as promised.

before i started fourteen days of love i promised you a post about new years eve 2009, our caribbean cruise, and the latest and greatest happenings with these two american kids ...

so here goes ...

12.27.2009: happy anniversary leach family!

on december 27, 2009, justin & lindsay celebrated their one year anniversary! yay! i know this year has meant a lot of changing and adjusting for both of them, but i think if you were to ask them, they would say it had been a great first year.

congratulations you two! we love you both very much!

we actually spent the day in arkansas at the home of our family friends nanc and wes gibson. {you may remember our summer time visit to their house}. we had just arrived in fort smith when we were rear-ended/side-swiped by a minivan. the beautiful christmas snow that i mentioned before had also brought about a bit of ice and the van was unable to stop. justin & lindsay were in a separate car, so it was travis, my mom, sierra, and myself in the rodeo. everyone walked away unhurt ... everyone but the rodeo. my sweet rodeo was hurt pretty badly, {but it definitely could have been worse}. my sister has pictures of the car on her camera, but i've not gotten them from her yet. i was a little bummed the rest of the afternoon, but enjoyed the time eating good food, drinking yummy drinks, visiting with friends, and shopping at the mall.

12.21.2009: new year's eve

we rang in the new year with the lears again. dee and i met up in the afternoon to make a run to the store for new years spirits and a few goodies at the grocery store. she and steve had purchased a new years eve celebration package with hats, beads, noise makers and more, and the house was decorated for the special occasion. amanda's boyfriend zach joined us this year, and the six of us (+ connor) spent a low-key evening at home watching movies, listening to music, and watching the ball drop. again, i didn't have a camera {what has happened to me?} and will try to get pictures from travis's mom.

12.03.2010: caribbean here we come!

after ringing in the new year, we began preparing for our long anticipated caribbean cruise. we were joining long-time family friends for a week in mexico. instead of driving down the weekend before, we decided to save a little money and just drive down in time to catch the cruise monday morning. we loaded up the car at about 10:00 on sunday night and prepared for the long trek to galveston. one good thing did come from the wreck in fort smith ... i was given a ford flex rental, with third row seating. there were enough seats and seat belts for our entire crew, something we were concerned about before the accident. we made the very. very. long drive to galveston, driving through the night and arriving at about 8:00 monday morning. my dad and i immediately crashed in the car while everyone else went inside the hotel to freshen up and meet up with the rest of our party. we made a quick run to wal-mart to get extra jackets and blankets since galveston was having record lows at the time. around noon we were able to board the ship and i was so grateful for the ski vest my dad had picked up for me. i was freezing until i put it on! the week was filled with comedy, yummy food, windy skies, choppy water, beautiful cozumel beaches, and evenings of dressing up and karaoke. i would have loved for the weather to be warmer, but the vacation away was well worth it. we definitely needed the time away from reality.