Christmas Cruise Part 2: Belize and Honduras

One the boys' favorite spots on the cruise ship was the dino kids pool area. They loved going there. 

 Many hours were spent there each day on the cruise.

 Our second excursion was in Belize. I was a little disappointed in Belize. We have several friends who have talked about how beautiful it is, but we must not have been to the beautiful part. There wasn't a dock so we had to tender our boat in.

 After getting to the dock, we paid a man to give us a tour of the island. He was a pastor. I'm not sure if we were on an official tour, but I can tell you that we definitely saw parts of Belize that aren't traditionally seen.

 He took us to the poor parts and the rich parts and told us stories about the island. It was neat to get that information, but I'm OK if we never go back to Belize.

 The boys did have a fun time on the tender boat though. On the way back to the cruise ship we rode on the top of the tender boat and the boys had a good time with that.

 Tuck didn't fair so well in the kids club. We dropped him off, but we almost always got a call. I think it was because he was such a young three year old.

 Most nights we would feed the boys from the buffet and then we would all go to the nicer meal. Most nights, we ended up bringing Tuck!

 We cruised on the Norwegian Dawn. It was a smaller ship than the Carnival ships that we saw, but for me it was plenty big!

Miss Candace enjoyed shopping at every port!

 Our next stop was Honduras. I really liked Honduras. The water was clear and we also went ziplining. It was a lot of fun.

 The zipline guides has a lot of fun with the boys.

 I thought that Reed would be too shy to go because he is very cautious, but he went and he had a fun time. Of course Nash and Will went with full gusto.

 The ziplining was fun and after we finished our guide took us to a beach in Honduras. I was less than impressed with the beach in Honduras. It was crowded and also there were people all over the place trying to sell us stuff.

Christmas Cruise Part 1

 For Christmas this year, we decided that we wanted to give our kids a little more than some gifts that they wouldn't remember for very long. We wanted to give them memories. We decided that the best way to do that was to take them on a special trip. So, we decided to take them on a cruise.

 It was so much fun surprising the boys with the activities that we were going to do. They never had any idea that we were going on a cruise until it was just about time to board the ship. They were excited about all of the different things. They were surprised that Uncle Bill was going with us, then they were surprised to ride in a limo, then they were surprised that Mrs. Candace was going with us, and then they were surprised that we were riding an airplane, then surprised that we were spending the night in a hotel, then surprised that Pop and Lola were going with us, and FINALLY, surprised that we were going on a cruise.

 The boys loved the fact that the cruise ship had unlimited food. They were in food heaven. The cruise ship had the best kid sized buffet.

 They also loved the water slide on the cruise. The kids pool was so much fun.

 It was a little chilly at first, so they also liked the access to all of the hot tubs.

 Our first excursion was Cozumel, Mexico. We didn't do anything but get off the ship and walk around but it was neat for the boys to experience a little bit of Mexico.

 The two Williams were happy to find their name on the front of a sailboat.

 They had fun posing next to the "gold statue" man.

 One night at dinner we had a real laugh. The boys were going to be in a parade with the kids club. However, we got a call that said "Tuck didn't want to be in the parade."

 It was fun to have Pop and Lola along with us for the Christmas cruise.

 After we boarded back on the cruise it was time to sail for our next stop, Belize.

BSFL Team Christmas Lunch 2014

 I am so blessed to work with an incredible group of people. I love each and every one of them. It is so neat that my coworkers are like family. Each year, Abbey and I like to do a little something special to show our appreciation for them.

This is our first Christmas in our new house, so we were excited to get to have the team over and actually have everyone fit!

 Abbey fixed an amazing meal. It was very tasty and I think that everyone enjoyed it.

 Abbey found a great idea for the team ornament. We try to make a keepsake ornament every year. This year, we took little pieces of pages that each team member had worked on and made them into pine cones.

I think that it was a successful meal, but I'm more thankful to be associated with such an amazing group of people.

Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving 2014, we loaded up the van and headed over to cousin Molly's house. We decided to meet up with the Covington side of the Drake family and have a great big meal. Pop and Suzy enjoyed some sibling bonding.

 We had too much food. It was kind of insane actually. Lots of food. It was delicious.

 Tucker enjoyed getting to know all of his cousins. The boys had a blast playing with Hugh and Brady.

 We were also excited that Drake and Brooks got to come, but you had to to fight to get Brooks out of Lola's hands. She's sort of a baby hog.

 In typical fashion, the boys were all happy to have electronics to play with. Even Uncle John.

For some reason, we didn't end up with any pics of Brooks, but got some of this cutie. Love our nephew Drake.