Buenos Dias Mejico

Once upon a time, a couple in our ward invited several other couples in the ward to join them on a cruise. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for that couple, they became pregnant and were unable to join the cruise that they had organized. [Congratulations Darrel and Joanna on baby Audrey!] Fortunately (or unfortunately) for us, we were still able to go. This is the wonderous tale of Megan and Nathan cruising to Cozumel and Calica, Mejico in September. (Look I'm only a little over a month behind in blogging about this one!)

It all began one Sunday afternoon in September. My amazing (and brave) step-mom, Mary Lee, had agreed to come stay with the kids while we left for the week. At first we were concerned that the kids might have a hard time with us gone. However, our fears soon left when the children shouted "hooray!" when we told them it was time for us to go. (Mary Lee had wisely told them that she had some treats for them that they could eat as soon as their pesky parents were out of the picture. You can read about their adventures while we were away on Mary Lee's blog.)

We drove to Nashville with our fabulous friends George and Brittany and stayed the night there at an Aloft hotel for free (being a consultant and racking up the hotel points does have some advantages).

Monday morning/afternoon we arrived at the boat and after getting through the lines, were promptly told where the food was. Once aboard I quickly started in on one of my two goals for the trip--eating as much as possible and sleeping as much as possible.

Behold the boat:

After lunch, getting acquainted with the layout of the boat, having a nap (probably), and eating dinner, we enjoyed ourselves by playing a little putt-putt on the deck at the front of boat--Happy Gilmore style. Then we searched for (and found) the open buffet for some dessert.


That night, upon returning to our room, we discovered that our bed had been turned down by a wild, undomesticated fuzzy little towel elephant who apparently lived in our room under (or on) the bed.

The next morning we woke up at some hour. (There really aren't any clocks on the boat anywhere.) After eating breakfast, we decided that it was about time to try our hand at laying out on the deck and perusing our reading materials. I almost left my book in the car, but George had run back to get it (thank you!) while we were explaining to people at the check-in desk that we didn't have the swine flu.

Megan enjoyed her reading selection--The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I also enjoyed my choice--Applied Mergers and Acquisitions.


We spent the entire day at sea reading, eating and sleeping as much as possible. That night was the formal night at dinner and George showed off his mad Tagalog-speaking skills to all of the wait staff from the Phillipines.


Each night at dinner, the staff would sing a song and do a dance. I also learned that at dinner, if you order two entrees or two desserts, they don't respond with "you glutonous American pig who is trying to eat as much as possible and sleep as much as possible on this cruise." Instead, they bring you the food with a cheerful smile!

Our assigned hostess, Pranee, became a great friend during the week. We learned that she works approximately 6 months away from home on the boat during the year to take care of her family, earning much more than she could with her graduate degree back home.


The next day we arrived in Cozumel and made a highly-to-exorbitantly overpriced excursion to swim with the dolphins at Dolphinaris.


These mammals are incredible. They are able to jump out of the water like 10 feet in the air and dive back into the water without ever doing a belly flop.


We met and swam with the dolphins. They were very friendly.


In fact, they were a little too friendly. One of them made a pass at Megan and gave her a kiss on the cheek!


I also, then received a kiss on the cheek, and discovered that the cheek-kiss is just the dolphin way of saying "Thank you for not injuring me you crazy American tourist."


That night we cruised down to Calica. When you look at a map it appears to be only about 20 miles away, however, somehow it took us all night to get there.

We took a taxi into Playa del Carmen and found our way to the beach. Before arriving at the beach, Megan had successfully negotiated the purchase of a pink cowboy hat. (When the guy asked too high a price, Megan literally responded, "No way Jose!" How did she know his name was Jose?)

We rented a pair of beach chairs for the afternoon for $5 and tried our best to relax. It wasn't that difficult.



We also swam in the warm ocean for good measure. (You can't just sit on the beach chairs the whole time!)

We asked a couple of servers at the club where we rented the chairs to take our picture. Apparently they misunderstood our request and instead they flipped the camera upside down and took this picture:

When we saw an approaching storm, we decided to head into town for some authentic chips and salsa, then headed back to the boat for some authentic whatever-food-was-out.

The next day at sea we repeated our strict itinerary of reading, eating, and sleeping.

We pulled into port back in the USA on Saturday morning and booked it home to make sure the kids and Mary Lee had survived--which they all had! (In fact, they probably could have missed us a little more...)

All in all, after what has been a hectic year and schedule at work, it was a much needed time to relax, be out of touch (no Blackberry) and enjoy time together. We had a great time with our great friends George and Brittany, the kids had a great time with Mary Lee, as well as with Megan's parents and sister Jessica back home. The problem is I think we liked it too much. Now we're going to have to go again... (Do you hear me Utah friends and Darden friends?)

Funny Things Kate Says

Our sweet Kaitlyn says the funniest things. Check out this random assortment:

• We saw geese: She said, "There's lots of gooses, maybe they're having a family reunion."
• We're driving home from Kids Commons and she said, "Mom, I didn't like it there." Me: "You didn't?" Kait: "No...I LOVED it!"
• "Mom, when Max lost your keys, I was like, SNAP!, we're going to have to be here all night!"
• Megan asked Kaitlyn to think of new things to say in her bedtime prayers...things she's thankful for, things she needs, etc. She thought for a few seconds, then said, "I'm thankful for bananas. I don't like them, but I'm thankful for them." And that's what she said in her prayer.
• Megan was laying with Kate listening to the Primary Song "I Am a Child of God" and said, "Kate you are a child of God." Kaitlyn responded, "and so are you. We both are. Everyone here is. Everyone on this whole earth....and Africa. Everyone in the world is a child of God, except God, well, because he's God. And he's huge. Not huge, just big."

Dela-Where

A few months ago (since I'm still a few months behind on blogging...and at this rate I'll never catch up) I was working a pretty intense project for a client in Pennsylvania. And, to tell the truth, I'm still affected by it: when I call Megan at 8:00 p.m. it seems early compared to the 11:30 p.m. calls we were having. So, we decided that it would be a great idea if the family took one of the last weeks of summer before school started to accompany me on my business trip. We had it all planned out: we were going to drive, so we'd have a car, stay a weekend on hotel points so it would be free, and visit our good friends Eric and Lacey and their family in Delaware so we'd have a fun time.

Unfortunately, the week before our planned trip we discovered that rather than being a fun family together time, it would instead be me working all nighters and Megan driving aimlessly throughout Pennsylvania during the day and wrestling alone to put the kids to bed at night in a small hotel room without scrapbooking supplies (unless you count Marriott pens and post it notes as scrapbooking supplies--then you'd have plenty).

(I think we made the right call.)

We were sad, however, that we wouldn't be able to see Eric and Lacey--especially since seeing them was one of the motivating, and multi-purposed reasons for taking the trip in the first place. Lucky for us, it was just a few days later and Lacey called Megan informing her that since we weren't going to make it out to see them, they were coming out to see us!

Alison (Eric and Lacey's daughter) and Kaitlyn enjoyed drawing pictures.


Nathan and Eric enjoyed playing drums and jamming on Les Pauls.

Max enjoyed trying to show off his cuteness by putting on his sister's new clothes.

Megan and I, and Eric and Lacey enjoyed a couples dinner out at the Cheesecake Factory.

Here's a picture of Kailtyn with a hula hoop for some reason.

Ali and Ali and Max and Tyler enjoyed being forced to have their picture taken on the stairs.

Ali, Ali and Parker rode a merry go round (not in our basement).

Max and Tyler enjoyed showing us yellow, injection-molded plastic implementations.

Yep...we all had a great time together whether at the WonderLabs, at home, eating out...

...or eating in.

Ali was even thoughtful enough to share the neighbor's toys with Parker.

Thanks to Eric and Lacey and their kids for coming to visit! We had a great time.

My Sister's Wedding (3 Months Later)

Our last Utah visit was rather eventful. We were hoping to make this version of the trip much better.

When we last left our story, we were wrapping up Megan's family's family reunion and were en route to Utah sitting in front of Megan's sister's family on the plane...

Both of my wonderful sisters (and both their complicit sedans since no single sedan could hold all of our stuff and us) agreed to pick us up at the airport and transport us down to Provo where we were borrowing Megan's brother's Accord for the week. However, before we were able to make it all the way to Provo we were attacked by pancakes and french toast at the nearest IHOP. Shortly after that we discovered that road construction in Utah has continued uninterrupted since we left years ago. Every freeway, surface street, alley or driveway in our path seemed to be undergoing construction of some sort (thanks to government stimulus money).

It was interesting to pile all of the kids in the backseat of a 5-seater car when we're so used to having the mini-van. The kids were so close to each they didn't quite know how to react.



The next day Michelle went through the Salt Lake Temple to receive her endowments. It was a wonderful and awesome experience to be together as a family and to see Michelle taking such a great step in her life. We polished off the day with a delicious and delectable joint family meal at Tucano's.



The next day we were off bright and early back to the temple for Michelle and Josh's sealing ceremony. Since the kids were too young to attend the ceremony, Josh's younger teenage sisters (who were also in the same category) graciously agreed to watch our kids in the Visitor's Center. We were a little unsure how they would all do since they had only met briefly the night before at dinner.

Josh is quite the surpriser. As you remember, he proposed on Christmas Day and had two rings for Michelle to choose from. Michelle carefully deliberated and chose one of the two and thought that was the end of it. Well, in the temple, when the time came for the ring exchange, Josh pulled out the second ring and put it on her finger! Michelle is such a catch I can see why he wants to make sure that everyone knows she's taken! (However, I have to say that I now feel like a little bit of a cheapskate--"What?? You're husband only gave you one ring?")

We hurried out of the temple to collect the kids and discovered that they had forever bonded with Josh's sisters. For weeks after we left we heard nothing from the kids except how great Josh's sisters were: what they did, how they wished they had taken more pictures together, and how they were anxious to write them emails and send them handwritten notes!

Our camera worked great while we were outside waiting for the happy couple to make their appearance. We snapped all kinds of shots of the kids:



However, when the time came for taking pictures as they first emerged as a newly married couple, it refused to operate! We were somehow able to snap one shot however:


Shortly afterwards, we headed to the west steps for family, group, individual, sibling, extended family, friend, acquaintance, onlooker and observer wedding photos:




Next, we proceeded to the wedding luncheon. There, I thought I would get the tradition of having the newly married couple kiss started by banging on my water glass with my fork. However, just as all present were turning to look at who was banging on his water glass with his fork, I somehow spilled my water all across our entire table! Fortunately, I was sitting next to Max and Ali so I was able to blame it all on them (not really). Dad also helped by performing a very heartfelt song he had written for Michelle, thus enabling all of the guests to talk about how great and thoughtful Michelle's father was rather than how clumsy and lame Michelle's brother is.

Since we spent much time going to the temple we thought that it would be a great learning opportunity for the kids if we took them to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House so they could walk through and see the inside of a temple before it was dedicated and operating.



Again, our camera did its best not to cooperate, but we were able to get the following picture before the batteries died:



One our way to the Open House, I found out that we were driving right by the headquarters of my favorite company, and insisted that we stop for a photo opportunity and try to slip resumes under the doors of their senior leadership:

Megan reluctantly agreed to have her picture taken there as well:


No Utah trip would be complete without squeezing in as much time as possible visiting our friends Barry and Sherry, Aaron and Michelle, Nick and Tara, Kevin and Leah, Ben and Esther, our ward in Provo, and Cafe Rio and their families.

All in all, we had a great time and are so excited for Michelle and Josh to start their lives together!

Child-Proof, Schmild-Proof

I hate child-proofing devices. Hate them. When Alison was a baby she began opening and closing all the cabinets within reach. We were concerned that her fingers would get pinched (and we were sick of picking up pots and pans all the time), so we invested in some child locks for the cabinets:After Nathan installed the first one, we tested it out. Success! Both he and I had a hard time opening the cabinets! We assumed that we would quickly learn how to maneuver these new locks; after all, we were trying to protect our child. Nathan spent quite a while drilling and screwing in all of the safety locks, and as he finished up the final lock, we discovered that Alison had already discovered how to open the first cabinet. She had outsmarted the locks.

I remember visiting my sister's house and seeing that there was a lock on the refrigerator, thus preventing her 7 children from having complete access to the goods in the fridge. I was quite impressed with the device and noted that one day I would need one of those. The next time I visited her I saw that it had torn in half and was no longer serving its purpose.

So, I hate child-proof devices, and it's been years since I've purchased any child-proof anything. But, now I have Max. He's a very sweet, charismatic, handsome young boy whose smile melts me. He can pretty much get away with anything (e.g. painting his face with mascara, spilling my foundation all over his shirt, ripping Nathan's desk-top scrapbook calendar--Nathan doesn't know about this yet, losing my keys at the Outlet Mall and stranding us for 20 minutes...you get the point...and that was just today). Well, Max has full access to my double pantry and my side-by-side refrigerator, so he gets into cereal, popsicles, crackers, cheese, anything he wants all the time. It drives me crazy, so I decided to give the child-proof devices another shot. So I went and purchased these babies.

It promised to keep my children from getting into the pantry and refrigerator all the time. I was excited. So, I put these locks on and waited for it to be tested. Shortly thereafter Kaitlyn asked if she could have a snack, and I told her to wait until Alison got home and then they could have their snack together. I smiled at myself as she walked away, because I knew she wouldn't be able to get the snack without me...she would have to be obedient!

A couple of minutes later Kaitlyn walked in the room and said, "Mom, I can show you how to open these locks. And I got some peanut butter crackers." Nice. See why I hate child-proofing? And, if you're wondering if they've worked for Max, the short answer is: NO.

*note her outfit...there is more than 1 way to wear a skirt

Megan's Family Reunion Summary (2 Months Later)

We just had the family reunion with Megan's side of the family. "Just" as in 2 months ago. My excuse for just now getting to writing about this? My work and travel schedule. Megan and I calculated that I've been averaging 14 or 15 hour-days for the past 6-ish weeks. Ok, ok...you're very astute: 6 weeks is not 2 months. What about the first 2 weeks? My excuse for that? It's society's fault, and I cannot be personally held responsible. But, enough finger pointing, blaming, and excusing...let's get on with the summary!

Megan went ahead and posted a collection of photos from the reunion for me to blog about, so let's see what we've got here.

This looks like our nephew Jonah taking a quick spin on the scooter on our back patio. While it's not a Spiderman scooter, I think it still worked for him.
Aah, here's Max collapsed after a day of playing in the water and sun at Holiday World. Holiday World is like Disney World, Indiana Edition. Instead of Tomorrow Land, and Adventure Land, it has 4th of July World, Thanksgiving Land, Halloween Town, Christmas Village and Ball Point Pen Day World and it's actually pretty fun. We spent most of the day in the water park and Max finally passed out after attempting to drown all day.

The trip to Holiday World was actually an adventure in itself. We were delayed leaving because we couldn't find Ben's shoes. Then we left the garage door open and had to turn around. Then we realized that we forgot Megan's swimsuit (an important item to take to the water park) and turned around again. Then, dark black clouds filled the entire sky and it started raining like a monsoon. After calling Holiday World and receiving their assurance that it wasn't, in fact, raining there, we decided to continue our drive anyway. As we drove and drove and the rain didn't seem to ever let up we kept calling Holiday World to inquire about the conditions there and they reassured us that "it never rains in Holiday World." We got there, and sure enough it was bright, sunny and hot! It was a Festivus miracle. We had to leave at 7:00 p.m. due to rain at Holiday World. (But we had a great time on the way there and back making up a song about our adventures to the tune of "We Will, We Will Rock You".)

Continuing on the water theme, we had a blow-up pool set up in our backyard one of the days so that the kids could track water and mud into the house much easier. Here's Benj, Grant and Gavin doing their best to tackle each other in the water.

Michael discovered Heaven and started playing guitar.

Nathan discovered Michael and joined in.

Jonathan discovered Nathan and Michael and took a turn playing drums.

Leah discovered her husband, Jonathan and showed him the correct way to use drumsticks! Who needs Rockband or Guitar Hero? We had a blast playing the real thing.

Nathan discovered that if you fly all the way across the country with your family of 9, and then get up at 6:00 a.m. to play golf with the guys in the family, that the couch will attack you in the afternoon and force you unconscious.

Here's another picture of playing in the pool in the backyard with Jessica, Ammon, Benj, Grant, Garrison, Scott, Gabby and Jonah.

Kaitlyn did something fun at the reunion, probably. She loves getting her picture taken.

Ammon, on the other hand, does not love getting his picture taken. He will turn around so you can't see his face.

Bonnie, Gavin and Ali figured out how to make a water slide: you put the slide into the water.

On Sunday night we had a family talent show. Alison showed off the ninja move that she saw on Ultimate Ninja Challenge that we found on satellite one night while everyone was here.

Kaitlyn used a candlestick as a microphone to sing Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Michael acted as the M.C. for the evening and was hilarious.

We wrapped up the reunion by flying 1 row ahead of Nathan, Melissa, Maddy, Jenna, Holly, Bonnie, Ben, Amy and Ammon back to Utah to attend my sister's wedding (which I blog about in approximately 2 months). It was great to see everyone and I think they all had as much fun as we did.

First Day of Second Grade

Alison happily began 2nd grade today, so I thought I would dote on her a bit. I really loved having her home this summer. She's a happy helper and very responsible. I rarely have to remind her to unload the dishes, make her bed, practice piano, clean-up after herself, etc. She's a hard worker, likes to stay busy, wakes up early (hopefully she keeps this trend up when she attends early-morning-seminary), and enjoys learning. She is so her father.

And here she is on her first day of school. She chose her "Girls are Hoop Stars" shirt. She's a bit of a tomboy, and was upset that I made her hair too curly.Here is Alison's at-home fan club. Kaitlyn and Max are bored without having her here. They've already let me know that I'm just no fun. And these are her bus-stop buddies. What a fun group!