Melanie's Birthday

We celebrated Melanie's birthday twice - first with Kyle's family, then with Melanie's family.

Here we are with Kyle's side on the cruise...

On our last night of the cruise, Kyle surprised Melanie with a birthday cake at dinner so we could celebrate a little early with Kyle's side of the family. This would be birthday cake #1.

Here we are with Melanie's side on Dec. 24th...

Being that Melanie's birthday is on Christmas Eve, it has always been easy to celebrate with family. This year we continued the tradition of going to a movie and dinner with Melanie's parents and brother, James. We saw Enchanted, which was fun and light-hearted.

Birthday cake #2 (it was actually a pie).

Birthday cake #3 at the restaurant.

Family Cruise

We just returned from a fun week at sea on a Carnival cruise with Kyle's family. The ship sailed from Galveston to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Besides the fun excursions, we enjoyed time with family and good food and entertainment.

Elaine and David

Lindsay, Kolby, and Shane

Kimberly, Mark, and Madison

OCHO RIOS, JAMAICA
The ship docked in Montego Bay, but we took a bus to Ocho Rios for our excursion. Kimberly, Mark, Kolby and Lindsay went with us, while David and Elaine stayed on the ship with the babies. The bus ride was an adventure in itself - it was almost 2 hrs, and was a wild ride that we weren't confident we would survive. We arrived in Dolphin Cove, where we had lunch and saw dolphins, sharks, parrots, and iguanas. From there we took mini-boats to the bottom of the falls, which opens right onto the beach. We had so much fun climbing the 600-ft of cascading falls.

We could see the falls as we approached the beach with our mini-boat.

GRAND CAYMAN
Our entire group took a private guided excursion in Grand Cayman. We snorkeled at two different spots, and visited Sting Ray City, which was really fun. I'll add photos of our sting ray encounter when I get the water camera photos developed.

One of our snorkeling stops.

Kimberly with beautiful starfish that our guide found while we were there.

Up-close and personal with the sting rays.

The iguanas are everywhere in Grand Cayman.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO
Cozumel was the last port of call, but we went with David and Kolby on an excursion in Playa del Carmen. We took a 30-min. boat ride to get there, then our guide drove our group to an eco-adventure park. There, we snorkeled in the crystal clear water inside the caves and enjoyed flying through the jungle on 3 different zip lines.

One of the caves we saw, but did not snorkel in because it is considered to be sacred. There is a light film of calcium deposits floating on the surface of the water, so it is hard to tell how clear the water actually was.

Kyle on the zip line.

Returning to our ship.

Georgetown Holiday

The busy holiday season began with us hosting Melanie's family for Thanksgiving. Melanie's mom did most of the cooking, and everything was delicious as always. The next night we all went to the Lighting of the Square, where we enjoyed caroling, hot chocolate, and the downtown square all decorated for Christmas. Afterwards we went to see A Christmas Carol, the musical at the historic Palace Theater.

Junction, TX

Kyle's family has a hunting lease in Junction, so we spent a few days there the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was a great opportunity to relax, unwind, and spend time with Kyle's dad and brother. Acie and Abbie had an especially fun time exploring the area, riding around in the truck, chasing deer and seeing other wildlife.
The dogs are intrigued by the herd of cows in the background.

Trick or Treat

Since we live in a neighborhood filled with young children, we weren't surprised to see homes lit up with orange lights at night and decorated with spiders, giant webs, bats, tombstones, and everything else Halloween. As the day approached, we were advised by several neighbors to stock up on candy because the kids are "bused" in from other neighborhoods. Although no one could estimate the number of kids, the impression we got was that no matter how much candy we bought we would run out. So we went to Sam's and bought what we thought was enough candy for about 100 trick-or-treaters. We looked forward to sitting out on our rockers that evening and watching all the activity, but unfortunately Kyle was called in to work and missed out on almost the entire evening. The activity on our street was amazing - kids were everwhere, many of the parents were pulling wagons down the sidewalks, and there was even a hayride that went by at the end of the night. For a solid hour the stream of kids coming to get candy was continuous, so I had to be less generous and more careful with my candy supply. The average group size was 4-6, but often there would be 14-16 at a time. I knew Kyle would ask me when he got home how many kids I thought came to the house, so I kept a tally. I stopped counting at 275, so the final number reached 300 if not more. I took a couple of pictures for Kyle to see when he got home.

Of course I knew Kyle would love this costume.

Waxahachie Weekend

We made a short trip to Waxahachie this weekend to spend time with Kyle's parents, grandparents, Aunt Beverly and Uncle Larry. We all met there for the Texas Country Reporter Festival. We had lunch at Catfish Plantation to celebrate Grandma's birthday.

Grandma with Sweet Pea.

Elaine with her brother Larry and his wife Beverly.

The festival was around the historic downtown square.
We enjoyed sitting in our lawn chairs to watch the Bellamy Brothers in concert that evening.

Kyle's Birthday!

Kyle turned 31 last week, so we had a casual dinner celebration with friends. Richard Throop and his girlfriend, Kassy, were there, along with Josh and Tyler, a couple we met through them.