Sun Jan 31st

Nick and I just had a good talk about life and what and where we'd like to be in the future. We decided that Nick needs to finish school. We decided that we need to get our budget in order and keep to it. I think the best way to do that it to consistently look at it. Every Monday night after we get the kids to bed, Nick and I need to look over our budget and see how we're doing. It doesn't have to take a long time, but it does need to be done consistently. We also need to have family prayer and scripture study every morning and every night, consistently. The kids need the armor of God on every single day, especially Ella. She is faced with temptation after temptation. She has one in particular that is very serious that she's have a terribly hard time getting rid of. We need all the extra strength we can get. Another thing we need to do is have the sex talk with Ella. Definitely not something I'm looking forward to, but it's part of being a parent and it's important to talk about it young. Yikes. Lots of changes need to be made. Heavenly Father please give me the strength to change. Help me to be better than I am and to help Ella feel the spirit so she can over come her bad habit. 

Sat Jan 30th

3:22am Why do I keep letting the kids sleep with me? I know it's a terrible idea. I know I'll sleep terrible. I know the girls will kick each other. And yet here I lay with a head in my back at 3:26 am. 

I finally fell back to sleep and had a really cool dream that was very detailed. I woke up and wrote it down. I think it will make a cool kid's book.

Lisey: "kids don't have hearts"

We spent most of the day playing. Ella was very much into putting on a concert for everyone, including every stuffed animal she owns. Ammon came over and played with the kids while I went to get Nick from the airport. He and Kim broke up and I think he's feeling a bit lonely. It was great having his company. 

Ammon and I played ping pong and the kids played around in the basement. Poor Nick wasn't feeling well (he threw up!). I worked some more on my blog book after Link went to bed and while Ella and Lisey played. Then I put the kids to bed in their own beds and Nick and I watched a show together. Poor Nick. I hope he feels better soon. He's on night quill tonight, so hopefully he feels better tomorrow. 

Fri Jan 29th

I forgot to mention this but the other day Annalise tells me "mom you have beautiful poop." Annalise cracks me up. 

I went to help out at Ella's school. Then after school we went swimming. Poor Lisey ended up sobbing because her eyes hurt so bad from the chlorine. I guess between the crying and swimming she was totally worn out because she fell asleep on the drive home. 

Thurs Jan 28th

I got my shower in early before Lincoln woke up, which felt nice. Link has been sleeping in till around eight which is great. I was able to help Ella with her homework before school so that we didn't have to worry about it after school. That worked out nicely because Lincoln and Lisey were still snoozing while we did it, so Ella was less distracted. 

Lisey's still not feeling great so I let her watch Daniel Tiger while Lincoln and I played. At 10 my visiting teacher came over and Lisey and her little boy played why we chatted. Then Lincoln went to bed and Lisey and I played boardgames. We played Candyland and then super why! the game. Lisey and had a lot of good laughs. She's such a sweet little girl. We worked on letters in the superwhy! game and she just cuddled into my lap. I'm really glad I chose to spend some one on one time with Lisey instead of doing something like cleaning like I usually do. We were having so much fun I nearly forgot about preschool. Five minutes before 12:30 I remembered and we quickly got Lisey dressed and out the door.

Then Lincoln and I went to Costco to get some groceries and free samples. Link loves free samples. Then we got a very Berry sundae to split, just Link and I. 

After school I took the kids for a mad dash to visit teach both my sisters. And then we rushed off to tutoring directly after. We got there early which was great because I think when we are late Ella has a harder time settling in and getting focused. I really want her to improve in her reading and I need to tutoring to work the best way I can so it can help her. While Ella was at tutoring I took Link and Lisey to McDonald's to play and eat dinner. 

I got all the kids off to bed a decent hour but I did not get myself off to bed at a good hour. I got too sucked into making my blog book for last year. I was having a frustrating time and had to start over several times but by the end of the night I think I finally got a good start on the book the way I want it to be. Unfortunately I stayed up until about 11:45. Which is way too late for me to be up. Oh well, it is what it is. Good night and sweet dreams.

12/18/14-1/6/15 Christmas in San Diego

I'm going to try out doing a journal on the computer so that I can add pictures. I'm feeling rather computer illiterate though so we'll see how it goes. It's a new year so it's time to try some new things. The year has been good so far.

We set up the tree after Thanksgiving. We had fun getting into the Christmas spirit. We got the elf on the shelf this year and we named her Jingles. The kids had fun finding her every morning and I had fun reminding them to be good so that Jingles could report back to Santa that they had been good 😉

We spent Christmas in San Diego in the fabulously warm weather. The girls loved spending time with Auntie Anne and Uncle Cam and of course Giga and Papa. Actually everyone was there this Christmas season, at least for Lincoln's blessing. Ammon, Jordan, Steve, Keoka, my dad and Nick were all in the blessing circle. Nick gave a beautiful blessing making sure to cover all the important things like temple marriage, a mission, kindness to others and a strong priesthood holder. Amber and Nicholas Orrego also blessed their baby, Mary.

The house was full to the brim. Mom took extra care to decorate the house wonderfully and it definitely looked magical. We spent Christmas Eve at the beach. The waves were ginormous and kind of scary for swimming. I got tumbled under the water quite a few times and I realized just how out of shape I am. But it was awesome just the same. Both Ella and Annalise are water babies. They went in many times even though the water was pretty freezing. That's my girls.

We made gingerbread houses and played a ton of games. Mom and I went for a run on most days and nick got a chance to catch up on his movies. The kids loved playing with their Auntie Anne and Uncle Cam. Lisey absolutely loves Papa. They seem to have a special bond. My dad even watched the kids a few times so I could have a real break. It was great to have a break but most of all it was just great to be with family. 

Our stop at a rest stop in Benson, AZ.  Car rides are rough on all of us...

Stretching our legs up the hill at the rest stop. 

The beach was amazing!!

 

Bare bum

It was a perfectly wonderful day at the beach! 

Lisey climbing the vines at the church parking lot

Sleeping soundly on my lap in San Diego 

Cam fought his way out to that rock. Cam is one awesome kid! 

 Wearing his cute clothes. 

Christmas morning

Christmas morning wore Lincoln out!

 Fun with Papa

Lisey and Ella love their baby bro

Family walk

Handsome baby boy!

Mom Jan 25th

Back to real life. It feels weird, I think it's going to take me a few days to get back in the groove of things. 

Lincoln slept through the night again and I got up at 6 AM, 30 minutes before Link woke up. I was able to read my scriptures, say my prayers, and get my running clothes on all before he got up. Then when the sun got up I went for a run on the trail. I took the car over there because the roads looked really slippery to run on. It was beautiful outside. I got about 5 miles in.

Link said "go" today! He sure is smart. Lisey and I were playing catch. We both had one ball then we'd say "set, go" and we'd throw our balls at the same time. After doing that a few times we hear this little voice say "Go! Go!". He's been doing a ton better on his walking as well. He was doing some before he left on the cruise but he's been doing it a ton since we got home. He's still not an exclusive walker and he probably even still prefers to crawl, but he's becoming a more frequent walker. 

Mon Jan 18th

Today we were out at sea. I went to the gym and Nick relaxed. Then we got lunch together and played some volleyball. 

Then I went rock climbing, which was a lot harder then I expected, but also way fun. I made it to the top and got to ring the bell. Definitely a good work out! 

Then I went on the flowrider. 

 It was way fun and I actually did pretty darn good! Then we went in the jacuzzi and pool for awhile and played some ping pong with Tom and Britania. 

It was fancy night for dinner so Nick and I got all dressed up. After dinner we saw a show. I can't wait for Grand Cayman tomorrow! 

 

Sun Jan 17th

We stayed the night in a fairly dumpy hotel that had a train running right by it all through the night. The worst part was that it wasn't even cheap! $160! Yesterday we also used an expensive taxi to get us to the hotel from the airport. Not our cheapest outing!  We wised up from yesterday though and used an Uber car instead of a taxi to get us to the cruise. We got a coupon from the hotel for Uber and ended up getting it for free! We tipped the guy $5, so basically we paid $5 for an Uber, when yesterday we paid $45 for a taxi going the same distance. Uber is awesome. 

We made onto the boat pretty early and went straight to the buffet. After eating we had to go back down to the ship terminal to help out one of Nick's Purdue boys and his girl friend get on the ship. I guess that since they were under 21 and not married, they needed parent consent. What ended up happening was their parents had to email the cruise saying that they were handing over guardianship to Nick Stephenson for the duration of the cruise. We joked about having two new kids in our family. It was a crazy long process but we were finally able to all get back on the ship and get "our kids" on as well. 

It was cool to see a bit of Florida off the boat. We saw a ton of windsurfers and even a submarine. These two pics were taken in front of the Everglades. Sometime when we have more time in FL I'd love to take a boat through there. It's so beautiful and green!  

Sat Jan 16th

Link slept through the night again! Way to go Link!! I just hope he continues his streak while my mom is watching him. 

This morning i went over to the Legacy Center and bought our family a membership for 20% off. Today was the only day that the membership was 20% off. I'm super glad I had time to go get it. Swimming and running here we come--all year long! 

I made a list of all the things that my mom may need to know while we're gone (at least I hope it was everything..). I know the girls will have a fabulous time with Giga. I just hope link will be ok. 

We're on our way to FL. Steve drove us to the airport and mom took the kids on a little outing. The first leg had free movies on each seat back. I watched You've Got Mail. I forgot what a cute chick flick that is. Anyways were almost there and then tomo we leave on the boat. I miss you kids. I love you like crazy!!

Tues Jan 19th

We were on the first ferry off the boat and we headed straight for our dolphin excursion. 

The dolphin we rode was named Alegria. 

We got to pet, ride and kiss a dolphin, right there in the water behind us. It was way fun! They wanted $250 for pictures though and even when we got them down to $180, I still could bring myself to pay that much. I may regret my cheapness later but as for now I figure we'll take the kids in the future and buy the pics then. Well just have to remember how much fun it was without the pictures. 

Then we took a bus down to the beach and went snorkeling. The water wasn't the clearest, but we saw tons of exotic fish and sea anemones. It was just great swimming in the warm water out in the sun (in Jan!!).  

We ate lunch at a cool local place where tons of iguanas spent their afternoons and a wild chicken named Snickers roamed free. The waiter said he's spent many an hour chasing that chicken but hasn't been able to catch him yet. 

We had remembered the shops being close to the beach so we decided to walk. We were wrong. After several miles of walking, and many a blister later, we finally reached the shops. We only visited a few before it was time to head back to the ship. We took the last ferry back to the ship. I felt like we really maximized our time on the Grand Caymans. 

Wed Jan 20th

We're in Jamaica today! We took a bus across the island. The driver (Ditty) told us a bit about Jamaica. The currency is 100 Jamacia dollars to 1 American. There's goats everywhere just hanging out on the side of the road. Tons of the buildings are only half built. Ditty said that people build the bottom floor of homes and then the family starts living in it and then contiune building the top floors. We stopped at the spot where Columbus landed in Jamaica. 

"Looking so fat man" is what you say to pregnant women. Fat women are so proud in Jamaica. They wear belly shirts to show off their fat. You don't stop at red lights at night. The drivers have a code: one light flash is hi, two flashes is there's a cop ahead. "Yeah man" is how you say hi to a man or woman. "Waah guan" is how you ask 'what's going on?' Negril is Diity's favorite beach in Jamaica. I saw a home with broken glass sticking out from the fence...Jamaican security systems. 

Restafarian is Diity's religion. She believes in a higher power and that that higher power is most likely black. When people die the people mourning cut their hair. So Ditty cut her dread locks that were down to her bum when her dad died. It's so cool learning more about a person from another country. The best Jamaica quote is "in Jamaica we don't have problems. We have little situations." 

Blue Hole was so so so fun! I could have spent a whole day there and I could have easily spent a week or two on Jamaica. So much to see and so much to do plus the people are all so laid back and chill (that may or may not be due to the very liberal use of Marijuana...).  

A crazy thing happened as we were headed back to the ship. One of the very persuasive Jamacian salesmen had enticed us over with a cool drum/violin/guitar thing that he had made out of bamboo. We thought it would make a cool gift for the kids, so although we were already running late we bought one and had him carve the kids names in it. 

Then another convincive Jamacian pulled us over to some carved wooden birds. Nick had so many things in his hands the man offered to hold one of them (a Jamacian mask we had bought earlier) And in the rush of everything Nick let him. They offered us such good prices that it was hard to refuse. After buying the bird we were really really late and rushed towards the ship. After getting through the first gate we realized something. The mask! We had left the mask with the bird salesman. 

Nick started running back and I was close behind. As Nick ran down the street anxiously looking for the bird salesman, he ran right past a Jamacian policeman. The policeman tried to get his attention but he was so focused on finding the man he didn't notice. But I did. I tapped Nick's shoulder and pointed. The policeman narrowed his eyes. Nick explained that we had left something behind and we were late for our ship. The policeman said "do you know what happens when you ignore Jamacian police officers? You go to Jamacian jail. Do you want to go to Jamacian jail?" 

Nick swallowed and said "no". And then the policeman turns to me and says "Do you want him to go to Jamacian jail?"

I noticed a small smirk so I said "no, I love him". Then the policeman said "Good. Because you know what happens if you go to Jamacian jail? She goes to Jamacian men." 

Nick said " I don't want that". 

The policeman said, "Ok what you need to do is take your woman and kiss her!" Nick gave me a good hard smooch the crowd that had gathered cheered and the policeman let us go on our way. The bird salesman had been watching the exchange and handed us back our mask and we were on our way, walking (quickly) back to the ship. We made it but both Nick and I were shaken by the experience. Even though I'm pretty sure he was jesting from the beginning, the idea of being stuck in a foreign prison was very frightening. 

Jamacia was still awesome though.