One Favorite Thing

One of my favorite things in life? Old friends. Not to be confused with friends that are old (cause we are NOT old!), I mean good ol friends. You know the people who you adore but don't see or talk to much? Even though time goes by, when you do get together again its like you never skipped a beat. I just adore it. I love "old" friends. I had dinner tonight with two of those old friends and I had a blast. What do people do in life without fun friends that know your roots and history? Thanks for organizing the event ladies, I love you! Thanks to all of you that I consider my friends, young, old, been around for decades and new ones. You are all the best. Love and more Love!

Random

Just wanted to show off my cute nails to everyone, they are purple and black polka dot and I love them. :) Also right before the cruise a lot of us got glitter toes which was really fun. I got some cute flip flops in Mexico... see photos.

Also, Happy Birthday Jason. I love you!

Cruise 2010

I am finally getting to posting about our cruise. Yeah! I will just post a few pictures at the end and try to keep this brief. If you want more details you know where to find me!

First, I will say I loved it. It was really fun. It was fun hanging out with most of the adults in my family and just having a good time together. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, honestly. We dropped off Max at Jason's parents house and headed home to pack. Sunday, Elena and Kevin came to pick is up in their Excursion and we went and picked up Jeff and Kami and off we set. We stayed in a city just on the edge of the border of California in Nevada, called Primm. We stayed at an exotic hotel called Whiskey Petes. Only the best for us :) Didn't much matter as we got up early and headed off to San Diego. We arrived without incident, which we were all glad for. We arrived to the pier and parked our cars and waited for the shuttle to take us to the boat. Apparently they were short staffed, cause we had to wait for 45 minutes to get taken from the parking garage to the cruise ship, but it was no big deal. We all enjoyed just letting the sun warm us up from leaving cold Utah! We all got our cruise ship cards and loaded the ship. Our rooms were on the lowest level (the Riviera deck) so we were able to find our rooms pretty easily. Jason and I weren't sure what to expect of the room and had heard it was going to be tiny. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it really was pretty good sized considering we were on a cruise ship. It was fun to have a window in our room so we could watch outside. That first night we had our first experience with the fancy dining. We got assigned tables to sit at and we sat there all 5 days for dinner and had the same waiter. Since we were traveling with 16 people we each were assigned to two tables of 8. The food was fun. I tried and ate quite a few things that I just dont eat at home. My brother in law even had me try escargo, which wasnt half bad. The food was always presented really beautifully and tasted great. I couldn't find any good pasta, but that was ok. Thats why I have the Olive Garden. :) We got a good relationship with our waiter, he was a really cool guy.

Carnival is totally committed to fun. That's all they talk about! We went and watched quite a few shows and were in the audience for Family Feud, Newlywed Game, a hypnotist and a comedian. They were all really entertaining and funny. Most of them were a riot. :) On the ship we played some Miniature Golf, which was fun with the boat moving, and enjoyed sitting and watching the ship sail. I got a little sick the first day, but I wasn't sure if that was from exhaustion or what. Jason and I were fine the whole time. Whew! We played some games and ate lots of food. A good time was had by all. We got a coupon for a spa thing and I made an appointment and did it. I got a back massage and a facial. It was nice to relax. It was also really fun to come back every night and see what towel animal they had left for us. They were all really cute. I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, but I've got it all in my memory :)

The two ports that we stopped at were Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. We went to Cabo first and we did an excursion called Cabo by land and sea. It was pretty fun. Cabo was absolutely gorgeous. We first took a catamaran out into the port and sailed around the famous "El Arco" which was cool. We were on the water for about 40 mins. Then we boarded a big bus that took us to a glass blowing factory. They are amazing artists. It was really cool to watch it. Then we drove for quite a while to a small city that had a church and some interesting history. Our tour guide was a bit of a talker which got a little obnoxious on the way back to the port. We also drove by a cactus museum place which was pretty cool. Overall it was pretty cool. The glass blowing factory was the cool part and the tour ended up taking a lot longer then we expected. The ship was unable to get into the port so we had to take boats to and from the cruise ship. We had to wait in a pretty long line to get back on the cruise ship but it was a fun day.

Two days later we went to Ensenada and we ended up doing one of my favorite things on the whole trip. I had heard from most people that Ensenada wasn't that great but I really liked it. We did an excursion called the Taste of Mexico. We took a bus to a restaurant called Mango Mango. While there they gave us all a cutting board and a bowl with avocados, tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime. We had a chef who walked us through how to make "Mexican salsa." It was seriously a ton of fun. The salsa was delicious and I had a yummy mango colada. Man I love those Coladas! Then they showed us how to make a smothered burrito and a tostada. It was really good and the chef guy was really funny. After it was over we got a certificate saying we know how to make Mexican food. I don't know that I would go that far but we did have fun!

After the cruise we drove up to Oceanside and saw the ocean and beach which was cool. Then we drove home. The cruise was really fun and we are sad its over. Now we just have to plan our next trip :)

You Cruise in 42 Days

You heard it here first folks, we leave on our cruise in 42 days. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a calendar, that isnt very long!!!! :) I am getting really excited and the Woodbury family planning begins. We get multiple emails a day talking about shore excursions and who is driving and where we are staying on the way, etc. It's quite the brigade to get us all together but I am really really excited for it. I just might get a new swimsuit for the occasion. If any of you have been to Ensenada and/or Cabo and did shore excursions, let me know what you did and if you would recommend it. Once again, I am stoked and excited. I need a vacation!

My in-laws have graciously accepted the invitation to watch Max for a week which should be interesting with all of their dogs. Hopefully all goes well there! My Mother-in-law also mentioned that she would watch our baby to, if we had one. So thats nice... haha.

My sister in law is retraining herself to do acrylic nails and those glitter toes. She has asked for volunteers and I said I would do it. I am going to get my nails done tomorrow and am kind of excited. Not that its my first time, but I like the way they look so hopefully I will like them as well as I once did. I am sure I will, she did a good job back in the day! Speaking of doing things for the first time I had a facial a few weeks ago and it was heaven. Why have I never done one???? It was so relaxing and totally what I needed. Best idea ever!

I went to a wedding for a buddy of mine from the mission. He got married to a non-member girl and while it was beautiful, the whole time I was kind of sad. It's weird to see people who once were so strong make choices that you hope they don't regret. He is such a good guy, I hope it works out for him.

My favorite Bears

So I know I have posted about the bears before, but they bring me more joy then they probably should :). They are just so stinking cute. For a refresher Jason gave me these bears when we got engaged and they had a wedding dress and tuxedo on. Everytime I get a new outfit I laugh and think how cute they are :) Here they are for Halloween and Thanksgiving:

Aren't they the cutest?? I am proud of them :)

The Recovery

Soooo my laptop got stolen at work which totally sucked. It took us a few weeks to decide to order a new one, and it finally arrived today. Pink polka dots and all :) I love it, and with the way computers go I actually got a better one then I had 2 months ago. Now I get to reinstall all of the stuff which stinks, but I will get there. Guess I won't be taking it to work anymore eh? :) Anyway, we are back in business so I hope to update my blog more, but I wouldn't cross your fingers too severly :)

In other news I have joined weight watchers and this last week I lost 6.9 pounds. Yeah!! I am feeling pretty motivated and hope that I can keep it up.

My company rented out a whole theater to go see New Moon tomorrow. Jason is the most excited I have seen him in days...haha. I am pretty excited to see it. I hope its better then Twilight haha. I didn't hate that one, but it wasn't great. I am excited too see! Anyway, just wanted to make a quick update. Hope you are all great!

The New, The Old and the Awesome

My job is going pretty well. We moved to a different building and I have been working lots of hours. When I quit working overtime I am going to be sad as my paychecks will be substantially less. I am just enjoying the chance to work. I love my co-workers which makes a huge difference in the enjoyment of a job. They are all so great. In a twist of fate, it looks like my buddy Megs is going to be able to come work with me as well, which means that my new job is looking more and more like my old job. Minus the drama and yuckiness. :)

One more big change for our family is that Jason is now officially a student again. He started at Western Governors University at the beginning of this month and is liking it so far. It's nice to have that going again. It is an online university and because of that it is a little more self paced. We are hoping that he can get through it faster then traditional school. He is getting his bachelors in Business Management. We are excited about it. I am looking forward to him starting his math class so that I can help, I kind of miss Algebra :) I know, I'm sick haha. With going to school online we bought him a laptop, and I got jealous so we bought me a laptop too. Its so cute, with white with pink polka dots. I love it, and I know I'm spoiled.

I had a good birthday, thanks everyone for the well wishes. When I got to work one of my co-workers had bought me my favorite sugar cookies from Schmidts. YUMMY! I don't think I have had them since I quit working there, which would have been my senior year of high school, that means 10 years ago. I loved them. Then my co-workers had decorated my desk, which was fun and then I got a certificate for a pound of See's Chocolates from work. Sweet! Then I got home and Jason had gotten me a pretty necklace and earrings. I like them a lot, but the part that was most impressive about his present was the pink bag and tissue paper and the sweetest card I have ever read. (See Picture) The card made me bawl it was so sweet. If you can't read it, the card on the front says "For the Love of my Life, From the Man who adores You." He said the lady at the store sort of teared up when she saw it. :) I also was shocked that he went to the hassle of getting me a cute pink bag complete with tissue paper. Thanks baby :)

My awesome in laws got me a few of those super cute watches that the bands are made of beads and you change it up with different watch faces and stuff. They are so cute and I have wanted them for a long time so I was stoked for that. Then with the money from my parents and others I was able to buy myself some diamond stud earrings that I love. This being 28 isnt so bad.

A while ago I was talking to my neice Erin and she mentioned that she has never been to Las Vegas. Of course I took that opportunity and ran with it. So, that turned into a fun trip that we are taking this weekend to Vegas. We are going to stay at Excalibur and we got tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera. We recruited another one of my neices, Kira, who also hasn't been to Vegas and then my sister in law Kami is coming too. We are really excited and I think we will have a great time. :) Anybody have any things that people who haven't been to Vegas need to see or do, let me know! We are just going for the weekend, but fun should be had by all!

Speaking of Kira, she is my sister Chris's daughter and they live in Boston. However, they are currently driving across country to move back to Salt Lake. We are really excited to have them back in the Valley. :) That will mean all Woodbury's are in the State. WooHoo! Anyway, hope all is well with everyone. :)