Farmers Market.

At the end of summer Miles, Caiden and I joined my mom and dad at the Farmers Market at the Danbury Mall. The two summers we lived in Sacramento I frequented the Farmers Markets. There's something beautiful about all the colors and the fruits and vegetables. And fresh from the farm veggies are always better than what you can buy at the grocery store. We enjoyed the apple cider donuts (especially Caiden. He would squeal in anger if a new bite wasn't presented as soon as he finished the last one), the various bread and pie samples, and my mom grabbed some fresh vegetables and pasta noodles for dinner that night. It was a delicious!

Barbados Adventure.

The last weekend in April our ward had an auction to help send the youth to Girls Camp and High Adventure. Miles and I set our sites on a 7 day vacation through one of the ward members timeshares with RCI. And we won! We got a 7 day vacation at a 5 star resort (The Crane) in Barbados for $400, total! It was one of the greatest vacations I've been on. My mom joined in on the fun and was so nice to help us take care of Caiden, which allowed all of us to participate in activities. Caiden got his first two stamps on his passport! What a lucky boy! I waited 22 years to get a passport. We spent most of our time at the resort in the pools or at the beach. The Crane's beach was voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was beautiful! Caiden loved being in the pool! 
We hopped on a catamaran and went on a snorkel excursion! The excursion was all day. They fed us lunch, which was delish. We stopped at 3 locations to snorkel with sea turtles (my favorite!), to see a ship wreck, and to play on a remote beach and snorkel for seashells. It was such a great day. Caiden swam in the ocean, Miles, my mom, and I all got to swim with the sea turtles, we all got to work on our tans and sample the local foods, and we danced on the ship! Caiden was a hit with the boat crew and Miles drove the sailboat. I would highly suggest Cool Runnings snorkel excursion to anyone traveling to Barbados. It was well worth every penny. 
We also hopped on a complimentary shuttle one day and headed in to Hamilton. It was really hot and humid and our clothes were sticking to our bodies! We didn't have a stroller with us so we had to take turns holding Caiden which made it even hotter. Somehow he still managed to nap in my mom's arms. If you travel to Barbados I seriously would not suggest going in to Hamilton. There isn't a whole lot to do or see and it's really spread out. 
I'm really grateful that we were able to go on this family vacation. It was relaxing and beautiful, and we missed the big hurricane that hit the east coast leaving most of CT without power for a few days. Caiden is spoiled that this was his first family vaca! Lucky boy.
Forewarning: there are A LOT of pictures. It was the vacation of a lifetime, would you expect any less from me?

 The view from our balcony of the 5 pools at the resort and the ocean next to it. 

 The living room and bedroom in our suite. Love the vaulted ceilings!

There was a cliff to jump from at the beach at The Crane.

 The view from our balcony at dusk.

 On the catamaran getting ready to snorkel!

I can now, officially, check this off my Top 25 Things I Want to do Before Turning 25 list!

Caiden's First Halloween

 Miles: rented overalls $10 (from the theatre department on campus), green t-shirt $4 (from Ross), white and black felt $0.40 (from Walmart), green hat and shoes already owned.
Chelsey: rented pink dress $10 (from the theatre department on campus), 1/2 yard of pink fabric $1.50 (from Walmart), princess crown $3 (from a Halloween store).

Caiden: red t-shirt $2 (from Mommy n' Me), overalls $3 (from Mommy n' Me), red hat $0.75 (from the DI), white and black felt used with Miles costume, pacifier already owned.

This year we were Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach for Halloween. We didn't have a big costume budget, but since it was Caiden's first Halloween I really wanted to wear costumes, and for them to be family themed. We bounced around a bunch of ideas, but decided on Super Mario. We went to the Ward halloween party on Friday night and on Halloween we went to the Packard's for a party and briefly stopped in on the Thomas' party because we really wanted to see everyone's costumes but Caiden was exhausted and getting cranky. Regardless it was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and take pictures. We spent a grand total of $35.65 for three costumes!


While Caiden made an ADORABLE baby Mario, a part of me wanted to dress him up as Tom Cruise in Risky Business (it's a tad on the cold side in Rexburg so it wasn't a wise choice)... but since I already had all the pieces, I did for my own enjoyment inside our house.

Who could resist those chunky legs?