Crusin'

It is sad to see summer come to an end! We had a crazy summer with me getting hernia surgery, James was crazy busy with HUGE projects, and just plain old life. To end our summer we decided to go on a cruise with one of my best friends Alyson and her husband Christian. Thanks to my mom and my sister for helping us out with kids and dogs we got to take a MUCH NEEDED BREAK!



HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:

FIRST DAY: LEAVING MIAMI



GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND:

We decided to catch a taxi to a place called Cemetery Beach (because it is by the cemetery, where we saw grave diggers/robbers? and I swore I saw them throw a skull while they were digging-thus no pictures of them) and Snorkel. It was so fun! We love snorkeling. We were along a stretch of beach called the 7 mile beach. On the way back we decided to walk about 6 miles of the 7 miles along the beach (in the rain). It was fun and tiring. We almost missed our boat we had to chase down a taxi to take us back to port. The boats hold 3400 people, they won't wait for 4! Whew... Oh yeah ...the water really does look like blue jello! IT IS SOOOO COOL!!!!!!

James, Alyson and Christian and blue jello water

Cemetery:




THE BEACH:


Our secluded spot on Cemetery Beach, it was so peaceful. We made friends with a beach dog, he was so cute!



SNORKELING: So much fun and we didn't get eaten by sharks like I envisioned ahead of time-thank goodness!


James and I



Alyson:



Tired and sunburned at the end of the day-this is how every night was!



Roatann Island Honduras:
Here we decided to all go have a dolphin "encounter" in my mind encounter meant playing and swimming, in reality it was very controlled. I guess 300 lb. fish can be dangerous or something?! They were cute and it was tons of fun! They made all of their sounds with their blowholes, Averi would have loved it because she had a blowhole from her trachea hole that she made sounds with when she was a baby! She also clicked a lot. I think she was a dolphin in a previous life or something.


Aerial view of the resort with dolphins.



Beach cabins we plan on vacationing to someday!




Mom and baby dolphin....soooo cute!


I was getting sick of posing for pictures!




Tabyana Beach in Roatann, my VERY FAVORITE! There was a Reggae band playing, perfect water with perfect snorkeling. We love it there! We want to move there!



Snorkeling in Roatann: it was so much better than the Caymans. The water was clear, and there were so many more fish. No sharks either!






So romantic!





This is how I looked the whole time...clueless!

BELIZE: It was a beautiful country, but very poor. It was a huge eye opener for me to see that people actually do live in tin huts. It was also VERY HOT!!! I have never sweat so much in my entire life. James said it was a lot like Costa Rica (where he served his mission) I don't know if I could tolerate that for too long! We visited some Myan ruins called Altun Ha and then we went by boat down the river Wallace and got to see the jungle first hand. We saw huge iguanas and some howler monkeys, some of the local wildlife. VERY FUN!

James took these sunrise pictures from the ship in Belize while he was jogging (yes...jogging). He thought it would be fun to jog on board the ship, and I thought it would be fun to sleep while he jogged on the ship! We both enjoyed our time!






We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Sun God.









Good deal on perscription drugs without a prescription! We were dummies and didn't buy any though! I am kickin' myself now!


Mango tree! With ripe mangos.



River Wallace at the end we saw Manatee and dolphin swimming in the ocean-very cool!

River trip. We saw HUGE igunas, this one was as big as James! I'm glad we were in the boat!


Banana tree-brought back lots of mission memories for James from Costa Rica.


This is a common house style that everyone lived in. Usually they were up on stilts though to keep the critters out and let breeze in. IT WAS SO HOT!


COZUMEL MEXICO:
The last day to go on shore and I think we progressively got dumber each day as you can tell by our pictures! What happens in Mexico...






The beach was crowded with lots of drunk people! We got a good people watching show out of it!





This picture was funny because I took it and then realized that the guy in the background was wearing his hat "wrong". It was so funny at the time!


Playa Mia beach in Mexico--VERY, VERY HOT!!! I got sunburned just taking this picture of my legs!









OUR FAVORITE SHIP MOMENTS:


Our ship.





Cute little creations that our housekeeper made out of our towells. Funny huh?









Nightly dining. Every night they had a show put on by our wait staff. They would get up and dance on tables and crack us up! Alyson had them sing Happy Birthday to Christian (his b-day was in Aug.) because when the Indionesian waiters sang it reminded us of the scene on Christmas Story when the Chinese guys are singing Christmas Carols at the restraunt! We would laugh our heads off!


The theatre where the shows were and where I found my Knight in Shining Armour!

We had the best time! I am so glad that Alyson invited us to go with them, they are the coolest! We loved dancing, sushi, napping, shows, and eating all week! What a great experience!
We were worn out, and missed our kids though. It is always good to come home after a great vacation. We got the travel bug for sure!

This is a picture we got on one of our formal nights!

Dear Blog, I am sorry I ignore you...

If my blog was a person, it would be so offended by how much I ignore it!!!! We have had one crazy summer. Between James' hectic schedule at work and my surgery (more details to come) it has flown by. I have so many fun things I could have written on my blog, especially for my journaling, but I will have to condense them into a boring summary.

I will post pictures and highlights soon and perhaps share some of my funny dreams that I have been having while taking Ambien...crazy! I can't go without sharing my crazy dreams with everyone. My dad and James think I'm crazy, but my Mom and my sister share this weird trait with me, it's genetic.

Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

Take a ride on the "Potty Train"

Potty training has begun!!!! ARRGGG! . She isn't liking the changes, she has been crying on and off at the drop of a hat like I do when I have PMS!

The main problem I have with this is that Averi thinks the toilet is a performance stage. Also, she is such a creature of habit that anything I do or say while she is on the toilet will forever become part of her permanent routine, so I have to watch what I do. For example, I let her talk into a cup one time, and now she has to do it every time. It makes a cool echo, so she likes to make up stories or pretend like it is a overhead intercom in on of the many stores we go to. She copies and has all of the different store messages memorized and imitates them well. She also makes up rhymes and stories that I have no clue what she is saying, it is entertaining!

My kids are at a science/math camp for 6 hrs. each day last week, so I thought this would be a perfect time for the "potty training". Another problem...she thinks a potty training is a "potty train" choo choo! I will need to reword that! Anyway, wish me luck! Send me some Xanax if you have any to spare, I really need it!!!!

I have the cutest video of her making up rhymes on the toilet, but I can't get it to load, must be too big! I will try again later.

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY TO JAMES!!!

Happy to my sweet husband!!! Poor James has had soooo much stress at work this past couple of months. He is in charge of a hospital picnic tomorrow (about 3000 people will be there), and on top of that he has HUGE projects he has to complete for the summer. He won't let me buy him anything for his birthday, we are trying to make it special, but it's not working out! He is turning 35 today!

We love him so much! He is the best husband and dad anyone could ever ask for!

Hugs Sand Kisses!

Great weekend with the kids. We have had a lazy, rainy weekend. James is so great! He decided to build the kids a sandbox for the back yard. He is so crafty and handy. He did an awesome job. I took some cute pictures of the kids watching him, it was crackin' me up! I will post the finished product when we are all done!

I'm baaaaack.... with a vengeance!!!!

Did you know that without a camera it was physically impossible for me to blog?!? My kiddos broke my old camera one day and it was like someone cut of my fingers and I couldn't type anymore! I am such a visual person...I have to have visual aids for everything-including my life I guess!

Well...hallelujah I have a new camera! Now I can begin my blog life again!

Where do I start? WE ADOPTED TWINS!!! Not people twins, "hot dog" twins! Our kids have been begging us forever to let them have puppies and the time was right, so we took the plunge!
We named them Bandit and Scout. They came with the names Chubs and Elliot which I loved, but the kids wanted to be in control of EVERYTHING! They are both little boys, and they are so cute. We got them from Averi's aide from school (who is the most awesome person). She breeds them to have this special color like a Weimaraner dog.

Needless to say...we are in love with them. I feel like a new mommy. My kids hold them ALL DAY LONG. It has been a nice transition to summer break, that's for sure! My kids aren't whining to me that they are bored all day long, and they are cleaning up the POOP! So far, so good. We'll see what happens as the summer progresses.

Taylor keeps saying "I know it's real because I keep pinching myself and I am not waking up from a dream". It cracks me up! She loves animals SOOOOO much. They keep hugging me and telling me they love me. Averi even loves them. She loves wind chimes a little more, but she calls the puppies by name and pets them.



Averi with Grandma Empey's wind chimes!
and wanting to hold Bandit.





AWWWW! PUPPY LOVE!



Our first road trip to the Tetons.





This is the famous "MISS CHRIS" (Averi's aid) who we adore! These are the parents of
Scout and Bandit.

Snow, snot, and September...that's what dreams are made of!

I would love to post Easter egg hunt pics., but my kids broke my camera! Ugg! We got to go to a ward hunt, and then we took Averi to a "beeping" egg hunt! It was so fun for her. All of my kiddos had a great time. James and I were interviewed on the news, which is my nightmare! I will post James' video, they didn't have one of me to post (yahoo).

We have had the sick bug visiting and it won't leave! Averi has a sinus infection and she has been home all week! She is so sweet, but she is so bored here-we drive each other crazy! I need the other kids to distract her. I can't get anything done with her home! I do like the one-on-one time though. She is such a funny kid.

I have to officially post that I am not too fond of Mother Nature right now! I have spring fever soooo bad! I think I get that SADD thing from the winter and no sunshine. I just want to get out and take my kids for bike rides and walks, but it keeps snowing! What the heck?!? I think I will need to up my prozac doses soon!

Did I mention that James and I are going on a Caribbean cruise? Well...I will be talking about it all the way until September. I have that long to look forward to beaches and swimming with dolphins. The good thing is that I have that long to loose weight. I hate having to lose weight! My body is my enemy sometimes. My mouth has compulsive behavior patterns that force me to eat sweets! I try to stop it, but I can't! So...needless to say, I am going to be cranky until September.

Here is the link to watch James on the news. It won't let me click on it, you have to paste and copy it into the search thingy. Sorry!

http://www.kidk.com/news/local/42856027.html