California

The Long Post.

Andrew and I flew back to California for my mom's birthday. I was very worried about the flight. That's an understatement. I got so worried that I couldn't eat anything and juts felt sick with fear that he would cry and scream the whole way. (The last time we came back from California, I was flying with Andrew alone and he cried the whole way. I cried most the way. I had friendly grandparents and flight attendants hold him and try to soothe him (and myself). It was extremely stressful and I vowed I would never fly along with Andrew again.) So I felt my fears were justified.

The flight there was fine. I had struggles getting down the ramp thingy to the airplane because I had to get Andrew out of the car seat and fold up the luggage carrier. (I attached the car seat to a luggage carrier so I could just pull/push Andrew around in that instead of bringing a stroller - absolutely brilliant!) The flight wasn't full, yet two (large) men decided to sit next to me. I'm not sure why, I was in the last row and had a kid on my lap, but whatever. Andrew fell asleep for about half an hour, but I tried to readjust him and woke him up. Drat. He was really sleepy because we were flying during nap time so he just hung out on my lap most the way. I was worried because he could have either been super sleepy, or super crazy because he was so tired. I'm glad it wasn't the latter. He had a few moments where he went a bit stir crazy, but all in all, I was pretty proud of my little bubba.

A new favorite photo.

Andrew got to play with Grandpa.

And our cat Abby. He loved her. He would chase her around saying "tiddy, tiddy" or he would actually call her by name.

Andrew had lots of fun playing outside. My mom and I were gardening, so he played in the dirt.

My parents have this wooden statue of a miner on the deck and Andrew just loved this little guy. He tried to water his mining bowl...

And give him offerings of cat food in his bowl...
And when that didn't work, he tried to feed him the cat food.

Andrew got to spend time with Grandmama too.

We got Andrew a Sharks hat while we were there. (We just had to! They don't sell them here and they're in the playoffs!) We were all impressed at how long he would leave his hat on. We had lots of fun with it.

He played the piano AND sang to us. :)

He loved hiding back behind the chairs.

I love these photos. This was my coat when I was little. There are photos of me in it when we went camping so I made him wear it when it was cold so I could take photos. He loved the coat too!

Katelyn!

ORANGES!

I found him hiding...

I have really missed watching hockey, namely the Sharks, while living in Texas. We don't get the games (until playoffs). So while we were there we all put on our jerseys to watch the Sharks. Andrew got his jersey for Christmas from Grandpa and it says Kearns on the back. My jersey was from when I was a kid. When Andrew sees hockey on TV he raises up his arms and says "gooooooooo" (meaning "goal" because I scream it when they score...) It's very cute.

Working in the garden with Grandmama.

I was worried when he started getting into the cabinets, but he just wanted to point out the apples on the shelves.

te-hee

The flight back was great too! The plane was just over half full, so I had a whole row to myself. We were able to take Andrew's car seat on the plane and he stayed in it the whole time! Even when I got him out so he could move around, he just went back to his car seat. Thanks to our friends who lent us their portable DVD player. Andrew watched Baby Signing Time and other kid videos most the way. He had a few moments of frustration when he didn't want to play with the toys I brought, but other than that, he was great! It was such a blessing!!!!!

(photos from my Mom's party coming soon!)

Easter

Yes I know Easter was a while ago, but it's better late than never right? (That seems to be my philosophy as of late). Our friends has a Easter party at their house. It was lots of fun. Here are photos. Enjoy!

Cruise (part 2 - adventures)

We had two days off ship. Our first stop was Progreso, Mexico. We had to take a bus from our ship to the city. We wanted to go see the Mayan ruins and had been told by our friends about a particular area that they heard was nice. We ended up going with our friends, the Hales and another couple. We don't know what anything really is because we wanted to walk around on our own instead of taking the long tour. We had a lot of fun.























There was a sink hole that we heard was at the end of the "tour". We wore our suits and the weather was perfect for a swim...except there were fish in the water, and I don't do fish!


This is a video of Ryan and our friend Jimmy. It shows the sink hole better than our lone picture


Our second day to Mexico was to Cozumel. Here we hung out on the beach with our friends.
.
If you look in the background of this picture, you can see to the left a big white "iceburg" that you could climb and slide down. There was also a trampoline out in the water that you could jump around on and paddle boats and kayaks too. The boys played on the iceberg for a while and Ryan and I went on the paddle boats.

This is also a significant photo because my dear friend Mandy was so supportive of me going into the water. If you don't know me, I don't go in water where there are fish

Cruise (Part 1- On the Ship)

So I've started this blog post many times, but every time something happens and it erases. I hope this one makes it.

We went on a cruise a few weeks ago and it was AWESOME! I have never been on a cruise before so I was like a little kid in a candy store. There were 4 other couples that went with us and I think that made the trip even more fun! There was always someone to hang out with and new places to explore.

We hadn't really figured out how we were going to get down to Galveston, but the guys surprised all the ladies by rending a limo. We live across the street from another of the couples who went on the cruise so we all decided to meet around here. The girls were all confused when there was a limo driver outside and one of the guys actually played it off like he was helping the "lost" limo driver find another neighborhood. Clever. What a nice surprise.


This is our ship, the Carnival Ecstasy.


A little tour for your enjoying pleasure.

The first day we decided to play some mini-golf. It was so windy though that the balls would roll around on their own. I did horrible -HORRIBLE! Until hole 9 when I got a HOLE IN ONE! It was an all or nothing hole (I wish), but it was really fun.





We claimed tables everywhere we went. Our group brought lots of fun games to play. This is in one of the dining areas.



This is in the Starlight Lounge which is the bigger entertainment room. We played many games here as well. Luckily they had big booths for all of us!




Our friends performed "The Three Amigos" for the talent show. It was awesome!


The guys performed "I Will Survive" for karaoke. There's video somewhere...


This is where we had dinner every night.

and fun too

One night there was a "formal night" where we got all dressed up for dinner and dancing. It was nice to wear my (favorite) prom dress, except when I was done eating. I thought I would rip the dress at the seams, so I went back to my room and changed into my backup dress :) (it's good to be prepared)

We went dancing a few nights and I can honestly say it was a lot of fun. (This coming from the girl who hated dances at school or any form of dancing for that matter) I really think this cruise helped me open up and relax. After dancing, we were always hot so we would go to our "wind tunnel" to cool off. Any idea how it got that nickname?






:)


Other activities on the ship included shuffleboard,
and water slides.



This is our last night on the ship (or so we thought) Look how foggy it is already.
The next day the fog was even worse. The docks in Galveston were closed due to so much fog. We kept getting hourly updates from the cruise director but it wasn't until later that evening that we knew we would have another day on the ship. It wouldn't have been so bad if they would have just told us in the morning, but the waiting was frustrating. We still had a good time thought and enjoyed another day and night for free!

All in all, the was the best vacation I have been on. I can't wait for the next one! (hint hint)