Monday, June 28, 2010

Bonaire + The Millers = Trip of a lifetime!

Can I just say that we were invited on the most AMAZING family vacation EVER! We went to Bonaire with Colby and Meg and Colby's entire family...The Millers. We felt so lucky to be invited on their family vacation, and I can honestly say it was the trip of a LIFE TIME! We had so much fun exploring the island, scuba diving, wind surfing, snorkeling, EATING, laying out by the ocean and pool and reading (yes I read 4 books, since I couldn't do a lot of the things.)

I know what your first question is..."WHERE IS BONAIRE?" Basically it is an island 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela. It is a Dutch owned island and is part of the Antilles Netherlands and is better known as the "B" in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) They speak Dutch, Pa pimento, Spanish and English. It is also considered part of the Caribbean (hopefully that helps...ha ha ha!)

Anyways here are just a few of the many (YES I DID TAKE MORE THAN WHAT I AM SHARING...shocking I know!) pictures from our amazing trip.




Our first night we ate at Casablanca an Argentine Bistro
The Miller's and Us notice we are all pretty white at this point (ha ha ha!)
We found the church but weren't able to find the schedule we were hoping we would run into the missionaries since they know Chris' brother who served in Aruba and Curacao.
Wind Surf Beach (i.e. paradise)
Ian giving Dustin a killer back massage (ha ha ha!)
Chris LOVED wind surfing...everyone said he did really good for his first time!
We went snorkeling at this really cool beach, there were so many fish and it was nice because the water is so calm along the island.
The boys
No that is not a fake background...it really is that amazing there!
We ate at this Italian restaurant called "Capprecio's" and the food was all as great as the dessert looks!
1,000 steps...this is supposedly a cool diving spot I couldn't tell ya from experience at 75 ft but I can tell ya from snorkeling and watching everyone else dive (ha ha ha!)
The kids were kind to inform us it is really only 64 steps
Chris and Ian feeding some of the locals.
Colb and Meg, they were diving maniac's Meg would usually dive 3-4 times a day and Colby 1 or 2...I think we held them back a little bit!
Skip and Janeen (Colby's mom and dad) were nice enough to take Chris scuba diving 4 times on the trip. He went as deep as 75 feet and had an absolute blast. He said once we have baby girl #2 we are definitely getting certified.
Skip...the MASTER DIVER!
Colby and Meg and the view from inside our apartment.
We had dinner at a cute little restaurant call "Cactus Blue" there was even live music!
It was Dustin and Whitney's 9 year anniversary, aren't they so cute?
Colby shredding it on the windsurf
Carol kicking butt on the windsurf
Whitney killing it on the windsurf
Chris was even keeping up with the pro's for a bit the second day!
Since Chris didn't have cool diving Booties he would put his flippers on way up on the beach and walk the rest of the way backwards (it was pretty funny to watch, but I must say he got really good at it!)
Chris, Janeen, Meg and Colby getting ready for another dive!
Getting ready to explore the amazing reef!
We loved Capprecio's so much we ate there twice!
There was a lot of paddle ball being played on the beach!
Dustin and Whitney took their kids on a kayak adventure and Ian fell asleep on Dustin's lap on the way back...SOOOO CUTE!
The blow hole!
Colb and Meg
We saw a lot of the wildlife such as donkey's, flamingo's and tons of Iguana's
An old abandoned light house...Chris was fascinated with it!
The Caves... petroglyph's on the caves (these weren't like the one's at Powell where you can tell someone wrote them on their sr. trip...ha ha ha!)
I must say they were very cool, but smelled like bat poop.
Watch out bats, here come the Knudsen's
Colby and his brother Matt
Chris holding up the cave...isn't my husband ssssssoooooo hot??? (inside joke)
Zoe and Meg
Izzy, Matt, Sky, Jen and Skip preparing to get sprayed at the blow hole
I seriously couldn't get over how beautiful the entire island is.
waiting to catch a pic when the blow hole was going...we didn't have any success.
Paradise
Our Apartment #10
The tiki hut is right by the pool...we were so close to everything.
Meg, Ian, Zoe and Sky hanging out in the pool!
The dock from the Apartments

What we were so LUCKY to come home to!

Colby Meg and all of the Miller's/Bellocks thank you so much for inviting us on what will most likely go down in history as one of our favorite vacations EVER! We had so much fun, and will never forget it!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

My Up Town Girl

Lately Lydia has been obsessed with "Choo Choo trains." I figured that since we have somewhat of a "choo choo train" close by, why not take advantage. So we hopped on the Trax at 106th and headed down town for quite the adventure. She loved every minute on the train, looking out the window, talking to people and giggling away. When we got there we headed to Discovery Gateway. I think that place is fun, but let's be honest it is always packed with stupid field trips and RUDE kids. I have never been so unimpressed with a group of kids in my life, I wanted to find out which school it was just so I never send my kids there. Anyways sorry for the tangent I am still a little peeved about how rude kids are these days. Lydia still had a blast but I was on my toes the entire time making sure kids weren't pushing her out of the way, amongst other rude things. Then I called my bro Derek and he met us at California Pizza Kitchen for a great lunch. We had so much fun, and I will say that Lydia is such a fun little buddy to hang out with. I have throughly enjoyed every second I have had with her over these few weeks of summer! Overall we were both exhausted by the time we got home Lydia even fell asleep in the car, which is a rare occurrence!

My little up-town girl
Trax
"Mama yook"
She kept saying "Yeah...choo choo!"

Playing in the water
driving a car like mom
playing at the ball station, she is behind a yellow plexi-glass window, thus the picture
She loved the helicopter she didn't want to get out
looking a quite serious
Horsey
Gidy up!





This is my favorite pic of her holding on to grandpa's finger

Baby Girl

Baby Girl
This is our baby girl at 16 weeks. It was such an amazing thing to see her moving and count all of her fingers and toes for the first time. I know I bawled and Chris won't admitt it, but he was pretty emotional as well.

It's a girl!

It's a girl!

She's going to be a dancer