Growing Family!

My mom and her sister Glenda at Dawn's graduation. My mom was so happy to see her sister.

Me, my mom, and sister

My immediate family plus my aunt, uncle, cousins and second cousins. It was wonderful to see everybody at Dawn's graduation. I hadn't seen the extended family in quite some time. Now that we have a baby it was great to connect with the other moms. I always thought I wouldn't be one of those people that talks mom stuff. Now I do! I'm so glad all of them could come up from Platte, SD. So many things are happening in their family. Three grandchildren born last year and now my cousin Jason is getting married in a couple months. They are almost doubling their family members in a year. What an exciting time for them!

We haven't taken photos like this in years. In fact it has probably been 5 years since my entire immediate family took photos at our wedding. Carol took this picture. She and Steve, her husband, were the photographers for our wedding. I always remember going out to the cabin in the Black Hills with Steve, Carol, Laura, and Amanda. Steve would drive us around so us girls could get the perfect photos. One time we stopped by a beautiful little Inn to have pink lemonade. We sat in an alcove looking out at all the scenery and just enjoying each others company. I remember feeling very content. For me there is nothing more peaceful than being with friends in God's creation. Such great memories!

My sister and I with our two cousins and all our babes. Our cousin Amanda (Jerad) has a 5 month old baby and Jenna (Josh) has 6 month old twins. All together we had four babies -not counting all the older kids.

Daraby loves to roll the ball back and forth on the floor. Not only does she like it but she is good at it. If she rolls it the opposite direction we make her go get it. OH- she is crawling everywhere. I am baby proofing our place. I can't believe how fast she can go.


She picks the ball up and kisses it.

Graduations!

Congrats Dawn! My brother, Darrell's, first born graduates from high school. My nephew, Brady, also graduated from a two year college. We are proud of him as well!


This is our newest family photo. Thanks Carol for taking so many photos for us.


Dacey, one of my nieces, holding Daraby at Dawn's graduation.

Brittany, one of my nieces, with Daraby. As you can tell Daraby is well loved my her cousins.

Daraby playing on the floor with her new book from her Aunt Dixie.

Here, there and everywhere

Lately I've been on the road a ton. Over the last three weeks I've logged over 2,000 miles by traveling to SD, CO, NE, back to CO, back to NE, back to CO, back to NE, back to SD and finally back to NE (HOME). Thank goodness Daraby was a good traveler!
The week after we went on our cruise I drove back to Denver to met Andrew's Mom- Brenda along with his sister Rachael and her husband Daron. After eating out together Daron and Rachael went back to CO Springs while we went to stay at the Ronald McDonald home. Over the next couple days Daraby went through testing at National Jewish Hospital. Most of it was allergy testing since she has some issues with certain foods. At the end of the two days at the hospital it was apparent that she isn't really allergic to anything. Of course she can't handle milk proteins but everything else tested out clear. The doctors believe most of her problems are related to her acid reflux and digestive system. They wanted to do more testing by sending a probe down her throat for 24 hours and then take some x-rays. I debated about more testing and decided that we would wait to see if it will heal by itself in the following months. We can always go back in a year for additional testing. For now the medicine she is taking is sufficient most of the time to relieve her symptoms.
My mom-in-law flew in specifically to help with Daraby while we were at the hospital. The program for testing can last up to two weeks so she planned to help the first week which ended up being just two days. Since we finished up early(Tuesday night) and her flight didn't go out until Friday, we decided to drive back to NE to see Andrew. On Thursday we drove back to CO to see Rachael and Daron one last time before she flew out. We had a really nice time and Andrew's mom was a big help with Daraby. I'm very thankful for her willingness to travel all that way to help us out.
After I dropped Mom off at the airport I drove home to pick up Andrew to drive onto SD for my niece's graduation. Check on the next post for that trip. Until then Happy Trails to You!

Darcy sees the Ocean for 1st time!

Bon Voyage! For our 5th year wedding anniversary Andrew surprised me with a cruise off the coast of California. He was stealthy and planned this cruise in January. He then told me about it on Valentines Day. Of course, he had this all planned before the whole mold fiasco. For a while there we didn't know if we should cancel the cruise and use the money for home things or not. In the end we knew we took the trip to just enjoy each other. My mom took care of Daraby.
You see, Andrew promised me that he would take me to the ocean before our five year anniversary. I had never seen the ocean or swam in it. While on the cruise I saw and swam. I even touched and fed the fish. It was a four day cruise and we were supposed to stop in two ports but because of the swine flu they canceled our stop in Ensenda, Mexico. We were a one stop ship with two fun days aboard the boat.
(Our buddy Jeremy took the picture above when were on the tender boats going to shore.)


We boarded these tender boats to get to Catalina Island.


We had just finished kayaking in some really rough water. It was a ton of fun and very wet. Let's just say, I got my sodium intake for the day.


We were able to see a dead whale while kayaking and some incredible condos built on the side of a steep hill. We paddled by some people living out on their sailboats. It was a very relaxing community. Our kayak guides were hilarious because they paddled way in front of us. So many of the couple were kayaking for the first time in these huge waves. Andrew and I kept thinking about what would happen if a couple flipped over- the guides wouldn't even have a clue. I am not kidding the kayaking was rigorous. There were huge waves and we went around the other side of the island. Some of those couples barely made it back.
In the afternoon we went snorkeling. That was a ton of fun. It was a riot getting into wet suits. One couple was pretty hilarious. When we got into the water our guide gave us great instructions and off we went. Our guide was a spirited man close to 70 years old. He was incredible. He would dive down and bring up stuff for us to see: sea urchin, plants, shells, crabs etc... I'm so glad he was our guide and not the other guy. He went way above and beyond. There were fish swimming all around us. Beautiful fish- I might add. Most of the couples that went kayaking with us also went snorkeling. By the end of the day we were all burnt and exhausted.
I made Andrew's day by kayaking and snorkeling. He loves it when we are active. By the way, we don't really vacation, we have a schedule to keep and things to do. Andrew wakes me in the morning to give me the itinerary. One morning, he woke me up to tell me that the alarm was going to go off in 10 minutes. Who does that? I told him to leave me sleep until it went off. He was too excited to let me sleep!

This is a picture of Avalon, CA. This is the town on the Island. We happened to wander around the town for an hour in between kayaking and snorkeling. We enjoyed a some great ice cream. They had yummy fat free strawberry frozen yogurt. No, it doesn't make up for all the terrible bad foods we ate while on the boat. Cruise ships= unlimited eating. While wandering around town we happened to enter a beautiful art gallery. I loved all the paintings and we took our time looking them over. I ended up talking to another lady in the gallery about the paintings and the next thing I knew she was signing a poster for Andrew and I took take home. SHE WAS THE ARTIST! She just stopped by the studio to check on things. She has a home on the Island and often paints there. I was tickled pink to meet her. By the way her name is Ruth Mayer check out her art at http://www.ruthmayer.com/

We met some great friends on the boat. Jeremy and Anouk, Brad and Stacey, Marvin and Velda, plus our great waiters-Tvan and Ben. We attended many shows and events-Went mini golfing, played b-ball, sang karaoke, and ate... It was great to be with other couples and laugh. Thanks for befriending us and hanging out. Oh Andrew and I sang "Keeper of the Stars" to each other at Karaoke. Our DJ sang that at our wedding reception and since we were celebrating our 5th year anniversary we thought it was appropriate even though the range was a bit hard for us. :) After that Brad, Jeremy and Andrew got up and sang the YMCA song. Marvin and Velda asked where they could buy our CD. HA!

Gone Cruising!

We are on Catalina Island! Our only port while on ship.


This is the harbor on Catalina Island. The round buidling in the distance is neat to look at. The Wrigley (Gum) family owns most of the Island and donated 88% of the island to conservation. They have up to 250 buffalo on the Island. So neat! The island is 22 miles from L.A.


Andrew was dedicated and got up to see the sunrise. Usually, it was cloudy in the mornings.

I know this picture is blurry but it is the best I have. This is the main lobby on the ship. Lots of glam.

It was amazing to watch this guy carve these two love birds. They formed a heart. He was very quick and artistic.