Smith Family News: November 2012

Tyler Does the Darndest Things

Tyler drew what he called a "No Horses Sign" and taped it to his bedroom door. When I asked why, his reply was because he had no hay and he didn't want all that stomping around in his room. LOL

Watching the Little People on the BIG TV

Woo hoo!!! Our new television was delivered today. It's so much bigger than our old 42 inch screen that we bought while we lived in Italy. Now with our 60 inch screen, it's like we have our own movie theater. Steve surprised us with a new movie he bought to try it out with. We watched 'The Secret World of Arrietty' tonight before bedtime. It was pretty awesome!!!

Way To Go!!!

Look who made the Assistant Principal's List again!!!

Two Birds

Mailed off his letter to Santa and visited him all in the same day and mall. LOL

Tyler wrote his letter to Santa this morning. We thought it was pretty funny that he asked for a toy prairie dog. LOL This is the first we heard that he even wanted one.

Cool Cache

We got bundled up and headed out in the cold for a few caches to help walk off all the turkey we ate. Below is one of them we found. We always like the cool out of the ordinary kind and this was definitely one of them. The Ken doll was reading a newspaper called FTF (First to Find) and the headlines were all caching related. A lot of work went into building this cache. It sure put a smile on our faces.

Grateful

The Smith family enjoyed a nice quiet dinner together. This year I basically repeated the same exact dinner menu as the year before last with my favorite candied sweet potatoes, Steve's favorite greenbean casserole, turnip, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, baby carrots, and stuffing. However, this year I tried something a little bit different with the turkey. I soaked it in a brine overnight which made for an awesome moist and delicious turkey. For dessert, I made pumpkin pie.
We are truly thankful for so many things, but most of all that Steve was home safe and sound.

Videos from the Fall Feast

Fall Feast

The day after getting home from the cruise, Tyler's class had their Fall Feast. I was in charge of making the mashed potatoes. Us parents were invited to a concert full of songs and poems followed by lots of food. It was super cute to see the kids dressed up as pilgrams and indians. Tyler and I enjoyed the feast very much. Afterwards, we were allowed to take our kids home early eventhough Tyler was not too fussy about leaving his friends to go back home. LOL

Cruisin' to Cozumel: Day 4 & Final Day

The next day was our last full day on the ship. Our morning started out with a character breakfast in the diningroom. Shrek, Fiona and Puss N' Boots made their appearance we ate a delicious meal that included a kid's chocolate milkshake that we all ordered. LOL We watched a towel folding demonstration afterwards where we learned how a monkey, lobster, and other creative towel creatures are made. Tyler sat up front and after it was over the guy gave him a towel monkey to hold, but it ended up falling apart shortly after. We then took the children to the kid's club while Chellee, Peter, Steve, and I chilled out at the top deck lounge. It was a grey, rainy day which helped set the mood for relaxation. We picked up the kids soon enough and then headed down to the buffet lunch where Janell, Wyatt and the kids joined us. At 2pm, we were scheduled to see the ice show which was pretty good and amazing considering how rocky the ship was that day due to the weather and also the small size of the rink. Afterwards, Steve and I wanted to go back to the kid's pool where we went in the hot tub while Tyler and Abbi played in the rest of the area. Soon, however, it started to rain and so we sought out shelter under one of the decks and sat and watched as Tyler and Abbi continued to play. We got ice cream cones and then went back in the hot tub after the rain stopped. The hot tub was sooo nice and relaxing. It was the perfect way to spend our last full day on the ship. We stayed until it was time to get ready for our last formal dinner. Dinner was wonderful, as always and we asked the head server if he could make another "Jimmy" (a bunny out of a napkin that he made them a couple night's ago). He ended up making them all one. We said thank you and so long to all our wonderful servers and then headed downstairs to view the photos the ship photographers had taken of us during the cruise. We all then went to the cafe for a short time before saying goodnight. Tyler was asked to stay over at Grandma's cabin again for a sleepover which was soo very nice of her. Tyler was super excited and Steve and I greatly appreciated the time to ourselves. The next morning we got up early and did our last minute packing before heading down to breakfast where we met Chellee, Peter, Grandma and the kids. We quickly ate breakfast and then went and gathered up our things to head off the ship. We said sadly goodbye to Grandma, Janell and family and then Chellee and Peter kindly drove us to the airport. It took us all day to get home because of a long layover in D.C. Overall, it was wonderful to see the family again. We had an awesome time spending time with everyone. Sandy is one of the best mothers ever. It was so nice seeing her so happy. We love you very much, Mom. :)

Cruisin' to Cozumel: Day 3

We woke up to find that we arrived in Cozumel. We were very eager to get off the ship and do some exploring, but first we had to have a good breakfast to start our day off right. Then it was finally time to get off the ship. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the sights were even better. Steve, Tyler and I took our own taxi downtown and met the others because we were told we all couldn't fit into one van. Once downtown, we walked along the main street that went along the amazing coastline. One of the first soveniers we purchased was for Tyler. He wanted a guitar. He ended up playing it for most of the remaider of the cruise. LOL Janell and Wyatt had been there before and so they recommended that we walk to this great restaurant for lunch. Along the way we did a lot of shopping and browsing. We bought some Christmas ornaments, an espresso mug and saucer, magnet and a decorative wall hanging for Tyler's bathroom. Pancho's Backyard was the name of the restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious Mexican food. It was Brian's birthday, so we took a photo of us all and Steve posted a birthday greeting to Facebook. After eating and a few more photos, we worked our way back down the street for more shopping. We stopped at the town's square where Steve wanted to take more photos, find a geocache, and did more shopping. Steve bought me a fresh coconut for me to try the water inside. It was very refreshing to drink on such a hot day and after so much walking. Unfortunately, the restaurant where the cache was to be hidden was closed, so we got a photo which counted as a find. We made our way back further down the street where we stopped for more shopping and Tyler had a few photos taken with a parrot doing cool tricks. Then we all managed to squeeze in a van back to the pier where we did more shopping before going back on the ship. Cozumel wwas really nice and it would have been nice to stay longer. Steve, Tyler and I decided to head back to the pool where we enjoyed the hot tub before dinner. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication regarding the time for dinner and we ended up being very late. Janell and Wyatt were just finishing up as we arrived. The servers were very accomodating, however and allowed us to order. After dinner, Grandma wanted Tyler to have a sleepover at her cabin with Brye and Abbi. Tyler was so excited and it was so nice having a night to just Steve and I, a rare treat for us. As always, here are more photos.

Cruisin' to Cozumel: Day 2

Day 2 of our cruise was our first officially full day on the ship. After our buffet breakfast, we met Chellee and Janell and their families down at the kid's pool where we laid in the warm sun while the children splashed and had some fun. Then for lunch we met Janell and her family at Johnny Rocket's. For dessert, I tried apple pie with cheddar cheese which was rather tasty. The children went to the kid's club while Steve, Chellee, Peter, and I strolled the deck for awhile. We saw the outline of Cuba in the distance as well as some adorable baby dolphins. Grandma met up with us and soon it was time to pick up the children and get ready for our first formal dinning experience. After dinner, we said goodnight as we had to get up early for our port visit. Here are more photos of our day.

Cruisin' to Cozumel: Day 1

For Grandma's 60th birthday, we all chipped in a got her a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Our family flew down to Fort Lauderdale the day before and stayed over night at a hotel before joining Chellee and her family, as well as Janell and her family and Grandma. The highlights for our first day on the cruise was getting the kids registered for the kid's club, seeing a Dreamworks parade, having a casual dinner, going for a nice night stroll around the top deck and Tyler's excitement over his cool bunk bed. Here are some more photos of our first day.