happy birthday to you!

My dad celebrated his birthday on Saturday (3/17) and my mom celebrates her's tomorrow (3/20). With each passing year, I think I grow to love and appreciate my parents more and more! How they raised my sister and myself without killing us and survived, is beyond me. Happy Birthday to the best.parents.EVER.!!

Joey

I must preface this post, by telling you all what a 90's sitcom nerd I really am. Seriously. Just ask my husband. And by 90's sitcom, I'm mainly referring to the every Friday night line up (anybody remember TGIF?) Anywho, for anyone who knows me at all, knows how much I used to be obsessed with Full House. Back in 2009 I went to a Womens Conference and got to meet Candace Cameron- Bure (DJ Tanner!), that was a total blast - and yes, I was one of those crazy pshyco fans screaming when she went on stage. (hey....I watched her every week on Full House growing up - this was a BIG deal!!! lol) Well, I am following most of the cast of Full House on Twitter (I told you I was a nerd!) and Dave Coulier (Joey!) posted that he is doing a comedy show in Kansas City - so of course, I had to call and get tickets! Yay! I was SO excited. So we brought our friends, Jeremy and Monica and went to see "Joey"!

I may, or may not, have screamed like a looney fan when he walked out on stage. ;-)

Now I've just gotta meet Stephanie, Danny, Uncle Jesse and Michelle!

...these are for you, Monica....

Since some people don't have facebook (coughcough-monica-cough) I thought I'd post a few pics..... ;-)

Here are just a *few* of the pics we took last week, while on our 8 day vacation, 7 day eastern Caribbean cruise. I took over 150 pics. Lucky for you, I only posted a few =)

It was our first cruise, we had an absolute a-maz-ing time - definately something we will do again! =) Below, right after arriving on the ship, we took a little tour - these ships are incredible. Here we are standing in the middle of Deck 5, in the "Royal Prommenade", where guest services was at, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop, a jewelry store, a coffee shop, a pizza place, a souvinear store and lots more. They had this beautifully lit bridge that goes out to the prommenade..

Here is Jeremy, talking to his mom on the phone (checking on the kids) as we are pulling away from the dock.....we're setting sail!

They had a set-sail party by the pool, and we were even joined by Shrek and Fiona - made us think of Isaiah - he would've loved that!

First formal night......... =)

In the back of the ship, they had set up what was called a "Flow Rider" which was a wave stimulator, that made waves so people could surf or boogie board. Jer loved it and went back several times - even though it about killed his allready bad back! He's a glutton for punishment!

I didn't post pictures, but our first stop was Coco Cay Bahamas on Monday (9/26). Below is our second stop, St Thomas on Wednesday (9/28)

They had beautiful beaches! We took a tour bus over to Sapphire Beach - it was just georgous. Jer did some snorkeling and I worked on my tan =)

After Sapphire Beach, we took the same bus tour back through town to our dock to load back on the ship. We saw some amazing landscaping and scenery......

This was the 3 floor dining room where we ate each night....

Our 3rd stop was on Thursday (9/29), we went to St Maarten

Downtown St Maarten, where we did lots of shopping!!

We also visited the beach on St Maarten, and even rented a jet ski for half an hour.....tons of fun!!!

Several nights the waiters entertained us after dinner by song and dance - it was great fun!

Not only was Shrek and Fiona on the boat, so was Po from Kung Fu Panda....

Second formal night...

There was so much to do on the boat.......several pools, hot tubs, jogging track, work out room, salon and spa, game/cards room, multiple bars, resteraunts, Flow Rider, Casino, Ice Skating Rink, Trivia games and Rock wall climbing.....

Our dinner crew! We ate dinner every night with this couple, on the left, they were from Texas, the man 3rd from the left was our main waiter, and next to him was our assistant waiter. They did a fantastic job every night!

And of course each night we had to get a picture of our towel animal left on our bed by the room service crew! =)

We had such a fun time - and are looking forward to going back!

Happy 10 year anniversary to me and Jer!!!

Labor Day 2011

Well, we are back from a (mostly) fun, yet exhausting weekend away at the lake. I say 'mostly' because we did spend some time in the ER with Isaiah, that of course was not wanted or planned. So that part was kinda scary! Jeremy was down a few cabins over in his parents and sisters rooms (they had adjoining rooms - we were stuck way on the other side of the resort! :( ) and it was 10:30 or so and they were getting ready to play a game (Jeremy, his dad, his sister, his brother in law and his nephew). Andy, our brother in law had bought a big bag of peanut m&m's earlier, and everybody was snacking on those. Most of you know that Isaiah is like deathly allergic to peanuts or any kind of tree nut. So we have to be very careful - we've made several trips to the ER with him. Well, long story short, before anyone knew what was going on, Isaiah came up to the table and grabbed a peanut m&m and stuck it in his mouth and bit in to it. Everybody freaked out and had him spit it out, and Jer attempted to get it all out of his mouth and rinse his mouth out. It was allready too late at that point, and shortly after that, Isaiah started wheezing and coughing. He brought him back to our room, where Gena and I were sleeping. We gave him a shot of his epi pen (THANK YOU GOD that we had it!!), called Jer's mom, who came down to stay with Gena and me and Jer were off with Isaiah to the hospital. Got there about 11:30pm or so. After the doctor giving him more of the epi medicine (his breathing was still wheezy) Isaiah finally started feeling better and quit coughing as much and could breathe a little better. After keeping us to observe him for a little bit, they finally let us go home about 3:30, and we got back to our room a little after 4am. A little more excitement than we hoped for on Saturday night! Isaiah is doing much better now, and is back to his usual ornery self. Other than that little incident, we had a blast this weekend!

I wanted to share a few photos with you this beautiful Tuesday! Here are some highlights of our trip.....we did a lot of swimming, jet skiing, eating, playing games and just having fun, hanging out with family - some we don't get to see but once or twice a year.

Saturday night we met up with some family at the Dam, where there were swings, a merry go round, tennis and basketball courts and a nice shelter house.

Sunday we took the kids jet skiing - that was a lot of fun! Lilly and Isaiah both got on the jet ski for the first time - they both loved it!

And what would a family reunion be without a fun game of Spoons?!? =)

Right before we left, we had to take our annual family pics.....every year we usually have one kid that just.won't.cooperate. Not this year bygolly! All the kids did great - I was so proud of them!!

After we leave our room, we always go down to the lighthouse harbor and feed the fish....

This is Aunt Carolyn - one of Judy's many sisters

And eating lunch on the way home....

That was our weekend in a nutshell! Hope you all had a fun, safe labor day weekend, and your weekend did NOT involve an ER visit!