17 Years And Counting....

Happy 17th Anniversary!
17 years ago leaving the hotel to head to the Salt Lake Temple to be married.

To celebrate Brian and I spent last night in Mesquite and enjoyed our time swimming, playing raquetball, eating out and going to the movies. It sure is nice to have kids that are old enough to leave home!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. I love you!

16 Years

Happy Anniversary!
Brian and I celebrated our 16th anniversary yesterday. We left the kids home alone by themselves overnight for the first time and spent Sunday night in a hotel in Mesquite. We went bowling, swimming, to the movies, out to eat and just spent time relaxing. It was a lot of fun! Thankfully the house was still standing when we got home last night and the kids had done great.

We're Back - I Guess It Couldn't Last Forever!

We're home from our cruise and had a wonderful time! I'm sure we each gained 5 lbs from all the wonderful food. We came home with 485 photos from our 5 day trip! Which I finally got uploaded to the blog. The kids had a great time with grandma and grandpa. We came home to a clean house and garage - Thanks Richard & Glenda! We wish we could have spent more time with them but they had to leave shortly after we got back to town.

So farewell to Good Food I didn't have to cook myself...

Great Service...

Relaxation...


And Hello to the real world as we dock in San Pedro at a very early hour...



Our first cruise was a great experience and one we hope to repeat soon...

Rock Climbing

After our day in Ensenada we headed back to the ship. We had some time before dinner so I told Brian to head to the Rock Climbing Wall. He's a certified rapeller so the rock climbing wall is a piece of cake for him but I've always been to chicken to try it. I watched him do it and thought what is the worst that could happen... I won't be able to climb it. So I gave it a try and was glad to find out it was much easier than I thought it would be!

Day 4 Ensenada, Mexico & La Bufadora

Thursday brought us to Ensenada, Mexico. Anyone who thinks poorly of city government, taxes and City Planners should visit this town. Yikes!

We boarded a tour bus and drove about 30 miles to La Bufadora or The Blowhole. The sights out the window were interesting to say the least. Nice gated homes next to run down shacks, agricultural fields next to shops. Made us grateful for what we have and where we live.
La Bufadora was a once in a lifetime place to visit. Glad I went once but once was enough! After visiting places like Yellowstone it was kind of anti-climactic. When the tide comes in water & mist shoot up into the air. The entire walk down to the blowhole is a huge flea market where everyone is going to sell you something that you just can't live without. Use caution once you buy something because as soon as they see bags in you hands they know you have money and can be suckered into buying things and they get more aggressive. I had gone ahead while Brian was shopping for a watch and had headed back down the street to look for him. As I past some shops a couple of guys were asking me what I was looking for and to come into their shops to find it. I told them I wasn't looking for anything but my husband to which one responded while pointing to himself "Fine Husband Right Here". I just laughed and shook my head and kept looking for Brian.

The splurge of the trip happened while in Ensenada. We stopped at a jewlery shop and Brian decided to get me something. I needed some new earrings. What started out as a small pair of earrings turned into silver and opal earrings, plus a necklace, pendant and a ring too! Thanks Brian!

Day 3 - Catalina Island

Wednesday brought us to Catalina Island. Catalina is much to small to have a big cruise ship dock there so they dropped anchor off shore and we tendered to shore. We went to shore after breakfast and walked around and then tendered back to get lunch on the ship.

After lunch we headed back on the island to go snorkeling. It was a lot of fun and we saw tons of fish. Our guide dove to the bottom several times and brought items up for us to see up close. He could hold his breath for a long, long time! This was Brian's favorite thing we did. It was a lot of fun and actually a good workout.

The food on the cruise was amazing. Especially the food that was served in the dining room. We had the first sitting for dinner so we ate at 5:30 every night with the same people. There were a total of 10 of us at the table. The service was fabulous and the food was out of this world. I've never eaten such tender meat as I was served one night. Caesar salad is my favorite so I had that every night because there salad was so good.
When we'd get back to our room our beds would be turned down and there would be a cute towel animal on the end of the bed. It was so nice to have someone else clean up after me for a change!

Day 2 - San Diego

Day 2 of our cruise was a stop in San Diego. I woke up at 5:30 but thought it was 6:30. This left us plenty of time to eat breakfast twice before getting off the ship.

We took a double decker bus into the GasLamp District and walked around.

We then headed to Seaport Village.

Lots of pictures of us in the beautiful trees at Seaport Village.

After heading back to the ship for lunch we came back out to walk around the USS Midway and retired ship that served in Desert Storm.

It was Formal night so we went and got dressed up for dinner. We had fun couples at our table and enjoyed dinner with them each night!

After waking up at 5:30 I was exhausted and fell sound asleep instead of hitting the shows that night.

All Aboard! - Time to Depart!

We went on a 4 night Baja Cruise. The ship left from Los Angeles on Monday evening. We could check in any time after 1 so we figured we'd get our money's worth and be there for lunch! We boarded the ship shortly after 1:00 on Monday. We put our stuff in our room and headed off to eat lunch. The food on the cruise was fabulous. The all you can eat buffets were good but even better was the dining room food - It was excellent!


Kind of dark but here is Brian on Deck 7 looking out on where our ship was docked in LA.
Me in the same spot!
We're ready to set sail.
Up on Deck 10 was the swimming pools. There were two identical pools with Jacuzzis between them. We didn't ever go swimming. During the day we were usually off ship on an excursion and when we were on ship the pools & decks were crowded.
Before leaving there was a mandatory safety drill. All passengers had to put on life jackets and head to their appointed place for a briefing.
Here we are all prepared for the ship to sink!
Our room was adequate. It was fairly small but had a bed, bathroom and TV so it was all we needed. Brian enjoyed time relaxing on the bed while watching TV.
They put on some fabulous shows. We didn't get any pictures except for this one of the comedian.

Our cruise director JohnnyO had an amazing story and was very inspirational and entertaining. He played an Electronic Woodwind Instrument and amazed us with he ability to play all kinds of music.

Out on deck late at night.
What a handsome man I married!

Our first day was great. We were seated with a great group of people for dinner and enjoyed our time together. After dinner and a show we headed to bed to get some sleep so we cold be ready for our trip to San Diego.

Chocolate Malted Crunch Ice Cream

Want to bring a smile to my face. Just get me some Chocolate Malted Crunch Ice Cream. We stopped at Rite Aid to buy some medicine in case we got sea sick on the cruise. They had a Thrifty's Ice Cream Parlor inside so we got some ice cream. Growing up on Monday nights I remember going to Thriftys to get ice cream for dessert for FHE. Good Memories!

We're on Our Way!

We got up Sunday morning and headed to CA. We didn't want to hit any of the traffic heading back to LA from Vegas on Sunday afternoon so we headed out early to beat it. We made great time and got to my dad's house about 2 in the afternoon. We just visited with dad for a while and then Nancy & Adam came over for dinner. Dad BBQ ed Tri-Tip and Nancy fixed all the sides. Adam pulled all the seeds out of a pomegranate for us.
Nancy gave me the necklace I am wearing as a birthday gift. It has a bracelet that matches it too. Thanks Nancy.

Celebrating our 15th Anniversary a week early.

So in 15 years we have never left the kids and gone or done anything alone so it was finally time. We're taking a trip down to CA to visit grandpa. While we were there we left the kids with my dad for 2 days and 2 nights. Brian and I had got some great hotel reservations off of priceline and spent one day at Universal Studios and another day at Raging Waters. Universal Studios was a blast. Raging Waters was so crowded it wasn't all that fun. It was a great couple of days away!

At Universal Studios
On the Backlot tour
Can you believe what Brian was able to capture on film. I was smiling for a picture right as Jaws attacked and it freaked me out!
Outside the Haunter Horror house. I freaked out at the end when I turned around and realized this guy was following me! Brian laughed his head off.
The house was still standing when we got back to grandpa's house. Thanks dad for taking care of our 5 kids for us while we enjoyed a weekend away!