Hyatt Family Blog

The big chase

Tonight was a great night. For the first time, Marin and Annelie actually played together! They started crawling and chasing each other around. They had so much fun I thought Annelie would die laughing. Marin is a little more low-key, but she enjoyed it a lot too. Now we see how twins can be an advantage later on, since they play together.

Every silver lining has a cloud, though, and this one is the fact that I had just today taken my digital camcorder in for repair. It's been getting into the habit of eating tapes. So I couldn't film this at all. I did snap a few pictures, but you'll have to image how incredibly cute it was yourself.

Marin is crawling

Marin is now crawling. She started trying on Sunday, with a combination of about 5% genuine crawling, and about 95% dragging herself across the carpet. As of yesterday, she's almost completely crawling though. Now both the kids are getting into everything. They like to play with my spare computer keyboard, and the Nintendo and Playstation controllers.

Here's some pictures!

Panama Canal Holiday Cruise

Dec. 20, we went on a 2 week holiday cruise on the Infinity (Celebrity) with our trip buddies Carol and Lenny.

We went to fabulous ports: First stop, Aruba, where Carol and I did some serious shopping.

Another beautiful port was Costa Rica, where we took a 9 hour bus tour to San Juan, the capital.

We went to the Opera House, museum, and the owner of the tour company's estate for lunch.

The most interesting part of the cruise was going through the Panama Canal. The ship had about 6 inches leeway going through the locks, which was three levels. It took us 6 hours to go through the Panama Canal. We docked at night in Fuerte Amador, Panama... long enough to buy our Panama Hats!

We went to 3 ports in Mexico: the first was Huatulco.

(No, Art didn't gain weight...it's his money pouch!)

We went shopping and came across several funny signs.

The next stop was in Acapulco, which was one of our favorite ports.

More shopping!

The last stop was Cabo San Lucas.

Another funny sign...

Besides going to these beautiful ports, we had 6 very restful days at sea. Here are some of the ship's scenes, from our waiter, Sheldon, from South Africa, to the entertainment, relaxing moments, midnight buffets, formal nights, and New Year's Eve celebration on deck.


And, finally, playing bingo the last day hoping to win enough money to pay for this great trip!

New Beginnings!

After a wonderful, relaxing, and fun cruise to end 2003, (pictures to be posted soon), we began 2004 with a rousing sleepover and a new look for Marianne, who describes it as a "life altering moment". Here she is as our new, older, more sophisticated, and even more beautiful looking daughter!

In case you're wondering what the "life altering moment" was...it was when she discovered how to straighten her very curly hair to achieve a totally different look occasionally. She and Steve tried out the new look at their "mystery" dinner last night while we had the kids sleep over.

After Marianne and Steve left, Allison and Jordan quickly got on their pajamas so they could start their favorite activity...dancing around while listening to the jukebox and changing hats every few seconds.

This morning, we were back downstairs dancing while Jordan's "friends" watched. Marin and Annelie bears were without their shirts because Jordan felt they were too warm! Notice the red shirt, which Jordan feels he must wear constantly so that he can be Murray of the Wiggles!

Big Night Out

Towards the end of our Winter Break, we got so bored we took the kids to a Best Western hotel down the street that had an indoor pool and hot tub, a huge game room for the kids, an attached restaurant and more. We told them we were going on vacation. They had a blast riding the rides, swimming in the pool, playing peek-a-boo in the curtains and making funny faces.

Miscellaneous Cute Photos

We've been on Winter Break for the past two weeks and between taking turns being sick, evertything being closed for the holidays, bad weather and just plain laziness, we've spent A LOT of time at home. Here are some photos of the fun we've had...

One day, Steve decided to put "do-rags" on the kids after they came out of the bath. They thought this was hilarious and ran around the house with them on.

Another day they did the exact same thing, only this time, in robes.

Here are a few others of Allie in pigtails (she's finally letting me do her hair!), Jordan sleeping with his "friends", and Jordan with his Uncle Ronnie who was visiting from Cincinnatti with Aunt Zelda.

Holidays

Here are some recent photos from Hannukah (with cousin Avery), a photo taken before going to cousin Ronna's for Christmas dinner and a few on New Year's Eve.