Summer Time Blues - Not Yet!!

We are almost a month into summer, which for us is about half way.  So far, we are all doing really well.  There have been vacations and camps and lots to do so far.  The kids are mostly getting along with the exception of the "boredom poke"... you know...just poke someone cuz they're there and you have nothing better to do.  While at Goodwill last week looking for some costume pieces for Annie, the boys found a baggie of toys that contained a large stack of Magic cards and a slinky and a small poker set all for the grand total of $3.  It's been a wise investment thus far.  I have heard much laughter coming from my torn apart living room as they try to figure out the finer points to poker. (no gambling involved Ü)  Add that with our weekly trips to the library to be awarded with such great prizes as a "world" beach ball and shiny blue lights and the trips to the pool along with our weekly outing to the summer movies and we've hardly had time to realize we have nothing to do! 

Annie has kept us very busy for the past two weeks with rehearsals every night.  We perform this weekend and then we rest!  I probably shouldn't have jumped right back into another play after Hairspray but Brooklyn and Dalin are loving it so I guess it's worth all the juggling.  Chelsey has served as the go-to girl behind the scenes doing set painting, back stage hand, makeup and hair and anything else they need from her.  She's enjoyed being busy and involved.  Nick will be helping backstage so we have quite the involvement again. They are doing Camp Rock in the fall, my kids are already getting stoked for that one.

I am getting restless already though, from being stuck in this heat.  I look out at my weed covered garden and wish I could plant it and make something grow.  I drive by my favorite running trails and wish I could be on them. (It's 80 by 6 am)  I see my porch swing and want to sit and enjoy the view.  My empty jars are collecting in mass with no yummy things to put into them.  For me summer is the pre-curser to the good life - fall! 

Cruise - Day 4

Wednesday was another day in Cabo.  We got off the ship fairly early with nothing but shopping on our minds.  We visited all the little shops which contained all the same things.  The only real challenge was to see who would sell it to you the cheapest.  This went on for quite a while before we had finally attained a souvenier for each one of the kids.  By the time we were done, I was exhausted from the haggling.  If I heard "almost free..." or "just for you.." one more time! 

While on land we called home to check in with the kids.  What I heard was "hey mom!  Can I go play with .."  Very not what I had expected.  I guess they were all doing just fine!  Today I got a little sunburned on the top of my feet from walking around all day, it didn't last long though. We had to find an authentic little Mexican food stand to eat fish tacos from before we left and let me tell ya...there really aren't that many!  We did find one and most enjoyed their shrimp tacos (not me...eww).  We searched for the ceviche man again but with no luck.  While looking for him, we met a really nice couple from Utah and talked with them for awhile.  There were actually quite a few members of the church on the boat. 

We took a really long nap and then went to dinner.  Tonight our waiters danced for us again to Shorty Got Low.  Some were really fun to watch and some were just really funny.  Our waiter sucked.  He had no personality, even in just being our waiter.  That's a real bummer because having a fun waiter is half of the experience!  I ate stroganoff  for dinner and was sorely disappointed that it didn't come with noodles.  Huh?  Weird, but it was Ok because as with every night, it was topped off with chocolate melting cake and ice cream. 

We went to a show again tonight which was actually pretty entertaining, but not my favorite thing to do.  Turned in early after a long day of walking the stores.

Waiters on the tables

Taco stand.

I know what Banos are and that's all you really need to know.

Robin, Melanie, Jake and Jenny in Cabo

Cruise - Day 3

Tuesday was our first day in Cabo San Lucas.  I started the day with a run on deck 3 this day.  It was a nice long stretch of empty deck that I had all to myself!  After breakfast, we headed out on the little boats called "tenders" to get over to Cabo.  After bargaining with several men, we finally convinced Alfredo to take us to Chileno Beach for $10 per person.  It was about half an hour drive and of course, we needed to stop at his brother's store before we got there.  The beach was beautiful but a little pesky.  Jake and Glade tried snorkeling, but there wasn't a whole lot to see.  We on the beach were tormented by BEES.  We seem to be the only ones so we think maybe it was our American sunscreen they were attracted to.  Seriously, we killed over 20 before we finally moved.  A little boy next to us was wailing quite loudly when we discovered he'd tried to pick up a little blue jelly fish.  They were everywhere.  All up and down the beach they had been washed ashore.  You had to walk very carefully.  After about 20 minutes, I offered them half of an Advil PM (has Benadryl in it).  The boy chewed it anxiously and continued to scream.  We eventually convinced them to try peeing on it.  Gross I know...haven't you ever seen Friends??  We went and climbed some rocks down the beach and they were covered with crabs.  Kinda cool to see, but kinda not at the same time.  Turned out to not be our favorite day on the beach.

On the way back to Cabo, we got the privilege of stopping by a glass factory (must have been another brother).  They showed us how they made a glass turtle and of course, had the tip jar sitting out in front.  Luckily it was a short stop, Alfredo didn't even turn off the van, and we were back on our way.  We walked around a little bit and found a guy who sold homemade ceviche, which apparently was delectable! On the tender ride back we overheard a girl gushing about how their excursion had gotten canceled and so they spent the whole day on the beach being waited on and only spent $60 on alcohol.  She was happy how the day turned out.

We took a short nap and headed to dinner.  Tonight our waiters danced on the tables for us.  Very entertaining.  We caught the comedy act again, but a different guy.  Before the show started we stood up to do the disco line dance they had taught us (they were playing the song) and we were told there couldn't be any dancing on the dance floor.  They didn't want us disturbing any of the equipment... a stool and a microphone pole ( no microphone).  Seriously??  Lame.

Then we ventured into the Karaoke bar where Glade serenaded me while I looked through the book of songs, sorry babe!  As a group we got up and performed Summer Nights from Grease.  After our award winning performance, we checked in at the dance club.  The boys weren't loving it and wanted to go see the magician performing.  They left and us girls stayed.  The music was pretty lame, but then they totally nailed it with a streak of great 80's songs for us to sweat to.  Word Up, Ice Ice Baby, Can't Touch This, and Push it.  We ended the night with the Electric Slide.  So Great!!!

I loved this picture of Melanie and Robin.

The pirate ship

The glass factory

Riding the tender boat... Laurie, Glade, Jake and Jenny.

Glade singing to me.

Cruise - Day 2

Day two started nice and early (7am) with a run up on the track.  It takes 11 times around to make a mile.  This was the only day I ran on the track because lots of other people had the same idea and it was way too crowded.  It may not have been quite so bad had it not been for the older lady strolling in her flip flops holding her cup of coffee right down the middle of the track.  Or the three women chatting while they took up the entire width of the track....very frustrating.  I don't know if I mentioned we were on the 1st floor and everything else was on the 9th or higher, so the climb 3 - 4 times a day got included as part of my daily workout.

This was a "fun day at sea" so we spent the day doing things around the boat.  We played mini golf, took a disco class, attended the Hairy chest competition (one of my favorite things to do!) and played speed scrabble in the piano bar.  While we were playing, the fire alarm went off so all the doors closed and locked.  Hmmm, does anyone ever take an alarm seriously?  We just kept playing till they let us out. 

Robin was sick all day with an upset stomach and fever.  Glade and Jake gave him a blessing and we checked in on him from time time to time, but he never left his room.  Melanie was a great sport and continued to join in the activities.  We all felt really bad for him.

That night was formal night so we gussied ourselves up and went to dinner.  I had a super yummy pumpkin soup with my dinner and our waiters sang That's Amour e for us.  After dinner we went to see the "family" comedy show which was fairly good.  I was shocked through out the cruise what people considered "family".  After, we went to catch the end of the main show.  It was fun and the finale song was You Can't Stop the Beat from Hairspray.  So fun and hard to sit in your seat when you know a dance to it!

Slight explanation... These were the "dummies" posted outside of the dance club, weird.  How do you pass by those and not touch them??  Totally inappropriate, I know.

I'm home!!

It's been a whirlwind since we got back from our cruise (which I need to finish blogging).  We just returned from Cali and I'm so sad to have had to leave there.  The weather was beautiful and I so enjoyed doing absolutely nothing with my family.  I'll have to get on that blogging soon before I forget all the good stuff.  First I'll have to sort through the 500 pictures we have (deleted almost 300).  We had SO much fun!  I think we are done vacationing for this summer, bummer.  So many projects I would like to get done and so little energy.  Annie plays in 10 days!

Cruise - Day 1

Seven day cruise to Mexico officially begins!  We left bright and early on Sunday morning.  We all piled into Glade's truck and headed out for Long Beach, CA at 6 am.  We were a little squished, but who cares when you are going on a CRUISE!  Our trip there was pretty uneventful...until...I had a sudden desire to check our birth certificates.  I don't know why, but I did.  I pulled them out and low and behold, I had grabbed Bo's instead of Glade's.  Woops.  Good thing I checked...too bad it wasn't until we were four hours from home already.  We went into panic mode..almost to the point of just pulling the truck over.  Glade was a little less than happy at this point.  Lucky for me my paperwork had an "emergency" number on it in case something happened and you might miss the boat.  I think this qualified.  I called it and explained what had happened and their response was "no problem, can you just fax it?"  Ummm, sure...but what about that whole "original copy" thing?  I didn't really ask that, I was very grateful.

Now the trick was having Whitley locate it at home and  get it to someone with a fax machine in the next hour.  It is Sunday you know.  We didn't find a fax machine, but we did get it emailed and then uploaded and then downloaded and then electronically faxed, blah blah blah.  Technology...seriously.   We walked right up, told them what we needed and we were let on to the ship!  Whew!!

Of course we ate first thing on the boat, we had been saving up all day!  We unpacked, got settled and headed to Salsa Class.  He had us sweating in only 30 min.  They also had a game show that Glade got to participate in and WON!!  Now he is the proud owner of a 24K solid plastic piece of ship on a stick.  I was so proud!  We had our first of many overly indulgent dinners and went to bed feeling like stuffed turkeys. 

Our first gas stop and potty break, one of many!

Glade as contestant number 1.

Yeah for crappy trophies!!

Salsa class

Our teacher, Dennis, had no idea what he had taught us two minutes before and kept changing what we did next or how many times we did it or in what direction to do it in.  Hence the chaos in the picture above.  It was quite confusing, but very much fun!

Coming Home

After a wonderful week of cruising, we have returned.  We drove the long 6 hour trek from Long Beach to AZ and arrived right at 7 pm last night.  Our kids were delighted to see us, and we were them.  I hate to say the word "forget" but it's all I can come up with right now....you forget how great it is to be with them until you haven't been for awhile.  We all sat in the living room and talked about what went on here and where we were, everyone talking at once.  I loved it.  Then we passed out the goodies...what they were all really waiting for!  I reminded them this wasn't Christmas and that it's just a little token from Mexico.  I think they all liked their gifts..Katy got a dolphin whistle and a little bracelet, Rhett, Dalin and Bo got these cool little dragons, Stephen and Nick got groovy leather bracelets, Brooklyn got a beautiful sparkly bracelet (I got one too!), Whitley got an adorable dress and Chelsey got 2 necklaces.  The only negative comment came from Bo who said he loved his dragon BUT I could have stopped at Wal Mart and gotten him a new Beyblade instead.  Sheesh. 

I was really happy to sleep in my own bed and walk around with no shoes on...you don't really get to do that on the boat.  The kids had a pretty uneventful week, Chelsey held up really well. The house wasn't exactly what I would like to have come home to, but not too bad.  They hadn't vacuumed all week..yikes!!  The only real bad news was that we were out of bread, milk, butter, water and laundry detergent.  Nothing too serious. Ü  My refrigerator was quite bare.  Hence, I was up by 5:30 and to the store by 7.  (Rhett had to leave for scout camp at 5am)  I resupplied the kitchen and headed out to workout at the church.  I gained 2lbs on the trip and I was already the heaviest I've been for 2 years so I totally needed it.  After a nice sweaty workout, I headed to Costco to finish stocking up.  Later I laid down with Katy for a little snooze, boy how I missed that!  She was so cuddly and couldn't snuggle close enough.  After a little conversation, she finally laid still and mumbled "I love you mama."  Life is good.

We have a super busy week with everyone coming and going and getting ready for our beach trip next week.  Play practice every night as well.  Nothing like coming home from a week of nothing to a week of everything!  I have a feeling the summer is going to fly....I'll keep you posted.