Wal Mart

It never fails that every time I enter this store I spend too much money. I can not seem to leave the store without spending at least $50! Why is that?? I hate that this is the only big store in town with prices that aren't outrageous, why can't we have another store that is comparable. I hate supporting Sam Walton and all his heirs, like they need anymore money!!! I guess I am just venting a little bit, I was just there with my kiddos, who where pretty well behaved today, and spent too much money again. I hate this store!!!

one a side note this is my 100th post!! yay!! I am going to try and hit 200 by the end of the year, do you think this is possible? With summer on the way and lots of things going on it just might happen!!

27!!

I can't let the day go by with out saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my great hubby Matt. Today he turns 27 and I just want to let him know I am thinking of him and Love him so much. He is working all day today, bummer!! But we took him out to dinner last night! He already got his season golf pass so that is pretty much what he gets every year for his birthday! He will enjoy that and use it the entire summer. He has already been golfing 5 or 6 times!

More Easter

So to finish up all of the Easter festivities, we got together with some of Matt's family on Easter Sunday. After church we went to his dad's house and had our first weenie roast of the season. It was so great to be outside(there is a lot of people to fit into a house) and the weather really cooperated. It would have been nice if it was warmer, but I know that will happen in time. We had a ton of food, salads and desserts to go with our hot dogs and had a great dinner. Then the kids had another egg hunt and by this time, Parker was a pro. He ran out the door and started picking up eggs left and right. By the time he was finished his basket was overflowing. He now knows what to do. Even Paige got the right idea and she was able to get a few eggs in her basket. We now have an overflowing abundance of Easter candy. Some of which got put in the freezer for a day when chocolate is in need. I am not sure what to do with the rest of it, I know if it stays around too long, it will be on my hips!! Anyways I just want to tell Matt's parents thanks for a fun filled Easter!!!
Now for the real reason for Easter, I can't not post about the wonderful miracle that makes Easter so special. I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. I am grateful to a Father in Heaven that gave His only Son so that we can have eternal life. I am so grateful for that spring day when Christ was resurrected so that too can be resurrected one day. I am so grateful for the Gospel in my life and the wonderful blessing we receive from it. I hope you all have had a great Easter season and the beginning of a new year!

Easter Fun

Well I am a little behind on events, the last weekend did me in with all that went on. It took me a while to get my house back to normal. After we celebrated Paige's birthday, the next day we got together with the majority of my mom's family. She comes from a family of 10 and all but 2 siblings were there with most of their kids. So it was like a mini family reunion. We had a great time together and the weather was okay, it wasn't raining which was great. All of the little kids had an Easter egg hunt and got a ton of candy. Some of the eggs had a number on them and that numbered egg was good for a different prize. Parker picked out a Nerf gun and Paige got a cute stuffed pink bunny. She was even able to pick up a few eggs on her own and put them in her basket. She was so fun to have participate in the hunt this year. After we spent the day with my mom's family, we came back to our house and dyed eggs with my sister and mom. The kids really had fun with this. Parker did 1 dozen eggs!! 6 of them yellow. He was funny, he would pick an egg up and put it in the dye for a minute or two then take it out and put another one in the same color. He wasn't very interested in trying a new color unless one of us told him to. He was done with all of his eggs before the rest of us had done 2 or 3. After we finished dying them, the kids insisted on hiding them outside and having another egg hunt. So we hid 18 eggs and let the boys go and find them. It only took about 15 minutes for them to be found and they said let's do it again. So we had 2 more egg hunts and then called it a day. I think they would have done it 5 or 6 more times if we had let them. It was a great day full of fun and family. We love to get together and spend time with one another!!!

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Paige's 1st birthday on Friday. Her actual birthday fell on Easter this year, so we improvised and had a whole weekend of excitement! We had a few friends and family over for a little celebration with pizza and cake and ice cream. For her birthday party I decided to go with a Minnie Mouse themed party including a birthday cake. I found a cute picture online and used an over head projector to enlarge it. Then I outlined around the picture and filled in the cake with frosting. I think the cake turned out rather nicely and was quite tasty! Paige was spoiled rotten, she got a few fun toys including a Hannah Montana microphone that lights up, she loved it. She got a big piggy bank with money inside it, a my little pony baby, a play cell phone, a musical toy, a popper toy (one that you push and the balls inside pop) and pretty much a complete new wardrobe, which I was excited about. She got the cutest Easter dress which she wore on Sunday (pictures to come) and I think she had a great time. She didn't dig into the cake and ice cream like Parker did on his 1st birthday. She had to have someone feed her a few bites and then she was done. She hardly made a mess at all and was more interested in the other kids at the house. We had a great time and are so glad we have such a fun little girl in our family!!

Spring is here???

When Matt and I got home from our vacation, it had snowed here all week, I wondered if Spring would ever get here. My kids have been dying to go outside and play. Well on Sunday we had a beautiful day along with Monday and Tuesday and the kids got to play outside. I took some pictures of Parker riding his tricycle, he still can't seem to get the hang of it. Paige loved to be pushed around on the tricycle too. It was so fun to be outside together and to let the kids out of the house. Tuesday we were outside all day doing spring yard work, which I hate!!! It seems like we have 10 times as much this year since we cut 2 trees down last fall and we are still cleaning up the mess from that. I was out there working from 11 in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon. Yard work is hard work and I considered that my workout for the day and skipped going to the gym. The kids loved being outside with me and Matt. Parker explored our yard and even helped out a little. Paige discovered what a few things outside taste like and got her first sunburn!! I couldn't believe that she got sunburned, now I know I have to slather on the sunscreen. I felt so bad when I noticed how rosy her cheeks were and the next day when her eyes looked a little swollen. But we had a great time and hope spring is here to stay!!!! Tonight we are celebrating Paige's 1st birthday. Her birthday is on Easter this year, and today was the day that we thought would work the best. I made the cake and got the decorations all put up and we are ready for a great time! I will post more about that and the rest of the weekend at the beginning of the week. Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Part 4 - Vacation

On Wednesday of our cruise we stayed on the ship while it was returning to San Diego. It really doesn't take a day to get back from Ensanada to San Diego, so the ship was traveling very slowly. Which make the day very miserable for me. For some reason when the ship was traveling faster I didn't seem to notice the rocking quite as much, but on Wednesday I was sick the majority of the day. Mostly nauseated and had a horrible headache. So needless to say it wasn't the funnest day of the cruise. We slept in since we didn't have a shore excursion to get to. We had a nice breakfast. The breakfasts on the ship were huge, you could have almost anything you wanted for breakfast. They had oatmeal, cream of wheat, scrambled eggs, french toast or pancakes (they rotated these two), ham, bacon, sausage, hash browns, bagels with cream cheese, toast, cereal, pastries, fresh fruit, and they had a station to create fresh omelets any way you wanted them. It was really good food and made it so hard to pick what we wanted. We ate our fair share of breakfast food! We walked around the ship for a while, watched a game of bingo and decided to play a game later in the day for a chance to win $3000. We went to a night show and just mostly walked around and relaxed. For dinner that night, the last night, I had spare ribs and Matt had veal Parmesan. The ribs were soooo good, they were tender and just fell apart it was delicious! This night the waiters pretty much knew us by name and the bar tender knew what drinks we wanted and where we were going to sit, so our drinks were there waiting for us before the meal began (we had sodas, the bar tender took care of all drinks alcoholic and nonalcoholic). We had to make special arrangements to get off the ship early the next morning in order to make our 11:25 fight. People were allowed off the ship according to the number their cabin was assigned. Our cabin was number 25, we would have been one of the last people off of the ship and would have missed our flight. But we got special passes with the number 3 on them and therefore we were allowed off the ship in the first group of people. On Thursday when we got off everything went very smoothly, we walked off, grabbed out bags, and got a taxi to the airport. Checked in, checked our bags, went through security, and caught our flight with no problems!! The ship is pretty organized in that sense. I guess they have to be because as soon as we left they got all the passengers off in a matter of like 2 hours, and then the clean the ship and another cruise begins that day. Our waiter said that he works for 7 months straight and then is home for a few months and then returns to the ship to work. I thought that was crazy that the people working are away from home for so long and work so much. They live on the ship for months at a time. I could never do that I would be miserable!! Well after our plane landed to got to our car and drove home not really hitting any bad weather along the way. The kids were really excited to see us when we got home and I think my parents were excited to have their house back to themselves and to get back to their routine. We had a really great time and it was such a good experience. If any of you have the opportunity to go, you should, it is a great vacation. More cost efficient than I would have thought. All your hotels, and food add up quickly and on a cruise that is all included, plus entertainment on the ship is included. So it is pretty reasonable priced! Well I hope you all enjoyed our adventure with us.

Part 3 - Vacation

The third day of our cruise we docked in Ensanada Mexico and left the boat at 9:00 in the morning to line up to go on the blowhole tour. We were a little early for the tour because it didn't start until 10, but we wanted to get off of the ship early before everyone decided to leave and were all trying to get off the ship at the same time. While we waited, we looked around the shops that were right there trying to find a few souvenirs for the kids, most of the stuff in Mexico is junk!! A little before 10 we loaded a bus and drove about 45 minutes to La Bufadora, aka the blowhole. It was kind of a neat thing to see. The blowhole is a cave that is at sea level and when the tide is high or right after a storm the water rises and fills the cave. The water presses on the air inside the cave and creates pressure. The pressure builds and builds and finally can't take it anymore and explodes into the air shooting sea water straight up as high as 100 feet at this particular blow hole. It is the highest shooting blowhole in the world. We were informed that there are dozens of blowholes all over the world in Australia, Tonga, Mexico, and some in the U.S. I had never really heard of a blowhole, and at first thought it was like a geyser, but it is extremely different. The day we were there the tide was kind of low and so the spray wasn't very high, but still enough for it to be cool to see. After we had looked at the blowhole for a little while and had taken our far share of pictures we headed back toward the bus, going thru a market area. Now in case any of you didn't know, Ensanada's first source of income is through tourism. What does this mean....they hound you to death to come into their shops to by their stuff. It was SOOOOO annoying!!! Every step I took someone was saying hey come into my store, you need this bag, you need these shoes, you need this jewelry. I was like Matt keep walking!! We had seen a few things we wanted, but made sure and went into shops that didn't have people begging us to go in. We got Parker this fun spiderman cape with a mask with it. And we got Paige a cute pink Mexican dress! We also bought some jewelry and some Mexican vanilla. It was interesting to see that almost every other store was a "pharmacy" selling drugs that are prescription here in the U.S. People would grab us and say come into the Pharmacy and get your pain killers, and stuff like that. We looked at a few just to see what was in there, they had ammoxacillan(sp?), Viagra and a ton of other drugs. I can't believe people buy stuff like that and use it, that scares me to use a drug that isn't prescribed. I just thought that was crazy! After bargaining with the sellers to a price we thought was fair we got on the bus and headed back to the ship. We had a really great tour guide that told us a bunch of information about Ensanada. It was pretty interesting. I was amazed at all of the U.S. stores and restaurants that are there. We saw a Home Depot, Costco, McDonalds, Appleby's, and a few others. She said the only thing we wouldn't see in Mexico is a Taco Bell. That was funny! The roads were covered in dirt and people lived in run down shacks and housing developments. It really made me grateful for all I have and for the nice place I have to live. I asked Matt why anyone would want to live there. He said he would. It was pretty along the coastline and by the mountains, but not in the city. The weather was perfect while we were there and we had a great time, but were ready to get back on the ship. We had dinner that night I had mushroom chicken with Alfredo pasta and Matt had the steak again. (he wasn't very adventurous) All the of the meals had starters and then the main dish and then dessert. I tried to have something different each day. One day for a starter I had Prosciutto and melon. I don't think I would have that again. Matt mostly had Tiger Shrimp cocktail for his starter. The best dessert we had was a chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream. It was really good. That evening after dinner we went to a hypnotist show and laughed out heads off. It was hilarious. Some people really do funny things when they are hypnotized. It was a fun evening. Tomorrow we will be at sea all day.

Part 2- Baja More Pictures

Part 2- Baja

On the second day we got up early because we were planning on going golfing at Catalina Island. I was hoping that the way it was scheduled would be that Matt and I could be a couple at a different tee time than everyone else that was golfing. I have only really been golfing a few times and was just more interested in being with my hubby and spending time with him than the game itself. Well we met in the lobby and me the "golf pro" for the ship and he told us that there were only 2 other guys that were going to be golfing so it was going to be a fivesome. Great! That meant that I am going to have 3 other men, people that actually know how to golf, watching me as I swing and try to hit the ball. I was thinking I was going to be so embarrassed! So we left the boat and got into a little boat that took us to the island. We rode in a taxi to the club house and got our carts and a few drinks for a long the way (Dr. Pepper and water) although one guy we were with drank 10 beers during the course of 18 holes. I couldn't believe he could still hit the ball!! The course was so beautiful and was so green and pretty. Matt said it was the by far the nicest course he has played on! They had a few women's tee boxes so I was excited for the slight advantage. I knew I would need all the help I could get. The golf pro, Jordan, helped me out and gave me quite a few pointers and didn't make me feel like an idiot. In fact all the other guys didn't make me feel dumb either. I had a few good hits and quite a few not so good hits, but we had a really great time. The weather was so nice about 60 and we were loving it. Loving the fact that we knew we had left snow behind and were enjoying "short" weather! Golfing took us about 6 hours and after that we walked around the little town and got a few souvenirs and then we went on a glass bottom boat and saw quite a few fish coming to get something to eat from the people on the boat. It was kinda dumb, but it was inexpensive and after spending $218 on golf, I wasn't looking to spend too much more on a shore excursion at Catalina. After the glass bottom boat we headed back to the cruise ship and got something to eat at the 24 hour pizza place and the lunch buffet. (There is not a shortage of food on the ship!!!) We walked about the boat for a little while and rested in out room. Then we got ready for dinner. Monday night was elegance night so we dressed up and went to dinner. I had lobster and shrimp and Matt had Prime Rib. It was the best meal of the cruise!! After dinner we went and listened to some Karaoke. It was hilarious. It is so funny how people act after they have had a few drinks. The lady hosting the karaoke called it "liquid courage" it was fun! We again were tired from a long day of being out and about. I don't know why, but we just couldn't seem to get caught up on sleep. Tomorrow we are going to be in Mexico!

Baja California Part 1

Matt and I got home from our vacation on Thursday night and it has taken me a few days to get back to normal and to not feel like the world is swaying back and forth. So today I decided to recap most of our vacation, that is if the kids will let me!
Day 1
We left on Sunday morning about 8:30 and the weather here in town wasn't too bad, just really windy. When we got just outside of Pocatello it started to get bad, by the time we reached Malad we were behind a snow plow and were only going about 35 mph. I thought for sure we were never going to get to Salk Lake and we would miss our 1:45 flight to California. Well the weather continued to get worse and it was probably the worst storm we have driven in all winter and here it was the end of March. How pathetic is that. You could only see about 1/4 mile ahead of you so it was pretty scary. It seemed to get worse as we got into Salt Lake city. It would clear up for a second and Matt and I would get excited and say to each other this is good, a plane can take off in this right. Then it would start up again and just be horrible! I was so nervous to not make the plane because we had to be on the boat 1 hour prior to its debarkation and we were scheduled to arrive in California at 2:40, factoring the time it takes to get the plane landed and gather our luggage and then be shuttled to the port we had about 1 hour of lee-way(not sure of the spelling) so it was going to be pretty close. Well we finally arrived at the Airport in 3 1/2 hours! Got our vehicle parked and shuttled to the terminal. Got our boarding passes and our baggage checked and we had about 45 minutes until the plane was scheduled to leave. As we were sitting in the terminal I was just watching flights that were supposed to leave and noticed that quite a few flights had been delayed. I was sure hoping ours wouldn't be one of them. Well I thought too soon. Just a few minutes later our plane was delayed waiting for flight crew to arrive from a previous flight. That snow storm in Salt Lake had delayed flights from all over the country and messed up the flights for the rest of the day. So the plane was delayed about 45 minutes. I was stressed!!! What if we missed the ship and had paid all that money and we didn't get to go on the cruise!! I was really freaking out, ask Matt! Finally the plane boarded at 2:30 and we were supposed to be in California by 3:30 their time. So I thought we might make it okay! The flight was alright, pretty bumpy and it wasn't a big jet so I felt the turbulence a whole lot more than usual. We landed about 3:25 and were hurrying to meet the shuttle that was supposed to take us to the pier. Well they weren't there (which I was totally mad about. I paid $32 for someone to be there to shuttle us and they weren't there!!!!) So we ended up taking a taxi that only cost us $10 and was supper fast. He got us there in about 10 minutes. So it would have been cheaper to take the taxi. Next time we know!! We got to the dock and got checked in and found our room and all was good! We made it and we were on the boat in time!! Yay! Let the fun begin. After getting situated we walked around the ship to see what is was like. Holy cow could I feel the rocking. It didn't take long before I was sick!! I had taken some ginger pills for nausea and motion sickness, but the hadn't kicked in yet. The ship was so huge!! and I am sure it wasn't one of the big cruise boats!! The ship had 5 or 6 bars, 2 dining rooms, a pool area with a slide, a casino, a spa, a gym, a game area, mini golf, basketball court, a lounge, and a show room! I am sure I am missing some things but oh well. I thought it would take me a few days to not get lost! We were scheduled to have dinner at 6:00 and were seated at a table with 2 other couples. That first night we didn't talk much to them. It is kinda awkward at first. Matt had a steak and I have herb chicken breast with pasta. It was pretty good. We were pretty lazy the first night and didn't stay up for the late show. I was tired from the time change and getting up early to get everything ready to go. So I went to bed and Matt went to the gym and the sauna for a little while. That is the end of day 1. I think I am going to do a different post for every day. That way I can include most of the pictures and give my hand a break from typing!