A cruising we did go

Warning: The following post may be a tad lengthy.

We returned about a month ago from our cruise to the Mexican Riviera in celebration of our 15th anniversary. We had a really great time with lots of adventures. To begin with, a huge thank you to my Mom and Dad for driving from California to Utah to stay with our kids while we were gone. We couldn't have done this without your help. The kids had a blast and the house was spotless when we got home. You guys are awesome! Zaron and I drove to L.A. on Friday (all by ourselves). Wow, 10 hours goes by so fast when you're not listening to "Are we there yet?" every 5 seconds. We, of course stopped at In-n-out in St. George. I love In-n-out so much. We stayed with Zaron's sister and her husband at their apartment in L.A. that night. Thanks guys for your hospitality. You're great!

Here we are Saturday morning getting ready to head to the ship

Nice hair! Don't be jealous of my Tuffy Tooth T-shirt.

Zaron's sister and husband and daughter and daughter #2 soon to arrive.

We cruised on the Sapphire Princess

This was the only picture that we were able to get of the whole ship. It was ginormous!

Formal night #1
We went the conservative route and took our own picture. I was amazed with all the pictures they wanted to take of you and then charge you 20 bucks per picture. Are you kidding me? We did buy the picture that they took of us as we were getting on the ship the first day.

Our 1st stop: Puerto Vallarta and a ride on the zip line.
We got off the ship and they took us to this tiny motorized row boat which took us through this canal past some very nice yachts and boats to these WWII jeeps. All 14 of us in our group climbed in the back and then we held on for dear life. It was so cool! We drove through some very poor areas of Puerto Vallarta. It was very humbling to see how some of the world has to live. It made me very grateful for all that we have in our country.

After a 45 minute ride in the jeep, we arrived in the jungles of Puerto Vallarta, where we were outfitted with hard hats and harnesses. Don't be jealous, I know we look "so fine". We had such an adventure on the zip line; definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. We had the best guides ever; they were so hilarious. They certainly made the experience a blast. I can't say that I wasn't scared at practically every platform, which was the equivalent of being 20 stories off the ground, but it was so exhilarating. I'm actually proud that we were able to accomplish this. We're now ready for the next "Amazing Race".

Who is that fine guy?

Next stop: Mazatlan, the most beautiful place I've seen so far
Here, we are taking the tram from the ship to the open aired taxis.

The taxis took us to the Golden zone and to this quaint amphitheatre where we saw some amazing dancers and performers. These guys climbed this pole that was at least 75 feet tall and they sat on the square at the top. The guy in the middle stood up and started dancing as he was also playing a whistle type instrument. The other four were then extended by a rope and they all circled the pole. It was amazing. I have never seen anything like this before.

After the show and shopping (we actually did some pretty good bargaining),we walked to the Playa Mazatlan, a super nice resort right on the beach. It was here that we had the most delicious Mexican food that I have ever tasted. It was the best food that we had on the whole cruise. One of these days, Zaron and I are going to fly to Mazatlan and stay at this resort. It was great!

We forgot to get a picture of our cabin, so this is the hallway just outside our room. We were on the Aloha deck. We were shocked at how long the hallways were on the ship. They went on forever and ever.

On the first day of the cruise, we purchased drink cards. This was by far the best purchase we made. These cards entitled us to all the soda, ice cream, smoothies, and non-alcoholic drinks we wanted. My drink of choice was the virgin pina colada. I consumed at least 5 a day. By the end of the cruise, I knew which bar made the best pina coladas.

Final stop: Cabo San Lucas and a ride with the horses

On our itinerary, it said that in Cabo, tender was required. I assumed that tender meant money. Boy was I wrong. It meant that the ship couldn't dock close enough for us to walk off, so we had to ride to shore in the tender boats (life boats). I always wanted to ride in the life boats, but then I also didn't want to, because if we were riding in the life boats then it meant the ship was sinking. And that wouldn't be very fun. So, this was so cool to ride in the life boats and not have to reenact the sinking of the Titanic.

Here is our authentic Mexican cowboy on his authentic Mexican ranch with his authentic Mexican horses and funny dogs. I'm not sure why, but it was so shocking to me to hear him speak Spanish to his dogs and they understood him.

We were able to ride through the desert on horseback.

It was cool to see real cactus in the real Mexican desert.

After the desert, we rode right along the Pacific ocean. Wow!!

Zaron - the natural born horse rider. Ride 'em cowboy.

Cabo is really beautiful and such gorgeous weather.

This is the life!

Our 2nd and final formal night

This anniversary was one to be remembered - Great fun, good memories!

Now, on to our next adventure - Life!

I'm back

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post (about a month and a half to be exact). So, to celebrate I am posting about my birthday. I have to start out by saying that I have the best husband, family, and friends in the whole world. I'm sure everyone can relate about their own husband, family, and friends.

Anyways, the night before my birthday, I met my sister in law and two of my cousins for dinner at Cafe Rio. It was so much fun chatting and getting caught up on life.

Thanks guys for the way fun time.

When I got home that night, I walked in to a fully festive, birthday house. Zaron and all the kids had decorated with streamers, balloons, signs, etc. It was so much fun!

Thanks guys, you are way awesome.

On my birthday, Zaron got me two dozen beautiful roses and all the donuts that I could ever want. I love, love, love donuts and flowers. I'm not sure if anyone knew this, but the only day of the whole year that donuts aren't fattening is on your birthday. It's so great! Zaron also took me to P.F. Chang's for lunch; so delicious. Thanks baby, you're the best!

The celebration doesn't stop there because this morning, Melanie took me to breakfast. It was so fun to get caught up on what's been going on. Thanks Mel for the yummy breakfast.

It has been such a great week of celebration! I guess having birthdays aren't so bad, no matter how old you're turning.

Thanks everyone!

To be sick or not to be sick

Holly stayed home from school today because she was sick (and I had the evidence in a bowl this morning to prove that she was sick). I've been around a while, so I know all the kid's tricks for playing sick. She was really sick! But, you sure wouldn't be able to tell that now, four hours later. Here she is sitting on her bed with a cute cap on her head, watching Psych, eating Coco Puffs and rearranging her stuffed animals.

I've heard of the 24 hour flu and maybe even the 12 hour flu, but come on, the 4 hour flu. It's just weird!

Totally awesome 8th grade field trip

Today I chaperoned on the 8th grade field trip. It was really great! It was a two day BYU/UVU field trip today and tomorrow. Since there are 600 8th graders, I wasn't sure how it was all going to work out and how organized it was going to be. For the most part, it was organized and a really good experience for the kids. The group I was with today went to BYU. We got to see a presentation in the new Hinckley visitor center, the Bean Museum, and the Planetarium in the Eyring Science Center. It ended with a tour of LaVell Edwards Stadium including the locker rooms. Way cool! I had never been inside a real live college football locker room before.

Overall, it was totally awesome. I wished they would've done something like that when I was in Junior High. I really think it gets the kids thinking about college at a fairly young age and it helps them see that college really is a possibility for them.

The only thing I regret is not taking my camera with me. Oh well, fun times! And I don't think Jill was too embarrassed to have me along.

Better late than never

We returned a week ago from our Christmas trip to California. We had a really great time once we got past the car sickness and the throwing up. We enjoyed the nice weather and the fog. Since I grew up in California, fog (not snow) always reminds me of Christmas. I'd actually even be okay if I never had a white Christmas, imagine that. We devoured lots of yummy food, which included homemade Chinese, Mexican, and American, a traditional breakfast at the bowling alley, and New Year's Eve homemade clam chowder. Our visit would not have been complete without many competitive games of Perudo, Malarky, Settlers, Apples to Apples and lots of family time.

Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Cousins and sleepovers are the best. It's always the coziest in Grandma's (Nana's) bed.

Hangin' with the cousins.

Great Grandma and Grandpa are the best - Thanks for the delicious prime rib and shrimp cocktail.

Ready, Set......... New Year's Eve

Just waiting for the festivities to begin

Inseparable cousins and best friends

Here's Grandpa (Shrimps) taking a little break before the clock strikes midnight.

The two little men

Jill and her little shadow

Monopoly - the All American non-competitive game - Not!

And finally, announcing 2009 (even though it was really only 11:00 p.m.) The younger kids were falling asleep and we knew they wouldn't make it to midnight, so we poppered early.

The poppers can make you crazy.

The explosion of the poppers. :)

I think it could really start a new trend.

Friends for life

Who is this "old lady" with the huuuuuuge glasses?

Oh, to have such long locks of curls.

Is it a clown? Is it a fancy lady? Or is it Kevin?

Amazing Grandparents

Another set of amazing grandparents

Thanks for the great times and the good memories.

The best of 2008

This is my final post for the year 2008. Thanks for the tag Krissi. It was fun reminiscing about the events of the past year.

Here goes:

My Top 12 events of 2008
1. We purchased our first SUV. It became a necessity for me, when I got stuck in the snow for 3 hours in my van.

2. I received the calling as Primary Chorister - for the first time ever. I guess they think since you can play the piano then you can also lead. It's been a lot of fun. The kids are great.

3. I was finally able to have all my varicose veins treated. Although a long and painful process, definitely worth it in the end.

4. Our third child, Megan was baptized. We had a great experience and it was a lot of fun to have all the family together in one place.

5. We made our summer trip to California and had a very memorable time. We visited with lots of friends and family, and we even made it up to Sacramento to our old stomping grounds. Great fun!!

6. We took Jill and Kevin to Magic Mountain for the first time. What a blast!

7. Camping at Bear Lake for the first time was a definite hit. It made it even better to be there with family. I think it will become a fun tradition every year.

8. Our youngest, Holly, started first grade which means that all of our kids are in school all day. Wow!! I was able to start substituting in the schools. Fun times.

9. Our oldest, Jill, became a teenager this year. She's a great kid. Teenagers are actually pretty nice people.

10. I was able to pull off the first ever, real surprise for Zaron for his birthday. Very fun!

11. Kevin started and ended his first successful football season injury free.

12. I watched a marathon for the first time and what made it even more memorable was my sister ran it and very successfully. It was her first marathon. Great job Sis! I also ran in my second 5k race and didn't do too badly.

Bonus event #13 (I know I said 12, but 13 is such a lucky number.)
We enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving and Christmas with lots of family this year and we made lots of great memories. I learned that you can brine a turkey successfully as long as it's cold enough outside and you have an ice chest large enough to hold it.

2008 was Great! Bring it on 2009!

One of life's happy moments

Yesterday, Zaron and I decided to take advantage of some of his free time off from work. We went to Salt Lake and attended the temple and then went to lunch at The Garden. We had a very nice time. When we returned that afternoon, as we drove up to our house, we saw all four of our kids out in their snow clothes playing together in the snow. It was a happy sight to see.

This picture doesn't show it very well, but the mounds of snow in front of our house are "ginormous".

One of Life's happy moments!

Baby what a big surprise!

Boy were we surprised seven years ago when Holly was born. Not surprised that we were having a baby of course, but surprised that she was a girl.

When I was pregnant with each of my kids, I never had an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. I just always had a strong feeling about what it was going to be. I was always right.....up until Holly. I was so sure that it was going to be a boy that I had filled the changing table with all the baby boy clothes and hadn't even considered a girl's name. I even told all the nurses when we got to the hospital that we were having a boy and his name was going to be Kyle. I could not have been more surprised when she was born and the doctor said, "it's a girl". I, of course, was very excited, but the first thing I had to do was call my mom who was at our house with the rest of our kids and ask her to dig out the baby girl clothes and wash them and bring an outfit to the hospital with a pink blanket.

So, as Zaron left the hospital to grab some dinner after Holly was born, he turned on the radio, and no joking, the song that was playing was "Baby what a big surprise" by Chicago. He just had to laugh.

Holly continues to surprise us. She is such a joy to have in our family. She is all girl and a total princess. She keeps us laughing.

I love the baby mohawk!!

What a cutie pie!

We celebrated Holly's birthday on Saturday by going to Jump On It. It was such a blast. Who would've thought that jumping in a room full of trampolines for an hour could be so much fun and so exhausting.






What's a birthday without lunch at Chadders?! Delicious!

Holly is a girl after my own heart. She doesn't care for cake, so each year for her birthday she asks for donuts. Yummy!

Happy 7th Birthday Holly!! We love you!!