Everyone probably wants to have my sister in their family, especially since she was the reason why we went on a cruise.  My sister is known for finding great deals…and that is exactly what she did for all of us (Larsen, Hansen, Farley) to go on a cruise together.  Thankfully we all have terrific friends in our church who watched all of our kids so the adults could be together for a week.

Getting ready to board the ship

Matt giving Freddy, the Carnival Tail some love

Antoine Dawson does kareoke on Halloween Night

Girls sing kareoke

Mini golf on the cruise ship

Playing some doubles volleyball on the ship

ice cream 24 hours a day

2nd formal night

Matt as the Carnival Legend Sir Elton John

Beautiful sunset

We spent time together eating, dancing, singing, sleeping, talking, playing and eating again!  View more of our photos on the ship here.

Earlier this year a co-worker recommended The Hightaway on the Guadalupe as a great place to take the family for the weekend.   After some online research I proposed the idea to the Larsens and Hansens as a long weekend vacation.  Everyone liked the idea, so near the end of April we rented both the Hightaway and the Hightout from the owner, Stephen Hight.

These two houses sit on the bank of the Guadalupe River, north of San Antonio in Center Point, Texas.  The furnished accommodations come fully equipped with canoes, inner tubes, life jackets, bbq grill, fire pit, swing set, rope swing, etc, etc.  The fact that everything needed was already at the house made for a very relaxing vacation.

We spent most of our time on the water, in the canoes, playing on the rope swing, etc.  From campfire s’mores to tubing down the river to throwing a big lizard on Makana, I can safely say that everyone had a great time!

We surprised Makana with this friendly visitor (lizard in the lower-left)

Matt and Jake practicing for their circus act

Families are Forever! (...or... "Our Family Tree")

The shirt says it all

The Incredible Hulk made an appearance

This pretty much sums up our weekend

The property had a great kid's playground on it

Kalani and Olivia posing for the camera

And finally, a video of McKay surprising me and Kalani:

We were a small group, but that just meant more food for us!