It's upside-down six-three-eight-- can I go now?

This morning at 8:15 I was in the shower and Creighton came in and said, "It's 5-1-8 on the counter clock, can I go to preschool now?"
Then I got an update every minute on what time it is.
"It's upside down six-three-eight-- can I go now?"
8:47 "Why do the other kids get a shorter minute than me? They are already at preschool. They beat me every day."
Me-"Go look and see if there are any cars. All the kids go to preschool at the same time."
Creighton, "Is after this number preschool?"
"Is it time to go now?"
"How come the clock on your bed has the same numbers as the clock on the counter?"
Finally! 7-5-8! Time to go to preschool!
Phew!!!

My new vow

Here is my new vow: Don't complain about winters that last from October-June and enjoy the seasons. I have learned that I could never live in such a hot place like Phoenix. We just got back from the Phoenix Zoo. It might have been a nice place if it had been 30 degrees cooler.
Will someone remind of this vow Mid-February? How do people choose to live like this!
Truly other than today we have either been inside or in water, so we have survived until today.
It does not feel like October is in a couple of days.

Take Five

Take Five
10 years ago I was:
1. Waiting faithfully for my missionary
2. Living in Orem with two sisters.
3. Working at Waste Connections
4. Trying to learn to drive a stick-shift
5. Crying during every movie or love song.


5 things on my list today:
1. Take care of my niece Lily.
2. Do Sharon's laundry
3. Drive safely back to my hotel
4. Swim at my hotel
5. Try not to be too hot.

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. String Cheese
2. Nuts
3. Chex Mix
4. Guacomole
5. Chocolate


5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Pay off all debt
2. Go back to school
3. Hire a decorator
4. Save for future
5. Buy clothes

5 places I have lived:
1. Ammon, Idaho
2. Rexburg, Idaho
3. Orem, Utah
4. Logan, Utah
5.

5 jobs I have had:
1. Bus girl at JJ Norths
2. Starlite Skating
3. Target
4. MailBoxes Etc.
5. Disability Resource Center

I tag anyone who wants to play!!

Three punks

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Our trip: Part Nine: Coming Home

Well, after two weeks of fun, we were ready to come home. We got onto our plane in Orlando and as soon as we sat down, we were told that the government wasn't allowing planes into Atlanta and we had to wait 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 20 minutes, until we had spent two hours on the plane without taking off.



It was very hot and stuffy. People were getting restless, but they told us that as soon as our stop was lifted from the government, we would take off with or without you so get off at your risk. We stayed.



Then we reached the Atlanta area we were in a holding position in the air for 40 minutes. Then when we finally landed we were in a huge line of airplanes to get to the airport.



So our 1 hour flight turned into 4 hours. So we rush over to where the next plane to SLC takes off, and there are no workers. Tristan waits in line for 45 minutes and finally someone shows up.



The worker announces that there are 50 stand-by people for 18 seats. We thought we were doomed. He finally talks to the guy and "Phew!" we not only got seats, we got 1st class seats!



We are feeling really grateful when other people in line and are told that they aren't getting a seat until 2:00 the next day, and the airline wasn't paying for accomodations because it was weather related.



1st class was pretty nice. We had a water bottle, pillow and blanket waiting for us. They also had a basket of snacks that we could have as much of as we wanted. We felt a little bad for people with kids and old people with canes hobbling past us in 1st class, especially since we paid $7 for the seats!



Anyway, we were so grateful to be home and not having to spend the night at the airport.



It was a wonderful trip, and now we are off the another adventure in Phoenix!

Our trip: Part Eight: More cruising adventures

I know we are all sick of my travel log, but for some reason I keep my blog more updated than my journal or scrapbooks, so if I get it done here, good for me!

Some other excitement on the cruise ship:

Search and Rescue:

Our captain came over the speaker and announced that we had been commisioned by the Coast Guard to go help a boat that had been capsized and we were the closest ones to help them.

When we got there all we could see was a smoke from the flare. The Coast Guard was there by the time we got there and we saw the helicopter rescue three people and then fly over our ship.

Talk about scary. The people were in the water for about 2 hours and they were in good medical condition.

It would have been even more exciting if we had had to lower a rescue boat or something, but that was entertaining if not terrifying.

Kitchen Tour:

We got to take a kitchen tour and see where all of that food was made. That was interesting.

The grand buffet:

The big buffet was pretty amazing as it took 200 man hours to prepare. We got to take pictures first, and then come later and eat. The appetizers were all a little weird, but the desserts were good of course!

For other entertainment we took a Disco Line Dancing class with Butch, our cruise director. We were in the back and then he announced that he wanted the guys to do it by themselves. Tristan tried to sneak off, but Butch caught him and put him in the front. And it was videotaped and replayed for the rest of the cruise. We were stopped by a black guy who told Tristan that he didn't care whatever everyone else thought, Tristan had moves!

We also enjoyed the comedians, and magic shows. Very fun cruise!

We got cute little towels animals in our room every night!

The water slide was only open for one day too, but it was a fun slide.

Don't worry, tomorrow you just to hear about getting home and then I'm done!

Our trip: Part Seven: St. Maarten

You could tell that St. Maarten was a wealthier island. We took an air-conditioned bus tour around the island and swam in the ocean. This time it was raining a lot at the beach so most people on our tour was huddled up in the bar during beach time, but I wasn't coming this far to hang out at a bar.

So, we swam in the rain. At least it didn't bring out the European style sun-bathers which is acceptable in St. Maarten!

After we went shopping, and Tristan took me on a wild goose chase through swamps and iguanas to find a certain store. It was an adventure!

From the very wealthy-- To the poverty:

Our trip: Part Six: St. Thomas

On Tuesday, we were really ready to get off of the ship. We ported in St. Thomas and there were many taxes and buses ready to take you where you wanted to go.

We took a taxi to Downtown (I got to ride up front with the driver and he didn't say a word-Awkward!)

When we got downtown a nice looking man offered to take us on a tour and to a beach to swim. We decided to go with him and we had a very nice time. First we went shopping in the rain, then we ate at Subway.

Our cruise ship, The Carnival GloryOur taxi for our tour.

Another photo shop trick: I took a about 4-5 pictures and then combined them in Photoshop to make it look like a wide angle photo. (Note that same guy walking in two different places)Lifetime dream fulfilled! Go to a beach with white sand and warm water. Luckily it stopped raining for the afternoon and our tour guide took us to Cokie Beach. Beautiful beach with clear still, warm water. I was in heaven! It was weird to have shanties and scary locals working at the beach, but that's OK!

After our tour we took the sky ride to the have incredible views of St. Thomas.

You could either go to the bar or go on the nature trail, and since most people chose the bar we got the nature trail all to ourselves. This might have made the whole trip worth it. Absolutely beautiful!

They didn't have any snakes on the island, but it would take me a while to get used to these running around!

Our trip: Part Five: Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Idaho

We left our insurance card, hoping they wouldn't need to use it. But we were only gone a day or two before Brandon decided it would be a good idea to stick two erasers in his ear at school.

His teacher got one out, but she couldn't see the other one and he insisted it was still in there.

So, she called my mother-in-law and she came and got him from school. They couldn't get it out either, so they had to go see a doctor. That didn't really feel so good.



You would think that when you were six you wouldn't be sticking things in bodily orifices anymore, but what can you do? Luckily there was no damage, except for our pocket book.

Moral of the story: Don't stick things in your ears!

Our trip: Part Four: Cruising

Well, after playing hard at Disneyworld we finally made it to our cruise.

We were immediately dissapointed when they first thing they did was hand us a paper that said we weren't going to the Bahamas because of hurricanes.

Yes, we would rather be safe than dead, but that was also most of the reason we booked the cruise!

Now a word on hurricanes! Would we go on another cruise during hurricane season?

No, probably not. We watched the news every night and saw that we were always ahead or behind a hurricane. We would say, hey we were there two days ago and now there is a hurricane there! We would pray, but with all of the "drinking and dancing" going on our cruise, I wasn't sure if we would be saved!

Someone was watching out because we were fine, (despite everyone at home worrying about us). It was a little rainier than we would have liked, but we'll take some rain over being at the bottom of the ocean!

So we got 2 1/2 days at Sea, then 2 port days, then 2 1/2 days back at sea.

Here are some random pictures of our cruise:

The Lobby:

The hot tub in the middle of the gym:



Joseph, our super-charged matre' d! He was quite a character.


Leaving from Port Canaveral. Sparkly Night: (Thanks for the clothes Joy!) Ice carving demo:
We decided that if we were going to eat all of the food, we better exercise. (At least for a few minutes) More sparkly nights:
It was so windy the mini-golf was only open one day!

We also learned that we were a little out of our element on our cruise. We heard about the drinking, but we had no idea we would get nighttime drunks coming to our room. (I guess that's what you get for being cheap and staying on Level 1.) The first night at about 4:00 a.m, there was a guy right outside of our door who was drunker than a skunk. He was ranting and raving about how he already spent his $150 on booze and how he was on international waters and they were going to throw him in jail. A lady opened her door and in her southern accent said, "You get on and now and hush?" Did this deter our drunk, no, he replied, "She just told me to hush!"

He returned the next night about 2 or 3 times making throw up noises and carrying on.

Then two nights later we got a knock at our door at 4:00 a.m. She wouldn't stop knocking so Tristan finally opened the door.

Drunk woman: "I'm so sorry. I'm so drunk and can't find my room or my friend."

Tristan: "It's Ok, it's not your fault."

Drunk woman: "I can't find my friend."

Tristan. "Why don't you go to the lobby on level 3 and they can help."

Then less than 20 minutes later, knock knock!

Tristan uses the peep hole only to find the same woman only this time she is eating pizza!

I roll over and shout, "This is not your room!"

Drunk woman. "Oh, Ok!"

Tristan really should have opened the door and grabbed the pizza before he kicked her out!

Our Trip: Part 3: Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Animal Kingdom

The third day we visited Animal Kingdom, which is waaaay more than a zoo!


They have two Broadway worthy shows (Lion King and Finding Nemo) that are


incredible! We also enjoyed the backward roller coaster and the jungle safari!



Part of the Parade:

Animal Kingdom is a very pretty park!
We got a little wetter than we would have liked on the rapids ride. It is so humid thatyou don't dry either!

Lion King Show:

Hollywood Studios

The day after we got back from our cruise we spent about 13 hours in Hollywood Studios.

We loved all of the shows, especially the nightime one. You can't even describe how awesome it is!We got to ride the new Toy Story ride 3 times. This shows how even waiting in line can be entertaining!

Jedi training: Brandon was so jealous!

He just couldn't resist.
Indiana Jones stunt show: