at night when we were cruising you could feel the water moving beneath your feet. It took several days to get my land legs back!

Jesse borrowed his dad's binocculars and spent a lot of time enjoying the view. The houses around the port in Miami were extravegant and huge and make everyone go...'ooooh, aaaaah'.

One night we took some pictures - ours didn't turn out great, but everyone promised to email what they got. This is one of mom and dad with their kids.

Here we go!

A giant chess board at one of the ritzy hotels at the first port.

Maybe something we can do in our own backyard!

The first day we decided to just look around and see what we could find.

We found a very pretty spot to stop and lounge on the beach.

Here I am being brave and posing for a picture in my swimming suit! While at the beach we ran into my brother Mark and his wife Debbie. We spent the afternoon with them and had a great time just hanging out and spending time together. The water was cool, but not cold. After that we did some suvenior shopping.

The second day we found a beach that didn't have public access. The beaches are all public, but some of them aren't accessable because of the private property surrounding the beach. There was a restaurant and rental shop that we paid to gain access to the beach ($5) and it was away from the tourist crowd and Jesse got to do some snorkeling even though the water was still rough.

That day was spent with Kathy, David, Brent, and Mom & Dad. After beaching we hit the huge straw market there (we were in Nassau) and bought some more souveniers for everyone. We had a great time and too much sun.

The third day we were supposed to stop on Norwegian's private island. They don't have a port there for the ship to dock on, so the plan was to shuttle/ferry the passengers on smaller crafts. Unfortunately the swells were too large to do that safely, so we spent the day cruising around. We found some cards, played games, and talked and enjoyed each other's company some more. By then I was getting anxious to talk to the kids. We didn't have cell service from when we left Miami and the still getting over strep throat made me worry a little while we were out of contact. It was nice to get away, but definitly great to be back in contact the next morning.

The next day (Friday) we deboarded and Mom, Dad, Brent, Karen & Jason all left for home. Kathy & James, Mark & Debbie, and myself & Jesse spent the day together while David & Kelli enjoyed the sights of Miami on their own. We went through the Everglades and down to the Keys. I'll make another post about that.

February

February was mostly just pushing through 'til the end of the month. My parents are having a 50th Anniversary soon. To celebrate they took their adult children (and spouses) on a cruise. Before we left the kids all came down with strep throat. We got them all meds and took the kids to Utah to spend the week with their cousins while we were gone. Lots of planning and arrangements to make, but definitly a great vacation and refresher for Jesse and I.

January

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Spencer has found his nose!


(I don't know why I can't rotate this picture) - Keltsy is my helper. She loves to help me anyway she can and is always the first to volunteer.

Isaac has been excelling in school. Here's a picture of his school award ceremony they do every quarter. He got straight Es (the same as As), that jacket is his favorite one that he got as a hand me down. He wore it all winter, even indoors.

January was a fun month, we moved. I'm glad that's done and it definitly feels more like 'home' than our rental did.

Nov/Dec

November and December were quite busy for us. We went to Utah for Thanksgiving, our first with extended family for a long time. It was great to see everyone and catch up from just few months previous. I love living closer to everyone and although I know a lot of people have 'in-law trouble', my in laws are awesome and I feel like a real part of the family amongst them. We also found a house to buy...originally we were outbid on the home, but the people didn't respond to the bank (it was a foreclosure) so we ended up with the one we wanted after all! It is an amazing house, had everything on our wish list, more than we could hope for. We closed just before Christmas.

My nephew got married in December, he's the first of the grandkids to get married so all those who could make it came. It was fun to see everyone and get some of the Hubbards together for the holidays. It was sweet to be in the sealing room and feeling all the love being poured into the two getting married - such a fabulous experience.

Summer Pictures

When we were in Utah this summer, Jesse's family had a reunion and we had pictures done. I just got them and love how they turned out!

The only problem is picking which ones

I want to hang on my wall!

My kids are so darn cute!

For awhile I've been wanting an updated picture of just me and Jesse. We don't have any of just the two of us since the kids came along.