Bahamas Ahoy

 I just arrived home from the most wonderful girls trip!

 Paige, Amy, Laurie and I set sail for a four night cruise to  

the Bahamas.

(In Florida before we set sail)

Paige had not met Amy or Laurie prior to the cruise and I hadn't met Laurie, 

but after four days of talking and talking and more talking,  

we left life-long friends.

On the first day we docked in the waters right off
 Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island.

It was beautiful and warm, not hot, but warm and sunny.

(Sailing back to the cruise ship from Coco Cay)

On Coco Cay we mostly laid in the sun and talked and talked...well let me clarify, my friends laid in the sun and sunburn girl (me) laid under a towel with a rash guard, hat and board shorts, constantly reapplying 50 SPF.

At 4pm it was time to get back on the small boat that took us to the big boat.

After a quick shower it was time for a pre-dinner yoga practice.

(Notice the gym worker on the side who was perfectly happy to observe our entire practice)

I took a turn to teach that day, although Laurie is the real expert Yogi!

One of the many things we all share in common is our love fitness/yoga.

We attended two evening shows during the cruise. One show was a theatrical 

variety type deal and the other was the most ahhhhmazing magician.

Every night after dinner we would go back to our room and talk 

until we were so tired we simply could not stay up any longer. 

 (Late night cabin chat)

The next stop was Nassau. 

We choose to spend this day at the Atlantis resort.

A short boat ride from the cruise dock landed us at the resort.

Three cruise ships ported there that day, but it really didn't seem crowded at all.

Here is a house on a dock that is in some movie...I want to say a James Bond movie?

Atlantis hosts dozens of large aqariums with tropical wildlife. 

Some of the water slides venture through encapsulated tubes that are inside of shark tanks.

It was a bit windy and too chilly to enjoy the water park area. 

We were happy campers touring though the park and spending more time 

in the sun talking and reading.

Let us pause to take note once more, three friends basking in the sun, Leah basking in the shade.

Mom, you will be so proud...

at age 32 I finally went on a sunny trip and did NOT get fried!

As the sun began to set we said good-bye to Atlantis.

The food was relatively good and there were plenty of choices.

We were always the last table out of the dinning room after dinner.

Too little time too much to talk about.

It was fun to enter the cabin and see the creative towel creations.

YUM!

The last day was a sailing day and perhaps my favorite because we had the entire day to:

*Talk.

*Appreciate the beauty of the sea.

*Watch a belly flop contest.

*Eat.

*90 min. yoga practice led by Laurie.

(This 66 year old woman joined in our practice)

*Rock Climbing.

*High flying tramp time with lots of laughter.

*Soaking in the hot tub...

and being quite sad that it was our last day together.

Wowie, I felt like such a lucky gal to have 

been able to enjoy four blissful days with three incredible friends!

Now it's back to blizzard conditions, high temps. of ZERO degrees in the daytime

 and my sweet little family.

New Years 2014

We were up and ready to face the freezing cold outdoors to participate in the  
Lifetime Fitness

Commitment Day 5k Run.

 Daddy having to work that day did not stop the five gals from this fun run...

or at least before we got started I thought it would be a great deal of fun.

With the little two in the jogger and the big two by my side I figured it would, 

well a challenge, but not that big of a deal.

That was until five minutes into the run when the big girls started complaining of being tired and Reese began screaming at the top of her lungs and foaming at the mouth because she wanted to get out and run too. 

So as not to disturb the masses, I gave in to Reese's demands...

and that was a very bad idea. She then wanted to skate, walk and jump on the ice patches and do anything else besides walk alongside Mommy.

We concluded round ONE with me running with a tantruming baby in my arms,
Avery (refusing to even walk) and Aspen in the jogger and Brinley complaining that she couldn't push the jogger for one more moment.

SO, when we passed by the club I took a pit stop to run Reese into the childcare center before we headed off for round two.  

Brinley was able to stick with it

  and we ran/walked the remainder of the course with Avery and Aspen in the jogger.

 I'm glad I did it with the girls.

We committed to our goals for the year, we looked forward to the event,

 we did something that was hard (for various reasons) and we finished. 

It was a great way to start off a new year 

and we plan on it becoming a new family tradition!

 

Reese was happy at the end when her favorite part of the race arrived in the form of a big black dog that she wanted to pet for a very long time.

That evening we had two wonderful families over for a New Year's Feast. 

It was a happy and sad, very sad, occasion because it was to be the last dinner with our dear friends Nollie and Andy Haws, and their children Lucy, Ben and Lauren,

 who moved to St. Louis just a few days later.

Good news is that the guys took a selfie and it's really funny. 

Bad news is that we will not be seeing much of the Haws family

and will miss them terribly.

We are off to a very HAPPY new year here at the Young household!

Christmas in Columbus

 We started a new tradition on Christmas Eve this year, 

which we adopted and adapted from Cody's Utah family...

a finger food dinner.

We made it into a picnic affair by the fire.

Making cookies for Santa after dinner.  

Brinley is growing into a young lady and is quite helpful around the house. 

Notice Reese standing by making sure to have an important "helper" role.

After our final 25 Days of Christ lesson we gave the annual 

first gift of Christmas to Christ.

Each member of the family sets one goal to focus on throughout the year to become more like Him. 

This year Brinley was able to purchase thoughtful gifts for each member of the family with funds she had earned and saved up via the family economy. 

Avery was motivated to do the same and ended up spending every last dime of her penny bank savings to also buy gifts for the family. 

After the gift to Christ goals were set, the girls excitedly opened one gift from another sister before setting out cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer AND sprinkling sparkly oatmeal on the lawn as treats for the reindeer.

Our family received  

lovely gifts from family and friends throughout the 

U.S. AND EUROPE!

Thank you, each of you, for your love and gifts!

 Santa brought the girls and the Mama new roller blades. 

We hope to get much use out of them in the warmer weather months!

For now the kitchen and hallway make a great practice floor.

Old Maid and Phase 10 have been fun card games we've enjoyed together.

Mom received some new gym clothes and RAD purple socks from Avery.

Cody was able to head out for a ride last Saturday when time/temp. allowed. 

He misses riding now that it's freezing and snowy all the time.

Reese was quite content to  

just read books and play with her babies all Christmas morning.

 Grandma Ginger gave me this yummy scarf that I'm sure came from some far away land. 

In fact, she is on a two-month exploration right now, traveling to places like Saigon, Mekong River, Luang Prabang, Mandalay, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Bali, Hanoi and other places that I know very little about. I hope she is SAFE!

 (Cody's turkey carving glory apron)

 For Christmas dinner we hosted three families we love.

We had a total of eight adults and fourteen children.

(Little kids tables. Didn't get a shot of the big kids table)

The evening went off without a hitch and we enjoyed a  

terrific time conversing with our 

friends and enjoying delicious food. 

On the menu:

Ham

Turkey

Mashed potatoes/gravy/cranberry sauce

Green bean casserole

Sweet potato casserole

Homemade vanilla ice cream

Pumpkin pie

Our dear friends not only helped with the food, but also with all of the clean-up 

and we were left with a clean house by the time the last family packed up and left.

It was a great Christmas!