happy travels...

No actually. NOT happy travels. So most of you have probably noticed from other postings that I am now in California visiting my parents for a week! Wahoo! We found a plane ticket taking me from Raleigh go San Jose, and then from San Jose to Atlanta (where we will spend Christmas Eve & Christmas day) for only $276! Little did I know what a long and terrible day it would be...

Monday was the fateful day, where Jamie took us to the airport at around 9:30 in the morning. Our first flight was only 50 minutes, and Kendalynn hardly made a sound. We rushed to our 2nd flight which and we safely made it to our seat to find that this was a 5 HOUR FLIGHT! Wow... So we start moving around the runway, to find that our flight was going to be delayed for AN HOUR because apparently too many planes were going towards the west coast. Whoop. However when we land we realize, that we missed our connecting flight there in Las Vegas to San Jose. Crud. So we then get booked for a flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix, and then from Phoenix to San Jose. So we get on our flight headed to Phoenix, when that plane also stopped on the runway to be delayed for a half hour. And then guess what happened? You're right...we missed our connecting flight from Phoenix to San Jose. Luckily...I had my mother on the phone while running around the airport trying to find a plane to tell me there was a flight from Phoenix to Monterey leaving soon. So I run to that counter, get a spot on that plane. Thank goodness!

Well...that plane was actually under maintenance so we didn't leave for quite sometime. By the time we got on the plane for our 2 hr 48 min flight (holy crapola) we landed in Monterey at 1:30 local time, and 4:30 our time. OH YA! AND...while waiting for my Monterey flight, they sent me to 3 different counters to try and figure out what to do about my lugagge (which was tagged to go to San Jose) and no one would help me find a way to get it to Monterey with me. So my mom had to borrow a car seat from someone else that night so we could get home, and borrow some pj's (so Kendalynn was dressed as a boy for a day) to sleep in. The next morning, I had to call and argue with an angry man in San Jose who said I either had to come and get it there, or pay $100 to get it delivered to me. Ahhh! I finally got him to send it back to Phoenix, so they could send it to Monterey that night around 11 where we could pick it up. Wow.

Luckily, Kendalynn was actually quite good throughout our endless travels, and we arrived safe and sound to my parents house. Our loving Chuney cat was ready and waiting for some good loving, and Kendalynn has been more than willing to give it! So, moral of the story...DON'T FLY US AIRWAYS! Okay...that's all, I just wanted to get it out of my system for the world to see!

Time flies!

Happy Birthday to Kendalynn!

That's right, little Buggy-love dear will be turning 1 tomorrow!  Yesterday was her 1 year check up which involved a prick to the finger (but no crying at all for that! She's so tough!), and 4 yucky shots.  Although she did cry for the shots, it didn't last long and for the rest of the day she was surprisingly happy considering her morning.  She is now a whopping 18 lbs 1 oz, and just over 29 inches long!  She has definitely come a long way from a mere 5 lbs, 15.6 oz, and 19.5 inches.  And now here we are, with a crazy kid who is currently sitting in a box, eating it at the same time.  

So Happy Birthday to Kendalynn!! Even though she has no idea what that really means, we'll celebrate anyways with a night of fun with Jamie, Ammon, and Emberly before Kendalynn and I head off to California the next day!  Hopefully we will get around to posting a few things while we're in California with my parents, my brother Topher, and my brother Matt, his wife Mel and their 3 amazing and adorable kids Madison, Peyton, and Eli!  It will be a fun week!

Getting ready with daddy.

Alright, heres another quick and cute little story about our little Buggy love.  Tyler didn't have to go to work yesterday til around 10:30, so Bugs was eager to follow him around and see what he was doing while getting ready.  So while I was out in the front room, Tyler decided to do not only his hair, but Kendalynns as well!  So here is my sweet little girl with a new little hair do.  

What's in the box?

Oh funny funny...  So Tyler brought home this box that Kendalynn loves to play with, and sit in mostly.  The other night Tyler put it over his head and looked out at Bugs through the side hole and she just couldn't figure out what was going on.  First she just looked at it, then looked at me, and then she got more curious and daring, and started poking in the hole, and eventually started lifting it up to see that daddy really was in there!  She's a funny one!  

"the eye"

The timid stage.

The getting a little more curious stage.

The conquering fear stage.

The "Oohh..there's daddy!" stage.

What have you done?

I thought this was nifty! I was looking at a friend's blog and she had this on there, and I thought it was pretty cool! You copy the list and put it on your own blog, and bold the things that you have done! Just a silly thing to fill up empty slots of time!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie/commercial
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

"DAM" Cruise

Alright let me explain the title of this blog, because I am not being vulgar!  The Holland America Cruise Line has the tradition of all of their ships ending in "dam."  The Eurodam (our brand spankin' new ship!), the Westerdam, the Rotterdam and so on and so forth.  Hence their fettish with using "dam" with things throughout the week.  So remember that in the very last picture, my favorite of the week.

So anyways, here are some of the pictures taken throughout our AWESOME week in the Caribbean!  

However...before we get to the details and such...we'd like to dedicate a big 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

to the man who made the whole week of fun festivities with family possible!

We sure do love him and appreciate the chance we had to make all those memories because of him.  :)

They had quite a few basketball things throughout the week which Tyler very much enjoyed.

We had to do countless things to keep her entertained each night at dinner!

THE BAHAMAS!

Off to the Bahamas!

Welcome!!

 

She's going through a climbing face to say the least.

I LOVE this picture of Ryan and Kara. :)

Bugs was a little afraid of the cold water, so we play a game with her in pools, where one of us goes under the water, and then pops out to say "boo!" and she cracks up every time.  It was oh so very cute.

Just a cute random shot of her face on the way back.

PUERTO RICO!

Part of the old forts we visited and the BEAUTIFUL coastline. 

Just being the doll that she is!

A cool looking little side street.

I admit I totally staged this picture of the boys...but its cool looking!  All of them together. :)

Taking the trolley back to our boat.  Notice the baby totally knocked out on my lap!

This is the only one I felt worthy of posting from our diving trip in St. Thomas.  Isn't Kara the greatest!?!?

I also had to put a picture that showed my poor little tagged baby!

I thought this one was great.  She did not eat very well that whole week!

The whole family at a formal night dinner.

This one HAD to be last.  After a week of going to cruise activites to earn "Dam Dollars" (yes...thats right!) we had something like $280 of them!  So the final night we went and all picked out sweaters and t-shirts that said "Dam Ships" on them!  

What a happy "dam" family!

Asheboro - Our New Home!

For those of you who haven't heard, we moved!....sort of.  Tyler was all set to do the next part of his Aldi training as a Store Manager in the store just 10 minutes away, when they decided to put him at a store that had just "dismissed" their manager in Asheboro, NC which is about 1.5 hours west of Raleigh (our REAL home.)  Whoop whoop!

Since Aldi is responsible for the move, they pay for our housing here in Asheboro, and first they suggested that we get an extended stay hotel room.  However, since Asheboro is rather small, no hotels had anything more than a microwave and mini-fridge!  So we did some research and found that renting a furnished apartment was much cheaper than a tiny hotel room anyways, so we have a wonderful 3 bedroom apartment!  My favorite part of it is the kitchen, cause there is more cupboard and counter space than I know what to do with.  Asheboro itself is....well...for those of you have been to Rigby, Idaho, it's a lot like that!  Theres a Walmart........and basically I won't really be leaving the apartment much!  

Anyhow...here are some fun pictures of the apartment and some silly Bug pictures.

Our happy Kitchen

I LOVE the gigantic counter.  LOVE IT!

Tyler brought home this box, and she LOVES it.

Unless it's "clicked" closed she pulls it down and climbs on in.

THIS is a great story.  We went in to Aldi with Tyler after it closed, and I couldn't get her to sit in the cart, cause the floors were no place for a crawling baby.  So, I put her in this box and put it in front of the shopping cart and pushed her around in it.  She didn't try to get out once!

My Parents Visit

Hooray for parents/grandparents!  We had a superb week with my parents out here, doing fun things and just sitting around with them.  Of course Kendalynn isn't old enough to really remember at all who they were, but she warmed up to them as soon as they walked in the door!  Grandpa actually made her laugh quite a bit throughout the week, and we discovered that Emberly makes Kendalynn want to fly.   (I'll try and post that video so you all know what I'm talking about.)

Well anyways...enough words!  Here are some pictures of random things we did throughout their week here in Raleigh!

As you can see here...Jamie has A LOT of leaves on her property, and so we raked them up one afternoon (me with a tiny baby rake!) while Emberly plowed around in the gigantic piles!

Here is a picture of Buggy-love in my sunglasses.  She thinks its funny to wear them.  And then we also have Tyler dumping all the peanuts from Lonestar into his leftovers to take home!

Here is Emberly standing next to the leg of some dinasour - which really was large - at the Museum in downtown.  And then we have Kendalynn sitting in a different ones footstep!

My favorite!  My mother eating Jamie's banana bread - and then her sticking the whole thing in her mouth cause I dared her too!  HA!

Here is Tyler standing behind the jaw of a extinct (THANK GOODNESS) and distant relative of the great white shark.  (CAN YOU IMAGINE? 42 FT. LONG!!)  And then theres Emberly, Kendalynn and me standing in a fake tree?  I dunno...I guess it was an example of what's really out there.

And last...here is me and Buggy-love at our day at a state park, and another of (it cracks me up!) Emberly and grandpa doing....what exactly?  I'm not sure.  But it's funny, and most likely inspired by Emberly!  She's so funny!

One Will Have To Do...

Alright...so I keep trying to upload pictures, and after 20 minutes of this I've only been able to upload 1 picture that actually looked normal.  ONE!  So this'll have to do for the time being until this blog and I become friends again.

So lately Kendalynn seems to have a great love for the pillows from the couch.  We use them to lay on the floor to watch movies on the computer, and this last week she suddenly decided that they were very entertaining.  Everything seems to be so much funnier to her if it is done on or around the pillows and it gives us SO much entertainment.    She's also having some good times reaching up and playing the piano and taking all of her wipes out of the container and tossing them around the floor.  She definitely is a little nut job sometimes, but she is definitely a cute nut!

The little Bug herself, enjoying her throne!

Phooey.

Alright...well I've tried over the course of the last week or so to add pictures onto the blog, but for some reason it just doesn't want me to.  So sorry for people who check it often and who feel let down by nothing new and exciting to look at, but know that I'll keep trying to make up for it when I figure out why our internet is unhappy!