COUSIN time!

Here we are. All 12 of us in our two families! We were so honored to welcome Ian's brother Phil, his wife Leilani and their 5 children to visit us here in our part of Texas.  They left their beautiful home state of Hawaii to come and visit us.  Both of our oldest children share a special bond as they spent their early days as a baby together traipsing around Europe.  We once spent lots of time together since then, different positions and jobs have brought our families into separate parts of the world but alas, back together again!  The cousins didn't miss a beat.

Affectionately known as "the big kids"

The Dudes (with new shirts thanks to Uncle Phil)

All Together

Found these two 4 year olds up first one morning, working on a Batman sticker book together while everyone else slept in.

Threw this in because he's so STINKIN cute!

Cruisin...

We're back...sigh...

We had an incredible vacation and regret to say...we have returned to real life.  First and foremost there are so many people I want to thank.  A big huge thank you to my in-laws, Frank and Kathy, who came and took care of not one, not two but three little boys so we could get away.  A very special thank you to Mark and Charon who took care of the other members of our family, Glory (the dog) and Shadow (the cat).  And another shout out to the friends who delivered meals, took the boys for play dates and offered to be on call while we were gone. We're blessed with incredible friends and family and we love you.

Now on the to the good stuff

We thoroughly enjoyed every moment of lounging on the cruise, sleeping in and staying up late, eating to our hearts content and having no agenda. I'm glad to report that the sea bands I brought worked like a charm and only had a momentary bought of sea sickness when I removed them for a moment.  So here are a few pictures from our excursion...

just call him "Popeye"

the shark we swam with...eeek

what we left behind :(

Formal Night

on board