Sorry! Between life and our computer going nutso and having to be sent in, I haven't blogged in awhile. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been anything blogworthy going on!

Halloween finished out nicely, but I didn't get any better pictures of the kids in their costumes than I already posted so I'll spare you the repeats.

Then we had this thing called a Nor'easter. Wikipedia defines it as a low pressure area whose center of rotation is just off the East Coast and whose leading winds in the left forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast. The precipitation pattern is similar to other extratropical storms. Nor'easters also can cause coastal flooding, coastal erosion, hurricane force winds, and heavy snow.

Well, we had everything BUT the snow. It started raining on Tuesday night and didn't stop for one second until late Friday evening. The winds were constant at 45-50mph with gusts up to 80mph in some areas. If you watched the weather channel during those days they were calling it the Atlantic Assault. The rain and wind were relentless and most people experienced power outages, property damage and flooding.

Dan had Veteran's day off, and it was the beginning of the Nor'easter, but we still decided to brave the storm and head out to the Virginia Air and Space Museum. Of all the searches I've done to find things to do in this area I never saw this museum. I'm so glad we found it b/c it was really cool. Both kids loved it and were able to interact with a lot of the displays. They even got to go on a commercial airplane and play with the instruments in the cockpit.

The next morning Dan headed to work (despite the storm raging outside) and seconds after stepping out the door he heard a crack and looked over to see a huge tree falling. It landed on our neighbor's shed and thankfully not their house. Throughout the rest of the storm we lost another 6-7 trees, but none did any damage.

We've all recovered from the storm and are gearing up for the holiday season to come. We are attempting to fly to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and if we make it there it will be a great trip.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I blog again, or Christmas'll be over!

Here's a video of Alex talking. Isn't he the cutest?

I have really been enjoying this fall season. I can't believe we've been in the same place for 2 years, and this is our 3rd holiday season. We're actually forming traditions! I know it won't last forever so we're enjoying it while we can. Cade remembered the pumpkin patch from last year and has been asking to go since August. I had to tell him the pumpkins were still growing. I think he asked at least weekly if the pumpkins were ready yet. Alas they finally were so we made our trek to Hunt Club Farm for the 3rd year in a row. Here's a progression of our family through visits to Hunt Club.

2007- This is a few days after I found out I was pregnant with Alex. Cade was 18 mos old



2008- Cade is now 2 1/2 and Alex is 4 months old (notice Cade wearing the same shirt from the year before!)



2009- 3 1/2 and 16 months old and two cutie pa-tooties! (And Alex was wearing that green shirt tonight!)



Now Cade is looking forward to the ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday where he can wear his sweet new costume. Enjoy a crazy video and the slideshow of our Halloween adventures!

Here are a lot of pictures and not so many words!

Yes, I know I'm behind on my blog. The more behind I get, the less I want to do all the work to catch up, but then I take cute pictures and want you to see them! My goal is to get caught up before Halloween!

So while we were having this amazing vacation Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin were keeping the kids from thinking about us leaving them. I really thought the kids would give my mom and brother a run for their money, but it turns out they behave much better for them and had a lot of fun. See, Grandmas and Uncles are tourists to the area so they wanted to go and see as well as keep the kids occupied. Most days would start with the morning shows and a morning nap for Alex and then they'd be out of the house. Here are some of the things they did:

• Storytime at the Library
• Church
• Beach (twice!)
• Kangaroo Jac's (indoor inflatable place)
• Cape Henry Light House
• Virginia Aquarium

This was great b/c the kids were worn out by 6:30 or 7:00 and G'ma and Uncle Kevin could have some time to recoop and rest for the next day (usually by playing Guitar Hero!) The service they provided for Dan and I is hardly repayable. I'm so glad they had a good time and got to know their relatives a little more.

Some fun things (from their mouths) about their time with G'ma and Uncle Kevin

• "Cade's not big enough for the light house." says Cade in a sad voice.
• "We went to the aquarium!" A 4-syllable word came clearly out of his mouth, nothing he had said before we left
• "Happy! Gama!" Alex says Grandma and not momma.....
• "Grandma Kathy got mad at me." "Why Cade?" "Because I pooped in my pants."

And lastly, G'ma got the boys these cute shirts. Alex's says "My Brother Drives Me Bananas." And Cade's says "My fingers might be small but I can still wrap Grandma around them!" Too cute.

Thanks again for watching the boys!!!!!

Sorry for the week long break there. I think I don't want to come to the end of blogging about the cruise because it's just one more manifestation of the end of a great vacation. It's a good thing there's lots of other things going on to keep us busy and to have things to look forward to!

Friday September 18- Cozumel

This is of course the day of the swimming with the dolpins. We got off the boat around 9:00 (8:00 island time) and took a taxi down to the shopping district. Most of our days at port we hadn't had time to do any shopping. Today was our day to find the rest of our souvenirs. It was fun, but the locals are quite pushy. Most shops have a lot of the same things and they want you to buy theirs. You can talk them down a little bit, but not much. I got a cool necklace depicting a mayan calendar and a nativity set.

It was at this point that Dan came up with the crazy idea of renting a scooter to do the rest of our traveling. We knew we'd have to get at least 3 more taxis so we rented the scooter for $25 and had it for the rest of the day. However, as we were signing the papers for the scooters it started raining. We had a 20 minute drive over to Chankanaab Park where the dolphins were, and it was a good thing we were already dressed to get in the water. I hung on for dear life and had my eyes closed most of the way b/c the rain was hitting me right in the face.

Once at Chankanaab we got all signed in for our Royal Swim. See, since this is something I've been wanting to do my whole life I spent a bunch more $$ to do everything I've ever wanted to do with them. Some of the packages you can only pet them and hug them, and the more you pay, the more you get to do. I didn't want to be in the water and be envious of the other people around me doing things with the dolphins that I didn't pay to do, ya know? So after waiting, going through an orientation which included a video about the proper hand signals for the dolphins, we finally got into the water. And yes, looking at the pictures, it was storming all around us. It was a little nervewracking to be out in the middle of the water with lightning off in the distance, but this was a once in a lifetime thing. If they weren't cancelling it, neither was I.

The swim with the dolphins was very organized. There were 7 of us in the group. She'd have two people swim far out into the water. While they were swimming the people who stayed did the hug or kiss or pectoral shake. Then the dolphins would swim out and perform one of the far away tricks. While this made the whole thing go way too fast, you were never bored wishing you were doing something else. So, we got to do a hug, kiss, pectoral shake, dorsal tow, and a foot push. If you ever do this, we learned that if you do it wrong the first time, you get to do it again. So, just to get more time with the dolphins you should do it wrong on purpose! I got to kiss them twice b/c the first time I didn't hear them tell me to look at the photographer. Another guy got to do the foot push twice because he didn't get up out of the water the first time. So what was it like doing the dorsal tow? Salty! Once you grabbed onto both of their fins they dragged you through the salty salty water. You wanted to smile and shout exclamations of joy but then you'd get a mouth full of salt water and want to gag! Other than that it was pretty cool. My favorite part was the foot push. You start far out in the water laying on your stomach. You see a flash of dolphins go past you and suddenly their noses are on your feet pushing you up out of the water. I just couldn't believe how strong they were! I got the furthest out of the water of anyone, meaning my feet almost surfaced. How cool is that? This is where we also learned not to wear a two piece bathing suit. One of the girls was wearing a bikini and, well, when she did her foot push she couldn't put her hand in the air like you're supposed to.. she had to hold onto her bikini bottom. Poor thing!

After the swim they took us into a room (still wet) to watch the video they shot. It was amazing how quickly they put it together. It was fun to relive the moments. When we got downstairs our pictures were ready and we could purchase the video for $50. I knew I wanted a picture and it was $20. The were very sly and only took pictures of some things and video of the other so if you truly wanted the whole experience professionally captured you had to buy everything... for the low low price of $120! At the time I was in sticker shock and decided just to get the picture. Now I wish I had gotten the video b/c it shows our foot pushes. Oh well! They delete the video and pictures after you leave.

After that amazing experience we were hungry! We found a local mexican restaurant that was loud and crazy! They came and took your picture, made you balloon hats, did magic shows and had a dance floor, all on top of your waiter coming. Of course all of the extra people wanted tips for their service. Haha.. and there were some guys running a little store by where we parked our scooter and they washed it for us. Umm... it had been raining all day. It didn't need it! But they got their tip and us to look at their store.

So it was also my birthday that day and I woke up to Dan shuffling through stuff under the bed. He plopped some cards down on the bed. I opened up one from Jenn and then the next one was kinda thick. When I opened it up I heard Cade's voice say, "I love you mommy! Happy Birthday!" It was one of those cards that you could record onto and Dan had had Cade say that the night before we left on the cruise. I listened to that cute little voice so many times before we came home! Dan also gave me a coupon book for things like a night out to my self, a movie of my choice, folding the laundry, sleeping in, massage, etc! I've already redeemed quite a few. Thanks Dan!

That night at dinner it was a night of celebrations. Phillip proposed to Christine during dinner and the waiters sang to Dee and Jon for the anniversary and to me for my birthday. Wow, what a great day. I don't think I'll ever be able to top it!

{Oh! I forgot to mention that the dolphins sang Happy Birthday to me! After we did all the tows and foot pushes we all swam out into the water and formed a half circle. It was me and another girl's b-day so we sang and the dolphins swam by us making lots of dolphin noises as if to sing! It was cool.}

Thursday-September 17- Belize

The stop in Belize is where we planned to tour the Lamanai Ruins. Everybody in the family ended up going on this tour. 25 of us had to be up and ready to go early early. There was a 20 minute tender to the shore AND you could only get off the ship early if you had proof of an excursion. We met at 7:45am and we all had everything we needed for the day, a record for the McBrides. We met up with our tour guide, Ivar, and began our jouney for the day. It was a 1 hour bus ride and 45 minute boat ride to the ruins. Thankfully the bus had A/C and the boat ride was fast so it had built-in A/C. Once we arrived at the ruins the A/C was long gone. We hiked through thick jungle and boy was it hot! Click here to see a video of the boat ride.

This is where my memory fails me and I can really only recall hiking through beautifully hot jungle and finally getting to the temples. The guide had a lot of interesting things to point out and say about the history but I can't remember much of it. The one thing that I do remember was that he had had LDS members on his tours before and researchers belive that the site of Lamanai is a good candidate for the land of Gershon. It was neat being in an area that I've only seen in pictures and imagning what their life, whoever lived there, might have been like.

There were three temples, Mask Temple, High Temple and Jaguar Temple. The Mask temple was quaint and showed examples of symmetry and a beautifully carved mask. The High temple lived up to its name and we were able to climb to the top. The climb up was physical and then climb down was mental. No one fell and all who attempted, succeeded. I'm glad I did it but it was a little trippy up at the top, plus we all had sea-legs! The Jaguar Temple was pretty big too and had jaguars carved into the sides, but at that point it was in the bright bright sun and we were all hot and tired and on our way back to the boat.

Next came what Dan argues as the best meal he had on the entire cruise. Mind you we hadn't eaten since before we even met together at 7:45 and it was now 2:00, but after the boat ride back we were fed by the 'locals' there and it was really good. Rice and Beans with a habanera sauce that was spicy but full of flavor, chicken falling off the bone, salad, fried bananas, delicious watermelon, papaya and local fruity beverages. It was really good.

Then came the bus ride and this time we weren't as near to an air conditioner as we had been the last time so it was a long ride home. We were all tired and sweaty, but some genius on the ship decided that it was going to be formal night for dinner again instead of Saturday. This time we had time to get ready but still had no nice pants for Dan. I regret not getting any pictures taken of us all dressed up and it's something we plan to do on our next cruise!

Wednesday-September 16-Roatan, Honduras

Okay, this one won't be as lengthy, I promise!

Roatan was the one stop that we didn't have anything planned. Turns out that was the case for most of us, so we got ourselves a "16-passenger van" and smoooshed 14 of us into it. Our tour guide took us on an educational tour through Isla Roatan. He drove us to the east end and then we were going to end up at the West End for some premium snorkeling. In hindsight, even though the views were gorgeous, I think we all might have preferred a little less time driving and more time snorkeling and beaching on an truly picturesque tropical paradise.

In the pictures you'll see our first stop on the east end high above the water with some nice views of the beatiful water. You'll also see pictures of another stop to see the monkeys. We paid $2 each to get to hang with some monkeys. I'm not sure about everyone else but this isn't what I was expecting. I thought they'd be out in their natural habitat and we'd walk through and see them. Instead we were guided through what felt like someone's backyard of animal collections. They had anteaters, parrots, toucans, and monkeys. You could enter most of the cages and hold a bird and try to hold a monkey. This was one of those moments where it was fun, but there was something else even more fun we could be doing.

We were only in Roatan from 12-7 so time was running short quickly. We made our way to the beach and spent about 1 1/2-2 hours there. I wish we had had more time to just relax. It was goregous. Nice sand, nice water and beautiful snorkeling. I snorkeled for about a half an hour before I'd had enough and shared my equip with another family member.

That night on the ship we missed the dinner in the dining room so made way to the 24 hour pizza bar for some yummy calzones and games for the night!