Travel Pacifiers

No, not the kind babies suck on.

I couldn't have made my 36-hour long (both ways combined) car trip without the following:

Our entire family loves this CD. The songs are fun to sing to and Laurie's voice is not annoying.

The girls really love this microphone (girl not included). It has pre-programmed songs and you can sing along, change the pitch, song speed, and volume. The girls played with it for hours!

We still are pretty sure that Sydney gets carsick, and I'm not willing to test her. So, we don't watch DVDs on trips or let her read/look at books. Mike gets car sick, so it does run in the family. (Who knows if that's even possible, but whatever.)

Mexican Riviera Cruise IV - The Anti-Bacterial part

So, I couldn't post about this cruise and not mention the great lengths that Norweigan goes to to prevent the spread of the Norovirus. We received multiple handouts and warnings and were literally sprayed each time we got on the ship, or entered a dining area. Of course, I'm glad for their precautions, because obviously some people don't have the time/energy to keep themselves clean.

Here is Mike demonstrating the use of one of the hundreds of hand-sanitizing stations.

Mexican Riviera Cruise III

Our third port of call was Puerto Vallarta. We got into port around 7 am, but we took our time getting off, so we didn't leave the ship until around 11. The first thing we saw when we got off the boat was a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sam's Club. Funny. Anyway, we hired a taxi for the day (it sounds so easy, but it actually required much negotiation) and Jonathan (pictured below) took us around to some sights (here I am at a lookout) and then took us to Playa Mismaloya where we snorkled and sunned ourselves for a couple of hours. The Mikes actually did most of the snorkeling, Cheryl did pretty good too. I tried to, but the water was really cold, and the water wasn't super clear so I kept having little panic episodes...you know me. But at least I tried!

Then we went over to a Canopy course (zip-line) just to check it out and also see where the movie Predator was filmed. (I actually have never heard of this movie, but everyone else seemed familiar with it...go figure.)

Here we are with Jonathan and my ginormous bag.

Jonathan dropped us off in downtown after our day of sightseeing and we walked around and looked in some shops and then started our 5-mile (no lie, it might have been longer) walk back to the ship (our choice, crazy us). We stopped and bought Cokes (to take back onto the ship with us cuz we're cheap). A beautiful sunset that we had to run to see, but it was worth it. (We had to run because we were walking alongside a fence and we just couldn't see much!)

Mexican Riviera Cruise II

Our second port of call was Mazatlan. We got off the ship and took a taxi to the old part of town. The taxis were pretty cool because they were open at the top, so you felt like you were in the middle of all the action. We walked around a little bit, saw this beautiful church, saw a bunch of people paying their property taxes (I know, so exciting huh?), and went to a mercado (that's a market for you non-Dora watching people out there). I think one of my most vivid memories of Mexico in general will be people asking me to buy their stuff. Although I did find myself loving to negotiate. There were so many things to see at the market. There were some tourists there, but you could also tell that a lot of the local people came for their groceries. There was an entire meat section that was not for the faint of heart. We saw butchers cutting up entire cows! And the smell was just divine. Cheryl and I had to walk through quickly. (Sadly, no pictures of the mercado, guess I was too busy holding my nose or trying to talk someone down a $1).

Mike, Cheryl, and Mike on the beach in Mazatlan. Well, I guess I should tell you a little about our friends that we went with! How rude of me to not introduce. Mike and Cheryl are our friends from Marysville, WA. We lived in the same neighborhood and had lots of fun nights hanging out, playing cards, and eating too many goodies. (Wow, that's all we ever do together!) They have 5 children, Cheryl stays at home, and Mike is a postal worker. ;)

Our insane friends decided to para-sail. Mike (my Mike) didn't even ask if A) I minded if he went or B) if I wanted to go.

Cruise- Formal-ish Night

So, on most cruises there is a formal night where you are supposed to dress up and then they'll take your picture and way over charge you for it. On Norweigan, they are "Freestyle", meaning that really whatever you want to do is cool. No assigned eating times, no formal dress code, etc. So, it sounds nice, but we didn't particulary love it. We felt that the service wasn't as good and I (being the Type A that I am) kind of like a schedule. Anyway, all that to say that below are our formal night pictures. Not so formal, but we had fun, and had lots of fun taking pictures.

(And just to make Mike not feel like any less of a man...I made him pose with me in all of these. He was forced.)

Love my shoes...($5 at Target...woot!)

Gotta love it. We kind of look inky-eyed though, because we had a SERIOUS case of the red-eye and this is how Picasa fixed it.

Mexican Riviera Cruise I

This was our first afternoon on the ship. We stayed in Manhattan Beach on Friday night and took an entertaining taxi ride down to San Pedro on Saturday morning. The taxi driver had installed 3 DVD screens AND a Karaoke system. Crazy...but unfortunately he was having technical difficulties and I was unable to sing Britney's Womanizer. Our ship, the Norweigan Star, departed around 3pm.

We had a full day at sea which included some running, a lot of eating, and a lot of relaxing. Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We had to tender in (take a little boat from the ship) and then we hired a water taxi to take us over to Lover's Beach. It was so beautiful. We saw on the Pacific Ocean side for a little bit (the water was really rough and Mike got tired of me freaking out every time he went in) and then we came over to the calmer side and snorkled a little. The water was pretty cold, so we didn't stay in very long.

The Arch at Land's End.

Same rock formations at sunset as we were leaving.

Let's get productive, productive...

...get it? Like, "Let's get physical...." Anyway, here are some productive things we did over our break.

We hung produce baskets in the kitchen to free up some counter space.

We built more shelving in the basement for food storage.

We bought the girls new beds. Sydney transitioned out of her crib and into a big girl bed very smoothly. She has even napped in her bed! Her favorite part is jumping off of it and hearing the thud she makes when she hits the floor.

We also helped my mom buy a new car! We sold her car for her when she left on her mission, so she was excited to get some new wheels.

Where's Sydney?

A few cute pictures of Sydney sleeping in her new big girl bed.

I know you want some...

but you'll have to get your own!

This is what I get for buying something made in China! This little bottle of MILK came with a cash register set that I got for the girls.

Christmas Presents

So, we got up on Christmas morning and we all opened our stockings. Then, my plan was to eat breakfast and then finish opening our presents, but I was overruled.

Fuzzy coats from Papa Harry and Corrie.

Swimsuit and slippers from the Wyoming Oswald family.

Dress up clothes from Mommy. When Sydney put hers on she was waving her hand saying, "Come on everybody, come to church!" Kathryn wouldn't stop playing her harmonica long enough so I could take a picture!

Christmas Eve Jammies

The girls opened up their jammies from Nonnie on Christmas Eve.

Mike got me new jammies too! Don't I look excited?

So, most of you know that I have said that I didn't want Santa to be a part of our Christmas because I don't want to lie to my children about a big fat man that is going to judge us all year long and then sneak into our house in the middle of the night, plus the fact that he takes the focus away from the Savior. So.....I kind of gave in and let the girls leave milk and cookies for Santa. But I insisted that we leave them on the front porch, so he wouldn't come in our house. We also put out reindeer food that Kathryn made in preschool. I, being the great mom that I am, volunteered to go out into the freezing night and spread it in the grass and then had the fun experience of having it all blow back into my face & hair!

Christmas Eve Baking

Christmas Eve evening we baked some cheese empanadas and sugar cookies. On our trip to Chile, we had some great cheese empanadas, so we tried to reproduce them. They were pretty good, but we used pie crust for the dough, and next time might look for something not as sweet.

Here are the girls helping Mike make some sugar cookies.

Championship Speedskating

Last Saturday we got free tickets (from our dear friends) to the U.S. Speedskating Short-Track Championships. We missed the first hour, but the second hour was very exciting and entertaining. We got to see Apolo Ohno skate. They false started 3 or 4 times in their final race, and then had 2 big crashes. Apolo came in third. My friend stayed after to get Apolo's autograph and she said he is way short.