A Very Happy Anniversary

Brian and I had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary this week.  It was our 25^th, and the main celebration occurred last month when we took a wonderful cruise to commemorate the big event.  Along with that, we also celebrated on the actual day this week by having a little get away to the Big City.  We had a wonderful time eating, shopping, watching a movie, etc.  The next day we had a delicious breakfast and ended our get away by attending the near-by LDS temple.  It was a wonderful experience, the perfect way to begin our twenty-sixth year together.

My Favorite Gift Ever!

My very best gift of all and the most exciting part of Christmas was a wonderful gift from Brian.  He really outdid himself this year and gave me many gifts, but one in particular, was the best ever.  He really knew what to get me, and it was a present I hadn’t let myself even dream of.  He was pretty happy that he had both surprised me and made me cry.  And the present???  It was an envelope containing flight information for and upcoming trip to see my sweet little grand daughter, Lily and her parents!  I definitely have the best husband ever, and I can’t wait to go.

Christmas Morning

Who was up first on Christmas morning?  Not the kids, not Brian, but me, and even I slept in longer than usual.  I got up at 6:50 because the plan was to open presents at 7:00.  You see, Christmas this year was on a Sunday which meant church at 9:00 am.  It’s strange but true that while the rest of the Christian world goes to church at Christmas time, some never stepping foot inside the rest of the year, some Latter day saints complain about going to church when Christmas is on a Sunday.  Some may complain because they figure since we go to church every week the rest of the year, it would be nice to have a break on Christmas.  But I think for most, the main problem is the logistics of it all.  It’s hard enough to get a family of say six or eight fed, showered, dressed and out the door for church by nine o’clock in the morning, but when you add Christmas morning pandemonium to the schedule, it becomes almost impossible.  I think many families opted to open presents after church to avoid the difficulties.  You can imagine how the kids felt about that!  Anyway, with no little kids to get ready, we figured we could start opening gifts at 7:00, finish by 8:00, and be to church by 9:00, and we did just that.  It’s weird, though, having to wake kids up on Christmas morning which is just what Brian and I had to do.  He woke up shortly after me, and so did Katrina, but we had to roust the rest out of bed.  That’s teenagers for you!  We had a family prayer and then gathered downstairs around the Christmas tree to open gifts.  Everyone seemed happy with what Santa brought them.  After the festivities, we were seated in Church before nine.  It was wonderful to sing and hear of Christ and to be reminded of the reason for Christmas.  

I Love Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we stay home with just our little family.  We cook a nice meal—this year it was prime rib—and set a beautiful table.  We dress for dinner in our nicest clothes, open Christmas crackers, and then eat.  Afterwards, we open pajamas, get dressed in them and head downstairs to share Gifts from the Heart around the Christmas tree.  We’ve been doing Gifts from the Heart for almost a decade now.  Each family member gives a gift to another family member—anything in the world they want to give—the only catch is that it can’t cost any money; instead of coming from the store, it has to come from the heart.   We have had some amazing gifts from the heart over the years.  This year was also wonderful.  Brian gave Katrina a coupon for six hours of time with Dad which she will probably use to watch a movie or two with him.  Katrina wrote Matt a beautiful poem that she shared with the family.  She's quite the poet.  Matt wrote me a song.  It was funny and original, and I loved it!  I gave Thomas a triple layered blanket—quilted, bonded, and fleece—to keep him super warm.  I started the blanket long ago and never finished it, so I decided I’d finish it up for my gift from the heart.  Kind of lame, but he was pleased.  Thomas gave Miriam a bracelet that he conned her into helping him make by telling her it was for Katrina.   He figured that the best way to make sure she liked it was to have her help pick out the beads herself.  She wore it to church on Christmas.  Miriam gave Jon the biggest, biggest heating pad I've ever seen.  He really seems to like it.  Jon made Brian a video.  It was hilarious!  It was all very fun—one of my favorite parts of Christmas!  Then Brian read the Christmas story, we prayed, and went to bed.

Christmas Traditions

Our family has many Christmas traditions, but we don’t do them all every year.  Instead, we do whichever ones feel right for that particular year.  Some of our many traditions (besides the Christmas Eve ones which I will mention in another post) include a nativity advent, reading from the Christmas story basket, decorating a gingerbread house, giving gifts to Christ, going to the city’s light display, going to the light display at the LDS temple grounds, doing twelve days of Christmas for a needy family, singing Christmas carols around the tree on as many nights in December as possible, participating in the neighborhood Christmas play, etc.  We also like to try new traditions as we go along.  This year, along with doing a selection of the old traditions, we also read excerpts from the four gospels every night possible in December.  By Christmas Eve, we’d read the highlights of Jesus Christ’s life, atonement, and resurrection.  It was a wonderful way to remember Christ during the holiday season.

Merry Christmas Eve!

What's Everyone Else Up To?

Brian has been busy at work and at home doing whatever needs to be done.  The other day he dreamed that he found rare currency worth a ton of money—definitely a good dream for Brian; he woke up happy.  His work party was last Monday, and we all went as a family.  It was nice having a family party instead of a couple’s party.  His Christmas gift from the school district was 2 movie tickets, so he and I went to the movies Saturday afternoon between Christmas parties.  He’s been suffering from a cold lately which really stinks, but feeling sick doesn’t stop him from being a wonderful husband and dad.

Lily and her parents are doing well.  We sent them a Christmas package and they got it on Friday.  They seemed to like the Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus that I crocheted for them.  We also sent them each an individual gift.  They opened everything early because they won’t be home for the holidays—they are taking Lily to meet her other grandma for the first time.  They posted new cute pictures of the fam on their blog, which I love!  I hope they have a very Merry Christmas.

Jonathan has been the Santa Claus Junior of the family this Christmas.  I swear he knows more about what people are getting than I do, and I’m Mrs. Santa Senior!  He’s really been helpful telling us what people want and coordinating the buying of gifts.  This has been finals week for him and Matt.  I transferred money into their accounts so that they could buy some finals survival snacks.  I know it’s not much, but its something.  He and Matt come home today!!

Matt says studying for finals is going well for him.  I chatted with him on Facebook the other night which was fun even though he spent the whole time teasing me.  Actually, that was why it was so fun.  Jon is going back to college at the new year, but Matt will stay and prepare for his LDS mission.  He’s and Jon are planning to load all their stuff in the little pick-up, and head home this afternoon.  Suddenly I’m wondering where we’ll put everything all when they get here.  Matt’s got lots to do this next week—get photos and doctor’s appointments and send off his papers.  Pretty exciting.

Miriam has been singing her head off lately, I’m so proud of her!  She sang a solo—"What Child is This"—at our congregation’s Christmas party and again in our annual neighborhood Christmas play.  Her voice is so beautiful and she got tons of compliments.  I’m so proud of her!  She also performed with the school choir Wednesday at a beautiful Christmas concert.  We brought Brian’s mom with us and she loved it.  So did I, it really brought the Christmas spirit!  Tonight Miriam gets to go to a party which will really be fun for her.

Katrina has been busy with drama club counsel and is getting ready to begin tutoring for National Honor Society.  She has been accompanying Miriam when she sings “What Child is This.”  I had no idea that she played so well.  We went to Katrina’s choir concert last night.  They sang “Come O Come Emmanuel” and The Halleleuiah Chorus.  It was beautiful!  Katrina tried out and got a part in Beauty and the Beast.  She will be playing “the aristocratic woman.”  It has a few lines and a bit of singing.  I’m so excited for her!

Thomas also got a part in the school play.  He will be playing “Le Fool,” Gaston’s sidekick.  It’s pretty unusual for an eighth grader to get such a big part, so he’s pretty stoked.  Sadly, however, he had to quit wrestling because the practices conflict.  Bittersweet.  Thomas is sure looking forward to his brothers coming home tonight.  With Brian and I going out on a date and the two girls going to Christmas parties tonight, it will be just the boys at home.  They should really like that, especially if I get them a pizza and a couple of moviesJ

Testing, testing...

Last week and this week I am working full school days doing testing.  We go from school to school doing benchmark testing in resource as well as mainstream classrooms.  You think those last two sentences I wrote were boring, you should try listening to kids read the same passages over and over every week day for two weeks and then coming back 3 months later and doing it all again. 

It’s the fictional passages that are really dull because I don’t really care if Kim and Anna are entering a jump rope contest or that Mother Kangaroo keeps loosing her baby.  But the non-fiction passages aren’t too bad because at least I’m learning something.  For instance, I now know that Big Ben has four faces so that it can be seen from every direction and that those faces are 20 feet wide and, the numbers are 2 feet tall, and the minute hand is long as a car.  I also know that Carl Gauss grew up in a poor family in Germany and could work math problems in his head by the time he was three.  When he was seven, his school teacher asked the kids to add up all the numbers from one to 100, and he figured out the answer almost instantly.  Kind of interesting, right? 

 Non fiction stories have their frustrations, too, however, since no one ever gets farther than half way through the information.  The passage about Big Ben begins with people climbing up it’s face.  It took me 5 days of testing before I got a kid who read far enough to find out that the climbers were actually cleaners.  What happens next?  Do the climbers fall?  Do they ever finish cleaning London’s clock?  I may never know.  I also may never know what amazing things Carl Gauss did after the age of seven.  I keep telling myself that I’ll go back and finish the good ones, but when I’m off work, I come to my senses.  Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to lately.

Happy Birthday, Grandma

My Grandma is turning 90 this month, and her kids are asking for everyone to write something to her, so this is the letter that I am sending to my Grandma.

Dear Grandma,
I have so many memories of you over the years.  I remember you making me hominy to eat and I remember  drinking your delicious, slushy grapefruit drink.  I remember you giving us hot water bottles to keep us warm when we spent the night.  I remember you giving Great Grandma perms; it taught me alot about honoring my parents.  I also remember all the things you made.  You made me and my siblings stuffed frogs with colorful soft bodies and big bulgy eyes.  You made me and mys sister Julie each a doll with sleeping eyes on one side and awake eyes on the other.  I named mine Jane.  You made me a quilt stitched in the outline of the temple.  You made my son, Jonathan and Katherine's boy, Michael, quilts out of the same fabric when they were babies.  You made Katherine a rag doll, I think it's name was Bernice.  You raised chickens, grew raspberries, hung and ironed laundry, mopped miles of linoleum, and lived through ten teenagers.  Grandma, you are truly my hero, I hope I can be half the mother, grandmother, great, and great great grandmother that you are, and I wish you a very happy birthday.
Love,
Marci

A Nice Week

This week has been nice.  On Monday we worked outside raking and sweeping up leaves and cleaning out the garden shed for winter.  After dinner, Brian read his dad's life story to us.  It was wonderful to hear again the story of his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He was living away from home when his parents became members of the church.  They told him they would like him to join, too.  Brian's dad decided to be baptized into the church to keep peace in the family, but determined to leave the church as soon as he turned 18.  His resolve changed on the day of his baptism; he was so filled with the spirit of the lord, he knew that he had joined the true church of Jesus Christ.  He remained a faithful member throughout his life.

Brian's Dad, Wally

Thursday was activity days.  My church calling is to work with the eight and nine year old girls of my ward (congregation) in doing activities that promote their Faith in God.  Next week, we plan on visiting a local rest home to sing Christmas songs to the residents there.  The girls sing wonderfully as a group and we thought that this would be a great way to spread Christmas cheer.  This last week, we planned on having the girls make poinsettias to had out to the nursing home patients after we sang.  The poinsettias are a craft I came up with and I was excited to help the girls make and share them.

 Sometime during the week previous, however, I had a different idea, and I think it was a prompting from the Holy Ghost.  The thought of a sweet lady in the ward came to my mind.  She is unwell most of the time and rarely gets to leave home except to attend an hour of church services every week with her husband.  They are an older couple who try to stay busy and positive, but I know that it's hard some times.  This wonderful lady has a collection of dolls from all around the world displayed in her living room.  As I thought about her and how lonely she must sometimes get, I knew that a visit to her from my little activity day girls would brighten her day and enrich the lives of the girls.  When I asked her husband if he thought she would be up to the visit, he said she would absolutely love it.  He asked me to call her to make the arrangements.  When I did, I knew she was delighted by the little laughs in her voice as she talked.

On Thursday, we went to their house and had a wonderful time.  The husband showed each doll and explained where she was from.  Afterwards the girls asked a few questions about the dolls.  They also wanted to know who made the beautiful hand-crocheted ornaments hanging on her tree and were very impressed to hear that she had made them herself.  Before we left, we sang "Silent Night and Jingle Bells," then we went out the door with "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" ringing in their ears.  Such a simple thing; such a wonderful feeling!


Yesterday, (Saturday) we went to the temple to see the beautiful lights and the nativities.  We had a wonderful time!

Thanksgiving Week

I enlisted the kid's help in writing about our week.

Katrina,
Most of the family on my dad's side of the family came down for Thanksgiving.  After lunch some of us went downstairs and played the Wii.  On Friday we headed up north to visit my mom's family.  We ate leftovers and had a lot of fun! This Monday I'll be trying out for my school musical Beauty and the Beast.  It's going to be great.

Miriam,
Thanksgiving was wonderful, the food was good, the company was good! It was also nice to have Allen, Becky, Matt and Jon staying with us. It was also nice to see some more relatives on Friday. I've been working hard lately in choir getting ready for our Carols and Confections concert which is coming up really soon.

Thomas,
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is left overs and luckily we have a lot but it kind of messes with my brain to eat turkey when I am surrounded by Christmas decorations! On Friday we went to my aunt's house, and we got to see my uncle and cousins and grandparents, too. We had a great time. On Monday wrestling starts back up after a week of break.  The coaches are going to work us hard, and I am going to regret eating so much.

Like the kids said, Jon and Matt came up for Thanksgiving.  Ir was so nice to see them!  We saw Matt's English teacher at a restaurant one night and he said Matt is doing well.  Jon has a job in the mail room and seems to like it pretty good.  We got to talk to Cassandra and Emerson and Lily on Thanksgiving day.  We talked on Skype which of course means that we got to see them as well as talk to them.  It was so fun to see little Lily.  She is almost four months old now and as cute as can be!  They are all doing well and went to some friends' house for Thanksgiving.

Brian outdid himself this week, first on Thursday when he cooked the turkey, dressing, and potatoes to perfection and again on Saturday when he decked out our house in holiday lights.  Our home has never looked so festive!

Sunday School

Brian teaches the 15 year olds in Sunday school, but last Sunday, he left church early because he was feeling sick, so who got to teach his class?  You guessed it...me.  I didn't want to prepare the lesson during Sacrament meeting, so when it got over, I made a copy of the lesson material.  When I got to class, there were 4 of us, me and 3 young people.  I didn't feel real happy to be there giving a lesson I hadn't prepared, but we had a prayer, and I said my own prayer in my heart that I would be filled with love for these young people and that we would be taught by the Spirit.  I cut out 3 parts of the lesson and passed them out to the class, explaining that they would be teaching that day.  After five or ten minutes of quiet study, we were ready to begin.  The lesson was about sacrificing what we want in order to do God's will.  It was filled with stories about the life of a former prophet of our church, President Ezra Taft Benson, who lived a life of sacrifice for the Lord.  I directed the lesson, but the youth taught it and they did a wonderful job.  They took the assignment seriously, relating the stories in their own words and asking meaningful questions. I felt my heart swell with love for them.  By the end of the lesson, the room was filled with the Spirit.  I told them I had prayed that I would feel the Holy Ghost that day, and thanks to their lesson, I did.  I feel very grateful to Heavenly Father for answering prayers and attending our class that day.

A HUGE Thank You

Thanks, Dad and Mom for watching the kids for us when we were gone!  On the cruise we had no cell coverage, and no internet, but we weren't worried a bit because we knew the kids were getting the best of care.  When we got home, it was so nice to see your still-smiling faces and hear your positive reports of the week.  We know it was a big sacrifice to come up for 10 days, but you were still so willing to do it!  Thanks for you constant love and support.
--Brian and Marci

The Lovey Dovey Stuff

It was a wonderful anniversary for both of us.  We loved being together and enjoying each other’s company.  It was nice to leave the stress and schedule behind and spend some quality time with my very best  friend, my lover, and my eternal companion, Brian.  He was so sweet the whole trip, he didn’t get mad when I knocked his glasses into the abyss on the Indiana Jones ride.  When I was a whiny baby after one particular afternoon nap, he went and got me chocolate to boost my spirits.  He kept track of where we needed to go and when we needed to be there so that I didn’t have to bother with such dull details (he knows me very well).  And as always, he was very strong and handsome.  

Now in Brian’s words, “Marci always looked stunningly beautiful, had a smile on her face, was very affectionate, adventurous, and fun to be around.  She made the trip worth while. 

On the Way Home

On the road home--We woke up early this morning, dressed, packed, and got in line to disembark.  Leaving LA, we saw the Hollywood sign for the first time and also downtown LA which was cool.  We read a chapter from  the prophet, Thomas S Monson’s biography.

We also talked to the kids, first Jon, then Matt who was sleeping when we called so we hung up to let him sleep longer.  When the kids got home from church, we talked to them and my parents.  Everyone seems to be in pretty good spirits and they all wanted to know what we got them except Matt who is not that way.  Later we talked to Cassandra and told her we both bought presents for Lily, and that I got Lily something to wear and Brian got her something to snuggle.

Okay, so this is not a picture of me on the phone in the car, but I AM on the phone, so it will have to do.

Now we are about forty five minutes away from home and we can’t wait to get there.

Scuba!

The second day in Cabo.  I’m going to let Brian describe our next experience, and his personal favorite, in his own words.  
“First off, we had to be at the Wavebands lounge at 6:45 am.  So we missed breakfast and fireworks and dessert the night before. 
I was worried that I wouldn’t do very well at scuba diving.  I was also worried that we’d have some sexy Mexican hunk with his hands all over Marci or that it would be some el cheapo scary boat or bad equipment.  Boy was I wrong!  We went into a modern facility where we got first rate wet suits and scuba gear.  

Our instructors looked more European than Mexican.  Our instructor, Roberto, reminded me of an old friend and he actually enjoyed talking to me.  We got on a boat that could have held a lot of people, but there were only 8 of us.  As we were going to our dive sight, we learned the basics about breathing, hand signals, how to clear our regulators if they came out of our mouths, and clear our masks.  To get into the water, we just stepped off the back of the boat, and as we were bobbing around, we got more familiar with our gear.  Next we went down twelve feet and practiced some more.  

The other couple was having problems with their ears which slowed us down.  Marci and I did really well and then we went down to forty two or forty three feet and enjoyed seeing the fish and wild life.  It was stunning and surreal to be so deep for so long.  

Marci forgot and held her breath for a second on the way back and that made her feel kind of sick.  

Marci:  That's why I look a bit green around the gills in this pict!


Back to Brian:  "I felt great and did the best of anyone in my group which was cool.  I think my military training helped me do well.  I think it is one of the coolest things I have ever done.  It’s funny that the thing I was most reluctant and nervous to do and most concerned about was the one I enjoyed the most.  My second was the snorkeling which I also thought might not go well, but went great.  

Once we were back, the building also had a large aquarium tank for their dolphin encounter adventure.   We got to see a dolphin through the glass on the lower level.  Afterwards, why I don’t know, but Marci wanted to go to the mall so we walked to the mall which was like a very fancy mall in the US, and it was okay, but the walk back was a little bit long especially since I hadn’t eaten lunch or breakfast and was ready to do both.  We were kind of wimps and didn’t eat in Mexico.  I joked that we ate in the best restaurant in Cabo which was the beach blanket café back on ship.”  

Thank you very much, Brian.  Now back to me, Marci.  I just wanted to say that the dolphin came right down to our eye level and looked at us as if to say, “hi.”  I wanted to got to the mall because I was desperate to find something to buy form Matt.  As soon as we got there, though, I realized that Brian was right and there would be nothing there that Matt would want.  I didn’t want to buy Matt some useless thing when he needs so much.  I told Brian how I felt, and he suggested that he would appreciate money more than anything, so we decided that Matt’s gift would be a deposit into his account when we get home.  

Shopping in Cabo and San Jose

The next two days we were anchored in Cabo San Lucas bay.  There was no pier, so we had to take tender boats ashore.   The first day we shopped till we dropped, first in Cabo and then in San Jose, a town on the eastern side on the Baja peninsula. 


 Our San Jose trip was a paid tour and our  tour guide was very knowledgeable about the geography and history of the area and we learned a lot on the bus ride there and back.  In San Jose we visited a Catholic church and got to see a bride!

Brian bought a nice platter and a rock egg to add to Thomas’s collection.  We also bought Jon a little hand made canoe with incense and little shell candles.  For Katrina we bought a mini Mexican tea set and for Miriam we bought a cow nativity.  Don’t ask me to describe that one.  Okay, okay, you lift up the cow from it’s base, and inside is a little tiny nativity.  Weird.  We toured a church also.  We learned from our tour guide that the area’s artesian wells are running dry and they only get to have fresh running water once a week.  I can’t even imagine that!  This information helped us to feel better about getting fleeced by the vendors.  I guess.  Also that day while we were in Cabo, we bought a dress for Lily.  There were many dresses for sale, but I wanted one that was hand made, not the made in China dresses I saw hanging in every store.  Finally we found a man who had some dresses his wife and mother crocheted.  They were different than any of the other dresses we’d seen, and we bought one.  It’s so cute!

Yelapa

After snorkeling and eating lunch, we docked at Yelapa, a tiny town nestled on hills surrounded by tropical splendor.  Yelapa is only accessible by boat and is very poor.  We climbed the winding streets, and peered at the houses with their doorless doorways and glassless windows. 

Behind the houses was a beautiful stream winding down the mountain with gorgeous trees and bushes drinking from it.  The people may have been poor in money but they were rich in the beauties of nature.  

As we climbed the streets, the inhabitants of the city displayed their wares hoping we would buy something.  Sadly, Brian and I had no idea we would need cash and has brought very little, expecting to need most of it on our paid shopping excursion we had planned for the next day in Cabo San Lucas.  

When we arrived at the top of the street, a waterfall arose in misty splendor.  

We spent a wonderful time taking pictures and gazing at the falls.  When we got back to the beach we rested in the shade until it was time to board our catamaran for home.  

On the trip to the ship, the crew out did itself, providing wild and crazy entertainment.  After enjoying it for awhile, we went to the back of the boat to enjoy the scenery.  

What a wonderful experience—my very favorite of the entire vacation

Puerto Villarta

Puerto--When we disembarked in Puerto Villarta, our first port adventure, I was disappointed to look across the street and see Walmart and Sam’s Club.  We didn’t sail a thousand miles from home for that.  But our tour guide kept us moving down the street and soon we were on a catamaran at sea.

We sailed along the coast which was green, lush, tropical, and beautiful.  The ride was rough but that just made it more fun.  The crew stood on the bow singing and dancing for us and I was sure that any minute one of them would fall overboard, but they never did.

The most exciting that happened on that boat ride is when our tour guide announced that we had a whale ahead.  I was so excited.  There it was, waving its fin out of the water at us!  We sat watching its fin waving and occasionally seeing a bit of its back come out of the water.  Then our tour guide told us all to think hard in our minds to make the whale jump.  Within seconds after his suggestion, the whale jumped out of the water. That was its first and last jump, but it had jumped and we were elated.

After we passed the whale, and after some quick instructions, they stopped the boat and we got to jump off the back and go snorkeling.  Brian and I had so much fun holding hands and swimming around looking at schools of fish and reef and stuff.  We were very close to the beautiful shore and a sea cave that we wished we could explore, but it wasn’t worth the risk of getting dashed on the rocks by the waves to do it.  I did hit my knee on a rock but it didn’t hurt much even though it bled.

New Friends

We made some new friends while on board the wonder.  The people we sat with at dinner were delightful to laugh and visit with.  One couple was from Florida.  They had 2 grown children and were the only people at the table who drank at dinner.  They seemed quite well off and very refined and had been on a lot of cruises.  They were always dressed beautifully and were kind and gracious.  The other couple at the table were first time cruisers like us and were from California.  It wasn’t till the last night of the cruise that they ever mentioned having any children.  They have two adult kids, a boy and a girl, like the first couple.  The husband was quite talkative and the wife was more shy and often sea sick.  The last night she opened up and talked quite a bit about her kids.  The last two at our table were a lady and her seven year old daughter.  She was also very friendly and I found her particularly fun to talk to.  She was a bit of a mystery, however, because the only time she ever mention a husband, she referred to him not as her husband, but as the father of her daughter.  Then later she mentioned that she stays at home and hasn’t had to work for five years now.  Something she made me think that they didn’t live with her parents.  It all adds up to a mystery that will now never be solved since we will probably never see any of them again.  

One last friend that we made on board the wonder was our game playing buddy.  We teamed up with him first while playing Name That TV Theme Song.  He knew every song and we won the game and prizes which were ship journals.  The next time we teamed up with our buddy was at Name that Movie Quote where he once again knew almost all of them.  It was during this game that we found out he is a fireman and watches TV and movies at the fire house a lot.  Brian and I did know a few quotes that he did not—about 2 each, but our few contributions help push him over the top to victory.  This time we scored a baseball cap and a water bottle.  Fun stuff, Nice people.

Stormy Weather

On the way to the Mexican Riviera the weather was cold and story and the seas were rough.  On the way back, the weather was the same.  The stormy weather at sea made the beautiful weather of Mexico even more enjoyable.  Even though we had stormy seas so much of the time, we never got sea sick and we never even wore a patch or took any medication.  

We got to watch two movies while on board.  The Help we watched in the Buena Vista theatre and Toy Story 2 we watched outside on the forward funnel on a giant screen.  That was fun because we ate fruit and ice cream and drank soda while we watched it.  Did I mention the help-yourself ice cream machine?   I really enjoyed seeing Toy Story 2 again, but I didn’t like The Help as much as I’d hoped to.

Stateroom, Sweet Stateroom

Our little stateroom on the cruise was on deck five.  It was small but comfortable and we enjoyed quiet time just watching TV.  They had all these Disney movies on and also some specials like the one we enjoyed about the Sherman brothers.  At night the cleaning staff always folded a fun animal out of towels and left it on our bed with chocolate.  When it was bed time, the boat would rock us gently to sleep.

Activities and Exercise

During the day there were activities in which to participate.  Brian enjoyed listening to one of the Disney animators talk about his work on Disney movies and specials.  I enjoyed the time Brian and I played Jenga and listened to singers in the promenade lounge.

One of our very favorite things to do on board was to walk on deck and look at the ocean.  We enjoyed standing towards the bow to see the ocean.  When we were planning the cruise, I dreamed of standing on the deck with Brian and gazing out to sea like they do on the old movies, and it was every bit as enjoyable as I’d hoped.  Those old movies were made back before cruise ships had movies and pools I guess because very few people seemed to enjoy just looking out over the ocean.  Many stayed in the ship and when they did come out, it was to crowd around the pools in a mass of humanity.  Deck four was the walking deck and we would do laps around it trying to walk off a few of the calories that we put on during meals.  We also played shuffle board on deck four and that was fun too even though Brian won.  Also to burn off calories, we avoided using the elevators.  Climbing stairs up and down the ten decks to get everywhere we wanted to go gave us constant exercise.

Showtime!

After the food, my favorite part of the cruise was the evening Disney shows where they went all out to entertain us with Disney magic.  Disney characters, crew members, and dancers all performed in front of lavish sets under sparkling lights.  The music and stories were enchanting.   On two different nights, on the way back to LA, people got into fights over seating before the show.  We saw one fight and heard about the other.  I think people were getting a bit stir crazy at that point.   We would frequently see a child have a melt down, too.  Anyway, the shows were magnificent in every way.

FOOD!

The most important thing to talk about as far as the cruise ship goes, as far as I'm concerned is the food.  First, I will talk about the pizza because we had that our first day after breaking our fast.  It was delicious and always there waiting for us.  We took advantage of its convenience many times.  Next, comes the fancy food.  Every night that we wanted it, we were treated to a four course meal.   We would rotate between 3 different restaurants and ate with the same 6 other people each night and got to know them quite well.  There were two other couples and also a mom and her little girl.  We had our own special servers that rotated with us and got to know quickly our wants and needs.  Also, they were psychic.  Just kidding, but everyone at our table would joke that they were because they knew what we’d want before we’d ask for it.  The seafood was incredible, the soups were to die for.  In fact, Brian said he would give up his man card for the cold mango soup and the hot ginger carrot soup.  It’s a good thing that the portions of each course were small so that we didn’t over eat.  For breakfast and lunches we usually ate at the buffet which had tons of variety and delicious desserts although the desserts never were as good as the first time we ate there which is just as well since we definitely didn’t need more reason to eat.  We always ate our buffet out on the fantail for a magnificent view.

Embarking on the Wonder

The next day was fast Sunday.  Once a month on fast Sunday, members of the LDS church fast 2 meals or 24 hours.  Fasting helps us be closer to God, and we give the money we save from not eating to the church as fast offerings to feed the poor.  That morning, we woke up bright and early to go to church.  We attended the oldest LDS church building in Orange County and enjoyed hearing the members testify of Christ in their fast and testimony meeting.  After church we boarded the Disney wonder.  The first thing most folks did after we embarked was to get lunch at the buffet, but we were still fasting.  Instead we explored the ship, walking up and down each deck.  Since the Wonder has ten decks this kept us busy for quite awhile.  At the end of that wonderful first day, we went to bed in our little state room, happy to be on our big adventure.

Disneyland--The Beginning of our Great Adventure

On Thursday Nov 3 at 4:45 pm Brian and I kissed our kids, got in our car and headed to California.  Thus began our exciting anniversary extravaganza.  We actually planned on leaving at 3:00, but you know how it is getting out the door.  We stayed overnight in a Hampton Inn on the road and got driving again early Friday morning.  By noon, we were having a blast at Disneyland.  

We spent the rest of that Friday and all day Saturday at Disneyland and California Adventure.  It was cold and rainy, but I’d saved the day by insisting on buying rain ponchos before we entered the park..  Some highlight s of our time at Disneyland were seeing the world of color, which was wonderful, seeing the new Little Mermaid ride, seeing the re-made star tours.

  The worse  thing that happened to us in Disneyland was when we were in the Indiana Jones ride and I accidentally knocked Brian’s glasses off his face and they fell out of the vehicle.  They are now lost and gone forever.  I was so sad, I started to cry, because I knew that Brian would be miserable on our cruise without them.  I felt much better after he told me that he’d brought along his spare pair—He’d just had a feeling to bring them.  So, at one point, I had saved the day and at another point I had almost destroyed the entire vacation.  Whew! 

  

Anyway, we also got to see the “Nightmare BeforeChristmas” overlay at the Haunted Mansion which was really fun.  At Astro Blasters we saw a tribute to Elvis.  We enjoyed hearing the songs and watching people dance and have fun.  

The only real gift we bought at Disneyland was for our little grand baby, Lily.  Brian saw some stuffed baby Disney characters, each wrapped in its own little blankey and he wanted to buy one for Lily.  I thought baby Winnie the Pooh was the cutest and he did, too, so we bought it for her.  While were there they were filming the Christmas parade, but we didn’t pay much attention.  We were amazed that people would stand for hours and hours while the y shot and re-shot the scenes just for a chance to be on TV.  I decided that if I ever work for Disney, I want to be on the Story book Land ride so that I can tell stories to little kids all day long.  

Happy Halloween

Katrina as Cleopatra

Thomas The Hobbit

 

Miriam The Marine Babe

Halloween fell on a Monday this year which means it was also Family Home Evening.  On Family Home Evenings we do everything together--even on Halloween.  Since we knew that Thomas would want to go trick-or-treating, that's what we all did.  We had a great time dressing up.  Well, I should say the kids did.  I knew I'd be way too exhausted after making all their costumes to make any for Brian and me and I was right!  It was a fun night.