Cruising, baby!

Last month we took a few much needed weeks off and made ourselves comfy a little nearer to the Equator.

We started in San Diego and cruised through to Fort Lauderdale, with a handful of tropical stops in between.

I've been working on sorting through the bazillion and a half picture we took on the trip to post...and I've almost made my way through. Stay tuned.

What I learned over the weekend – Vancouver, BC edition

~I love being surprised with last minute weekend getaways.
~I really love the guy who so frequently surprises me with these little trips.
~Hotels.com idea of four stars differs a little from ours.
~At a glance, hotel conditioner and lotion can easily be confused with one another.
~Once applied to the hair, the difference between lotion and conditioner is extremely apparent.
~My camera phone takes crap pictures...as you can see.
~Rob has a playlist on his iPod hilariously titled Party Jams.
~Not a single jam on this playlist is party-like, in any way.
~Vince Vaughn and Kevin James are both funny men, but together a not-so-funny movie they make.
~Canadian Mountain Dew contains NO caffeine.

N-Y-C

I spent the first week of the month in my beloved NYC with a girlfriend and had a blast. The weather had just made a turn for the cold when we'd arrived so I wasn't completely prepared for the weather. Good thing NYC is known for their shopping...I didn't go cold for long! ☺

We spent a few hours downtown where we took the Tribute WTC Walking Tour. It was really amazing. All the tour guides are volunteers that were involved in or are relatives of someone lost in the attacks. We got to see a little of the behind the scenes rebuilding and there was a great museum there too. Quite interesting; glad we decided to do it.

We made our way down to Battery Park, but it was too close to the last ferry time to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island so we skipped it. I'd been before so I didn't mind too much, but I wish we could have gone so my friend could have experienced it.

One afternoon we had tea at The Plaza. Very good. Very girlie. Very Eloise.

We strolled through Central Park and saw all the set up for the NYC Marathon that was being held the next day. I was really looking forward to seeing all the beautiful leaves in the park, but it was a tad disappointing. Either the trees were bare or the the ones with leaves were still green. Weird.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. I love this place; it's so beautiful. While there were lots of other people taking pictures inside, didn't feel quite right about it, so you'll just have to take my word for how amazing it is. Or Google it.

FAO Schwartz was another stop. This soldier was made entirely out of jelly beans, or some candy like that. We picked up a few treats at their sweet shop to sneak into our show that night

We saw a couple shows while out there, Memphis and In the Heights. Both great!

I snapped a few shots of the set of In the Heights.

We shopped and lunched at the Chelsea Market

My friend is much more adventurous when it comes to food than I am so I ended up eating at places I normally wouldn't and eating some things that I was a little iffy about. I think it was good for me though, although I'll probably still stick to my same boring food in the future!

We got VIP tickets to see a live Martha Stewart show...we're cool like that. I was really hoping that there would be some famous guests on and that we'd get some fabulous giveaways, but I was wrong. Still had fun nonetheless.

I also might have snuck my camera out to take a picture or two...or ten.

The skating rink was up at Rockefeller Center, but we were a few weeks to early to see the tree. Bummer.

We got to the Top of the Rock just in time to see the sun going down. It looked amazing. My camera is too crappy to really capture the great view, but you get the idea!

And that is where the pictures stop. I wasn't great about documenting this trip with pictures. We did manage to fit in a lot of other amazing things...ate a bunch, shopped even more, bumped into a Kardashian or two...you know, the usual.

I'm ready for a trip back, just wish the Robster would come with me. I'm working on him.

Visiting ALL the way from Utah!

The last week in October we had some fun house guests, who we've been waiting to come and visit us for a LONG time! And as if they weren't fun enough, Chase came up with them as a surprise. Good surprise!

We had lots of things planned to do but it being Seattle and all, the rain kept us from doing a few of them. We actually lucked out and got a couple days of really good weather.

First things first, we hit Pike's Market to get some hot mini donuts and see some flying fish. And a visit isn't a visit without your picture atop Rachel the pig.

We headed down to the waterfront for lunch at The Crab Pot...more food than we could handle!

The next day we went to the Seattle Aquarium. Chase posed with giant carved pumpkins, the girls got their faces painted and we all got to touch on slimy sea things.

From there we made our way down to the Family Fun Center for nothing but fun. How can a family not have fun there? It's in the name.

We went on ride after ride and played games galore. There were quite a bit of tickets racked up that were cashed in for loads of silly little trinkets. Yep, we had fun.

The next day we all went to the Zoo, costumes and all. Now, aren't they the cutest fairy and cheerleader you've ever seen!? Thought so.

Erika, the little navigator, checking out the map.

All they really had their hearts sent on seeing was the bears and we nearly struck out. All the bears were hiding or their exhibit was closed, except for the sloth bear, and that wasn't really that exciting.

A couple hours and a few feet of cotton candy later (seriously, a lot of cotton candy!!) and we were ready to head home to get ready for some good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating.

Yes, Jackson had a costume this year, and he only hated part of it...the hat. He did sport his bat wings without any complaint. We brought him along with us as we all took the girls out trick or treating and I was 100% surprised that he didn't tackle any little kids and scarf down their candy.

After the girls scored some treats they packed up and headed back to Utah.

We did lots of things in between, but since I don't have pictures, I can't remember what they were {yep, I'm getting old, my memory is going}.

One night the guys took over kid duty so Melanie and I could keep up our tradtion of seeing all the Twilight Saga together and we saw a late showing of Eclipse. They made fun of us for doing it, but I don't care!

Their stay seemed to go by way too fast. Can't wait until they come back again!

Click, flash!

A few weeks back we had our photos taken at Gasworks Park. We didn't get too many couples proofs back from the photographer to choose from {big bummer}, but I think we'll end up getting the few below.

She took a lot of individual shots, which we weren't really looking for, but may snag one of each of us...just to put on our desks at work. Not of ourselves, you know...of each other.

We're not in love with any of them, but like them well enough. Rob thought it would have been funner {or is it more fun?} to have our pets in the pictures with us. I vetoed it without even considering it. Maybe next time. ☺