Enjoying Punta Cana

Our hotel room had a nice pool view, and we definitely enjoyed playing in many of them.

There were pool floats galore, and this cutie had so much fun.

Nathan is such a water boy!

We spent quite a lot of time in their kiddie pool, where Nathan practiced floating,

slid down the little kid slide all by himself, 

and went down the big kid slide with us probably 30 times!

We spent our last afternoon at the beach enjoying the water

and the sand.  We had a wonderful time!

The Dominican Republic!

We just got back from a fantastic trip to the Dominican Republic!  We went there to celebrate Rachel and Derek's wedding (more on that soon), and despite nightmare flight delays/cancellations and lost bags, we finally arrived and had fun in the brightest blue waters I have ever seen!

Nathan really loved both the beach and having so many playmates!

We stayed at the beautiful Majestic Colonial in Punta Cana, which was our first all-inclusive experience. 

We enjoyed a lot of sun, sand, and delicious food!

We also chartered a catamaran.  The boat ride was lovely, and just look at these cool dudes and their shades!

The trip allowed us to see more of the gorgeous water, and the island of Saona. 

After a tour of a turtle sanctuary, we reached the pristine Canto de la Playa beach.

We spent most of our time snorkeling, and this box fish was our favorite. 

Isn't that water beautiful?!

Last but not least we stopped in the "natural pool" -- an area with very shallow water -- to see (and touch) starfish!

Grandpa Ariyavatkul's Visit

Grandpa Ariyavatkul arrived last weekend!  He saw Nathan's school for the first time and we had breakfast together.

We had a lot of fun playing at the playground earlier this week, which was good because while that day was just beautiful, it has been unseasonably cold and rainy ever since.  The cold weather has given us plenty of opportunities to play hide and seek inside though!  

Happy National Scrapbooking Day

Happy interNational Scrapbooking Day!  I have a couple layouts to share in honor of this "holiday."  My first layout is of our trip to Brownstone Park in Connecticut that I created for the Scrappy Friends challenge.  The layout is based on Rochelle's sketch, and Stacy's photo inspired me to fussy cut flowers!

My last Basic Gray Plumeria layout showcases multiple pictures from our weekend trip to the Mystic aquarium for More Than Words' May challenge.

Rachel's Bachelorette Party!

Last weekend Rachel had her bachelorette party, and Nicole and I surprised her by showing up in Detroit!  I am so glad we were able to celebrate our lovely bride to be.

We hung out with Rachel and her friends, took a ceramics class, and had a lovely dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.

We ended the night sipping some fantastic wine at a wine bar.  It was a fun weekend!

Happy Easter!

I had an adventurous weekend (more on that in a bit), but I returned home on Sunday in time to go hunting for eggs with Nathan.

He really enjoyed the hunt.

(Obligatory "cheese" picture)

Nathan really enjoyed opening all of his eggs to find out what treats were inside!

He also really liked the bunnies he got from his Grandma and Grandpa Bock!

It was such a nice day that we stayed outside and played with sidewalk chalk.  Of course it rained today so Nathan said that we are going to have to recreate our masterpiece!

Plumeria Layouts

I have been hoarding Basic Grey's Plumeria for a long time and I am so excited to use it for these layouts of our 2016 trip out east.  For this first layout, I was inspired by the three columns in Scrap Our Stash's sketch, and I used purple and flowers from the purple Care Bear.  

My 2nd layout was inspired by the Scrappy Friends challenges.  I used Rochelle's sketch as a starting point for this layout, and Stacy's photo inspired me to use garden pictures.

I created my 3rd layout for CSI's Case File 278.  I used the color palette (I also added gold), a solid color background, and used a travel theme (Nathan's first trip to the Chesapeake Bay).

My 4th layout was inspired by More Than Words' April challenge.  I used pictures of my "baby" boy's first time visiting family in Connecticut, and used plenty of soft pastels on this page.

Soccer Season

Nathan has started playing soccer again for the spring season.  He is a little more comfortable on the field than he was last fall, and seems to enjoy it!

Nathan is 4!

We continued celebrating Nathan's 4th birthday this weekend.  We went to Lowes to pick out flowers for Nathan to plant in his new garden, and he has enjoyed watering and taking care of them.

Nathan loves the play house part too, especially the functional sink!

We went to the zoo yesterday with some of Nathan's (and our) friends.  

We had a lot of fun, and squeezed in both a train ride and a carousel ride.

We were also able to set up Nathan's new bed tent he got for his birthday.  He thinks it's pretty cool!

Celebrating Nathan's Birthday

We celebrated Nathan's 4th birthday this weekend!  We had a cute Finding Dory theme and lots of presents.

Jesse spent most of the weekend putting some of Nathan's biggest presents together (and playing with him of course!) 

The sweetest part of the day was diving into this charming under the sea cake.

Nathan's Nana and Grandpa Butch celebrated with us and he had so much fun playing with them.

Nathan is such a big boy, and now has a desk and space in our office to do his "work" on his new computer and complete "projects."  

We had lovely weather perfect for trying out his new scooter!