Roatan 2014 Trip

The beach right outside our house.

If you look closely, you can see the tracks of cars. This is the "road", aka the beach.

Our zip line experience. Perfect day, no crowd of people!

Not a bad view from way up here.

West Bay had the most beautiful water and beach for swimming. It was only a short taxi ride away.

Exploring the beach along Sandy Bay.

Sunset on the dock.

One of the sunsets.

The day we headed to the airport to go home. It rained right after we arrived at the airport. The only rain all week.

We both got to read a lot and without interruption! It doesn't take long to plow through a couple of books that way.

The pool right outside the house. It was a pretty cool shaped pool and I kind of want one:)

The restaurant/resort/dive shop that we frequented. I wasn't terribly impressed with the food of Roatan. It was always just ok. The drinks were pretty though!

On the way to/from many of our dive sites we passed the area with dolphins. We didn't swim with them, but it was cool to see them a handful of times.

Roatan Diving

Heading out on the first dive for the morning.

Always a short boat ride to a nice reef.

A bit of the reef.

Close up.

Love them!

Like them!

Barry fish.

Close up.

Hiding

Don't like, especially when they sting me.

Trying to pass my navigation dive.

I passed, apparently:)

Success!

On shore again. Our camera worked for all of 10 minutes underwater before breaking.

Barry & Bethanie's trip to Roatan, 2014.

Easter 2014

The Park Family after church service.

Brody & Mara, coordinating nicely.

The Park Family at the farm ready for lunch and Easter egg hunts.

Brody & Mav

Mav: 22 months

Brody: 4 years

Brody was on the lookout for blue eggs.

Big crocodile tears for Mav. He wasn't feeling the best this day, but luckily he had lots of love.

The MN Mieska 9 all sitting in one spot together.

Too cool for school.

Busted! But boy was he content there right up until I realized he was shoveling candy into his mouth quietly.

Growing Up

Out with the high chair and on with the regular seating for this little boy.

His chin doesn't reach the table, but he wants to be a big boy anyway.

My tough boy falls a lot and rarely cries or gets upset about it. He got hit in the nose with a snow shovel this winter and I wonder if the pink divot will remain a scar. Not that he'd ever care!

Picture those big blue eyes saying and signing "please"...it's difficult to say no sometimes.

While packing and sorting out garage sale items, Barry found this old gem from his childhood. Time to introduce Brody to science.

The boys were fascinated.

Even I'd have trouble getting it back together, but Brody was all about learning and helping.

With moving comes sorting through an entire house, deciding what to sell and keep, and stumbling across old gems that have been tucked away for years. During this process, we decided to take down the crib, move Mav into a regular bed and Brody into the top bunk. We've ditched the high chair to sell it and moved Mav to the regular part of the table. It'll nice to have these and other transitions complete before moving so there is that much less to adjust to during the move. Now if only Mav was remotely close to potty training.

Sleepy Time

Snuggling on the couch with daddy.

Reading books in bed in the morning with Kelly.

Mav spends a lot of time sleeping in my arms. It's hard to resist taking pictures of a peaceful Mav.

The boys are in bunkbeds now!

Children's Museum

Mav, Brody & Mara had fun in the water area.

The little aprons were so cute.

The two little ones had a lot of fun splashing. They were soaking wet by the end.

He loved the bubbles!

They got to race boats down the water.

They all stopped at the car and the little two got to drive.

Maverick painting his own face in case you couldn't tell.

Fossil dig.

It wouldn't be complete without sitting on the dinosaur.

Who knew that the Children's Museum was loaded with tons of fun stuff perfect for their age? I wish I would've known earlier and that it wasn't in St. Paul, the exact place I do not want to travel to on weekends. I will say that it's clear at their age that having a 1:1 adult:child ratio is essential. It was way too much without that, but still worth it.

Cousin Love

Claire & Max came for Friday pizza/movie night.

Mara stopped by and enjoyed some animal crackers and a quick snuggle with Mav.

I'm not sure what was so appealing about the Lego bin, but Mara spent a lot of time in it!