Who says you can't travel with kids..

The most common advice we received when we got married was "travel as much as you can before the kids come". And so we did. But to be honest.. I think it made it harder for us because now that the kids are here.. we realize what we're missing out on.

This year was not an option to travel without the kids because of how young Jadey is.

So here we are in St. Lucia. I have to admit Matt and I joked a lot about how much chaos we dealt with on this trip, but we also agreed that this was the best trip we have ever been on. We have so many wonderful memories with these two little munchkins that will last a lifetime:

The kids did extremely well on the 12-hour flight and when we finally got to our room, both kids were so slap-happy... Sam was throwing pillows around the whole room and Jadeyn was laughing her head off at him. No body can make her laugh like her big brother!

I will always remember this picture in particular because we rushed to get ready and it was taken 10 minutes before the sun went down (it gets dark at 6p there).

Afterward, we walked the beach to find crab holes in the sand and dig the crabs out. Sam loved holding the flashlight and hogged it from all the older kids.. they were kind of getting upset that he wasn't shining the light at the crab holes.

With pictures and the crab hunt, our dinner reservation was a 1.5 hours later than normal. Lately, my sweet little Jadey needs a silent room and her swing to go to bed. (And yes, we did bring her swing with us on this trip.) So at the beginning of dinner, she completely lost it and fell asleep with her cheek on my shoulder.

The hotel was all-inclusive which included all food, water sports, a kids club (and babysitting) and pina colada's galore! Sam had so much fun swimming and building sand castles. We even took him out on the ocean with a pedal boat.

2 months ago, Sam wouldn't even step foot in a swimming pool and here he is letting Matt spin him around by his feet. I was so proud of my little guy because he didn't want us to hold him in the water.. "he wanted to do it by himself."

Jadey really is such a good baby. She just chills out for the most part unless she needs a nap or a bottle. It is so funny because she HAS to have her blanket to go to sleep.. sweat and all.. she needs that blanket.

One day I picked her up from the nursery and she was asleep in their crib.. stomach down, no blanket, no binky. I panicked because that is the exact opposite of what pediatricians tell you(stomach down) but most of all, I could not figure out how they got her to sleep without being swaddled and binky.

Although we didn't get to take advantage of the babysitting as much as we wanted.. we did sneak a few hours alone and were able to water ski, wake board, get a sailing lesson, windsurfing lesson. We had no idea how much fun sailing was and Matt has been looking on ksl for a sailboat ever since we got home. He says he likes it more than 4-wheeling which says a lot for my Matty. haha

Back to the kids club.. there was one day Sam was literally kicking and screaming when we dropped him off so the leader took him to the pool and he was screaming at the pool too. So we gave in and stayed with him. After the leader left, Sam told us that he wanted to go on the water slide. (totally reminds me of how he was terrified of Santa, but then 2 minutes later wanted to go on the harness trampoline). Anyways - he went on the slide and flew down it so fast that Matt wasn't able to catch him before he hit the water and he dunked all the way.

PS - is it just me?? or is the thought of water skiing in the ocean terrifying? JAWS has ruined me forever. Luckily I didn't fall, but the whole time I was thinking, "please don't let me fall, please don't let me fall."

We were there on Sam's actual birthday, 9/23 and the waitress saw him opening up presents at breakfast. So she went and got him a cupcake with a candle and they came out and sang to him.

It was so funny because at dinner we asked the staff to bring out a cake with candles. Sam was outside looking for a stray cat when a huge crew came out and started to sing. Sam saw them and ran as fast as he could to his chair. There was no way he was missing out on that!

So all in all bringing the kids was completely worth it!! It is so nice to not miss the kids while being on vacation. I absolutely love the Caribbean and would highly recommend it and the resort we stayed at for families with kids. I even started to get teary-eyed when we left the island. Maybe one of these days we can have an island adventure and live in the Caribbean for a couple years like my sister & brother-in-law, Stef and Jerod!!

My Sammy

With a chill in the air.. Sam and I finally said goodbye to summer tonight.

This post is all about my Sammy. I expected so many changes from Jadey this year and I honestly had no idea how many changes my little buddy would go through. In the past 3 months he has built quite the vocabulary (with full on sentences), he has a creative imagination and hilarious comebacks, has learned to ride his bike, scooter and ride a four-wheeler, has made several friends, started preschool, and is seriously grown up to be a little boy.

Maybe I'm a little weird, but sometimes I'll walk by our house and envision we've upgraded to a new house and our house is just a memory. In that memory I feel incredibly sad because I think of all the amazing memories we built in this house and watching my little guy grow up here and play in the yard. I guess I'm feeling a little sad because time has flown by me so fast and I don't know how my Sammy went from being a baby to a toddler to a little boy.

Sam just celebrated his 3rd birthday and he wanted a lightning mcqueen birthday party. My sister did an amazing job and made him this cake! He was so protective over his cake and did NOT like my grandpa teasing him that it was grandpa's cake. :)

He found this buzz lightyear at the store 6 months ago and has been telling us he wanted it for his birthday.

This year Sam had a party with all his friends and cousins. They painted at Color Me Mine and then finished the cars party at our house. He had the best day!!

And of course, the 1st day of preschool

I told Sam to stop growing up and he yelled at me, "Nooooo Mom!" So acted like I was sad and he said, "Okay mom, I'll stop growing." I seriously love this little guy and I'm so glad I get to stay home with him and Jadeyn during these precious years! Happy Birthday little buddy! I'm so glad I get to be your mom!