boys

will be boys

this makes me nervous

brandon thinks it's just cute.

Cozumel MEXICO

better late than never, but here's a taste of the final port on our Western Carribean cruise.

this beach was great. just what you would expect from mexico. complete with a waiter who gave us a menu, and then told us food was "on sale" and THEN raised the prices from the menu's listings.
i made laura and gunnar do a romantic photo shoot for me on this pier.

how dare you...a blogger award?

i don't usually respond to blogger awards because...well, just because. alright! it's because i hate opening up to blogger world and giving all the honest answers! okay, there i said it. it just feels weird. but for you, molly, anything!

um, so...(stammer, stallll)...okay, i was awarded a blog award from my dear molly whom i have known for 16 years. thank you molly. i love you. i adore you. now, everyone, just go read HER BLOG. because she's an amazing photographer and she's awesome.

rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for the award
2. copy the award and paste it on your blog
3. link to the person who nomiated you for the award
4. share 7 interesting things about yourself
5. nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers

1. i don't ever eat bananas. i hate them.

2. i have a plucking addiction.

3. i let my younger sister kjrsten take care of me like an older sister would and should (i SHOULD take care of her)

4. i have lots of grey hairs

5. when i was little i wanted to be a popstar like madonna and i thought i had the best singing voice (...if you had only heard me rehearse in the SHOWER)

6. my favorite animal is the elephant. when i was growing up i always thought i loved dogs. but now that i'm an adult i don't want a dog in my house, since i clean up enough poop every day. for that reason, even fish are outlawed in this house. and then i realized i am obsessed with decorating my boys rooms with elephants. once i bought a pair of overalls for isla that had a stuffed elephant attached to the front pocket (blasted gymboree). but that's the great thing about elephants, no one would ever expect you to have one in your house. so i can love them and never bring one home unless it's modpodged on my son's wall or in the front pocket of my daughters ensemble.

7. i cannot make a batch of cookies without finishing them off within a couple days (with or without help, it must be done).

i nominate: (but just so you know, i won't be offended if you don't do it)

Chloe because she makes me laugh almost every day.

mare because i want to know all about her cupcake world.

kate jill because she runs and inspires me to be better.

rebecca because she's a mommy who works it capturing her kids' everyday life but making it look easy.

my crazy days

things i did this week: (and i had help from brandon on some of it)

cleaned out the play room and turned it into a bonafide dining room. complete with table and chairs. (but now needs decorating?? so daunting for me.)

cleaned out the boys rooms to make room for the toys. (and donated a bunch of toys! so liberating!!)

thought about how to decorate the boys rooms. (finally! ~and anyone with ideas...please help!)

was completely caught up on all the laundry all week. (this never happens! i usually have 5 loads to do on saturday)

went to costco once, walmart one time, and fred meyer 4 times. (we went through 4 gallons of milk, 2 gallons of apple juice, 1/2 gallon of orange juice, and 30 diet sodas. are we the thirstiest family of 5...ever?)

made dinner every night except the night brandon brought home pizza. (was going to make homemade pizzas but luckily brandon rescued me since i ran out of steam by dinner time)

listed a bunch of baby stuff on craigslist. (i'm 99.9% sure we are done)

taped out where our island is going to go in the kitchen. (can't wait for the cabinet space!)

visited my mom in the hospital 3 times. (she's home now and needs some prayers)

put a couple hundred cd's onto my desktop. (not sure why but along with Tupac, i even own the X-files: the album. anyone want to borrow that ditty?)
went running 3 times. (but oh man, do i need some weight workouts!)

woke up at 6:30 with macrae 6 out of 7 days. (brandon gave me saturday to sleep in. thanks babe!)

sang about 20 primary songs at bedtime. and said atleast as many prayers.

(and this is what my week looked like)

Belize City

okay, now where were we?
oh right. belize. before we headed out on this trip there were some people who told us that belize had a really cool cave tubing excursion. i wish we had listened to them. because belize was not very awesome. i thought there would be some really great beaches because i had heard that belize was one of the most popular places to travel for a tropical vacation. BUT...after being accosted by locals who were overly persitant in trying to get our business we finally found a decent cab driver to take us to a "beach." um, when we got there it was not a beach. it was a man-made pool with a slide and a cheesy zip line. oh, and lets not forget the "museum." i didn't take one picture of the museum or the "pool."
and then brandon had a terrible migraine. we spent an extra hour on the dock while he got himself together. which meant spending time behind a restaurant and hurling. so this is the view from our fake beach of THE REAL BEACH.


me, sunbathing.

here's what brandon looked like when we were returning to the boat.
this is what i was doing while he was busy.



i hope i don't sound like i'm complaining. i'm not into tours and excursions that take an entire day. i went on the cruise to get some sun. and i thought belize was going to be the BEST port for that. it wasn't. and if i had to do it again i would have gone to the caves or even the ruins. but, ah well. we did get to see the LDS chapel in belize city. it was surrounded by barbed wire and i didn't take a picture because i was afraid to pull out my camera incase someone on the street saw it (or the cab driver) and decided to jack us. ha! seriously, that was how safe i felt.