Easter Egg Hunt

Keeping with tradition, Kevin's uncle Ronald Halton decided to hold his annual Easter Egg Hunt at his house on the Saturday before Easter. Since I wasn't feeling well, I stayed home to take a much-needed nap and Kevin had the day off since he no longer works Saturdays, he took him there for a little family visit and so Trace could get some cousin play time and some Easter CANDY!

From the mouth of babes

After I took the vacation to Florida, the girls at my work went to my boss and complained that I was gone from the office too much. It really hurt my feelings and I came home crying from work. As Kevin was talking to me about what my next reactions should be, Trace piped up from the corner of the room and said; "Hey Mom, maybe they are being mean to you because they don't know another way to make you work harder." Smart little fella I have there, that's for sure.

Dapper Dan

Trace is always such a fan of dressing up. Even my co-workers know that when he dresses up for church, he knows that he looks super handsome. One day, my assistant was talking about a handsome person on the TV and she told her another person in the office; "No one wears a pocket square like...(that actor)" then, the co-worker said; "Except for Trace, he wears a great pocket square!" Hahaha! I agree! These are pictures at church today preparing for his talk in Primary and posing for a "pocket square" photo for me to share with my work.

Back to basics

During our trip to Florida, I had some real back pain after a couple days of walking more than 12,000 steps at a couple of parks, so Kevin allowed me to rent a motorized scooter. Although I didn't allow any photos to be taken, it made the trip much more tolerable and I'm sure enjoyable for all.
Kevin, however, did walk the entire way. When Trace was tired, he hopped on the scooter with me and hitched a ride, but of course, Kevin never did.
When we got home and he returned to work, he experienced some real pain that put him in the emergency room. He ended up in physical therapy, doctor visits, family medical leave and finally, back surgery. His surgery was similar to mine and done by the same doctor, but he hasn't been able to return to work and may never be able to return to install. The months of no income and frustration with recovery has been rough, but we're hoping to get some long-term disability from RC Willey and he's working in the will call department on what they call "light duty" to try to bring in a little income. We're hopeful for a solution and continue to pray for a positive outcome.

Florida Vacation Day 10

After we disembarked from the ship, we had several hours until we needed to head to the airport, so we decided to get the "real" Florida experience and visit "Gatorland"! Trace was so excited! We saw tons of alligators and watched a live show with spiders, snakes and other creepy things. We rode a train and saw turtles and colorful birds and even stopped for a refreshing snow cone snack along the way. We saw an alligator wrestling show and I'm now sure I don't need to do that ever again. Trace even held a REAL alligator and snake at the same time! Yowzer! The trip there was definitely a different experience......however, I shed no tears when it was time to leave.

That is a tarantula in his hand!

Apparently, these guys like to play with venomous snakes.

They had one of those plastic mold machines there! I haven't seen those since I was a kid at Hogle Zoo! It wasn't working, so we couldn't get one, but it was cool to show Trace something I remember fondly.

Thank heaven the gators mouth was taped shut! Although, the snake's wasn't....

My brave boy!

All in all, it was great trip and we really enjoyed all the cool things we got to experience together as a family. On to the next adventure!

Florida Vacation Day 9

The next day we were supposed to stop at the Disney owned island "Castaway Key" where we had reservations to go snorkeling, but during the night the winds were too rough and the captain decided not to stop the ship. So, we had an extra day at sea to explore the ship a little and so Trace and I got to do our favorite thing and shop! We didn't buy much, but he's just like his mommy and he likes to check out all the cool things for sale. I did break down and let him get a "Captain Mickey" stuffed animal to bring home to the rest of his crew.

Since we had all day to spend on the ship, I was able to talk Kevin into finally getting a caricature of our family. I've literally been asking for us to get one for as long as I've been married to him and he always says no. Of course, the only way I got him to agree was to have it done with us as Star Wars characters, but beggars can't be choosers. I thought it was cute that Kevin was drawn as "Hans Solo", I was drawn as "Princess Leia" and Trace was drawn as their true-to-the-story son, "Kylo Ren". Cute little bad guy he is.

Trace loved the circular windows on the ship, he even used them a couple times to take a short nap!

Our room number

We did see the traditional towel/blanket creatures in our room each night

Beautiful Sunset!

I would be remise if I didn't mention the food and our wait staff while we were onboard. We were assigned a table with a family of 5 from Quebec, Canada. We learned that Quebec is one of the few remaining cities in Canada wherein they speak and write primarily in French. Both parents spoke a bit of English, but the kids only spoke French. They had two twin boys and a younger sister. The first night they didn't speak or even look at us. As the meals continued, they warmed up considerably and at the last meal, they were downright nice. We tried to speak about the amount of snow that we had at home, shared disappointment in the fact the second day of excursions was cancelled and discussed the good and bad things about Disney vs. other cruises. 

The best thing about each meal was our wait staff. We had a more experienced gentleman of Asian descend and his new-to-the-ship partner from Africa. Each of them spoke English as their second language and with our table friends, it was sort of comical to me to hear and watch everyone try to communicate in English when they all spoke such different native tongues. The main waiter breached the language barrier by performing magic tricks for the kids each night (some of which I was not able to figure out how he did them) and simply LOVED Trace! He would hug and give him high fives each night and squeal with joy when we entered the room. Made the nights lots of fun and much more enjoyable. We appreciated their great attitude and stunning service.

Florida Vacation Day 8-A

When we got back to the ship after playing with the sea creatures, Trace had an appointment with the ships "Bibbity, Bobbity Boutique" which usually gives little girls a princess makeover with dresses and tiaras etc., but they switched it up for the night and were making all little ones into pirates for the pirate themed party that night. When Trace entered the studio, he was assigned the new "pirate name" of "Hector Dreadblood". He got a "Jack Sparrow" themed costume, a sword, bandana, earring, eye patch, even a beard and bruising on his eye! In fact, the bruising make-up was so life-like it made me a little uncomfortable. He loved every part of it and looked so cool! After he got all dressed up, we headed up to the top deck for the ship-wide Pirate Party! Trace found a fellow foe to practice his sword-fighting skills with and after the party, he got his picture taken with Captain Hook and the man himself, Mr. Jack Sparrow!