Few more pics...

The rest of the vacation was fabulous. Our next stop was in Grand Cayman. We went to stingray city and swam with the stingrays. We also did some snorkelling. I didn't like the stops we snorkelled but I got to hold a huge starfish. It was pretty cool. The stingrays were definitely my favorite but I don't have any pictures yet because I need to get them developed. We had one of the old fashioned, waterproof cameras. I will show those pictures at a later date.

Right on the side of the ocean was a little neighborhood with their own little canal. Along the canal live a whole bunch of huge Iguanas. It was crazy....they didn't even look real.

We also went to Hell! (Hell, Grand Cayman) It was a little town named Hell. We mailed postcards to the kids so they could get something from Hell. It was pretty dumb! I wouldn't recommend going to Hell....now or in the future.

Our last stop was in the Princess Cays, Bahamas. It was dumb and we were ready to be done. The best part of the day was when Troy sported his speedo. Thanks Jill...never thought I would ever see Troy in one of those. So...here, for all of you to see, Troy in his speedo (he is so embarassed but knew he would never live it down if he didn't dare do it).

He looks pretty good, doesn't he?

Last but not least, I had to put this in here for Lorin. The day before the Bahamas we had an at-sea day and Lorin fell asleep in the sun. He got so sunburned, look how fried he is. He had to walk around like Yosemite Sam because even his armpits were burned. Poor Guy!

Vacation is over, now it is time to get back to reality!

Thanks Jill, Aaron, Lorin, Jackie, Art, Amy, Nate, Stacey, Justin and Lisa for a great trip! See you next time...but not on a ship!

More from the cruise

First Stop....Jamaica

I absolutely loved Jamaica. The scenery was beautiful, the people were so nice and the beef pattys and Jerk Chicken were yummy! We had such a great time we hit Dunns River Falls and the Chukka Canopy Tour. Here are a few pics:

* All the girls in the falls. So fun!

*The whole group. All 12 of us with one guide to get us up the falls.

* Here is our guide. They call him Superman! He was, he got us all up there and he did it with no shoes on.

*On our way to the canopy tour we passed many houses that people live in. They don't have running water or windows. It was amazing.

* Here is Jill on the zip line. It was so beautiful!

* The beautiful walk back to our shuttle.

* Zip line....If you didn't know.

So thats Jamaicamon! Sorry, that was bad...I never claimed to be Jamaican and it shows!

Post-Vacation Post

So I have been reminded by many people that I need to post. So here I am. I have been a little busy getting ready for vacation, work stuff etc. Honestly, I need time to stop just so I can get caught up on everything. But, here I am back from a nice warm vacation sitting in my filthy house wanting to be back on vacation.

Pre Cruise

A little about our vacation. We had such a great time. We started out in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. We flew in at midnight so I reserved a hotel close to the airport so the taxi ride wouldn't be a fortune. We showed up and it was a dive. I was affraid to walk around the room without shoes on and I thought someone was going to rob us so we double locked the room (dead-bolt and chain). Then the air-conditioner would kick on and the whole room would vibrate. It was sooooo loud! We had to lean our suitcases on the door (it helped with the vibration of the ac and so nobody could break in). Pretty sad. To say the least, we will never stay there again.

The next day, I was glad to get out of that hotel and get back to the airport to meet the rest of our group. Jill and Aaron, Lorin and Jackie and many others met us there. We were ready for some adventures and they were all tired after an all night flight.

Later that day we headed out to the everglades (if you read Jills blog you will just hear more of the same, blah!blah!blah!). We saw 5 or 6 alligators. And, did you know that alligators can go under water for up to 19 hours. That is what our guide told us! It's true I promise because everything he says is true. He even told us that there are 11 million people in Ft. Lauderdale that are out or work. See, I told you it is true. We had fun even if everything he said was FALSE!

*Did I tell you the boat was really loud. We had to wear ear plugs. What! It was nice to wear the ear plugs so we didn't have to listen to the lies from Chuck the tour guide.

* Here I am holding a baby alligator. I loved it and Troy wouldn't touch it. Maybe he was scared!

Saturday morning before boarding the ship we drove to Miami. We had no idea where we were going but just wanted to find a beach. We found one. It was loaded with jelly fish that Jackie was playing with and naked ladies. This time we weren't even looking for the naked people, they were just there staring at us with their big, giant, sagging, tan headlights. It was nasty!

* Here we are in Miami, it was a beautiful beach with cute life guard shacks....

* And a lot of people.

**Zoom in if you would like to see the nasties.

* Or you could just look at Jackie giving her impression of the nasties.

So, that is the beginning or our vacation. I will post more later, and I promise it won't take me a month to do so.

Fire! We're on fire!

So we are slowly finishing our basement and we had our guys down there yesterday doing some framing. I was upstairs with the kids, and yes they are still off-track. I was playing a game of Life with Madison, Eli was helping me. He is such great help.

We have a very, I mean very, sensitive smoke alarm way up in our vaulted ceiling. Anytime I burn something just a little bit the smoke goes up in the vault and sets the alarm off and then you can't get the alarm to shut off until you get the smoke cleared out.

Well, yesterday during our game of Life....the alarm goes off. It didn't scare me because I knew it was probably some dust or something from down stairs. No big deal, I went over to where the alarm is and started fanning a paper to try to get the air to move around. At this point, the kids are nervous. They are all standing right under my feet (moms, you know what I mean)! As I am fanning I notice flames down in our return air vent. You know, those big vents by the floor. There were flames shooting up in there. So I ran down stairs and yelled, "Fire, We're on fire!"

As I got down there, I realized one of the guys was grinding on a piece of steel right under the return air vent. No, it wasn't fire but only sparks. Tyson ran upstairs to make sure everything was okay. Sure enough, no flames just sparks.

The alarm was still going full blast so the guys grabbed some big mats and started waving them around. We opened all the doors and finally the alarm went off.

Thanks Tyson, I'm an idiot! You can make fun of me if you want but it really looked like flames.

Madison was so funny too. When I ran down stairs I told all the kids to go outside and of course they followed me. Madison started screaming because she was so scared. The first thing she did was turn off her hearing aids, smart girl that'll at least save her ears from the alarm!

Off-Track! Aaaaaahhhh!

My kids are off-track and I swear they were just off-track. Where does the time go? We have 3 1/2 weeks of off-track time. What am I supposed to do during off-track time? My kids get bored, how do I entertain them for 3 1/2 weeks? Off-track time makes me want to scream!!!
(I just wanted to see how many times I could mention off-track in one paragraph).

Any ideas? I need ideas of what to do with kids in the winter. Yesterday we went to the dollar movies and saw Madagascar 2 for the third time. I probably don't want to do that again. Please, any ideas are welcome especially if they are paid airline tickets to Chicago or maybe somewhere else that is warmer.

Out of the cold

Last week we decided to head south. The kids had Martin Luther King Day off so we headed to St. George to get some sun and warmth. We loaded the bikes and headed south. It's sad that all of our vacations revolve around biking. We always find other things for the kids to do. I think they had fun. The kids played at a park, went on a walk, watched birds in a pond (thanks to Heidi for naming the birds), Madison took pictures with her camera, fed lots and lots of ducks and geese (about 4 loaves of bread), and went to Zions. We packed a lot into 3 days! The kids were ready to come home. However, I am ready to go back. I am so sick of the snow and yucky air.

Few pics from the weekend...

Look closely in the background to the right and you can see a Blue Herrin (not sure on the spelling).

Eli and his cute hat hair. He was looking good!

Troy and the kids going for a walk in Zions. Like father like children...


What's so exciting Gabe? Oh yeah, he is always like this.

Madison in Zions.

Zions was so beautiful, I wish we had more time to spend.

I didn't get any pictures of the bike rides but Heidi, Sunny and I were getting mad air...

So fun!

Swimming pool vs. Puke

I'm back! It has been almost two months since I have written. Sorry, but I have been a little overwhelmed with everything that has been going on. Christmas, weddings, school, work, BMX, church callings etc. etc. I will try to be better but I can't guarantee anything. Honestly, I haven't even been reading the blogs or even turning on my computer. The only reason I have even turned on my computer was to delete emails or do work and then it gets turned off.

I read some of my sisters blogs (you know who you are) tonight and realized how much I need this. I realized that everybody struggles and gets busy and this is an outlet to make them feel better. Sorry, I am just rambling......blah!blah!blah!

Okay on to the title of the post. What do you think would win, the simming pool or the puke. Well, let me tell you that I found out if someone pukes in a pool they will shut it down. So, I guess the puke would win. Do you want to know why I know this?

Okay, okay I will tell you. Last night we decided to go swimming at a swimming pool nearby (I will withold the name for certain reasons). Troy was going to workout upstairs and I would swim with the kids. Troy would join us later. Well, as soon as Troy left we got in the pool. We were all swimming and having a great time. All of a sudden Eli swallowed a whole bunch of water. Immediately he starts gagging. This has happened many times with him (not in the pool but other places). He is my really good puker (Clisty, Meg, Jill, Sean, you all know first hand). I now realize that he is going to puke so I put my hand by his mouth and try to get him out of the pool. He starts puking, I catch what I can. Almost immediately we are on the pool deck. I don't know how we got there but mothers turn into superwoman when something is wrong with their kids. Now, on the pool deck he continues to puke. Mostly, the dinner that we ate about an hour earlier. At this point, I am looking around for some help. I am all alone with three kids, what to do? I flagged down a life guard, and she's like"You want me?" And I'm like, "Yes! Duh!"

She came over and immediately grabbed someone else to help. Obviously, she didn't want to clean it up. While all this was happening I was still standing there with puke in my hands and puke all over Eli's face. Not a pretty site! To keep the story short....we got it cleaned up with some stuff like kitty litter sprinkled on it and a nice big, bright orange cone to warn people that there is puke on the pool deck.

The girl asked me if any got in the pool and I just told her I don't know. Then she told me they would have to shut the pool down if it got in there. So I said, no I am pretty sure there wasn't any and she couldn't see any. I didn't want to be the reason for the pool shutting down. I have been there before when they have shut it down for poop, everybody gets mad.

So there you have it, puke would win. I think from now on it will be called the Puke Deck!

(Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I was just rambling on a bit and I am not even going to reread it before I post it)