Disney Cruise 2008

We just got back from a very fun-filled 7-day cruise aboard the Disney Magic in the Western Caribbean. The weather was not all that cooperative, but we still had a blast. Only Disney knows how to throw a party that lasts seven full days that the whole family can enjoy. Here's some highlights of our trip...

Friday, Oct 24th

• Left SLC at 11:30am. Arrived in Atlanta and endured 5 hour layover due to weather delays.
  
  

Saturday, Oct 25th

• Got to hotel at 2 am. Kids were exhausted.
• Arrived at Disney Cruise terminal in Port Canaveral and boarded around 1:30 pm.
• Went swimming in the Mickey Pool.
• Partied at the sail away party.
  
• I won a raffle for a free body wrap with spa onboard. Gave it to Tami since I'm a good husband.
• Kids checked into Oceaneer Club (youth program) on board and found their second home.
• Met our wonderful servers when we inadvertently went to the wrong dinner seating, Gerry from the Phillipeans and Igor from Serbia.
• Met our room steward, Robert also from the Phillipeans who made sure there were mints on our pillows each night and towel animals on our beds.

Sunday, Oct 26th

• Spent day at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas.
• Relaxed on the beach and rented bikes to ride around the island.
• Raced Hermit Crabs.
  
• Caught in a torrential rainstorm.
• Watched WALL-E in the Buena Vista theater.
• Enjoyed a very funny comedian at the evening show.

Monday, Oct 27th

• Day at sea.
• Kevin, Tami and Brian ran 3 miles around the ship in the morning.
  
• Ate breakfast with all the Disney characters on board.
  
• Watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (1 1/2 hours we'll never get back)
• Went to classes where we learned about Disney history and art.
• Watched ventriloquist in a cabaret show before dinner.
  
• Formal night at Dinner.

Tuesday, Oct 28th

• Spent the day on Cozumel island.
• Tulum LDS tour canceled because seas too rough to take ferry to the mainland.
• Hired taxi driver to give us island tour.
• Visited Mayan ruins of San Gervasio.
• Released baby sea turtles into the ocean.
• Watched Tinkerbell in the Buena Vista theater.
• Brooklyn got sick at dinner due to some pretty rough seas.

Wednesday, Oct 29th

• Supposed to be in Grand Cayman. Weather too rough to tender. Turned into a day at sea.
• Took a tour of the Galley.
  
• Watched High School Musical 3
• Dressed up as Pirates for Pirates IN the Caribbean party.
• Tami won a piece of art at the art auction.
  
• Watched fireworks shoot off the bow of the ship into Caribbean night sky.

Thursday, Oct 30th

• Day in Key West, FL, the alternate for missing Grand Cayman the day before.
• Took a 90 min. Conch Train tour around the city.
• Visited an aquarium and held star fish, crabs and watched a shark feeding.
• Celebrated Halloween on board.
• Kids went trick-or-treating around the ship.
• Family dressed up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for dinner.
• Visited midnight desert buffet.

Friday, Oct 31st

• Second trip to Castaway Cay. Much nicer weather.
• Rented kayaks and paddled around the bay.
• Patrick tipped his kayak (fully dressed) destroying his digital camera and $400 iPod Touch and reading book.
• Spent evening with the characters saying farewell.

Saturday, Nov 1st

• Time to leave. Off the boat around 9:00 am.
• Spent a few hours at Jungle Adventures Nature Park.
• Held baby Alligators and snakes.
• Watched an alligator feeding.
• Traveled back to Salt Lake in 1st Class.

To see a full set of pictures with captions, please click the image below:

Disney Cruise 2008

HSM3

So, Zac Efron had a last minute mishap and so they decided to put Isaac in his place. Be sure to catch Isaac in all his fame and glory this fall when High School Musical comes out!

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Brooklyn also had a chance to stand in for Gabriella. She was pretty lucky to be in some of these scenes with Troy.

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Ice Blocking

I remember ice blocking when I was in high school. This just goes to show that you can never be too old to freeze your rear off while hurtling down a steep grassy slope on a block of frozen H2O. Sorry if the video loads slowly.

School is upon us

It's that time of year again. Brooklyn is beginning 1st Grade and Isaac is attending Preschool for his second year. He has a late birthday, so he is lucky enough to have two years of preschool before going into Kindergarten next year. He'll definitely be one of the smartest in his class though. Tami is adjusting to having Brooklyn gone all day, but Brooklyn is loving it. Let's just hope that they keep that enthusiasm up through High School.

Hoody Towels

There's always simple pleasures in life. One of which is a "hoody" towel, or a towel that has a hood sewn into it. My aunt Jean made these hoody towels for Brooklyn and Isaac several years ago, which they have been using ever since. We ran into her recently and had mentioned that the kids lover their hoody towels and that we would need to buy one for Jack. She of course was opposed to us buying one and lo and behold, about a week later a package showed up on our front doorstep with a hoody towel just for Jack. As you can see, he absolutely loves it. In fact, after he has his bath and has his PJ's on, he'll parade around the house with his towel on still. Ah . . . simple pleasures. Thank goodness for hoody towels.

Yellowstone, Lagoon, Cabin Videos

I uploaded a bunch of video clips from both Yellowstone and when we went to Lagoon this past week. You don't have to watch them all, but some are pretty funny. We'll start with Yellowstone (See the Yellowstone 2008 post for more details).







Be sure to watch Brooklyn's dead on shot with Kaley's face in this video. This is on our way up to Mt. Washburn.







At the "Brink of the Upper Falls" of Yellowstone Falls.





Isaac is a little more chicken than Brooklyn when it comes to the "tummy tickle". This kiddie rollercoaster is very mellow, but you can tell by Isaac and Jack's faces that they were a little nervous. Isaac's smile does show through towards the end though.



This was Brooklyn's very first "big" rollercoaster. She barely met the minimum height limit. Little did she know how it was going to be. Her face at the bottom of the first hill is priceless. Listen close to what she says at the very end of the video. There was a glitch in the lap bars not coming up at the end of the ride so we actually went twice in a row. She did much better the second time.



This ride is called Wicked. It has a cool corkscrew in it and of course the start of the ride is the best part where it uses magnets to shoot you straight up vertically, a few seconds at the top and then straight down the other side. Quite the rush.





And finally to finish it off, a cute video of Jack swinging on some swings at the cabin. Notice his "eeeeee" which translates into "weeeee".

More good gas news

So, the slow driving theory doesn't just apply to economy cars. We drove our Trailblazer to Lagoon yesterday (an amusement park north of Salt Lake City) and kept the speed at a constant 65 mph on the freeway. Granted cruise control helps, but normal mpg on our Trailblazer SUV is around 16-18 on the highway. We tested it after just the trip to Lagoon and back (around 155 miles) and got an incredible 25 mpg! That's over a 50% improvement! We were very surprised. Not bad for a 7-passenger SUV, especially when EPA estimates 15 city and 20 highway.

Yellowstone 2008

Kudos to Mike and Marinda and their travel blog. In similar fashion, here's an update on our trip to Yellowstone.

Thursday

• Drove to Yellowstone getting 45 mpg
• Visited Fountain Paint Pots and Biscuit Basin
• Hiked to Mystic Falls (~3 miles)
  
• Watched Old Faithful blow it's top

Friday

• Celebrated Kaley's birthday by hiking Mt. Washburn with her, Pat and Adele (6.5 miles and 1,400 elevation gain with a 10,234 ft. summit)
• Saw 1/2 a bear en route (partially obstructed by a tree)
  
• Had ice cream at Tower Falls
• Kevin saw a Grizzly Bear in Lamar Valley through a spotting scope.
  
• Had pulled pork sandwiches with extended family for dinner
• Kevin learned about Yellowstone's extended eco system at the ranger program
• Tami unsuccessfully attempts to get children to sleep before 10:30 pm

Saturday

• Met extended family for very big, big breakfast
• Hiked to Natural Bridge trying to keep up with Tami's 91 yr old Grandma. (~3 miles)
• Rented 40 hp 18' motorboat for an hour and explored Yellowstone Lake including some pretty rough water (went ~17 miles on the lake)
• Visited Mud Volcano area and ever so popular Dragon's Mouth. (~ 1 mile)
• Brooklyn and Dad went to the Brink of the Upper Falls (Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone)
• Saw big fish at LeHardy Rapids.
• Another big family dinner (taco salad) with delicious raspberry homemade ice cream.
• Went to ranger program and learned about the Bison/Buffalo of Yellowstone.

Sunday

• Packed up the car and saw a snowshoe hare outside our cabin.
• Had a quick sacrament meeting with family and talked about family traditions at Yellowstone.
• Stopped by Artist Point on the way out to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone again.
• Got 42 mpg on the way home.

Mixed in with many buffalo traffic jams and elk, we saw 2 coyotes and tons of mosquitoes. Weather was in the low 70s with afternoon sprinkles. The kids were true troopers and hiked a total of about 15 miles over 48 hours. Can't wait until next year! To see all the fun pictures, click the link below.

Yellowstone 2008

Slow down!

So, we happened to go to Yellowstone this weekend and were debating on whether to take our Trailblazer SUV or the 2-door Chevy Cavalier. We decided we could save around $120 in gas if we took the Cavalier, so with all 3 kids in the back seat (with carseats even), we packed every square inch of the trunk and left.

There's a radio ad by Chevron airing here in Utah that says if you drive 55 mph instead of 65 mph, you can get an extra 30-60 miles on a tank of gas. I wasn't about to drive 55 all the way to Yellowstone, but I did try an experiment to keep it at 65 the whole way, which tried my patience, especially since it's 75 mph speed limit from Ogden to Idaho Falls (I normally drive around 8 mph over the speed limit).

Just to give you a baseline, the Cavalier gets good gas mileage (around 34-36 mpg). I didn't expect to get a lot better than that, but we filled up in Rexburg, ID after going about 300 miles and when the car only took 6.5 gallons, I was surprised. If you do the calculation, that's about 45 mpg (25% improved efficiency or about 150 more miles on one tank of gas)! Pretty incredible.

So, the moral of the story . . . drive slower, don't "jack rabbit" when sitting at a stop light, and I bet you'll be surprised. I know our lives are busy, but are we always that rushed? It's worth experimenting at least, especially when gas is as expensive as it is.

Swingset Project

Well, about 20 hours, 378 pieces of wood, 2, 482 pieces of hardware and 58 miscellaneous parts later, the swingset is finally done. We purchased this swingset at Sam's Club back in the Spring when it was on sale. It's been sitting in the garage for the past 2 months while we landscaped the backyard. On the cover of the manual, it says "Assembly Requires Two Moderately Skilled People 20-24 hours". A pretty good estimate. The manual had 111 steps spread across 74 pages. Luckily my dad was in town and he helped me quite a bit. I spent several late evenings out with that old manual. We got to know each other pretty well. But the good news is that all of the wood pieces were used. Nothing major was left over (besides a handful of extra screws and washers. And it was a blast putting together. Kudos to Leisure Time products for a very easy to follow manual and very well marked pieces of wood and hardware. Here's all of the hardware before we started. It was a little intimidating to say the least.

I also decided to forego the grass under the swingset. I didn't feel like mowing the lawn underneath it. We're actually planning on getting some of that rubber mulch (made out of recycled tires) and using that as a ground cover. Supposed to be safer (for falling) than bark or sand or grass.

The beginnings of the clubhouse and balcony.

Balcony complete and the start of the roof of the clubhouse.

And finally the completed swingset. I like the tunnel that goes over the swings as well as the little crows nest at the end of the tunnel. The ladder that goes up the left side has rock climbing handholds to make it more interesting to climb up. I really like the covered porch that leads to the top of the slide. Under the clubhouse there is a deck below and a bench to sit on. Below the balcony (right behind my dad) is a place for a sandbox, however I'm not sure we'll be putting sand in there. Here's to years of fun and entertainment.

Subway Hike - Zion's Nat'l Park

Father's Day weekend I was invited by a good friend to hike the Subway in Zion's National Park. For those that don't know about the Subway, it's a very narrow slot canyon that involves rappelling and a lot of swimming through some pretty frigid water. Luckily my friend suggested I bring a "shorty" wetsuit and neoprene socks, which helped a ton with the what felt like sub 50-degree water. Here's a nice description of the hike if you are interested in learning more about it.

The hike was incredible though. The weather couldn't have been better. Not a cloud in the sky (which is very important when hiking a very flash flood prone slot canyon. It's hard to describe in words and even with pictures. Anyone can hike this as long as they can swim. Although most parts you could touch bottom, a few areas are swimming only. The total length of the hike is around 7-8 miles. If you come from the top, you do need a hiking permit. Many hike from the bottom to the subway and then back, but you miss some of the coolest parts of the canyon this way.

Here is a cool Google Map that I was able to track with the help of a GPS I had with me. I lost reception for a few miles in the canyon itself as you can see from the straight lines.


View Larger Map

Be sure to click the picture below to link to the album I have uploaded. Don't miss the captions for the pictures as well.

Subway Hike

Thanks again to Adam Jacobsmeyer for inviting me on what was definitely not the last time I'll hike the Subway.

Novell Health & Safety Fair

Every year at Novell where I work, they have a Health & Safety Fair where they bring in a bunch of emergency vehicles and also a bunch of booths where employees and their families can learn all about the options available. The kids have been coming for several years now and always enjoy the Air Med helicopter from the University of Utah.

This was Jack's first year of coming and he enjoyed the firetruck as did the kids.

Wearing the fireman helmet was pretty cool (and heavy).

Utah Highway Patrol also had a trailer setup where you could get into a seat and see what it's like to hit another car head on. This one can simulate a 10 mph crash, although the officer didn't go that high for the kids. They were a little nervous at first but hopefully this helps them realize how important it is to wear seatbelts. Tami and I did do the full 10 mph test. It was a nice little "bump".

Iron Forehead

I didn't have the priveledge of being there, but according to Tami, Isaac was racing around this corner and slipped on the hard wood floor and hit the wall here with his forehead. He must have been going pretty fast. Tami said he really didn't cry that much and didn't even bruise that much. Nice to know he has a strong head. Haven't decided whether I want to fill this in with mud or leave it as a sort of museum exhibit. Maybe I can put some vinyl lettering on the wall describing the story behind the mysterious indentation in the wall.

Isaac had some pretty funny commentary around his little encounter with the wall.

Swimming Lessons 2008

Brooklyn and Isaac once again excelled in their swimming lessons this year. We took them back to the place we went last year. The lessons are just a week long, but it's every day for that week. Isaac was a little afraid last year, but was 100% different this year. He did very well and so did Brooklyn. They really love the water and jumping off the diving board. To see some fun video clips and pictures, click on the picture below to link to the online slide show.

Swimming Lessons

Graduation

Well, a year of school has come and gone. Both Brooklyn and Isaac did very well in their classes. Brooklyn just finished her first year as a Kindergartener and Isaac enjoyed his pre-school class he attended two times a week. He will be going to one more year of pre-school before going to Kindergarten due to a late birthday. Here is a picture of Isaac with his class.

Here was his Pre-school program that he performed in.

Isaac also had a Spring Spectacular in his gymnastics class. He really enjoys going to gymnastics each week and is becoming quite the little tumbler. He's pretty proud of his trophy.

And Brooklyn also had her Kindergarten program filled with dancing and lots of singing. she made a pretty cute clown. Crazy to think she'll be a 1st grader this fall!

Ogden Marathon 2008

Well, we did it! Hard to believe that as of last August, I could barely run 3 miles. Now with a marathon under my belt, nothing can stop me . . . well except I don't ever want to run again. Well, OK . . . not that drastic. I am looking forward to several weeks without having to run though. I need to give my body time to heal. The picture above is of Tami and I and Tami's cousin Shaun who ran it as well. Here are some of the details:

We grabbed a room at the Motel 6 (yes, of all places) and enjoyed a night to ourselves while the kids slept over at the Grandparents house. Got up at 4am, on the bus at 5am, and huddled around some fire pits amongst about 1500 other racers for about an hour before the start at 7am. There were actually 1800 registered, so almost 300 decided to cop out at the last minute. They say that only 1/10th of 1% of the US population ever finish a marathon.

The weather was beautiful. A little chilly at the start, but it warmed up quickly. Unfortunately I've had some pretty bad IT Band problems with my left knee the past month. I was praying for a miracle, but I could start to feel it flaring up around mile 3, but it didn't get bad until around mile 10. That's not a good point in the race to have IT Band problems. Running an additional 16 miles on an inflamed IT Band is not fun. Tami, the wonderful wife she is, stuck with me and pushed me along as I walked/jogged the last 13 miles of the marathon. She took off around mile 22 when she knew I was going to make it. I will have to say that the last two miles were by far the longest and most unpleasant. I was really struggling. It hurt to even walk, let alone try to jog. It was getting warm and I just wanted to be done. But I kept going and happened to at least run the final 200 meters finishing at 4 hours and 51 min. I didn't think I would, but I got pretty emotional after crossing the finish line. Marathons are definitely physically, mentally and emotionally draining as those who have run them before can attest. But I finished and that's all I can ask for. Tami ended up with a time of 4 hrs and 38 min and is actually now talking about running another marathon in September to redeem herself. I think I'll pass, but Spanish Fork is hosting a 1/2 Marathon in Sept. that I think I'll run. 1/2 Marathon's are definitely more enjoyable and not nearly as hard on the body.

We got our cool (well, not so cool by Tami's standards) technical shirts and medals for finishing. It was also my 33rd birthday on Sunday. Happy Birthday! Here's a marathon for you! Looking back I am really glad I did it. My body doesn't seem to agree, but my heart is loving me for it.

Mexican Riviera

Well, we've been home a week and I figured it's time to enter a blog about our most recent trip. Tami and I are celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary on May 15th and decided a fun way to celebrate would be to take a 7-day cruise down to the Mexican Riviera. We arranged for the kids to stay with Tami's parents and drove to Long Beach. We sailed on the Carnival Pride, an interestingly decorated ship to say the least. For those who have sailed on the Pride before, you know what I'm talking about. Rather than post a ton of pictures in the blog, you can go to our photo album of the trip via the link at the bottom of this blog entry. Here's a link to the cruise route.

We sailed for 2 1/2 days and arrived in Puerto Vallarta where we did an awesome zip line canopy tour through the jungle. It consisted of 15 separate zip lines, the highest being 550 feet and over 400 meters long. To hard to describe with words. If you're ever in Puerto Vallarta, be sure to check out the Los Veranos Canopy Tour. Here's a quick video clip of one of the shorter lines that Tami went on.



The tour guides were very funny and they videoed the whole thing but wanted $40 for it, so we opted not to partake in the highway robbery. Here's a clip of one of the ladies on our tour with the camera man filming.



After Puerto Vallarta we sailed to our second port, Mazatlan. Mazatlan was definitely more of a beach town with a very cool boardwalk and beautiful beaches. Reminded me a lot of San Diego. We decided to try our luck at Parasailing. Neither of us have ever done it. It was a blast. The weather was perfect and we got some incredible pictures and video clips. Check these out below.





And here's me as I went up.



We found this little Acuario de Mazatlan on the Internet and decided to check it out. Nice little aquarium. Everything was in Spanish of course. Speaking of Spanish, it was a lot of fun conversing with the taxi drivers in Spanish. We go the inside tour on a lot of places. It's amazing how much I can still remember and understand. I wish I could use my Spanish more often. It'll have been 12 years this July since I got off my mission to Venezuela. We did some of our own site seeing in Mazatlan on our way back to the cruise terminal and we had to ask several people along the way for directions, so it was a good thing I could communicate with them.

Our 3rd and final port was Cabo San Lucas. It was another beautiful day and we took a double decker boat about an hour from the marina and did some snorkeling in Chileno Bay. We even saw some gray whales making their migration north. Cabo really is a desert resort. You don't have the lush foliage like Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan, but the coastline is something else. Check out the pictures below.

The cruise ship itself was actually a lot of fun. We participated in a lot of the games they had on board, enjoyed visiting with our dinner table friends, relaxed on the upper deck, had our fair share of ice cream cones (how can you beat free ice cream 24/7), played miniature golf, saw some incredible sunsets and more than anything enjoyed spending time together. Hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years. Time sure does fly. The kids had a wonderful time with Tami's parents and sisters while we were gone. They almost didn't want to come back home. The final clip here is of a Mariachi band that came on board at one of the ports and played some festive music while we ate dinner one evening.



There are quite a few pictures in the album. Be sure to read the captions. Check them out here:

Mexico Cruise

Crazy Toothbrush

Last week I had my normal 6 month checkup at the dentist. I look forward to these only because I get a new toothbrush (ok, so that's not the only reason, but a nice spiff). The one I got from my checkup 6 months prior to that looked like it had been through the war. Anyway, this toothbrush they gave me is unlike any other "manual" toothbrush I have ever used. I actually enjoy using it and it does feel like it cleans my teeth better. Kudos to Colgate. So, if I could plug a toothbrush, check out the Colgate 360 available now at your local drug store. For those in the Utah area, feel free to take mine for a test drive if you like :) You know . . . try before you buy.

Provo City Half Marathon

Well, I decided at the last minute this week to run the Provo City 1/2 marathon more as an excuse to do a long run. The race started at 8:00 am Saturday morning. It was actually a very nice morning despite some breezy conditions. Brian, my brother-in-law also ran it with me. Tami was going to run it as well, but decided to just run her own 1/2 marathon on her new treadmill that she got for her birthday this year, which she absolutely loves. She actually ran it in 1 hour 53 minutes, which is pretty good. I ended up finishing in 1 hour 52 minutes. It's crazy how easy it is to just go out and run 13.1 miles. Don't get me wrong . . . I'm pretty sore today, but the actual run itself isn't too bad at all. My knees have been bothering me lately though. The full marathon is less than 2 months away. We'll see if I'm up to it. Worse comes to worse, I'll just run the 1/2 marathon instead of the full. After the 1/2 marathon I came home in just enough time to enjoy the last half of the Saturday morning conference session.

Snoring problem solved!

This last Wednesday, Isaac went into surgery for his TA (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy) and he was one of the bravest little patients any of the nurses had seen. We had been talking it up all week as his opportunity to have all the Popsicles and ice cream he wanted. You could tell he was a little nervous that morning but was a real trooper. Here he is in the kids waiting room just before the surgery.

They then brought in the wagon to be carted off to the operating room. Once again he was a little uneasy but didn't cry.

The surgery itself is very easy and only takes about 20-30 minutes. We were worried about how he would be coming out of the anesthesia since he was pretty sick after his eye surgery, but he did very well. He was drinking juice and ready to go home within an hour of coming out of surgery. He hardly cried or whined at all compared to a 10 year old that was in the recovery room with us at the same time that made you think she had just gotten shot or something.

Brooklyn and Jack had a pretty good time too, especially since they were able to get their own juice boxes.

In the last 4 days since the surgery he is practically back to normal. He complains of a sore throat of course, but even this morning had a huge bowl of Honey Combs, which are pretty rough. The best part about it though is that he now sleeps so quietly that we need to make sure he's still breathing. He'll most likely not remember the surgery when he gets older, but at least we'll have the pictures to prove it.