Mas! Give me MAS!

Again, we're in reverse!Yo!  Here is Nick overlooking the sun up Bowl at Vail.  BOOYAH!
NEW SKI OUTFIT!
My gangsta cousins were out for New Year's!
Another Cousin with a honey baby.
Here is how we spent our cruise mornings!  They were pure joy!  Laura would want me to tell you all that she did win the aggregate cruise game.  Damn!

Photo Update

This posting is in reverse...the beginning is the end.  Isn't that fun?

Here are Grandpa and Grandma Manker.  They seem to set a great example for us to follow.  (Hint hint, Laura if I get cold, put your arm and coat around me!)
We were happy together even when our ship sank!
This was the great Captain's Cocktail on the cruise.  We snazzed it up and Laura dominated the contest of best looking on the ship!
The grandparents won the dance contest and later gave lessons.  Mom and Dad Manker are in the background strutting their stuff like Prince Henry (my former rooster).
Here is Momsy dominating the slippery, salty, humid, climbing wall.  She was awesome.  She also conquered the iceberg! (yes, we were permitted to climb an iceberg that we encountered).

For all you loyal readers, I apologize, it has been far too long.  Here are the photos I promised.  

Our tour of these United States!

Well, school is back on. We reluctantly returned yesterday to school and found that it is not so bad. We realized that we were incredibly fortunate to have had a brilliant Christmas break and that we can deal with a return to our normal lives. Here is a quick recap:

Laura, Guapa, and I drove to St. Louis the day that school let out and arrived around 1:00A.M. We had a wonderful day with the Hinksons and celebrated a slightly early Christmas chatting exchanging some presents, and playing backgammon. We had a delicious dinner prepared by Nancy. The next afternoon it was off to Tampa Bay to begin the cruise. Of course there was bad weather and both of our flights (yes, two different routes for us) were delayed. I was originally supposed to arrive at around 9:30 and ended up getting in at more like 12:30 in the A.M. Laura had beaten me by about an hour. We went to the hotel and slept.

The next day we greeted the Manker Clan and then jumped on the Grandeaur of the Seas! To sum up the cruise ship I'll use 3 words: Food, Family, Fun. It was great to see everyone. My favorite part was snorkeling in Cozumel. Laura taught me how to clear my ears and go deep so we eventually were able to dive 40 feet down and check out the coral reef! It was spectacular even if we saw a venomous sea snake and yucky eels!

After the cruise we returned to St. Louis for a brief visit again before heading to see Archie and the gang in Michigan. At the old homestead we had another brief but fun visit, and I guess it was inevitable, but Archie grew--a lot since I last saw him! He is much more interesting and alert than I remember.

Leaving Michigan was tough as always but this time we had the added bonus of taking Nick with us. Ol' MJ decided to come for New Year's and a visit in Colorado. We blasted through the whole day and on through the night and completed our journey after 18 hours and 1200 miles. We slept for the evening and then drove to the mountains for some skiing and New Year's festivities. Jess was wonderful in putting us up not only for the night, but about 3 days as we skiied and enjoyed ourselves. We went to Breckenridge and Vail.

Finally on the last day of our winter break we went snowshoeing (kind of) in the mountains near Idaho Springs. It was a lot of fun and I think Guapa loved being outside in her mountains again.

Well, I'll have to add all the pictures that we want to accompany this post later.