Click, I Took Some Pics

We saw this at the River Walk in San Antonio several years ago. What is the caution for? I have no idea. It seems like a lot of cones and tape for no obvious sign of danger. Is the sidewalk cracked, chipped or loose? No. Maybe it's the cone in the middle that's a danger. Maybe that one has been causing trouble. Maybe it's an outcast in the cone community. The other four are like prison guards making sure no one gets near it. OR. Maybe it's so important it needs a guard. The other four are more like the secret service keeping us away from it to protect it. It doesn't want us to touch it. Still a mystery after 5 years.

I took these at Keystone Colorado. We stopped to watch the snow boarders go over these huge jumps. I put the Sun behind the tree and the camera on super sport mode. I think they look kind of cool. If I had some photo shop skills I bet they could look really cool. This trip was way before we had kids, but I think it might have been the last time we've been skiing or snowboarding. I miss it. I hope we can go soon.

Day 10

I keep trying to find some interesting pictures to post. Not much is grabbing out at me.

This one is a beautiful church somewhere near Eureka Springs. We stopped on an anniversary trip in early 2005. I was pregnant with oldest and it was sort of our last no kids trip. I remember finding a great restaurant sort of located in nowhere that had a really good seafood pasta dish. Of course I didn't order it, husband did, but he was kind enough to share with me.

I can't seem to figure out how to post multiple pictures. I'll save the others for another day.

One Week

So the house has been officially for sale for over a week. There have been no official showings, but a few people came to an open house yesterday. So far, this sucks. The house has stayed pretty clean and neat, but I'm disappointed we haven't sold it already. I know it's a lot to ask for, but why not?

Before we actually put it on the market I had dreams of it selling the first day. You always hear stories of "it was only on the market 3 days". Why can't that be us? So then it rained. For days upon days. No one seems to want to look at or buy a house in the rain. Last weekend were a lot of graduation days and next weekend is Mother's Day (Happy M Day to everyone!) after that is Memorial Weekend. Bah!! I hope this gets better. What if it never sells? Is it over-priced? Is it nice enough? Why is no one in love with it like I was six years ago?

On the flip side is the new house situation. I haven't looked to seriously, but I've gone to several open model homes and a few 'lived in' homes. There have not been any that I've fallen in love with. There are a few I like, but none I love. Maybe we should design our own house. Maybe we should try to find the land we want and build on that. I don't know. It's exciting and fun and stressful all in one minute.

In other news we went on a mini-vacation. We flew to Texas for a long weekend with family and it was very nice. Peanut did fantastic the whole time. Sure he cried a little during the landing of the first flight. I think it was more because we made him sit down in the seat than he was scared or anything. The flight back was pretty good too. Like I said, he was terrific.

Vacation Part IV

We rode ATV's in Mazatlan and that was really fun. I found two huge sand dollars on the beach. One was even whole. I managed to get it all the way home unharmed. This area seemed really poor and was a bit shabby. We had fun anyway.

The last stop was Cabo San Lucas. This was where we went whale watching. That was awesome. It was a tiny little boat out in the huge ocean. We found two whales and followed them for quite a while. Husband got some good video of them.

Then it was time to head back to L.A.

Overall the trip was fun. It was nice to be away from Peanut for a bit and be an adult. The trouble is I always tend to feel less than thrilled when we spend time with our friends as a group. I don't know how to explain it. I guess I don't feel like I measure up. Like I'm not as good. Honestly I think I do a fantastic job staying home with Peanut. With the exception of two of them (one doesn't have kids) the others could handle it. They tried and were not able to make it. This makes me feel great. But! For the most part they have all done very well in their professional lives. I never really accomplished anything great. There are other reasons I won't get into now. Now that we are home, it's nice to be with Peanut again and not our friends, at least for a while.

Some members of the group are already planning another vacation. I need a while to be able to afford it. Mostly, I'm not ready to leave Peanut for that long again. That was difficult for me. The other moms missed their kids, but I'm the only one that hadn't been away from mine for longer than a day or two. Oh well. Go on a cruise. It's nice.

Vacation Part III

So we reach Puerto Vallarta. We had booked a shore excursion on a Pirate Ship. As we were getting ready to leave we realized we lost our sunscreen. Turns out another couple had picked it up. Anyway, we left the ship early to buy some since we would be in the sun all day. Wanna guess what we had to pay? $18. Yes. $18 for a regular tube of banana boat sunscreen. Oh well. We would have fried otherwise.

The pirate adventure was OK. The boat was kind of neat and the pirate show was mildly amusing. It was nice to be somewhere other than on the ship. No other couples were with us so it was nice to be just the two of us as well. We got to the destination beach and it took a long time to get everyone off the boat. We parked way out in the water and little speedboats took us to shore. Once we got there is was nice. The beach area was small, but it was again nice to be on land. We weren't here long though. It seems like only an hour after we landed it was time to go. We were sort of bummed about that. I would have liked to have stayed a while longer. The ride back was uneventful but again a nice ride.

We finally docked and for a little bit considered walking around. Since town was 3 miles from port we didn't want to walk or take a cab ride. So we headed back to the ship. I felt so unclean. Our boat had a bathroom, but it didn't feel all that clean. I was happy to be back in our cabin and take a shower. Plus the lunch was ribs and chicken. Two things I usually do not eat. I tend to not eat things on a bone. So I was starving. After the shower we headed for the food. Everyone else was arriving around this time too. We met up at the pool/hot tub area. I felt like we had an OK day, but maybe we would have enjoyed something else equally well. Again I felt a little like I had missed out on something. The rest of the day was fun and dinner was again good. The next stop was Mazatlan.

Vacation Part II

Saturday morning we get up and head to the gym. Husband and I have a pretty good workout. I thought to myself that this was a good start to continuing some sort of workout on the boat. You will find no mention of exercise in any parts of this saga. So that didn't carry on like I had hoped.

The group caught a bus to the boat and after a bit of confusion as to where to park we finally made it. We got our magic money cards (room key and you can charge anything to your room instead of carrying cash or another credit card) and got through all the other check points OK. Finally we were on the ship.

First thing we did was to find our room. We were next to couple #3. It was us, #3, #5, and #2. Couple 1 was a floor below us as they got a mini-suite. The next item was eating. When on a cruise food is available pretty much 24/7. For some reason we ate all the time. Even when we weren't really hungry. The food was pretty good though.

We were able to open the doors of our balconies so we could walk through to all the other balconies in our group. All of us were outside chatting for the most part. Couple #1 came up and all 5 couples were hanging out. The women were discussing spa treatments. Everyone wanted to get at least 1 thing done. I had gotten my hair cut/colored, a facial and a massage before we left. The cost of these on the ship were almost double what we pay here. I didn't want to spend that much money. At one point I made the comment that we probably weren't going to do any spa treatments. I see this was a mistake now. Anyway, I started to unpack and hang things up when I realized all 4 girls had gone to the spa. I felt very left out. Even though I wasn't going to sign up for anything, I would have liked to have been included. At this point I wasn't sure this had been a good idea. I worried that the whole trip would be like this. Everyone would go and find wonderful things to do and I would be left out. As I finished unpacking I finally let this go. I kept telling myself that I would have fun regardless of what everyone else did. This worked pretty well for me.

So we were on our way. The first few days were at sea so we explored the ship, sat in the hot tub, and played card and board games. Oh yeah, and we ate constantly. The meals at night were very good and you could get as many items as you wanted. We saw a comedian that was almost funny. I think his show was more adult and there were kids in the audience so he might have held back a little. We also saw a hypnotist. He was very entertaining.

At times we could see the coastline of Mexico on our way. The first stop was Puerto Vallarta and that was the most southern stop we made. I'll pick up with that next.

Vacation Part I

Our first vacation since before getting pregnant. Woo hoo. We went on a cruise to Mexico. I was so excited to go on this vacation, but didn't want to say too much out loud. What if something happened. A few days before leaving Peanut got several red bumps on his body. Turned out to be nothing, but my fear was chicken pox. Ugh. Peanut went to stay with his aunt and had a good time as I knew he would.

We started off on Friday morning. First we took the dogs to the vet for boarding, then to the bank and Target. Then we stopped at Burger King for breakfast before heading to the airport. We parked and rode the little shuttle to the airport where we met two other couples that were going with us. Did you know there is a weight limit on baggage? We did not know this until bag number 3 weighed 5 lbs. over. You can pay $25 or switch some stuff to another bag. So I moved a couple shoes and a pair of jeans to a different suitcase. The bags passed and we were on our way. The flight was OK. For some reason the plane got jumpy right when I had to use the bathroom. I got in there and we hit some turbulence. Of course it was gone after I was done and on my way to my seat.

We took a bus from the airport to the hotel. It was a nice hotel and we had a good view of the pool area. We met our friends in the lobby and headed to the hotel restaurant for lunch. L.A. is different. The menu said "club sandwich with a twist". I thought maybe it had sushi or something on it, but the server said it was long way like a sub instead of cut into squares like normal. OK. It was cut into 4 sections and then stacked up and held together with a very long toothpick. It was still a club sandwich. Not sure really what the twist was supposed to be.

We all took the bus to Santa Monica that night. We walked along the pier and through the promenade. There were 4 couples total all walking around. Couple 1 (KH) was hungry since they got in later than us and didn't eat at the hotel. So we found a bar and grill type place and they ate, while the rest of us had drinks. Then we walked more. Couple 2 (JA) left to visit a cousin. Later couple 3 (RK) was hungry so we stopped for sushi. They ate and the rest of us had more to drink. Then we caught the bus back to the hotel and we (couple 4) were hungry again. We went to the sports bar in the hotel and had desert, while the rest had more drinks. It was like a 4 course meal spread out over 4 restaurants. It was fun. Then off to bed.

More later.