Western Carribbean 2010...

We had the greatest time on our cruise, It definitely is in my top 3 of favorite vacations, It was our first cruise and i seriously think it is the best way to vacation, you get to see all these different islands or places, you get to eat awesome food and you get served like king and queens and much much more. We will defintely be going on more cruises in the future! Thank you so much to my inlaws for taking us all, we loved being with all of our family and without the kids although they were missed, it was so awesome! This will be a long post for my journal, so read on if you'd like!



Day 1:Saturday Feb. 6, 2010
We dropped the kids off to Wagstaff's and Doug's house and we flew to Miami where we stayed in a little scary hotel, I didn't realize we were in a dangerous part of town until we were escorted to our hotel room by a security guard, after that I was a little nervous but we survived and we also survived all the crazy drunk super bowl fans that were in Miami waiting for the big game the next day!




Day 2:Sunday Feb. 7, 2010
We enjoy some mcd's for breakfast then took a shuttle to the pier where we got on the beautiful Royal Carribbean Liberty of the Seas, I was so amazed by this ship, the whole trip Trav and I kept saying to each other can you believe we are on a ship in the middle of the ocean, it seems like just one huge hotel plus some! It was serisously awesome. Our first dinner was so yummy and our waiters were so great, I seriously looked forward to dinner every night, it was probably my favorite part of the day. Travis ordered two differnt entrees for dinner on this night and I don't think we realized we could eat all we want, every dinner after that though, i think we all ordered a couple of everything especially trav, I think one night he had 2 appetizers, 2 or 3 entrees and a few desserts, it was so awesome, not to mention all the bread they bring to you every 5 minutes, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Our first night on the ship was the super bowl, so after dinner we head down to Studio B where they have the super bowl on a humongous screen and yep, more food, lots of it!! There was tons of flat screens all throughout this room and lots of cool stuff for the super bowl. We weren't too happy with the outcome of the game but who cares we were cruising the carribbean. That night trav and I went to the welcome aboard show that was so awesome, and we went to a parade and we stayed up till about 1:00am, something we never do, we had cookies and sandwiches at midnight just because we could, it was so fun!
I made Travis take a picture with every day, we called it the Picture of the Day!
The Superbowl party, everything on the ship was above and beyond!




Day 3:
This was our first full day on the ship and we cruised the open sea all day, it was so fun to just be with Trav and to be able to just focus on "us", we haven't done that for a long time and it was needed. We had so much fun together all week! We were able to check the ship out some more, we played some basketball, layed out on the top deck of the ship, had more yummy food, Travis did the flowrider and the rock climbing wall and him and his bros and dad even entered a dodgeball contest, it was pretty funny, but great entertainment, we had our first formal night,and that was so fun to get dressed up, we went to a show after dinner and stayed up late again eating some more :) They had this ice cream machine that you could get ice cream cones whenever you wanted, i think travis had at least 5 a day, it was awesome!

You couldn't go to lunch withouth a shirt on so Shane put on his moms swimsuit cover up, nice!


















Dodgeball, check out that action shot!




Day 4: Costa Maya, Mexico
We got off the ship about 9:00 am and it was so hot and humid,I couldn't believe all the little mexican shops and all the bartering that was going on. We hung out in the pool and on the beach and had some lunch, than we decided to check costa maya out a little bit so we rented some golf carts and drove around the little island, I was amazed at the poverty, and all the little shacks that these people lived in, They had really pretty beaches but costa maya reminded me a little bit of Tijuana, so after sweating and burning in the heat we headed back and boarded the ship again, Can I tell you how good I felt when we always got back on the ship, it was like I was in America again :)! That night we had another yummy dinner and enjoyed getting to know our waiters, I still can't believe they stay on that ship for 6 months at a time! I think we went to another show oh and we went miniature golfing but i think we hit the sack a little earlier this night, we were exhausted!















Day 5: Belize city, Belize
Belize was probably my favorite stop, It reminded me of what jamaica might be like, lots of dreadlocks and rasta stuff and bob marley! We decided to go cave tubing here and we took an hour long bus ride to the jungle where we hiked up a little bit than got on tubes and went through some caves, it was really cool after that we zip lined through the jungle, this was really fun, freaked me out a little but it was awesome!
then we headed back to the ship had another wonderful dinner, went to another show, and played games. Another fantastic day on our cruise!
They cleaned our rooms twice a day and every night after dinner this is what we had to look forward to, a towel animal!





Ziplining!












Day 6: Cozumel Mexico
This was another one of my favorite stops, We rented little scooters and cruised the Island of Cozumel all day. We hung out at a little beach for a little while where we found awesome seashells and I also found a little hermit crab, we wanted to bring it home to Parley but we didn't think we would be able to. We had lunch at coconuts, it was pretty much Rated R, but it was an experience! We tried to shop a little bit in the city but that place is crazy, Trav's mom drove one of the little scooters all by herself, She was so brave because that city was anything but safe to be driving around in. We headed back to the ship, got in the hot tub, something we did every time we got back to the ship that and have a couple of ice cream cones. Had another awesome dinner and another great show and I think we played some more games and watched Kyle do the flow rider.

I seriously felt like we were on dumb and dumber!








This was the menu at coconuts, this place was seriously kind of scary!

Picture of the Day!


Day 7: Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman was beautiful and very nice especially compared to the other places we went to, we took a boat out to a little sand bar in the middle of the ocean and we swam with sting rays and held them and fed them, it was a little creepy but really pretty cool, I didn't have a waterproof camera so i will get those pictures from my sister in law, After the sting rays we went snorkeling a little bit and then stopped at this beautiful beach that had the most amazing sand i have ever seen, and i have seen a lot of sand living in Hawaii. I also couldn't get over how brillian blue the water was in Grand Cayman. We had some lunch than headed back to the port where we did a little souvenir shopping and back on the boat for our last formal night, Dinner again was delicious, we had a seat right by a big window at dinner so we were able to watch the amazing ocean and sometimes there were some pretty big waves, We went to another show, Travis always got a pina coloda when we went to the shows, played some more games and went to bed.



Sting rays!







Our waiters Anselm and Milton, Anselm was from St. Vincent and Milton was from Guatemala, so him and shane got along great! These guys were great, always showing us funny magic tricks or telling us about there families. These guys made dinner so awesome!

check out that huge piece of meat!




Grant gets a little sick when he snorkels so he stayed on the boat with Heather and I. I am not a big fan of snorkeling either, I did it enough in Hawaii! I did hold a sting ray though!







Waiting for a show in the theatre.



Day 8: Cruising
Our last day on the ship we cruised the sea all day, so we were able to just hang out and relax on the ship unfortanately it was very windy and overcast and the boat was rocking like crazy, Andrea got pretty sick and was laying on the lower deck trying to get some fresh air and people kept walking by her and saying, oh look how drunk she is, hilarious! So we pretty much hung out in the hot tub all day, where we stayed warm but also had some fresh air blowing on us so we didn't get sea sick, than we showered and got ready for our last dinner, I really don't think i have washed and blow dryed my hair so much as I did in these 7 days! My camera had died on this day so I didn't get any pictures, I really wanted to get a picture of Trav with his ice cream cones but oh well. Dinner again was delicious, Our first dinner i had Pavlova for dessert and it was seriously so good, so all week I kept jokingly asking our waiter if they had pavlova again and he told me they never make the same thing twice so our waiter made a special request for me to the Head waiter for Pavlova on our last night, so come dessert time on this night, our waiter brings out 15 Pavlova, it was awesome, and yes I think i ate 3, and i would have eaten more if i wasn't so full! They had made for our table only, it was great! Than we enjoyed the farewell show where they had a comedian and they played a little dvd of the whole week and Travis, shane or kyle and Amy all made the movie!! Than we had to go pack our bags and send them off!!

On Valentines day, we ported in Miami and got off the ship and flew home! It was so nice to come home to the kids I didn't realize how much i missed them until we were on the airplane and then I couldn't wait to get home to them. but we really had the best time and I really think we will be going on more cruises. WE loved it!!Thanks again to the shupe's for such a fantastic time. We will never forget our first cruise!! And thanks again to my wonderful sister Angie and her family, Ella loved being there and she was taken care of so well!! And thanks to Katie and Doug and the boys, Brigham is still talking about his cousins and Parley seriously misses Boston, I think he has been a little bored since we have been home. I was so grateful they were in the best hands possible and That I really didn't even have to worry about them!

So farewell Royal Carribbean, We hope we will be seeing you again!!


Now we get to look foward to March (our families bday month), we can't wait!!

Back to Reality...

We are home from our cruise and we had a fantastic time, seriously one of my favorite vacations ever!! I have so much to post about but right now we are playing catch up with the housework and with the kids!! So stay tuned for some pics of the best vacation ever!!

What the kids did while we were gone...

My amazing sister-in-law Katie watched the boys for me while we were on our cruise, and she sent me an email everyday of what they did that day and some pictures. So i wanted to put it in my blog because she basically wrote a little journal for me for the boys and since i print my blog i wanted to have this. So this really is for us but you can read if you want! I really do have the best family in the world, thank you katie and doug so much for doing this for me and for taking such good care of the boys, they had a blast!! Did I mention Katie has 3 boys of her own and is pregnant with the 4th and she managed to go above and beyond for me and the boys!!

DAY ONE:We were so excited to finally get the boys today. Lisa was wonderful to watch them all day they seemed like they had a great time. I went to get them and as I knocked on the door I heard Brigham say "Mommy" he tried to pretend that he was still excited to see me but inside I know he was disappointed. We didn't have time to do much else besides a quick dinner before Doug and I had to leave for our dinner group. We left the boys with my dad and he said they were wonderful. By the time we came home your boys were calling my dad "grandpa" it was so cute. We hurried to get jammies on and into bed. It had been a long day and everyone was tired. We read some books and climbed into bed. Of course Brigham, Parley and Boston wanted to sleep together. As you can see from the photo. But as you can imagine that only lasted about 10 minutes before we kicked Boston out and put him upstairs, everyone went right to sleep.




DAY TWO:Your boys slept in until 8:00! I couldn't believe it. I was so worried about them, I kept going to check on them. Turns out they like the dark basement. After breakfast I bathed all the boys and started the process of getting everyone ready for church. Doug had a smile on his face as he walked out the door for early morning meetings. He wished me luck and I knew he was laughing inside. They were all very helpful and got ready without a fuss, but let me tell you that's a lot of little white shirts to button and ties and shoes and socks to put on! Sacrament meeting was good. Busy. But good. Your boys were very reverent and quite. They folded their arms and behaved very well. Brigham was thrilled to go to nursery. Parley was thrilled to go to Boston's (and maddie, ella, Boston B. from preschool) class. I think he felt like it was preschool. They wanted to sing the hello song to Parley but he was feeling a little shy. So he invited Boston and Maddie to come up to the front with him.We had a good time after church celebrating Britt's birthday(again), playing outside and of course watching the super bowl! Brigham didn't get a nap today and by 6:30 he was asking for his blue binky and a nap. Can I just tell you that, that was the first time Briggy had, had his binky. He didn't even ask for it last night at bedtime but I felt bad for him so I gave it to him. And today he never even asked for it! I was so proud of him. He's growing up. However he has made it very clear that he does not want to get potty trained. Sorry Susie, he was quite certain about it.We gave Boston and Parley one more try at sleeping together. Tonight they are up in Boston's room and they went right to sleep (RIGHT next to each other). They are getting along great.


DAY THREE:Today we were able to enjoy quite a bit of time outside. The boys spent most of the later afternoon riding bikes and playing outside. They managed to find a small pile of snow and kept quite busy with that. Making a mess of themselves of course! Brigham hit Parley in the face this afternoon, Parley was so sad and was crying. I gave him a hug and he said "I want my mommy!" I love that in the time of comfort he wanted you. I tried the best I could but I knew he missed you. No offense but he got over it quickly and was back on his way playing with Boston. It has amazed me how hard they play. They go to bed exhausted every night! They get along great and have so much fun. Parley got mad at me three times today (I'm a slow learner) because I kept calling Boston a 'stinker' and he told me that, that was not a nice word and knew so because he had talked about it in family night. I use that word a lot, but I am trying really hard not to!We had a good time at family night tonight. your boys lead the music and let us participate in your tradition of singing songs. It was fun. FYI if Parley comes home with a bunch of crazy stories about purple grasshoppers, yellow frogs, skunks, etc. I'm sorry. Doug has been telling the boys stories every night before bed and they are getting a little wild. Parley is eating them alive. It's all he talks about. My boys are over the crazy stories. Doug was excited to have someone who was still interested. He's so cute!



DAY FOUR:The boys did not want to go to school this morning. They have so much fun just staying home playing together. I got them out the door and Briggy and I went grocery shopping. I hardly knew he was there! He was so quite and sweet. He just melts my heart. I think the only time he talked was to say that he wanted a treat. I just had to get him one, he was so good. We had lunch and put Briggy down for a nap. He goes to bed/nap soooo good, i'm always amazed. Boston and Parley went and got Maddie and her little sister to play with. They jumped, swung, rode bikes, played chalk and just had so much fun. I was really warm today and so refreshing to be outside. Parley and Brigham were so excited to see Britton and Hayden come home from school. My boys have loved playing with your boys. Three of Britt's friends called to play today but Britt told them No because his cousins were here. Britton read Brigham a book tonight and put him to bed. Briggy gave Britt a big hug and then took out his binky and gave Britt a kiss. Britt loved it.Scripture study was less than successful tonight. Inbetween Boston and Parley counting outloud all the words in the BOM and Brigham and Hayden trying to play football. Finally I looked at Doug and he just shut the book and we called it good. 5 little boys trying to hold still just wasn't happening! Can I tell you how amazing your boys are at prayers? Parley says the worlds sweetest prayers, and they fold their arms and close their eyes and are so reverent!! We make comments after every prayer how wonderful they are. Such good examples to my boys! We are loving having them here. I talked to Angie this morning. She said she was in love. You have wonderful kids.




DAY FIVE:I'm not sure why these boys don't get sick of each other? They play non-stop all day long. I don't know what poor Boston is going to do after Parley is gone. Today brought a whole lot of nothing. I kept suggesting things for us to do, but truthfully, they just love to play together. Maddie and Morgan (her little sister) spent all morning with us because their parents had a doctors appointment. Parley loves Maddie but really loves her little sister Morgan. He is so cute with her and is constantly giving her hugs and helping her. It is so sweet. We worked on a lot of Valentine's stuff for Boston and my other boys. They colored a lot today and were so creative. Parley is very careful in his colorings and is so patient with everyone else who isn't.It doesn't matter how many times I tell Brigham my name he ALWAYS calls me mom or mommy. It frustrates Parley to no end, and he reminds Briggy that I am not his mom every time he says it.Boston and Parley built a snow 'cave' today in all the melting snow. They came in soaking wet and muddy. You have to love this time of year when everything is melting. They were so pleased with themselves. And I was too, it entertained them for a good hour. We are loving having them stay with us they are a pure joy and delight.





DAY ?????I don't even know what day it is or when the last time I emailed you was. We have really settled into a schedule and it seems so natural for have 5 boys around all the time. They are a complete joy! The 3 youngest boys have had such a great time together and have such crazy imaginations and can pretend together all day long. They are amazing little sleepers and obey so well! They spent the afternoon with my mom so I could go to Britt's class and do his Valentine party. She fell in love with them. Parley and Briggy were both calling her grandma by the time I got there. Briggy was so happy when I came back. He came running over to me saying "Mommy's home, Mommy's home" he gave me a big hug. My mom laughed and said it's funny how we it's not who we are but what we do that defines us to a child. I took Brigham to Old Navy yesterday and he was such a delight. I honestly barely knew he was there. When we were finished I said, should we go home? He got a big smile on his face and said " mommy home from big boat?" He was so disappointed when I said no. He misses you, but makes due with the rest of us. He loves Britt and wants to be right by him all the time.Parley has been counting down days until it's a "WII day" (Friday) He has asked every day if it was and today when he asked and I said yes he was soooo happy. He and Boston and Britt played for a little while. He was so patient all week waiting to play. He was running outside today and tripped over his shoe and hit the ground right on his forehead. He got a pretty good bump. That was the first time either of them got hurt. I was amazed. Sorry about the bump. Maybe (hopefully) it will be gone by the time you get home!Thank you so much for sharing your boys with us this week. I have loved having them here. I honestly don't know what Boston is going to do when they are gone. I realized this week how much I have missed the business of little ones running around. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, right? You are an amazing mother with a great deal of patients and love. It really shows in the way your boys act. They are wonderful. Thank you for trusting Doug and I and the boys with the care of Parley and Brigham this week. I have enjoyed every minute of it. Love, Katie
I had to put a few throw back pics in there. They are getting so big!!








(And this is an email I got from my sister angie while we were gone who was taking care of miss Ella for us!! I am so glad they decided to give her back although she was a little hesitant to come to us. I feel so blessed to have the most amazing family, it was so nice to know that my kids were well taken care of and in the best hands possible. We enjoyed our trip so much because we didn't have to worry about the kids!! Thanks again everybody)
We are not giving her back!!!!

The January Blahhhs...

I haven't blogged forever!! This January seemed to go on and on and on and I am so glad that we have finally made it to February!! Which reminds me, Happy Birthday Dad (The best mission president out there), I love you and miss you and am thinking about you, have a fantastic day!


Here is a few pics from this long january....


I can't do a post without pics of little ella, who isn't feeling great right now and don't her little eyes show it! poor thing.

Watching Up, a new favorite at our house!

I walked into the kitchen the other day and found brig feeding ella some pudding, she was loving it!

Ella is standing up to everything but she hasn't quite figured out how to walk around it, she is getting so big and will be 1 in a month, i can't believe it.




Sorry, I dont' know why this picture didn't rotate!

We went sledding, the kids loved it even Ella!!

Parley and his buddy Stockton.

Brigham was a little scared so he would cover his eyes!I love that he thinks that will make it all better.

Ella even went on the tube!

Parley started Sunbeams and loves it, he has been such a good boy and i love to walk by the primary room and check on him even though he looks like he is bored stiff!! he still has a crush on his nursery teacher who is now brigham's teacher, i think there is a little jealousy going on!

my husband in an apron, you don't see this everyday!!

I love ella's little curly hair!

and i love her 2 huge front teeth!!

The one thing that got me through this long january is that Travis and I will be on a cruise ship in 5 days, yahoo!!