Christmas on a Sailboat

We wanted to try a new vacation location this Christmas and choose a sailing adventure. We flew to Belize City and then had to fly on q 14 passenger plane to get to Placencia to get on the sailboat. We really didnt know what to expect, we had a captain and a cook going with us and hoped that they knew what they were doing. The sailboat was a catamaran with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The routine was nice and quiet, after a great breakfast we would sail to a snorkeling destination, hang out and have lunch, snorkel and rest. Then we would sail to our place of mooring for the night, snorkel and swim and have a great meal. It was totally secluded and we saw small islands with wither no people or just a handful. We snorkeled with amazing fish, turtles, stingrays, and a nurse shark. The stars at night we unbelievable.

Thanksgiving Travelers

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Hastings and the Albertson's traveled from all over the United States to be part of the fun. Dad and Donal drove from New Mexico, taking the extra long and scenic route. Luke and Alex flew into Lincoln from Alabama and Sarah and Chris drove the 6 1/2 hours with their 2 kids. We had so much fun being together and not doing much of anything.








Thanksgiving Day, Cathy generously did ALL the cooking and had the meal prepared and waiting at her house!

A decade of a daughter

Saylor turned 10 on November 22, she has turned into a young lady! She requested a dinner of pancakes and bacon and Matt worked very hard on a special ice cream cake with the wonder woman symbol on top. She had her party the previous weekend with a few friends, the pink skull cake, so the night of her birthday was much quieter.

Pre- Halloween Fall Vacation

We went to Arizona to visit Matt's grandmother, Nonnie over fall break. It was a lot of fun and Nonnie had planned for us to be very busy and perfectly planned each day. The first day we went to the zoo and be grateful I am sparing you ALL of the animal pictures Tagg took. All of us were completely taken by a baby monkey and his mother, it was so incredible to watch their interaction and play. We finally convinced Nonnie to use a wheelchair despite Nonnie's arguments that she could walk, she would have been fine without it.




These are pictures from our day in the desert, driving the Tonto Trail and seeing Cliff Dwellings. The Scenery was spectacular and we loved seeing all the cactus.

Halloween

We had a little pre-trick or treating gathering this year. It was tempered down with Halloween being on a Sunday and school the following morning but we all had a great time. Saylor was a project runway designer, thankfully Uncle Chris made her an iron on shirt decal to "complete her look" and Tagg was Batman. The kids had a budget for the costumes and while Saylor was determined to spend as little as possible and keep the remaining cash, Tagg took his money and bought a video game. He then went to Goodwill and found the perfect costume for almost nothing, talk about luck.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpOSMoZRO8lBS-zM2i7kcp5L3TVAeY7P6pSptzHIrPVAUX7O4biDfCSy_HXxnCTFmfnC3x6EL139UXkoutbG1Loq0WEfXPw3bopTzLbd9PNziSxaRKTuaEb5KxtR-5epZBSM14s0E4Z9av/s1600/IMG_3868.JPG">

L&J

Fall in Iowa

We made a super quick trip to Cedar Falls to be part of Lucy's 4th birthday. The leaves were beautiful, the kids played together and then we were able to go to Chucky E Cheese for the birthday bash. The party was chaotic as it seemed like a small space filled with kids and adults eating and playing loud video games. At the conclusion of the party, Lucy was suppose to be put into a booth that was locked with tickets flying around for her to catch and redeem at the ticket counter. Sadly, Lucy got really scared during the process of being locked into a booth and Tagg was able to take her place and get the tickets for Lucy. Highlight of his life.

Flag Football

For the first time, Tagg wanted to play on a flag football team. He has liked it way more than we had anticipated and takes the practices/games very seriously. Tagg's coach has allowed every player the opportunity to be quarterback and today was Tagg's turn. He did a great job of listening and obeying his coach's directions. The pictures aren't great and don't show how much Tagg threw the ball but we still wanted to post a few pictures.

The pumpkin patch is always a highlight of the Fall and this year, they had added a pumpkin launcher. Obviously, this was a great addition and another way to "use" pumpkins. Mimi and Papa joined in the fun, as they typically do, even trying out the giant slide, not quite as fast as a race car....