Our Humming birds are back!

Our Humming birds are coming back! For those of you who know know me well - know that I love Humming birds. Several years ago I put up a feeder and then another and another. I put up (as of now) 1 medium and 3 large feeders and we attract somewhere around 50 or more Humming birds. If I wanted I could put up more feeders and attract more Humming birds but that would be A LOT of sugar and time. When all the birds are here I need to fill the feeders almost every day. In fact we can stand with our hands around the feeder and the Humming birds will land on your hand and feed out of the feeder. When they flutter over your hand while they are eating your hand gets really cold with the fast moving wind.

I spy a Humming bird on something red. Can you see it? The thing it's on is a Humming bird spinner.

We get all sorts of different colored Humming birds visiting. I think they are pretty!

PS. Misty I'm sure these don't follow the rule of thirds. I wasn't sure how to do that with the whole spinner and I felt lucky to get a shot of the Humming bird in one spot. lol

Jovie Jean pictures

Ok so as I am sitting (I'm not really just sitting around) here waiting for Misty to call to tell me that Clara is finally coming, I haven't gotten anything really new to post that would be of interest. But I did take some cute pictures of Jovie while she was on her tummy the other night. She isn't very fond of tummy time. She likes to be up moving and see what is going on all around her with those beautiful eyes of hers.

I love this next picture of her on how she is holding her hands.

She is all over being done with tummy time.

Maybe just maybe my next post will be about Misty's new baby. Those are labor thoughts for you Misty.

Mexican Riviera Day 6 & 7

Here it is the last two days of the cruise and we spend it all on the ship. We can tell the closer we get to the USA the colder it is getting. Not as many people are on the decks. It was nice to be in the warm sunshine for the few days that we were. The Dawn Princess cruise has many activities we can choose from on board ship as we sail back. Here are a few pictures that highlight some of the things we did the last two days.

These are the waiters that served us at dinner every night. They were great! They were both from Mexico. After the first night of the boys ordering the pop they wanted. Adrien (the head waiter) would bring them their pop automatically every night and even bring them refills with out the boys asking. He knew before we knew what we wanted. After the first night of us not putting the napkins on our lap soon enough and they put them on our laps for us we made sure we quickly put them on our lap each night after that.
We couldn't pronounce the tall ones name but the short was is Adrien.

Doesn't this dessert look yummy? Believe me it was as yummy as it looks.

I took a seminar of the chefs making a few of the favorite recipes and toured the galley. The kitchen is completely stainless steel.

Friday evening was another formal evening. The boys weren't to keen on having their pictures taken again but I had Andrew take a picture of us anyway.

This next picture was my idea. Do you really think they would have thought of this on their own?

Their was a "nightclub" called Jammers on board where 18 and older could go so that's where Michael and Andrew would go. They met some other young people their age there that they did things with them in the daytime too.


The ship activities included a scrabble time in the game room. If you know Larry you know he loves to play scrabble and so these are his new scrabble buddies that he made.
When I walked in to take the picture he was in the process of writing a 7 letter word. Go Larry! He won the game by the way.

The last evening for dessert Princess cruise has a tradition that they serve a Baked Alaska. Here are the waiters parading the cakes around the dining room and then our waiter holding ours.

I don't have any pictures of it but I also took advantage of a fitness class on board that was called Burn fat faster. It was really interesting and so I talked Larry into going back with me and getting a body analysis done to see how much toxin was in our body, water retention, fat and other stuff. It was an eye opener for me. I learned so much. The fitness trainer spent alot of time with us and personalized some pilates excercises, weight lifting and treadmill interval trainng. We learned alot about nutrition and how to properly feed our body before and after working out. I was on the right track but supposedly with this new plan I can work out in less time and get better results. So I am trying it. We also bought some thing to detox our whole body. I've always wanted to talk to a personal fitness trainer. nutrition person. When Larry and I went back one time Stuart had us do some pilates. When we started I had to keep telling myself don't look at Larry, don't look at Larry. If I did I would have started laughing. I was wondering what Larry was thinking when Stuart had us put our arms down slow like swans. It was fun though.

Here Larry is in the casino waiting for us to be called to vacate the ship. The cruise is over but not forgotten. We are planning to not wait 10 years the next time before we go on another cruise. It would also be fun to go with some other adult couples.

We go home tonight where our beds won't be turned down and we won't have chocolate on our pillows. That may be true but we go home to our family whom we haven't talked to or seen for a week. We love and miss them. We'll be glad to be home.

Goodbye Dawn Princess.

Mexican Riviera Day 5

What a FUN day! We woke up docked in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The morning was laid back a bit because our tour didn't start until 1:00pm. Across the ship from where we were docked was a Wal Mart, Sam's Club and a High Scale Mall. I even saw traffic lights. It was clean and it looked more like a city.

Larry, Michael, Andrew and I walked over to Wal Mart and the mall to check it out. Wal Mart looked like one that would be here in America. The Mall was nice and looked brand new. The boys didn't want to do any shopping there because they wouldn't be able to barter the prices down.

After lunch we met our tour and headed off to go ATV riding in the back country of a Hacienda. It took 30 minutes to get there and we saw the Mexico that we had seen in the other ports.

On our way to the Hacienda Larry looked out the window and saw an LDS chapel. That was cool to see. The chapels are easily recognized.

We arrived at the Hacienda and was told to go to the bathroom because we couldn't stop our ATV's and go out there because of the spiders and snakes. How comforting. Not! Here we are already to get on our ATV's. Michael asked me "Mom did you smile when the guy took our picture?" I realized I had and everyone had a good laugh. Habit - camera in front of you, then smile. :)

I had not ridden an ATV before that I could remember so they wanted to put the beginners right behind the guide. Andrew hadn't ridden one before either but he kept that a secret. :) It was alot of fun. We went through sand, creeks, rocks, and gravel. We saw some dried up corn fields, 5 cows being herded by 3 cowboys. Michael was happy to point out that I was not the slowest after all, I kept up with our guide. Larry and Michael would wait for those of us in front to get ahead and then they would spin, go off jumps and slide around the corners. Needless to say it was one of the highlights. We are a family who likes to do active stuff. It was dry and dusty hense the bandanna's on our faces. Here are some more pictures of us on the ATV's.
Here's Michael -

Me

Larry

We are at our rest stop and we are standing in front of the caretakers place that takes care of that part of the land. Their were several different fruit trees around the place. What would it be like to go outside and pick a banana?

I know that we have turkeys that come on our land all the time. With our turkeys though you can't get this close. I had to keep backing up because I didn't want them flirting with me if you know what I mean.

I wanted to put in this street. We saw several that looked like this. It's bumpy to ride the ATV on that's for sure.

After we were done ATVing we were fed lunch of shredded chicken tacos on corn tortilla's that were really good. Of course their were little shops to browse through while everyone else on the tour went to the Taquilla factory. We did come away with a few more things which were as the Mexican Vendors say "Come on in and look it's almost free" Not really of course.

We skipped dinner in the dining room tonight because we wanted to go into downtown Puerto Vallarta. It was the last opportunity for shopping and just to see what the city looked like. I'm glad we went. Besides Michael and Andrew finding the last things they needed for girlfriend and family we saw some cool things along the boardwalk. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

The next two pictures don't do this sand art justice. They were beautiful.
Moses and the Ten Commandments

The Last Supper. I couldn't get a front shot of the whole thing and people are in the shot but I'm hoping I can learn to get them out.

By the way family I believe we would have lost the sand sculpture contest that one year if this guy was entered.

Check this out. I've seen these guys painted silver and stand as statues but this guy completely covered himself in sand. Of course their were boxes in front of everything asking for tips. Nothing was done on this cruise without anyone expecting tips and they don't hesitate to ask either.

It was cool to look out and see this pirate ship on the ocean while the sun was setting.

We caught a taxi back to the ship and I actually heard Larry gasp when he saw a car come right at us during a turn. Now that should give you an idea of how "exciting" the taxi rides were. Back on the ship we got there just in time to see a Mexican show by local performers who are the world best at their dance.

Here is a picture of part of one of the buffets we had on the ship. Check out the pirate ship made out of a watermelon.

Well we retire (with our beds turned down and chocolate on our pillow, haha April) after a long fun day. The ship is headed back to San Diego, California but the vacation is far from over. We have two days at Sea still so stay tuned...

PS> Misty thank you for the heads up on the bulk picture upload that helped me go soooo much faster.

Mexican Riviera Day 4

We awoke docked in Matzalan, Mexico this morning to beautiful sunny warm weather. We signed on for a Show, Shopping and lunch tour today. To start off we rode a trolley a short way to where we were to get in a taxi and get a 15 minute ride to downtown Matzalan where everything was. We got in the taxi and that's where the adventure began. Have any of you experienced the Mexican traffic? We only saw one traffic light. The cars just jut out in front of each other and hope the other car stops. We didn't see any stop signs on the streets as we drove in this city either. The taxi's if they could would drive between two rows of traffic. Here is a picture of one of the taxi's we rode in. I don't know why we were smiling knowing what we were in for.

My eyes were opened to the living conditions that are in this country. I have an understanding now of why some are so desperate to cross into our borders. Run down very small shacks, bars on the doors and windows and graffiti on almost everything.

Practically on every corner their is a food wagon of sort. Not too clean with those either. We wouldn't eat or drink anything in Mexico unless it was part of our tour and only drank things out of bottles. We didn't want to get sick.

We made it in time to see the Mexican show. Here are a few pictures from the show. This dance is a love dance. Look what they do with their feet.

A love knot...

Here are the Papantla Flyers. They climbed up an 80 foot pole and put a rope around their waist and then went down headfirst spinning around the pole. Don't try THIS at home.

This dancer is an intense deer. Dad got weirded out when he looked straight at him during the dance. The dance was about a deer that was being hunted and in the end the deer was killed. This dancer was into character for sure.

After the show we shopped and I saw a Prada bag that I wanted to buy even though I knew it was a knockoff. But we didn't bring all of our money with us and Larry bought me another pretty silver necklace that was real this time. Next time we'll know better.
We ate lunch at the Hotel and headed back to the ship.
Larry ordered 3 meals tonight because he wanted something from each one. Michael has cut back on him eating two meals. Andrew though is still ordering two meals. Dad had frog legs for an appetizer. Yuck! Taste like Chicken?

Turned in early tonight after the first show. We head to Puerto Vallarta during the night and have a long day planned so we need our beauty sleep. Of course Larry hit the buffet again before retiring.:)
Did I say our beds were turned down and we received chocolate on our pillow? What the life.

Mexican Riviera Day 3

We awoke right off the Cabo coast this morning. We were to meet for our tour to go snorkeling at 8:00am. Michael and Andrew had room service for breakfast so they could sleep as long as possible.

Here is a view of a part of Cabo.

The ship couldn't dock right at the pier so we had to be tendered to the shore. We road in the life boats.

We met our tour guide and got on the catamaran that was to take us snorkeling in The Chiliano Bay. It was a nice boat. We took some pictures of us along the way. All the yellow stickers on us have the number of the tour we were on. Looks silly I know.

This is a famous area I guess around there called the Hole in the Rock. Pirates used to hide their boats among these rocks.

Here I am pretending I am Misty. Taking a different angle on a photo. What do you think Misty?

The outfit I'm wearing Misty gave to me but I not sure if I tied the pants right. You'll have to show me again Misty.

After an hour of riding in the boat we got to our snorkeling place. We snorkled among these rocks and saw colorful fish, octopus, puffer fish, striped fish and Michael saw a big black one with big lips. It was fun. We stayed in the water about an hour I think. We had on life jackets with a little air in them so we could float and see the fish at the same time.

Getting ready.

Dad

Michael

Me (Linda) By the way. Anytime my picture was taken I had to ask someone to do it. Go figure.

After snorkeling when we got back in the boat we had to be hosed off. I'm sure it was for sanitary reasons. The boat we were on was a clean boat so that was nice. It was still pretty funny I thought.

Michael was so sun burned he wanted to wear my hat and didn't even care what he looked like.

After snorkeling we went back and had lunch and then came back onto shore to stroll the shops that were set up all along the way. Boy was that an experience. We received some good advice from our son-in-law David to take small bills like 1's and 5's and to not let them know you have more. The boys would even spread their money out in different pockets so when one pocket was empty that was all they had. The first day of bartering for us got our feet wet for the next two days in ports. Michael and Larry began to enjoy it and found it to be some sort of game. Anderew was more timid at it. You walk down the street and if you look at something more than a second the Mexican vendors were right in your face trying to talk you into buying it. Their was this one necklace that was pretty (but you know it's not the real silver) that several vendors were selling we found out. The price they were asking ranged from $10.00 to $100.00. Larry decided he wanted to buy it but not for more than $5.00. Through the course of the afternoon Andrew bought one for $12.00, Michael bought one for $7.00 and in the end Larry did buy one for $5.00. These guys chased you down the street and would not leave you alone. Here are few pictures of the bartering taking place.

The necklace the vendor is holding up is the one all three boys bought.

Sometimes more than one at a time would descend on you.

Here is picture of the boardwalk where we walked and bartered. BLue sky and warm.

This last picture is right before we got back on the ship. The ship was to sail soon on it's way to Mazatlan, Mexico. Do you notice how Michael is dressed? He bought himself a Sombrero that would cover his face and neck and he was wearing a long sleeve shirt because his arms and shoulders hurt so bad from the sunburn. He would also walk quickly from shade to shade. I think he learned (once again, I hope) to put on sunscreen.

Even though we are back on the ship the day is long from over. We dress for dinner (where we were eating our dinners we had an assigned table and waiters and the dress each night except for formal was smart casual) and then after dinner we attend a comedy show and then a singer that was pretty good. He performs in Las Vegas. Is the day over yet? No, because Larry wants to go check out the buffet...

Did I tell you we get our bed turned down and chocolate on our pillows? What the life.