Trent's First Dive

Yesterday we took Trent to a Bubbler Dive Course. He got to put on dive equipment in a pool at one of the resorts and had a private instructor who taught him how it worked. She also showed him how to take his regulator (breathing apparatus) out of his mouth while he was under so that he could smile for the camera. Then she showed how how to clear his mask incase water leaked in. He did so good!

When he finished, he told us it was the coolest thing he's ever done!! We are hoping to do it again in the beginning of next summer and then after he turns 10, next July, he can take the Jr. Open water course. Until they are 15 or 16 they still have to always go with a Master diver and not past 30 feet deep. We can't wait!!!!

Glad to hear Jace is home and recovering.

Summer 2009 so far.........

Since Trent arrived over a month ago, we have been very busy. For the 4th of July we flew on a small plane to Little Cayman. The population there is only about 100 people, so it was very peaceful and relaxing. Trent loved the small plane and all of the good snorkeling.

Last weekend we went to Dolphin Cove. I am still not convinced that it is "right" to cage dolphins, but after our experience, I am secretly glad they do. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I am sure Travis and Trent would agree. They are such smart animals. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Tonight Travis is taking Trent to see the new Transformers movie tonight. I opted out as they were due for a father/son activity and I am not the slightest bit interested in cartoon robots. Then Sunday is Trent's 9th birthday party on the beach. Yes, we decided to try a beach party again this year. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Hope you are all well! Enjoy the pics.

And you all thought we lived in paradise! We actually enjoy rainy days in the summer!! But don't get me wrong I do NOT want a hurricane while Trent is here!!! Looks like tropical storm forming on top of us right now which means if it turns into a hurricane, it will hit somewhere else. Phew!!!

Clara and Sunni's Visit

My cousin, Clara, and her friend (now our friend) came for a visit over the weekend.  We had such a great time with them!  Yesterday we went on a snorkeling trip to Sting Ray City Sandbar.  I thought I should post a few pictures for my family.  :)  Notice how when I am unemployed, I update the site more regularly?  Ha-ha!  

Now that you guys can see how much fun we had, maybe you should all come down for a visit!!  Miss you all!  

Congrats to Cassie and Erica!!!  Remind me never to drink the water at the lodge, I am still convinced that it was is causing all of your families to expand so quickly!!  :)

Welcome Back Beach Party for Trent....

I sure wish we had some control over the weather! This is the second beach BBQ we have had to cancel due to weather.  ARG!  We lost power for a couple hours so we ended up heading into town to see the movie "Up".  It was cute, but a BBQ would have been more fun!  With all of the food we bought, we will have to reschedule soon.  My freezer is crammed!

My work permit was refused last week.  Apparently it's just a technicality because it was only refused because my employer's business license was expired.  Supposedly, that will get taken care of and I will be able to start soon. I am not holding my breath.  :)  Everything takes a long time to "get sorted" here.  But good news is, Trent is here so at least I get to spend extra time with him.  

And we have our first summer visitors arriving in 2 days!  My cousin Clara and her friend are coming for a long weekend.  We can't wait!  

Hope everyone is doing well!  I'll try to post some more photos soon!  

May Trip Home

Because my new permit is STILL pending, I was able to go back to the States for a nice long visit.  I flew into Denver April 30th.  We mostly shopped because my personal shopper (Sarah) lives there.  There is NO shopping here, so I have to stock up while I am home.  Travis said I am now stocked up for the next decade...  I wasn't that bad!!  We did get a chance to make it to a Rockies game (my first) and spent time with Katie, Bradley, Sam, and the nephews.  I also met up with a few high school friends that I hadn't seen in a decade.  My last night I was a chaperone for Jackson's 10th birthday party sleepover in the mountains.  It was a lot of fun!  I can't believe he's 10.  I had to swear not to tell his friends that we used to call him "poopy pants" before I was allowed to go.  It was successful because after the party was over, we hadn't made any calls to the emergency room.  :)  We had one night out with Sam and the all of the siblings.  It was a blast!  It's been a long time since we have done that.  

I headed to Janesville May 9th and spent Mother's Day with Trent.  It was great.  We had a scavenger hunt and root beer floats (our usual routine) Sunday night.  Monday I kept him out of school and we spent most of the day making and flying paper airplanes.  It was sooooo much fun.  I highly recommend the paper airplane book I bought at Target to anyone that has a 6-12 year old boy.  

www.target.com/Klutz-Book-of-Paper-Airplanes/dp/B000PUCOUE/sr=1-1/qid=1243373408/ref=sr_1_1/178-0143503-6453051?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k%3Apaper%20airplane&page=1

For $16.95 you can have hours of fun.  I hope he remembers to bring it this summer so we can make more.  Speaking of, he arrives June 13th!!  Travis and I are so excited.  I should be posting more often since because I will have something to write about and cute pics to post.  

Meanwhile, I am sitting and waiting for my permit to go through so I can start my new job.  I can't wait!!  It should go though in the next week or so, but you just never know.  The waiting game is annoying!  

Hope all is well.  Check back in a couple weeks!

I am in trouble again!

I know, I know!  I need to update more often!  But unless we have guests, I don't usually have much to write about.  We just work until friends and family come to play!  

I do have some fantastic news......  I finally got a permanent job!!!  I am very excited!  I will be doing  purchasing, inventory, and accounting for a small retail chain down town.  With the economy stinking right now, I am very lucky to have snuck into this job.  I am extremely thankful!  Besides, if I would have kept temping, I think Travis would have killed me because all I did was whine about it.  :)  You can only sort post for so long before you start going CRAZY!  :) If all goes well with my Visa, I will start on May 25th.   

In the meantime.......

I am going to Denver and Janesville!!!!  I can't wait!  I am very excited to see my families!  Now that Bradley moved to Denver, I will get to see all of them in one stop! (If my folks can make it down).  Then I go to Janesville to see my other family!  I just can't wait to golf and relax!  Oh and of course, SHOP!  Target here I come!  

Trent will be coming to stay with us for the entire summer again!  I was wondering what we could do this summer for fun with him.  Because the island is so small, it seems like we have already done everything a couple times.  But with a little asking around, I have a few exciting things up my sleeve!  I think I forget how big he is.  That is why I added a couple pics of him when he was little.  SO FREAKIN' CUTE!  Can you tell I am missing him?  :(  

As for Travis, he just went home for a long weekend during Trent's spring break.  He had a great time, but came back with a terrible cold.  After an ER trip and strong antibiotics, I think he's finally kicking it.  He also got invited to play a show in Bolivia in a couple weeks!  It's a short trip that involves a lot of travel, but I am sure he will have a great time catching up with his band mates.  Other than that, he's just been working a lot trying to finish up the job he's been working on for the past year and  a half.  

Travis brought us back a new Mac on his last trip home, so I have no excuses for not posting photos faster.  :)  It's our first Mac, so I am taking a class in Denver to figure out how to use all the bells and whistles.  Then watch out, I may even start posting weekly!  Ha-ha!

I hope you are all well!  Take care!!

Let's see here............

.......What have we been up to? After out Christmas guests went back to the frozen tundra, we went back to business as usual. Work, work, work, a little play, work, work, work.

The big highlight was at the end of the month, when I flew back to Wisconsin for corrective eye surgery. I didn’t sleep for 3 nights before the surgery because I was sooooo nervous. If you remember my blog from September, Gayle and her friend (& coworker, Cheryl) came to visit us for a week. So I knew two people who worked in the clinic which was very comforting.

Kristin drove me to Milwaukee on Jan. 29th in the morning. When I went in I was greeted with a “thank you” package from the girls for letting them stay with us. Then I was taken into a patient room to discuss all the eye drops I was going to need to use. While in there, Gayle came in with a stuffed Gorilla (she named Trav) that I could squeeze while I was having my surgery since Travis couldn’t be there. So nice!! Next Kristin and I went into a waiting area for patients where we watched someone else have the surgery done. The process was so quick that it made me start to relax a lot more (either that or the valium they gave me). Then when it was my turn I went into the room and the Dr. told me he had another surprise for me. He had downloaded some Cash Box Kings (Travis’s band) music off ITunes.com and played it during my surgery! It was so nice. I was only on the table for about 10 minutes and it was finished. I fell asleep in the car on the way home and took about a 3 hour nap. When I woke up, I could see!!!! It’s such an amazing experience. I highly recommend getting it done. I also recommend the office I had it done at www.lasikplus.com . They have locations all over the U.S., but I went to the office located in Brookfield, Wisconsin. I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Trent, Emma, Kristin, David, Jean, and Jerry and flew home Sunday. It was nice to spend time with them all. Because I had just had the surgery, I didn’t run the whole time, I just relaxed with them. J

The Wednesday after I got back my parents arrived! They are here for the entire month of February. Then on February 18th, Katie comes too! It’s so nice having them here. They love our new place because it’s on a beach. So my mom goes out in the morning while my dad works for a few hours, then he joins her. They are total beach bums!! :) I don’t know if we are going to be able to get them on the plane on the 28th!

I am still searching for a permanent job. I had a very promising interview yesterday, so cross your fingers for me. :) My temporary work permit is up March 9th so I should know by then for sure.

I hope all is well with you all. I should be posting pictures again after our guests leave so keep checking back. Come visit! We love having company!

Congratulations to Becky and Jacob on their engagement!

Wrong Order

They aren't in the correct order, but I finally got new pics on! Enjoy!

Cayman Christmas

I won't bore you with everything we did while our visitors were here like I usually do :) This time I will just say we had an AWESOME time and mis them all already. I will also post photos right now like I have been promising for months. Hope you are all well. Happy 2009!