Abbie turns 12

Having a birthday on a Saturday is always fun. Abbie woke up to a fun filled day. She started her day with crepes (her request) and then played a few hours of her favorite sport, tennis. She is training to start participating in tournaments and her birthday was her first day of training.

Outside was waiting for her a yard full of bee's welcoming her into Young Women's. I'm so excited to have Abbie in my Beehive class. Camp this year will be so much fun with Abbie there. I am looking forward to spending that time with her.

Abbie decided to collect money in leu of gifts at there birthday party to donate to the local Ronald McDonald house. On Abbie's actual birthday we were able to tour the Ronald McDonald house and present the checks to them. It was such a great experience meeting some of the families staying at the home, and learning exactly where there donated money is going. Between Abbie and Kiersten they raised $455. I was really proud of her for wanting to give instead of just receive gifts on her birthday.

Abbie's nickname in tennis is unicorn. Avery gave her this stuffed unicorn for her birthday, and Abbie loves it. We took this picture to send to her tennis coach just for fun.

Abbie was very excited to do baptisms for the dead, and decided she would like to do that for her birthday. It was such an amazing experience being at the temple with just Micah, Abbie and myself. We had the whole baptistry to ourselves, and she got a lot of special attention for it being her birthday and her first time there. It was a great experience. It was dark and cold so I didn't get a great picture, but you can kind of make her out in front of the Las Vegas temple.

After the temple we took her out for a special treat. She had been wanting to try this place called "The Crepe Shack" so that's where we went for a yummy treat.

She had to get a few silly poses in.

Abbie had a wonderful birthday, and really enjoyed getting packages and cards in the mail. We have wonderful family and friends that made it a special day for her. I still can't beleive she is 12 years old. She is turning into such a beautiful, smart, kind young woman. She is going to do amazing things in her life and I can't watch her grow. She is such a wonderful daughter and I feel so blessed that she is in our family. Happy Birthday Abbie!

Abbie's Birthday Party

Abbie shared a birthday party this year with her friend Kiersten who has a birthday the day after hers. It was fun to have a joint party because they both know many of the same people, and the more the merrier I suppose. They decided to have a mall scavenger hunt which was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun making up the list of where and what to take pictures of. They split up into three groups and ran (well walked fast to be respectful of others) throughout the mall taking pics. We ran into a small snag in the game when we first started playing because a security guard told us we couldn't take pictures outside of stores, but we could ask the store clerk inside of the store to take pictures inside. Everyone was really nice they had no problems with us taking pictures. In fact they looked at us like we were crazy for asking. We did what the security guard asked and had a lot of fun.

 These are a few of my favorite pictures of the evening. 

Everyone crowded in a bathroom stall.

Posing like a mannequin in a store window.

Trying on sunglasses.

Trying on sports gear.

Cute pose on a mall bench.

Singing Mary had a little lamb in a music store. The pictures were all so cute it was hard to pick just a few. We went home and made them into a slideshow that was so fun to watch. Aliza was hilarious trying to sneak her way into the background of the pictures.

We came back to our house to eat pizza, decorate cup cakes and play just dance. I attempted to do a chocolate fountain, but it didn't work. I melted all the chocolate, put it in the fountain and it wouldn't turn on. I felt really bad but we just ended up dipping yummy treats in the chocolate instead. It was still delicious.

Cruise Pictures

A few pictures from our cruise. Formal night and just a random fun picture. The girls loved getting in front of the camera for all the photographers. There were a lot of cute pictures, but at $20 a picture you can only buy so many.

Our Christmas Cruise part 2

I think our favorite part of our trip was our excursion in Ensenada Mexico. We went on a bus ride up to the famous blow hole La Bufadora. Just the experience on the bus tide through Mexico was eye opening, and the coast was beautiful. Our tour guide talked the entire trip up and back from the blow hole. She gave us a lot of interesting facts on the city and my favorite part was when she mentioned that at our last stop at the city center we would get a free margarita and the kids get a Coke. She encouraged all of the parents to please let their kids experience their Coke products because they are better than in the states. All three of our girls looked at me like they had won the lottery and asked if I was really going to let them have some. They acted as if they had never had soda before. Of course we tried the Coke. Micah and I even passed up the margarita for a Coke. It was yummy. 

This is beautiful La Bufadora. The coast was beautiful and I love the smell of the ocean. This blowhole is special because it spray's continually rather than having to wait for it to come. Of course whenever I had my camera up and ready for a big spray we only got little ones, but that's just always my luck.

They had a Mexican singer there with a guitar which was fun to listen to. I was just glad no one had to use the restroom because it was 50 cents per person. They really try on make money any way they can with all the tourists.

After the blow hole we were able to do some shopping. It was so much fun letting the girls try and talk down the seller to get the items they wanted. They had all saved their money and spent most of it on this shopping trip. Aliza was in love with this little ukelele, and we went to several shops to find a blue one.

Abbie fell in love with this puppet named Maria. Avery was very generous and spent her money on necklaces and bracelets for her and her friends.

I love this picture because it shows the street lined with shops we were on. The tour guide was telling us that they had the best churros ever made, and I would have to agree. They were SO good,

I'm not sure how this got so out of order, but Micah was lifting Aliza up to see the blow hole.

They were so thrilled to watch them make a bracelet with their name on them. It was fun to watch how fast they were at making these bracelets. Not bad that they were 3 for $5 also.

Our last stop was at the city center. We were luckily able to use the bathroom for free there, and enjoyed walking around the gardens. There were fountains and statures all around.

Back on the ship Aliza was dying to try on her new dress she purchased. She has been very disappointed that she can't wear it to school. She would wear it everywhere if we would let her.

I didn't get a great shot of our formal night so I bought the expensive picture they take of you during dinner. That will be in the next post. The girls had fun getting all dressed up, and below was Aliza's darling dress she got from her Grammie.

Our last day at sea was extremely windy which meant doing anything up on the decks was pretty much out of the question. But we still know how to have a good time. The wind was so strong that you could hardly walk in front of the boat.

Everyone took turns pretending to be a bug on the windshield.

This is what else you do when it's too windy to go outside.

Nothing like taking a turn getting sandwiched int he roll away bed.

With the high winds our last dinner in the dining room Abbie wasn't feeling well. I think she felt the sea sickness the worst. I think she would have been fine if the weather was better. Aliza was very done with sitting down and eating fancy dinners so I guess it was time to go home. We were seated at dinner with another very nice family from Arizona who happened to be Mormon also. On our first night in the dining room we also noticed another family close to us all in BYU paraphernalia. One day as we were walking through the buffet area a lady approached Micah and said "hello other Mormon family." I thought that it was fun to have others with our same values on the ship and funny that we were seated with one every night for dinner.

Aliza loved being in the kids play area, and they all attended a magic show together. They even took a towel folding class that I'm just waiting to have fancy towels folded all around the house, but it hasn't happened yet. We had a great time together, and I loved spending a few days with my wonderful family.

Our Christmas Cruise part 1

On a Friday morning January 4th we got up early, drove to California and boarded our new home for a few days. The girls were so excited to be by the ocean. Going through all the security checks I could tell was a little intimidating for the girls, but we made it through just fine. They just wanted to get on that ship.

First thing when we got on the ship we headed to the buffet for lunch. After all the best part of a cruise is the food. Right? They really enjoyed just being able to have whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. After lunch we took a tour of all the fun things to do on the ship.

The water was beautiful and everyone was looking for animals in the ocean. Avery and I did see a sea otter but other than that there was just a lot of birds. In fact we tried to eat our lunch outside on the decks but those darn birds were getting a little too close for comfort.

There was a miniature golf couse on the very top of the boat which had these fun heads all over. They all wanted their picture by them. Abbie of course had to throw in a nose pick.

They had fun music playing as we toured the ship. It's amazing how big these cruise ships are. It really is a little city floating on the water.

Aliza was much happier when she was the photographer. She did a pretty good job too.

The stage where they do all the big shows was obviously a big hit.

Abbie loved being in the library (pictured below). There were a few times when she went there to read or we all played games together.

The library totally reminded me of something from a Harry Potter movie.

Our first night they were so excited to have a towel animal and chocolate on their pillows. Our room was squishy with a queen size bed, two over head beads on each side of the room and a roll away bed. We all slept well each night though. When the cruise ship first took off most of us were a little sea sick but we got used to it pretty quickley.

The weather was not the best, but you cant expect Summer weather in the Winter I suppose. The temperature was actually really nice, but the wind blew the entire time. I don't think it mattered the temperature with that cold ocean wind blowing. Brrrrrr So swimming wasn't as fun as we would have hoped, but they got in and tried a few of the water slides.

 I never captured a great picture of all the slides on the back of this boat, but it really was amazing.

To be continued............