These are our girls with MY birthday cake! So fun! I'm 31!

Pigeon excitement!

Our Layla sure loves animals. Isn't her little voice so cute!

Princess Madison

Madison and mommy had our date night together at Princesses on Ice (Disney production) It was great fun! Madison dressed up like Cinderella and was in heaven. She keeps asking when we can go again. She kept saying during the performance, "Why can't I go up on stage??" I asked what she would do on stage and she said she would do what they were doing. I think we have a future actress on our hands! :)

Daddy--open your eyes!

Tobias was surrounded by so much joy he could hardly even keep his eyes open!!!!

Happy Faces!

Can you see the seventh heaven on their faces?

Humpback Whales

So this is why the whales are called humpback. If they are going down into the ocean for a long dive they will flip their tail and splash downward (they need the momentum). But if they are just going down for a few minutes then they just hump their backs and keep swimming. This is our famous couple--there are more pictures below that are bigger so you can see more detail.

What a VIEW!!

This is the amazing pool where the girls just loved to swim! It feels like we are always on a tropical vacation..oh wait, we are!

Tired girls . . . and Dad

This is what happens after all day in the sun watching whales--we were toasted and exhausted!

This is a beautiful little bed and breakfast we stayed at when we went to see the whales in Samana. It was really a wonderful retreat and as always, never long enough!

Madi's Cinderella the first

Poor Cinderella the first, died of some kind of crazy diarrhea that just showed up out of nowhere. We bought her a new bunny and it had to be named Cinderella as well. This is the first...probably of many. The girls wake up wanting to be with the bunnies and all through the day we are playing with them. It has proved very therapeutic and a wonderful blessing for everyone. The only rule for the grown-ups is that Tobias takes care of them...period! The girls' most important rule is "BE GENTLE WITH THE BUNNIES!!" Sometimes rough love is all they know :)

Madi's turn

Mikaela was brave enough to grab a pigeon at the park the other day, but Madi just didn't get the hang of it. She cried so much some guy felt sorry for her and brought her one to hold. That is one thing that I love about the DR, the people love the children.

Brigham

We've had some visitors this year and Brigham was the latest to leave. It was so fun to share our home with him and some of our favorite adventures. The girls loved him and cried when he left. Tobias was so excited to have an adventure buddy! Here we are at a restaurant on the ocean--great food and better company. Incomparable scenary.

Bird Lover

Here we go again! Our friends were grossed out by the pigeons on the Cathedral's grounds, but our girls were in heaven. The birds would land on your arms and eat like crazy the corn we gave them, and then our girls would grab them from my arms. Mikaela was hilarious and in seventh heaven! Again, we always no diseases are transmitted!

Puppy lover

OK, so this girl is going to be a vet or something! She absolutely loves animals and can't keep her hands off them! It is so fun to be around her when the excitement starts. This dog was at the beach and we successfully avoided him for three hours and then lost the battle! She would pet him and lay by him and talk to him--it was really cute. We are hoping no diseases were transmitted in the process!