Vacation Time and Easter

We are back from our vacation and we had a wonderful time!  We missed the kids, of course, but it was so nice to be able to get away together for our vacation as we celebrated our 10th anniversary.  We were able to spend a couple days in Florida with Uncle Larry and Aunt Carol and then we took a 7 day cruise down to the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands.  We had nice warm weather and calm seas!

I always like to get a round or two of golf in with Larry

This is the car we rented in Florida.  The reason I am including this in our pictures is because we bought one that looks exactly like this when we got back to Minnesota.  We had been getting killed at the pump by our Ford Explorer ever since we made it our only vehicle.  We did the math and realized that we would save money by buying a fuel efficient vehicle like this.  It is a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and we are loving it so far.  

Here's our ship!  It is huge!

Enjoying a beautiful sunset on a beautiful ship with my beautiful wife!

Beautiful view of the Atlantis Resort from our room

There was a lot of fun things to do on the ship like mini-golf

Zip line

Flow rider

Rock wall.  That's me at the top ringing the bell

I tried the stand-up flow rider.  Shannon said she was going to try to get a picture of me as soon as the guy let go of my hand....

She wasn't quick enough

We got to meet Puss in Boots

When we arrived at St. Thomas we saw a bunch of these guys hanging out on the rocks

We got to swim in the ocean at St. John

St. Maarten's.  The water around these islands was incredibly clear and beautiful.

It was great to get away but it was so wonderful to be able to come home and see our kids again.  Here they are on Easter Sunday morning getting ready for church.

Ava liked her gloves

Of course they enjoyed getting candy too!

We took like 4 or 5 pictures of our family at this time and in every picture Jack is looking in a different direction.  He gets distracted easily!

Family Fun and a Field Trip

We took the kids out before we left for vacation so here are some family fun pictures. We took them miniature golfing at the Mall of America which was hilarious to me and frustrating to my golfer husband. They played at the Lego store, and Jack of course spent all of his time making little guys while Ava made a girly pink Lego train. They love the Disney store, and I caught them sitting in the tunnel with Mickey and Minnie. They also got to ride some rides. (Thanks, Uncle Brent and Auntie Heidi! We met them there for a little while.) It was a great time!

Also I went on a field trip to the Bell Museum with Jack's class, so there are a few pictures from that day. I just realized I had a lot of pictures on my phone that hasn't made it on here yet so here they are.

We also celebrated Matt's birthday with the family early since we will be on our trip for his birthday. I didn't get any pictures of that party (Famous Dave's - Yum!!), but I will add one of him on his birthday. Ok enough blogging. Time to vacate!

Happy birthday, Dad!

We had a great time celebrating a couple birthdays before we left. Here's a great picture of Jack helping dad blow out his candles. It's sort of a tradition since Jack has been around that he helps everyone with their candles. It's getting to be a big job for all of us! Ha! Also I helped dad a little with changing his office around. I really liked how it turned out. It still needs a few touches, but it's looking good overall!

10 years together

We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary properly in Florida and with a Caribbean cruise thrown in! We were so sad to say good bye to the kids; but on the other hand, it's nice to remember us without them. And yes, we did high five each other a few times when we heard a child crying or saw a family loaded down with car seats and luggage and strollers. It was nice to walk around with our one bag each.

And it helps to know they are so excited to spend time with the family. Thank you, all you wonderful Hanks's and Fures for loving and even spoiling them while we are gone. It makes it easier to leave when we know they are with you.

Here's my view of our first morning. Love the sun and the green grass and beautiful flowers and landscaping around Carol's and Larry's neighborhood. And we are excited to be missing lots of snow this week in Minnesota!

Ava-nese

Ava said, "My nose is runny!" It's her newest sentence. And yes, it's still running! I think we get like a day or two of health in between each long cold. She also says, "my" for "I'm". So every day when she gets up, she says, "My wake" for "I'm awake." Yesterday was a little more. She said, "My wan' pay too, Sassy." In case you don't speak Ava-nese, that means, "I want to play, too, Lexi." It's fun to understand her more.

Random pics

Here are some random pictures we've taken over the last few weeks

I was able to sub in Jacks class last week. Can you guess who isn't a kindergartner in this picture? We had fun!