Australia part I-Blue Mountains

Our little family of 4 just got home from such a great vacation.

We had the opportunity to go down under for a few weeks.

Everyone thought we were crazy for taking the kids on such a long flight.

But they both did AWESOME!

We put the kids in jammies and drove to the airport at 8:00pm and took off by midnight.

They both slept for a good portion of it.

We put Miles on the floor with lots of blankets and Andie laid on the middle seat.

 

We decided to go up to the Blue mountains before doing the city thing.

We absolutely loved it.

We explored Jamison Valley for a few days.

Romney loved taking his pictures

 Andie loved getting her picture taken by all the foreigners. 

(it was hilarious how many people took pictures and selfies with her. It was crackin us up)

But she was a trooper in her back pack.

We spent an afternoon at scenic world where we took gondolas, and glass bottom trams over the valley.

We loved going up and down the super steep railway through the thick trees.

Jamison Valley is most popular for their "three sisters"

Because we were there for a few days we got to see them at different times of the day.

They really are glorious.

While we were at scenic world we were told we should check out Jenolan caves.

So, that's what we did.

We picked the easiest tour for our family!

The kids and I were pretty quick to want a sweatshirt on.

But it was fun to walk through the cave and see the rock formations.

Traveling with kids is a little different.

But a good different.

In all of our traveling we have never stopped to eat pizza at the park.

But we did this time.

 And it was so fun.

We all had fun. 

We played....

We attended church...

and found Everglades to bundle up at....

I was sad to leave the mountians.

I fell in love with the tiny town and didn't want to go.

clearly Romney and Andie were loving it too.

Apple Picking

We know the sweetest lady from church who lives on 30 arces of goodness.

She has an awesome garden and a little apple orchard.

She invited our family along with the Tangs to pick apples.

She drove the kids around on the golf cart and they thought that it was thee best!

The kids picked and ate..

 ...picked some more, and ate some more...

and ate some more...

after the kids ate the apples we went and fed her horses apples and all were happy!

Thank you Dede cant wait to go again next year.

 

You Better Belize it....

 Romney and I had the best vacation in Belize with our good friends.

We headed down with Heather and Jason first.

We stayed in Belize city for the night while we waited for Rachel and Jake to join us.

Once they got in we went to San Ignacio.

We literally stumbled upon this tiny village called El Progresso where we ended up ziplining.

This village was in the middle of no where but we saw a sign for jacks zipline so we decided to check it out.

It was so fun.

We did several zip lines, repelled, rope climbed, bridge walked and ziplined face first like super man! 

 The views were beautiful and the weather was perfect!

 

After an awesome day we had a yummy dinner at the infamous Han Nahs.

 We knew this trip was going to be full of adventure.....

Crossing the boarder into Guatemala and driving to Tikal was nothing short of an adventure. 

It was so beautiful.

We LOVED learning about the ancient ruins and temples.

It was so fascinating learning about the Indians and their traditions.

 We got to climb up one particular temple to the very top.

It was breath taking.

No, really. 

It was exhausting!

 We all were huffing and puffing and drinking water as fast as we could. 

But the view was worth it.

The sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy and the tree tops were bright green.

You could see a few temples popping out of the jungle.

We'd do this again in a heart beat!

 Our adventures didnt stop there, the next day we went to the ATM caves.

This is easily one of my top 5 life experiences. 

We were not allowed to take pictures in the caves so I don't have anything to show for it.

But we were able to take a couple of pictures before we went in.

We had to cross this river first, but then I had to put my phone away in my waterproof fanny pack (yes, fanny pack) and start swimming in neck deep water to get to the cave.

Once we got to the cave, we jumped in crystal clear water and started the tour.

Sometimes we were walking ankle deep and sometimes we were kneed deep and sometimes we were full on swimming to get through the cave.

There were Indian artifacts and even fully preserved skeletons from human sacrifice in this cave.

It was so rad!

 

 It was so great that my glasses broke!

After a few days in San Ignacio we took fairy to San Pedro.

It was GORGEOUS! 

 We loved our little condo that we rented.

It was right on the water and the view never got old.

 We went out to the reef and to Shark Ray Alley to go snorkeling.

 

It took me a minute to join Romney because it is against everything in me to willingly  jump in with sharks.

 But I finally got in and survived.

 

Heather is a fun snorkeling gal!

That night we kayaked in the keys.

We started the next morning with a delicious breakfast on the water.

On the last day I finally had the courage to drive the golf cart.

Everyone drives these on the island and they are crazy!

We laughed every bump we flew over.

 

For our last adventure we went fishing.

We had so much fun.

 

Everyone caught fish

I think there was 15-16 total.

(rom even caught a couple sharks)

We got our fish filleted at the dock and we made an amazing dinner back at the condo that night.

 This trip was nothing short of amazing!

We had a fun adventure everyday for 6 days straight!

We love our friends and are so grateful we had the chance to travel with them.

 Hilarious memories were made,

"you had to be there" and inside jokes happened.

Getting on the fairy was hard.

We had been planning this trip for months and now we had to say goodbye.

We loved this vacation.

It was truly an unexpected highlight.

I'd recommend this place to anybody.

Good bye Belize, you were delightful.

(now get us to our babies stat)

Halloween

It was fun leading up to Halloween this year.

 Miles was excited to dress up and understood what all the excitement was about.

Both babes loved painting their mini pumpkins together.

 Both kids loved carving pumpkins....well they both loved watching dad and grandpa carve pumpkins.

Both kids loved the pumpkin patch

 

(why are these faceless paintings the best??)

Miles loved going on the rides and Andie was pretty bored to watch him have all the fun!

 Halloween books were read every day.

We had so much fun counting down, prepping for the the parties and the actual day of Halloween....

BUT THEN....

 someone got a fever and threw up several times!

Poor buddy.

We had to miss the parties this year.

He was pretty miserable.

He'd fall asleep anywhere and everywhere.

 Then on Monday the 31st, we asked him if he was feeling better.

He said he still wanted to rest and asked if we could go trick or treating the next day.

I explained that Halloween was one day a year, and this was the one day to go out.

SOOOOO...he got a dose of Motrin and within 30 minutes he was eating pizza with his friends and running all around. 

(I know, awesome parenting award)

Once it was dark enough, we got the Crocodile and Elephant ready.

Miles picked out his croc hat on amazon for this and was super pumped to finally be wearing it.

and I was super pumped to get this girl in this costume.

 

They were darling!

They both ran up to doors together and were so happy thee entire night!

We walked together as a family and with our friends.

Romney and I loved walking as slow as our little family feet could go.

 All went to bed loaded with sugar and sweet memories were created

Just as it should be.