Two Boys !!!!!

Who would've thought two boys. The Dodge family is not destined to have any girls. These will be grandsons numbers nine and ten. Well we had our 20 weeks ultrasound with the specialist in Eugene and everything looks great. Both babies are without a doubt boys and both are on the big side. They are not only big for twins but they are both about a week larger than your average singleton baby. Wow this should really start getting fun. It was just a relief to know that both are healthy and it was fun to get to see some of the 3D/4D images. Thankyou everyone for all of your happy thoughts.

Puerto Rico & Cruise 2008

Now that we're back maybe I'll update you on what we've been up to. On our latest vacation in January we spent three days in San Juan, Puerto Rico and then sailed out on a seven day cruise from there. We were very fortunate to have perfect weather for the entire trip.

During our three days in Puerto Rico we kept really busy. The first day we decided to walk into town and tour two of the forts that had been built in the 1500's. After misreading our location on the map our stroll into town turned into a 3 mile hike. (needless to say we took the bus back to the hotel) We like to think of it as our cardio workout for the day. After touring the forts we spent the afternoon wandering around downtown in the old san juan area. We also vistited one of their cathedrals and finished the day with some amazing Puerto Rican food.

The next day we decided that we wanted to do a little hiking in the rain forest and spend an afternoon on the beach. This being out of walking distance required a rental car. James was the lucky one who got to try to navigate traffic without totaling the rental car. Imagine crazy Mexican driving times two. Puerto Rico made the Mexican road ways look downright serene. The drive was worth it though and the views were amazing. We chose a trail where the sign said it was a half mile round trip. I think this was some sort of joke on the tourists because this 1/2 mile hike turned into another 3 mile treck into the rain forest. The waterfall at the end was pretty but not worthy of a 3 mile hike. It felt really good to spend the remainder of the afternoon relaxing on the beach.

Our first stop on the cruise was St. Thomas. We didn't end up doing alot on this stop. We took a taxi into town to do a little shopping and then we spent the remainder of the day just laying in the sun on the ship. (Hey the foods free here.)

Our second stop was Dominica. This is where Pirates of the Caribbean II and III were filmed. Here we went on and awesome excursion called the Wacky Rollers. They loaded everyone up into old army issue trucks where you could stand up and hang out of the top. First they took us on a short drive through town and then up to a view point where we could get pictures of the bay and see most of the island. The second stop was in the botanical gardens where we saw a variety of plants and two parrots found only on this island. Next we wound our way up through the countryside to see one of their sulfur springs. The water boils up out of these at 150 degrees. Our last stop was actually a location where they filmed one of the movies. They said that there was a swimming opportunity and a waterfall. Unfortunately they didn't tell us we that we had to swim to the water fall or would need an underwater camera for any pictures. so the coolest thing that we saw the entire vacation we have no photos of. Everyone got to wear cute yellow floatation devices and the water was really cold but the swim was sooooo worth it. It was a short one minute swim into a sort of open air cave with trees and vines hanging down and inside was the most incredible waterfall. Afterwards there was a tiny hot water waterfall out side the cave that we could warm up in.

The third stop was Barbados. Unsure of what we wanted to do we just wandered into town and ended up having a taxi driver give us a tour of the island. We visited another church, saw the sugar cane fields, and old slave house and stopped a some great view points along the way.

The next day we docked in St. Kitts.

The island gets so narrow at one point that you can see where one side is the caribbean sea and one side is the atlantic ocean. Along with several other passengers from our cruise ship we piled into a cab and headed to the beach for a little snorking. We only spent three hours on the beach but got fried to a crisp. I don't know if it was because we were right on the equator. Because we never got burned like that any other time on our vacation. Our cab driver promised to pick us back up at 2:00 but the sweet guy never showed back up and we were way too far off the beaten path to walk back. Luckily a local lady offered to give us a ride back to port. We got to cram six people into four seats.......good times.

Our last port of call was the Dominican Republic. It's sort of weird to think that everyone in Haiti is trying to escape to the US and here we are vacationing on the other side of the island. The first night we spent wandering around the town square and checking out yet another church. I had to include the picture with the church in the background because James was really pround of his photography :)

The next day we went on a catamaran sail and snorkle excursion.

The last couple of pictures are just of us at a couple of the formal nights on board the ship. It was a great vacation but came at a really busy time for us. It was fun to get away but it was also good to get home. Our first day home was also James's first day at his new job.

We're Back

Well we're back everyone. We haven't added to the blog since I started it last year but now that we have faster internet hopefully we will be better at it. Most of you know that we are expecting twins somewhere around the end of June and so far so good. Right now I'm 19 weeks and we will get to find out what they are next week at our 3d/4d ultrasound. We figured with babies on the way we needed faster internet just so we could send out pictures of them.

New Swingarm

Well James is at it again. He has been really busy lately trying to keep up with orders. He probably won't be getting much sleep until after Memorial Day but sleep is over rated. Here are a few pics of his newest "Arch" swingarm style. This is on his Honda 3-wheeler that he's been putting together. He also made the sub frame to match the new swingarm.

FYI

Since this is a new blog I decided to add some pictures from a few of our previous vacations since many of you have new seen them. I'm sorry that everything seems to be out of order. Our latest vacation is last on the page. In the future the blogs will be all current adventures in our day to day lives. I hope you all enjoy.

New Years 2006

This year for New Years eve we decided to try something new. We ended up renting a house over in Sunriver for the weekend. The weather turned out awesome and it was so much fun getting to play in the snow.

The first day we were there we rented a couple of snowmobiles to go

with the few that John brought with us and set out. It was James and my first time snowmobiling and it turned out to be alot of fun. Although it's alot colder to be the passenger than the rider. We rode to the top of both Tumalo Mtn. and Kwall Mtn.

The rest of the weekend we spent outlet shopping, watching movies, playing games, and stuffing our faces with food.

(Don't worry Torries we won't mention that little bathroom story!!)

Cruise 2005

This was probably the most memorable vacation that we've ever been on. We traveled with several friends (Jeremy, Kristy, Rory and Kyle aka: Boner) We started out the vacation by spending 3 days in New Orleans. Which at the time that we booked it sounded like a good idea. This was the year that Mardi Gras was a full month early. We actually booked the trip planning to avoid Mardi Gras but ended up spending three days smack dab in the middle of it. In the end Mardi Gras was fine it was the rest of the city that scared the hell out of us. I felt safer on Bourbon street than walking to and from my hotel. At one point there were 8 murders/shootings in 24 hours. One guy was shot then lit on fire on a street corner that we had been on only a few hours prior to that. This was about 6 months before Katrina so you can imagine when I saw on the news that they were shooting each other up while being trapped in the dome that I wasn't surprised at all. It was a pretty nerve racking 3 days but in the end we got alot of cool experiences out of it. In the picture above we were on a jet boat tour of the swamp. Just FYI February is not the time to go on a jet boat ride because its so freaking cold even the gators are hiding. We also rented a car a car and took a tour of the Oak Alley Plantation.

Just in case you're wondering how much you'd be worth as a slave see the pic below:

We did have fun checking out Bourbon street at night. I even managed to weasel my way onto a balcony to get a few pictures. We had so many beads thrown at us that we would have to go back to our hotel to unload beads because they got to heavy before heading back out. We also had fun checking out all of the parades everyday.

We made it back to our hotel every night for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich bar. (Who would have thought)

After 3 days fearing for your life it was very refreshing to finally board the boat and feel safe again. Even the governor of Louisiana was escaping the mayhem. We met her on board the ship and even danced with her on stage one night.

Our first stop on the boat was Jamaica, and our first order of business was marrying Kyle and Rory. We started out by catching a cab to a private beach where James (having previously gotten ordained via internet for only $50) performed the ceremony in surf. We took hundreds of pictures then went swimming in the ocean.

After leaving the private beach we went back to the ship to change out of our wet dresses. We then headed out on a snorkeling cruise that also dropped us off at Margaritaville. It's the best one we've been to yet because it had a two story water slide that dumped you into the ocean.

Our second stop was Grand Cayman. This is one of our favorite and probably safest places we've been to. We spent the day hiking around the city and laying in the sun on a local beach. We swam, played in the ocean and enjoyed so very expensive daiquiris.

The last stop was to Cozumel, Mexico. Early that morning we set out on a ferry to Playa Del Carmen where we would load up on a bus and head down to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins. This is another one of those adventures that sounded like a good idea while booking it. As it turned out the seas were so rough that morning that all of the water excursions were canceled. Lucky for us the ferry was still running. Now this might have not been such an isssue except for the fact that half of the ferry was hung over from the fat tuesday party on the ship the night before and the other half had just stuffed themselves at the all you can eat breakfest buffet. As it turned out we were just about the only people who didn't throw up their breakfest on the ferry. Fortunatley the ride back was calmer.

These are also the only ruins that the mayans actually built on the shoreline. Gotta love that blue water.