Halloween!

The whole kid gang at Grandma jilly's house!
the elephant, Optimus Prime, and the vampiress!

Londy bug!

Beck and Miss Thomas, his amazing kindergarten teacher!

Beck in the kindergarten parade!


Well, Halloween was a blur this year! We had class parties, a kindergarten parade, trick or treating, and Grandma Jilly's famous Halloween party! My favorite thing this year was passing on the elephant costume to my Pippi girl! All three kiddos have worn it, and I'm sure it's the only costume that all three will ever want to wear!

Beck's first day of Kindergarten!

Getting a lift to school!

My little buddy is a big, bad Kindergartner! He's loving going to school every day like London! His teacher is incredible (the same one Londy had) and he's learning so much already! I just can't believe that he'll be gone ALL DAY next year!


Aw, the cuteness of this boy of mine!



Beck and his buddy, Tavren, all ready to walk to school together!



Ready for school!

London's first day of school!

She was insistent on having a messenger bag this year! It's bigger than she is!
Weirdo!

At her desk on the first day!!!

Yes, I realize that I'm NOT on the ball with my blogging! Better late than never! Londy Kater Tot's first day of second grade! She loves it, and I love that she has a great teacher this year!

Mediterranean Cruise 2011!

Okay, here's the Reader's Digest version of our amazing trip!!!

Itinerary: September 18th, fly direct to Paris, then to Rome

Sept 19: arrive in Rome, wander around city after checking in to our hotel, grab a bite to eat!

Sept 20th: Wander around Rome! Head to port city (Cittavechia)in the afternoon!

Cruise:

Day 1:Cittavechia, Rome

Day 2: Day at Sea

Day 3: Chania, Crete

Day 4: Rhodes, Greece

Day 5: Day at Sea

Day 6: Ashdod (Jerusalem), Israel

Day 7: Haifa, Israel

Day 8: Kusadasi, Turkey

Day 9: Day at Sea

Day 10: Athens, Greece

Day 11: Day at Sea

Day 12: Palermo, Sicily

Day 13: Naples, Italy

Day 14: Cittacechia, Italy

What a fun vacation! It went by so quickly! It was the perfect mix of history, adventure, culture, relaxation, etc.! We were lucky enough to be seated at our dinner table with 2 other couples; one from Canada, and the other from Slovakia. We got to know them really well and spent the majority of our time on the ship, and some land days, with them! We played trivia at least twice a day, and came home with more Royal Caribbean paraphenalia then we know that to do with! We did our own thing at the stops in Italy and Greece. In Israel, we did a group tour with about 14 other people and a guide. In Turkey, Matt and I did a private tour with an archaeologist. AMAZING! Highly recommend that! Our favorite stop was probably Turkey. Being able to tour Ephesus was unbelievable! The amount of history there is crazy! We visited the city of Ephesus, the Terrace Houses (where Socrates lived!) and the place where the Virgin Mary supposedly spent her final days. We had amazing food every place we went! I've still been craving Falafel balls, Tzrani dipping sauce, souvlaki, and pita! Mediterranean food is the best! We only had about 2 hours of rain our whole trip! Not too shabby! The weather was wonderful; pretty hot, but nice! We were able to email home on our days at sea, and Skype to the kiddos when we were on land. The only hard part of that was the 9 hour time difference! It was so good to see the kids' faces and hear their little voices! We missed them so much, but it was so nice to get away, just the two of us! I'd do it again in a heartbeat! I am so grateful for a husband who shares so many of the same interests I do, and loves seeing the world with me!

At the Coloseum!

Matter at the Parthenon!

Chania, Crete! Beautiful harbour town!

My guy and I on our first formal night!

Check this one off my bucket list! I've ALWAYS wanted to ride on a camel! At the Mount of Olives, I ran in to the restroom, and when I came out, matt had this baby waiting for me! There's a pretty strict dress code in the Holy Land, and I didn't want to chance not being let into places, so I wore a floor length knit dress. (and loser running shoes...we walked A LOT that day!) The dress was a bit of a challenge getting onto that camel, but well worth it!

In front of the Jerusalem sky line!

Matt and I in the Garden of Gethsemane

I was a full on bawl baby at the Western (Wailing) Wall in the Jewish Quarters in Jerusalem. There's such an amazing presence there knowing that people have been praying here since Christ was on the earth. Plus, it's one of the only original places standing in Jerusalem. Probably my favorite place in Jerusalem!

Us in the Dead Sea! It was amazing to float there! Everyone there used the dead sea mud all over them to exfoliate and revitalize our skin!

Matt and I at the Sea of Galilee

Matt and I ate in Chops, one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. The food was amazing! They were so nice and gave us a special anniversary dessert!

Our last night playing trivia together! We killed it with movie theme songs trivia!

Me in front of our docked ship in Rhodes, Greece

Us in Rhodes, Greece!

In front of the house where the Virgin Mary supposedly spent her last days (in Turkey)

In front of the Library at Ephesus, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world

Matt and I in front of the ampitheater in Ephesus, Turkey!

The girls at the Acropolis in Athens! Anna, me, and Pat

All of us met up to tour Palermo, Sicily!

Jean Paul and Anna(Canadians), Dave and Pat(English), Lenka and Dan(Slovakian) and us!

Every trip needs an awesome self taken photo! This is a classic Matt cheeser! So, so fake!

The only picture of me and matt together in Pompeii! At this point, 11 or 12 days into our vacation, we were exausted! Plus we walked millions of miles each day seeing amazing places like Pompeii!

Pompeii guy... So cool how well preserved the bodies were!

This was by far the greatest trip I've/we've ever been on! Great destinations, great friends, great food and cultures!

Mt. Rushmore, cont...

Finally! The not so anticipated recap of our Mt. Rushmore vacay! We spent day 2 at the mount itself! It was everything I had imagined it to be! I honestly could have stayed there a whole lot longer than the several hours that we did. There's just a serenity about this place. We just loved it! We took the kiddos on the hike around the Presidential loop. I had Pip in the baby bjorn for most of the hike. We swapped out at some point and Matter got to carry her. We took the hike nice and slow for the kiddos and really enjoyed ourselves. The kids did great. I love that whenever Pippi saw the mountain, she screamed, "HI FACES!!!" So, so cute! Beck was being a weirdo about taking pictures this day, so he's pretty much just in the group ones. He's really into making crazy faces right now... Recap: LOVED the Mount Rushmore! Loved it!
Entering the park!

the fam

Beck insisted on wearing my mom's golf visor for most of the day. He looked stellar...

The whole gang! Isn't the sky the most beautiful shade of blue?

My 2 beauties at an overlook point!

Pip and her daddy!

After the "Mount," we headed to Bear Country USA! It's a drive through park with millions of amazing animals. We all really loved it! TONS of bears, both big and babies! It look well over an hour to drive through the park, and then longer to see the Babyland. So cute!

Piper looking out the window at the animals

The baby bears

This was the only family pic we took here, and my mom cut off most of the Pipsters head!

DAY 3: Reptile Gardens and Custer State Park

We headed out to Reptile gardens bright and early day 3. It is a smaller park, but the kids went crazy there! There were bird shows, alligator shows, and a snake show. The kids got to pet a lot of the animals, too, so they were in heaven! Custer State Park was kind of bust. The best part was definitely the "Beggin Burros"! There are wild burros wandering in a part of the park. We had heard of them, so we came prepared with lots of carrots! They ambushed our car and ate like crazy! My mom said she'd pay Matt $5 to put a baby carrot in his mouth and feed it to one. He, of course, did it. She, of course, didn't pay... The rest of the park was pretty, but we had had it with being in the car at that point! My mom and the kids were carsick, and I was just done with whiny kids!

below: the kids petting a baby alligator!

I absolutely LOVE the look on the Londybug's face when she saw the prairie dog upclose!

Beck and Pip checking out a tortoise

waiting for the reptile show to begin

In the Custer State Park: the beggin burros!

matt and his special "burro!"

Can't imagine what Beck is doing here...

Matt hiked up a bit in the park

Day 4: homeward bound!

We woke up bright and early to a sick little Londy. She had a sick tummy. She started to throw up and throw up. I was in with her when I noticed something big and white in the mess. It looked an awful lot like a water balloon. She swears up and down she didn't swallow it as she throws up 2 or 3 more water balloons. I'm livid at this point. She had made these cute water balloon flip flops in her finishing school this summer. I guess she had eaten a handful of them on the drive. Anywho, she was sick for a bit and then started to feel better. She skipped lunch, but about 30 minutes after lunch, we stopped to get gas and bought the kids slurpees. She was feeling lots better, so we got her one too. About an hour later, we stopped at Martin's Cove. I thought it would be amazing to spent Pioneer Day at this historical site. Half way through the tour, the kids were being loud and Matt took them ahead to play. Not 2 minutes later, Beck comes around the corner screaming that London had thrown up everywhere. He wasn't kidding! There was about a 6x6 area or larger of light gray carpet COVERED in bright red slurpee! Good times. I spent the next hour on my hands and knees trying to clean it with a spraybottle filled with liquid Dawn and water and scrubbing with paper towels. Not the best supplies! She threw up all over the grounds, too, but they just sprayed that mess away.

We finally headed home and the kids were amazing the rest of the trip! For as much driving as we did in 4 days, they couldn't have done any better!

It really was a great trip!!! Can't wait for our next one!

Londy and Beck at Martin's Cove

Probably the only decent picture I got of Beckett in almost 3 days!