Our Mexican Cruise

Well I am finally getting around to putting my pictures on the computer, so I thought I would share them.

We had an amazing time in Mexico and on the ship. We started out the cruise with two and a half days aboard the ship. It was really sunny and nice everyday, and our room had a balcony and we were able to see the sunset from it.

Most of the time I didn't feel the ship moving, but being 10 weeks pregnant, I was plagued with morning sickness complicated by motion sickness. So there were moments that were very unpleasant. Everyone raved about the food aboard, but Scott and I are pretty picky and most of the food was a little too sophisticated and odd for us. Most people gain weight on cruises, we may have lost some. Good thing there was a 24 hours pizza bar!! Plus I couldn't go wrong with salad or fruit so I ate a lot of that.

We had our first day ashore on Wednesday in Puerto Vallarta. We were off the ship by about 9:30am to go on our planned excursion of Zip-lining in the jungle. We ended up taking an army style truck where we sat in the bed on benches with no seatbelts and just ropes hanging from the top to hold onto. The driver drove about 70 miles an hour the whole way, which took about an hour. It was a little scary because there were speed bumps in the middle of nowhere that he would have to slam on the breaks for. I was so happy when we finally arrived. We zip-lined off of 14 platforms and even repelled down to the ground, which I was terrified to do, but had to since it was the only way down. It ended up being a lot of fun, but camera's were forbidden so unfortunately we have no evidence that we actually did it. We took the terrifying truck ride home again, and I threw up on the way. Miserable!

We took this picture of another cruise ship parked by ours from our balcony, we thought it looked pretty.

The next day we ported in Mazatlan, where we saw a mexican show, did some shopping, and hung out on the beach. The show was cool, it had these crazy guys doing crazy things.

These guys are being a human windmill, somehow prepelling around without any mechanics.

Here are the same guys way up in the air on top of a pole, they fell backwards off the pull and hung upside down by there feet, slowly lowering down while they spinned around. It was crazy!!

Here are Scott and I acting goofy in the audience.

Next we went shopping and then to the beach. I think the beach was my favorite, the coastline was beautiful and the sand was soooo nice! The only problem were thousands of people coming over to sell there homemade crafts, beach towels, henna tattoos, and whatever else you can think of. And as soon as others saw you purchase one thing the would swarm like hungry dogs it was crazy.

You can see a dude in the background of this picture with stuff to sell. He is just one of the many.

Anyway, I forgot to mention the cabride to the show. It was even more terrifying than the truck ride to the jungle. First of all the driver went twice as fast on twice as busy streets. We actually came within inches of killing a pedestrian. Russell was in the front passenger seat and he could have literally hit the guy in the face when we passed. We all shreiked while the driver just laughed! I'm so glad I don't have to drive in Mexico! At least I didn't puke!

On Friday we were in Cabo San Lucas, where we didn't have much time off the ship so we just did a little light shopping, and took some pictures. It was really a BEAUTIFUL coastline, that was probably the best thing about it.

I think this area is what Cabo is famous for, but I'm not completely sure.

Anyway for the next couple of days we were back on the boat headed home. When we got back to our room we had this towel monkey hanging from the ceiling. We thought it was cute. They actually had a towel animal waiting for us nearly every night, but this is the only one we took a picture of.

Here's Scott acting silly. Sorry about it being sideways, I can't figure out how to rotate it. When we finally came home sunday night our sweet little boys remembered us and were actually happy to see us, which really made the whole thing worthwhile. Here they are with a few of their souveniers.Aren't they cute! Anyway, we had tons of fun, we would definately recommend it, unless you're pregnant, in which case you may want to consider holding off until your not.

dExTeR hAs BeEn TaGgEd

Anna also tagged Dexter at the same time as Corbin, so I guess now it is his turn to be reflected upon.

~Dexter loves to dance, he is always spinning in circles and bobbing his head to music. He especially loves wide open spaces so he has more room to really let loose. It's really funny to watch him spin, he falls a lot, but he laughs like crazy.

~Dexter loves to play pat-a-cake, that is actually how he learned to clap. Every time we play, we have to do it like 500 times, it gets a little annoying for me, but at least he's having a good time. He loves the mark it with a B part, he sticks his pointer finger in the palm of his other hand almost through the whole song.

~Dex loves to give and get kisses. It's actually pretty gross, he comes at you open mouthed and slobbery, but it's also very sweet. We are working on getting him to close his mouth and it's getting better, but he needs more practice.

~Dexter's most favorite thing to do in the whole world is eat! This kid is a bottomless pit when it comes to food. He will eat any and everything I put in front of him, it's a nice change of pace from his big brother who never eats. The good thing about this is that I know he is healthy. I try not to feed him bad stuff, and he definately isn't overly tubby. Of course, being from our family his favorites include; cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt and milk. Yes, we are big dairy people.

~Dexy's second most favorite past-time is playing with Corbin. I think his favorite time of day is when Corbin finally wakes up in the morning. He always gets so happy and excited when Corbin comes out of his room. He instantly starts chasing him around and trying to attack him, it's really cute. I usually don't have to worry about Corbin hurting Dex, but about Dex hurting Corbin!

~Dexter LOVES music. Every night at bedtime he falls asleep to primary hymns playing, and he really doesn't sleep well without it. He also has several toys that play music, and those are definately his favorites. He loves his little glow worm, and pushes the button over and over, as well as this little puppy that used to belong to Corbin. Coming from a family that loves music, we couldn't be more proud.

~Dexter is the outgoing member of our family. Scott and I are both pretty shy, and we thought all of our kids would most likely pick up on that trait. Corbin is totally shy also, but Dex isn't so much. Of course, he is a little bit sometimes, especially when he first meets a person, or hasn't seen them in a while, but he warms up pretty quick. For normal people he would be considered shy, but for us it's outgoing, and we're pretty impressed with it.

~Dex hasn't always been the best sleeper, but recently he has decided to make my life a little easier. He doesn't exactly sleep through the night, but he only wakes up once for a quick diaper change and cuddle and then goes right back to sleep. He now sleeps until about 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning, and it's great.

~I think Dex is an early walker. I don't really know the statistics on the subject, but compared to his big brother he is. He started crawling just before he turned 7 months, whereas Corbin didn't start crawling until he was almost 11 months. Then Dex started to walk right before he turned 10 months while Corbin was just about a year when he took his first step. I think the reason for this is that he is just trying to keep up with Corbin. When Corbin wants to run off so does Dexter.

~And finally Dexter is the best cuddler. He is so sweet and snuggly and I love it. His big brother stopped being cuddly like that so long ago, and it is so great to have someone who wants me to hold him and snuggle him. That is actually what i miss most about nursing, missing out on some snuggling time, but at least he lets me hold him at other times and still get some of that in. I probably only have a few months left before he starts to like daddy more than me, and I am cherishing every minute of it.

We love having our sweet little Dex in our home. He is so happy and funny that we couldn't imagine life without him.

Oh yeah, Dex tags Jeff and Andrew, and Corbin tags Regin.

CoRbIn HaS bEeN tAgGeD

I don't totally know what that mean's but Anna who tagged him had about 10 interesting facts about her listed on the Bollwinkel family blog so that is what I will do.

~Corbin has always been amazingly smart, he learned to count to 10 and could recite the entire alphabet by sight and memory by the time he was 26 months old (keep in mind he learned entirely on his own). He continues to amaze us by now learning the sounds letters make and actually connecting them to form some words. He's learning to READ, again pretty much on his own. He already knows how to spell his own name.

~As you can probably already tell Corbin LOVES books. Every night at bedtime we read at least 3 books but usually more. He has gotten to the point where he has already memorized his favorites and "reads" them to me. It is adorable, I really enjoy that time together every night.

~Corbin has such a great sense of humor. He knows what will really crack us up and makes us laugh til we cry. He says the cutest, funniest things and we don't know where he gets it from. And he loves to laugh at his own jokes.

~Corbin is the best big brother ever! He has always been really good and gentle with Dexter. They play so cute together and you can tell how much he loves him. Once while Scott and I were making dinner, Corbin started laughing on the floor, we looked over and he was sitting on the floor with dexter's head in his lap, rubbing his hair. We were like "What are you doing?" and he says back, "I just love Dexter, I just love him." Dexter was so confused and just wanted to get away, but it was so cute and sweet how could we be mad.

~Corbin LOVES the computer. Scott being the computer geek he is built Corbin his own computer for his 3rd birthday. Corbin treasures that thing like it was worth a million dollars. He logs onto the internet and goes to pbskids.org all by himself and plays the games all the time. It is actually hard to pull him away. He is always talking about how he needs to "Check his pbskids", he's so funny. I contribute much of his quick learning to read to that website since all of the games are educational.

~Corbin is Scott's "mini-me" and I'm not just talking looks. Of course he looks just like Scott, but he also wants to be just like him. He's already a computer geek, and everytime scott goes to fix things around the house Corbin follows him around with tools trying to "fix it" too. He follows him around everywhere, and talks about him all day until he gets home from work. He always says, "Daddy's at work, be home in two minutes." I don't know where he got that from but it is a very common phrase in our house.

~Corbin is a great helper. Whenever I am cleaning or doing laundry, he's always right there to help. He wants to load the clothes into the dryer and pull out the lint, he wants to take the bowls out of the dishwasher, and most of all he wants to mop the floor while I am still trying to sweep. He also loves to get diapers and/or wipes when he thinks Dex needs a diaper change, which actually saves me a lot of time when you add it all up. Sometimes it adds up to a little more work for me, but I'm just glad that he is so willing.

~Corbin loves music! He is ALWAYS humming or singing the alphabet song (his favorite), and he loves it when I turn on music while we do chores.

~Corbin is super perceptive. We really have to watch what we say when he is around cause he picks up on everything and he'll say it too. I don't know if this really falls into the same category, but he can figure things out that it doesn't seem like he should. When we told him that I had another baby in my belly he asked how it got there and if I ate it. I was horrified trying to think of how to explain it to a 3 year old, when suddenly I didn't have to. He kinda answered his own question by explaining it to me like this, he said "Daddy opened the door in your belly, put the baby in, then closed the door?" I said, "yeah, that's pretty much it!" cause it really is pretty accurate. Things are so simple in the eyes of a 3 year old.

~And I have saved the best for last. Corbin is the worlds greatest sleeper. He sleeps for an average of about 14 hours a night! He doesn't really nap anymore, but he makes up for with those long nights. He has always been pretty good even when he was a baby, and that makes me so greatful!

Corbin is such a great kid and we are lucky to have him in our family. He brings us so much joy, and we feel very blessed.

Reflecting on Conference

I just thought I'd comment a little on general conference. I wish every sunday was conference sunday. It is so great to sit at home where the kiddo's can be as loud as they want and I can sit down and watch and listen and actually get something out of it.
My favorite talk was during the sunday afternoon session when M. Russell Ballard spoke about young mothers, he really made me feel appreciated for my chosen profession. Sometimes, being a stay at home mother makes me feel a little guilty for getting to stay home with my boys while Scott has to work all day. But he really made me realize that what I am doing really is important. What a good talk. I also thought President Monson spoke well, as always, and I am very excited that he is the new prophet. I have always looked up to him and loved listening to him speak. All in all it was a very good two days worth of spiritual enlightenment, I can't wait til october.

My First Doctors Appointment

Well, I guess the pregnancy is official, I had my first appointment on tuesday. I didn't get to meet my doctor this time, just her nurse. Her nurse was very nice and informative, she was able to answer all my questions, except one, which she called me about the following day. I was very impressed. The only thing that didn't quite go according to plan was the urine sample. As many of you already know, I have the world's most shy bladder. I have trouble peeing in public bathrooms, unless it's really an emergency, and it's so hard for me to pee on command. So the nurse sends me into the bathroom and points out this huge list of instructions for me to follow in order to get the proper urine sample. It was like a book! It was so detailed and long that I immediately started to sweat under the pressure. I followed every instruction on the paper, which took about ten minutes, and then tried to pee in the cup. Not very surprisingly, I had no success. I came out with my head down and shame in my eyes and admitted that I couldn't do it. The nurse just laughed and said, that's okay, you can take the kit home and do it there and just bring it to us. I was so relieved! She also said that the rest of my visits wouldn't be the same extreme when it comes to the urine sample, just the first one. Thank goodness. I think I will like this place better than the last one.