Christmas Eve 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas eve at our home this year with Great Grandpa Ed, Great Grandma Bernie, Grandpa Brad and Grandma Patti, Great Auntie Beanie, Kyle and Kelli, and Stephanie and Bounthavy. We shared a few songs and stories, ate a nice supper and opened way too many gifts! Thank you everyone, for the wonderful evening. Thank you God for sending us a Savior as the little Baby Jesus in the manger!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving this year at Grandpa and Grandma Bye's Home. Thank you, Brad and Patti, for hosting! We have so many things to be thankful for: our food, our homes, our health, our jobs, our family, our friends, our freedom... Thank you Jesus for continuing to bless us all abundantly.

Mexico Vacation, January 2011

Welcome as we take you with us to sunny Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico this Janurary 2011.


We couldn't have done without this double stroller. But let me tell you, after the trip was done, I swore I never wanted to see it again!

I am trying to wait patiently for my first plane to arrive!

The first plane ride from Minneapolis to Denver. The ride there was mostly peaceful and without a hitch. The girls did very well with a little nap for both of them. Abigail, our "lap-child," only changed seats between the 3 of us ~thirty times:) We caught our connecting flight and made it to Mexico on time.
After extensive harassment of transportation personnel the moment we exited the first set of doors of the airport, we finally made our way to our "real" transport people...thanks so much, Dad, for setting this up ahead of time....it saved us! We then took a van-cab to The Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta.

This is a picture of what we could see our our balcony the first day we arrived. Beautiful waterways, foliage, gardens, and flowers, with the pools and ocean just beyond. We had made it!

Grandma Margaret and Grandpa Bill were so happy to see us there safely. We were ready for a week of relaxation and fun in the sun. Mom and dad had dinner ready for us in the room when we arrived. After dinner we took a walk around the Mayan to check it out. After unpacking, we all hit the hay early.

The next morning (Sunday) we were already on a mission. Mom and dad had already set up an "update meeting" with their time-share company in order to get Derek and I a free day trip and also a credit of pesos to be used at will at the Mayan that week! We all get to join them for the most exquisite brunch I have ever seen before the "business" part begins.

We then took the girls to the pool to enjoy our first day of fun in the sun.

Since we missed mass due to our brunch, we took our one and only Mexican bus adventure all the way into downtown Peurto Vallarta. We went to Old Town for dinner and to show Derek where his grandparents vacationed for many years past. We enjoyed a dinner at Andele's overlooking the street. Derek and my dad ordered Pacificos and I enjoyed a monstrous daiquiri.

When dinner was done we had a short time to walk the board walk and take in some Sunday evening Mexican culture while making our way to the Cathedral at the heart of the city for Sunday night mass. The girls hung in there until mass began and spent most of the time running outside with a few other children. They were quite fatigued from all of the activity of the first day. After mass, it was another long and bumpy ride back to our hotel. It was a great experience, but one that we knew we only needed to do once by bus with 2 small children and a double stroller!

Monday was spent at the pool and ocean. We had a nice lunch at the restaurant by the pool. The girls took the best naps in Mexico, due to being able to expend so much energy by running along the paths, jumping and splashing in the pools, and just being in the fresh air.

Tuesday was Derek and I's day-trip together. Early in the morning we headed our to Vallarta Adventures where we has a small brunch before boarding a very nice catamaran to the Marrieta Islands. In the morning it was very cool on the boat, and we were thankful we brought out sweatshirts and pants. We whale watched all the way to the islands and were fortunate to see MANY whales, at very close distances, and we even saw one jump almost completely out of the water...like you see on National Geographic. It was beautiful.

When the boat made it to the islands we were able to snorkel together in and out of the coves along the rocks and see some beautiful fish. Water quality not even close to Hawaii, but it was only Derek's second snorkeling experience and we had a great time together! After snorkeling we were brought to a white sand beach to hang out for a short time before boarding the boat again for lunch. The afternoon consisted of a lot of sun, several adult beverages, and a great time for us to spend "just the two of us" away from our kids. THANKS mom and dad for taking our kids all day!

We made it home at last and joined my parents and the girls at the beach.

Sometimes we brought our peanut butter and jelly sandwiched right down to the pool.

Adelyn enjoyed her new floaty toys that Santa brought her for Christmas.

There were several pools of varying depths, making it very kid-friendly :)

Here are a few shots of the beautiful sky we watched while having dinner on the beach one night.

By evening time, the girls were pooped and the little DVD player we brought was an easy way to relax before bedtime:)

The girls' also enjoyed their time in the hotel room. Thank goodness grandma had brought toys to give away to the Mexican children...as my girls pulled out quite a few of them and had a great time playing with them!

Adelyn was also a fan of rolling Abigail around the room in her highchair to entertain her. Both had a great time with this, and it was so sweet to watch.

While Adelyn did finally warm up to the ocean waves later in the week, both of the girls would have much rather made "chin-chi-ladis" and sandcastles than jumped in the ocean. They spend many hours just sitting and scooping sand into buckets.

Above, unfortunately, is a give-away to what happened to my mother on Wednesday. That is, she got REALLY SICK! This is Thursday afternoon and she forced herself to come down to see the kids with chills and a raging fever. This isn't the last time you will hear about this!!!

A couple of the nights, we made dinner right in the room. It was so nice to have a fridge and kitchen to make/eat breakfast and lunch also.

This was Wednesday night at Havana Moon. A little restaurant right on the beach at the Mayan Palace. Mom was unable to join us due to being so sick, and we had to cancel our plans to meet Rademacher's at the marina. The dinner was quite good and the view was gorgeous! Thanks again, dad, for a wonderful dinner.

Below is Adelyn's friend Iguana whom she named Orange Spike. Each day on our walks to the pool/beach we were look for the lizards and iguanas that lived in the trees of the Mayan gardens. I believe there was only one day which we couldn't find them. They were our good friends! She also named another one, Green Grass.

We had a wonderful time in Mexico. Thanks mom and dad for having us! ...

Now is anyone wondering about our ride home???
Well, it started Friday morning, the day of our departure, when both the girls woke up with fevers. Remember what I said about my mom getting VERY ILL...well, now the saga begins. Knowing that we had a long day ahead, I medicated both girls immediately, we finished packing and checked out of the hotel. After saying good bye to my parents, we headed to the airport a little early to begin our journey home. In the cab, Abigail was bouncing around as usual but beginning to look rather wary and I calculated it was about time to re-medicate. When we arrived at the airport we got in line to check in. They hadn't even opened our line yet. So I gave both girls more medicine and hoped they would both take short naps while we waited. No more than a minute after I layed Abigail in the stroller...she had a seizure. Yes, another febrile seizure right there in line at the airport. The people around us were concerned, but the airport personell didn't care at all. They just gave me a wheelchair to sit in to hold her while we continued to wait in line. Anyway, this is going to get really long so I will try to fast forward a bit. We continued to medicate the girls, ate lunch and boarded our plane to Denver...a very full plane. I will have to say I have also never been on a plane to anywhere where the boarding took so long! There people were ridiulous, just standing in the aisles moving their bags around 5 times for no reason. Well, we finally got up in the air and the girls's both napped for quite awhile, thank goodness, but not long enough. About an hour out of Denver Abigail was getting antsier and antsier and I tried to take her to the lavatory in the back of the plane to get some air. A couple minutes after returning to my seat, she had a second febrile seizure. It was horrible! Now we are about 30 minutes outside of Denver and we all just want to get there and get off this plane. We put our flight attendant light on to ask for a couple bags of ice. The attendants and very concerned and don't really know what to do, and I am trying to tell them we are fine and just want to get off the plane asap when we land. They say that if a pramedic meets us when we land, they can escort us off first! So, of course, I am like: "Great, get the pramedics, if it gets us off this plane faster!" I wasn't about to sit with my post-ictal child and watch these people fumble with their over-sized carry-ons as long as we did while boarding.Little did I know, this may have been a mistake in the long run. The paramedics met us and led us off the plane while everyone else was ordered by the pilot to remain sitting. To make a long story shorter, we were then forced to take Abigail by ambulance to Denver's Children's Hospital for a medical evaluation before we would be allowed to fly any further! So, with 2 sick kids, our trusty double stroller and carry-ons, we rode into Denver. The medical staff was great, I have to say. And the wonderful news was that Abigail was "just fine" she just suffers from febrile seizures and we needed to control her fever...as we were attempting to do! However, the bad news was that our airline had bumped us off our plane and wouldn't let us fly until the next morning :(

Stranded at the Denver hospital we had dinner in the cafateris and then had to go back to the emergency department to get help from the social worker to get a cab voucher that would take us to a pharmacy (the hospital pharmacy was closed, and we were almost out of Ibuprofen and Tylenol for our very sick little girls) and then to a hotel. Arrived at the hotel ~8/9pm. Medicated kids and attempted to get some rest. Abby was delirious at this point and spent a good portion of the night screaming her brains out. Derek actually had to take her to the lobby at one point to calm her down. Caught a shuttle from the hotel at ~4am...headed back to Denver airport to go home. Exhausted, smelly, and sticky from children's suspension medications, we made it home to Minneapolis with no further complications mid-morning the next day (Saturday). I would like to tell you it got better quickly, but the truth is that Derek caught it and spent the next 2 days in bed and then as he and the girls began to recover about a week later, mommy also got sick. I think it took about 2 and a half weeks for everyone to be back to normal.

BUT, we count our blessings...it could have been worse. We know that God was with us through it all, and now that we are well, we can remember the wonderful time we had on our first real family vacation :)