Vacation Fun Part Two The Cruise

Part Two of our vacation was a 3 day cruise on the Carnival Sensation. This was the first time my mom or Gabe have been on a cruise. We had such a good time.

Gabe sitting in our ocean view window in our room.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip

I love watching his face every time something new came along. He was so excited and had this smile plastered on his face almost the entire time he was awake. This was our first towel creation on the first night.

My love and I on the formal night at dinner

My mom in all her glory I love that she was just able to relax and do what she wanted. I wish we would have had more sun for her to enjoy but she figures not having so much sun was God's way of protecting her because he knew that if we would have had sun everyday she would have been out in it everyday. :)

Gabe and Dad chillin' in the Hot Tub...haha

Gabe and John had an ice cream eating contest while we were on the ship to see which one could eat the most ice cream cones while on the ship. Gabe won with eating 13 ice cream cones in 3 days!! Dad came in with 9 or 10 I can't remember for sure. This picture is Gabe with ice cream #9

Our port for this cruise was Nassau Bahama. We were blessed with lost of sun this day and decided to take advantage of his and go to the beach. The water was to cold for my liking so Gabe and John went for a swim while my mom and I hung out on the beach people watching and WOW did we have the people to watch. All I have to say is Mirrors people, mirrors!

Nana & Gabe at dinner our last night on the ship

Gabe & Mommy :) Getting into some of the pictures is another reason that I love having my mom with us. She always makes sure to take the camera from me so that I can actually have proof that I too was on this vacation.

Gabe & Daddy these two are such goof balls with each other and boy does this boy love his daddy.

Gabe standing outside of our ship in Nassau.

Gabe and Daddy playing the drums in Nassau. For a "tip" you could go up and play the drums with these guys. Gabe liked this part a lot. I let dad do this with him because there was no way I was putting on those hats! Yuck!

Gabe at the Water Works slides on our boat. He spent a lot of time here and had lots of fun.

On the boat heading back to Florida we went from sun and 80 to rain and 39 degrees once we arrived in Florida. It was quit a shock that we were really not prepared for but we survived.

John has been looking at another cruise already but next time we want to take a bunch of people with us. It is more fun when there are more people with you. So if cruising is something that might interest you let us know and we will get you info for the next time! :) This is the best way to have a vacation ever, John and I are hooked for life!

Vacation Fun Part One

One of the things I love the most about my husband is that he likes to travel and get away as much as I do. I love that he takes the time to research everything and to make sure that everything that we want to do is taken care of. I also love that on many vacations we've been able to take my mom along with us. Since we live farther away from her than my brother and sister do, We don't get to spend much time with her. Having her come with us on these trips is a special treat not only for myself but for Gabe as well. I love watching the two of them together having fun.

Part One of our vacation was spending time with Aunt Jean and Uncle Larry at their home in Port St. Lucie Florida. We arrived around 7pm and I'm not sure which kid was more excited to get into the pool first Mom or Gabe! They didn't waste much time before getting their suits on and jumping in!

Nana & Gabe during their night swim

On Monday we did some shopping in the morning because is was raining but the clouds parted for a little while and we were able to do a little swimming in the afternoon. Gabe LOVES the water and swam almost that entire day even when it started raining. He was already wet so the rain drops didn't much matter to him.

This boy can do a cannon ball with the best of them.

Gabe, Mommy & Nana having fun in the pool, yes Mommy even got into the pool!

This kid makes me laugh like no other the above picture I'm sure will be a graduation board memory in a short 13 year. Below he is learning on to play Farkle and loved every minute of it.

On Tuesday Gabe & John went to see Mom and Dad Fuller's place in Florida and to spend the day with Mom Fuller. Grandma decided that since she was going to miss Gabe's birthday this year because they will still be in Florida that she would celebrate his birthday with him early while they were there visiting. Gabe loved everything that he got and also loved walking around and meeting all of Grandma and Grandpa's neighbors. Wednesday was my birthday and my cousin Michael surprised me and took us all to a really cool zoo. Since I LOVE zoo this was such a perfect way to spend my birthday. I had my two favorite guys with me and my mom. This zoo was amazing it was so fun to be able to get so close to the animals.They had an area where you could go in and feed the birds nectar as soon as you walked into the door the birds swarmed you and would sit right on you to get to the nectar. As you can see below Gabe was more than pleased with this part of the zoo. I think we could have stayed here all day and been happy.

After the zoo we all met back up at Aunt Jean's house and Aunt Jean, Uncle Larry, Michael, Susie, Emily, David, Mom, John, Gabe and I all went out for my birthday dinner. We had a great meal and Gabe made sure that EVERYONE there knew that it was my birthday! This was the best birthday that I have had in a long time and John kept saying that he wasn't sure how he was going to top this one. :)

Me with my sweet hubby

Me & my sweet boy

Me and My Mommy :)

On Thursday it was time to leave and head for part two of our vacation. Our CRUISE we were all very excited to get to that part of the vacation but before we boarded the boat we thought that we would stop at Coco Beach to get some shells and some photos!

I will try to post Part 2 The Cruise tomorrow!

New Year's Eve Wedding

We were blessed to be a part of an amazing wedding on New Year's Eve. Gabe was the ring bear for Chelsey Downs & Hector Sanchez wedding. Chelsey is the middle daughter of Dave & Kelly Downs and this was the second time that he has been a ring bear. He was also in Chelsey's older sister Ashley's wedding. Gabe has become a know fixture in the Downs house and isn't just a little kid from the Church he is family if you ask them. The love they have for our son is unlike no other. He is a little brother that the girls never had and they make sure that he know how special he is every chance they get.

This is my little man all dressed and ready to do his part.

Gabe giving the flowers that he bought for Chelsey with his own money to her. He was so proud. I love that even though you can't see his face you can tell that he is smiling from ear to ear. This was totally his idea.

Gabe with his Princess Chelsey. The bond that he has with all three of these girls is so amazing. He loves all of them so much and I think that this picture shows it all. He just stood there for the longest time looking at her in the mirror.

This is Juliana he hopes to marry her some day if you ask him this is the second time they have been in a wedding together. She is Kelly's niece and it's kind of funny to think that if he did marry her someday that he would finally legally be apart of the Downs/Murphy family :)

The bride and groom

Getting ready for the bride and groom to leave for the night. This was so fun.

Christmas 2011

A Christmas post better late than never! Christmas Eve wouldn't be Christmas Eve without some cookies and a little milk for Santa. My friend Carol does a "Your gonna miss this moment" on her blog sometimes and this is one of those moments that I'm going to miss someday. The pure joy and excitement of getting the milk and cookies out for Santa.

Christmas Morning we had a little rodent problem with our tree! :) Gabe LOVES Alvin and the Chipmunks and thought it was great that Santa left them for him in his tree.

It's funny & some what sad to watch your kids go from the above picture of being happy with stuffed animals and toys to this picture of Tony with his Tire Iron that he asked for. Hard to believe that he is now an adult.

Jordon with his Lions Jersey & Movie Series that he asked for.

Dustin opening a "special" present from Gabe. This year Gabe spent much time going around the house to wrap "gifts" for people. He pretty much wrapped just about anything and I had to watch him like a hawk because I had no idea what the child was giving away! This one to Dustin was bullets to a Nerf gun.

Shenira and I saw a flip flop scrapbook kit at a scrapbook store that we were cropping at and she loved it. So I decided to make my own. This was such a fun and easy project. I bought the flip flops for 98 cents and then added the flowers and other items from the stuff that I had at home! The book was full of pictures all about her and she loved it.

After Church my family came over for Christmas dinner. It was so nice to have everyone with us but it was REALLY nice that we didn't have to go anywhere and drive all over the country side this year to see everyone for Christmas! :)

What a great Christmas!

A Visit with Santa

This is a very special Santa not only because he is Santa but because this Santa attends our Church. Gabe loves the fact that Santa goes to our church. Our church has Wednesday night dinners and Gabe enjoys very much eating dinner with Santa on most Wednesday nights. Here he is letting Santa know what he would like for Christmas this year. Time to move on so other children can have there turn but he had to get a hug before he could leave. What a great memory this will be for Gabe for many years to come.

Semi Formal 2011

This year was Jordon's Last Semi Formal. He met some friends at the dance and had a great time. Aunt Myra helped him out with his hair and looked great. Dad and Jordon

Dustin went to Semi this year with a big group of friends. They all looked great. Dustin and friends went to the Beacon Club for dinner and headed to the dance.

Dustin with his best friend Luke.