With the birth of this little guy, there are now 5 grandsons and only 3 granddaughters for my parents.

Baby Keo

My sister gave birth to baby Keo on March 8.  He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20.25 inches long.

Last port-of-call….COZUMEL, Mexico.  Larsens and Hansens rented a jeep and drove around the island and Matt and I did our own excursions this day.  I told Matt the only thing I wanted to do was swim with dolphins since he did that the year before without me.  The weather was nothing like the day before… It was very windy and we were not able to go parasailing as we planned.  However we were able to swim with the dolphins since they were in their own cove.  It was so exciting and I truly enjoyed it.  There were about a dozen people in our group and we had the main trainer with us, so more information was shared.  We were able to give a dolphin a handshake, hug, kiss, and belly ride.  After our dolphin experience we had lunch and did our last shopping at the port since we had some free time.

Dolphinaris Cozumel

Making friends in Cozumel

I love going on cruises and spending time with my family.  We are already thinking about our next cruise…maybe we will take the kids.

More photos of Cozumel here.  And video and photos of our whole cruise here.

Our second port-of-call was in Grand Cayman.  Matt found this guy, John, (via the Internet) who has his own boat and could take the 6 of us out for the day.  IT WAS FABULOUS!  Captain John took great care of us and helped us make Grand Cayman memorable.  He picked us up near the port and then drove us to his boat.  It was great to see part of the island and have our own private tour guide.

The ocean was so calm, it was as though we were cruising on glass.  SO BEAUTIFUL!.  Our first stop:  Stingray City

Stingray City

Stingrays swimming around our feet

Captain John brought squid for the stingrays and anchored us on a sandbar.  People who booked through the cruise line were jammed packed together, but we had plenty of room (away from those people) to enjoy the stingrays.  Once the stingrays got the scent of the squid, they came a looking.  And it was a little scary…after all one of these animals did kill Steve Irwin.

Just a little scared!

But, they really are just like puppy dogs.  They are so soft and gentle and are just looking for food.  Once the food was gone, so were the stingrays.

Getting some "love" from the stingrays

Second stop: snorkeling in a coral reef.  Our uncle had a great underwater digital camera and video camera

Underwater Beauty

Lunch on the beach at Rum Point

After lunch we walked down the beach to meet up with Captain John.  We saw the changes that an island has after a hurricane.  The sandy beach is doubled in size and turtle grass is now covered with sand for a good 30 yards in the sea.  John also had some surprises for us.  GIANT Starfish.

Beautiful BIG Starfish

Underside of one of the starfish

Tubing in a beautiful place

Then we finished the day by tubing off the back of the boat.  It was so much fun to see all of us acting like teenagers again!  Thank you Captain John for a wonderful day.  It was probably the best excursion ever!

6 of us enjoying Grand Cayman

More of our Grand Cayman photos here.  Or watch our 2010 Caribbean Cruise video for video footage and photos

Earlier this year a co-worker recommended The Hightaway on the Guadalupe as a great place to take the family for the weekend.   After some online research I proposed the idea to the Larsens and Hansens as a long weekend vacation.  Everyone liked the idea, so near the end of April we rented both the Hightaway and the Hightout from the owner, Stephen Hight.

These two houses sit on the bank of the Guadalupe River, north of San Antonio in Center Point, Texas.  The furnished accommodations come fully equipped with canoes, inner tubes, life jackets, bbq grill, fire pit, swing set, rope swing, etc, etc.  The fact that everything needed was already at the house made for a very relaxing vacation.

We spent most of our time on the water, in the canoes, playing on the rope swing, etc.  From campfire s’mores to tubing down the river to throwing a big lizard on Makana, I can safely say that everyone had a great time!

We surprised Makana with this friendly visitor (lizard in the lower-left)

Matt and Jake practicing for their circus act

Families are Forever! (...or... "Our Family Tree")

The shirt says it all

The Incredible Hulk made an appearance

This pretty much sums up our weekend

The property had a great kid's playground on it

Kalani and Olivia posing for the camera

And finally, a video of McKay surprising me and Kalani:

We were a small group, but that just meant more food for us!