Baja Cruise Day 1

It's safe to say that I've fallen in love with vacationing. We've never really been on a vacation before this cruise. We went to Daytona for our honeymoon, but didn't do much vacationing due to the tropical storm. And any other chance to get away is usually spent visiting family, which by the way isn't a bad way to spend time off :)

Anyway, we started out the vacation super early Monday morning. We had to meet at Adam's work at 5:00 am. Then we rode a charter bus to Long Beach, CA. It was about a 7 hour drive and we only had Jack with us for an hour or so of the drive probably. Adam's coworker, Brent, hit it off right away with Jack. He grabbed Jack from me before the bus even started moving and they spent the first couple of hours of the trip like this.

 He woke up just in time to see the sun rising in Vegas. He loved watching the cars and trucks pass by. And he loved not being in a car seat.

 We stopped in Barstow, CA then hit the road again for another 2 hours. We got to Long Beach aroung 12:30 and headed straight for the Lido deck for lunch. We had a little bit of time before we could get into the room, so we explored the ship a bit.

 It was Adam's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean and Jack's first time seeing any ocean.

 Long Beach

 Us with The Queen Mary

Before setting sail, we had to have a safety briefing, which is where Jack got his bracelet for in case he got separated from us.

He just wanted to chew on it for the first little while. A few days later, Adam and I both got watches at the gift shop on board. So Jack figured his bracelet was probably a watch too and would point to it and say, "tock tick tock tick."

I like this picture. I like to think he's saying, "Cute? Who Me? Nah." But seriously, every day we had crew members and other cruisers saying how cute he was. It was like he was a newborn again. I don't know how many times we answered, "16 months" when people asked how old he was.

 Sunset in Long Beach before we left.

 And of course you've got to take pictures of the towel animals. It's mandatory. Our first towel animal of the week was this cute little seal. 

Yet again, this poor kid's cooky parents make him do crazy things like waking up in the middle of the night to go hop on a bus for seven hours. And yet again he takes it all like a champ. Throughout the whole trip people kept commenting about how good he was and asking if he was always this good. I think it's safe to say he was the best kid in our group. Every night at our late 8:15 dinner all the other kids would be having massive melt-downs and the parents would have to leave before dessert. But every night Jack was just an absolute gem. Even when you could tell he was pretty tired he still kept it together and stayed happy. We couldn't have asked for a better kid to put up with our crazy antics.

Up next... day 2 and Catalina Island.

On Kitties and Fizzy Baths

An unlikely pairing for blog topics, I know. But I'm lazy and don't feel like doing two separate ones. 

A few nights ago Adam was in the kitchen and he heard a cat just outside at the back door. She was meowing like crazy so he went over to the door. As soon as he opened it, the bold cat walked right in the house and was waltzing around like she owned the place. (So typical of a cat, right?) Jack loved the idea of a cat being in our house so much that when we tried to get the cat out, which was no small feat, he got super upset. So we ended up letting her wander around for a bit before sending it back outside.

And then that night Jack got to use one of his Christmas presents. Santa brought Jack some pretty awesome stocking stuffers, one of which was some bath time fizzy things. They're little tablets that you throw in the water and watch them fizz, then they change the water different colors. He kept asking for more, more, more. So I think they were a hit. Good job, Santa.

Numero Dos

As I mentioned before, we love Christmas so much that we celebrate it twice. It's totally the way to go. I think more people should do it our way. After an awesome Christmas at home, we loaded up the car and drove north to be with my family for Christmas. Adam stayed until the day after Christmas, then had to come home for work. So Jack and I stayed the whole week after to give everyone a good fill of Jack time.

So Christmas Eve we had a great Nativity reenactment with all the grandkids. Jack was the cutest angel ever and was a great sport about the over-sized outfit, wings and halo.

But even the best of angels can get a little grumpy.

This picture was quite literally taken just seconds before the cute smiley one. I didn't think he'd put up with the get-up, but then everyone started telling him how cool he looked and his mood suddenly shifted.

But then when it was his turn to come out, he caught sight of the baby Jesus doll and had a bit of tantrum when he couldn't have it.

I made my mom and Linda blankies for Christmas. They both have Jack's handprint on them and their names, Grandma and Nana. And they have a minky backing, which is the softest, coziest, comfiest material known to man. I got tears out of her, which means I can chalk it up as a success. 

 Watching the train go around the tree. Mesmerizing. Oh and there's a bow on his head. cute.

 See what I mean? Cute.

 He got a pop gun from the Drake kids.

Then Christmas morning Jack just had a few more presents to open. He took each present to a different person to help him open it.

 During the week after Christmas, Jack and Grandma got in some quality cuddling time on more than one occasion, which I'm sure they both just loved.

 Jack played in the dog bed quite a few times.

And he played with Grandma's pots, pans, and tupperwares.

He's a pretty normal Drake grandkid. Snugglin' with Grandma, playing in the dog bed, destroying her kitchen. A few other goofy things he did through the week included taking all the measuring cups and spoons out of the drawer and throwing them in the trash and also learning the word "normal" from Grandpa. Now anytime he hears the word normal, he copies it. We were watching The Incredibles last night and they said normal about five times in just a couple of seconds, so Jack went around the house saying "nomo" all night. Silly boy.

We had a great holiday season filled with a ton of fun and great times with family. Now the good news for us is the fun's not over. We leave on our cruise to Baja, Mexico in six days. Wahoo! Can't wait!

Merry Christmas the First

As is our tradition, we had our own early Christmas before heading up here to Salt Lake for the real Christmas. We had a great Christmas this year and it felt extra Christmas-y with Jack around. For our Christmas Eve on the 22nd we had a fancy pants three course dinner.

I decorated the table all cute.

Then we had an appetizer of bacon wrapped scallops and bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos with a chipotle dipping sauce.

We had Orange-Habanero Glazed Tilapia on a bed of roasted onions with a side of Citrus Sweet Rice for the main course.

 And then mini Pecan Praline Red Velvet Cakes for dessert.

We watched Joy to the World and Jack conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as they sang Christmas carols.

Then after Jack went to bed Adam got to work being a busy little elf. He had some work to do for my big surprise. More on that to come.

We woke up early Friday morning to do Christmas before Adam went to work. Jack usually spoils me by sleeping in until 9:00, but we woke him at 7:00 to open presents. I was nervous about doing that. I thought we'd ruin Christmas for him forever. But as soon as he saw the presents and got the concept down, he was wide awake and happy.

 One of Adam's gifts to Jack and me was a fish bowl for a fishy that we have yet to pick out. We'll be taking suggestions of what to name our new little pet.

 New car seat

 Standing at the third bedroom to go in and see my big surprise.

 Wahoo! It's an amazing craft station. It's the perfect size and shape. I'm going to love it.

And then Jack got a singing Elmo from Nana and Papa, which he just loved.

I'll do another blog for the pictures we've taken here in Salt Lake when I have more energy later this week. But be sure and stay tuned. Jack dressed up as an angel for the nativity program and he made the cutest angel ever. Aw heck, I'll give you a little sneak preview just so you know it's worth checking back for..