Visit to Santa

Obviously it's been busy this holiday season! I thought I'd sneak in a picture of the girls' visit to Santa. We'va had lots of Christmas programs too - I will try to upload some videos from that later!

Greetings from sunny Cancun!

Hi all. Sorry to the friends and family who are enduring all the snow and ice back home. It's absolutely beautiful here. It's warm in the afternoons, but not too bad. Nice and breezy in the evenings.


The Vermeer meetings are all finished, so the rest of our trip is nothing but fun. I've had a pedicure and manicure - and I even crossed over to the other side and got a - yes - a massage. Brian's boss informed us the first night, "here's how this works. Anything you want, charge it to the room and I've got it." SWEET! But we haven't taken advantage - at all inclusive resorts most everything is included anyway! I've been tagging along with the boss's wife, Pam, to the spa (not included) and it's been a blast. (Brian got a massage too!)


The banquet tonight was really cool - Vermeer went "all out" with the entertainment and we got to observe some Mayan culture with dancing and music. Brian kept asking who was going to be voted out. (reference to Survivor for those who might not have picked up on that, lol)


We are off to Xen-ha tomorrow, it's an all-inclusive ocean water park type place with snorkeling and all that fun stuff.
(this is what I look like when I don't straighten my hair)

Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam

First of all - yes, Erica was fine after the fall in the previous blog. :) She just had a bruise on her leg.




This past summer we took a vacation to South Dakota. We spent some of our vacation watching some of the wildlife in the parks, and we were especially intrigued by the buffalo. We drove 10 hours to see buffalo, when behold, what do we have in our own "back yard"? (or up on the hill, rather. Click to enlarge)






This was the view I had from my kitchen window one day last week. I had taken a tour with Erica's preschool class a couple years ago to see these very same buffalo. But for some reason, I had forgotten they existed. The thought never crossed my mind while we were building our house - and I hadn't noticed them the first 4 months we lived in our house.



Strange how sometimes we don't see things that are right in front of our noses...

Funny video....

Okay, I don't have much new to report, so I'm just going to post this funny (then not so funny) video from the pumpkin patch.

Cooper

Here's Cooper, our nephew/cousin who was born almost 3 weeks ago. I couldn't resist sharing this picture...

Happy Halloween!

Our Pumkin

JoJo the Clown (Elizabeth)

Belle from Beauty and the Beast (Erica)

Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Carribean (Erin)

Mulan (Emily)

Crazy Eyes (gotta enlarge this one, lol)

Who ya gonna call?

Here is Erica's Halloween Dance routine that the kids performed for the parents Monday. I've spent nearly 2 days trying to upload it on here, but I finally give up. Here is a link to follow. Enjoy!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v11/mlkoonce/?action=view&current=MOV07885.flv

Pumkin Patch

We finally made it to the Pumkin Patch on the last day that it's open for the season. Prior to today, we were either gone or sick or it was rainy. We went to Harvest Hollow for the first time, they had lots to do and they each left with a tiny pumkin.

Here is one of the activities they had...these are called "Pedal Carts"...as you can see, Emily and Erica needed a bit of help, but Erin was a pro with Lizzie in the rear...



If you click on these photos they will enlarge, but they are really large, sorry about that...

Inevitable

I knew it would be inevitable...that one day I would start a blog. That day has finally come. Now the trick will be to find the time to post. I'm sure it will go in spurts...so you'll just have to keep checking back to see what you find!