Adorable visitors

I love when my family comes to visit. This weekend we got my parents and my brother and his cute wife and 2 girls. We just chilled and spoiled the girls. Oakley, who has her first birthday in a few weeks, knew how to work the room and got packed around all weekend. She is so light and so smiley and fun. She loved the fan and tried to imitate my tongue clicking sound.
She was not loving the doctor costume....but it was so darn cute.
Then there is Jovie....she was born with a scowl but she has tons of personality. She would break out into song...like, ABBA's Money, Money, Money, or Shake Your Booty. We'd all start singing along. She also is so cute when she wants something...she says "Should I have that? Or Should I do that?" She always wants someone to come play with her. She also loves to wear silky pjs all day.
Both the girls are so darling! They must get that from their mom.She also loves her movies. I think she had Princess Bride memorized. Here she is chillin' in my bed.

She was having fun jumping off the bottom step of the stairs. WOW, big jump! She was proud of herself.


My parents are the best. They get right in there and play on the floor with the girls. They are fun to have and we do shop out Logan, as usual.

Good friends

It was a weekend of laughter, memories, sharing, and just enjoying being with the girls. I miss my girl friends from California. I was so excited for them to pick me up on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. From there we ate, lounged, shopped, and had a great time. To bad the weather didn't cooperate...Saturday morning we got dressed in our swimming suits for about 2 minutes till we realized the pool was not going to happen. So we went shopping and got pedicures.

This cake from Claim jumper lasted the 5 of us for days. It was a great way to start off the day. I also miss lots of restaurant choices.

I love the SUN!!!

I love being in the warm weather, just soaking it up....and that's what we did on our cruise. We went on the Eastern Caribbean on an 8 day cruise and it was fabulous. We went with a fun group of Jim's soccer buddies and their wives. There were so many pictures taken that I don't know where to start.
Here we are making sure we know the safety drill.Those reflectors would really work, they were bright in the flash.
This is Jim riding the waves on the Flow Rider. They tried it on the knees first then surfing. It was lots of fun...but Jim's neck was sore for days after from wiping out.There were many people watching that got more than they bargained for....let's just say....crack can kill. Say no to crack if you can!
Here is the gang as we sail away.
Here we are in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We toured a few old military forts. They were really cool. Jim loves history so he reads all the information.

Here we are in St. Thomas. We went to a remote beach and snorkeled and got a little too much sun.
Ginger made this sign out of rocks. I spotted a turtle like rock and Ginger made it look like a real turtle. I decided to ride it...not sure why but yeehaw! I wanted to see a real turtle but no luck when we were snorkeling. The rock turtle was a close second though.

Here we are in Labadee, Royal Caribbeans private island.

This is our formal night....it's as fancy as we get. But we look GOOD!
Every night we found a new towel animal made up from Cynthia, our room maid. They were really cool. She made a dog, rabbit, love swans, turtle, and this monkey.
We had a great time and it's always hard to come back home. It's harder of course when your flight is cancelled. We ended up driving 9 hours to a different airport just so we could fly home the next day. (Jim got a ticket in GA...the cop was not friendly!)Otherwise we could have been stuck there for a few days. But we are home now trying to recover from the late night fun.

Island Park

Here is my attempt at being a photographer!

You have to love long weekends! Jim and I headed out with Jim's sister Heather and her husband, Don to their cabin in Island Park. The cabin is a classic log cabin but feels like a home, minus the dead animals or stuffed cougar. Love it!


Dead animal pelts. There was also lots of deer heads mounted on the walls and things like that.

This is the snow mushroom outside the cabin. How does it stay like that????? Inquiring minds want to know.

We had a relaxing weekend, filled with fun activities! I introduced them to the game of Farkle. Yes, this is a real game. It involves dice, luck, guts, and strategy. We played it many times and all ended up winning. (I think I won the most) But Heather had the most amazing dice roll luck. And Jim kept practicing his dice rolling cause he likes to win.
When we weren't putting our feet up by the fire and playing Farkle we were either snowmobiling, or playing Guitar Hero. This was our first time ever playing. Jim started to get into being a rocker after a few times practicing. And let's just say I never got booed off the stage like some other people playing did.

Don still beat all of us. He is the biggest rocker of all! It was fun....even though I look scared....it was my first time when Jim took this photo and let's just say there were a lot of notes coming all at once.

Jim had a dead sexy outfit on under his snow clothes but he wouldn't let me get a picture and believe me I tried. It reminded of my of ninja meets 90's ski bum. This is all I could get.

Here we all are ready to snowmobile. The snow was perfect powder and I got stuck a few times trying to keep up with Don and Jim.

The snow outside the cabin was past my waist. I was the only one that wanted to go play in it. Luckily I didn't sink to the bottom but it still came up to my knees. I made a snow angel and Jim had fun from the deck taking a few pictures. One of the stair ways was completely full to the deck with snow. Crazy!

Thanks to Don and Heather for a great weekend!

My Friday Truths

#1 SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS. (this made me laugh)
#2 Freezing rain is slippery.
#3 Spending money on frivolous things when money is tight is not smart. ie. Parties, and parades that cost millions of dollars, while most people are either losing their jobs or getting pay cuts is RIDICULOUS!
#4 There is nothing quite like a long hot shower. Unless of course it is being able to sleep in. Got to LOVE it.
#5 So fun to reconnect with people from your past. Thank you facebook for bringing back memories and being able to catch up with old friends.
#6 Saturday birthdays are a lot more pressure than weekday birthdays. You have to make it a day of celebration instead of just an evening of celebration. That reminds me I'd better get a present for Jim's birthday tomorrow. He is so picky!
#7 Good people, with good hearts are found in all walks of life! It's good to be reminded of this.

Oh Canada!!!

The great white north was cold and windy...just like I remember it. The wind was blowing at 80 miles an hour...ask JIM, it was crazy! But we had a great Christmas and enjoyed playing games and hanging out with my family.

Here are my adorable niece and nephew that I got to play with. They are too cute for words.
Here is my new hair do, thanks to my talented sister Tami. I needed something new cause I was hating my hair.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is enjoying time off to relax. It is the best to be with family! Happy New Year to all!

Let it Snow , let it snow, let it snow

That is Jim speaking...we got our first big dump of snow and he loves it. He is a skier for one, but he also has a 4-wheeler to shovel snow with and he loves it. He was sad to wake up Sunday and not need to shovel more snow. Simple pleasures for him. For me....we went to California last weekend and I missed the sunny warm weather, where you can still hang out outside. It does help this year that we have a garage, I think it got down to 0 degrees last night. That is COLD! But not as cold as Canada. I talked to my mom and she said it is -30 with a wind chill of -40. Who can live like that????Honestly! Here is the snow and Jim playing with his toy!