A Year of the Greatest Days Ever!

I can't believe it but it will be a year tomorrow since we brought our beautiful little boy home from the hospital and it is amazing how quickly the feelings come flooding back from that wonderful time in our lives. In fact, I still tear up when I listen to Kenneth Cope, not because I like his music necessarily, but because it was the soundtrack to our lives the days before and after we met Jackson. I remember the rush of emotion I felt when I saw Jackson being born and his cheesy, gorgeous smile still overwhelms me with what a precious little gift we were given.
But Jackson coming into our lives was just the beginning of the greatest days ever. As I mentioned, we brought Jackson home three days later and I remember getting pooped and peed on with the first diaper I changed at home. And while I remember being very tired, i loved how much I was able to snuggle with him late into the night, often sleeping with him in my arms in the rocker or in bed. We did a lot of singing, shhhhing and cooing, rocking, bouncing and swinging and lots and lots of loving. I especially remember that the first 6 weeks of having him home I was filled with joy. Motherhood seemed to me the most amazing of occupations and it was everything and more than I had hoped.
This isn't to say that it in any way went down hill from there though. Reality did set in more but the days of wonder didn't cease. We saw Jackson smile, roll over, sit up, go to his first baseball game, go in the pool for the first time, his first plane ride, his playtimes with his 2 cousins and countless other firsts.
And then of course came the day when he was officially made ours. It was rushed and frustrating at times. We were nervous and stressed because of the time line and other events. But yet another miracle happened in our lives when we received the call that we would be able to get the adoption finalized within a week. Our lawyer said he had never heard of the system working so quickly and we were also at the mercy of a kind judge who fit us into his busy schedule. We probably could have brought all of our family with us that day, but without thinking we went alone and had a great experience where our years of waiting were brought to an end with a 5 minute court appearance and the well wishes of a judge.
And then only days passed before we had a whirlwind weekend of having Jackson sealed to us and then having Dustin bless him. I have mentioned it before but it doesn't hurt to repeat: the day of Jackson's sealing was the most spiritual day of my life! i have never felt the Spirit so strong as I did in the temple that day and the fact that I was able to relive my wedding day only made it all the more sweet. In fact, being able to have the promises of posterity fulfilled was something for which we had been waiting for almost 5 years.
And now, 5 months later, after an adventure in Grenada and with many adventures ahead of us, the year has come to an end with the celebration of Jackson's first birthday the last of the greatest days ever of the year. And here are some of the pictures of our beautiful little boy from a beautiful day filled with beautiful memories.

Some of the sweet treats for the party... we had a cupcake decorating party the night before with family and I am especially proud of the monkey cake where I learned to fill in the frosting with little stars. Grandma J is to be credited with the smaller monkey cake.







Birthday Boy in the inflatable bounce house before and after the cake carnage.








Decorations and Party guests
















The cake encounter













Presents






and us...

Vacationing in Grenada

Yes, we do live in Grenada. And because we live in Grenada we often take for granted how lush the mountain sides are, how beautifully blue the oceans are, how there are a lot of things to do besides going to "pool day" or catching a 3 month old movie at the theater. And so, now that Dustin is done with his finals and we have a week to kill before our badly planned flight on monday, we have decided to rediscover this island we have been habitating for the past four months and go on vacation!

Tuesday morning Dustin got up with Jackson, because he is a wonderful husband and doesn't even need me to ask for a morning to sleep in, and fed him, dressed him and took him on a long walk on the beach. They took some beautiful pictures and came back smelling like beach and sweat.


Jamal and Peterson from our ward out catching bait before they go fishing.


Our church is the building in the middle of the picture. It has quite a view if you have to bounce a baby during the meetings.





Later that day we all went to the beach for some much needed time in the sun and on the sand...Jackson unfortunately went a little crazy and had his first mud pie.







We tuckered Jackson out for the day but started all over again when we set out to go to Belmont Estates where the island's organic cocoa beans are grown and processed before they are sent to the Grenadian Chocolate Company. First, we were able to eat at the estate's restaurant where I had a delicious pumpkin soup to start and Dustin had the Callaloo soup. The entree was buffet style consisting of several local dishes including sauteed provisions (yams, bananas, plantains), fried chicken with a mustard sauce, grilled tuna, mutton curry and green beans. Our drinks were fresh juices, Dustin having passion fruit, my favorite, and I had the restaurant's specialty of fruit punch, a mixture of several fruits grown on the estate. Dessert was divine! I had the passion fruit cheese cake and Dust had the nutmeg ice cream...he is currently laughing at me for listing such mundane details but food is never a mundane detail to me ).

After the wonderful lunch we went on the estate tour and learned all about how the cocoa beans are harvested. While the tour was a little dry, I really enjoyed the information and the glimpse it gave into the history of the island. And to balance out the tour afterwards we took our own tour around to see the animals and watch Jackson get scared to death at the sound of a parrot. The hat we bought him is inspired by a coconut. We wanted to get him the watermelon hat but people already mistake him for a girl a little too often :)



That has been our week so far but we are planning on cramming in all the fun we can into the rest of our time here. We love this island and will miss it a lot. We really are spoiled to live in such a beautiful place!




The cocoa beans that are laid out for 8 days to dry. Someone has to walk through them every 30 minutes to mix them up and make sure they are all drying evenly. I was able to run my toes through them and I don't think I would mind doing the job myself. If it rains, which is does quite frequently, and in short bursts, the roof next to the beans slides over them and the racks in front slide underneath.




A few more pics from our drive home today down the north side of the island.