Jane's Journey: May 2018

Spring Break 2017

Spring Break 2017 took us to Cancun Mexico with some great friends of ours! We boarded the plane pretty early the day of departures, so a little nap was in order for sure :)

Then we boarded a shuttle after we landed to head to Moon Palace!

Hello Sunshine!

The all inclusive resort included access to a boat ride to super fun water park.

We picked a great day to go. The place was not crowded at all and the wave pool was a blast!

Along with the jumping pillow into the water.

4 Rings Tall :)

The beach was always fun for K and W. We enjoyed our walks looking for sea shells and jellyfish.

It seemed like if we weren't at the pool or beach, we were eating at 1 of the many awesome restaurants available to us. We loved the big breakfasts each day!

And sometimes we found some shade to relax and rest a bit by the water.

And 1 of the pools caught our attention when we saw a beware of alligators sign at one end of the pool. By the end of that day, we actually spotted an alligator deep in the woods behind the pool! Freaky!!

Brett and I fell in love with the chips and guacamole! I think we ate some every day for lunch.

And the kids munched on french fries, tacos and chocolate milkshakes in their little hut on the water.

Our trip included a few adventures. One of which was parasailing. Brett and Will went first and had a blast.

Kate and I went last and had a great time too! We couldn't believe how quiet it was when you are up that high in the air.

Each day we seemed to find a different pool to check out.

Will always chose a bubble bath each day to clean up before heading out for dinner and events at the resort.

These 2 got along very well 99% of the trip. Yay!!

4 is the number of yogurt cups Will ate most mornings :)

For lunch, the kiddos found a wood fire pizza grill where you get to make your own personal pizza.

Will was very into making the perfect pizza for himself.

Kate went with her classic pepperoni.

And always seemed to find room to visit the ice cream cart.

Hole in 1!!!!

And we finally found a game room too! Every boy loves a game room to hang in for hours and hours
(if we would let them :)

These 4 had the best time together. We can't wait to do it again soon!

And Finally......... Will snuck this little snow globe into his carry on without telling Brett or I. Well, who knew this little ball of liquid would cause such a stir through security at the airport! Little Will was in tears when the security officer removed it from our bag. Thank goodness my "Mom Card" worked and the nice man let us keep it and get it home so Will could always remember such an amazing trip!!

Valentine's Day and Slime

Kate and Will love strawberries. And we all LOVE chocolate covered strawberries. We decided to try and make some for the holiday this year. In the end, they weren't as pretty as the store bought version, but tasted pretty yummy!

Plus a little gift bag full of yummy Valentine Candy is always exciting too!

I volunteered for the V-Day Parties at school this year. We came up with a pretty fun game for the 5th graders to play.

No hands was a bit of a challenge.

And Slime was the new craze this year! Ooowy Goowy Slime!

They play with it for hours and hours.

Stretching it, smashing it, rolling it......over and over again!

Ski Trip to Galena

Papa has always dreamed of teaching his grandkids to snow ski. So we found a weekend that we were all free and headed over to Galena Illinois. Kate, Will and I all signed up for Ski School to learn the ropes.

It was a super cold weekend. Unfortunately, the cold got to Will after 1/2 a day and he decided hanging out in the lodge with Nana sounded like a good idea. Brett, Papa, Kate and I added a few extra layers of clothes and kept at it!

Kate made amazing gains over the weekend! By the end of the trip, she and I were going down the slopes together! We were exhausted and could barely move at the end of the day, but it was totally worth it.

We packed up and headed back to our hotel for some take out dinner and swimming!

"Throw me Really High In the Air Dad!" It was a super fun family weekend!

Swim Team in Full Force!

February may be cold outside, but we always feel like we are in the tropics! We pretty much live at the YMCA pool the whole month getting in lots of hours of practice to drop those few seconds needed to qualify for the State Meet and Midwest Regional Meet.

Will has really taken a liking to the back stroke! Once he figured out the flip turn he really started dropping time and winning some races!

Kate continues to focus on her breast stroke and back stroke. This year she asked for a speed suit for xmas. She loves wearing it to the meets.

Back up the clock to Jan 2017!!!!

Time to catch up on the blogging once again..... So let's go back in time to when we rang in 2017! The days of going out and celebrating late into the evening are on hold for now. Instead, we celebrated in our jammies with yummy food and horns to blow!

January is also Papa"s Bday Month. We had Papa and Nana over for a peppered steak dinner and custard pie for dessert.....Papa's Favorite!

We always celebrate the Van Zee Xmas in January. Opa flew in from California for a few days. We had our traditional sugar cookie decorating contest again.