Our Scrappy Little Monkey

On the morning of his 4th birthday, Jonah asked for his "4 year old" box of clothes, the size 4 hand-me-downs that we got from some good friends. I didn't get it down for him, but found a pair of pants in his drawer that I called "four year old" pants. You see, Jonah can still wear some of his size 2's. And some of his size 3's are huge on him. I guess I didn't want to hurt his little ego when he realized that he could actually swim in size 4's. Jonah is so proud of the fact that he is BIG and that he is now 4 and tells anyone he talks to. He has even stretched it a bit to say that he's 4 1/2!
So, Jonah had his 4 year old check up today and we found out how HUMONGOUS he really is! He's a whopping 32 lbs! Huge, huh? And I think he was only that heavy because he ate an adult serving of oatmeal with chopped dates and coconut milk on it right before heading to the doctor's office. It was so funny to hear him tell the nurse how big he is after she weighed him and everything. I could tell that she was holding back laughter, but she held it together. Jonah didn't seem to notice the little bit of sarcasm in her voice. By the way, 32lbs is between the 10th and 25th percentile. He is almost 40 inches tall, which puts him between the 25th and 50th for height. Oh, and now they calculate their BMI. It's 14.2. Between the 5th and 10th percentile.
Yep, Jonah is 4, but he can still "perch" on his Daddy's forearm.

Antarctica: Penguins Porpoising!

Here's a fun video of penguins swimming (porpoising) by the ship in Antarctica!

Antarctica: The Baby of the Family

Jack provided a lot of entertainment on the cruise. Here is just a little video taken on "fancy night." Jack developed this fake laugh on the cruise when he heard others laughing. It didn't matter what they were laughing at. And since we had his attention (or is it that he had ours?), we had him do "the squeeeeeeze" for you all as well!

Antarctica: Ushuaia

Another BEAUTIFUL (and very very cold!) place...

We got a driver to drive us around Ushuaia, a city in the Tierra del Fuego islands. Actually, Zac got a driver for us all, since he speaks Spanish. I don't know what we would have done without Zac and Fiona with us. Wait. I know! We would have had to pay for the super pricey Princess excursions. Anything associated with the ship was at least twice the amount that we had to pay when taking care of arrangements ourselves (Or in our case, if Zac and Fiona took care of it.). Actually, we probably wouldn't have paid the high price. Mike and I are too "thrifty." So, I really have no idea what we would have done. Back to the story.... The driver took us on a scenic drive of Ushuaia. I loved how the town of Ushuaia was at the foot of all of these mountains. It had kind of a who-ville feel to it and it was so beautiful.

At a scenic lookout, the kids didn't care to look down, but wanted to climb up, up, up. I love the dirt on Jonah's little bum. The beginning of a very dirty day for Jonah...

We took a mile long chairlift up to Glacier Martial. This is where I decided that I definitely have a fear of heights. I never used to be afraid. I remember riding chairlifts with no problem and riding a gondola in Banff and I have been on my fair share of mountain peaks. I have never really been afraid. But this chairlift made my palms sweat. I was so nervous! I tried to be calm, especially because I didn't want Paige to be scared. But I was so nervous way up there on that chairlift for what seemed like FOREVER! Did I tell you it was a whole mile long?! And I had Jack strapped to my front with the Ergo. Boy, I love that Ergo... I was so thankful when I saw the top of the chairlift. I wanted OFF!

Mike and Jonah enjoyed their ride together. Mike and Jonah are pretty fearless. Well, pretty much fearless. Mike has a thing with spiders and snakes. Jonah is fearful of cats. I know. Weird. But what about Jonah is normal? He is definitely unique!We loved these trees with the big "poofs" on them.
We hiked around a little at the top which the kids really enjoyed. It was really rocky, as you can see in the pictures and they loved climbing up on the big rocks! But it was really cold. And Jonah, being Jonah, got even colder after walking in a stream. Not just any stream, but a stream made from the melting glacier. I saw him walking in the stream but I didn't stop him because I thought he was balancing on dry rocks. Silly me. After Jonah got wet, he was freezing and only wanted Daddy to carry him (an annoyed Daddy at that). The Rollins' kids were cold too and Nuala only wanted to be carried. She had a fever later that afternoon. Poor Nuala. We kept trying to walk up to the sunshine to get warm, but it seemed to get further and further away, so we didn't stay up by the glacier for long.

I didn't want to get back on the chairlift (Oh my gosh! My hands are actually sweating right now after seeing that picture!). I wanted to walk down, but Mike convinced me that I was being ridiculous. Well, he didn't actually convince me that I was ridiculous for feeling afraid, but it would have been a bit ridiculous to walk down a rocky trail (where there was one) with Jack strapped to me. Mike, on the other hand, thought my fear was ridiculous, the logical being that he is. I had to keep telling myself that people went up and down that chairlift every day and that it hadn't crashed down yet. And if it were a real threat then people wouldn't pay every day to do it... Thankfully the wind was so strong at our faces and soooo cold that I focused on being freezing instead of being up high on the way down. I was shaking all the way down. It really was FREEZING!

We did finally make it down and stopped at a little cabin-style cafe next to the parking lot and got hot chocolate to warm up. And that was pretty much the end of our adventure. We were all pretty tired and cold and Jonah was soaked (His pants, socks and shoes were completely saturated.). We got back to the ship and napped Jack and had Paige and Jonah watch a movie in Nana's room before playing in the pool.

Good-bye to the beautiful and very cold Ushuaia!

Next stop: Punta Arenas

Antarctica: We're here!!!

Now, for the real reason we went on the cruise... ANTARCTICA! It was so worth all the travel to see this amazingly beautiful place. I know Mike would have LOVED to actually touch foot on Antarctica and was a little disappointed, but from reading Zac and Fiona's blog, I learned that Zac and Mike are secretly planning to go back to Antarctica (It was a secret from me anyway... He never told me about it. Maybe he was planning to mention it at the right time. Whenever that is!?). I was actually really wanting to step foot onto Antarctica as well, but I don't think I ever will. I am NOT going on a Zodiac in Antarctica and ice camp. Not appealing to me in the least! It looks sunny in these pictures, but it is still freezing (literally)!

Here we are!

I don't have to say much about these pictures. They speak for themselves. I do have to say that I loved the beautiful color of the water in Antarctica. The water melt from the glaciers appeared to be turquoise, while the salt water was a bright blue

These little icebergs are called bergie bits. They are still the size of a car (or larger) though.


Here's our happy ice princess! Paige never complains about the cold. She's just like her daddy. They are definitely happy in cooler climates.
Jonah, on the other hand, was FREEZING! And I had him so layered! He's just a skinny little guy, I guess.

Here are some penguins swimming by.

And here's our little penguin. Jack was kind of a mascot on the ship. Especially when he wore his little fleece suit. Random people would ask to take Jack's picture. It was funny. Usually when I try to take his picture, he tries to grab the camera. But when these complete strangers took his picture, he would do a cute little pose and stay very still.
We were so sad to leave Antarctica! We had to leave a day early because a big storm was coming in. Mike and Zac were pretty disappointed that we didn't get to ride it out. Crazy guys! There was another ship (a Holland America ship) a few years ago that ignored a weather warning very similar in severity to the storm that was approaching us. As a result, 75 passengers suffered broken bones. Nope, I didn't want that. But it still was sad to leave this beautiful place that I don't think I will ever visit again. And we still felt some HUGE waves. It was hard to believe that our ship could actually rock like it did. Watching the pool with 12 foot swells was really something!

Goodbye Antarctica!

Next stop: Ushuaia

Antarctica: Stanley, Falkland Islands

Woo-hoo! You finally get to see some penguins!

We had a wonderful day on East Falkland Island! It was supposed to be cold (about 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and cloudy so we packed warmly. You know, lots of layers, warm coats... We ended up just carrying them. It turned out to be a very warm sunny day, very rare weather for Stanley. We spent the day feeling very blessed. And here are pictures documenting our adventure!

We disembarked the boat and took one of the tenders to the port. Here we all are, our family along with my mom and the Rollins clan, on the 20 minute tender ride. Except for Jonah. I think I see his head. Bummer. I thought everyone was pretty visible in this pic!

From the port at Stanley, we took a shuttle to Gypsy Cove, a Magellanic penguin colony on the island. We stayed there for a couple hours, walking along the trail, observing the penguins, and exploring. It was so beautiful. It reminded us of being on Mount Rainier, only with the ocean right there.

We loved watching the penguins play and splash and waddle! I love the penguin down near the lower right hand corner, flapping his wings.

The Magellanic penguins, unlike penguins you would see in Antarctica (which live in rookeries on the rock or on the bare ice), make their homes in little burrows all over in the bushy areas.

If you walk quietly, you can sometimes be lucky enough to be in arms reach of a penguin coming out of its burrow, like we were of this penguin below.

Our little rock climbers! Paige and Jonah got to climb down to the water and then up again. They loved the freedom to explore here.

And I think they are a little proud of themselves too.

I didn't really want to leave this place. It was so peaceful and you can see from the pictures how beautiful it was.

But, we were hungry! Of course. And Lara Bars weren't going to cut it for long. So, we left and enjoyed some fish n' chips in town and then meandered for a bit. We found a big grassy area for the kids to run play and also a penguin store that the kids loved. A perfect kind of day.

Happy Birthday Jonah!

Our Jonah, is 4 years old (as of Saturday, March 21st)!

Here is beautiful Jonah, March 21st, 2005.
Here he is at one year old. What a cutie!

Here is Jonah at 2. Always up to something...

Here is the picture I took of Jonah for his 3rd birthday invitation. He was afraid of the invitations. "Too scary!" He wanted a smiling picture.

And here is Jonah at 4 years old! He's jumping on his exercise trampoline (a gift given by Aunt Barb) in his favorite shirt and "Dad's Helper" suspenders that he actually really NEEDS. Poor kid. He's always pulling his pants up and running at the same time. At least he is coordinated like his daddy!

I want to post a picture of his skunk cake, but I am having a conflict with my computer right now...