The Dominican Republic

Scott and I were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic for Home Instead's Leadership Conference and lucky enough to have grandparents to watch Caden all week! Thanks Grammy and Pops! And for those of you wondering, yes the Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti. We were in Punta Cana, which is the furthest point from Haiti, so we did not feel any effects from the earthquake, but being that close to that tragedy made us feel helpless, sad, and greatful at the same time. We are still praying for the people of Haiti.

First night dinner...

Matt and Ansley Cohn from Louisiana...

Unfortunately, we had bad weather the first three days of our trip and actually didn't see the sun until the day before we had to leave, but we made the best of our trip and ate and drank all we could on the resort. The resort was nice and had some activities for us to do - I enjoyed the spa and Scott enjoyed the casino :). Here are some pictures of the resort...

Flamingos hanging out near the lobby...

We had booked a catamaran trip not knowing that the weather was going to be terrible, so we went ahead and did it anyways...It turned out to be fun (the bar on board might have had a little to do with that :)).

Here's some pics from the catamaran. Scott and the boat captain - he always seems to make friends with the bus driver, the captain, the tour guides...

Bad weather...it kept raining off and on that the crew of the boat put up a sail as a roof over our heads on the boat.

Ruth Maguire and Teresa Banark from Omaha.

Look closely and you'll see the mast of a ship - a ship wrecked into the coral reef...

And the most important person on the boat (well that's how the tour guide introduced him to us)...the bartender. He was actually a deaf mute (not sure if that is the correct pc term or not), so you had to grab his arm sometimes to get his attention then you pointed to the drink you wanted on a sign...It made me happy that the tour company hired him - perfect job where he didn't have to talk!

The last night we were there, the resort kept putting up signs about a Michael Jackson show...we weren't quite sure what it was going to be, but it actually turned out to be very entertaining! They had an impersonator and dancers, they did songs all the way from the Jackson 5 to Thriller to Smooth Criminal to Bad to Black or White...and you get the picture. We were impressed!

Here is Michael himself...Random pic of Dave Banark from Home Instead home office and Scott at dinner one night...
Last night there...farewell dinner...Dave Banark again and his wife, Teresa.
Scott and I...

New Year's...yes I know it's late

For New Year's, we went down to Port St. Lucie to see my entire immediate family! Uncle Ryan, Aunt AJ, Uncle Robert, Aunt Candy, and cousin Griffith all came down to Aunt Jen and Uncle Albert's house. Unfortunately, Caden did not get his picture taken with every family member, but here is a few...

Uncle Ryan and Aunt AJ - wedding date has been set for August 28th! So exciting!

All four cousins on the Johnson side...from left, Griffith, Caden, Kaley, and Andrew.

Not the greatest picture of Caden, but we found out when we took him to the doctor on Monday the 4th (the day after we got back), that he had double pneumonia...so we were out all week with one sick baby!

Taking a bath with his cousin Kaley!
We went out to eat at Benihanas our last night there (because Kaley got up that morning and said she wanted to eat at the Bahamas...:)). We were running late to our reservation and were panicking that they wouldn't seat us, but we got there about 15 minutes late. Anyways, there was a single diner that they sat with us. He was a nice man and offered to buy the adults a round of drinks when he started talking to us. We were SO greatful for that, but then after we had eaten and were about to get our bill, he stood up, handed Jen $300 and told her he wanted to buy all of our dinners as well! We were shocked and so thankful...our anonymous benefactor is what we called him the rest of the night. What a nice man! It was fate that we were running late! He did drop subtle hints as to his identity, so we did figure it out and are going to print out this picture (that he took for us) and send him a thank you note. He actually is quite the generous man and even has his own foundation that gives out scholarships...the wonders of internet research...

We all decided that we each must pay forward his generosity to a stranger to keep the cycle going!

Caden with the Benihanas hat on...

I thought that this was cute and funny, too...Caden likes to push his trucks and cars around, well since cousin Andrew is too old to have any of that stuff, he made do with cousin Kaley's baby stroller, but notice that he did put his monster truck inside...

And here he is playing his new ball pit when we got home! Thanks, Uncle Robert, Aunt Candy, and Griffith...now mommy just needs to go get some more balls...

Caden's second Christmas!

For those of you wondering what happened to the Thanksgiving post....well, I had a camera memory card malfunction and lost all of the pictures. Luckily, my sister-in-law Carly got some cute ones of the boys, so all is not lost... We had a dramatic Thanksgiving with not one but two trips to the emergency room over in Maclenney, Florida because Caden pulled a cup of hot coffee on his arm and ended up with second degree burns. His arm looks great now and you can't even tell anything was ever there!

Caden's second Christmas was a good one! As you can see, the stockings were hung for Santa with care on the window way up high out of Caden's reach...hey, whatever works.

We went to a Christmas party and sat on Santa's lap...and might I add was one of the few kids who did not cry at the sight of Santa. He tried to escape...

Then realized he was sitting on some strange guy's lap with a lot of white hair and a funny red suit...


We left cookies for Santa on our special plate that told him what we wanted for Christmas :)...

And he ate some!

We went over to Grammie and Pops' for Christmas Eve. Mi-mi came up, too! Christmas morning we woke up to open all of Caden's presents...He got a train rocking chair to match his room from Grammie and Pops. It even makes choo choo sounds when you rock...

Then of course, we tried to stand up in it...
First thing he saw on Christmas morning was his Harley Davidson power wheels and headed straight for it! He looked at us as if to make sure it was okay if he got on it...
Here's what he thought of all the presents!
Some pics of Caden riding his Harley...it's so funny. He gets this serious look on his face and has a death grip on the handlebars...he's a hardcore Harley owner!

With his Jack in the Box...
He is a very cuddly snuggly child. He likes to hug and "love" on his stuffed animals, so of course he wanted to give the monkey in his Jack in the Box a kiss.

Grammie and Pops also got him the cutest rocking "horse", Homer. It's a baseball glove and baseball!

Brody and Wade got one, too. How cute are they rocking together?
With all of these new toys, he wanted to play with a pitcher...
And the dog crate...
Next year, we'll just tell Santa to bring him a dog crate and a pitcher :).

He still LOVES books. A lot of people say they have never seen a child so young sit so still to listen to a book...it even calms him down when he is upset...go figure. He got a book for Christmas about Rudolph and wanted everyone to read it to him all of the time. Here he is with Daddy reading to him (or Dah-ee as Caden calls him).

The cousins...running and playing together. I'm not sure what was so funny at the end of the hallway, but they all thought it was hilarious...

All of them also had some obsession with Pops lawn chair...
Riley was a little overwhelmed with all of the kids and decided it would be best to hang out under the tree...

Before we left to head over to Grammie and Pops', Caden decided he just wanted to stand and model for me by the Christmas tree. He was so good with it...there was only a few ornaments near the bottom that he decided he liked to take off - otherwise he just pointed at it when we said tree or lights.He opened his first Chrismtmas present before we left from PJ, his daycare provider. It was a zhu zhu pet. Do you think he loved it? He would not put it down for two days! He wanted it to go in the bath tub, his bed, everywhere. The battery already started to die, so he has kind of lost interest for the moment... Three generations of Harrells...look closely in the back and you can see Pops...A quick family pic...

And Caden has been obsessed lately with waving and saying "hi-eee", so here he is waving Bye!

That's all until our New Year's Post. We are headed down South to see Nana, Aunt Jen, Uncle Albert, Uncle Robert, Aunt Candy, Uncle Ryan, Aunt AJ (a special shout out to Ryan and AJ who just got engaged on December 5th!...We are so excited for you guys!), and cousins Andrew, Griffith and Kaley!