Cruise 2009

We're back! I'm going to make this post as short as possible...really...I will...well, I'll try. We flew into Orlando on Friday. After lots of drama and not being able to pick up the rental car (don't even ask!) we took a taxi ($40!!!! No kidding, for 13 miles!) to our hotel. Brand new, so chic, and the beds were even comfy! We totally scored with that one. Went to TGIFridays (cause it was in the parking lot. No car, remember?) and hung out at our hotel until Chris and Caytlin came around 1:00 am with the rental car. Yeah, don't ask. Slept, woke up, and had a complimentary breakfast of belgin waffles :) Then we were off to Cape Canaveral. Here we are in the back seat, trying to enjoy the 45 minute drive and get overly impatient about the cruise. Dropped off the car and got on the ship. Luckily, since we were running late (is the car rental return by the McDonalds or Wendys???) we zoomed through the check in and were on the ship in no time! Here's were all of the action happens on the days at sea. See how fast I'm going through this? On Saturday and Sunday, we were just at sea, traveling to Mexico. On Sunday was a formal night, so I felt better that at least we were DRESSED for Sunday at least for an hour or so. We impatiently wait for our dinner to come. It was always so yummy. And after dinner. The sunset was amazing, but it sure was hot and humid outside. Plus I felt about 20 lbs heavier because, yes, you guessed it, I ate too much :)

First port, Cozumel Mexico! Our absolute favorite this cruise. We spent the morning shopping (only paying a couple bucks for a cute necklace is fine by me!) and Adam was almost giddy, getting to talk Spanish with the locals. They thought he was the coolest. And from what Adam tells me, they all seemed to really like my butt too! Walking down the street along the beach shopping. They paint the trees to keep bugs away, I guess.

After shopping, Caytlin was in desperate need of A/C and we were in desperate need of some food. So Adam asked around where we could find A/C AND good food for cheap, and they led us to this resturant. Their A/C was really just shade and ceiling fans, but we both loved it. I got Chile Relleno (good but different) and Pete got steak fajitas. Yummy!

After lunch, we took a taxi and Adam asked where we could go to a nice, free beach. After a 10 minute drive, our driver took us to a resort beach, which you'd normally have to pay for, but they just let us in :) Here are the boys snorkeling. Adam saw some black and white striped fish, a crab, and a barracuda!

Next stop, Belize! It was very pretty. We had to take tenders from our ship to the port, where we were supposed to meet our bus for the Cave Tubing Adventure we had signed up for. The river was too high, so it was closed and we got talked into going on an ATV Adventure instead. Kinda lame, it turned out, but we only had to pay what it was worth. Here we all are after getting off the 4-wheelers. It was so muddy, but since it had just rained so much, it was really more like muddy water then mud. You can't tell very well, but our legs are covered!

After we got back in town, Pete saw the fresh coconut stands and had to get one. I thought it was way gross! Not at all sweet like I thought. The pic is blurry cause our camera contastly fogged up from the humidity.

You still with me? We're half way done :) Hang in there! Next stop was Costa Maya Mexico! Here, Caytlin and Chris did there own thing and went to the Mayan ruins, while we preferred to hang out at the beach and town. We're walking down this LONG dock, and start to see fish in the water along the side.

As I'm walking and looking (never a good idea next to a ledge!) I see this big thing moving. Swimmer, no way. Holy cow, it's a sea turtle! It swam under the pier and out the other side, before I could get this picture. It was so cool!

We took a taxi to a town down the beach and went shopping. Love it. Of course, Mexican Coke in hand.

We chilled on the beach, and since the snorkeling was no good, we decided to get a massage instead. Oh yeah! $15 per person for 45 minutes. Full body massage, with oil, on the beach. Oh yeah! I loved having a Spanish speaking negotiating machine with me at all times :)

Since we had lots of time and were having fun just being in Mexico, we decided to walk back to the port, rather then take a taxi. Yeah, thought that was a good idea. This is us still smiling, cause we still have water in our packs. Here we are, walking our path.

We kept walking and walking, thinking we'd have to get there eventually, but it took a LONG time and it was HOT and we ran out of WATER! Finally, we got to the shops around the port, but a chain link fence with BARBED WIRE kept us from going inside. Luckily there were some Mexicans on the other side.....who couldn't speak English. Oh wait, that's no problem! Adam speaks Spanish! Well, they told us that unfortunately, there was no way to get in, or climb over, so we'd have to go all the way back! What? No way was I going to do that! So after almost giving up (me, not Adam) we decided to follow the fence and saw some things leaned up against the fence on both sides that might help us get over. So after CAREFULLY climbing over the barbed wire fence (yeah, I'm not even kiddin') all we had to do is sneek in with the crowd without being seen. Man, now I know how illegal immigrants must feel, cause all we were trying to do was get across the "border" without getting caught and sent back! Such an adreniline rush, but not a good one, let me tell you! We shopped for a bit longer, and Pete finally bought some Turtle boots he had been torn over since Cozumel.

Next day, Fun at Sea! Here's us on the lobby stairs after another formal night. It was too dark outside to take more pictures on the deck, and we were SO done with "stuffy" clothes.

So, what do you do when you're stuck on a big boat, for a whole day, without drinking or gambling? Not much! We decided to play volleyball but it was too windy. How about mini golf? Such a great idea, except we're on a moving boat and the wind is blowing the balls around!

Well, how about some BINGO?!? We were SO close to winning! We even shouted BINGO, but the announcer laughed and said she hadn't finished the number. Well, just don't drag out O73 when we need O70!

Maybe try making silly faces at the camera to entertain ourselves? Darn foogy lense!

Well, fortunately, we only had to endure that for one day! Next, Nassau Bahamas. They had a gazillion stores downtown, but they're all diamonds, handbags, and expensive stores like Gucci. Who buys that stuff? So, we trekked to the beach. And man, was it a journey. We're almost there, finally!

After playing on the beach for a bit, we decided to start walking back, but more leisurely this time. We were beached right next to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, so rather then walking ALL THE WAY AROUND the resort, we decided to take a short cut THROUGH the resort. Smart us, right? Yeah, we thought so, until we were half way through and had to turn back because we weren't "staying at the resort". How snobby! But it was beautiful! See the arch above the right side of my head by the palm tree? The arch connects the two towers and is actually a Suite that is $25,000 a night, four night minimum! Can you imagine!

Took the ferry back to the main island and shopped until we got on the boat. We got a really cool painting and I bought a super cute necklace, made from fish scales! No kidding, it's so cute AND freaking awesome!

Next morning, we woke up to yucky, old Florida. Not that the Sunshine State is all that awful, but when comparing it to the waters of the Caribbean, it's hard not to be disappointed.

To fill in the time after we HAD to be off of the ship and before we needed to be at the airport, we decided to go to the temple. Such a good way to finish a vacation together, except that I didn't have my recommend with me. Luckily, after lots of attempts, I got a hold of the bishop and he hooked me up! Orlando Temple.

Okay, time to wake up now! I'm sure ya'll fell asleep during that SUPER LONG post, but some people (like me!) like details. Hope you enjoyed our vacation with us!

Countdown...

Ho-ly cow! I can't believe it's been a whole MONTH since my last post! That's not like me, that kinda stretch is for people who don't have any time to post anything! Oh wait... that IS me! No time at home, no time on the weekends, and especially not even a second at work. Yeah, life is so busy right now! No time to breathe, which is PERFECT timing for a little vacation! No, not just a little vacation, THE vacation! Sad, isn't it, that we have no kids yet the last time we went on a real getaway (camping not included) was January 2008! Our last cruise. Yeah, I'm not even kidding. So... (dramatic pause for effect)... we're going on another cruise! Yeppers, we leave Friday for Florida and our cruise departs on Wednesday (we learned from our last experience that it's worth going a day early)! Wait, Wednesday? Wow, I'm mixing up the days, that's bad. (I would have totally just gone back and fixed my mistake, but before I stopped to read it, I eas too lazy to fix it, so I just explained. Does that make since to you? Me neither...) We actually leave Saturday, make more since? Okay. This go around, we're headed to the Western Caribbean :) Mexico, here we come! And now I have a trusty interpretur to get me the best shopping deals. Wahoo! Since life is so crazy, I'm devoting today to be my day to actually think about the cruise and take time to get EXCITED about it! And you get to come along for the ride! Here's some pics from the last one. This time around, we're both a little more pale and a little heavier :)
Here's Pete in front of the ship, at St. Maarten, if I remember. Yeah, he looks tan because he was :) Last time, he took the time to go tanning before. This time? Not so much. Hope he doesn't get too burnt!

Here we are, after "formal dinner night" at the club, waiting for the hypnotist show. It was so funny! We were going to pee our pants, we were laughing so hard! See that drink? Yeah, you pay $20 bucks, I think, at the beginning your cruise and you get unlimited soda and drinks. And they'll bring it right to you whenever you want! They just come up and ask what you want, so you don't even have to walk to the drink bar to ask for a drink! Luxury....

And Magens Bay. So pretty, stressful for a bit, but so pretty. I hate that this picture has a pink blob in it, cause I really like it a lot. Oh, and the camel backs were a lifesaver! They'll be coming with us this time around as well.

Thanks for reminesing(?) with me! I'll tell you how this one goes when we get back!

Scipio Rodeo 2009

It was time for the Scipio Rodeo...again...so fast. Not that I hate it, I actually like searching for treasures at the antique store, watching the rodeo, and going up to the Grove in the mountains. The part I don't like is tall, leather boots, long jeans, and 98 degree weather! Hot hot hot! Plus Adam always asks that I wear my hair down...ha! But I always do, because you can't say no when your husband occasionally requests for you to get dolled up. He deals with enough ponytails every day. This year was much the same, with a few changes. Kevin came with us, so I sat in the back seat on the drive to and from Scipio. Not bad, considering that Kev got to keep Pete awake and I got to take a nap on the way home (and on the way there... :) ). We stopped at Chadder's on the way down (it's tradition now!) and got squeeky cheese at the gas station in Scipio (there are three now in Scipio! Can you believe it? Scipio's stepping up in the world!). Then we went for our usual stop at the antique store, and left empty handed! Of course, now that I have a house to put cool antiques in, I can't find a thing! Then off to the Grove we went, breaking out in a sweat in the 30 seconds between the car and stores. Luckily, it was nice and cool up there, so we stayed and the boys fished (I decided to dip my hot feet in the stream instead of fishing. Man it was cold!).

Here's Pete on the left and Kevin on the right. I'm sitting on this cute little bridge, dipping my feet. They searched the stream to find some fish and found around ten in this little spot! It's true, I saw them. The guys got so frustrated because the fish were two feet from them and weren't biting their worms!

So Pete gave up the fishing pole and attempted to catch one with his hands! He tried for 30 minutes, getting "so close!" a few times. He walked down stream to try a different spot, and just a few minutes later caught one! I had my camera ready, but he started running so fast over, the camera couldn't refocus on him in time. He was so proud of himself! I married myself a manly man!

And here we are just getting to the rodeo. I always make Adam take a picture together at the beginning, so I'm guaranteed a pic with some natural light. I love this picture. I haven't been able to take a good picture in 18 months, I always look sick or retarded! So this one is going up, somewhere, just to prove after almost two years of marriage, I can still look good!

Hope everyone had a good Pioneer's Day weekend, even if you're not in Utah!

Just another reason I love my husband...

BEFORE:



DURING:

5 MINTUES AND 5 DOLLARS AND NO COMPLAINTS LATER:

Need I say more?

The House: a blank canvas

After many requests for pictures of our new house, I finally put them on here. And this is my last post for a while, I promise! I hate playing catch-up. And I'll make this quick.

This is what we like to call the Sunshine Room. It's one of the extra rooms upstairs, complete with blue skies, thin clouds, and lots of sun! Adam said if we act sad or onery, we have to sit in the sunshine room until we can be happy :)

This next one is our master bedroom. It doesn't look that big anymore with our bed in it!

Here's the master bath. I know it's not huge, but this picture makes it look smaller then it is, and it fits our needs just dandy. Oh, and the shower is really deep so you can take awesome baths.


Here's the front room, or Home Teacher Room, as we like to call it. This is what it's going to look like for a while, cause we have no furniture for it, unless we put the orange couch in there :)

This is the kitchen, obviously, looking towards the front door. Alder cabinets, yay! and tile floors, double yay! All I need is granite countertops and I'll start to cry :) All of the cabinets are full. How all of our stuff fit in our tiny apartment kitchen before, I'll never know.

Here's the basement bathroom. Looks like they were trying to make the partial basement into a master suite, but that just doesn't work for us. Sink on the right, furnace and water heater behind the door, and walk-in shower on the right. Oh yeah :)
Here's the jacuzzi on the other side of the walk-in shower. I took a bath the other night just to try it out and relax, and it was way nice, except I have issues with just sitting in the tub naked. Would rather wear my swim suit and sit in the hot tub :)

Here's the family room looking down from the kitchen. Just big enough but not so large I don't know what to do with it.

The other room upstairs is a little less exciting then it's partner.

This is the dining area just off of the kitchen. Luckily that ungly chandelier is no longer hanging there. That's a whole other story.

This is the basement "bonus room" where we'll have a couch, fooseball, that sorta thing. The previous owners had there master down here, but the air ducts cause the ceiling to be a little low in the middle, which would look weirdie if we had our huge bed down here.

And the backyard. Fortunately, the grass looks better in this picture then close up. Not that it's horrible, but just a little uneven. This is from the back deck looking southwest (our house faces north). It's nice and big, plus already fenced all around.

And that's the tour of the house! The renovations begin this weekend, so stay tuned for some "before and after" pictures. Well, more like "before and now" pictures, since we won't even be close to finishing ANY room anytime soon.

Father's Day

Since we moved in with my parents, every time we've gone fishing, my dad says "oh, that'll be fun." Okay, we got the hint, but it never worked out for him to come. So for his Father's Day present, we got him a fishing license and took him float tubing. He's not very experienced. I can remember us kids getting him a fishing pole for Father's Day when I was like 6, and that day we went to fish. I don't think we caught anything and he's never gone since. So we left the house at 7:00am (yes, I had to wake up at 6:30 to go FISHING! Like fishing, love my sleep, adore my Daddy) and drove up to Silver Flatts up above Tibble Fork. Happy to say it was nice weather, and beautiful, don't you think?

I took lots of pictures, but didn't take the time to download yet another picture of Adam and I in float tubes :) So I put one of my Dad, caught the first fish! Here he is pulling his first fish our of the water to examine it
We had tons of fun, but the boys caught fish and I didn't :( I finally got one, and it got off before I pulled it in all of the way! The one that got away....

Summer 2009 Rodeos....so far

Giddy up, ya'll!!! It's rodeo season, so you know where we'll be on Saturday nights! We always hit at least three every year (Lehi, Pleasant Grove, and Scipio of course!) but since Scipio is on Pioneer's Day and these pictures were begging to be posted, I just have two for your viewing pleasure. Here we are at Strawberry Days in PG. It had rained THE WHOLE DAY before we went, and continued to rain while we waited for the rodeo to begin. Luckily we had our straw hats and a blanket, so we didn't get very wet. And the rain stopped when the rodeo began, but left the mud :) That was the funniest rodeo, everyone got up soaking with mud! Oh, and the strawberries, only ate two cups this year. And every time we tried to take pictures, Pete's hat would tilt mine all weird. Notice the guy on the far right? Why do people look at the camera when they know they'll be in it? He was nice, but looks SO grumpy.

And Lehi, more professional but still way fun. This day was perfectly warm, but got a little chilly at the end. Yum yum, burgers with special sauce. I had two by the end of the night! With these rodeos being only a week apart, isn't it crazy how hairy my man got? He used to NEVER shave! I picked this picture (though blurry) because this is the only on that the grandma on the right wasn't smiling at the camera. People are so weird! Now I kinda wish I put one that she was smiling, just to see how awkward. No cowboy hats at this rodeo! It was awesome, even the "half-time show" with the dirt bikers was awesome but way scary.

I hope you've hit (or will this summer) at least one rodeo! We look forward to it every year! Next up, SCIPIO!!!! I promised Adam I'd make my hair "as big as Scipio girls". Betcha can't wait to see THOSE pictures! :)

Opened Closets

I was reading a blog not too long ago, and it talked about closets and pantries, and how lovely it is to shut the door so no one can see the chaotic mess behind. Then I read a friends post today about a Relief Society lesson she just had, and how everyone wants to show their best side, whether at church, around friends, or especially on their blogs. So I read some of my older posts and didn't recognize this person that's on here! This girl seems totally sane (ha!) and loves to cook, sew, decorate, and spend time with her husband doing what HE likes (aka. fishing, air shows, SCIPIO, etc.). So, I'm opening my closet, getting it all out, in hopes of reorganizing :)

*I don't mind making my bed, but I never do it. I spent FOREVER making my cute bedding and it's only on my bed on the weekends......sometimes.

*I wake up 20 mintues before we leave for work. Now you get why I wear a ponytail almost every day?

*I sometimes take a swig of the milk in the fridge, but it's just me and Adam that drink it. Well, we hardly drink it!

*I never eat veggies. Not that I don't like them, but I'm horrible at planning meals and I never remember to cook vegetables until we're almost done eating. So I always try to eat my veggies when we go out to eat.

*I can't stand cleaning the shower. I'd rather vacuum the whole house TWICE then clean the shower. Maybe if I did it every week, it would be easier to clean.....don't think I'll ever find that out.

*When I got married, I seem to have become "fashion retarded".

*I leave bobby pins and hair elastics EVERYWHERE, but then there are always some close :)

*I don't like taking baths. I prefer hot showers, alright? Sue me.

*I have about 2 unfinished sewing projects for every one that I finish. Like that head scarf for Adam from last hunting season..... I promise I'll finish it!

*I never iron anything. Ever. Unless it's really bad, and then I try sticking it in the dryer for a bit to get the wrinkles out, and only after a couple attempts will I finally just iron it. I don't hate to iron, I just really suck at it.

*I rarely floss. Maybe once a month. Gross, I know. Too much detail? Probably. But I've never had a cavity and I have one of those stupid "permanant retainers" that makes it impossible!

*I can cook, pretty well I think, but after a 10 hour day and the daily question of "What's for dinner" (like I spend all day thinking about what I could whip up in 15 seconds to please a starving hubby) I usually don't want to. So, sometimes we just go to Costco. Or Ikea. Or Wendy's. Then I don't feel bad about the cost of eating out :)

*My husband drives me crazy when he leaves toothpaste in the sink, gets spots all over the mirror from whacking his toothbrush on the sink, and doesn't put the new toilet paper roll on the holder, but rather on the back of the toilet. I don't get it, is it really all that difficult! Yeah, weird things bug me, but I love him, so I brush after him so I can rinse out the sink, I clean the mirrors, and put the toilet paper from the back of the toilet to the holder.

The Big Day is Here!

All the papers are signed, the boxes packed, and now it's time to move! The big day is tomorrow, July 3. If you happen to be very available and want to help lift a few boxes (we know you love lifting!), we'll be moving in the morning. We're trying to get as many people as possible, so it should only take a couple hours tops! So come come come if you can. If not, feel so guilty! Just kidding..........kinda :) No, serious, we'd love help, but know about busy schedules and work. Let us know if you need directions to the starting point and a more specific time. And bring trucks if you have them, we'll pay for gas!