Happy Birthday to Me

                   Yesterday was my birthday. I turned forty and I still can't quite believe it.
We celebrated Saturday night with a few of our friends. Nothing fancy, just pizza and cake with ice cream. It was a nice night and I had great time. Sadly, we didn't take too many pictures.

          Everyone singing and I had many candles to try and blow out. Rachel helped me with that.

On Sunday, we had a regular day- church and I took the girls to play at the park because it was a sunny day. Then to kids choir and home for bath time and bed. I had calls from friends and family to wish me a happy birthday and received many nices gifts.

Me and the girls before church.

 

                   Another birthday come and gone.

            My thirties were full of changes and blessings.

 I am looking forward to my forties and I am praying they are kind to me.

 

 

Cozumel and Castaway Cay

On our Disney cruise we stopped for a day in Cozumel Mexico. We had the option to stay on the ship or disembark and do a little sight seeing. We decided to take the girls to a nearby resort that offered all sorts of activities.

The big activity we did was a "dolphin discovery". We all went into a special swimming area with the dolphins and learned a bit about them. The trainer had the dolphins shake hands or flippers with us and give kisses. I did not kiss a dolphin, but everyone else did. The girls did alright and it was pretty neat to be able to see and touch the dolphins. They are very smart animals.

    The rest of our time in Mexico we stayed at the beach and the girls played in the sand and swam.

I think our favorite part of the cruise was the day we spent on Castaway Cay, which is Disney's private island.

                       That morning we ate breakfast outside and this was our view of Castaway Cay.

                               A quick picture before we went to spend the day on the beach.

As we got off the ship for the day, I snapped this picture. Anytime the ship is docked at a port, they are working, cleaning, or painting the ship. It seems to be an never ending job to keep the ship afloat.

                               Several characters were on the island to greet us- Chip & Dale, Captain Jack Sparrow and Donald Duck. We only stopped to say hello to Donald.

This was in front of the the island's post office. They sell postcards and then you can mail them to family and friends and it has a special postmark from the island which is in the Bahamas. I walked over later in the day, but they were closed :(

The girls got right into the water, which was on the cold side, and played for awhile. Then we all went over to Castaway Rays. Raphael and Rachel got to learn about stingrays and had a chance to touch and feed them.

All the dark areas in the water are stingrays.

 

Adan and Amy went para sailing. That looked like a lot of fun!

Amy and Rachel spending time with Abuelo and Abuela.

Amy and Rachel spent quite a bit of time on this water slide & water fun house.

Rebecca was very content to play in the sand and swim.

Our family on the beach.

Amy and Perla by Mount Rustmore.

The island was beautiful and there were so many activities that we didn't make it to-maybe next time!

 

We had a great time and it was the perfect way to end our cruise.

 

 

Our "Wonder"ful Vacation

At the beginning of February we drove to Miami to meet up with Raphael's family and we all went on a Disney cruise. It was our first cruise, so we weren't sure what to expect, but we had a great time.
                                                     We sailed on the Disney ship- The Wonder.

Goofy welcomed everyone on board the ship.

Adan, Amy and Jeanny

Our room for the week. It was small, but they don't waste any space and we were comfortable.

The couch folded out into a bed for Rebecca and above her, a bed came out of the wall and Rachel slept there each night.

The view out of our room window.

The girls spent lots of time in the pools and on the waterslide.

We could watch Good Luck Charlie while we swam.

Each night there was a Disney stage show to watch.

And several times a day Disney characters were out and about for pictures.

Our second night on the ship we took the girls to the kids club and all the adults went to eat at Palo,

an Italian restaurant.

Adan & Jeanny-Perla & Roy- Raphael & myself

      We spent lots of time exploring the ship and looking out the windows.

On the ship we ate dinner at a scheduled time and we rotated through all the restaurants. The wait staff followed us to each restaurant and were super nice and accommodating.

We ate dinner at the Animator's Palate. The restaurant starts out with everything in black and white and gradually turns into color- pretty cool.

All of us at Animator's Palate with our waiters- Ismet and Julie.

Amy, Rebecca and Rachel on pirate night.

                           Adan and Raphael

Our family on the last night.

The trip was so much fun and the ship was beautiful. We had a wonderful time and made so many memories. A big THANK YOU to Roy and Perla for taking us all on trip. We love you!!

        Perla and the girls.

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day kind of snuck up on me this year. I think since we were on vacation that I lost track of time and didn't realize the big day was coming up. Yesterday I put up a couple of decorations and tried to make the house look festive.

Both of the girls had parties at school today, so Rebecca and I worked on Valentines for her friends and teachers.

                                                                           Sister love.

                                                                    Happy Valentine's Day!!!
   

 

Disney World

We got back from our Disney cruise on Saturday night and I am sifting through thousands of pictures to figure out what to keep and what to delete before I try and narrow down pictures to post on here.

Raphael and I had talked about stopping in Orlando on our way home from Miami for a day and taking the girls to Disney World, but we weren't sure it would work out. We were able to make it work and surprised the girls with a day at Disney.

The last time we were at Disney World, Rachel was four years old and I was six months pregnant with Rebecca. Our visit this time was fast and furious, but we had a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

We had told the girls we were going to go "sight seeing" and then let them figure it out when they saw the Disney World sign. Rachel was so excited and Rebecca had no clue what was going on.

 We started in Animal Kingdom for a couple of hours and had a picture with Pluto and Goofy. Since we just had one day, we didn't spend much time waiting in lines for pictures with all the Disney characters.

Raphael and Rachel rode the dinosaur roller coaster and I stayed with Rebecca on the calmer rides.

Rachel on the bus from Animal Kingdom to the Magic Kingdom. We spent the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom trying to see as much as we could.

                                                                 The castle from Main Street.
There was a HUGE crane over the castle because they were doing maintenance work on the castle, so kind of ruined the castle photos.

          Of course, Rebecca needed a stuffed animal and sunglasses, so we did a little shopping.

I told Raphael that I wanted to try and get to all the more classic rides and we managed to ride Dumbo, the teacups, Peterpan, the flying carpets, it's a small world and the carousel. We also checked out the new Ariel ride in Fantasyland. It was really cute and the lines moved quick all day.

One last picture with the castle and then time to go to the hotel.

We had started out at Animal Kingdom, so that is where we parked. That park closed at 7p.m., so by the time we got there it was close to 11p.m. and we were the only people on the bus and one of the only cars left in the parking lot. After a long day of walking and the everyone was getting tired, we spotted a wheelchair and used it to push the girls in it to the car.

Fun day and lots of memories made!