Catching Up

I have absolutely no excuses except for just being busy with life for not posting for almost 3 months. We have been up to lots of fun adventures over the last few months so this post should be fun.

First let me say HAPPY NEW YEARS!

With our crazy schedules Matt and I both ended up working to ring in the new year. I finally slowed down enough at work around 2:30am long enough to call Matt and we had a mini celebration over the phone. Ashley rang in the new year at home in her crib sleeping soundly.

The next big January event was my 29th birthday. We celebrated in style with a great German Chocolate cake with way too many candles.

At the end of January came Matt's big "guys ski trip" for the year. This year all of the fellas went to Jackson Hole, WY and they were greeted with an abundance of snow.....maybe even (dare I say it) too much snow. After 3 days of constant snowfall and amazing ski conditions the mountain was forced to shut down as were the airlines. So the group was stuck watching it snow from their hotel rooms. After the 2nd day of being stuck Matt took action and rented a 4x4 truck so he and 2 of the other guys could drive (through blizzard conditions) home. After Matt got back from Jackson Hole it was my turn to get out on the sloops and Catherine and I headed out for a beautiful, sunny, blue sky day of snowboarding. Then Katie, Ashley and I took a road trip to visit two of our favorite people. We spent three days being spoiled by our wonderful hosts....THANK YOU Will and Chris.

Matt and I spent most of February in anticipation of our upcoming vacation to Cozumel, Mexico and then finally it was time to go and enjoy some fun in the sun. My mom and cousin Charlene graciously volunteered to fly out and keep Ashley for the week while Matt and I went on vacation. On February 21st they arrived and we all spent a few days together before Matt and I left. Ashley was so excited to see her Nana and "Auntie" again and Matt and I were excited to get to spend an entire week with just adults. We love our daughter dearly and she is truly the highlight of our lives, but I must admit that this vacation of not having to think about naps, bottles, and baby-proofing was so rejuvenating.




The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was shed our fleece jackets and put on some shorts and flip-flops.

We had a great view from our hotel room. The rooms, hotel property, facilities and of course the beach were beautiful and the only cares we had for the entire week were if we had on enough sunscreen, what type of fruity frozen beverage to have and if we should lay on the beach or go snorkeling.

We did quiet a bit of snorkeling. I had never really done it before and it was amazing. There were so many fish and beautiful things to see. There was a great area to snorkel just right down the beach from our hotel and we also took a catamaran out to two different reefs at the south part of the island. There were so many fish and most of them would come right up to you. At the area by the beach kids would feed the fish while people were snorkeling and it caused some-what of a feeding frenzy of all different kinds of fish. The next opportunity we get we will go scuba diving so we can actually get down to the reefs and a little closer to the fish. Matt is open water certified and I tried scuba diving for the first time in the hotel pool. It took a little getting used to at first but I was able to do a few laps around the pool and I would love to do a shallow dive soon.































































The most amazing thing that we did while we were in Cozumel was to go to Chankanaab National Park and went swimming with the dolphins. The setting was really impressive. The entire area was actually in the ocean and it was very large so it truly felt like we were in the dolphins environment.

We arrived and met our new dolphin friend and she waved to us and then came up and let Matt and I "pet" her. Then we both got dolphin kisses and we "held" her in our arms. We got to feed her fish and she "sang" to us - we also learned that all of the sounds a dolphin makes come out of the blow hole because they do not have vocal cords.

After interacting with and getting to know our dolphin we swam way out one at a time and held our arm out to the side as we had been instructed to do and the dolphin swam up to the arm that was raised, rolled over and offered a fin to hold and she pulled each of us through the water. It was incredible to be that close to such an exquisite creature.

We also got to boogy board with the dolphin pushing our feet and it was impressive (and a little scary) how fast she could push you through the water.

After the swimming our dolphin put on an amazing show of jumps and "songs".






































































After swimming with the dolphins we went on a few other adventures. Matt and I rented a jeep and took a drive around the entire island making various stops along the way at historical sites, beaches, lagoons, and little seaside eateries.



During our tour we went to the Mayan ruins and got a history lesson reading about and looking at the structures built between 600 to 1200 A.D. It was impressive to see the scale and complexity of the buildings. We also saw a ton of iquana. If you look closely at the picture where I am kneeling you can see one.





After our history lesson our next stop was the tequila museum.....this was just as entertaining but not nearly as educational as the mayan ruins. After hearing about how tequila is made and checking out some of the agave plants we got to sample just about every kind of tequila there is. After about the third sample they all tasted the same except for one that was exceptionally good that was a tequila cream and another that was exceptionally bad that tasted a lot like Robotussin DM
































We also met a fantastic group of people from Houston, TX. We all lounged around the beach, went to the hotel shows (which were surprisingly entertaining), went to eat and eat and eat, and drink and drink and drink, and learned to play Mexican Train dominoes.





































Overall it was a fantastic trip. Matt and I got to relax and enjoy one another's company. By about day 6 we desperately missed Ashley so we were excited to get home. We came back completely rejuvenated.











We were greeted the morning after our arrival with a huge smile from Ashley and then she showed us all of her new tricks that her Nana and Auntie had taught her. One of which was a new word...she learned how to say Nana. It is now her favorite word and she has used it with almost every inflection there is.






Nana and Charlene stayed around for a few days once Matt and I returned so we all got the opportunity to visit. By the time they left they were pretty much locals in our little town.





Matt and I want to say Thank You again to Nana and Auntie Charlene for taking such good care of Ashley and allowing us to have a stress free, relaxing, rejuvenating vacation with the peace of mind that Ashley was still the center of the universe.













So about Miss Ashley. The last time that I posted she was just starting to crawl. Now she is all over the place. She is crawling every where including up the stairs. She also pulls up on everything and she is just now starting to use the furniture to move around.





























She is also way into boxes. She likes to crawl inside them, look in them, put things in and take things out of them etc. Honestly, I don't know of any better toy.






































Ashley also LOVES to go to the park. She swings, slides, crawls, pulls up and of course tries to eat rocks. She gets to meet up with all of her buddies and play.

Here is Ashley with her little friend Max. Max just turned one in February and he is one of Ashley's most favorite friends


































Here is Ashley with Cullen and Max. Cullen is the oldest of the crew so he teaches all the little ones all kinds of cool new tricks.



















March has flown by and the spring temperatures are starting to thaw everything out. We are definitely ready for spring but there is still great skiing to be enjoyed. This last weekend Matt's brother Ash and his family were out to visit from the D.C. area. We had a great time skiing with Ash, Mona, Bennett, and Neil. It was a gorgeous day with warm temperatures, blue skies and great snow. Hopefully this will not be the last of our spring skiing because the warm, blue sky ski days are some of my favorite ski conditions.












































































WOW....I did it. We are up to the current date. I will be much better about posting in the future. I know that you all need your Ashley updates and I did not mean to deprive anyone. Next up is Easter Sunday. Matt and I both work (Surprise) but hopefully Ashley will be able to get out and hunt a few eggs.