Chase & Taea

Since coming home from Cuba we've had a couple of extra visitors around the house. Chase and Taea have been staying with us while their owners are in Florida.

Chase is full of beans. Misses nothing and never sits still. He is a lovely little boy just under 4 lbs at just a little over a year. He is from our Avery and Cole.

This is Taea. She originally belonged to us but at 18 months we decided to place her in a pet home because of her small size. I love having her back for visits. We catch up on her cuddles and snuggles. She is a lovey girl with the best endearing personality.

Awsome report cards!

I was pleasantly surprised on Thursday when the girls brought home their report cards. Both ladies are in the high B to A average. I am so proud and of course had to boast on my blog!!! I had been snooping on Bidz.com and found them each a birthstone ring and it served as a late birthday/proud of you/way to go or just for whatever gift. Cass's is citrine and Britt's is aquamarine.

Brittany turns 12!!

Happy Birthday to Brittany who turned 12 yesterday. She celebrated with 2 of her friends, Amanda and Alley. They went tobogganing, made tacos, did a movie night with a sleep over. The next day we went shopping. Happy Birthday my baby...hard to believe you are already 12. Seems like not that long ago you were my little wee pumpkin head.

Brittany and her new hot pink ipod!!

BFF!!

The snowball fight...see all our snow??

I do think that this is the first birthday for Brittany that they could actually do something outside.....normally we are into the mud season...not this year!!

Brittany & Alley

Brittany & Amanda

Goin down!!!

Out for lunch at East Side...

Cuba....it was wonderful!

We are back.. We had 1 glorious week of sun, sea and relaxation in Cuba. The week went far too fast!! I think we are hooked, I would go again in a heartbeat!!! This could be the first of many trips tropical or otherwise!!! I've included some of the highlights, we have tonnes of pictures but can't post them all.
This is Brittany dancing with one of the entertainers - Vladimir.

This is a cuban residence. We were invited into the home of one cuban family and they are very basic. No doors, grass roof, they have sheets for partitions in their house. We did notice that they were very clean and they don't have much but they seem generally happy with what they do have. It was an eye opener for sure! It gave us a totally new perspective on what we have and what we are blessed with. We found out many interesting facts about Cuba and its citizens and how their country is run...definitely very interesting!!

This is a narrow street in Camaguey, the city where we landed. This city was built in the 1700's and the streets were built in a maze to confuse any pirates that happened to come ashore.

They have very few new cars in Cuba. The majority are very old..built in the 1920's and 30's. It was cool to see how good of shape they were in.

Camaguey airport.
Cassie snorkelling on our coral tour. I took the picture but didn't realize the b & w setting was on!

The girls with 2 of the female entertainers. Wow..can they dance!


Gorgeous, gorgeous beach....white sand, blue/green water. The ocean was warmer than the pool! We did many relaxing walks along the beach.

Dave smoking a "cuban cigar"...not really those things really stink!

Cassie's monkey face....just chillin one afternoon!

We stayed at Brisas Santa Lucia.

In front of our villa.

The palm trees, the landscaping was beautiful. They had workers out every morning raking leaves and we found the resort was very well cared for.

Housekeeping came in every morning. We came back one day to this really cool swan made out of towels! We also had fresh hibiscus flowers on our bed every day. A treat for sure!

Wild flamingo's by the hundreds!!

The pool.

We made it back home just before the "snow storm of the year" hit. It was thoroughly depressing to leave Cuba in shorts and then arrive home and within 48 hrs have almost 50 cm of snow dumped on us. I guess back to reality! When is spring coming???

I can't say enough good things about Cuba. We felt safe, our resort was good, we had a good variety of food at our buffet restaurant and we didn't find it bland at all as we had heard it could be. We didn't encounter any mysterious flu bugs or any sickness. The weather was gorgeous. The entertainment was amazing. The dancing and skits were awsome. I can definitely see us heading back to Cuba again. Wish I could go back today.... sigh....