Thanksgiving 2012

We were able to spend this Thanksgiving on a cruise from Galveston, Texas.  We went to Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.  We had so much fun!

We started out on Thursday with Garrett being sick with the croup, not a great way to start.  But we were so grateful that it wasn't too bad and his breathing treatment worked and we were able to still go.

We left on Friday morning and flew to Houston and then drove to Galveston.  Galveston was a cute little town with the nicest people! Garrett was still a little sick so we didn't do a whole lot because we wanted him to feel better and rest.  Friday night we went to Rainforest Cafe and then Saturday we had to switch hotels because Galveston hotels believe in having bars attached to them with live bands playing until 1:30 in the morning. Grrr! After we got settled in our new hotel, Garrett was ready for a nap so while he slept Lauren, Stefanie, Ethan and I went and saw Breaking Dawn, then we came back and walked down the beach to the pier which was fun.  They had a bunch of rides that the kids rode and then we had dinner at Bubba Gumps.

 Lauren, Stef and not so happy Garrett throwing a fit

Lauren playing with her food

The next morning Garrett woke up with an ear infection and luckily we have a really good friend who is an ENT and he called us in a prescription and saved us.  We boarded the ship after a ton of lines!

Walking to the boat

We were on the Mariner of the Seas, it was a beautiful ship, not quite as fun as their newer ships but still fun!

The first two days we spent sailing. The kids had fun eating, laying out, swimming, being lazy, and ice skating.

Ethan ice skating

 Stef, Lauren, Kortlen and Ethan laying out

my hubby

Our first port was Roatan, an island off of Honduras.  It was so beautiful! The trees were so thick! We did an excursion to Gumbalimba Park.  We had to ride a bus to the park and we were a little afraid for our lives! The roads are very narrow and there are no traffic laws what so ever! It was so scary! I'm still wondering how we survived!

This is the dock we were on, can you see how thick the trees are? Its crazy!

The park was so much fun once we got there! It was so pretty and so well kept! We were walking to the where we would be able to hold the monkey's and it started sprinkling a little and the next thing we knew we were in a nice little rainstorm!  It was crazy how fast it started and it stayed all day! It wasn't like the rainstorms at home it was like walking through a waterfall! (Maybe a little dramatic, but it was pretty heavy!)

Gumbalimba Park

 The family before the rainforest rain drenched us!

 Jamen walking across a very swingy bridge!

 Mark and Garrett holding a Macaw

 Lauren fulfilling her life long dream of holding a monkey

 A very wet mom and Garrett holding a monkey that decided that I needed to hold him.

Stefanie and the monkey!

The next day we went to Belize.  We booked an excursion to go on a semi-submersible and to a private island for a beach break.  We were supposed to go at 9 but they moved it to 11, so we decided to still go but because of that we weren't able to see Belize, which was a little disappointing.  We did have fun on the excursion though. The Beach was really pretty and we were able to see the 2nd largest reef in the world.  It was beautiful! At the beach we went snorkeling and the weather was much better so we were able to soak in some sun finally!

Our little beach!

The last port was Cozumel.  Every time Ive been there it been stormy but this time it was perfect and so beautiful!  The water is crystal clear there!  We didn't plan anything here hoping that the Mark, Lauren and Jamen could go diving.  So, once we got off the boat we booked them to go diving and then found a taxi and went to Mister Sanchez's beach.  That was so much fun! The weather was perfect and the kids had a bunch of fun stuff to do.  When you walked in the water you could see fishes swimming through your legs! It was crazy! 

 Ethan doing a backflip off of the water playground

 Kortlen and Garrett playing in the sand

 A really funny video of Garrett singing

 Ethan holding a gecko with a diaper?!?

 Kortlen, same gecko!

The family getting off of the boat

Mark and Lauren did get to go diving and said it was amazing! It was clear and warm and tons of fish!  Jamen on the other hand didn't get to go! :-(  Apparently his regulator was having issues and the dive man was a big jerk and they had some issues and he didn't get to go.  I felt so bad for him!  Poor kid! I'm hoping maybe next year we can go back there and he will get his chance to go. 

Our last day was spent on the ship.  I can't believe how fast the trip went!  We had so much fun and ate way to much!!

A pretty sunset and cute Kortlen

Our sweet waiters in the dining room!  They are so nice and work way to hard!

These are some of the pictures from the dining room!

 Mom and Kortlen

 Dad and Garrett

 Mom and Garrett

 Stefanie and Jamen

 Dad and Stef

 Lauren and Stef

 Lauren and Kortlen

Mom and Garrett

Well that was a long post and a lot of pictures! (sorry) We are so grateful for the opportunity to take this trip!  It was so much fun and so needed!  I'm so grateful for my family and hope and pray one day we will have everybody there with us!  We missed Liana and her family and Brendan, who couldn't be there! I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm grateful for all my friends and for my family! I love ya!

-Celeste

New Orleans

This past week we had a chance to go to New Orleans for a pool convention.  Garrett and I had a great time while Mark had to work! We went to the aquarium, a butterfly and insectarium, and the children's museum.  The last day Mark got to come to the zoo with us! It was fun to have him with us! Before our plane took off on Saturday we went and visited a plantation which just happened to have a fall festival going on.  It was still so cool to see the plantation.  The trees were amazing and somewhat magical!

So, as for visiting New Orleans, Im not sure I will be going back.  It was a neat place to see.  There was a lot of cool architecture.  The building were huge with these tiny streets in between them.  Everyone had shutters on their doors and windows, I believe for hurricanes.  We stayed in the warehouse district and a lot of warehouses were turned into business and parking.  It was a cool idea! The food was not my favorite.  Everything was fried and it was hard to find anything healthy to eat. The best part was we didn't need our car, we walked everywhere which was so much fun! We walked down Bourbon street and it was......interesting....  It was full of a lot of drinking, nudity and drugged out people.  It was kinda sad. I'm so grateful that I don't do any of that!   Needless to say, I'm so glad to be home and so glad I live in Utah!

Shout out to Lauren, she stayed home with Kortlen and took great care of him and the house and our zoo.  The house was sparkling clean and Kortlen had such a fun week with her.

Well, here is a few pictures of our trip!

Garrett in his own seat for the first time! He is such a big boy!

Garrett just being cute with a chocolatey mouth! This kid loves his m&m's 

The Dinosaur exhibit at the zoo.  Garrett was a little worried!

The beautiful trees on the plantation! I would love this tree in my yard! 

Halloween 2012

I know its been awhile since I've written.....just 9 months! That's not too bad right? Well instead of playing picture overload and catch-up, Im just starting from here and moving forward.

So, Halloween! We had a great time! We started making donuts for the neighborhood 3 years ago as a way of meeting people and to make Halloween a little more fun for me! I got the idea from a sweet lady in my old neighborhood, Mims Zimmerman.  Here is the six batches we made, and we still ran out!

Here is a little of our set-up. We like to set up a movie and people love to hang out and watch movies and eat donuts and warm-up with a cup of hot chocolate (which this year we didn't do because of the 80 degree day!)

Here is the recipe for those interested in it!



Apple Spice Doughnuts

2 Beaten Eggs
1 cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 cup Applesauce
1 cup Buttermilk
5 cups Flour
4 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together the eggs and sugar until light in color. Then add applesauce and buttermilk and mix well.  Sift together in a separate bowl, the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon and then add to wet mixture until well blended.  Let sit for 1 hour.  The dough is very sticky so have a ton of flour on your countertop and roll out to about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Cut into doughnut shapes and fry in hot oil.  We cover ours in powdered sugar but I'm sure whatever else sound good to you would be just as good!

The Family - Garrett dressed up as a swat guy.  He was so dang cute and loved his costume! He kept using his baton as a microphone, just a little confused, but cute!

Kortlen was his own version of Slenderman and Ethan was just scaring people with a mask all night while they were getting doughnuts.

I of course get so crazy that I forget to take pictures sometimes.  But here is a cute picture of Kortlen at his school party.

Speaking of the school party, one of the moms brought this cute snack! She cut rice krispie treats into pumpkin shapes and then had melted white chocolate with orange dye to frost them with.  Then she had different things to decorate them with, sprinkles, candy corn and stuff!  They looked so good and they were so cute! Here's a visual for you:

That's it for now!
-Celeste

January 2012

Happy New Year! So far its been a fairly good start!  We started the year out at the Sanders house for New Years Eve, we had a lot of fun and Garrett somehow stayed up until midnight!

Awww they are so cute!  I have been friends with these two since I think 1994!  That's a long time! They have seen me through good times and bad and somehow still love me!

Lauren's missionary left last month and here is a cute picture of her writing a letter to him.  She misses him so much and its going to be a very long two years!

Lauren and her friends went to a Vegas party at Noah's and  got all dressed up and fancy. But first she had to get a picture of her and Minho for Ryan.

and then her and Jessica decided to shave their legs, weirdos!

and finally they are all done!

Cute girls!

Kortlen and I went on a field trip to the Planetarium and here is a picture of our cute group! (So, I didnt forget who I had :-)

They were really good boys and we had a lot of fun!

  

Then we celebrate Kryspin's birthday and this was a really fast attempt at a minecraft birthday cake!

Kryspin has been living with us since last July.  He is a pretty good kid!  Really quiet but good!  He turned 15 and he and Jamen love playing Minecraft so we thought we would try to make him a cake, it didnt turn out to perfect but it worked!

We have had the strangest winter this year!  This to date is pictures of our one and only snow storm.  Also, this is Garrett's first time playing in the snow.

Kortlen and Ethan made this huge snowman and my sweet sister gave us the decorations for Christmas!  He turned out really good!

Liana, Jaxon, Garrett and I decided to go to the Childrens Museum.  Garrett had so much fun! He loved it!

Well, thats about it for January!  See you next month! Ciao!