Zipline & Babysitting???

 Jason, Mark, Amy, Becky, Libby, Brad, my mom, my dad, & Corry & Meredith

Our first day on the ship, my sister Amy

met this cute girl named Meredith.

Turns out her and her husband live

near Amy in Utah and we all hit it

off.  We ended up stalking them and

doing 2 of their shore excursions with them.

We felt as though they were part of our

family, and I'm sure they were annoyed

with us, just like REAL Family!  :0)

Welcome to the family Meredith & Corry Cloward!

Brad

Everyone will agree that the Zipline Tour in

Belize was one of the favorite excursions...

except Libby.  I'll explain.

 Amy

While the rest of the gang went on the

zipline, I volunteered to watch Libby.

 Amy and Mark

Libby and I walked over to where they

would zip over our heads and we could 

take pictures.  Great idea, right?!?

 Becky, Libby, and Brad

Well, I was holding Libby in one hand

while snapping pictures with my huge

camera in the other.  The noise of the

zipline made Libby stiffen up.  It was

a loud, strange noise.

 My mom, Kandy

No big deal.  A little noise never hurt 

anyone.  We were getting some good

pictures of everyone except Amy who 

was hidden behind her harness.

 My mom and dad, Terry 

(their 1st time on a zipline)

Jason came zooming past like Tarzan

and I thought we were home free.

Jason (aka Tarzan)

 Then Becky came whizzing by.  In

true Foster fashion, she was yipping and

shouting the whole way.  Libby recognized

the voice and thought something was terribly

wrong.  She became hysterical!

Becky having fun (see the smile, Libby)

Libby was upset!  They went on to zipline for 

45 minutes and I ran the other way with 

Libby.  I didn't want Becky & Brad to worry 

about her, so I took the traumatized baby away.

She was so shaken by it, we had snot bubbles

and all!  Poor girl didn't recover until she saw

her mom safe and sound 45 minutes later.

I think Libby has forgiven me.  After all,

I did get some really good Libby kisses 

a few days later.  :0)

One lucky baby girl!

 We may claim that this trip was in

honor of Becky turning 30, but in reality,

it was a chance to spend time with Libby.  :)

 That girl was the life of the party!

Just look at that smile.  She was like

that all the time (other than the one time

I babysat).  I'll explain that one on another

post.  All in all, I think she still loves me.

 Being away from my kids for 8 days was

hard, but Libby helped soften the blow.

 Everywhere we went, people would swarm

around her.  If we had done a Disney Cruise,

she would have blended in with the crowd, but

not on a Carnival Cruise.  She was a rare find 

and people seriously went out of their way

to talk to her and make her smile.

Spoiled?  Yep, and that's the way we

Foster girls like it.  :0)  Welcome to the

family, Libby.  You fit right in!

From the beginning...The Caribbean!

 We headed out to Miami to board our

cruise ship in honor of Becky's 30th 

birthday.  Husbands were invited this time

and I think they realized we really know 

how to party!  :0)

 My mom and dad really know how to 

spoil us and we know how to enjoy it!

 We all arrived a day early into Miami to

enjoy the sights, then we were off to board

the ship.  Miami was beautiful.

Mark was the only one that didn't pay the 

ridiculous $57 for the all you can drink

soda card...although I think Brad and

Jason definitely got their money's worth.

Then we were off.

*Cozumel, Mexico

*Belize City, Belize

*Roatan, Honduras

*Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

I can't wait to go through my photos and post more.

Thanks to my in-laws, my kids were safe and VERY

well fed.  We are glad to be home 

and back together again!

No party today, sorry!

Ty went to bed on Thursday night (the night

before his birthday) with a temperature on 102.8.

Not a good way to start your big day!

I started making the dreaded phone

calls and canceled his party.  :0(

Postponed, I should say!

He spent the afternoon of his birthday

 at his Dr.s office.  He is getting to know

that place a little too well!  We still let him

have the pizza we had planned on for lunch.

Our kids always get to pick where to go out

to eat on their birthday.  Luckily our sicky had

asked for his daddy to BBQ hamburgers for

his dinner.  All in all, he had a great day full

of awesome presents and lots of attention.

 Summer and I had baked a cake to make

bowling ball cupcake balls with.  Since we

weren't going to the bowling party, I stuck that

cake in the freezer and I let him pick out an ice

cream cake while we waited for his prescription

to be filled.  Ice cream would be soothing on

his Strep infested throat.  Well, that was if it

wasn't shoved in his face by his sister.  :0)

With that blue tongue, I guess there is

 proof that some actually made it

into his mouth.  Yum, yum!

Funny thing:  I asked the lady to write

'Ty You're 6!" on his cake and she

wrote 'your 6'.  We scraped that part off. :)

That is one very cute 6 year old,

and one very tired looking dad.

Jason & I are heading out

to meet up with my family for a

7 day Western Caribbean Cruise.

See you in 8 days!

Presents on St. Patrick's Day!

 While wearing our green, Summer

presented everyone with the

gifts she bought for them in NY.

 Ty got a fire breathing dragon, an awesome

horse in full armor, and a magical egg.

We'll post about the egg another day.

 

Sydney got some freeze dried mint chocolate

chip ice cream (which is what I bought on my

8th grade trip to DC back in the day).  :0)

She also got a snowglobe...

read 2 posts down.  :0(

Hopefully Aunt Becky already left for the

cruise because this is a gift for Libby.

So cute!  Summer had a great time

and we reaped the rewards.  :0)

New York City Fun!

 I'm happy to report that Summer

returned safe and sound this

morning...very early this morning. 

 The only thing I asked her for were

good pictures of HER in NYC.

This was my favorite.  She wasn't a

very big fan of asking others to take

her picture...so we got a lot of these: 

 It's cute, but the Statue of Liberty

lost a head, torso, and arms in the process.

 She loved Times Square.  She went there

3 of the nights, one of which they were filming

a New Years Eve commercial and there were

extras everywhere, a mock version of the ball

drop, and camera crews.  She thought that

was pretty cool!  Spiderman was there on a

different night.  She searched high and low for

The Naked Cowboy, but he was nowhere to

be seen.  Bummer!  Next time for sure.

 Strawberry Fields in Central Park was

one thing she enjoyed.  I was sad to see

how dead the grass and trees were.  We

went in  October and everything was still

so green and beautiful.  She was a little

disappointed that Central Park wasn't as

green and beautiful as I had described it to be.

 She really got around.  They hit a lot of the

hot spots, including:

Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty

Times Square

Toys R Us with the giant ferris wheel

Mamma Mia

The Met

Museum of Natural History

Empire State Building

Subways

Grand Central Station

9/11 Memorial

...and much more!

It was a tour provided by

Smithsonian Student Travel and they

got around on foot and via subway.

Here she is with McKenna on the

subway.  Only 9 kids from her school

got to go and it was an awesome trip.

I'm sure she will gladly tell you all

you want to know about it.  :0)

Now that's just too far!

This snowglobe is similar to the one she described.

Summer texted me a few minutes ago to

tell me that the snow globe she bought for

Sydney (who has a collection) was

taken away by airport security.  I find

that a bit ridiculous!  I happen to know

that she searched all over NYC for a

cute snowglobe for Syd...and used her own

money to buy it.  She was really disappointed,

but luckily she bought Syd a few other things.

I cannot wait until she gets home.  We have missed

her terribly, but I am so glad she had the

opportunity!  Too bad the airport had to

ruin a little piece of that.  :0(

While Summer's away, Ty and Syd will play!

 

Summer is enjoying Central Park

in New York City today!

Rather than sitting around

and feeling sorry for ourselves

this entire week, we decided to

drive 6 miles from home and enjoy

the old copper mining town of

Jerome, Arizona.  This sign Sydney

is standing by says the mine closed

in 1914.  It is quite the ghost town.

 

They have rigged up an awesome 

metal dragon that breathes fire and 

spits out black smoke.

 

Ty lost interest in that pretty quickly

because there were more important 

things to do.  ANIMALS!

We found the Easter Bunny!

 

In the hen house, we heard some

little chirps.  Ty was the first one to

spot this little baby chick.

 

Sydney felt like she looks in this picture.

Her allergies have kicked in BIG TIME

and I'm surprised the hives haven't

appeared yet this year.

 

Ty heard coffin and he immediately

stuck out his tongue.  I begged for him to put

it away, but he refused.  Pretty cute anyway.

As always, our favorite part is feeding

Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales. He

is the cutest donkey ever.  They even

have him trained to ring his bell when

he wants you to feed him more.  My kids

would have fed him a truckload full.  

His little whiskery chin tickles your hand 

when he's slurping up the food.

It was a fun day (even if Summer

was in the Concrete Jungle).

She's off!

 

It's official!  We watched her drive

away on her way to the airport.

Our baby girl is headed to 

The Big Apple!

 

New York City will never be the 

same.  She is so excited and I know

she will enjoy every second of it.

Summer (and Jason & I) have been truly

blessed by our friends and family that have

donated their hard earned money to give

her this opportunity.  Of the $1600+ that

she needed to raise, we are only $345

short.  I know she will make up the difference

when she returns.  Thank you everyone!

You know who you are!

Cupcake Cones!

 

Deja Vu.  Don't you love it

when you stand in the kitchen 

working on a recipe and you 

can just picture your mother

in her kitchen making that exact 

same thing.  My mom made these 

for me as a little kid and now I get 

to make them for my kids.  Ty

got to bring his Cupcake Cones

to school to celebrate his birthday...

a week early!

 

 As he is pointing out, he

 has one of those birthdays

that will most likely fall on

Spring Break every year.  Bummer?

Maybe, but it allows for a week

worth of celebrating!  :0)

 

The first time I helped in his

classroom, I attempted to follow

him out to recess.  He quickly approached

me and asked, "Can you go back to the 

classroom?"  No please, just meanness!

Needless to say, I was heartbroken.

 

 I guess he has finally discovered that his

mom is, in fact, one pretty cool lady. 

:0)

Now I get to see his skills.

Thanks for the change of heart,

birthday boy (well, next week anyway).

Oh, my!

Have you discovered this salad

 at Wendy's yet?

Apple Pecan Chicken Salad

It is my absolute favorite!  You

can order a half salad for $3.99 and

it is only 340 calories fully loaded!

Sadly, we don't have a Wendy's

here, so I have to plan my trips

accordingly.  :0)  It's

worth every bite!!!

Bundle up. It's game time!

 

Thank goodness I didn't unload my trunk

yesterday.  We headed to Camp Verde

for Summer's first soccer game and 

it was cold!  Luckily, Ty had a 

hoodie in the trunk.

 

He was Daddy's personal heater.

 

Syd selfishly enjoyed the warmth

of the car quilt my mom made us

for Christmas this year.  That

thing has been really handy so far!

 

Who cares if it's cold when your daughter

is the rock star on the field!

 

 That girl was fierce!  She was throwing

her body into the other team, kicking

magnificently with her left (as always) and

her right, and just plain tough!!!

 

She has her mojo back!

Watch out world...

Summer Stewart is here!

They won 4-0 and that is because the

defense SHUT THEM DOWN!  Way

to go Summer!  On a side note, notice

her drawstring hanging out the leg of her

shorts?  I thought it was pretty funny.

I doubt she would laugh about it though.

:0)