January—excluding our trip to Mexico

Happy New Year everyone!

We went snowmobiling as a Silvey Clan on New Years. It was fun. And cold. I don't have any pictures of it. Jude stayed with my mom, because the night before we were going to go I freaked out about him being too cold and sad. The other kids got all bundled up and had a great time—for a while. We stopped at lunchtime and ate in our car. But then they were cold and sad. DeAnna's kids were also done, so we took them home, along with Gray and Bryant. I should have taken Kate home too, but she said she wanted to stay. Apparently she just whined the rest of the afternoon. Colin had a great time and kept on sledding like a maniac.

I was put in charge of getting pizza for dinner after the snowmobiling. I strapped six pizzas into the front seat of the van, and I thought it was hilarious.

Cute baby showing off the Lego stack he made all by himself.

While Nate was home from work at Christmastime he started building me some bookshelves. Then he was hit with the plague and it is May and it is still unfinished. Maybe someday.

Just some cute pictures of Li'l Jude.

Jude really likes the bookcase. He was sad when I started putting shelves in, because it limited his space to play. Then he discovered he could just lay down at the bottom.

I love our library. This was an awesome family night puppet show with mixed-up fairy tales.

This was after our trip, when the kids were playing with the maracas and little drum we brought them. Colin was composing music and conducting. Kate was singing and clapping.

A little cold for the park, but we went anyway.

Sometimes the only way to get housework done is to haul the crying baby around with you no matter what you're doing. I was lucky he enjoyed the ride in the basket.

Another fun time at the library.

Jude watching the big kids play with the parachute.

The One Where Nate and I Go to Mexico...Part 2

January 22—Another glorious beach day. Nate and I started off our morning on the beach, reading. We saw this sad, one-legged bird hopping on the sand. We felt so bad for the li'l guy. Then Brad came along and told us that there were a bunch of them, and they all have two legs. They just hop like that for sympathy or something, I guess. Dumb bird, making me feel things.

We tried to go sailing, but before they would let us out on a boat one of us had to take a training class. Somehow Nate got volunteered. (I was glad it was him, because I was too scared to go.) While Nate sailed, Brad and DeAnna played beach volleyball with strangers. I watched from the sidelines, taking pictures and video like a creeper. And I wandered back over to where Nate was too.

This is where Nate was.

The dolphin pool. There is a video further down in the post. I watched dolphins while I waited for Cap'n Nate.

Brad and DeAnna at the pool. That's what they get for sitting in front of me.

Feet at the pool. Isn't this the picture that you're supposed to take when on vacation. I feel like it is.

These made me laugh. Hard.

January 23—The seating area of the cafeteria where we ate most of our meals. I finished most of my meals with coconut soft serve. I have no regrets.

Nate's lunch. He said it wasn't as good as he imagined it would be. He just said, "Don't remind me how horrible that hot dog was."

We went on a walk on our way to dinner taking pictures around the resort. I was so impressed with the landscaping. It was all so green and vibrant and beautiful. Also, lizards. We pretended like each lizard we saw was the same lizard, the one we named "Tori Braxton." Because that's what Brad thought Toni Braxton's name was.

This tree was awesome. I don't know what it is called. It was right across the way from the soccer field.

These creepy angels were scattered throughout the main floor of our building.

Selfies by the seaweed.

Another couple wrote in the sand with seaweed. They asked us to take their picture for them. I felt like after that kind deed it would be okay if I took a picture of their creation and pretended it was my own. So I did.

There was a crazy amount of seaweed on the beach, so I took pictures. On our first day we wondered why there were people with wheelbarrows out hauling seaweed. We didn't wonder after we saw this. That looks like a plastic silverware sorter down there.

The beach.

More of the pools throughout the resort. We could wander the entire resort, while those in "lower" buildings couldn't. Yeah, we were living the high life.

Swim up bars in every pool. We enjoyed ordering fancy non-alcoholic drinks while lounging at the pool because, hey, why not?

A kiddie pool. It made me sad to see it, because it made me miss my kids.

This was not our building, but I thought the personal pools were cool.

Nate's face while waiting for food in the steakhouse? Or maybe the Spanish restaurant? It's hard to say, because he wore the same shirt and pants combo every night that we had reservations at a restaurant. (There was a strict dress code for men—no shorts.)

January 24—I have no pictures of this day. It's probably the day we spent a great deal of time indoors.

January 25—This is the only video of the dolphin stuff that was small enough to post. We had fun hanging on the fence and watching the dolphin tricks.

January 26—We took pictures of the dining area for Colin (because he loves cafeterias) on our last night. I felt weird taking these pictures. The cafeteria food was pretty good, but it was more fun to eat in the "fancy" restaurants.

The brisket was available breakfast, lunch, and dinner.