Cruisin'

Its been awhile....a LONG while since Adam and I took a REAL trip by ourselves. Yes, we had overnight type get aways sprinkled over the last 4 years but that was it. When we went to Chicago I swore to vacation with my hubby more often but such has not been the case. Having and taking care of babies keeps one verrrry busy and I hate to leave my kids before they are two. SO, Megan turned two and we were outty!

(I was also 20 weeks prego and therefore needed to squeeze a trip in 

before this little girl rocked our world!)

We got up at about 3:30 in the morning to get ready to catch our 6:30 flight to Long Beach airport. Too, too early but at least our flight was cheaper...

This was mine and Adam's first cruise and we were super excited. I was really anxious about leaving our kids and embarking on this new adventure but when I saw new home away from home docked at Long Beach harbor, I was very excited. This trip was about 8 month in the making. We were invited by Jason and Kim Bailey and we are so glad they did. I don't think we would have done it on our own. We'd joked with some other friends that for 10 year anniversaries we would go on a cruise but never really got anything planned. This was perfect since yes, we are celebrating on 10th THIS year.

Pulling away from the dock to start our 7 day/night trip to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

We only had 3 days on land (2 ports) during our cruise so we and our friends did our best to get involved in the ship activities during our "fun days at sea". Adam really got into it by wearing blue eye shadow for a picture scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, it was all for not. We still (unfairly) lost the game. :(

Adam also auditioned for a part in a show on the ship. We were up until midnight. This was late for this 20 week prego mama! In fact, I'm not sure why I look so perky in the pic above.

Some of our friends and Adam participated in a game show. Mike and Megan won a coveted golden "ship on a stick" but alas, Adam lost. 

Karaoke was popular especially with my attention loving man. Here he is singing and grooving to Elvis's Jail House Rock getting the attention he craves from a very appreciative crowd. He got stopped on the ship a few times by people who recognized him from karaoke.

Us girls sang Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. As you can see from our stiff posture, we are having SO much fun....

Day one in Cabo

We mostly just hung out on the beach and enjoyed the scenery. The guys rented wave runners but I wasn't about to put my pregnant body on one. The water was really choppy and cold. So I got myself a big umbrella and sat myself down in the shade with my friends.

Day 2 in Cabo

I fell in love...

I love tigers so when I was told I could go catch a glimpse of a BABY tiger I just followed. Turns out, Megan is a big fan herself. Of course when we got there all they would allow us to do was look. No touchy. No pictures. Just LOOK. After seeing these precious babies I needed more. So for a small fee (of course!!) of $25 we both got to hold the sweet little baby girl tiger. It was a neat experience and I'm glad I got to have it.

Lover's Beach

I regret not taking an excursion to spend some time there. It was beautiful especially in real life.

We took a snorkeling excursion out to a little cove. We only got to snorkle for about 20 mintues and then we had lunch on board. I was sad not to snorkel longer even if it took major courage on my part to jump in because the water was really cold. Have I mentioned that the water was cold?

The girls.

Puerto Vallarta

This was our favorite day because we got to do a lot more exploring.

We started our day off with 13 ziplines through a lush river valley. They don't allow pregnant women on the tour but I was feeling rebellious and just dared someone to question my pooch. (Side note: On our friends excursion, this actually DID happen and the woman wasn't even pregnant!)

Lunch at the end of our tour. It was some of the best food we had in Mexico.

There was a house for sale that was wide open for all to walk through. Including small rodents, bugs, whatever. It was very bizarre but interesting to see. Very different from the American real estate market.

After our zip line tour we met up with our friends and went on a city tour and hunting for churros. Yes, I said hunting because they aren't as easy to find in Mexico as you would think. But when we found them it was worth the hunt. They were so good if not ADDICTING!

On the busy, busy boardwalk.

One of many dinners with our friends.

This is only half the group since we had to divide between two tables.

A few of the many towel animals we were presented with every night. A few of them had us stumped and even made us blush. (see botton pic)

Adam and Cody. Not sure what is happening here...

I was pleased to find out that our room had a nice big window and not a porthole like I had originally thought. I was big enough for my big guy to stretch out in. And get a good look at the sunrise as well.

We had a really good time on our cruise and went with some really fun people but when it was over we were more than ready to get back to our babies.

The Shiflett's....

...according to Adam.

{Adam drew this in sacrament meeting for Noah. I think its pretty cute.  The likeness is pretty good too with exception to our bird like baby. :) }

Update: When Adam saw this picture, he said "I didn't draw the baby". Well who did?  It was Kyle who added it later after noticing somebody was missing. Love that.

A New Education

Things I (Adam) have learned since being a parent:

1. Pixar makes the best movies

2. Wipees can clean anything

3. If you have the red lightsaber you are automatically the bad guy

4. Skooby Doo will never die

5. Mac and cheese really isn't that bad

6. Always wrap up dirty diapers

7. There is nothing stronger than Superheros

8. Be very careful when buckling car seats

9. "Daddy's home!" are the best words in the English language 10. Mommy always has last say.

Comic Relief

Adam and Kyle's weekly ritual- reading the Sunday comics.

This week...

...after enjoying a night at the movies (we saw 'Planet 51') we discovered that Adam had left the drivers side door open the entire time. We were at Valley. Fair. Mall. HELLO! We were blessed that nothing happened.

...Noah has decided that church isn't some form of cruel punishment. A couple of weeks ago we couldn't even mention church with him getting all anxious and declaring that he NEVER wanted to go church. Getting him ready Sunday morning was always torture for both of us. After the closing prayer for Sacrament, Noah would immediately start begging to go home. Just last week, however, he decided that nursery was not so bad and actually got upset at the prospect of GOING home. Yay! Let's hope it sticks.

...Some of my sweet, sweet friends surprised me at our GNO with a baby shower. I am so appreciative and LOVE all the teeny, tiny, baby girl stuff. Thanks again, Jess, Kerri, Brianna, Kristen, Keri and Candys!!

...Girls night for me always means "Boy Night" for my boys. This included dinner at McDonald's (a boy fav) with Gma and Gpa. Then it was off to Hollywood Connection for over-priced kid rides. The boys loved it so I guess it was worth it. Kyle was his usual self as a ride lover but Noah wasn't so sure about the Dragon ride (not sure what that was). He did okay otherwise.

If you want to see Kyle thoroughly enjoying himself at Circus Circus a little over a year ago, check out this link.

...Adam got to indulge in his passion of skiing. He's pretty proud that although he was sore it wasn't too bad. He works out, ya know.

My cute ski bunny...

35 weeks! Yep, I've resorted to wearing the hubby's shirts.

WhAt'S uP?

...Kyle and Daddy made a snow tunnel in the front yard. Kyle LOVED it. They were outside for over an hour but Kyle could have stayed out there all day.

...Noah has been waking up with dry diapers which in turn has wakened some hope in me. It's never as easy as you HOPE though. He DID go pee-pee in the toilet once but has since lost interest. Ah well. There's always next month...

...We went on an exciting out of town trip...for a few hours...down to Richfield... Really though, we didn't go far but it felt good to just GO somewhere. It was also good to see Adam's grandparents (Martin's) and family. Adam's grandpa had to show off his thumping sound system that included a record player and lots of Frank Sinatra. Good times. SO glad the weather cooperated and we had beautiful sunshine to drive down in.

...We started 9am church *groan*. It actually isn't so bad now but come baby number three I think we will be lucky to make it sacrament!!

...We celebrated the New Year hanging out with the Wall's, eating lots of food and playing (or cheating on) Disney Trivial Pursuit. Yep, hard core party-ers, right here.

...Decided that I have started the pregnant waddle.

...No cavities for me! Yay!

...Baby girl is measuring right on. But I decided it would be fun to be anemic. Go me.

Adam 3.0

Well I'm finally there. I am at the point where I have to leave all the excuses, justifications and straight out lies... I am getting older. 30 is the age when I used to look at other guys and say "they are old". Well now that is me. According to my younger self by this time I'm supposed to have conquered the world and made billions of dollars while thinking about retirement.

I'm sure if you would have told 12-year-old-Adam that by 30 he would not live in a mansion, be a baseball and football hall of famer (breaking every record for every position), invented flying cars, traveled around the world twice and been to space (sorry 12-year-old-Adam if I missed something) he would be pretty disappointed. 30-year-old-Adam sees things differently. Celebrating my birthday yesterday at my party with my wife, beautiful boys, baby in belly, family and friends is exactly where I wanted to be. Forget about all that other junk.

The "big" birthday did not really do anything to me as far as aging. I still have all my teeth (although some of them are crowns), but it does make me pause to think about my life to this point and what is ahead. I feel I've lived a good life. I may not have done everything perfectly (like the time I threw up on my piano teacher's piano and she had to have it completely dismantled for cleaning), but I am very happy with the outcome to this point. I am amazingly blessed with a wonderful, growing family, have a good job and great friends. I don't know if anyone could ask for more.

Enough with the sappy stuff here's an overview of the Party:

My wife threw me an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. It was a blast. Along with being the birthday boy, I was also the official judge of the worst sweater. Here are some of the contestants


Here is my beautiful family. Happy to be sharing our holidays with friends. Yes, my sweater has lights. They had to be plugged in so I did not have much range during the party. My wife is sporting a lovely denim vest with snowmen enjoying a winter day.

Here are my in-laws. Dad won for the worst Christmas expression.

Whitney and Ryan Wall. Whitney's bear vest was very fetching. Meanwhile Ryan stopped by a sweater factory picked up the scraps and pieced them together (or at least that's what it looks like).

Ethan and Amy were sporting sweaters from the Richard Hind collection. Hand made and preserved by Richard Hind himself. If they look too happy to be wearing really itchy sweaters its because they are newly weds.

Mindy and Emily came perfectly match and are definitely the winners of the best mother/daughter combination.

Mary and Von. You may be confused why we have two Christmas trees in our front room, but to clarify one of the Christmas trees is actually part of Mary's sweater (the sweater is the one that is more heavily decorated). Don't feel bad if you were confused, I was too.

And so was Von. Apparently someone told him this was a totally awesome sweater party. He accidentally wore his favorite BYU sweater. Von is the Y's biggest fan, even though he graduated from the U. You should have seen him when Max Hall (his favorite player) hit George for the touchdown. I have never seen anyone happier. Moments later Max Hall's comments created paralyzing inner struggle within himself, since Von graduated from the U and therefore was called classless and hated by his favorite football player... It's okay Von, Max hates a lot of people. I don't think it is anything personal.

And the winner of the worst sweater... Mary Anderson.

Ryan takes the runner up prize and probably would have won if his sweater had more of a Christmas theme.


To finish off this post I had to add my favorite photo of the day.

"We join our hero as the masked crusader waits impatiently for the Christmas sweater party."