Trinidad and Tobago

Matt had a work trip to Trinidad and, with the help of all the wonderful grandparents watching the kids, I was able to join him.  While he was working, I wandered around Port of Spain to see the sights.

The pool at the hotel wasn't too shabby, either!

I had a great time seeing the animals at the zoo.  It was small but well done.

Haven't seen many anteaters in my life!

This would have been the kids' favorite exhibit - a huge cage full of parakeets.

 When all of Matt's colleagues headed back to Houston, we took a 15-minute flight over to Tobago for a weekend of relaxation and fun at this lovely resort.

 

 The view from our porch was perfect!

A short taxi ride took us to a beach with a nice surf break for Matt.

.

This got our attention!  And naturally, we were standing under the tree while we were reading the sign.

By far, the coolest thing we did was a nighttime paddleboard tour through a lagoon filled with bioluminescent plankton.  It was intimidating at first because the instructor said it was 6km roundtrip, mostly in the dark, but it was so worth the effort.  The water looked like it was full of lightning bugs every time it was disturbed and we even hopped off the boards and went swimming in the sparkling water at one point.  It was incredible!  Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to capture on film, but we did get a group shot afterward to remember the evening.

The rest of the time, we snorkeled and relaxed on the private lagoon at the resort.

Soaking in our last sunset in paradise!

February

 We started February off with another trip to Monster Jam, this time with the Hesters as well.  The boys were all so excited!  Mostly about cotton candy, but also about the monster trucks.

 

 The grown-ups had a pretty good time, too.

I loved how absorbed they were in engines, gas fumes, and flying dirt.

Even though Casey is small, her attitude is pretty big.  I made her a great sleeping bag (which she loves, but only when it's really cold) but she learned that the forbidden human blanket and pillow were much softer.  She wouldn't even look all the way at me while I was taking the picture.

February means baseball season at our house!  Lucky for us, the weather was fantastic so most practices were in shorts.  No complaints here!  We'll have a Pirate and a Yankee this year.

Alex lost his first tooth at school and came home thrilled with his new hole.

 We enjoyed our local rodeo again, especially the skit by the rodeo clowns.  They did a hilarious gag with that tiny firetruck.

Turns out that tiny firetruck couldn't make it out of the arena on its own power (NOT part of the show), so one of the cowboys pulled it out on horseback.   Matt told Ben that was a one-horsepower firetruck and Ben thought it was the funniest joke he'd ever heard.  Not often we get to see him laugh like this!

January

 We kicked off the new year right - with the Hesters out on their family land doing fireworks and eating fajitas!  The kids loved the private fireworks show and all the sparklers, not to mention climbing trees and running through the woods with walkie talkies.

 

 

Alex had tons of fun creating new marble races with his Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Ben enjoyed squeezing onto the neighbor's tiny bike and pedaling around like a clown.  What is it with this kid and tiny cars and bikes?

Alex came home from school one afternoon and decided to start a lemonade stand.  I would only allow him to accept tips but he learned that our neighbors were very generous!  He then decided to do one every single afternoon until I convinced him that the generosity wouldn't last long if he was out there every day.

Ben loved strumming around on his guitar and making up his own songs.  Still waiting for him to get interested in learning some real chords, though.

The Dulaneys came to town for a weekend and we had a fantastic trip to NASA.  I absolutely loved seeing the original Apollo mission control but I was so sad that Ben was at school because he would have gone crazy over this.

We got in a few games of bowling with the Dulaneys and Armstrongs as well...always good fun!

The whole gang!

We got to do some puppy-sitting for Miss Holly, who was growing by leaps and bounds.  Casey enjoyed having a playmate...sometimes...

...but definitely not when she was trying to nap and Holly would come in Casey's crate to play!

Ben competed in his first science fair and won fourth place in his category!  He tested the parakeets to see if they'd learn to go through mazes and he did nearly all of the work on his own.  We were so proud of him!

Alex also presented a project but was too young to compete.  He used his cool new marble maze to see if marbles had equal chances of falling through each exit.  We were also proud of him and his hard work!

December

I was lucky enough to do some Christmas shopping with Stacey and our friend Mandy in Canton, a massive market in East Texas.

You know you've had a successful day shopping when you can barely fit three adults back in the car!

One of my favorite traditions - the Christmas show at our church!  I had nice long-sleeved shirts picked out for the boys but this was one of the warmest Decembers we've had, so we didn't get to enjoy them this year.

Matt was originally supposed to be gone on a business trip, but his flight changed and we were so happy to make it a family evening.

We made a quick visit to Santa because Alex needed to tell him he wanted a ripstick for Christmas.  This may be our last visit with the big guy because the boys look huge and Alex may hear some upsetting news on the street between now and next December.  We shall see...but at least this year was full of magic!

The kids loved our new inflatable this season!

Our first stop after school got out - Star Wars, of course!  The kids had been dying to see it and we all loved it.

 

Probably the most fun part of our holiday break was helping Grandpa with his Christmas surprise for Grandma - a puppy!  We went with him to bring Holly to our house then we got to play with her for days before the big reveal.

We may not have gotten around to baking our Christmas cookies this year, but it was much more fun playing on the floor with this sweet girl.

Casey didn't share in our joy at first.  She was upset that this little invader kept sleeping in her bed or her crate and played with all of her toys!  After several days, she could no longer ignore Holly's constant invitations to play and they ended up getting along really well.  Casey might finally have a dog friend!

We surprised Grandma with her sweet little puppy and spent a few days there celebrating Christmas.  We let the kids open one gift early and they were a tiny bit excited to figure out it was the xbox they'd been hoping to see.

We got lots of fun gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!

Holly loved the wrapping, not so interested in the gifts.

We enjoyed one of the candlelight services at church on our way home Christmas eve. The empty seat next to Alex happened to be where the pastor was sitting during all of the worship.  Thank goodness the kids were perfectly behaved that evening!  This is always my favorite service of the year :)

We left our cookies out for Santa and said goodnight to two very excited boys.  No Christmas pjs this year because it was too warm!

Bright and early Christmas morning, the boys couldn't wait to check out their new toys.  Alex was happy to find his ripstick.

Ben was thrilled to get the guitar he'd been wanting!

Alex was really excited to get his own watch from Mr. Scott and Miss Lou Anne.  Notice the sun has finally come up outside!

Ben was happy to test out Alex's ripstick before it went outside.  Alex needs a little more practice just yet. 

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone!  We are thankful for all the wonderful memories that 2015 has given us.