Flying Bears

We went to the zoo again today, our favorite place here in Albuquerque, and finally got some video of the polar bears jumping into the water. It is seriously so much fun to watch them and hear the kids reactions.



We also go to see the new baby Ankole. Which is basically a Texas Long Horn but the Ankole is twice as big and they live in Africa and not Texas. And oddly enough for a baby animal he wasn't very cute.


Baby Ankole

 Most of the animals were sleeping today because it was so hot. We still got some cute pictures of some of our favorite animals.

The King and Queen of the zoo.

Don't you just want to rub his tummy?

 

This guy didn't look very happy but he did seem to be posing for the camera.


All in all it was another great trip to the zoo!

Creepy Crawlies

For some reason my sister, Lindsay, and I were talking about the gross bugs we have here in New Mexico that we didn't have in Utah. Now, I've never been one of those people that are grossed out by bugs. As long as they leave me alone and aren't in my house they are fine. But since we moved here I have come to hate 2 types of bugs. The American cockroach and  house centipede. They are sooooooo gross and sufficiently creep me out!

When we first moved into this house we had quite a roach problem because the previous owner hadn't used or cleaned the pool in 2 years! It was like a swamp, seriously. So the roaches thought it was the perfect place to hang out. Well 3 months later after emptying and cleaning the pool, spraying the house and setting out a dozen roach traps they are mostly gone. We still get the occasional roach that sneaks in somehow but I quickly trap it under a glass and wait for Chet to get home to dispose of it. :)

Just looking at this picture gives me the heebie jeebies!!!

The centipedes aren't as big of a problem but they do occasionally get in the house and hang ominously on the walls. They get pretty big too. We found one in the hall bathroom onetime that was about 3 inches long! I was actually on the phone with Lindsay when I found that one and I started screaming! I still shudder thinking about it.

Uuuuugggghhh! (shudder) Just look at all those legs!!!

I am now totally grossed out so I will stop blogging now. I think I'll go wash my hands or something. (shudder again)

4th of July Fun

We had a good long weekend and started our celebrating on Saturday. We had our friends, the Lindell's, come over for some swimming and bar-be-quing. We had a great time in the pool and an even better time playing Apples to Apples. I don't think I have ever laughed that hard playing that game! JEW!!! ;)

When it finally started getting dark we decided that we didn't want to go face the crowds at the high school to see the fireworks so, we sent Chet and Jac to buy some at the store. The kids had a great time with the sparklers and watching the store bought fireworks. Disney however decided that the fireworks were not fun and tried to attack each and every one we lit! She was crazy running around them and barking and biting at them. She even got so close sometimes that she burned her fur in spots! Chet finally had to hold her to keep her from catching on fire. It was a fun day.

Aiden, Harris, Boston, Liv, Jackson and Maddie watching the fireworks in the courtyard.

Disney getting the fireworks. Crazy dog!

Chet trying to keep her from the fireworks. Can you tell she still wants to get them?

On Sunday we actually didn't do anything! Chet didn't really want to do anything because it was Sunday. So really it was just another day. We did get to see some amazing fireworks from the deck while we read scriptures. Here in NM you can do the big fireworks like at Disneyland, just not in the city. (which we can see all of from our deck) Well, apparently people don't obey that law because we saw hundreds going off and heard sirens until about 11:30. It was awesome! (except the sirens part)

Monday we got up bright and early and headed fishing at Fenton Lake. It was a pretty long drive, 2 hours, but the scenery was amazing. Very different from Utah canyons. I was a little car sick by the time we got there from looking at everything as we drove. When we finally got to the lake we got set up and sat...and sat...and sat. We didn't catch a thing! The kids were so disappointed we decided to try the fishery that was another 3 miles up the road. But alas we didn't catch a thing there either. We did get to see a muskrat though. That was pretty cool. We finally gave up and headed home for a nice cool dip in the pool. Can I just say that I LOVE having a pool!! We spent the next 3 hours swimming before the kids were exhausted and ready for dinner and to watch Snow White as a family. It was a fabulous day!

Nobody having any luck.

The muskrat. He looked like a small beaver but with a skinny tail instead of a flat one.

The kids love it when Chet throws them around in the pool. Harris has mastered the front and back flips. Its a little more difficult with Liv who is super tall. But man Chet is going to have some buff arms by the end of the summer! ;)

Finishing an awesome weekend with a dip in the hot tub. (can you see Harris has raccoon eyes from his goggles?)

Harris' Birthday

We had a great day celebrating Harris' 5th birthday! The day started off with presents, of course. He was a little spoiled and got a lot of really fun stuff. His favorite things he got though were his new Michael Jordan shoes from Chet and his fishing pole from his cousins.

He was so excited when he saw the shoe box that a look of pure joy came over his face. Like father like son I guess. :)

He then insisted that we put them on him and that I take a picture of the shoes to "put on facebook".

After opening presents and a breakfast of "fresh hot waffles" we headed out to the pool. The kids were all pretty excited to get in.

Harris decided that he needed a break from the pool to warm up. No better place to do that than in the awesome lounge chairs that my dad bought for us.

After several hours of fun in the pool we got ready and took everybody to see "Toy Story 3" in 3D. It is such a cute movie, but Harris takes after me and was ready to leave about halfway through. I told him no and he sat and enjoyed the rest of the movie with the help of some licorice.

After the movie and some dinner at "ollie gardy" aka Olive Garden we headed home for cake. It was a wonderful day and I am so glad that Harris was born!!! Love that baby boy!

Vacation 2010 pt. 3

So, Jaime asked me to do wrap up her 3 part blog.  Jaim did our trip to the Keys as well as our cruise aboard the Norwegian Sky and I will be blogging about the last leg of our trip, South Beach.

Last year, when Jaime and I went on vacation we were lucky enough to stay at the Marriott South Beach and just absolutely loved it.  The hotel is beautiful and the amenities are fantastic, including access to the very south end of South Beach which is the most beautiful beach in the continental USA.  When we came back again this year we talked my sis into staying there with us.

I know how weird hotels can be about check in times, so when we ended up disembarking from the cruise earlier than I thought and were in South Beach at 10:30AM, I thought we would just have to make do and wing it.  The Marriott was extra awesome to us and gave us our rooms right away and upgraded me and Jaime to the concierge floor with an amazing room that had a gigantic deck with beautiful views of the city as well as the beach.  The deck proved to be a great place to hang out.

When we got all checked in, everyone decided that it was nap time, so I headed down to the pool.  I mean, I can nap at home, right?  I definitely can't enjoy tropical weather at home...

Anyway, once everyone was awake we enjoyed a beautiful time on South Beach.  The water was ridiculously warm, too warm in fact, and we had fun swimming around trying to find cooler water currents to sit in.  We had some great sunshine and good fun too.

We went in around dinner time and got ready for the evening.  We decided to splurge on nice sea food and went to a restaurant called Quinn's.  Quinn's had amazing food, and I enjoyed some of the biggest and best king crab legs I have ever had.  I was even feeling generous and let my little sis try a bite.  Just watching her expression as she ate the king of all seafood was well worth it (my sister is a bit of a foodie).

The next morning I woke up extra early for a sunrise swim, one of my very favorite things to do.  It was so calm and so amazing.  I will live somewhere with great sunrise beach access someday.

With that, we packed it up and headed to the airport to finally be heading home!  At this point the vacation felt like a very long one, all legs of the trip felt like their own vacation (Keys, Cruise, South Beach) and we were ready to see our kids again.

Well, mother nature had other ideas for us. 

We made it out of Miami just fine and had to fly through Atlanta.  We arrived in ATL at 3:00PM for a quick layover to catch a 4:30 flight to ABQ.  That flight was delayed and changed to a 7:30 flight.  Lame!  So, Jaime and I did a thorough tour of the ATL airport.  And then we waited some more. 

As we got to our gate, nearing the time we were supposed to leave we saw that our flight (along with many others) had been postponed until 9:30.  We checked with Delta and it turned out that we were waiting on a flight from DC and it hadn't left yet because of lightning in the ATL area.

At this point, Jaime and I were exhausted.  You can only spend so much time in the ATL airport.  We watched a couple of shows on the iPad, read, walked some more...

We sat there some more and around 8:30 at night the lady at the gate announced that our flight still hadn't left DC and wouldn't be there until 11:30 or maybe later.  At this point I decided to capitalize on my platinum status and give Delta a call.  I calmly explained that I understood it wasn't their fault but that there was no way I was going to spend another minute at the airport.  Delta took care of me and put Jaime and I on a flight the next afternoon (first class I might add, thanks Delta!).

I logged onto the internet from my phone, found us a great rate at the Marquis Marriott in downtown ATL and we decided to call it a night and enjoy a 4th leg of the trip, Atlanta!!

Jaime and I spent some time in Atlanta a couple years ago and really loved it.  The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world and is worth going to Atlanta for by itself.  Jaime and I took the opportunity the next morning to spend some time there enjoying all they had to offer, especially the 6.5 million gallon tank that houses 4 whale sharks!

Another thing we really liked about our last trip to the A is a certain dessert we got at the Fox Sports Grill called Banana Bread Pudding.  Now this isn't bread pudding made with banana bread, but it is a mix of banana's foster and bread pudding and is almost worth a trip to Atlanta all by itself!  So after we finished up at the Aquarium, we took a cab to get some lunch (and dessert!) and then took another cab to the airport.  (it is much easier to travel like this when you have no luggage, everything we checked had to stay at the airport...).

Once back at the airport, we only had some minor delays and finally made it back home after a 30 hour layover in ATL.

All said, this vacation was one of the longest and best we have ever taken.

Here are some pics from legs 3 and 4 of the vaca...

This was the view from our room at the South Beach Marriott.  Beautiful.  I love South Beach!

 That is me in the water, most people in South Beach are concerned with being cool, I was mostly concerned with enjoying the beach.

At dinner, Chelsie was obsessed with these Popover rolls.  They were delicious!

We came back to the hotel after dinner for desert up on our deck.  Great views of the city (although a tad post-apocalyptic looking in my opinion)

This was the view toward the beach that night.

This is the crazy elevator at the Marquis Marriott in ATL.  There are 47 floors (we were up on 43) and there is an atrium that goes all the way up with glass elevators.  So creepy!

Another view at the hotel.

Jaime and I at the aquarium.  We really do love it here!

Such an amazing place!  It was fun to also pick out all the fish we had seen that week whilst snorkeling.

Whale sharks are so awesome!

Jaim and I spent about an hour just sitting by the giant 60'x40' looking glass at the world's largest tank.  Jaime could have spent all day there but I was getting hungry...

For this!  Oh Banana Bread Pudding, how I love you so!!

Paradise

On our cruise this year Chet's sister and her husband came along. It was so fun! We had balcony suites right next to each other so of course we had to take a picture looking at each other.

Our first day in paradise was Paradise Island, Nassau. However this was not what we originally had planned. Originally we had planned a snorkeling expedition to a private island. When we got to the place where we were supposed to leave for the island they told us the trip had been cancelled but if we wanted they would give us 10% off  a day pass to Atlantis. We went to Atlantis last year and weren't that impressed. But since they were offering us a deal and Chels and Chuck hadn't been there we decided to give it another try. This time it was much better. When we got there there was a guide that told us about the "Cove" beach. It was a pretty far walk but I think it was worth it! It was way more secluded and quiet. As my sister-in-law said "it's paradise!"

We did a lot of snorkeling while we were there as well. There was a pretty good amount of fish, crabs and urchins. Chet's brother-in law, Chuck, had a great time in the water with us. His sister Chelsie was a little more wary. We eventually got her to give it a try and while she was a little freaked out by the fish she said she was glad she tried it.

When lunch time rolled around we ate and then decided to go see "The Dig", the aquarium at Atlantis. I love aquariums and this one is no exception. It was wonderful. They didn't, however, have the giant mantas this year that they did last. They only had little ones and by little I mean 12-15 feet instead of 20-25.  Next time though I think we will do the aquarium before we are all wet. By the time we were done walking around we were all walking like we had been horseback riding all day. ;)

When we were done with lunch we went back to the beach before we had to take the ferry back to the ship. We enjoyed dinner on the boat and then headed to our cabin to get a good nights sleep before our next port-of-call, Great Stirrup Cay.

Great Stirrup Cay had the best snorkeling that we have ever done! There was this giant rock that was easy to swim out to that was teeming with fish! We swam all the was around it. I was a little scared of the back side of the rock because it was fairly close to the sand bar, which is where all the sharks hang out, and the water goes from about 15ft to 50ft but we did it. It was awesome!!!

When we were headed out to the rock, still in the shallows, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was an octopus! It was sooo cool to see one not in an aquarium!

He wasn't the only cool guy we saw though. We saw puffer fish, barracuda, rainbow runners, tangs, damsel fish, angel fish, squirrel fish, wrasse, trigger fish and some I didn't know.  (you can click on the picture to see the fish better)

Since this was our third day in the sun we were starting to get a little crispy. (Some of us more than others.) Chet's sister made herself a shanty to not become extra crispy.

After fun filled days in the Bahamian sun it was time to head back to the boat and then on to Florida, South Beach this time, to wrap up our trip and head home. Maybe...

Tranquility

Since our vacation seemed to be 3 separate trips all rolled into 1 I thought each part deserved its own post. So here goes part one.

The first leg of our vacation was in the Florida Keys. Which meant that we had to drive from Miami to the Keys which is about a 2 hour drive. The drive actually wasn't that bad. It was very scenic which made the drive go really fast. We decided to stop at a place called Mrs. Mac's Kitchen for dinner. It was a total dive but tripadvisor.com rated their food #1. They catch their fish fresh every morning from the dock in the back of the restaurant! The food all looked so good that between the 4 of us we ordered 2 appetizers and 5 entrees! It was amazing! So if you are ever in the Keys and need a place to eat I would recommend this place.

After we finished our delicious dinner we headed to the resort that we were staying at, Hawks Cay. What a beautiful resort it is! We stayed in one of the townhouses that they have there. It was so cute and fun.

When we went inside to check out our rooms we were surprised to find that we weren't alone! This poor gecko was trapped inside the house but don't worry we caught the poor little guy and let him go outside.

After the catch and release of the gecko we went out to see the rest of the resort (and to find the hot tub to relax in). There are several pools at the resort but we were looking for the adults only pool. Don't get me wrong, I love kids but if I wanted to hang out with kids on my vacation I would have brought mine. :) By the time we got to the "Tranquility Pool" it was dark. We enjoyed it anyways. On the walk back to the townhouse we saw fireflies! I have never seen one in true life. My only experience with them is on the Pirates ride at Disneyland. It was very cool!

The Keys are beautiful, just not what we were expecting. They are much more lake-like than tropical. Meaning there aren't really "beaches" to hang out on. We weren't too disappointed though because we knew that we were headed to some amazing beaches on the cruise. So we opted for the next best thing... the "Tranquility Pool".

We spent the whole day here. The whole day! It was wonderful. It was so hot though we would be in and out of the pool to stay cool. One of the times we were out of the pool, I was laying face down on my lounge chair and heard a strange noise. I looked up to see a giant iguana right under my face! I wasn't scared I know that they are harmless but it did interrupt my tranquility. All that he was really interested in was the last piece of fruit from lunch.

After a very strenuous day of lounging by the pool we needed some nourishment. We went to another highly recommended place called the Sunset Grille. It was an outdoors restaurant right on the water with an amazing view! After we had filled up on more delicious food we headed back to the resort where we called it a night.

The next morning as the girls were getting ready to head to the cruise ship Chet decided to head out back to try some fishing. He didn't catch anything but he sure looked cute trying.

All in all the Keys were very beautiful and relaxing but now I was ready for the tropical part of the trip. The Bahamas!!!