Bon Voyage

Before we ever started building our house, Rick and I made a plan to use our American Express as much as we could during constuction to rack up the points to use on a vacation as a reward for FINISHING the house. That plan finally came to fruition last week. We left out of San Diego on the 17th for a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riveria. I was SO worried about going on a cruise because if you know me, you know I get motion sickness riding in an elevator. Thankfully, the seas were pretty smooth and I didn't even get sick...until the last day. Even though I spent most of that day sleeping off my motion sickness drugs, we still loved the cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat. The food was AMAZING. The entertainment was FUN. The ship was BEAUTIFUL. The beaches were FANTASTIC. And the time that we were able to spend together relaxing was PRICELESS. We managed to take 114 pictures, but I did narrow it down to these ten. Today it is snowing in Woodland. BOO! I want to be on the beach.

In port in San Diego with our ship: the ms Oosterdam.

Our first stop: Mazatlan. Walking throuh Old Town.


I love how you can buy meat and fake sunglasses in the same market!


Rick showing me how to bodyboard.


Me not quite getting the timing of the waves.

Our second stop: Puerto Vallarta

We rented a jeep and went into the jungle. It was beautiful.

Our third stop: Cabo San Lucas

This is the marina where the rich and famous park their yachts. Seriously, there was one that was too big to park in the marina and had to be in the bay with the cruise ships. It even had a helipad and helicopter. Ah, that would be the life.

Lover's Beach at Cabo San Lucas.

The very tip of the Baja Pennisula.

Rick was one of the brave people to play in the waves. They were HUGE! Here he managed to get away, but he was not so fortunate a couple of times and was literally smashed into the sand. I kept myself busy laying out.

Formal night in the dining room.

We met up with a fun couple from Arizona and spent a lot of time with them, including the formal dinner where Rick talked us all into eating the escargo. It didn't taste to bad at the time, but was terrible later that evening when I threw it back up.

Easter, Conference, Luke's 8th Birthday...

Although it has been a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to post some pictures of the boys on Easter/Conference/Birthday weekend. Luke was born on conference weekend 8 years ago, and I love that every April conference we get to celebrate his birthday. The best years are those (like this year) where Easter is also on that same weekend. It makes the for the best celebrations. We had a good time decorating the eggs, with only one major spill...and it was ME who spilled the RED die on the table! I let the boys do whatever they wanted to their eggs (a difficult thing for me who wants them all to be "beautiful") and they totally loved it. If they liked to eat hard boiled eggs I would do dozens and dozens of eggs, but I am the only one who eats them and I can only eat so many in the weeks following Easter. Easter morning Rick and I woke up to the sound of cracking eggs and Elijah found the eggs the Easter Bunny left on the stairs and did his best to open them. Noah totally cracked me up with his candy. He is a VERY picky eater, and apparently that applies to candy as well. He found his basket and immediately started giving away the candy he didn't want. In the end he hardly had any. I guess the Easter Bunny needs to stick to plain M&Ms for him.

Luke had some friends over the weekend of his birthday for a pizza, How to Train Your Dragon, and sleepover party. I was aghast that the conversation in the car was about passing gas, but Rick just laughed and said, "Wait until they are Boy Scout age, they will be really obnoxious." Boys. I just don't get them. He had a great 8th birthday, and is SO excited to be baptized in a couple of weeks. I just can't believe that he is at that point in his life already!

Spring has finally stated to come to Woodland and the we have already started loving being outside more. Just one more month until summer break. We all can't wait.