Preschool Graduation

Aiden's preschool graduation was super cute. The kids learned several songs during the year and they sang them for the program. The teacher even got them each their own cap and gown. She did a really good job and Aiden just loved preschool. (The pictures aren't very good quality, but that's what happens when Dalin tries to help)

Even Moms make mistakes

Yesterday Chris got up to get ready for work, and as I looked at my watch and saw it was 25 after I thought he was running late. About fifteen minutes later I got up to start getting the girls ready for school. Kaylee started her shower and Ashton came out to have breakfast. Just as I was about to pour the milk for Ashton Chris came out and asked if I realized it was really 6:45 not 7:45. Ugh! Because Chris was up and getting ready I just assumed it was seven and although I looked at three different clocks I only looked at the minutes and not the hour. I thought I knew how to tell time! Poor girls, I told them they could go back to bed, but they were already to awake for that. I did get more house work done, but I prefer sleep to chores any day.

Old Man in a Hat and Twincidents

I know all you out there in blog-world are tired of hearing about the cruise, but this is the most consistent I've ever been in keeping a family history/journal so I have a few more stories and pictures to share and then I'll be done. Chris has wanted this certain hat for a long time (I don't even know the name of it) and he finally got one for Easter. He proudly wore it all throughout the cruise, but we noticed that most of the people who had hats like his were in the over 50 age range. Chris decided to try and covertly get as many pictures as he could with other people wearing the same style of hat.

Okay, I thought there were more pictures, but you get the gist. My favorite is the one on the top left, he found a whole group of them.

On several occasions Chris has been mistaken for my brother Brian. Brian even introduced Chris as his "twin brother-in-law" when they made their appearance on the Family Feud. They are about the same height with dark hair, but that is where the similarities end. It always made me laugh, until it happened to me. We were taking a tour on our first day on the boat, and I stopped to look at something, when I caught up to Chris I put my arm around his waist, except it wasn't Chris it was Brian! I jumped back yelling, " Ahh! You're the wrong boy!" I didn't even touch Chris for the rest of the tour because I did not want to chance making that mistake more than once.

These two models even have the same swimsuit bought at different times, only different colors (very twinish)

Home again , Home again Jiggity Jig

These towel buddies greeted us every night.

We knew it couldn't last forever, but that didn't make it any easier to give up other people making my bed, cleaning my room and serving my meals. The boat returned to Florida at seven in the morning, but to make debarking less congested the passengers are separated into different zones and "invited" to leave the ship at different times. We were in zone ten so we figured we had time to go to the dining room for breakfast. After we were done we went back to our rooms to wait for our invitation. After we had been back for about 45 minutes I decided to ask how much longer it would be before zone ten was called. Apparently our number had been announced while we were in the dining room and I'm sure the room stewards were cursing the stupid Americans who wouldn't leave so they could do their jobs.

We finally got off the boat around 9:30, but our flight didn't leave until 6:00 pm. I was ready to see my kids and be home so I was not looking forward to the seven hour wait and the five hour flight that we had ahead of us. Since we were in Cape Canaveral we decided to go to the Kennedy Space Center to see about a tour. Tickets started at $38.00 so we decided to check out the Astronaut Hall of fame which was down the road and twenty dollars less. We got there and looked around the gift shop for a little while, but we decided not to go inside. Across the street was the Police Hall of Fame, so we thought we'd check that out, but we decided that wasn't for us either, so we headed off to Orlando. We ended up having lunch there, then we hung out at the mall for the few hours we had before we had to be to the airport. Because the next day was Mothers day Chris convinced me to get a pedicure (he didn't have to try very hard), and I even convinced him to get one too. When the lady was done with Chris she asked if he wanted clear, to which he replied yes. He didn't realize that clear was still a polish, so I quickly told them he didn't want anything, but it would have been funny to see his face when they broke out the bottle of nail polish.

I watched two of the movies Chris put on my Zune (Microsofts answer to I-Pod) so the filght home seemed to go a lot faster. It was a good thing I had the movies because there were five kids under three (three of them were 9 month old babies) sitting within two rows of us and there was a lot of crying that I didn't even hear. It was a happy reunion when we got to my parents house to pick up the kids, but little Dalin was asleep. Kaylee was more than happy to wake him up, and I was more than happy to give him big hugs. We passed out some souvenirs and chatted with my parents for a little bit when Dalin finally woke up enough to notice Chris. He said "Daddy!" and got off my lap to give Chris a hug. It was very cute.

One of the Formal nights

Our last night on the ship

Our dining staff Budi an Luciano

I feel pretty?

Freeport, Bahamas

The final stop of our cruise was in Freeport Bahamas. We had heard about this shopping district and beach about eleven miles from the port so we took a taxi to check it out. We still needed to get some things for the ones we left home, so we walked around the shops for a while. The people were really nice and they weren't pushy like we had seen at our other stops. My favorite lines from the vendors were "Hey, put the breaks on come see what I have" and "Pretty mama we got some deals for you." I'll take a "pretty" compliment any time, even if it's just a sales pitch. After we were done we walked across the street to the beach where Chris and Brian once again decided to go snorkeling, while Natalie and I relaxed on the beach. There was a couple on the boat that was going to take Chris and Brian to the snorkel sight. They started talking to Chris and they asked if he knew how to swim. He said yes, and they confessed that they didn't. Huh! Why would you pay to have some one take you out in the ocean if you didn't know how to swim? They ended up having a dingy come and take them back to the shore. At one point the guy driving the boat turned to my brother and asked if he could drive for a while, which he thought was pretty fun. The guys were able to see more fish on this trip because someone from the boat was throwing french fries over for the fish to feed on. And my hand oil is going to ruin the ocean? Hmmm. Anyway because there was still a couple of hours before we had to get back to the ship, we explored the little area where we were. I was also able to convince Chris to do a little more shopping.

It was pretty cool to watch this guy make these walking sticks.

Steel Drummer



Captain Brian

Some soon to be obese fish.

Roatan Honduras

Our third port was in Honduras. I was a little surprised when I heard that this was one of our stops because when I think of vacation destination Honduras doesn't exactly spring to mind. Roatan is an island of Honduras and we actually had reservations to go to a private island about five minutes from where we were docked. It was beautiful. It was a little resort type getaway and it was so clean and well maintained. There was a wall that must have marked the property line because just past that wall there was a lot of trash and the beach wasn't nearly as nice. Chris, my brother and I decided to go snorkeling while my sister-in-law, who is not a fan of fish touching her, relaxed on the beach and read a book. The snorkeling was fantastic, but I'm not a very strong swimmer so I didn't really want to go out to far. The reef was really high, and hard to get past without touching (we were told not to touch it because the oil from our hands would kill the coral and ruin the entire ocean and our eco system would fail and it would be all our fault, or something like that) so I came in after about an hour and hung out on the beach with Natalie. After about another hour, Chris and Brian came back up and we all went up to enjoy the pool and restaurant that we had access to. Chris and Brian headed back to the ocean for another hour while Natalie and I chatted. It was so relaxing, I really loved it! This was the first time in four months that the ship had stopped at this port because of a hurricane and there were only about twenty tourists on the island during what was the busy time. I hope business picks up for them, because it really was fantastic. We didn't explore the city at all, and Chris found some great shells for souvenirs on the beach we were at so we didn't even have to do any shopping, much to Chris's relief I'm sure.

Isn't that place pretty!

On the beach

Chris took this one of himself I think

You can see how high the reef is (that's me by the way).

Chris thought I was a wuss for not wanting to sit in this tree after we climbed it, but it was covered in ants

A nice little swing on the beach

Chris got pretty nasty cuts on his foot and legs from the coral.

this is where we got into the water to snorkle.

Hanging out...

...by the pool

It's un"Belize"able!

When we came to Belize the ship had to dock about a mile out because the water was to shallow and the dock was to small for a cruise ship. Chris had done obsessive, I mean extensive research on all of our destinations and he found a cave tubing excursion that was the same thing the cruise line was offering, but at half the price. We took an hour bus ride to a river where we were given inner tubes and we set off for a 45 min hike through the rain forest. Don't be too impressed, it was far from strenuous and there was a clear path for us to follow. The only complaint I had was due to my own vanity. My crocs would have been the perfect shoes because they are good for water, and comfortable for walking. I had been doing a lot of painting the week before we left and my crocs were covered in paint so I decided not to take them. I rented some swim shoes so that I wouldn't ruin my tennis shoes, but let me tell you I felt every single rock on the path and in the water. We came to a point in the river and floated down the river in our inner tubes. We went through a long series of caves and ended up at our stating point. It was pretty interesting, but the part that impressed me the most was the baby that was traveling with our group. He was about nine months old, and we hardly heard a peep from him. He sat on his dad and just took everything in. I thought he was asleep, but he was just looking around the whole time. You know your a mom when a baby's behavior is more exciting to you than the rain forest. I did learn about the cashew, which you might think is no big deal, but I had no idea how it grew and I thought it was very interesting. The seed (the cashew nut) grows on the bottom of a fruit. We were told that the fruit is so acidic that it has to be dries out for a couple of days before it can be used for anything. It sounded like it had the same sort of effect that pepper spray does, so you know potent stuff. Lunch was included in our trip, but we were running out of time so we ate on the bus. Valencia oranges are an export of the country and our lunch came with some delicious juice. It was all very tasty. We got back to the dock about an hour before we had to get back on the ship so of course we did more shopping.

Crossing the river to get to the path.

Getting ready to go into...

the rain forest.

They had us linked up like a train

Into the caves.

There were a lot of palm trees that grew like this, it was kind of cool.

This is the cashew fruit. The top is where the nut grows.

There were photographers from the ship every where.
Brian decided to turn the tables and get a picture with the photographer.

Captains log; Days one two and three

After the rocky start of Chris forgetting his wallet, the rest of our trip to Florida went fairly smoothly. We flew from Las Vegas to Atlanta where we had a two hour layover, then we headed to Orlando. The port was about 45 min from the airport and I have to give praise to my brother Brian because he drove while the rest of tried, but failed, to stay awake after our all night flight. After we boarded I tried to collapse into a deep sleep, but Chris is kind of a hard core vacationer. If he's paying for something, there is no time for sleeping. He is compelled to go, see, do ,taste and smell everything regardless of his physical or mental health. He can not "waste time sleeping" (his words). I have known this about him for a long time, so I don't know why it surprises me, but it still does. So we explored the ship for a little bit, but I really needed a nap,so I left and he found more to do. After dinner there was a welcome aboard show, but I could not stay awake so I went to bed at what was 6:00 pm Nevada time. I know I am a wuss. The next day was a very lovely day at sea but I realized that I am a girl who has been surrounded by mountains her whole life, so looking out and seeing nothing but ocean kind of weirded me out.

Our ship, the Carnival Glory

Monday brought us to Cozumel Mexico, and the adventure of the Race Fantastique. It was advertised as comparable to the Amazing Race but really it wasn't nearly that extreme. We ran (okay it was more like power walking) all over the city gathering clues and one of them even took Chris and Brian snorkeling in the ocean to find the name of a sunken ship. When Chris originally told me I wasn't very enthusiastic about it because I thought there was no way we could win, but we did! Whoo Hoo! I think that is the main reason I thought it was so fun. After we were done with the race we did some shopping, then headed back to the ship about hour and a half before we absolutely had to, much to Chris's disappointment.

Waiting for the race to start.

One of the tasks was mini golf. Brian was showing us how it was done.

Cheers to us!

Winner winner chicken dinner! We are #1!
You can't really tell but the shirts say winner on them.

You gotta watch out for those land sharks, they'll get you every time!