Not so Jolly to meet Saint Nick

Santa was visiting my brother-in-law Seth's work one Saturday when we were visiting in Salt Lake. We were excited to take Kate to meet him. In my mind I pictured her tugging on his beard and giggling with him. That did not happen! She was less than excited to meet the big guy. 

Terror struck when we left her alone with him. Let's just say she was mad at both of her parents. She would not let either of us hold her after the incident. She instead went right to her Papa, and held to him like he was a hero. In the pictures she is actually reaching out for her Papa. 

Puerto Rico and Grand Turk

Our second day that we came into port we arrived in Puerto Rico. Joe went on an adventure with my brother Jeff exploring forts and doing things that would be difficult to bring Kate along. Kate and I kept ourselves busy by spending time with my parents and Bart and Collette and their family. We really enjoyed walking around town enjoying the beautiful architecture. 

 We came across some people letting you pose with their parrots if you gave them some money. Kate was so excited to see the birds, and pointed and repeated, "Birds, Birds!" When it was finally our turn to pose with the birds and have them stand on me she naturally wanted nothing to do with them. 

Picture of the Fort Joe and Jeff explored

Another fort picture

 Our last port was beautiful Grand Turk. I could not believe how blue the ocean was there. The cruise ships own part of the beach front and have a nice private property for cruisers. We were able to play in the sand, swim in the ocean, and relax without anyone trying to get us to buy something we didn't want. An awesome flow rider is even there, and if you are willing to pay you can experience it. Joe, Jeff, Suzanne and Seth were the brave ones in the family who chose to do the flow rider. They all caught on quickly and were doing flips and all sorts of other tricks. They were also all very sore the next day.

Bart was a good sport and let his kids bury him in the sand

I love being an aunt! I could not get enough of these cuties. Ben, Kate, Emily and Jane

Kate got lots of mouthfuls of sand, she never learned her lesson and always kept doing it

Kate and Adrew

Joe is doing a planned back flip on the flow rider

surfing 

 Richards family 2014. My favorite part about this picture is that it was taken inside a bar on the cruise ship. I had so much fun traveling with this crew. It was fun to talk to other cruisers about how we were on a big family trip. Most people could not believe how big our family is, and they could not believe that my parents would have 6 kids of their own!

St. Maarten

After a few days at sea we were excited to get back on ground. We spent our first day at port in St. Mararten. A hurricane came through a week before, but we didn't see too much damage on the tourist part of the island. My brother Jeff rented a motorcycle for  the day and found many boats ruined and in the rocks. Kate had a fever the night before, so we headed out to find a pharmacy to get medication in case we needed it later. We walked and walked and walked, we finally found a pharmacy, ironically they had one right by where the cruise ships unload. We were able to see a lot of the city from walking around. It was hot! Boy do I miss that weather!  After we walked we jumped right in the ocean. This was Kate's first time in the ocean and she loved the warm water and sand. 

                     

Our daughter is a little fishy!

Cruising

I don't think I can find the words to express how much fun we had on our cruise to the Caribbean. Kate loved always having a buddy to play with, and getting to know her cousins better.I also enjoyed all the time we were able spend with family.  I think my favorite days were the days we had at sea. We were able to spend the most time in the pool those days which meant more cousin time, more trips to the buffet, and just more time relaxing.

I loved the ship that we cruised on! They had a lot of pools with only a few inches of water that were perfect for Kate to splash and run around with her cousins. They also had showers on deck by the pool that proved to provide the most entertainment. The kids loved running in the shower area, and having us blast them with water every now and then. 

 Another highlight of the trip was the buffet. This was an Italian cruise ship and so the food was also Italian. We always enjoyed the best pizza, and pasta, and gelato outside of Italy. Kate was the best eater on the trip.

The older kids were entertained with the kids club area. They would come to the nightly shows dressed up. This nights theme was smurfs. The shows were excellent and always appropriate for kids, Kate even became pre-show entertainment for everyone one of the nights.

My favorite spot to eat was on the back of the ship at the buffet, we were able to enjoy a beautiful view of the ocean. 

We loved our waiters at dinner every night.

Kate wanted to take some glamour shots, so we obliged. 

Kate loved sitting on her perch every night during the shows. 

My Mom and Dad at one of the dinners

No, Joe and I do not always wear matching outfits, just tonight apparently

Welcome to Miami!

We were lucky enough to go on a family trip October 18-25 with the Richards side of my family. This was no small task...My parents organized a trip for all 9 of their grandchildren, and 12 adults. We went on a luxurious cruise out of Miami to Saint Maartan, Puerto Rico and the

 Grand Turk island for 7 days! It was pure heaven. 

Kate is the only one out to the 9 grandchildren that doesn't live in Salt Lake. All those little ones are best friends, so I was so excited for her to get to know her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents better. She loved it and I knew she was so sad when we got home, and really missed having all the others around.  We would say her cousins names and she would look for them in our house. Sad...

Our journey started late on a Friday night where we all jumped on a red eye flight, and arrived in Miami at 6 in the morning. Our cruise didn't leave until that evening so we were able to spend most of the day in Miami exploring. (Yes we did blast "Miami" by Will Smith a lot before leaving!)

I didn't sleep at all on the red-eye, maybe I was too excited about the cruise, maybe I had a little bundle of joy on my lap. I think I look pretty good in this picture for not having any sleep.

When we arrived at the airport we all decided to take the metro instead of jumping in a cab and going to the port. It was an adventure to pack all of us around. We had lots of strollers, roller-board suitcases, and lots of kids. The babies all looked so tired, but were such good troops.  

The Richards circus, buying tickets for the Metro

I like that Kate could "kick it" on the metro

 I'm sad we didn't get more pictures in Miami, I don't know what we were thinking. Kate enjoyed exploring, I enjoyed shopping, and I'm not sure what Joe enjoyed. The funny thing is I bought Kate the cutest winter coat at the Gap in Miami for cheap. I never would have thought that I would be doing my winter shopping in Miami, but I did.

The weather in Miami was amazing! I could have partied all night till the break of dawn there.

 We sailed away on the MSC Divina pictured below. It is an Italian cruise ship, so as you can imagine we ate well on the trip. (6 lbs for me, 9 lbs for Joe ) I would highly recommend this ship to anyone. I hope I can get back on it again some day.

More pictures to come!

Yellowstone

In August, while my brother Jeff was in town, we took the opportunity to go up and explore Yellowstone. We live only a few hours away from Yellowstone and I thought 

that after living here for 2 years we should finally go visit it. 

 

Jeff's dogs Diesel and Zoe were able to join our adventure.

Kate and I were waiting for Jeff to tube down this river.

Jeff was the only one brave enough in our group to go tubing.
This was at a place in the park where it is allowed, apparently a hot spring was above, so the water was warm.

Jeff can manage to make my heart still skip a beat, he did it by jumping with Kate over a guard rail to
capture this picture. It is a good thing she loves her Uncle Jeff.

This was at the Paint Pots.  It was one of my favorite spots in the park.

Kate was bored by "Old Faithful" just like the rest of us, and decided to strike this pose instead. 

View of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone National Park from Lower Falls

"Old Faithful"

We hope to go again with you next year Jeff!

Skater girl

Right after Kate's birthday we were lucky enough to have my brother Jeff in town. 

We had fun with him, and hope that he comes up every year. We went up with him to Yellowstone National Park (Post to come), but stopped at a skate board park on the way. My heart skipped a beat when he picked Kate up and took her for a few rounds on the edges. She loved skating with uncle Jeff and it was fun to see her hair wave in the wind. Jeff hasn't lost his talent of skating, and is still amazing on the skate board.