Disney Cruise!!!

Our Disney Cruise! I wrote the following four posts out of order, so you can start here and read down. I know, I'm just really considerate. We took an Eastern Caribbean Cruise from October 13th through the 20th. It was heaven on earth. I highly recommend for anyone to save their pennies and go. We loved it all, and will bore you to tears with our stories if you are slow enough to bring up any key words to us. Like: Boat, Ocean, Island, Tan, Gecko, Pineapple, Ice Cream, Happiness etc... Example: Boss-"Clayton, do you have that report ready for the meeting?" C- "Hey, did we tell you about how the ship's captain would report on the weather in..." Ya. We are now cruise snobs. Me monsters. But really, it was Magical. This is the artwork above our bed. It's hard to avoid the Disney fever that makes you want to decorate your entire home in all Disney. However, our one-day nursery will be riddled with the stuff. More later!

Disney Cruise!!! Part 1

One of the huge portholes to enjoy. Ours in our room was only a bit smaller. See here below!
Told ya. This is half our stateroom. We loved our room. They show non stop Disney classic cartoon movies on one channel, new Disney cartoon movies on another and fairly new releases on five others. It was so refreshing to watch any channel and not worry about what you'd see.
Prom night (as Clayton kept calling it) at Animators Palette. The entire room goes from black and white sketches to filled with color. And if you know me, you know I love any excuse to get dressed up.
In front of the elevators. The design on everything on the boat kept with a classic Queen-Mary type of vibe.
Here we are docked next to another (inferior) cruise ship at St. Martin's. We rented a car to drive around the island in. It was something else! It was a tad old, filled with napkins and assorted small garbage, and the roof wouldn't stay on when we drove too fast or down a hill. We think it might have just been someones personal car. The rental place took only cash. Hmm. Also the locals drive like maniacs. But what a gorgeous island.

Disney Cruise!!! Part 2

On top deck in front of St. Martin. Lovely.
This is a shot of us after wii won the Wiimbldon championship on the boat. C took 1st and I took 2nd. Wii rule at video games. Wii also won the trivia challenge one night. Wii also look very tan in this picture, well, C does. Or red anyways. Yes, wii are peeling now. Sick of the wii references? Too bad.
C and our boat in St. Thomas.
"Hey!" "Hey, hey!" (I think I saw Nemo 70 billion times with my nephew Jack, and I loved each and every one) Territorial crabs in St. Thomas.
Us on Deck 4. Our favorite spot on the boat. Lounge chairs, shade (see redness above), uncrowded, a book and unlimited soft serve ice cream, fruit and sodas that we could bring down there to chill with. Heaven.

Disney Cruise!!! Part 3

Us on deck 4 at sunset. Ah bliss. There was even a rainbow, in case it wasn't perfect enough. But that's Disney for ya. They want your experience to be magical, even if it means rigging the weather on the horizon for better pictures. Wow.
I love the chance to play dress up on the cruise. This was semi-formal night, so like Homecoming? We got a free cake at dinner! A friend at our table had ordered a birthday cake for her husband and the cruise also gave them one for their Honeymoon the same evening. Only they got it wrong and accidentally gave it to us. This was making someone upset at our waiter. (Well, as mad as a Disney employee can get in public) Since my birthday was a day away from his and we sorta just had our First anniversary we acted like the cake was for us. If we hadn't I think our waiter would have been in trouble. Our table had triple dessert that night. Yay for Disney Magic! So very awesome.

Mickey! On Castaway Cay (pronounced 'key'). He kissed me (hee hee), take that Minnie. This is their version of Mt Rushmore. We loved Castaway Cay and wished we had spent more days there.
Me snorkeling. Notice how I have the entire Caribbean to myself? Ya, it's an amazing place. C and I started crunching numbers to see how much we would need to retire on our own island. I think we can make it happen. Maybe we should share with friends to cut the cost. Any takers?

Us and the boats. In paradise.

Disney Cruise!!! Part 4

That is not my new tattoo. It is one of the dozens of friendly geckos on the many islands. It's funny how well we tolerate crawly things based on their cuteness factor. Had I seen just as many spiders on the islands I might have asked to be helicoptered off the boat. But Geckos? Bring em on.
Clayton & I at the wheel

Deck 4, adorable Clayton
Clayton in front of our ship and the Flying Dutchman. Pirates, aaarrrgh!

Someone please tell me how to rotate pictures. I fix them on the computer, then I download them and end up with this. Grr. Anyhow. These are the awesome all-terrain wheelchairs on Castaway Cay. We are so using these on our island some day.

Sad News

We lost our little baby at just three months along. We are doing ok physically and as well as can be expected emotionally. The Dr said we can try again soon, and as getting pregnant seems to be something my family does well, we have every reason to be hopeful. Thanks to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive. We have a Disney cruise just around the corner to look forward to, so my next post is sure to be full of annoying pictures of us in the lovely Caribbean sunshine. And hey, this is just a more valid reason to hate Nicole Richie right? (PS. I love babies, and I love pregnant woman, just not crack-addicted, anorexic, alcoholic pregnant women.)

Celebrity Moms....mostly bad parents to be.

So it is interesting to see who is expecting a baby with me. Some are downright annoying and you feel sorry for the unborn baby. Some I am genuinely happy for. Most don't even register as interesting. I thought I'd log a few for my interest alone. Although I know at least one of my readers has an unhealthy obsession like me in celebrity gossip. We can stop anytime. So let's start with the annoying ones.
Nicole Richie. Stopped doing crack for the press, I mean baby. I am still bugged with whichever Madden brother she is dating for dating her so soon after dumping Hilary Duff. I told you this was really important. I like my celebrities to have a nice cooling off period. Impregnating an anorexic coke whore is not cooling off. Sorry for the strong language. Hormones.
Halle Berry. Also unmarried. Much healthier, but still icky. I also roll my eyes at any actress having a first baby after 40. Nothing wrong with having babies at that age, don't misunderstand me. It's just convinient that once the sex-symbol thing starts to wear off they run for the nurseries. Ala Sharon Stone. Ugh. Don't get me started on her. Also Halle has an enormous bump for being "barely three months". Maybe it shows more if you don't have body fat.
Christina Aguilera. I can only imagine the tarty outfits she will conjure up during her time. At least she's married.

Those are the worst I suppose. Here are the rest.
Salma Hayek. Big as a house. That would be the meanest statement in the world, and one I will regret in seven months. Here's a little story. When she made the movie Fools Rush In she played a pregnant woman. And at the time I remember thinking that she was the most adorable pregnant woman ever. So it is refreshing to see that her "real" pregnancy is more of an equalizer. She is engaged to a billionaire. Good for her, I guess.
Milla Jovovitch. Models. Ugh. She was recently interviewed and photographed (nude) for a magazine. Her statements were all annoying and hopefully naive. All about her new curves and her healthy Russian arms etc... She looks just like she always has. Skii-iinny. Only she looks like she is arching her back. Ugh.
Linda Evangalista. She is 41 her boyfriend billionaire is 60. Remember when people were just millionaires? Ya. Me too. Another rich model. Ugh.
Charlotte Church. Is she old enough? Wasn't she 13 like yesterday?
Ali Landry. Another model/actress who will surely be lovely all nine months. She's the one that was married and annulled to Slater.
Paulina Rubio. Drea DeMatteo. Tameka Foster. Garcelle Beauvais Nilon. Noel Gallagher's girlfriend. Anthony Keidis' girlfriend. (He is 44 she is 20!) Samantha Morton. Helena Bonham Carter. Jill Hennessey. Constance Zimmer. Toni Collette. Kim Raver (Also too skinny). Thalia Mottola (Tommy is Mariah Carey's ex.) Jack White's wife Karen Elson (another model). Mark Ruffalo's wife. Brandon Flower's wife Tanya. Joey McIntyre's wife. Isla Fisher (cute) Elisabeth Hasselbeck (adorable).

Reported pregnant but probably not. Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes #2, and sadly Jenna Bush. Interesting. If you know of any others drop me a line. And if you don't know who most of those people are, then feel proud of yourself. You have not wasted weeks worth of time learning about people who will never really matter in your life, except to lower your self esteem.

Hooray!

Big news! Well maybe not. Anyone who reads this already knows the big news. So....boring blog! Yay! Yes. I finally get to have a baby. So does Clayton. We're gonna share actually. Although I really think I should get all naming and dressing privileges for having to hang onto the baby for 9 months in a row. I know, I know, everyone else in the world from the beginning of time has done this before. But now it's me. Much bigger and more important than all of those 80 billion or so other pregnancies. So we are due in April. Which is a lovely time to have a baby, don't you think? As for any ill effects? Oh I have plenty. Sadly (or maybe thankfully? I'm not sure yet) I have every non-symptom you can have. I have the near opposite of what most women get. Not perfect healthy carefree days, no. Just other charming symptoms. According to all of the mom-to-be books, I don't exist. Because my symptoms NEVER happen in pregnancy. However when I go on-line I meet several other women who hate the books like me. I love the internet. It can make anyone feel normal. Or perfectly abnormal. Anyhow, now I have a cold which has made me sit out work this week. Not complaining, well, ya. I am. Oh well. More time to work on names. I already have my boy and girl name. Now I just have to convince my sweetie that they are awesome "cool kid" names. Considering my love of 18th century literature, I don't know if that is a true statement. One of my favorite heroines is Fanny from Mansfield Park. Only a kid as cute as Autumn could pull that off. (See the link to Favorite Redheads) It's nice to accept the fact that my babies can't be as cute as my nieces and nephews on both sides. I'm not being modest. Or maybe I'm bragging for them. But what can you expect when twenty some-odd children are freakishly beautiful? No one can keep a winning streak up that long. I've accepted this and will be perfectly happy with my boring, plain-faced, blah looking kids. I will dress them in ridiculously cute clothes to compensate. Oh. And of course they will be smart and well behaved. I am kidding you know. I learned to never make statements like that as they will bite you in the bum later on. So Yay!!! Join the baby party and have one too! (Within the bonds of matrimony please.) All the cool kids are joining the club. Actually I am annoyed at what celebrities I am pregnant with. More on that later.

May, June, July, Aug.....

I've been busy. So have the other five or six bloggers I love and yet they seem to find to post. All guilt aside it has been a lovely summer. Family reunion, super fun wedding, our anniversary and a few trips. Our latest was back to Calgary, which is where we got engaged. We had a lovely two days in a nice hotel and perfect weather. And Clayton graduates in a week! Today is his last class. Hallelujah! We will be having a super-fun party in about two weeks so get excited readers. Everyone is invited, I'll make it more formal soon. Tyler's wedding was so wonderful. We had such a great time with the family in San Diego. We got to go to the Scrips (?) aquarium with Allison and Clint and their painfully adorable children. They really are lucky that we haven't kidnapped them and headed south for a life in Mexico. Even with the extreme sunblock bills it would be much easier than having our own. I'm kidding of course. However, if Autumn is missing, you wouldn't be wrong to call me first. Also included are shots of Clayton and I with Jack and Hannah miniature golfing. The girls won this time. Anyhow. I will (hopefully) post these pictures. Our PC gave up the Windows ghost and is now a linux limp along. Luckily I married a brilliant man so all of my old pictures are on an external hard drive. He says. I am happy to believe him if only for the peace of mind it may falsely give me. Am I making any sense? Next time I will try for clarity.

Alaska!!! What an oddly boring place.

We went to Alaska! Just... because, well, why not? We would like to hit all 50 states eventually and this was a good one to knock off while we can go for free. It was very lovely up there, but having grown up in Washington, Idaho and Utah, it didn't knock our socks off like we were expecting. We drove for over an hour to see Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America. To be honest? A little underwhelmed. The peaks next to it are almost the same height, so you don't get that "wow" factor. Also, one book said that you could see it from downtown Anchorage. That person needs an editor. Anyhow, we had a good time. We saw lots of wildlife. Eagles, bears, elk, moosen (I hope you listen to Brian Reagan), buffalo and oxen type things. Some we saw in the wild, and some we saw as we drove through a flooded nature conservatory which keeps bears and more exotic things. They keep them in the "wild" only with fences around the perimeters to keep them from mauling your rental car. Where is the fun in that? The lying book also says that there are over 2000 moose and around 800 bears that live in the city limits of Anchorage. One of many reasons not to live in Anchorage. Besides being half a globe away from anyone and paying Maui prices for food, it is also cold. Didn't know if you knew that. Ya- April is not the time to visit. The lakes are all still frozen and we couldn't take any day cruises. Oh, and another reason not to live there. The JW's burned down our Stake center. Ok, they didn't really. It was an electrical problem with the heating or something. I am totally joking about the JW's. We saw some walking near the previously mentioned chapel and had a great laugh imaging them to be the culprits. We were surprised to see the burned up chapel though. It's right next to the Temple. How sad for the local members. Our trip ended on a high note by enjoying the famous Alaskan king crab. Best crab ever, and seriously huge. Well, save your time and money. Alaska is amazing, but except for glaciers, it's got nothing on Utah.