Jacob's First Haircut

BOO HOO! The time finally came to have to cut Jacob's hair. He had these cute little 'wings', but the killer was his hair getting into his eyes. So, Christina, his day care provider, who used to be a hair cutter, cut it today.

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He also turned 15 months old yesterday, so I guess it's a time for some major milestones. First off, he said nye-nye the night before last for the first time, as he was crawling up the stairs to walk to bed, the whole thing is totally amazing to me. We ask him if he's ready for nye-nye and he walks to the fence and tries to open it. We change have some milk and lay him in bed and off he goes, it's so nice! Speaking of bed time routines, tonight was the first night with out bottle, so we are now BOTTLE FREE!! Go Jacob.

He loves shoes and bikes and his push cars lately, it's so fun to see his playing develop. He will play by himself for 15-20 minutes at a time, it's cool just to watch him. He seems to be so smart, but I'm sure everyone's children seem amazingly smart to them:) He also loves to sweep and vacuum, hopefully that will continue.

The other day, he found Ethan's shin guards and brought them to me to put on, he sat down and put out his leg, he knew where they went, so I put them on and he walked around the house for a few hours looking like a hockey goalie, it was funny.

Ehtan's soccer game was awesome this past weekend, they did great, and Ethan was super aggressive and amazing. We are really enjoying the games.

Tomorrow we start our volunteering at Community House - which is a house for single pregnant women. We will be doing whatever is needed - I'll send updates, we're excited to do some service.

Cancun Paradise

Well, we had to return from Paradise:) Jason and I spent 8 days in Cancun at an all-inclusive adults only resort. It was so nice to be waited on and have no real schedule, we really enjoyed the recharging. The resort was awesome, the food was fantastic and the drinks were great. There are 5 other hotels in the area with the same resort so we toured the other hotels and their restaurants. There was a Teppanyaki Restaurant (where they do all the Japanese food cooking right in front of you), amazing Italian, great steak and Mexican food. We didn't get to the Brazilian restaurant. They also have great shows and activities every night, one show was like Cirque de Soliel another was a variety show with Michael Jackson which was pretty good.

We took a few tours - to Chitzen Itza and Tulum which are Mayan Ruins. Tulum is right on the coast with a beautiful beach. It was really interesting to learn about the Mayan culture. We also did a Zip Line tour which was fun - 10 different zip trips.

We took the local bus downtown Cancun and to get to the other resorts. One night after dinner the local bus driver ran a red light and got pulled over by the police, but no "boletas" (tickets), that was a funny experience.

We were also blessed to meet many great couples enjoying their time together and many honeymooners.

And the most amazing thing - we got to see 3 sea turtles make their way to the beach, walk around and lay eggs (well we actually only saw 1 lay her eggs - it's a 2 hr experience). They came up starting around 11:30 pm. Then at 12:30, we got to release 300 little baby sea turtle hatchlings that had hatched in the hotels nesting area that day. The resort company has a foundation that saves the eggs laid by the mamas and puts them in a safe nest and when they hatch they release them late at night to try to save them from the birds and other predators. They are so cute and small - about the size of the palm of your hand including the little flippers.

So, we loved the experience so much we purchased a membership to the resort and we plan on going back yearly. There are options in Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Riviera Maya and Dominican Republic. If anyone is interested in going, we have alot of weeks we can use - just let us know. There are great kids clubs at the kid resorts so we are excited to bring the boys back.

Hurricane Ike was going through our first 4 days, but even with that, we had a great time and managed to get some serious sun every day. Some were a bit windy, but we made it!!

Check out the pics below for some fun.

Sabbatical Trip Post #6 - Trip Wrap Up

We are back at home - we got here Monday afternoon. And while it is nice ot be home, we are missing the great family time we had together. Ethan loved life in the camper and really started coming out of his shell the last week - it was a blessing to experience. I think Jacob is glad to be home and have more room to run around and play, but misses digging in the dirt - we will have to invest in a sand box.

Our last day in Florence, we went crabbing and caught many crabs, but only 1 keeper, we cooked it in the camper with some fresh organic corn and potatoes, it was a fantastic meal. Below are some pics.

A wrap up summary for those that are interested.

Miles traveled - 3850

Average MPG - 9

Hours Driving - 65

National Parks Visited - 5

States Visited - 5

Highest Elevation - 9800 ft

Lowest Elevation - -192 ft

Activites - Horse Back Riding, ATV Riding, Fishing, Crabbing, Boating, Biking, Swimming, Reading, Hiking, Photography, Journaling

3 weeks with your family - priceless.