Cayman Memories

Photobucket Album

Way back in June Mark had bought me a plane ticket to Grand Cayman for our anniversary. The ticket was for a weekend in December, with the intention of giving me a break from the kids and some girl time with Brigitte and many of our other friends. As excited as I was I couldn't help but think that if I was going to Grand Cayman I should have Mark with me. As I began to grieve Brigitte's passing I knew that I wasn't going to face the memories alone and that we should all go as a family.

As short as our three day trip was it was truly a remarkable time. We had lived on Grand Cayman for five years and in some ways it felt as if we had never left. However there were definitely some remarkable changes to the island. The most poignant change was the Hyatt Regency. Hurricane Ivan had damaged much of the main part of the hotel and from what we understand a battle between the insurance company and hotel ownership has now left it to be an overgrown old building. As you look at the main hotel from a distance it looks the same as it always did...however as you get a closer look you see it is fully gutted and what was once the signature landscaping of the island is now just an overgrown jungle. Very sad. However the beach suite portion of the hotel was up and running and we enjoyed three nights with a wonderful view of Seven Mile Beach. We were privileged to encounter many of the old employees of the Hyatt-many wonderful souls who gave their heart to working for Hyatt. These employees had just found out that Hyatt was pulling out of Grand Cayman effective the end of the year. They will all most likely have jobs with the ownership who will run it as Grand Cayman Beach Suites, however there is a sense of pride in working for Hyatt and the standards of service that coincide. I think that is what truly was upsetting to the employees.

Despite the sad news of the Hyatt we had really a wonderful time catching up with many friends and their new additions of children and pets. We reminisced about old times and our 5 fabulous years on Cayman. I enjoyed early mornings with Noah watching the sunrise on Seven Mile Beach and was reminded about how much I love the beach. As plentiful as our trip was, we couldn't help but realize that there was one missing piece-our friend Brigitte Brown. We kept thinking she was just going to appear in our room going "Beddos!!". One of the highlights of our trip was getting to meet Bailey, the dog that Brigitte and her boyfriend Viv had adopted. He is a very well trained Jack Russell Terrier all the way from Ireland...Joshua and Noah had the best time playing with him.

As we tearfully said goodbye to Cayman and our many wonderful friends, we can only hope that it won't be another 5 years before we get back there.

Click on the above album to view a slideshow of our trip!

October Road

October has always been my favorite month. The weather is generally great wherever you are and it is all about Halloween my favorite holiday-when you work in the hotel industry your love for many holidays begins to diminish-Halloween is one of those great holidays that is really pure fun, no emotional ties, no big feast, and well Mark can generally get the day or at least the evening off! As September started to come to an end, everyone in the Bedford household was anxiously awaiting October. October was bringing Grandma and Grandpa Bedford to Orlando for the month, Joshua's birthday, and Halloween. We were eager to show Mark's parents our wonderful little town of Celebration, Disney and also let them experience Halloween since it isn't truly celebrated in Australia. Well we sure did have a fantastic time with them. We took them to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party complete with trick-or-treating through the Magic Kingdom, the Boo to You parade, Halloween fireworks and more. Luckily Mark's parents are the type to want to experience different things...it is really strange for many people to don a weird costume and go ask people for candy! When we pulled up at the Magic Kingdom Mark's dad would not get out of the car until he saw other adults dressed up. I can't blame him! Needless to say he soon was receiving many encouraging compliments on his costume.

October 8th marked Joshua's 3rd birthday! Wow we still can't believe he is now three...however we weren't too sad to say goodbye to the "terrible two's"...or at least we are hoping they are over. Given the fact that we don't really have a back yard nor a large house (by mainland standards) we decided to hold Joshua's party at My Gym. Basically all you do is show up with a cake and a few decorations and they take care of the rest. Not an easy feat keeping 17 young kids busy and out of trouble. Needless to say they did a FANTASTIC job and the kids had a great time. Tying into the My Gym theme I made a trampoline cake (Joshua LOVES to go on the trampoline at My Gym and of course it had to been GREEN-he loves GREEN), and then I made cupcakes to resemble the ball pit at My Gym. The kids were so cute they each had a cupcake and then wanted a piece of cake!

As much fun as October was it unexpectedly turned into windy, emotional road. On October 11th we unfortunately were given the news of the passing of our dear, dear friend Brigitte Brown. We had relocated to Grand Cayman not long after Brigitte and she soon became a close colleague, friend, mentor and confidant. We genuinely adored her and she did us the honor of giving a reading at our wedding as well as accepting our request to be Noah's Godmother. Brigitte was someone who brought out the best in you. We shared many laughs, many holidays, and yes many Amstel's. She is always in our thoughts. When we told Joshua we would be leaving for the day to go say goodbye to our friend Brigitte because she was becoming an angel. He told us that we could go outside and see her because she would be the brightest star in the sky. He sure is right. Brigitte you never stopped fighting, may you rest in peace.

Yummy, Yummy Rice Cereal

Noah gets his first tastes of real food (well if you call rice cereal real food) on August 31st. He is almost six months and watches everything that goes into our mouths so we thought it was time. You'd think I was a baby feeding novice as I didn't place the bowl out of the way and before I could blink he had it in his vice grip and soon the lucious rice cereal was all over him. Hey playing with it is all part of the experience right!!

We Finally See April

As you may have read in our previous posts regarding the Campbell Clan we had caught up with April's parents recently but it had been a long time since we had seen her. Therefore we were very excited when we heard that she was flying from Seattle to Florida to help her parents watch her nieces during Labor Day weekend. April's parents have a vacation home a little under two hours from our house in Celebration so we were definitely going to make the drive to see her. Mark pretty much is guaranteed to work most major holidays therefore we were even MORE excited to discover Mark would be off and could come to see April as well (and well I wouldn't have to travel that distance with the two kiddos myself).

April's nieces are 1 and 3 and then toss in our two crazy kids, Nala our dog, and April's dog Ivan and you've got quite the comical crew. Nothing like trying to catch up with an old friend while ensuring dogs don't go wandering, toddlers don't go near the pool and play-doh stays where it should be....all while trying to somehow watch a Penn State game. Too funny!

By Plane, By Car-Maine and PA

(The Billings Clan outside a restaurant in Maine)




Between parents on two continents and living in some remote locales we'd like to think of ourselves as fairly seasoned travelers. However nothing prepares you for traveling with kids and well the sheer amount of STUFF that goes along with kids. Toting along 4 bags, one set of golf clubs and two car seats let alone factoring in any carryon ...the luggage cart was overflowing. I wish I had a picture to post as well...but I was too busy trying to push two strollers while Mark pushed the heavy load of travel essentials. I had been eyeing up the double Maclaren Triumph to travel with but could not succumb to adding a 5th stroller to our growing fleet. However I was definitely rethinking my decision as I was attempting to push two strollers at once!
Once we got our luggage checked it was easy street. Our flight to Baltimore was two hours and didn't involve any connections. A breeze compared to our past travels. We had a day and half lounging by the Billings pool in PA before we began the second leg of our journey. The 15 hour car ride to Northern Maine to see my grandparents. Our strategy was to leave at 2am and get a few hours under our belt before our little angels awoke at 7am. This strategy proved very advantageous as we were stopping about every two hours after that. We knew it was time to pull over and find accommodation for the night when Joshua told us that he "didn't want to see anymore road signs and he wanted to go back to Celebration, Florida!!"
The long car ride was well worth it as we had 4 great days hanging out with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My brother Marcus and his family as well as my parents made the trip up from PA so it really was a great time spent with family. Northern Maine boasts a notoriously "slow" pace therefore we busied ourselved breathing fresh air and enjoying the company of our relatives. Joshua was trying to keep up with his older cousins and Noah well he just charms people with those fat legs of his!
We stayed in these quaint little cabins just across the border in Grand-Falls Canada and of course had some lobster!











(Hanging with my grandparents)
(Joshua and Mark before their canoe ride)

Noah rolls over

Noah rolled over by himself for the first time today!

Catching up with the Campbell's

If there ever was a family I would want to get adopted by it would be the Campbell's. If I had two words to decribe them it would be fun and genuine. I met April Campbell my sophomore year at Penn State when she rushed Gamma Phi Beta. April possesses a wonderful smile and cheery disposition...being around April is never a downer. Her brother Matt also went to Penn State and besides also having the great Campbell disposition he possessed good looking friends. April's parents Ron and Phylis both had graduated from Penn State and came up often for games and to see their kids. They were always fun to be around. One spring break we road tripped to the Campbell compound in Atlanta and not only did they play beer pong, Phylis made the BEST breakfast casserole. I still dream about it...it was that good.
Many years have passed since those treasured years at Penn State, but the Campbells have stayed present in our lives. April lived with me in Hilton Head the summer I met Mark. She then moved out to the Pacific Northwest and met an equally wonderful person in Tim Slinger. April stood next to me the day I got married and Phylis sends us an anniversary card every year. Mark and I carry a special place in our hearts for the Campbell clan.
So with that said you can imagine our excitement when we discovered that Ron would be attending a conference in August at the Hyatt Grand Cypress where Mark works! As excited as Mark and I were...Joshua was over the moon...he had met Phylis in February when we went to visit her on the Palm Coast. She has those wonderful grandmother instincts and Joshua loved her instantly. He's always asking "When is Aunty Phylis going to come play with my toys?"
Without family nearby it was really refreshing to catch up with Ron and Phylis who feel like family.



Here is Phylis at the Hyatt pool with Joshua.





Here she is with Noah at our house.

The Best Surprises Come When Least Expected

It's funny the best moments in life are sometimes those that you least expect, and those surprises usually come just when you need them....Take in point another wonderful person showing up at the Bedford household. Mark informed me last weekend that he would be cooking dinner Tuesday night. Okay that is odd considering he barely gets home in time to tuck the two munchkins in bed...let alone in time for him to cook and eat dinner. Mmmmm somethings fishy...then he came slightly clean and said that there was a surprise "family" coming over for dinner on Tuesday night. He was sworn not to even tell me that anyone was coming...however if you saw what my house sometimes looks like at around 6pm some days...you'd give me the heads up too.

So I racked my brain for a good 48 hours pondering who this "family" could be. I was filled with excitement as I anxiously awaited this mystery guest coming Tuesday evening. Mark said he would be arriving with the said "mystery guests" at 7pm...and of course at 6:50pm Joshua sees his neighbor friend Mariah on the wooden bridge near our house and demands to go look for fish in the lake near us. Try telling a two year old to wait in the house when a playmate is outside...okay most likely they will be late. However right on time...so I missed the grand entrance but came home to see our dear friend Brigitte Brown on our front porch. She was up in Orlando for a meeting and decided to surprise me! I was sooooo happy to see B2. We had asked her to be Noah's Godmother and were wondering when we were going to get to Grand Cayman to have the two meet.

Here is a picture of the two of them sharing their first cuddle. This is the happy part...the sad part is that I set both of our cameras on the arm of the couch which soon got kicked by Noah and down went our cameras onto the concrete porch. Yeah, my camera now works if you hold it together and not sure about Brigitte's, but it didn't look promising.

Anyway broken cameras aside it was a great night catching up with B2. She is really fun, sophisticated, and a true gem of a person. I love that she can still maintain a sense of style amidst the chemo. We think of her often and pray that this 2nd round of chemo kicks the cancer.

The End of the Annual Pass

When in Rome do as the Romans do, Right?? Well when we moved to Orlando we did what most Orlando residents do...we purchased the mac daddy Disney Annual Pass. Living next door to Disney, armed with these new passes we were free to come and go to the parks as we pleased for a year. What a glorious year it was, we weren't compelled to spend the whole day at a park...we could just hop over to MGM and see Fantasmic...cruise the streets of "foreign countries" at EPCOT, etc. However all good things come to and end...and our annual passes were due to expire on July 6th, 2007. Though we LOVED the freedom of the annual pass it does come at a nice little price and we decided that we weren't going to renew them. Diapers and gas are slightly more important than Mickey these days. Plus Mark now gets a pass for him and a guest to each of the Disney parks and plus he got free SeaWorld annual passes...so bring on Shamu.

We are big lovers of the Animal Kingdom and decided to take the kids to the park on the last day of our passes. Braving the parks in July is a feat of epic proportions...the heat and humidity alone is brutal...not to mention the crowds. However we have to say our day at the Animal Kingdom was magical. The park is fairly shaded...it wasn't too hot...the park wasn't overcrowded... Noah slept most of the time...and we left RIGHT before the afternoon rain.

It was one of those days that only Disney can create...truly magical from the eyes of adults and kids.

Crazy Black Man at Our Door

Just the other day at about 3 in the afternoon the doorbell rang. Now when the doorbell rings in the Bedford household chaos ensues...Nala barks, Joshua squeals and I pray that Noah doesn't wake up...thank goodness he is a good sleeper because sometimes I think the Fedex and UPS guys have a delivery radar during his naptime...or maybe I just need to curb the internet shopping. Anyway I peer out of the window on our front door to see this tall, bald black man hiding in a corner on my porch. Okay I will admit I did have a split second of pure terror then I saw the big whites of his eyes and no it was not a mass murder is was LEROY JORDAN!! For those of you who do not know Leroy..he is a dear friend of ours from the Cayman Islands. Leroy is the employee you hope you encounter during your vacation....extremely friendly and willing to do about anything to please a guest.

So you can imagine my astonishment at his suprise visit...wait aren't you supposed to be in Cayman...how are you in Orlando...and why did you not call us. Leroy relishes in the art of suprise and was connecting through Tampa on his way to see his family in Canada.

In true Leroy style we had to go and surprise Mark at work as well. I couldn't just call and say "Guess who showed up on our doorstep". We ended up having dinner at the Hyatt and soon discovered that Leroy is magical with children. Joshua was entranced by him and Noah was quiet in his arms. Well, Leroy is a really a kid at heart!

Rain and the 4th of July

Celebration prides itself on being "All-American" and makes a big deal out of the 4th of July. There are the traditional parades and fireworks along with food and beer tents, entertainment, cooking demonstations, and this year RAIN. Holidays are events that we rarely get to partake in as family (things you don't think about when you choose Hospitality as a career at age 18!!). So when Mark realized he would be home in time for us to go downtown and partake in some festivities we were very excited. Too excited to really notice the BIG, dark clouds looming overhead as we walked downtown. Always optimistic we figured they would just be "passing showers" if that.

Luck was on our side we scored a nice table next to the sushi and beer tent. Noah was asleep and Joshua was happy just people watching. Wow this was going to be a great holiday! Then Mother Nature called and down came the rain...and down she came. As we trudged back home soaking wet two hours later we realized it really wasn't that bad...it wasn't cold, there wasn't any lightning...Joshua had a blast playing in the puddles..we kept Noah dry under the awning of the sushi restaurant...and we could still hear the band "Flock of Seagulls" that was headlining that night.