Monday, January 24, 2011

VIKINGS and DRAGONS

Cade's 4 and Jay's 2!!!
Where does the time go?
We love both these guys so much and are amazed how fast they are learning and progressing.

Cade and Jay's birthday (Jan 14th) came and went while we were on our cruise, so we had their DRAGON party at our place a little belated.


The cake: (Burke and the ocean)

The party started by watching "How to Train your Dragon" movie until all of the guests arrived.

Then we played a game where we tossed swedish fish into Toothless' mouth:
Nana Gatten and Cassie
And luckily, Jon showed up with lunch!! Mmmmm...
Cade, Roni Bastedo, Kiah, Beckett, Austin Simon, Ella, "bubba" (Isaac Holding)
Jace Robison, Jay Jay
Andrew and Cooper Larson
Beckett, Sara Bastedo and Jay's crush, Dani Bastedo
2nd game: pop your balloon!

AND FINALLY, CAKE TIME!
Cade blew out most of the candles, but there was one left we let Jay blow out. It took him a while and he was so cute! Then, we didn't even have to tell them; they went straight in for their bites! (Gatten tradition)

Cade's buddy, Austin.
The boys had LOTS of help opening their presents. :)
Jay still had a firm grip on his candy while trying out the new trike. :)
Cade with his first real bike!

2 & 4 recap

1/14/11

{Jay 2}
"Jay jay", "monster", "sweetness" "jj boy"
-loves nursery
-enjoys mommy/Jay time while Cade's at school. (coloring, reading books, helping clean)
-has learned to fight...has a solid hit and leaves Cade crying sometimes
-still very submissive to Cade's playtime ideas
-his favorite chore is putting away silverware
-still wakes up happy
-a light sleeper. loves when daddy comes in to re-tuck him in after-hours, and always squeaks out a "night night".
-Saying full sentences and talking a lot "um, yeah. um, no."
-starting to sing along to songs
-loves his IRONMAN and toy story toys
-self entertainer and loves imaginative play (sometimes cade's the baby and he's the big brother changing diapers. :)
-will sit through a whole movie and recently went to his first 2 movies in the theater.
-can name a few colors and count fairly well to 10
-always says the lunch prayer.
-starting to get defiant and thinks it's funny.
-Can put on socks and shoes by himself....and take off clothes. :)
-total daredevil...still.
-total snuggle bug and momma's boy.
{Cade 4}
"Cader", "Cader man", "buddy", "handsome"
-always found in his Boston Red Sox hat and "buzz lightyear" (not really) light up shoes unless mom lays out otherwise.
-is a huge help to mom.
(Loads and unloads dishwasher, washes the tables and t.v., picks up toys, grabs diapers, toilet paper and food from the garage, etc.)
-gets himself dressed and undressed (minus buttons and tying shoes)...even will pick things he likes to wear out of the clean laundry basket and put them in his top drawer. :)
- is ALL about the schedule. Likes me to lay it out in the morning, and makes sure we stick to it every day.
- likes to use mothering tactics on Jay (counts to 3, uses threats to get him to listen, and reverse psychology)
-talks about someday when he will fly and airplane, helicopter and drive a motorcycle. (and very matter-of-factly.)
- is social. loves parties, get togethers, and anything of the sort.
-adjusted to primary like a champ.
-favorite song: Praise to the Man. He could listen to it over and over in the car.
-is a Daddy's boy. Misses him when he's gone and clings to him like his BFF when he's home.
-loves sports
-is ALL about breakfast as SOON as he wakes up (favorite is oatmeal), and always says the breakfast prayer.
-enjoys coloring, and creating with playdough
-is doing great in preschool learning letters, can almost write his name, and can count to 20.
-thrives on family time.
-true boy. All about star wars, super heros, things that go and...
kissing girls.
Yep, there you have it.


Goodbye Glory, Hello Miami!

The last day @ sea:
We always had a yummy lunch, GREAT 5 course dinners, midnight buffets, 24 hr. soft serve ice cream....you name it! We enjoyed the vegas-style shows on board with dancers and comedians. We also loved the competitions and our family "devotionals"/meetings.

Here is our last formal night on ship:
Spike showing the girls at the next table what he's got! He always kept things interesting. ;)
Don't forget the incredible towel animals our room steward would leave us each night. :) They take such good care of your room. And the beds are so comfy!
Here is some of the group with the card magician, Chaz (back middle), playing Rook our final night.
We watched this South African guy a few different times and he taught us some tricks. He's OFF THE HOOK good at what he does.
We had an extra day in Miami to catch up before flying back to Portland to get our kiddos. Our hotel was right on Miami beach, so we ate lunch at a SUPER good italian tiki bar on the beach, then laid out, went for a run/walk on the board walk along the beach, watched the Patriots lose, and went to dinner. It was a nice, relaxing day, but we missed Cade and Jay!


What a great end to another fun trip!

Grand Cayman. Final stop.


So on the day we were supposed to stop in Isla Roatan (Honduras) the weather was very windy. We couldn't port, so we had a cool day at sea that day. We just hot tubbed, hit the gym, read the hunger games and played cards. The next day we hit Grand Cayman!

We started the day out with a dolphin show:

Then went to HELL. That's right.
Spike:

this tiny, little hub was named after the spikey volcanic rock that was left here.
Spike and Jon:
then we went snorkeling. We walked in past this cemetery. All the peeps are buried 3 feet above ground (because of the land) and 3 feet under (still 6 feet....)
and lastly, hit 7 mile beach for some beach-side burgers and beach volleyball!
We rocked the locals out of their own house and ended up taking over the court! :)
Brett (red shorts), Jon, me, Dusty (front in white hat)


We toured the port area shopping a bit before retiring to the ship.

Un-BELIZE-able!!!

Second port, Belize. Here we are on our tender...still a little groggy. We had been to belize before and snorkeled the reef so we wanted to go more inland this time and learn about it. So we did!
We took an hour long bus ride and learned all about Belize until we arrived in this jungle! We hiked about a mile or so to get to this HUGE set of natural caves made by the river full of stilagmites and stilagtites and a few small waterfalls. It was amazing!!! Wish we could have brought our camera. :/
afterward, we ate these yummy mayan tacos that were being cooked over this open fire pit. Yum!
Here we are that night with Justin and his assistant from "Justin Illusion" magic show. It was great!!
We also celebrated a few bdays that night at dinner!
Jon trying to dance with our waitress... :)




Then we capped the night with kareoke! Our family rocked this 3 x's during the course of the cruise! I did gangsta's paradise and waterfalls by TLC.:
Jon and the boys rocked AC/DC

Fun day!