Marshall

Marshall is the Star of The Week this week at school.  He gets to do a lot of fun things to let his class know about him.  One of the days we are asked to write a Note that tells about why your child is an important member of your family and they share it with the class.  Marshall asked me to please not embarrass him.

Here is what I have so far, I'm know there is way more I could put, but how long does the class want to hear me brag about how great Marshall is ......

 We waited a very long time for Marshall to join our family.  When we found out that Mom was pregnant, we were so thrilled.  For nine  months we dreamed about what our baby boy would look like, and how much fun we would have with him.  On December 19^th we went to the hospital to have the baby.  Mom was in labor for a long time and Marshall got stuck and started having trouble breathing.  On December 20^th They took Mom back and did an emergency C- Section (surgery) and took Marshall out.  When they pulled him out he wasn’t breathing.  He was blue and not responsive.  It was a good several minutes before Marshall cried, and it was a cry that we will never forget.  As Dad watched the nurses do CPR on Marshall he was very scared that Marshall might not make it.  We are thankful that he did and that he didn’t have any problems from that experience.

Marshall is very important to our family for a lot of reasons.  He is a GREAT Big Brother.  He is always so kind, fun, helpful, loving and creative with his little sister Kambria.

Marshall has an amazing personality.  He can talk for hours telling us stories and is very entertaining. 

Marshall is funny.  We love the jokes that Marshall tells us and we have the best time laughing with him.  He has a very contagious laugh, once he starts laughing hard, its almost impossible to get him to stop and everyone else is laughing as well.

Marshall is  a good friend.  Marshall will go out of his way to make someone feel special.  He tries to always include others in what he is doing.  If he notices someone is sad, he will make sure to cheer them up.  He is fun to be around and is always coming up with fun ideas.

Marshall is also very honest.  He tries really hard to make the best decesion, and to always tell the truth.  This is something that Mom and Dad are very proud of.  We know that it isn’t always easy to be honest, but we are proud that Marshall is so good at it.

Marshall is very good at Basketball.  Dad is glad that Marshall loves Basketball, because it is his favorite sport as well.  Marshall can tell you anything you want to know about any player in the NBA.  We love going to games with Marshall and we love to watch him play Jr Jazz.

We could go on forever about why Marshall is so important to our family, he really is a good kid, and we wouldn’t be complete without him.  To sum it up; Marshall is important to our family because he is a miracle, a great brother, kind, fun, helpful, loving, creative, entertaining, funny, a good friend, caring, loyal, honest, athletic, trustworthy, and so much more.

We love you Marshall,

Mom and Dad.

Cozumel

Our Port to Cozumel we had booked a snorkel adventure and then you go to a beach and play and then come back.  When we got to Cozumel and woke up the weather wasn't awesome, and I knew that the water was wavy and that I wouldn't snorkel.  So we cancelled.  We got off the ship and walked around for a minute, but it was pretty lame.  All the vendors kept calling us honeymooners and were trying to convince us to buy stuff, so we went back on the ship.

 Instead we spent a TON of time in the hot tub that over looks the ocean, there was NO ONE on board it felt like so we had it all to ourselves.

Jake also did the bogey board that was on the ship.  And then we played ping pong a lot, played basketball and just chilled out.  It was a very fun day.

 It was pretty, but very cloudy.

 The sunset that night was beautiful

Jamaica

On the cruise one of our ports was Jamaica.  When we pulled up it was so pretty!  It was super green. We got up and ate breakfast and then we got ready and headed out.  We had an excursion early that morning to the Dunn Falls.  We took a bus ride, about an hour, to the Falls.  On the ride the gal told us all about the history of Jamaica and some words and fun facts.  When we got to the falls they put us in teams and gave us a guide.  We walked down to the bottom of the falls and then you have to hold hands and walk up the falls.  They were going very very slow.  I had a water proof case on my phone.  We were taking a picture of ourselves when this Jamaican guy came up and grabbed my phone from me and took one and then grabbed my hand and told me to follow him.  I looked at Jake like what the heck do we do, and Jake was so excited about it.  He brought us a different route then what everyone else was going.  When we would come to a line of people the man would make a siren noise that would scare the crap out of the people and then cut through them.  We would stop and take pictures, he probably took 40+ pictures of us and we got to wade through more of the water then walk on the rock.  It was so much fun!!!  Of course when we got to the top he wanted a tip, so we gave him $20 and he gave me my phone back.  He knew just what he was doing.  It was way fun!  After the Falls we stopped by a little restaurant where you could buy food and then we headed back.  It was a TON of fun!!

 The guy leading us told me to lean backwards and fall into a deep spot.  I was hesitant, but plugged my nose and went for it.

 Jake went all out and jumped backwards.

 My mascara was waterproof, but apparently it wasn't because every picture i have black eyes :)

 

 Jake was climbing up to take my picture and he fell into a hole and made a huge splash it was so hilarious.

part 2 of our trip.

Our 2nd day on the ship was an at Sea Day.  So the night before we had stayed up really late and then slept in to take advantage of it.  There is always something going on.  There are lounges everywhere with piano, or jazz or just singing.  So you can just chill or dance or whatever.  We ate Breakfast, then just hung around, I think this day we went to BINGO and then just relaxed ate lunch .

 When we came back to our room we had an ape hanging from our curtains, I love that they do animals.  I mentioned to our stateroom attendant how much I loved it and that I always look forward to see what it will be.  He advised that on this ship they only do it every other night to cut down on washing towels.  To save the waves!

 The next day we arrived to Labadee Haiti.  This is property that Royal Caribbean owns.  It was so much fun.  As we pulled in all the workers in Haiti were on wave runners going around the ship waving flags and welcoming us.  We went ate some breakfast and then headed onto the island.  We had booked a zip line excursion, so we found some beach chairs and claimed those and then we signed in for our excursion.  It was really fun.  They talk to you forever about it, but once you finally get up there, the zip line is 500 feet high and 2600 feet long.  You go over the ocean and land on the beach.  Once off the zipline we played in the ocean.  They also brought out a buffet lunch for us to eat on the island.  It was hotdogs, hamburgers, salad, fruit and stuff like that.  After plaint in the water we shopped around to get something for the kids and then went back on the ship and got ready for dinner.

We had 6pm dinner. We had table 340 each night and we were so happy that it was a table for two, because I and especially Jake, do not like small talk.  Our servers name was Mary, she was from over seas somewhere and had been doing cruise work for 9.5 years.  They work on the ships for 7 months and then get 2 months off.  She didn't have any kids because she said she didn't have time for that right now.  It is sad how poor 3rd world countries are.  These husbands and women work 7 months without seeing there families to earn good money to provide for them and then get to see them for 2 months before they are off again.

 This is our ship.  It is currently the biggest ship out on the sea.

 Here is the pizza shop on the ship, I think this is where I gained my 3 pounds.  And had we not taken the stairs instead of the elevator 95% of the time I would have probably gained 10 pounds.