We're home...yipee!?? I'm just very grateful that the -50 weather eased up just in time for our return! That would have been a real shock to the system. As it was Caleb had a bit of a fever the day after we got back. It's an awful lot for a little body! All in all the kids did well. The 2 weeks really allowed us all to settle into a routine and be relaxed! We were never rushed and were able to do what we wanted when we wanted to. It's neat to be in Cancun because there's so much to do. I was worried about the "big city" but it worked to our advantage because we hopped on a bus many times and went all over the place, for cheap too! There was a great place across from our hotel that had old mayan ruins that were neat to see but the main attraction there were the geckos that lived amongst the rocks and you could feed them bread and they would all come out. A little scary cuz some were like small dinosaurs. We also hit Walmart for some more suntan lotion and we even got to spend an afternoon bartering at the market while a girl we met babysat the boys in our room. We met some great people from 2 hours out of Winnipeg that had 2 daughters, 6 and 11. The boys loved them and they really helped us out and gave us a break. We even got to go to the fancy adult's only restaurant at the resort where we had mango martinis and filet mignon. Some of the other things we did were:
We went to a great aquarium
We took a ferry ride across to an island and had a lot of adventures on the beach and at a turtle sanctuary
We rented a car and went on a hunt for our friends, Evan and Cheryl, in Playa Del Carmen where we went into their hotel and checked it out (which I loved) and then we shopped along the famous strip there.
We went to do laundry which was an adventure on the bus
And of course we lounged around the hotel, eating drinking, swimming and laying on the beach. We really enjoyed the beach, the turquoise water in Cancun is amazing and our hotel had oceanviews from every restaurant, pool chair and room. When the kids were squirelly in the room we turned on cartoons and sat on the balcony staring at the ocean. Something about the waves that allows for a deep breath.
We really enjoyed our hotel this year and after 2 weeks got to feel really comfortable there. The rooms were standard and I'm not sure how we survived in a small place but we did. Like I said the view kind of made the rest seem trivial and it was always clean.
The food was good. For me I was just happy to not have to cook and I ate bacon every morning for 14 days so that put a smile on my face. Carson ate plain bow tie pasta for lunch and dinner everyday and Caleb ate like 4 pancakes or waffles every morning. They made some amazing chicken wings in the snack bar and they also had a neat Japanese place for lunch. Everything was very fresh. The a la carte restaurants were very good, especially the special adults only where we had a very fancy meal. It's so neat to not get a bill at the end after appetizers (the french onion soup was awesome), martinis, main course and then a fancy dessert. The service was very good everywhere and that always means alot. They had some fantastic entertainment every evening and we even went to some shows twice. They had a kids show on Saturdays with costumes of every kids character you can think of, Caleb was in heaven. He asked for Tigger and Pooh everyday after that. It was neat the second week when Speedy Gonzales came up to Caleb in the lobby after to say hello and it said to me, "It's Jennifer" which was Caleb's main babysitter in the baby club. Those people work hard!
There were so many other neat things at this resort that kept us busy like mini golf, 2 fast waterslides, a zipline, a soccer court (others too), a pirate ship waterpark and lots of entertainment by the pool. We put Caleb in the baby club a few times which really helped give us a break and him a break from the sun. They had pagers for us and they fed him and put him for a nap so it helped to keep him on a schedule too. It was nice to lay in the lounger and close my eyes! Carson went to the kids club as well but he was a bit young. He enjoyed going when the friends he made were there. They had a trampoline, basketball, arts and crafts and movies. They also had a movie room in the "family bar" area. The point was for the kids to watch movies in a glass room while parents watched them having a drink. The kids were a bit young for this but the concept was great. Overall it was a wonderful place and it was nice to not be embarrassed by your screaming kid cuz everyone else's was screaming too! It was so special to be together as a family, especially to have daddy 24/7. It's definately hectic but watching your kids playing in the sand and splashing in the ocean makes it worth it! We took 550 pictures so I'll put a bunch of my faves on and a little video too.

Christmas 2008

Since I'm not out shopping I guess I will blog. Boxing Day is always crazy and after the arrival of my children I have stayed far away! I do hope to get to Old Navy as that's my fave on Boxing week. The boys Christmas Eve pajamas were from last year boxing week! Fun to pull something out after a year! Plus I always double those jammies up as long johns. Goodness knows we need them. Actually yesterday, Christmas Day, was a heat wave at -12 and today should reach -8 but as per usual we are expecting a storm and a fair bit of snow. If it's not one it's the other. Chris is home today and has been throwing up all night, yuck. We have 1 week before we leave so please bugs GO AWAY!!! Our house is wall to wall toys and is a tad overwhelming. I did manage to clean up all the paper before we went to my mom's yesterday but I'm already wondering where all these toys will go. The boys are playing like crazy and it's kind of nice to have a bit less fussing coming from Caleb. Should have brought a huge sack of toys to church and maybe we would have survived longer than 10 minutes. Boy is that frustrating to go somewhere only to stand outside by yourself chasing a little one and miss everything. I guess I wouldn't really call Christmas relaxing but it is great to see the boys faces and their excitement. They also enjoyed snuggling with their aunts and uncles and playing like crazy with their cousins. Christmas was fun. It was nice to have my sister in law in town from Vancouver and her boyfriend came for a few days as well. We even got some family pictures taken which turned out well despite fevers and the like. Christmas Eve was nice at Chris' parents and we enjoyed a good meal before presents and church. Christmas day we enjoyed relaxing a bit at home surrounded by toys and watching the kids have fun. I played my new Singstar game for Playstation 3 although I was alone as I guess I frightened everyone away. Chris said I sounded like a sick cat. Thanks. I had fun. Now I'm going to try to regroup and then start packing as that is going to be somewhat tricky to be organized for 2 weeks. I'm glad there is a Walmart in Cancun! I've got gift certs for mani and pedi's that I look forward to doing before we leave so that I have nice toes for the beach! Babysitters??? Anyone??? I'm sure the week will go by fast especially with New Year's and on Sunday we go to Steinbach which we always look forward to. Here's a bunch of fun pics from Christmas. Happy New Year!

I haven't been able to update this blog because I've been to cold! Honestly, 2 or 3 weeks of -40c temperature is just not right. And it continues to stay cold into Christmas week. The roads are icy and busy and it's very miserable going out running errands and shopping. The kids have been sick again and continue to cough miserably, I hope they will be ok for the holidays. Mostly we stick to home but have had a few nice outings and starting tomorrow we will keep busy until Boxing Day. Carson had a little program at preschool today, so cute. My mom had a great program for the kids a while back that they loved and tomorrow Carson and I are going to "Franklin's Christmas" . It'll be nice to do something special with just him and Caleb will enjoy the attention he gets from my mom. We look forward to Christmas and enjoying the excitement of the kids. It makes it fun. Then right after the new year we are heading to Cancun for 2 weeks with the kids so we really look forward to that. We are going where the deals led us and are staying at a family resort with a big pirate ship waterpark. So we'll have some great pics to post shortly and in the meantime Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Full Christmas Mode

As soon as December hits you can jolt yourself into the christmas spirit without feeling too early. Now you just feel overwhelmed. These last 2 weeks we've actually had places to go which is a change for us! Carson had his last soccer and his last dance class. For January I think we'll stay at home and stick just to music lessons until spring. He really enjoyed the dance class (soccer not so much) and he was so excited to show off to Grammi, Grampi, Nana, mommy and daddy at his last class. They did the most adorable little routine to the Beatles "I wanna hold your hand". We also had a very nice family evening at my mom's church which included supper, bouncers and an illusionist show. On Sunday we went to my in laws church to see the annual Living Christmas Tree. It was the first year that we took Carson so we had a little dinner date with just him beforehand and that was special. My mother in law sings in the choir at the top of the tree and Carson thought that was pretty cool. The play was a bit long for him but it was nice to just worry about 1 kid that's only a quarter of Caleb's squirminess. Yesterday I was very happy to have a good friend of mine come to watch the kids while I ran around running errands and even doing a few things for myself - wow!! I was pretty pumped. I didn't come home with tons of bags or anything but I did feel like a human being and enjoyed smiling at other people and even having little conversations with other people in line and stuff. I know that sounds weird but when you're dealing with 2 little ones in the store you're probably not smiling. We're all healthy right now which is also a great thing after the things going around the last few weeks. I was quite sick and luckily the boys only got their millionth cold which is better than flu. The weather is starting to get colder which we knew was coming but still is a bummer. Stacey and I took the kids downtown this week to get their passports and we were grateful we didn't park too far away because the temperature really dropped. Their pictures were so adorable for their passports. It was funny to say to not smile for once. We have not booked our trip south yet and still plan to book last minute although it should be interesting to see what's left by then because there has been alot of changes this winter to the flights out of Winnipeg. They are few and far between and many are not direct (no way with kids) so we will see what we get. I still am hoping to go to Punta Cana, DR and have found some great resorts for the kids. We hope to go at the very beginning of January as it seems that's when the deals are. We are looking forward to some more Christmas functions in the next few days and hopefully I will finish my online photo projects and I guess I have to put up the tree. I'm curious to see what Caleb will do to it. Yikes. Well, enjoy the preparation for Christmas and I'll post some pictures of the kids and their excitement of the season. Oh and enjoy my Christmas card cuz those things are sure stressful!

Party Season

Tis the season for parties so I decided to kick it all off with my Pampered Chef party on Nov. 10. I had a great time and really appreciated all my friends and family coming out. I think I had 16 people so it was a good turnout and now that the snow and the ice has arrived you never know if it'll be a driving night. I told myself I wouldn't get too stressed out about it but I guess I did cuz I spent alot of time cleaning my well lived in house! Mostly it was tidying the piles that pile up, so I was happy to have an excuse and motivation to do that. The party went smoothly with my friend Robyn as the consultant and we made three or four recipes simultaneously which we later enjoyed. Neat concept and a fun ladies night which we all needed. So now I can add all sorts of new Pampered Chef items to my collection of well used kitchen products at a great discounted hostess price! I love a good deal. The rest of the week was uneventful as I fought a bit of a flu bug and a migraine. Man, it's not easy being sick when you have kids and Caleb had a great time dumping a huge container of puffed wheat, pulling out every CD and generally being a mischief maker. He must of known I had no fight in me. Anyways the boys enjoyed some time with Daddy doing their special activity together, hot tubbing. Caleb was anxiously awaiting his turn to be carried across the snow by Daddy. He looked so adorable in his little housecoat. (Thanks Julie!!!)