Vacation!

When David graduated back in August we booked a graduation cruise for his present. We left on Dec 12, and took a luxury bus down to Miami. We left Miami at 4 p.m. on Monday. (They almost didn't let David on the ship since he was sick, but the on board nurse said he was okay to go). Our first stop was in Nassau, Bahamas, then Half moon Cay and then Turks & Caicos before heading back to Miami. We had such a great time- cruising is a great way to vacation! View from the boat when we arrived in Nassau Bahamas.

Our boat, the "Carnival Destiny".


It was chilly in the Bahamas, but I did manage to get my feet wet. I found some conch shells under a pier and decided to jump down and get one. When I got down there, I saw lots of big shells. This is a picture of me explaining that to David. After I got back up there was a guy selling shells and he told me he would sell me a nice one for 5$- I told him no thanks.

View of Nassau from the ship.


Playing some mini golf on deck 12, with great views.
Sunset in Nassau.
I love the ocean, and the ocean in the Caribbean is my favorite so far. So many beautiful shades of blue, it was incredible.
The view of Half Moon Cay (key) from the ship.
Mini golfing (again).
Arriving in the Turks and Caicos- the best weather of the whole cruise.
Audrey getting ready to go SCUBA diving in Grand Turk (without David, he had a cough so he couldn't go). It was a lot of fun and the water was fantastic!
On the ship ready to go home. Thank you grandpa and grandma Anderson for staying with Nathan! We really appreciate it, and we love you and miss you.

Family pictures

While the whole family was in town we had some family pictures taken. They turned out pretty good (as good as they can with 13 uncooperative people).


Sisters
Heather and Braedon (who is now as tall as my dad).


Russ, Bonnie, Jake (11) Kyler (6) and Zoey (4)
With dad
With mom
Heather with her Niece and Nephews

Cute.

We went to go visit Andrew on Sunday before we left. Nathan really likes to feed the ducks and chase the geese. It was snowing while we were there, so we weren't able to stay for very long.
Andrew would have been 3 this year. We are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. Grateful that our family was sealed together for eternity in the temple. Grateful to know that we will see him again.
We love you Andrew, happy birthday!

World of Coke

We have been so busy lately, it is time for an update. After all of my family went home (except my mom and dad) we went to World of Coke for our annual trip to see the "big bear". Nathan loves the Coke polar bear. As soon as Nathan saw him he got very excited, and said "I coming bear" as he walked down the stairs. Nathan doesn't really care about the rest of World of Coke, but it is fun to go through and taste the sodas from around the world. Unfortunately, they didn't have the big Christmas tree outside (they moved it to Grant Park this year), so no pictures there this time.

Nathan's birthday (and Thanksgiving)

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day. All of my family came to visit, and all of David's family was in town. We had Thanksgiving dinner at grandpa and grandma Rygmyr's house, there were 19 of us. There was lots of food and fun.
We played "red light, green light" while we waited for the turkey to fry (it was really yummy, and so was the ham that David smoked).






The weather was so nice that some of us ate outside, it was in the 70's!

After dinner, we had Nathan's birthday party. Nathan got lots of gifts from all his family. He got a baseball tee, a new bat and ball, a sleeping bag, some puzzles, some blocks, a new shirt, some movies, and a super cool train table.



Nathan did not want to stop playing with the train table. In fact he cried when I took him inside to have birthday cake. He stopped crying long enough to blow out the candles and then he headed right back outside without having any of his cake.




Happy birthday Nathan. Mom and dad love you so much. It is hard for me to believe that you have been a part of our family for two years now, it doesn't see like that long ago you were a little baby.

Some of the things Nathan likes are: books, trains, dinosaurs, balloons, playing outside and his shows (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Backyardigans).
He has so much to say, he is a little parrot- he will repeat anything and everything.
He knows his colors, some shapes, and can count to 13 (except he always skips 4). He is a really easy little guy, full of energy and love.
At Nathans 2 year appointment he weighed in at 24lbs (8%), he is 34 1/4 inches (56%) tall and his head is 18 1/4 in circumference (5%).