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Sunday, November 14, 2010

More life on deck...

Seriously there is so much to do on the ship, it really is it's own little city! The crew that works on the ship is amazing! I can't believe how much they pull off in one week and can't even fathom doing it day after day with new people every single week!


Daddy & Ashlyn at the dining room.
Mommy & Gabe at the dining room.

Ashlyn & Daddy all dressed up for formal night.


Our family at formal night.

The kids at Club Hal. It was water splash day.






Ship Life

Here are some various photos of Brian and the kids around the ship. They had little adventures while mommy napped, read, and showered. Aahhhhh! :)

Gabe & Daddy chillin on a bench.
Looking very deep in thought.

Posing like a statue with a statue.


Brian played shuffleboard with the kids. Yes. Shuffleboard.



The kids loved it!






Friday, November 12, 2010

Mazatlan

So I wasn't really impressed with Mazatlan. To be honest, it really just reminded me of Tijuana. It seemed kinda run down and I was surprised that anyone would even want to stay at a "resort" in such a place. We didn't stay very long and went back to the ship fairly early. We didn't book any excursions there and maybe that's why we didn't see anything really impressive.

The beach was nice. There were a couple of people
walking around selling their things but they took
no for an answer the first time and left us alone.
Of course the water was beautiful.
We ate at this outdoor restaurant and they had this
map of the US (and one of Europe) up.
They let you put a pin in the location you came from.
Southern California was totally full so I decided to stick
one in Salt Lake and pay homage to my hometown.

Brian & the kids pose with Senior Frog.


Back on the ship...



Brian took this pic of Mazatlan from the ship.






Mexican Riviera Cruise 2010

The whole family went on a cruise to Mexico Oct 30-Nov 6 and we all had such a great time! We sailed on Holland America's Oosterdam, which was a really nice boat. It was definitely different cruising with kids. We had to sort of follow their schedule a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. They had the time of their lives in Club Hal. The club was open every day from 9-11:30am, 1-4pm, and 7-10pm. So plenty of time for mommy & daddy to be kid-free! Our cruise was 7 days and went to Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We'd never been to any of those places and in the interest of saving a little moolah by avoiding the need to fly somewhere, we figured why not? Brian & I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in August (wow, really???) and now that the kids are old enough to be more independant, a cruise was a great vacation for us. We did a lot of fun things and took lots of pics so I'll break this up into a few posts to cover it all. This first one is the first couple of days on the ship.

We spent Halloween on the cruise so the kids got all
dressed up for a party at Club Hal. Ashlyn was an evil
faerie. Gabe is a pirate (fitting, we thought!)
Waiting for the door to the club to open...

This was the result most nights on the ship.
We kept nudging him and saying his name but
he was seriously out!!!


Me & Brian. Another passenger was walking
by and saw us taking pics of each other. She
offered to take one of the two of us.
I'm glad she did because it turned out well.


MMMM.... dessert bar!!! (I'll be working off many of
those come New Years!)






Friday, October 15, 2010

Update?

So everyone has been wanting an update apparently...
There really just isn't a whole lotta new going on in our house! Nothing unusual at least.
Both kids are back in school, Ashlyn in 4th grade and Gabe in Kindergarten. Ashlyn was also accepted into the GATE program this year so that should be interesting.
Gabe is loving Kindergarten, although he told me last Friday that he was done because they learned all about "Z" that day. :)
I'm a room parent for his class, which actually keeps me pretty busy! I help run the centers in the classroom on Mondays and Tuesdays and then on all the other various occasions (Teddy Bear picnic, class parties, scarecrow making!).
I also signed up on the PTA and got suckered into chairing the Santa's Breakfast for this year. This school is busy!!!
Brian and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary which is pretty exciting. We planned a family trip to celebrate and will be going on a cruise in a few weeks. We're heading to the Mexican Riviera (no flights and we've never been). We are all pretty excited about it.
Small home improvements continue. My craft room/guest room is completed with the exception of new baseboards and the front yard is looking really great. It finally feels like a home!
I think that's pretty much it... we're just living the life!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Boot Camp?

Has anyone ever done a boot camp workout? A company here is offering 10 classes for $35 (a $250 value) which seems like it's probably a great deal, but I'm having a hard time finding out the schedule. If you've done one, how often do they meet? Once a week? 3x a week?

Thursday, March 4, 2010

I hate cancer.

I recently found out that my childhood friend, Danere, has stage IV mestastic breast cancer. She is 27 years old and is undergoing aggressive chemo therapy. I just keep thinking to myself how unfair it is for her to be going through this. She is young and happy and I guess I just don't understand why she got it. Really I don't understand why anyone gets cancer. It just seems like we have enough in our lives without it, so why is it neccessary?
If you pray, please pray for her. If you don't pray, any positive thoughts you can send her way would be well appreciated right now.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ouch!

So yes, it has been a while since I purposefully exercised. I used to be at the gym 4-5 days a week for 1.5 to 2 hours working out but since we moved so far away from ANY gym and I've been working on making this house a home, I haven't found the time or energy to go workout. I eat pretty well, healthy and all that and have lost a decent amount of weight thanks to just watching what I eat but it's really time to get my body back into some kind of shape! Brian and I bought a treadmill last month and I have finally found the motivation to get my butt on it! We have this "iFit" program where you can download different workouts to use to guide you to reach your goals. We downloaded some Jillian Michaels programs and wow, she is annoying! Cutting in every 30 to 60 seconds to push you more. I did just the weight loss program today and it had me sweating and sore in just 30 minutes! Here's to 800mg Ibuprofen and hopes for a strong back tomorrow!
What is your workout regimen?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Wild Animal Park

I took Gabriel to a meetup playdate at the WAP on Monday and it was such a gorgeous day!! I took some great pics of him and we had fun with our friends.

Leaping on Lily Pads
Riding on the carousel.

Feeding the lorikeets. We didn't get pooped on!
(Believe me, that in itself is a huge victory!)


Gabe had two land on him for some
time and one was nibbling on his ear.

Gabe's portrait. I LOVE taking my own
pictures of the kids to send to our families
and then printing them at Costco.
I got all the pictures I needed for less than $5!






More snow!

Grandpa Don hooked a sled up to his 4-wheeler and pulled the kids around the horse property. They were out there for about 2 hours!!!

Lilly was trying to catch the sled. I promise she wasn't
trying to bite the kids!
Ashlyn's turn!

My brother Jared with his
monster-sized dog, Ash and Gabe.





Fun in Utah

The kids had such a great time in Utah in December playing in all the snow. These pics are were taken at my Dad's house the day after Christmas. He has 7 acres and a perfect hill right behind the house for sledding!

Buddy & Jezzy romping around together.
Jezzy loved playing in the snow but didn't like it
when she was put out by herself for potty time.

My Dad and me.


Ashlyn



Weee!!!






Preschool Christmas Program

You could say that I'm a bit behind, but I'll just tell you better late than never!
Check out Gabe in his preschool's Christmas program. They sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Dreidel Dreidel. I think there was one more song but can't find the video from the program. They look so cute with the red cheeks and noses!



Gabriel with Miss Nichelle. We miss her!



Friday, January 29, 2010

The Evils of FaceBook

Okay I admit it. FaceBook has really taken over my internet use and I almost never blog anymore. I've been trying to do it at least once a month. Why does it take so dang long to load pics and then when I do, they come up in a strange order?? I really wish that blogger.com would fix this or just make it more user-friendly so that I would not be so confused.
Anyway, I put up a few blogs to sort of catch up. I know I didn't blog about Christmas, it's just WAY too busy a time for me.

We celebrated with my Dad and his wife. They came out and were here for about a week before Christmas. Then Brian and I got a wild idea and we decided to act on it... his family (parents and 9 siblings, plus spouses and kids!) get together at Christmastime to celebrate as a family and do a gift exchange. We've missed it the past few years. This year it was scheduled for Dec 26. It was almost too perfect (wringing hands together sneakily). We talked my dad into celebrating Christmas one day early, contacted Santa to request he come on the eve of the 23rd and packed our bags! We left our house EARLY Christmas morning and drove all the way to Salt Lake. Then we just simply showed up at the family Christmas party with NO ONE expecting us there!! It was SO MUCH FUN! I love surprising people and this time it worked so perfectly, it was just meant to be.
I have to say we were so glad to be home a few days later. Utah is freaking COLD!!!

The boy who loves LegoLand

Seriously. He LOVES this place. He would rather be at LegoLand than DisneyLand. What have I done?? We went a couple weeks ago with our friends and he asks to go again on nearly a daily basis. Check out these pics of him. I can never get a normal smile out of him when he knows I am taking a picture. It's always a little head cocked to the side with squinted eyes and as wide a smile showing as many teeth as possible.

I asked him to try to keep his head up and his eyes open for
just one picture. Below is the result.






His very favorite: driving the Lego cars.
He could do this for hours and doesn't
even mind standing in line for it!






We so love DisneyLand. My birthday came and I could not imagine a better way to spend it than going to DisneyLand with my kids and our friends! I got a gift card from Disney in the amount of a one day admission which I easily spent on two new watches (one TinkerBell and one Mickey) and a new coffee travel mug! I also got each of the kids a little something. ;)










Miss my friend!


This is my friend Cassandra who moved FAR away and so I never get to see her anymore. She came into town in October and we met up for dinner one night. I miss her! I really wish all my friends would stop moving away!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Way past due

I know I am way past due for a blog but things have been so busy lately! I will blog again once I can access my pics... my laptop is not doing so hot and Brian's moved all of them to an external hard drive... I just don't know how to access it!
I will be back!