Brothers

Thanks to my wonderufully talented Emily for editing this photo and giving me some tips so that I could do the others below. I love how my boys are learning to love each other. Eirik looks out for Joren and helps him all the time. He loves to teach Joren new words one syllable at a time. Joren's vocabulary is expolding. He has trouble with a few sounds like L and R. Consequently he says Flag, Fork, and Frog and they all come out exactly the same.... and not the word you want your kid repeating over and over again! Joren is so physical. He LOVES to climb and nothing intimidates him. He's so brave and if he falls of something very high, he cries and then wants to immediately try it again until he gets it. He loves to get on the highest thing he can and straddle it and say horse. In fact "high" is one of his first words. He's really cute when he dances. He's a very confident runner. He's very independant. He calls his binkie "ma mank" who knows why. He loves dinosaurs and shoes and books. He's always bringing me my shoes, and guests are surprised when he brings them their shoes when it's time for them to go home. He throws himself in my lap the minute I sit down and insists that I read to him. He'll hit me over the head with a book until I read. He loves to wrestle and he will just clobber me. He tries to eat my face and I'm telling you, the kid is all slobber! He has a cute sense of humor. He says the cutest prayers. Thank you is EE OO. I should get it on video.

"Mom, you called me Eirik again! I'm not Eirik, I'm Luke!" (or any other superhero at any given moment...but never Eirik.)

He may be dressed to kill, but he is also dressed to "go out" in his words. What does a mother do when this is what he insists he must wear to the grocery store. I can't tell you how many people have commented on how I need to just put the moon boots away for the summer. What they don't know is that without his Spiderman boots, he can't eat, sleep, walk, talk, play, or even live. All he can do is cry reeealy reeeally loud about it.
Although I hate the Spider man boots, at least they fit. I have been planning this photo for a long time. I bought these boots when Eirik was 18m for his cowboy halloween costume. I got them for $1 at a thrift store. They were black and for girls, but I spray painted them brown which I thought made them look pretty manly and Eirik loved them so much, he wore them until he was 3 and 2 months, which was the point when I insisted that they had to be put away. The zippers won't zip, you can see the spray paint is almost completely worn off, and they were way too small. So it's not just women that put their feet through pain for fashion. These treasured boots are still the subject of frequent mini break-downs, but luckily we replaced them with big, hot, winter moon boots that have velcro and SPIDERMAN!! (hideous and gracious hand-me down from our cousins)
To the blessed cowboy boots of yesteryear: we miss you, and will hold you dear in our hearts forever.

I do love Eirik's never ending creativity and imagination. Lately I have been wishing that we didn't eat sleep and breath Star Wars at our house. {Luke} tells me 18 times a day about how he fought the emperor and he cut off his arm and he lost his light saber. I asked him today how often he thinks about the movie Star Wars. He said, "28 minutes, 28 out of 28 minutes, actually 38 minutes!" (What he really meant by that was every minute of the day.)
Eirik needs to be in the middle of every conversation. He needs to understand 100% of the things going on around him. If Paul and I are having a private conversation, or just one that doesn't involve him, he will come right between us and say, "I agree! I agree! intermittently just so he isn't left out.
We have been reading these chapter books from the library called Dinosaur Cove books about two boys who discover a land of real dinosaurs. Their names are Jamie and Tom. If I'm not being princess Leah, I am definitely being Jamie or Tom and we are on some extravagant adventure. I usually have to wear the backpack with the fossil finder in it. This morning Eirik said : "My mom loves and loves to spit." I said, "hmmmm. I must not know her." He said, "Her name starts with an L. It's Allard. We live in a dark cave by dinosaur cove. My name is Jamie Morgan."
And, that's how our days go.. pretend all day long.

I rewarded Eirik with a trip to ride some ponies if he could go 5 days without a tantrum. He did it and the ponies were a lot of fun. It was a big challenge for him, but he did very well.

Thanks to Ashley for these awesome photos of our trip to the Ann Arbor Arts Festival last weekend! It was so fun, and Ash's post about it cracked me up!

And, although this is totally unrelated, I just found this awesome kids table and chairs from peanutgallerygifts.com!

D and C

So this morning I am going to the hospital for a small procedure called a D and C (Dilation and curettage). I had a miscarriage. I was 15 weeks along when I found out, but the baby had only made it to 9 weeks. Which means that for about 6 weeks I was sick fruitlessly. I feel like it seems a little heartless to say it that way, but that's probably been the hardest part. I have found that during my first trimester I sort of shut down. I turn my life down to just the bare essentials and just get by. So, in a way I lost a lot of time just "getting by". I'm sad about that, bummed that the baby didn't make it, and my friend told me that now is not the hardest time. The hardest time is when several of my best friends that got pregnant at the same time as me will be having their babies at the end of this year. Yeah, she's right, that will be a bummer. But, I read a great quote last night about acceptance from one of my favorite books called Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Acceptance is surrendering to what is: our circumstances, our feelings, our problems, our financial status, our work, our health, our relationships with other people,the delay of our dreams. Before we can change anything in our life we have to recognize that this is the way it's meant to be right now. .......... I have also learned that when I surrender to the reality of a particular situation- when I don't continue to resist, but accept - a softening in my soul occurs. Suddenly I am able to open up to receive all the goodness and abundance available to me because acceptance brings with it so much relief and release. What happens when we accept our circumstances? Well, first of all, we relax. Next we change our vibration, our energy pattern, and the rate of our heartbeat. Once again we're able to tap into the boundless positive energy of the Universe. ...... Today, let go of the struggle. Allow the healing process of change to begin. You're ready to move on."

(I skipped a lot of great things she wrote, and I highly recommend the book.)
Since I found out that the baby didn't make it, I have been a little concerned with myself because I have not been as sad as I would have expected. I wondered if I didn't connect or if I didn't really want this pregnancy, and that's not true. I was really excited. But when I read this quote I realized that I have already been in the mode of acceptance. I have learned that with these two boys I have, I have to accept that the days aren't going to be the way I imagine them, they are going to be the way the boys dictate, and I can fight it and be upset, or accept that this is the way of motherhood. It seems like such a tightrope between accepting and not losing our dreams and will, which are both essential for happiness in my opinion.
I know each miscarriage evokes new and different emotions. If this were my first pregnancy or my 2nd miscarriage (or 3rd or 4th) I know I would take it a lot harder. For the past 3 months I have been adjusting to the idea that I will have 3 children all younger than 4 years old. It was a big pill to swallow and I was ready, but I was letting myself sink so deep into acceptance that I was taking way fewer moments to come up for air where I remember my own will and dreams and my own soul. Motherhood is a lot of surrendering to every whim and want of your children, which is how it is supposed to be, but I think a little more time before child #3 will let me hold on to a little more of that fresh air of my authenticity a little stronger through this journey of motherhood. I've come to see my situation as a blessing. The Lord always knows what we need. I'm glad I know that for knowing that is the only way I can grasp hope in this life. And the future is bright.

And I have had such wonderful friends emailing and supporting me in all kinds of ways through this setback. Erin is watching my kids today for the procedure and Thursday, most of the day and I emailed her this yesterday:

"Erin, So what's the protocol on Thursday? If you babysit for me and I'm feeling ok, would it be totally wrong of me to go tanning or work out or go shopping? I would feel so guilty, but then again, the day is for me to recover right? Is tanning part of pregnancy fat recovery??? :)"
And here is her reply:

"Melody, Oh, didn't you know??! It is a known fact that tanning is a necessary part of the D&C recovery process, and same with working out, napping, going to the mall, reading, and painting your toenails. Of course, all the positive benefits of those activities are highly diminished when you have children with you (in other words, they are not beneficial at all). Seriously, that's all straight from the professionals. "

I included this because I never want to forget how wonderful my friends have been. Thank you all! XXOO

And just so I don't leave you with no images, here are some paintings I loved from my trip to the Coda Gallery in Park City. (a must see destination when visiting PC).

Tracey Lane
Tree Stories

Karen Tusinski
Poppy Bouquet in View

Spectacular Spectacular

4th of July:
Eirik: "I don't want to go to bed, I want to do something more spectacular than sleeping!"

Post Vacation Crash

We got home late last night from our awesome Aanderud family reunion in Park City!
Paul and I were in charge of the T-shirt design and the theme for the week. We decided since the Aanderuds are a family of therapists and social workers that "The Show"would be a fun theme. Paul was the MC for the first opening night and dressed like a talk show host with a table and a mug and did a power point presentation highlighting each sibling and asking many of them to come up and be guests on the show. The presentation was full of all kinds of hilarious spoof clips. My favorite part of the presentation was when Patty (mother-in-law) was asked to come up and talk about her new book "Why I'm right and you're wrong" The show was really funny as well as tender as Paul provided moments for family members to share what family means to them and how special it is for us all to be able to get together. "It is what it is" is our tagline since it has become a common, and probably overused saying in our family.
As an introduction to our family talent show, Paul showed this clip:

We stayed at the Silver King Lodge in Park City. We rented 4 rooms so the kids had a blast cruising from room to room and to the pool and back all week. I feel pretty negligent because my photos are few and far between. You can call me lazy. I've been sticking to the bare minimum lately. So, I'll just fill in some highlights. Zach, my bro in law who just got a job as a professor at BYU (WAY TO GO ZACH!!!!) took us on a nature hike

where we learned that Joren is a huge fan of earthworms. He was so fascinated and had no problem touching and prodding and playing with it. He couldn't get enough. This is cousin Dave being super cool with Joren. I'm not sure Mom would have done such a good job with the earthworm exploration as Dave did. Thanks dude.

The kids LOVED the bubble wands and squirt guns Grandma brought for the hike.

At the talent show that night I had to hold Eirik in my lap with white knuckles because he wanted to be on stage with everyone the whole night. He had 4 parts to his talent and I'm sorry I didn't video anything! He said the pledge of allegiance (I know, old trick) the first article of faith, sang "Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink" and pointed to everyone at the end of the song where it says, "I love you". Then he did a dying scene as a cowboy with a very funny voice. He was really excited about this part.

Joren's talent was equally cool. He repeated every letter of the alphabet with perfect diction, except W. He can't say it so he skips right to X. He is so smart and so cute.

In the morning the men went golfing (in the rain) and the kids did crafts. I cooked all morning for this awesome dinner we had that night with all the in-laws of each family. My parents came and it was so cool to have them there. We made Kristen's awesome salad. See my previous post for the recipe, and it was a hit.

(I know, my photography rocks in this post. :) I didn't even take my better camera which is a blessing since I would have had it in my carry-on that had a whole cup of sippy milk spill in it as it went through security. The milk ruined my phone.. so if I haven't called you back lately, that's why! And, my camera would have been ruined too.. so as for the pictures.. "it is what it is."









The night of the dinner we also took some family photos. I'll get the professional ones at some point, but for now. These are pretty fun to have.

That afternoon the ladies threw a baby shower for Kristen and me. It was so nice of them and they really went all-out to spoil us. The games were really fun especially because we had some younger nieces with us that loved it. It was fun to spoil Kristen too since it is her first baby. I'm so excited for them!

The whole reunion was awesome, but my absolute favorite part was all the cousins for my kids play with. They were so entertained and had a great time. It was AWESOME! I got such a break from sword fighting and playing pretend, and they still had a great time. What cute cousins we have too!

Joren and Zinnia at the Bean Museum later that week.

Jake, Elsie, Joren

Jake and Eirik ie: Supermen
Eirik said his favorite part was doing steamroller with Megan and dancing with all the kids at the talent show.

On our last day the adults all got to go to the American Fork Temple right after a great dinner at Chilis. In the middle of dinner I was chatting with Kristen who casually mentioned her recommend and I had this sudden panic attack. I realized I had left mine in my diaper bag, which I had proudly announced that I wouldn't need for a night out without the kids, which happened to be 35 minutes away. I jumped right in the car and zoomed home to get it. Luckily my parents are so great and, not only watched the kids, but met me halfway so that I could make it back to the session without 1 second to spare. I literally walked in as they were filling out, and I was the last one in the session. I thought about how terrible I would have felt to have missed that wonderful opportunity. I would have been the only adult in the family of 11 that was missing. I was really grateful to be there. It was a really special session and I had so much adrenaline going in that I had no trouble being very attentive through the whole thing. Maybe forgetting my recommend was a blessing in disguise.


We also got to have some great time with the Laws. My mom is such a delight. She had Eirik join her out in her gorgeous yard to play games, sit in the hammock, swing and climb a tree. In the tree she played tea party and sharks and whales and dinosaurs. I ended up climbing the tree with the so that I wouldn't be eaten by the giant whale that was apparently chasing me around the base of the tree.


We also had the pleasure of celebrating Miss Makayla's birthday with her (my 4 year old niece) while we were there. We had a special waffle birthday cake breakfast for her and then we all got to go see the horses that my sister Katie has been grooming and learning to ride. Eirik and Makayla got to ride on of the horses. Makayla, with gorgeous red hair down to her waist intensely declared, "It's like a dream! For my birthday!" They pretended they were a prince and princess warrior going off to save the kingdom, and then they were a just married prince and princess riding off to live happily ever after.







Thanks Katie for the great time!

And finally a trip to Utah is not complete without a drive in the mountains. Both Paul and I were craving that glorious mountain beauty only Utah has. We did the Alpine Loop and it was so green and the steams and lakes were all so high it was just gorgeous. We saw loaded chokecherry bushes everywhere. It's a big tradition of my mom's to make chokecherry jelly and it's always fun to spot the trees on our drives. The kids didn't really love the drive, but we sure did! Here my mom and sister are whistling with blades of long wet grass. And it was another exciting worm adventure for Joren! He found three, and he had no problem getting very muddy, thus Katie is holding him as far away from herself as possible. he he









My brother Dave bought me lunch and I had a great time visiting with him and my brother Michael. We all miss Daniel who is on his mission in New York. We are so proud of him. We love getting his letters every week. He's a stud. It was so sad to say goodbye again to all our loved ones. It's always too short and too sweet and so sad to come home. We love you guys!

And here are a few Eirik quips to get you laughing if you made it all the way through this incredibly long post!

On the way to Utah Eirik insisted that he had to wear this outfit to the airport. His shirt and pants did not match and each were on backwards. This hideous spiderman boots, given to him by his cousin Abe, have replaced his ultra worn, oh so dear, cowboy boots that no longer zip up, as his footwear of choice. No other footwear will appear on his feet without a great ruckus and tantrum. So he wore his boots, but each on the wrong foot, on purpose. And he had to wear his home depot apron which is now repurposed to be Luke's orange and white flight suit from Star Wars when Luke is in training and in the spaceship. But no Luke suit is complete without the new red helmet! I had to insist that he was not allowed to wear a helmet on the plane. I was afraid he would be mistaken for a hyper hypo and it was already way too embarrassing. He got a lot of attention at the airport and each time had to explain that he was not wearing a Home Depot apron, but that he was Luke Skywalker in training!





And as a side note, Eirik often takes pictures on my camera and I found about 8 video clips of his spider man boots when I downloaded my pictures this time. He really loves those hideous things!



Eirik has still not learned what the word whisper means and his outbursts of words like "Dar Thader", "Kill", "Leah", "Blood", "Poop" and "Now" came at all too frequent intervals.
I'm not saying I'm embarrassed, I'm just saying he's very entertaining.

We were all glad to be home after a long day of traveling.

I made Paul promise that he wouldn't make me go anywhere today. so we are having a cool chillin' day at home.
We miss you family!

I KNOW you're not going to like this,

Eirik:
"Mom, I KNOW you're not going to like this, but I HAVE to do it!. I have to show you how brave I am. I have to show you how brave I am with a knife. I WON'T cut myself!"

How frustrating!

Yesterday I overheard my kids having this conversation in the bathtub. It went like this.

Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "WHAT KIND OF DINOSAUR??????"
Joren: "DIIIIIIE WA WA WA WA AHHHHHHH!"

The poor kids could not figure out a better way to ask each other the question.
I went and got all their dinosaurs in a big tub and put them in the bath with them which immediately solved the problem.

These pictures are from when my parents came to visit for graduation. We took them to Lake Erie Metro Park. Yes, Joren is in the water with his shoes on. Of course he is. :)

Eirik: "I need raisin bran and pepperoni. Dad, do you like pepperoni in your cereal? I love it!"

Eirik: "Mom, my naked name is Rock; Rock-a doodle." (nickname)

Kristen’s Rockin’ Mexican Salad

I finally got that recipe I promised typed up. Believe me, this is worth the effort, even if you have to drive for an hour to Costco to get the Queso Blanco.

Kristen’s Rockin’ Mexican Salad

Dressing:

1/3 c. snipped fresh cilantro

¼ c. snipped fresh marjoram- or sprinkle dry

¼ c. lime juice

2 T white wine vinegar

1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, drained and finely chopped

1 ½ tsp salt

Salad:

12 cups packaged chopped hearts of romaine or 2 head romaine lettuce coarsely shredded

4 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 small red onion - finely chopped

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 avocado- chopped

2 plum tomatoes seeded and chopped

1 cup cooked corn

2 T snipped fresh chives

2 limes, cut into wedges

1 cube fried Queso Blanko cheese –(buy from Costco)

For dressing, whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Arrange lettuce on a very large platter. In a large bowl combine chicken, onion, and 1/4 cup dressing. Toss to coat. Arrange chicken mixture, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, and corn in rows atop lettuce on platter. Sprinkle with chives; drizzle the remaining dressing. Serve with lime wedges. Makes 8 servings.

To make ahead: Prepare salad as directed, except toss avocado gently with 1 T lime juice to prevent browning; do not drizzle with dressing. Cover and chill salad and dressing for up to 4 hours.

Dinosaur Festival!

I thought you might like a snip-it of my son's whack imagination. We bought him some little dinosaur stickers at a store we visited in Ann Arbor last week and he and Joren had fun putting them on a piece of paper today. Eirik then hung the paper on the fridge with a magnent and immediately resolved that we all must come watch the paper as it had suddenly turned into a magical movie he had written about dinosaurs invading a space ship driven by aliens.
Here is his word for word, 100 mile per hour enertainment.

"You have to come sit down in this chair so you can watch the movie. I'm going to write down the dinosaur festival. We have to get a stage. Here is our stage. Now, Say,"Dear Dinosaur Festival, Here comes the movie. Here, you have to turn it on with this remote control. But first we have to sing a little song before the movie. "Dear Heavenly Father, here comes the movie for the dinosaur festival." "In the shady meadows" OK, Now, we are ready.

Joren you have to get on the stage to watch the movie about dinosaurs in space. You have to watch this first part. In this part the people who are going to drive the space ship kill all the dinosaurs. It's sort of an adult movie. It's not really for kids. This is going to give Joren nightmares.
Now, just remember that it's not real. It's just in your mind. The people pretending to be the aliens and the dinosaurs are in costumes.

Jesus is in space and he resurected the aliens so they never die again. Jesus gives them power to kill all the dinosaurs and dragons. The first part is so awesome. But the second part is so scary.
Do you love it? This is your dinosaur festival about dragons and dinosaurs. Remember it's not real so try not to be scared.
This part is about the hooks on the front of the brontosaurus feet. They can kill the good dinosaurs but not the bad ones, and they can kill the spikes off of the stegasaurus so other enemies of stegasaurus can kill the stegasaurus.
Now the alien costume guys talk like this. (Loud, obnoxious high pitched squeel. )
This is how the alien costume guys kill the dinosaurs. With whips! They whack the dinosaurs on their legs and they die and it's so awesome!
The movie ends like this. When the dinosaurs say "Arhh" (Loud, pained growling) when they all die. That's the end. Then the movie is over.
I hope you liked your dinosaur festival!"

Graduation came with a storm, and ended with a storm!

We arrived home from the cruise on a Sunday and by Tuesday night we had to be ready to leave again for our 14 hr. drive to Missouri for graduation. It was a quick turnaround, especially considering that I was beginning to feel knocked out and nauseous everyday about then with morning sickness. Not to mention the fact that I felt sad to not spend every possible minute with my sweet parents who drove all the way across the country to watch our kids while we pampered ourselves at sea, and who had stayed in town to see Paul graduate. As we left for Kirksville I felt a knot of nausea in my stomach accompanied by a knot of excitement and anxiety. The drive went pretty well. We got to stop in Nauvoo for a few minutes. Eirik loved the horse statue with Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding.

The anxiety was soon explained as we drove out of Nauvoo into dark looming storm clouds. Right about then, our friends in Kirksville called to tell us that there was a tornado warning and that we had better check our route. It turned out that the tornado was heading straight down the street we were planning to take into town. We changed our route and then we drove into the craziest storm I've ever been in. I usually really get excited by storms, but I had such a foreboding feeling about this one that I started to get really freaked out. I made Paul turn around and while I insisted that we find shelter he insisted that we were fine. We were kind of yelling at each other when Eirik offered to say a prayer. He said, "Heavenly Father, please help the tornado to go away from us, and please help my parents to make a good plan." And then he went right to sleep. The radio then said that we could expect the storm to pass through Canton, the town we were headed to, right about the time we were planning to drive through before we turned around. So, once again we changed our route and kept going. After torrential rain that I thought would sweep us off the street, it dissipated and we entered an eerie green glowing light. Everything was so still.. too still. And the clouds looked like giant hands coming out of heaven. We got out for one quick picture. (This is absolutely unaltered in any way but still doesn't quite capture the eeriness of the moment.)

The stillness didn't last long, for as we drove on the rain descended and we entered a deep darkness that turned into a lightning storm like I have never seen before. For about 30 minutes we drove through fields where we had lightning flashing 360 degrees around us about every 2 seconds. Paul found this awesome classical music that was loud drums and trumpets and high intensity power music to fit the mood. I'm telling you, I thought we were going up in flames at any second. I was just holding my breath. Finally the lightning gave way and we drove in silence through the flooded streets to our destination. It wasn't until the next day that we discovered the extent of the devastation. Right through main street of Kirksville (where we would have been driving at the time of the storm) many homes were totally destroyed and 3 people were killed. It was quite the experience and I'm glad we were safe!

Sorry to write so much about the storm when the really important this is that Paul graduated from Medical School!

I love Ashley. This great pic is from her awesome camera. I also took pictures with many of my other great friends, but it was on my Dad's camera... so the wait continues to get those pictures. (hint hint.. dad....xxoo)
We got to stay the whole time with our good friends the Clarksons. They have an awesome farm 15 minutes from town. Our boys got to see the baby cows drink from bottles and we fed the chickens and ate fresh eggs. They are great people and I hope we grow up to be like them. They were great to host us the whole time! Thanks Clarksons!
Here we are at a fun graduation dinner at Napoli's.






On the long drive home we experienced the tantrum of our lives. It was absolutely remarkable. It deserves it's own blog post. I'm working on a video to post. I hope you get to see it soon!

Congratulations Paul! You are awesome and we are so proud of you!!

After 4 years of anticipation.. Duhn duhn duhn... !!

We met up with the Pace's and the Field's in Puerto Rico for the ultimate indulgent vacation package.. a week long cruise in the warm Caribbean!

It's overwhelming to try to tell about each fun packed day so I've decided to start with my

Top ten awesome moments: (and try to fill in some details later with more scrumptious photos .)


10. Justin got totally hypnotized at the hypnotist show and had us rolling on the floor laughing. He was awesome! He conducted a tremendous symphony! Very impressive!

9. My Rock star husband was the first up for Karaoke and nailed it with "Sweet Caroline"! He was a natural and, oh so charming!

8. On the wonderful island of St. Thomas at Saphire beach I swam out way way way out by myself almost to where the boats were passing and found a huge sea turtle. He was not afraid of me and we swam together for a while until he started to surface and I got to grab onto his shell and experience turtledom. It was AWESOME!

(This picture is actually Aruba, but whatever)

7. There was a little lul in the excitement. The men had gone off to do some male whatever and we were chilling in Katherine's room when someone had the idea to come up with notes to annonymously slip to other passengers. We mischeviously wrote up little messages from the management about how people had eaten too much shrimp and were being asked to please refrain or about how their nighttime activities were interupting other guests. (I'm sure Katherine will share all the details as she scrupulously took photos of all of our notes.) It was a moment of sheer giddiness. It's fun to feel 14 again. I just wish I could have seen the recipient's faces.

6. We got to roll in Paul's 29th year with an outrageously fancy steak dinner with lobster tail and all the works. (and how many of you crazies ate 2 whole steaks!! yes, more than 2 of you!)

5. In Dominica we took an hour long bus ride up through the amazing rain forest to a river where we tubed down to this beautiful lagoon where we swam and decided to climb up these roots to a small ledge and all jump off. I loved the idea and was the first one up, however in my haste I didn't realize that all my "cool" companions had removed their life vests for the photo so I look like the lame duck who is afraid to drown. (photo coming). Thanks guys.. you know how to show your love.

4. This magician comedian guy (Michael James) was shockingly irreverent and insanely funny. At the end of his show the announcer, who was this terrific MC was congratulating him and introducing more events when Michael stuck his head out under the curtain to look up her skirt unbeknown to her. Her surprise showed that it was not expected and not appreciated. After a bit of recovery she calmly said, "that was in interesting way for him to resign." It was shocking and terrible and oh so funny at the same time.

3. 30 Rock quotes became a constant thread of laughter throughout the whole trip. "You ate that whole steak!" "A dog took it, It came out of no where!"

2. For a whole week I didn't have to experience even a moment of this:

1. And the number one best thing about the cruise was that I didn't feel even a bit of morning sickness until the day we disembarked!! Yes, people that is an announcement. We planned carefully to have a baby the day before 2010 for tax reasons. (Dec 30 to be exact) ie. yes we planned to get pregnant, no, we aren't very good at math and could have probably picked a better due date with better planning.. but we are thrilled besides the puking and more than anything glad that sickness did not ruin the trip! Yeah for baby!