First Hair Cut

Well it is sad but true. Max had his first hair cut this month. Yeah, I'm a little behind. Honestly I cut his hair one night in the tub. It was getting really bad knots in it so I just cut out the gnarly bits. It wasn't great and definately not even. On January 7th we took him in to the girl that does my hair. (She is amazing.) He was so good. I just had her cut it shorter, not shaved or anything. He got to wear a "Nemo blanket" and got a sucker. He sat on my lap and looked around and didn't hold his head still at all. But he was good. He didn't cry or try to stop her. He just put up with it and ate his sucker. Luckily she was good at chasing his head all over the place and his hair cut turned out pretty cute, I mean handsome. He looks like a little boy now, I think. He is such a good little boy too. I am so blessed to have him.
Checking himself out
being so good
playing with Scuba Steve
The after shot. not a great picture of his hair I know, but the kid won't hold still.

I just want to thank Nate for taking so many pictures. He didn't feel it was necessary to take more than one, I felt differently, and so we have several pictures of Max's first hair cut. Thank you Babe. I love you!

A New Year

Well, it is a new year and I have a "new" computer. YEAH!!! I am so excited! My computer got a really bad virus and it was making it impossible to do anything. I have had the virus for a while and we bought this anti-virus software and it would get rid of it for a short time but it kept coming back. Finally Nate and his friend Larry just erased the hard drive and reloading everything on to it. It is so nice to be able to get on the computer and actually surf the internet and open pages read blogs and emails without having a million pop ups and the page change to this stupid virus thing every 15 seconds. It was incredibly annoying.

So here I am with a lot of catching up to do. It has been 2 1/2 months since I have posted anything and there was a lot that happened in that time. I'll do my best to get you up to date.

I will start with Thanksgiving. We went to Arizona for the week to be with Nate's parents and sister Kelli (and her fiance Chris). Unfortunatly Nate's mom wasn't able to be there with us. His sister Christi was pregnant and she went to San Francisco to be there with Christi. Christi had a beautiful baby girl on December 4th. Mom and Baby are doing great!

We had a lot of fun. We drove and Max was so good. I was nervous about how he would do since he pretty much never stops moving. I thought he might get restless in the car but he was so good. We stopped a couple times and let him run around for a long time. We listened to music and he played with toys. He did insist on having one of us (me) sit in the back seat with him. We left monday morning around 7 and we got to Flagstaff around 4. We spent the night there. Nate's parents are serving a mission in the Pheonix mission home right now. His dad is in charge of all the mission cars so he had to be up in the Flagstaff area to do some inspections. We stayed in a hotel there and then headed to Surprise tuesday morning.

Unfortunately Nate and Max both got sick on the trip. Max just had a runny nose and was a little tired. He slept like a champ. Nate spent a lot of his time in the bath and napping. He didn't join us on any of our outings. We missed him but still had fun. He was able to help dad pigeon proof his house before he got really sick, so that was a good thing. On Wednesday Kelli and Chris came over and spent the night. We made some yummy soup for dinner and played games. It was fun.

Thanksgiving morning we started cooking dinner around 9 and had it ready and eaten by 1. Pretty good for a group of people who have never done Thanksgiving dinner before. Nate's family has some very specific dishes they eat for thanksgiving so we did our best to cook like mom. It all turned out really good I thought. We missed you Mom. We all gained a whole new level of appreciation for what you do.

Friday Kelli came back and we went to the park and walked around. Max loved it. they have a lake with ducks and geese and we fed the birds. Max really liked that. We were there for a couple hours playing and walking. It was so nice. The weather was great. I do love Arizona in the winter. Friday night Kelli and I had a girls night out. We went to Twilight, which we both liked. Then we decided to go to 4 Christmases which was pretty stupid. We stayed up really late talking and laughing. We were gone so long that Nate and Dad did an entire 1000 piece puzzle and went to bed before we got home. It was fun! I love having girls time. Sometimes we girls just need to talk. Thanks Kelli for hanging out with me.

Saturday we hung out some more at home. We went to Petsmart to look at the puppies. They were so cute. Max ran around like crazy and spent some time crawling on the floor. That really grossed me out so I tried to stop him but I was unsuccessful. After that we went to the Library and read stories. Max loved that too. That was his first trip to Library, I was a little bit nervous about taking him to the library and having him pull all the books off the shelves but he did really well. It was fun.

We left sunday morning and made the long drive home. It only took us about 12 hours with 2 really long stops. We figured about 10 hours of driving time. Once again Max was a champion traveler. He even sat in the backseat by himself for a lot of it. He of course doesn't sleep in the car anymore. So he didn't sleep at all on the way down there and on the way home he fell asleep for about an hour at 7pm. He is such a good boy. We are so lucky!

Well, that was our Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. We miss Nate's parents and siblings. It is hard to have them living so far away. We are thankful for every minute that we get to spend with them. Love you guys!
kisses
petting the dog
yummy soup dinner
making the rolls the night before
Nate, working hard
Chris, working hard
cutting up the green beans, he insisted on having them french cut, and he was right. Thanks for saving the casserole babe.
The papa, cooking dinner
the beautiful Kelli, she pulled the whole thing off. Thanks Kell.
playing croquet
waiting for dinner to cook
chillin'
the table. so pretty
the food, so yummy
feeding the birds
getting some bread
looking at the birds
"Hello!"
riding a turtle
talking to the turtle
the big slide
sitting with Mom
reading with aunt Kelli
getting a new book

Halloween

I know Halloween was a while ago. Things have been a little unorganized around here. You know how sometimes it feels like everything is falling apart, literally. I think something breaks every other day around here. It is something important too, the computer, the internet, the car, the phone the cupboards. As Nate would say; "I just want crap to work!" And apparently Max is done sleeping in the crib as of right this minute. He went to bed just fine but woke up a couple hours later screaming inconsolably. We had to turn the crib into a toddler bed before he would go to sleep. I guess enough is enough.
At any rate, this is pretty much what we have done for the last couple weeks. It has been fun. I love the fall air and the leaves changing colors. What a great time of year.

Cruise Slide Show

Carribean Cruise

We were fortunate enough to be able to go on a cruise this last weekend. We went with Nate's company, they paid for everything for Nate (minus $150) and we just had to pay for me. We went with Carnival which is a total party ship. It is the only cruise line I have ever been on but it seemed like everyone was drinking all the time. Especially since Nate's company is a bunch of functional alcoholics. That aside we had a blast. It was so much fun. It was nice to get away and have some time to ourselves. It was a long time to leave Max and we were both VERY anxious to get home to him. Luckily my parents are very close and are more than willing to watch him for us. We are so blessed. They took him Wednesday morning/afternoon and we got home Monday evening so it was about 6 days. They took him to St. George for the weekend and had a great time. Of course the little punk didn't take one nap for them. He did sleep 12 hours every night though. He was in good hands and we are so grateful to them for watching him for us. It is SO nice to be able to leave and not worry about him. I know he'll be fine with them. He did lock himself in the car at Walmart which freaked my mom out a bit. He was only in there for 20 minutes and she was standing next to the car the whole time and he was just in there laughing. Such a little punk. Other then that he did great. It was so fun to see him and see how excited he was to have us home. He has been a mix between really cuddly and loving and throwing tantrums a lot. I can't decide if he is kind of mad at us for leaving or if he is just really tired, either way he is still cute.

So now about the cruise. It was a 4 day cruise (2 days of travel, yuck! Miami is so far away). We left from Miami on Thursday it was supposed to be around 4 p.m but the ship didn't actually set sail until 7:30p.m so engine trouble and then a coast guard inspection. Anyway we sailed through the night and docked at the Key West Friday morning. We were only in Key West for half a day, I wish it would have been longer. Nate and I decided to go fishing while we were there. It wasn't deep sea fishing, just light tackle. I will admit I didn't really want to go, but Nate REALLY wanted to go so I conceded. We had a blast! It was so much fun. I had no idea fishing could be so much fun. We were on a little motor boat with 5 other tourists and the captain. We just went out to sea about 30 minutes out, I don't know how many miles, and started with bottom fishing. I was cutting up chum which involves pulling rotting fish out of the cooler and cutting them up with scissors so the fish will come eat them. I starting cutting really big pieces and they were just floating away so the captain told me to cut them smaller so the fish would eat them. Well in a few minutes there was a big shark cruising around our boat. It was about 7-8 feet. We all decided we wanted to try to catch it so the captain rigged up something that involved half a dead fish on the end of a wire and we tried for a while but the fish weren't biting and the shark was gone so we gave up and started trolling. That means you get a rod throw the end in the water and drive around for a while the line gets pulled out then when it is out far enough(according the captain) we just drive around and wait for a fish to bite. Everyone in the boat caught at least one fish some people caught more. Nate caught about 5 I think. He fed the bait bucket for the next tourists. I only caught one fish which ended up being only 1/2 a fish by the time I got it to the boat. I was reeling it in, apparently not fast enough, and I felt this big tug. I thought I have lost the fish but I kept reeling and sure enough I pulled in 1/2 my fish. The other half got eaten on it's way in. All in all the trip was a success. Everyone on the boat was really cool. We all had a blast. The captain was great. He was this 43 year old guy, who looked about 25, from Brooklyn. He had been in Key West for 15 years with no plans of every leaving. I asked him if he was just permanently on vacation and he said with occasional breaks to go fishing. What a life huh? I could totally see why people do that. I could totally see myself doing that. Joe, I have found your calling in life. I think he does alright too. He said he has a place down in Costa Rica too. He gets paid by his boss and then tips from everyone on the boat. And he gets to fish all day everyday, which is what he loves. He was good too. He is out there everyday and everyday he catches something and not just one or two, enough for everyone on the boat. He knew what he was doing which made it a lot of fun for us. We had so much fun I was tempted to go fishing again in Cozumel.

We didn't though. Instead we went on this excursion called Caverns by Jeep. It wasn't in Cozumel it was in Playa Del Carmen so as soon as the boat got to Cozumel we got on a ferry to the mainland. Once again we were only there for a half a day so our time was really limited. We could only do one thing there. So we talked two ladies that work with Nate into coming with us. I'm not sure they were really excited about it and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have come if we had actually filled them in on all the details, but they came and we were really glad they did. The deal is, everyone gets a Jeep Wrangler, 4 people to a jeep. Nate drove ours, there were 8 Jeeps total with the 2 tour guides in separate vehicles. We drove as a caravan through the city to this private beach where they fed us lunch and gave us drinks and we had an hour and a half to just enjoy. We were the only people there, 26 of us just hanging out on the beach. It was great. The weather was fantastic, I know most of you would disagree with me but it was overcast and cool but not cold. It was so nice. Not too hot and with only 1.5 hours its not like you can get a lot of sun bathing in. We ate a delicious lunch of beans, rice, chicken, tortillas. We sat on the beach and talked went for a little walk. It was great.

Once our time was up there they got us all back in the jeeps and we were on our way again. This is where we had the most fun. The roads they were taking us on were dirt and very bumpy which by itself isn't very fun. This time it had been raining so all the holes were filled with muddy water, were the 2nd to last Jeep in the caravan, followed only one of the tour guides. We would just wait for all the jeeps to get through the puddles and then Nate would floor it and we would go flying through water splashing everywhere. Now, the Jeep did have a top on it, just canvas, but no side windows just the windshield. So the enhances the effect when there is water flying all around you and dripping in on you from the roof. The Jeep we were is was totally trashed when we got it. No flooring just the metal with holes in it, which proved interesting when we were going through the puddles, poor Helen got a whole lap full of water. There were no nobs for the heat or A/C, no radio, no horn, no rear view mirror, I don't think the lights worked, the clutch was so loose Nate could change gears without even using it. At least the brakes worked. Needless to say we felt no need to worry about the condition of the car as we covered it in mud. We were laughing so hard the people in front of us kept looking to see what we were doing. It was probably about an hour of dirt roads and we laughed our heads off the whole time. It was so great! We were so glad Janice and Helen came with us so we didn't have to worry about having someone we didn't know in the car and having be careful. Plus they were so much fun. It was a blast. When we left the beach they took us to an ancient Mayan cave with a river flowing through it. Helen has bad knees so she wasn't able to enjoy the caves very much and Janice hung out with her. Neither of them wanted to swim anyway. The rest of the group was able to swim in the caves. It is really clean mineral water that is so crystal clear you could see perfectly to the bottom even in the spots were it was 30 feet deep. It was amazing. There was no color to the water so it just looked like air, you would look around the cave and not be able to see where the water started. It was amazing. They took us around and showed us some new stalactites that were only 3oo years old or something like that. There were some Jaguar bones on the bottom and a tunnel that you have to scuba dive because the opening is under water, but it is 1.5 miles long. They said Discovery channel came out a couple years ago and ran a wire through the tunnel so divers wouldn't get lost in it. They said it is also very dangerous. The caves are made of limestone and they collapse sometimes so when you are diving the tunnel you have to be careful because it could cave in on you. The cave we were in was pretty safe, there were pillars of stalactites meeting up with stalagmites which give the cave its support. The water was really cold so we swam around for a while and then I was freezing and we wanted to get back to Helen and Janice so we got out.

On our way back to the cars there is a little picnic area where they give everyone a drink and ask for tips. Nate and I got there first and we were getting our drinks when one of the ladies there showed us a family of Spider Monkeys in the trees right above us. It was a mom, dad and baby. When it was just the 2 of us they just sat there and watched us. I tried to get some pictures of them but they were too far away. Once everyone else started coming up the mom and baby scrambled up to the top of the tree and the dad freaked out. He was trying to get rid of us, he put on a good show. He was yelling and jumping from tree to tree, he ripped a branch of one tree and threw it down. It was cool to see as long as you were standing far enough away. He calmed down eventually.

We left after that and made it back to Cozumel by 8:00pm or so. The ship was leaving at 10:00pm so Nate (under protest) and I went shopping. We really only went into a couple stores and we didn't get very much stuff, just some souvenirs. Then we went back to the ship and ate dinner. So while it said on the itinerary that we would be spending a day in Cozumel we actually only spent about 45 minutes. It was so fun though. I would definately go back.

Every night on the ship we just hung out. It was fun the have it with Nate's company because there were always people we knew wherever we went. We spent most of our nights talking to people. Watching them gamble and/or drink. We went and saw a really bad comedian the 2nd night and that was the only show we saw. I don't think we were drunk enough to enjoy his comedy. It was bad. We kept trying to hang out in the Karaoke lounge but it was too small and really pretty lame so we just wondered around until we found someone interesting to talk too, or something fun to do. I met a lot of people that work for Nextgen, and I would say of all the people we met, Nate and I were the only ones not drinking. It was fun though. Nate's co-workers are all very nice people.

On the last day his company had a big meeting before dinner. One of the ladies, Dottie and her husband Mike are in a band and they brought their guitars with them. So they did an impromtu show for the company meeting. They got a guy that works for Nextgen that plays piano REALLY well, and another lady singing back up. Nate sang lead vocals for one song, the only one he knew. Dottie played bass and Mike guitar. It was a hit. They were actually pretty good. The sound wasnt' great and they had only had an hour to practice together but they still sounded good, and everyone loved it.

So I would say to sum it up we had a great time. The excursions were fantastic we got lucky this year and picked some good ones. The ship was fun, the company was fun. We had a good time. We are SO happy to be home and have Max with us again. He makes us so happy!