Helmet heads

Happy 32 to me!

I had the best birthday and already love 32.  I woke up to this:

Ben hung some decorations, had the house clean, breakfast cooked and helped the kids make cards for me.  Apparently food is a big part of our celebration, so here is breakfast; farm fresh eggs, uncured bacon and homemade hash browns.   

Ben even got Colin to say 'Happy Birthday'!  I think it's ironic that you can barely hear him in this video over Eliot.

They got me a sun hat, a wine rack and wine stoppers.  Really, it's a gift that keeps on giving.  You can't have a sun hat without going to the beach and an empty wine rack just looks silly.

I can never uncork the wine after it's been opened, so these were a great gift for me.  

Did you know that I can't slice bread in straight lines either?

Just a little Jen trivia for you.

Ben declined leading worship this week so he could sit with me and I greatly appreciated the gift.  It was so nice to have his extra helping hands that morning!

After church we spontaneously decided to make it a "fix the bikes" day.  I have been dying to get our bikes set for a long time, so this was a great gift for the day.  Alison got a new bike on Saturday that she had earned through learning the catechism.  So we dug out our bikes and trailer that have been sitting since Alison was a baby and fixed all the tires.  I say we, but really Ben did all the work and I sat and "supervised".  We were having a debate over what to do with Eliot and ended up getting him a new bike too.  He has a tricycle but I feel like Alison is behind in learning how to ride a bike and I don't want to keep him behind too.  Thankfully Alison didn't notice that he didn't have to earn his :)

on their bikes for the first time!

It's perfectly normal to buy your kids bikes on your birthday, right?

Well, I can tell you that the huge smiles on their faces was the best present ever. 

It was simply the best to be on a bike ride as a family.

Colin loves being in the trailer, but we knew he would want to be like the other two, so we got out the like-a-bike for him.

Just his tippy toes reach the ground, so he's not quite ready for it.

Don't you love the duct tape hat?  I've gotten lots of weird looks.  It's Alison's old princess helmet and it's still in perfectly good shape, so I covered in tape to make it look more masculine.  I don't think I succeeded, but he likes it.

I requested flank steak for dinner and something peanut butter/chocolate for dessert.  Ben Shear does not mess around and made this amazing creation.  Peanut butter cheesecake with an oreo (birthday cake oreo, to be exact) crust, topped with a chocolate ganache and sprinkled with Reeses peanut butter cups.  Oh my.  I ran 4 miles the next morning and maybe burned off the topping.

It really was a great birthday.  All of the little things added up and I really enjoyed our day.  I think 32 is going to be a great year!

Catechism

So these clips are long, but we wanted to tape Alison answering the first 40 questions of the catechism.  This was the first time she got them all 100%!

Eli has picked up a lot just from listening to Alison practice.  He did surprisingly good, except for the chewing on his foot thing...

This week...

Colin decided that he is too cool for diapers.  When I try to put one on, he clenches his knees together and says "no diaper!".  I bought some pull up diapers and convinced him they are "big boy pants".  looks like we might be entering in full force potty training, because I've been finding a lot of this...

Yes, that is a wet diaper placed in my entry way.  Welcome to our house, it smells like pee.

Alison had a choir concert at school this week.  It was a big deal to her and she did a fantastic job.  For a little girl who would have stared at the floor last year, she completely broke out of her shell.  She was even slightly dramatic with all of the motions :)

They asked that all the kids wear a plain red t-shirt and black pants.  Alison is more of a pink girl with lots of sparkles, so I didn't really want to buy her a shirt she would wear for 30 minutes.  As I looked through our house for options, I found a really old shirt of mine...it has 'Jennifer' written across it and I believe my dad bought it for me when I was about Alison's age.  I turned it inside out and Alison thought it was pretty cool she got to wear my shirt.

Eli fell on the sidewalk coming out of her concert and screamed like he was being attacked by bears.

Random Eli fact: he hates bandaids and will cry harder if you try to put one on.

 

Our zoo membership is expiring soon and I haven't decided if we'll renew it next year...so we've been going to the zoo A LOT to maximize our money invested.  Eli's been dying to ride the train, so this week we went just to ride that little train.

 

We had a picnic and looked at the monkeys.

 

One rainy day, we had to run an errand, so we picked up some drinks to make the gloomy day a little more fun.  Eli thought he was big stuff sitting in sissy's chair and getting his own drink.

 

 The kids have really been into building a "secret hide out" this week.  I love it that we have couches they can take apart and play with.  Also love that they build a small space to contain themselves and then whisper so we won't find them.  It's really a win, win situation...unless we want to sit on the couches while they play.

We got to celebrate 2 big accomplishments by Alison.  She has been working hard on her reading at school and got up to a 3rd grade reading level this week!  I wanted her to know it was a big deal, so I took her to the store and told her she could pick out any treat she wanted.  What did she pick?  A luncheable.  Oh kids.  You offer them the world and they choose prepackaged food.

She also memorized the first 40 questions of the catechism.  Both things she's been working for months on and I'm so crazy proud of her.  We told her we would buy her a bike when she got to 40, so today we picked up a pink "real" bike, complete with streamers on the handle bars.

We ended our week with dinner at Abuelo's.

It was a great way to start celebrating the big 3-2 for me!

Happy Mothers Day!

This was all I wanted today...a picture of the 3 people that made me a mother.  We were in a hurry to get to church, so they're not really the pictures I had in mind, but I was thankful for what we got.  Does it count that they're in clean clothes and their teeth are brushed?  In the middle of pictures, Eli said, "Hey mom!  I'm smiling even without candy!"  He did do a great job, even though my pictures don't really reflect it. 

Eliot James, 4 years old

Eliot James...oh, how I don't want you to grow up!  What I feared most about 4 has already come true.  My snuggle bug is slowly going away and I already miss it terribly.  But, he is coming out of his shell more and is talking a lot more to others.  He still loves all things trains, cars and trucks, but has now entered into the "everything turns into a sword" phase.  I caught him and Colin using music stands yesterday to fight.  The big news for Eli is that he will be going to real preschool next fall!  The little girl we've been doing co-op with is going into kindergarten at the same school he'll be at and the moment I walked into the school, I knew it was the perfect place for him.  I saw right away that they could do a lot more for him than I can at home.  I'm excited for him and slightly scared for myself.  For now, I'm enjoying his giggles and all the snuggles I can get. 

Jamaica, part 2

Pictures of the resort + random happenings.

View from our room.  Patio with couches and fire pit.

My criteria for the trip:

I wanted to throw a swimsuit in a bag and go sit on the beach.  I didn't want to worry about anything. I didn't want to think about what we would eat or what we would do. 

Thus, the all-inclusive resort was where we ended up.

view from our room.  They would do couples massages in those little huts on the pier...it was super awkward.

The trip definitely met my expectations.  We both just took a carry on and I still had at least 5 items I never even used.  When we wanted to eat, we just picked a restaurant and sat down.  They even had an ice cream machine you could get yourself a cone at any time.  I surprisingly only had 3.

There were only a couple of activities we actually had to sign up for, but they made it all really easy.  Other than that, we just spent a ton of time soaking up the sun and reading.

Ben was the first one on the beach one morning.  There's nothing better than the sound of the ocean in the morning.

We rode the shuttle to the resort with a couple on their honeymoon.  Both of their names were Kasey.  It was highly confusing.  I wanted to ask the girl a question, but every time I said, "So Kasey..." the guy would answer.  We saw them every day on the trip and I never could figure out how to address the girl Kasey.

From the dock, look back at the resort

The morning we went to the falls, we met another couple, our same age also on an anniversary trip.  They said they were celebrating 1 year.  When we told them we were celebrating 10 they had a look of confusion/disbelief/waiting for us to say "just joking".  They didn't really say much after that.  Just so you know, Ben and I are conversation killers.  It's a fact.  Being in ministry + 3 kids + 10 years of marriage = not fun according to the world.  I still think we're pretty cool.

from dock, looking at right side of resort

We are not tourist-y people.  So that was the only downfall to the trip.  By the last day, I got really tired of people asking if they could take my picture (so we would buy them at the photo shop) or if I was interested in joining the afternoon activity.  I just wanted quiet and to not answer any questions.  

On the positive side, there was always someone there to offer a drink or to pick up after I was done eating.  And, I liked that we went early enough in the season that the resort was not as busy as it could be.  We didn't have to fight for beach chairs or wait in line for food.

one of the pools at night...with a fire pit in the middle

path through the resort

view from our favorite restaurant

Both times we were in the Jamaica airport, the fire alarm was going off.  So here's the thing...no body moved.  No one flinched or got up or looked around.  They just sat there, annoyed.  What is wrong with us today?  We hear a fire alarm and just sit there and think it doesn't pertain to us and some body else should make it quiet.

One of my favorite memories from our trip was on our way home.  We sat next to a Jamaican girl, probably about 18.  It was her very first time to fly and her first time out of the country.  And she was deaf.  Ben and I pulled out our very rusty sign language and tried to give her instructions about the flight.  Ben helped her fill out her customs form and she wrote us a note as we landed..."thank God we're safe".  I can only imagine how scared and overwhelmed she must have been. 

Jamaica Trip/Happy 10 years to us!!!

Part 1

A whole lot of selfies...

 

Our anniversary was in December, but this trip has been a long time in the making.  I am SO thankful we were able to get away, just me and Ben...for the very first time!  We always thought we would go back to our honeymoon spot (Mexico), but decided instead to explore a new place. 

 

We took the kids to friends' houses Sunday night, since our flight Monday morning was so early.  Normally, I would have been so excited for a quiet house, but I realized very quickly how much life they bring to our house.  Ben made a comment how someday this is how our life will be...some day they'll be grown and it will just be us again.  I realized right then how important it was for us to just be Ben and Jen for a few days; how important it is for us to have a relationship and not just be mommy and daddy.

Monday morning I was up at 2:45!  It was ridiculous, but worth it.  We flew to Atlanta and then had a 5 hour layover.  We watched movies and read and tried to find non-fast food options for breakfast.  Sorry, but Chick-fil-a sounds gross to me in the morning.

We flew into Montego Bay and a shuttle took us the 1.5 hours down to Ocho Rios.  I was nervous about that drive, but ended up being so thankful to see the Jamaican culture.  Houses were a few boards nailed together and most buildings looked like they were abandoned.  However, I noticed that although people were actually living in these places, they didn't look like it.  Everyone looked clean and put together.  Their clothes looked nice First thing we learned; Jamaican's are loud and like loud music.  Our driver serenaded us the whole drive! 

Sitting on our balcony...view from our room

We got there in time for dinner.  That evening they were having a beach party, which worked out perfect for us.  We just walked onto the beach and started eating!

I just wanted to crawl in bed by this point, but who can resist some coconut water?

Tuesday morning we discovered Jamaica's secret...their coffee.  It.is.amazing.  Paired with their real brown sugar and I was in heaven.  After breakfast we went kayaking and then camped out on these chairs.

We quickly realized that we needed no entertainment and no need to move for hours.  We sat there, with our chair practically in the ocean, waiters would bring us drinks and we watched other couples attempt kayaking and paddle boarding.  We had books with us, but they were used more as shields to hide our giggles.  It was very windy that day...well, let's just say we saw some really funny situations.

That afternoon we played some tennis.  These may seem like big deals, but both activities were things I've really wanted to do, but haven't known how to do them with the kids.  So it was huge to me that we could just pick up any time and play a game.  Naturally, Ben creamed me, but I was happy that I at least got it across the net.

That night we went to a cocktail party, where we got to try several different kinds of Jamaican cocktails and we had dinner 2 different restaurants.

Wednesday morning we went snorkeling.

 It was wonderful and all I could think about was how small I am in this big world.  I learned that morning that sea sickness is contagious.  I was feeling fine until we got back on the boat and I saw another man about to lose his cookies.  I immediately felt sick too and wouldn't have made it back to land without Ben's help.  We camped out on these couches and sipped some "coke light" until we felt better.  I was thankful that some quiet and fresh air was all we needed to get over the queasiness.

We spent the afternoon by a pool reading.

A lizard spent some time with us, trying to get a taste of our drinks.

 

 We found our favorite restaurant that night.  We watched the sun set over the ocean and ate really yummy food.

That night we went to a "white party".  You were suppose to wear all white and they had massive amounts of chocolate and wine.  I think really it was their ploy to get you to buy clothes from their gift shop, but we rebelled and went in our normal clothes. 

Thursday we went kayaking again, but ventured out a little further this time.

 All that work required a second cup of coffee :)

That afternoon we went to Dunn's River Falls.  It was just a short drive from the resort and was lots of fun to climb. 

When we got back to the resort we went to a wine tasting.  I was so excited...I've always wanted to do a real wine tasting!  It was the saddest thing I have ever been to.  This guy handed us a glass of basic merlot and tried to entertain us with riddles.  Thankfully we had dinner plans and an excuse to leave!  So wine tasting remains on my bucket list and we returned to our favorite dinner spot.

So apparently my hair turns white and crazy in Jamaica...it was out of control.  I took this picture one day to remind myself that at one point I relaxed.  In future days when I'm longing for a break, I'll look back and remember these couple of days that I soaked in relaxation.

We had a fabulous trip and I'm so glad we made the investment in us.  We realized how much more we need to make an effort to carve out time for our marriage.  Perhaps it seems easier now that our baby is almost 2.  It didn't take long after returning home for us to say "remember when we were in Jamaica..."