Where have we been???

We have been around and a little busy, but not too busy for blogging though! We just have not had much going on that I thought was "blog worthy" until the last few weeks.



Here goes...



Hoy and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on October 4. Five years ago we were on the beach in Maui, Hawaii exchanging vows and feel so blessed to be having a wedding that was so stress-free, intimate, and truly centered around us and the beauty of God's creations. We had an incrediable experience, a wonderful trip, and have lived happily ever after!



We celebrated our anniversary by taking a cruise, and we were fortunate enough to be able to be on the boat on our true anniversary. We had an awesome time. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking such good care of the girls while we were gone!!


Here is our boat--Enchantment of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. Hoy had never been on a cruise before, and he was pleasantly surprised at how much fun he had.

Here is a picture of one of the many fruit and ice carvings throughout the week.

Here is our "emergency drill" which is a weird experience. There are literally thousands of people standing around the outside shell of the boat, which just looks like a sea of people. The ship crew takes this drill very serious, even down to snapping the life vest strap properly!

Here is our ship's captain, who was only 41-years old and has been working with Royal Caribbean for 20 years. He is extremely nice and very funny. He probably has one of the best jobs in the world!!

We paid a little extra to have a state room with a balcony, and boy was it worth it! We had some incredible views of the ocean, some very beautiful sunsets, and some very peaceful evenings resting on our own private balcony. Here is one of the sunsets from our room.

We went to Sting Ray City in Grand Caymon and spent about an hour swimming with the sting rays. I did this same thing about 15 years ago, and things around there have changed so much during that amout of time!!

The night after our trip to Sting Ray City our stateroom attendant made us this sting ray with our towels. We had the best attendant, who actually took the time to get to know us and seemed interested in what we were doing at all times and how he could us having a better vacation. He took excellent care of us!

Here is another fruit carving at the mid-night buffet. This was my favorite carving all week. We had great weather all week, and we are already talking about when we can go back!

The pumpkin patch that we have gone to in the past is no longer in operation, so we had to find another one this year. The first thing we did once we got there was go watch the pig races, which was very cute. Logan insisted on sitting on the front row with the other kids, but she was by far the youngest without a parent at her side. She sat there quietly with her hands in her lap watching the action.









When the races were over, all of the other children got up and started running away toward the hay ride, but not our sweet Logan. She sat right there where she was told to stay waiting for us to give her permission to get up. I think this represents discipline instilled through her daycare!!







Next, we headed over to the pumpkins but Logan really wanted to ride in the wagon. Ridding in the wagon is one of her favorite things to do at home. Notice her green armband, which she was so proud to be wearing. She kept calling it her braclet!!

At the petting zoo, we ran into one of the little girls in Lucy's class at school, Lilly, and the girls were really excited to see each other. They stayed together through the zoo area, making sure that each of them saw everything the others saw.

Logan surprised us at how much fun she had feeding the little goats. She is usually very scared of strange animals, but she was very comfortable with these guys.

Thanks goodness we don't have allergies, because they girls loved crawling all over these hay bails.




This tunnel ran under the hay bails, and the kids loved running through this tunnel. Logan was very careful about helping Lucy and making sure she was ok.



Once we finally made it over to the pumpkin patch, the girls were getting tired. We got a few good pictures of them picking up (or at least trying to pick up) pumpkins and sitting on them like horses.







Lucy was having fun bouncing up and down on the pumpkin.

And here is one of the many downfalls to potty-training....portable potties!! Logan is doing so good, and she really has not had any accidents is several weeks, so we have to let her go when she asks despite the quality of potty we get to use!

We ended the pumpkin patch experience with a hay ride. The girls just sat there quietly, almost in a daze because they were both so tired. What a fun day!

We also went to the state fair for a few hours last weekend. We mainly went for the girls to see the animals and get to go through the petting zoo. Logan would have stayed here and watched these baby ducks for hours if we would have let her. She actually cried when we made her move on!!

They both enjoyed petting the animals, but Lucy was definately more fearless than Logan. Nothig scared Lucy.

We kept them in the stroller most of the time, more for safety than anything. Here is Lucy begging for more to drink, and of course we handed it right over after taking this picture!






One of the best things about the fair....




We finished the afternoon with a fried twinkie, which is awesome. Logan and Lucy each got a little bite, and loved it!

We all love this time year....the cooler weather, fall activities, and anticipating our favorite holiday Christmas!!