For Pama

Mother!  Here you are, some sweet pics of your favorite grandchildren.  All dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating.  For those of you who don't know who these two are, go play a game of Candy Land.  They wanted me to be Plumpy, what with my awesome belly and all.  I was a beauty queen, as always... no costume necessary.

                                                              
                                                                    Princess Lolly

                                                    
                                                         Queen Frostine, on Halloween.

 This is what happens when 1- you tell your three year old she can't have any candy until after lunch and she goes missing under her bed for a while and 2- Christi has offspring. 

So long for a while everyone! 

Carving Faces

This title is not inferring to the fact that Evelyn has a huge welt on her cheek, and after she had her face painted at pre-school I was expecting a knock on the door from the police who come get bad moms. I have a witness! It was a bike accident.  I actually have have 5 witnesses, but only one is over the age of 8.  I think I had to get that off my chest.  That bruise just keeps staring at me.

 

 So happy to get these beauties carved. The fruit of our labors!  I have an apparent infatuation with pumpkins since I planted 3 different varieties this summer.  Well worth it, I might add.

Thanks for viewing.  Next year, invite us to your pumpkin carving contest party.  If you want to lose, that is.

Tons of Birthdays... and One of us is 30

I am continuing my efforts here, and I continue to be proud of myself.  I had the best idea to consolidate all four of our birthdays into one post.  Great idea, until I had to wait for 6 pictures to upload... Anyway, if I sound grumpier than usual just blame it on my 16th week of nausea.  That's what I'm doing. 

So, who's up first? Gwen? Sweet.  She turned 3 and all is well.

 

 Wanted a princess cake.  Princesses get what they want.  RIGHT NOW!!!!!  Haha, I'm totally kidding, for you randoms reading this she is really sweet.  Not that I have anything to prove to any of you...

 Next up.. who me?! We can just skip me, I hate being the center of attention.  With my Yellow Personality and all.  Just opening one of my favorite... no, my all time favorite snack.  Happy Birthday to me.

 I might just play a little tune on my new harmonica for all of you if you're lucky.  But not you randoms.  Why are you reading my blog anyway?

 I don't know who turned 30, but I can tell you that I did follow my moms advice to "never marry a man that is younger than you".  Love him.

 She wanted a My Little Pony cake and what do you think she got?  Hello, you bake a cake and put My Little Ponies on it.  Totally rocked.  Look how happy she looks. 

I know guys, I'm totally random and weird.  Just go with it, okay?

We Just Went Camping

Is blogspot slower now?  It seems that way.

 

Anyway, we just went camping yesterday... not this summer... and I am not catching up.  I am simply trying to post my daughters' Halloween costumes for my mom to see them and I have a few posts I want to do before I do that do.  Do you know what I mean?

We decided to check out Bear Lake for the first time and it was a screamin' hit.  The girls keep trying to get Derek and I to commit to going there again, totally convinced that another camp site simply could not be better.  They may be right.  It rocked.  We were only there for two nights and enjoyed the Lake, of course, for a full day.  So much fun.  So much fun.

 

Our $20 investment in these floaties was totally worth it, although not worth the sunburn I received on the back of my legs.  I don't ever sunscreen there... and I've never been burned there.  Anyway, that part was pretty hot.

 We went to this cave and took a tour and it was interesting.  Fun and a bit cold.

 Had to put this picture in because I'm sure you all think she is as cute as I do.

 This is the walkway to the cave.

I know that was a bad grand finale, but these pictures loaded on here in the exact opposite order that I intended.  So go back and look at the water picture and imagine my sun burnt legs.  That right.  Think about that as my parting gift to you.
And for any of you who are not watching the news feeds all over Twitter, I'm pregnant.

Because Derek Asked Me To...

I thought that all of you guys liked seeing the freeze frame of my latest blog entry video.  Derek looks like he's about to eat a fly, or a cookie, I can't tell which.  But none the less, he wants me to add another blog.  I was hoping that you all had the blog line-ups with the latest blog picture showing and have been looking at the picture for months.  Wondering how Uncle Kurtis could possibly feel congratulated with a picture like that.

Well, here we are.  Blogging about stuff.  I thought I'd try it out again. 

So, Evelyn had a dance recital... about 2 years ago it's been.  It was super cute and now BOTH my girls are in dance so the next blog like this is going to be DOUBLE the fun.  Like those old Double Mint commercials, you know.  

Love this picture, because I am so excited for Gwen to get all ready for her recital.  Doesn't she look ready?

 All ready to go, pretty excited.  My little girl, who has probably not said one word to most of you, has no stage fright or nerves to speak of when it comes to performing. 

 Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Reed gave her some flowers and SHE LOVED THEM.  She was totally on cloud 9.  I had no idea the effects of flowers on a 4 year old girl.  But we saved those babies, and now they are hanging on her wall in a frame.  Give a girls some flowers!

Well, this is my testing, testing, one, two, three.  We'll see how it works out.

Congrats Kurtis and Jolene

Just a message for Kurtis and Jolene and family.  We miss you and can't wait to see you again.

Another Big Reveal

A while back I was asking for advice/opinions about mudrooms.  Derek and I added a mudroom to the house and wanted to make the most of the space.  A few people have been asking me how it went, so I thought I post a couple pictures of it.  We really love having this, because we didn't have much space to put all our coats and shoes.  The main reason is Derek needed a place to take his muddy clothes and boots on and off without freezing. Enjoy:

Bahama Mama

Yes, I'm referring to myself. I wouldn't dare call my man that! Remember long ago how I posted about saving some sweet cash to go on another cruise? Long, long, ago? Well, the man and I finally went and had a marvelous mingling marathon of fun. The minute we shut the door to grandmas house behind us, I was in HEAVEN. (In my head, I sing the word heaven. That is completely optional for you.) Drove to SLC, flew to Dallas, then flew to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Called the hotel shuttle and a 5 minute wait turned into a 1 hour wait.
This is me unhappily waiting for our shuttle. Sometimes I had to be reminded that I was on vacation, without kids, as my husbands girlfriend. This was one of those times. Imagine this picture without the grimace of a smile. I did smile for the camera. Sort of.
Aha, here we are! At the Windjammer! The necessary first stop! To eat the first of our 87 meal while on this vessel for 5 nights.

The smile has returned, and no coaxing was necessary.

Three desserts, Derek? That's it? And only one plate? No, no. That just won't do. Don't worry, it was the first day. We warmed up really quickly.

Adios Ft. Lauderdale! See ya in 5 days!

At dinner the first night, I just had to get a picture of the dining table. Two knives, three forks, what is all the confusion about? One utensil for every entree.

The first morning was at sea, so we checked out the amenities, including the rock climbing wall. I just love a good helmet. Don't you? There's nothing like elongating the head. Am I right? Who needs a program on the computer to do that when you've got a helmet. Matching ones, for that matter.

Derek rocked the wall. Just like he rocked the helmet.

Derek got a better picture of the wall, and me scaling it like a spider.

Apparently, Derek was not the only man impressed with my skillz. I'm not sure why I was smiling while this man undid my harness, or why my man took a picture of it and wasn't busy punching his lights out. Because... he could.

Here I am knee-boarding on the Flow Rider! I look just like they do in the commercial. I know. Just for future reference, if you chose to go on one of these in the future... wear a one piece.

Don't try to imagine it.

Moving on, Derek was a natural at the Flow Rider. He received rave reviews for being an amateur. He was twisting, and flipping, and rolling... feel free to imagine that.

Seriously? Blue ocean, 85 degree weather? Must remember this moment.

Some nice old man offered to take our picture after I beat Derek at golf. Yes, I am not wearing any pants. Do you have a problem with that? The signs said, "NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE." I was wearing shoes.

Here we are again, surfing this time. We as in, me taking a picture and Derek surfing. I didn't want to enlighten anyone again. Not that that topic is up for discussion. Because it's not.

Dinner on the formal night. Our nice dining buddy, who just happened to be from SLC took this one. Thanks Brother!

Alright, so we were totally old fogies on this vacation. We wanted to get good seats for the shows we went to, so we got there WAY too early to get a good seat. We were there with, I am not kidding you, all the other men over the age of 70 who were saving seats for their group. Standing there, not sitting for I assume some medical circulatory reason. Checking their watches every few minutes. Anyway, we made better use of our waiting time. Checking out our double chin situation.

And, trying to impress each other. I hope you're impressed too. I love this picture, because of all the people in the background who are acting like they don't really notice we're taking a picture and they just might be in it. A couple times we would just take a picture of us to get a picture of all the people behind us, and zoom in on their faces.

Did I mention that we had time to kill?

Here I am, on the little boat ride into Belize City, Belize. There is our UPRIGHT cruise ship. The Liberty of The Seas. She was a good one. The picture is 60% me and 40 % the lady with the purple sticker.

Here is Derek with the beginnings of the coast of Belize in the background. He really liked me asking him to pose for this picture in front of all the people staring at him.

Then we hopped on a bus, with our tour guide Primativo. We called him Prim and I thought it was cool because I was re-reading Catching Fire.

Here are some homes along the highway.

These mountains are nicknamed, 'The Sleeping Giant' or something like that. Look for his large nose, on the right.

Me. Zip-lining over the jungle of Belize. A total dream come true.

Then we checked out the caves to make sure no Boa Constrictors or Jaguars were lurking in them.

The only thing I found was mosquitoes. They sent me home with some nice souvenirs.

Dereks working the camera for a sweet shot of this jungle flower.

On the cruise ship, after dinner one night. This area was so shimmery and glossy. We asked another stranger to take our picture.

Oh boy. Next day was at Cuzumel, Mexico where we hopped on another bus to see the ruins at Tulum. We had been to see Chichen itza on our honeymoon and I was anticipating something like that. I was a little disappointed, because of my expectations. It wasn't anything huge in structure, and you can't climb or really touch anything so it is no comparison to Chichen itza. Aside from that, it was very interesting.

This was our guide, Diego.

Where is your group, Derek?

The iguanas were everywhere. This picture is funny because it looks like he's about to eat the man in the blue shirt. My daughters were totally confused about this picture.

Here is the temple of Tulum, or temple at Tulum, or castle of Tulum. I can't remember, but this it the main structure and it had a lot of symbolism according to the sun/ and the earths axis etc. BTW, our guide was sure to tell us, that the Myans do not believe that the end of the world is Dec. 21, 2012. That is just when their calendar ends and a new one begins.

This was one of the beautiful outlooks.

And another...

And another, but this one had an iguana.

Me and the Man.

Me and the Man again. If you are still reading this, that's wonderful.

After the ruins, our tour stopped at a beach for lunch and swimming. The food was great, and the area was beautiful.

My view from our table.

We were just trying to make the guy taking our picture feel awkward.

Our last day of the cruise was at sea and it was very windy that morning. So we sat by some windows on the pool deck. I read. Like an angel.

And of course, no cruise would be complete without joining in some singing competition. I rocked it and I have luggage tags to prove it!

More bored waiting.

You would not believe me if you didn't see this with your own eyes, but Derek karaoked. Jolene, we thought of you because he sang to Garth Brooks.

Tradition demands that we take a picture on the plane ride home. Tradition also demands that I do not look very happy about us going home.

Hope you all enjoyed vacationing with us! Now for one more hour of spell checking this behemoth.