spring Break

So for Spring Break we decided to buy a playset for our kids and get it set up in the back yard. On The weekend before the break we got started. Friday night Jeff and I worked and got as much put together as we could in the garage. Jeff decided that he would keep his truck outside for the week while we worked on the playset.

Here is one of the 5 bags of screws, washers, nuts, ect.

Here are the pieces that still need to be assembled when the structure is taken outside.

Here is the spot we chose to put the playset, we rented a sod cutter, cut the sod and then hauled the sod away. It was a lot of work and took up most of our time on Saturday.

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. We were frustrated, but knew that we had all week to work on it. Surely we would have a few good days.

So this was later in the week. If I went out and took a picture today it would look much the same. Jeff is still having to park his truck outside, and I have to look out my window every day at the area where we are someday going to put our playset. My goal is to have it done by the first part of May when we go to the AAO meeting. We will see if we ever get a few nice days to let the ground thaw so that we can finish what we started. It was a very frustrating Spring break for me.

McMinn family pictures

We had family pictures done this month while everyone was in town for Glenn & Annette's farewell/retirement party. They will be leaving on their mission on April 6th. We are really excited for them, but we are dreading their departure. As you can guess it took a lot of bad pictures to get a few good ones with everyone looking. The worst offender I have to admit was Taylor. She just wasn't very cooperative. Her two cousins, Rylee and Jessica (both 2) were also hard to keep focused. I have to give it to Lindsay our photographer, she did a good job.

It was a cold day out so we took some inside too. I love our little family!

Fruit Tart

Last year a group of my friends got to gether and started a recipe club. There are 12 ladies in the group and we are divided into teams of 4. Each month a team prepares a meal with a main dish, 2 sides, and a dessert. Then we exchange recipes all in the same format. It fits nicely in the same binders that each person purchased. This month was my team's month. The theme was spring/easter recipes. We had pork loin, seasoned potaoes, green bean, and I made the white chocolate fruit tart. I have been in love with the fruit tart at Fred Meyer and had hoped to duplicate the recipe. It wasn't quite as yummy, but close enough. Plus I think they are beautiful desserts.

As you can see the edges are perfectly scalloped, I perfected the technique by using an actual tart pan purchased from bed bath and beyond earlier that morning.


It is not a healthy dessert. I like to pretend because of the fruit, but I think the heavy cream, cream cheese, and white chocolate outweighs the fruit factor.

Broken Camera

Okay so I have not been able to post anything on our blog for awhile since my husband dropped our nice camera while we were on the cruise. The camera technically still took pictures on manual settings, but we sent it in to get fixed. They said it would take up to six weeks. So for now, no great pics. We do have our little camera that we have been taking pictures with, posts coming, but I cannot find the right USB cable that fits the camera. So the posts of the fruit tart, spring break, playground construction, and Taylor's birthday will all have to wait. I hope I can find that cord soon.

Western Caribbean cruise

Here are the long awaited pictures from our cruise. Sorry there are quite a few pictures. It was a western Caribbean cruise on Carnival. Our ship was called the Freedom of the Seas. It is the largest cruise ship in the world. It was awesome to be on such a big ship, but the drawback was having so many people on board. On The few nice days that we had it was hard to find a lawn chair. It was also difficult to find a seat at the buffet. (yes we were not discouraged and we did frequent the buffet.) Janelle and I had an especially memorable snack run to the buffet at about 6:30pm. We were still in our workout clothes and no makeup, ect. People that were there for dinner were looking at us funny. We were starving though and couldn't wait until our 8:30 dinner time. This is the wave rider. We don't know this guy, he was just demonstrating how it worked. Jeff got to boogie board on it a few times and he thought it was really fun. The pictures didn't really turn out because it was dark.

This is the H2O zone. We thought our kids would have had fun there. But then we would have been stuck there and that didn't sound fun at all.

This is our welcome aboard photo. Yeah!

This was one of the formal nights.

Another formal night.


Labadee Haiti was our first stop. The weather wasn't great. Most of the day it was overcast and we had a few sprinkles. We decided to wait out the line for the tender boats in the hammocks.

The market in haiti. We didn't buy anything here.

This picture doesn't show it very well, but this is the zip line that we went down. It is the longest, tallest, zip line over water. The lines you see are almost to the landing zone. Up on the hill is the starting point. It was really fun and I am glad that we did it.



Jamaica

This was the third stop. This was my favorite day, I think. I would be sure, but we had cool rainy weather again. We were freezing in the water. We took a two hour bus ride to the falls and we got to see a lot of the coastline and hear the culture and history of Jamaica. we had a wonderful guide that made us laugh.

Here we are starting the falls hike, The guides wanted us to sit in the water and get wet, I wasn't quite ready yet!

This gives an idea of the amount of people going up the falls. Yes we climbed up the falls in the water. It was a cool hike. Our videographer (pictured in the yellow shirt) was a nut. He made us Yell "Ya Mon" and "No Problem" throughout the hike. He also had us kiss each other a lot and do group cheers. I really could have done without so much cheering. I also didn't love the water fight that he made us participate in.

We are soaked by this point and starting to shiver. I don't know where Craig and Janelle are in this picture. Hmm

This sign was on the side of the road as we were heading back to the ship. It is hard to read, but it said "strickly No Dumping"



Cozumel

Jeff in front of the Liberty

This is after our Scuba Dive excursion. We went with Rob and Janelle. It was so fun. It was a drift dive and I loved it. Oh and the weather was nice and hot this day. Too bad I couldn't work on my real tan at 80 feet below the surface.

One of the fun towel creations left in our room.

I also don't have pictures from our sting Ray snorkel on Grand Cayman, Janelle and I went with Glenn & Annette. Jeff and Rob were diving. It was a really great experience, especially once we stopped squeeling like 12 year old girls. It took us a while. Janelle even got a nice souvenir after she fed the sting ray a squid. This was also one of my favorite excursions. Cayman was a nice day too.

we also had a fun time before our cruise left in Miami. We went on an airboat tour through the everglades. I also got to hold an alligator. I have some pictures, but they didn't down load, and I am tired of blogging, so sorry, I am done. Boy this is rough.

Spray tan 2

As promised here are the pictures from my spray tan before my cruise.

This is right after I got sprayed. Sorry for the belly shot. I thought it gave the most Hawaiian Tropic/umpa loompa effect.

This is the next morning before the shower. It is quite nice looking don't you think?

Okay so this is about 6 days after the tan. I didn't have any pictures from the few days after, but as you can see I am definitely not that tan. Just enough to take the bright white away. When I get the rest of the pictures downloaded I will post about the cruise. We had a great time.

Fun kids craft kit

This is one of the gifts that our kids got for Christmas. It has been a lot of fun for my girls(mostly Kaylee) so I thought I would share. There are a lot of different activites and crafts included. I love that you don't need anything additional for the projects, not even glue. They are simple things and can be as quick or long as the attention span lasts. Just thought I would pass it along. I love when moms recommend good products to me.