A little sun and fun!
Sunset on the boat
Do I look just a little excited to be on the beach?!
Waiting for our boat rideWow! It's been a crazy January!!
The month began with Josh's birthday, which, for clarification purposes is on January 4th and not the 3rd like it seems to say on the previous post. He had a great day and a great party! We went to the zoo and spent the day together as a family. Then Josh invited his buddy Andrew over for dinner and Thomas the Train cake. Fun was had by all!!
Right after Josh's birthday, my mom had surgery on her arm. She fell on the ice New Year's Eve and dislocated her elbow and broke her arm. She had surgery and after the surgery had some complications that led to the discovery of pulmonary embolisms in her lungs. She was hospitalized for almost a week (the longest week of her life, I'm sure!). She generally felt fine but the docs wanted to keep a close eye on her. She's home now and doing much better. Of course, I wanted to be at the hospital with her, so Brian took over a lot of the kid duties so I could be with my parents. Brian also gets huge props for watching the last Packer game (the one that was so close!) while watching all three kiddos and getting supper together while I was with my mom! I'd say since all the children made it through the game unscathed, he did good!!!
Finally, and the best part was that Brian and I left last weekend and went to Riviera Maya, Mexico!! It's just sound of Cancun and it was the best, most glorious, restful, relaxing four days I think either of us have ever had!! We've never taken any kind of warm weather vacation together and haven't been anywhere on any sort of vacation since I was six months pregnant with Lauren. So, this was overdue and much needed!! Since my mom couldn't watch the kids as had been the plan, Brian's mom flew up here at the last minute to stay with our babies for the weekend. We are so thankful for her!! The kids had so much fun with Grandma Jane and we're pretty sure that Grandma Jane enjoyed her grandbabies very much!! We owe a debt of gratitude to so many people for making our trip as enjoyable as it was: Jane for staying with our babies the whole time and not causing me one little ounce of worry that they wouldn't be fine; our neighbors Stephanie and Brenton for taking Lauren and Josh to preschool and picking them up so Jane wouldn't have to drive anywhere and generally being available and ready to help at any moment; to our neighbor Deonne for watching to make sure our garbage didn't blow everywhere and for checking in with Jane to see if she needed anything; to my aunt Sandy and cousin Katie for spending the night here on Friday night to help Jane out, give her a break, and spend some time with our babies; to my dear friend Emily for taking Josh to his buddy's birthday party at the zoo on Saturday; and to my dear friend Melissa for checking in on my mom while I was gone - you were my stand-in!! If I am forgetting to name someone, I am so dearly sorry. There were so many that made it possible for us to rest assured that our babies were well-cared for so we could truly relax and not worry.
And we relaxed and didn't worry at all!!
We stayed at a place called Secrets Silversands. It was right on the beach and it was beautiful. It was clean, the people were so helpful and the food was fantastic!! My favorite part was walking into a restaurant every meal for four days, eating food I didn't have to make and then leaving without having to clean up!!! It was the BEST!! We didn't really do much, though. We truly did relax. We went on a lobster and steak dinner cruise on Friday night and that was fun! Otherwise, we sat on the beach and read drinking pina coladas!!! And we got a lot of sleep!! FINALLY!!!! It was just fabulous! We are totally going back next year, so anyone who wants to come with us, let us know!!!!
