Easter 2016

We had the most perfect Easter Sunday this past weekend! We spent all day (and nearly all weekend!) with just the 5 of us. We went to church, had naps, and worked on putting back together some of Brandon's RC cars...he and the boys had a blast!

Some Easter pics since it was such a gorgeous day outside! I had too much fun putting Evie's outfit together, her dress came all the way from Florida, from Gramma! It was just precious! I found her fur stol on Amazon.

 

This year I kept baskets very small...the boys each got some things for our upcoming plane ride to FL, and Miss E got some play makeup and jewelry. I went light on the candy, since they wake up to them. Candy for breakfast doesn't work well for us :S

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Happy Easter, friends!

boys day out

The boys had a couple days off school for conferences, so I traded Evie in for a couple extra boys and we headed to the GRPM for the Robot Zoo Exhibit!

The exhibit was super cool and very hands on for the boys! This chameleon had a toungue and eyes they could move with controllers, as well as buttons they could push to change colors...and a wall where they could dress and camo themselves, like chameleons do!

 

Grasshopper and house fly

 

While the Robot Zoo was super cool, we had fun touring other parts of the museum too! The boys loved all the skeletons!

Cute little bugs! :)

Old Town Grand Rapids was super cool and the boys got a fun toy lesson about what toys used to be like when they were homemade, of mostly wood before plastic was a thing. To my surprise, they really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought they would!

We couldn't pass up a ride on the carousel!

 

After we left, we had to check out the blue bridge we kept seeing from the museum windows! I had no idea, but one of Hunters birthday wishes from earlier this month was to walk this very bridge! 

We also checked out the river // not pictured, harrison, who was throwing rocks into the river. #suchaboy

We had a great day together, its so fun to have such great friends and be able to spend time together!!

15 months

evie girl -

i can probably describe you in three words this month.

Eat.

Holler.

On.

You are always eating. Always. you have figured out how to open the pantry, and you help yourself to whatever is within reach. If someone eats in front of you, you point and grunt until they share. You sure don't miss a meal, or a snack, for that matter. ;)

Your vocabulary is slowing growing, but you prefer to holler about what you want or how you feel. Some words include: eat, this, all done, uh oh, here and truck. I was hoping your first "word" would be something girly, but in following suit with your big brothers, you prefer truck. :)

You have to put every.thing. ON. Hats, gloves, shoes, socks...yours or not, you want them on. Sometimes even multiples at a time. This is not to be confused with getting dressed, which you despise. I prefer to call it accessorizing!

You still are not walking. It is much easier to keep up with your brothers when you crawl. You are taking more steps at a time, and will walk along furniture but you still are not walking by yourself. It wont be long, though.

This spring weather makes Mommy ready for you to walk, because you currently get super dirty. But then again, thats not anything I'm not already used to!

We can't wait to see what the next few months bring, and we love watching you grow and change. 

You're a wonderful addition to our family and we couldn't love you more!

Oasis of the Seas Cruise {{pt2}}

Wednesday we woke up in St. Maarten. We got off the ship and explored town for a while. The streets and architecture were so cool, we had so much fun just walking around!

We took a taxi to Kakao beach, which is part of Orient beach, but more clothed. {Orient beach in the nude beach on the french side of the island!} The weather was just gorgeous, and so was the water!

After a few hours there we took another scenic taxi ride back around to the dutch side to check out the airport bar. If you're not familiar, you need to YouTube it! It was SO cool!

Our ship from the taxi ride coming back - thing was a monster!

Thursday and Friday were days at sea. Thursday was just gorgeous and we spent most of our day at the beach pool on the sundeck!

Thursday night was also our last formal night, so we took advantage of a few photo shoots before another amazing dinner!

We had the BEST wait staff for main dining, and the food was incredible, every. single. night! When we booked, the agent asked if we were celebrating anything fun, and since I turn 30 this year, we decided to celebrate my bday a few months early, just because! Super yummy dessert!

Our waitors, Yogesh and Cheetaman

Friday was another day at sea and was overcast and cool. It was my turn to rise early to save pool chairs and I got rained on. Needless to say I gave up the chairs and we found other things to do. We did some shopping, for the kids, we enjoyed lunch at a taqueria on board (amazing food, again!) and we spent some time playing slots and cards in the casino!

We even ran into Fiona! ;)

We were off the ship saturday morning by 630 am, and in the air by 10. Our babies all had the flu while we were gone, so I was super anxious to get home and see them! Not to mention, when I spend all day every day with them, 7 whole days was a long time to be apart!

We had an amazing vacation in general. There wasn't one thing we would have changed. Except maybe taking our kids next time! :)

Oasis of the Seas Cruise {{pt1}}

I flew out on a friday afternoon, into Orlando to meet my hubbs. He had spent a week down there prior to our trip, and I was super anxious to see him and spend a week together!!

On the way to Orlando, we had a lay over in LaGuardia. What a cool airport!!! We had enough time to kill to have lunch, a margarita and even get manicures in massage chairs! Perfect start to a kidless vacation in my book. Everything in the whole airport was done in iPads. The use of them was free, and you ordered your food, drinks and even paid your bill on them! Holy technology, made me feel pretty sheltered here in little Zeeland.

We spent friday night with our husbands and got up early Saturday to drive across the state of FL to the port to board the ship. Some of our group stayed Friday night closer to the ship with my family, so BONUS! I got to see my Gramma at port. She has my heart! ;)

We boarded the ship and wandered around. There was SOOO much to see! It was just gorgeous, yet overwhelming. Naturally, a first night of dinner selfie was in order.

On our ship was a bar called the Rising Tide. It went up and down between floors 5 and 8, so you could have a drink with a view!

We woke up Sunday morning in Nassau. We got off the ship and hit a local beach for a bit before boarding again. We didn't have much time at this port, but we still had fun!

back at the pool on the ship, with a pina colada. YUM!

Monday was a day at sea so we soaked up the sun and enjoyed our relaxing day! Dinner was formal night. How cool is this huge chair?

We had to take some fun pics around the ship to show the kids, of course! ;)

Afternoon happy hour! 

Tuesday we arrive in St. Thomas. We got off the ship after breakfast and set out to spend the day on a pirate ship, snorkeling swimming and enjoying the scenery.

We had a great time snorkeling, we saw tons of sea turtles, rays and fish! It was so gorgeous!

We even got to see some humpback whales on our trip out too the cove, a mom and a calf! SOOOO cool, I've never seen anything like it before! We spent the rest of the afternoon on a private beach having lunch and some more drinks. It was a perfect day!