Jake & Alisa

Meet the teacher

2011-08-09T19:39:00.001-07:00

Today my baby met her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cammack. She is sooooo excited to start school. My little girl is all grown up, almost. I'm not just a teacher anymore...I'm a teacher with a child going to school now. I'm excited too.

Sitting in her desk. She's in the 2nd row for now.

Sitting up tall. We practiced.

Catching Up

2011-03-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been HORRIBLE about updating this blog lately. I guess motherhood keeps me busy among my other callings in life. Updates on the family....Jake is still working as a Network Administrator, hates the commute but it pays the bills. He's redoing our sprinkler system in the backyard before it gets too hot in the Arizona summer. He just got a new calling in church as the 13 year old Sunday School teacher. I, Alisa, am in my 13th year of teaching. This is my 7th year teaching 2nd grade, but am excited to be moving to 1st grade next year. Looking forward to a challenge. I have two new callings in our ward, well one is just an "assignment" which is to be on the Girls' Camp Committee, and my official one is Cub Scout Committee Chair. It's quite funny because when I got released as Primary Secretary I said I would never accept a calling in YW or Scouts, well after several months of having no calling look at me now. I'm actually excited for some change in my life. Zowie is just growing sooooo fast. Just recently Jake and I were talking about how much her vocabulary has increased and how much of a talker she has become. She has made leaps and bounds since she has become a part of our forever family. We love her so much! She wants a baby brother or sister so much and prays daily for them, without our mentioning it. I asked her one day if she asked Heavenly Father when her new baby brother or sister was coming. She said, "Yes, he said "Behold, be patient."" She loves having the missionaries over for dinner, loves loves loves her chickens, and loves singing primary songs. She says that one day she's going to marry Peter Pan, in the temple. She says the cutest things.

We got some new baby chicks born on March 17, 2011. We got 9, crazy I know, but so fun. 3 New Hampshire Red, 3 Barred Rocks, and 3 Buff Orpingtons, all brown egg layers. We'll be extending our current coop where 2 full grown hens live right now to make room for more.

Zowie's first sport other than dance. She had a short 7 week soccer season, but she learned a lot. She really came a long way from a stander and starer to a runner and trying to get the ball. She was sad when it was over, so we'll be signing her up again in the Fall.

Zowie kicking the ball

For Zowie's 5th birthday, I made 2 cupcake cakes. I started running out of time and had to finish them pretty quick, so they aren't as good as I wanted them to be. This one is a flower with skittles and licorice.

This one was suppose to be a turtle, but couldn't make the shell the way I wanted to because of time so used skittles instead.

Breakfast with Santa

2010-12-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Our ward had a Breakfast with Santa. We had yummy pancakes, sausage, doughnuts, muffins, and bagels. It was very nice. They had several teams doing a gingerbread making contest. Zowie helped of course......eating the candy. She does that very well!!!

We got to wear our jammies!!

Waiting in line to see Santa. She got impatient.

Finally!!! This year she got more into Santa.

Telling Santa that she wants a Barbie truck, one that she can drive herself. Not gonna happen, it will be much smaller....for her barbies!!

My beautiful girl!!

Halloween

2010-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

We went to Trunk or Treat Saturday night this year for Halloween. We did the "Wizard of Oz" theme this year.

Dorothy and the Wicked Witch

The cutest Dorothy EVER!!!!

Toto and Dorothy

Jake wasn't able to get the Tin Man costume put together in time, so he's the "Wizard"

Zowie wasn't scared of me and she even kissed me. That was a surprise. Who would want to kiss this face?!?!

Chickens

2010-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our chickens are getting bigger!! One of our Rhode Island Reds started laying eggs!! Jake and Zowie were taking a nap. I went outside to check on the chickens and found our first egg. I was soooo excited that I woke Jake up and showed him. When Zowie came down from her nap, I told her about the egg. She got dressed and went outside herself to go check the chickens. She came back inside excited and yelling, "Mom, I got an egg." Sure enough, there was another egg. She loves checking to see if there are eggs. We'll see how long that lasts.

This is Chicken Nugget, the one that's laying eggs

Chicken Nugget is in the back. Lady Speckles is the Gold Laced Wyndotte in front of her.

The white one is Freckles, the Delaware. We have another Rhode Island Red named Toodles.

Here's the first egg!!!

Land Owners

2010-10-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

We bought almost 41 acres of land in St. Johns. We've never made an investment like this before and it's exciting!!! There are large Juniper trees, but no pine, bummer. Oh well. It's at 6000 feet elevation and it gets some snow in the winter. A nice place to get away in the summer.

We saw this huge hole in the ground. We think rabbit, but not sure.

There was a game trail through our land also. We saw elk/deer/cow droppings and foot prints everywhere.

There's also a ton of Indian pottery everywhere!!! I love it.

Dance Class

2010-09-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

A gal in our church who lives close by teaches dance classes for the little ones. So we decided to put Zowie in it and see if she likes it. We want to expose her to many sports and activities including music (my husbands area) and see what she likes the most. Miss Lindsay teaches her once a week for about an hour. I love that she teaches her ballet, tumbling, cheer, and tap all in that same hour. It keeps the kiddos interested with their attention span so small. So far, Zowie seems to enjoy it.

the warm-up

ballet

uh oh, she caught me, more ballet

First Day of Preschool

2010-07-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

Zowie goes back to school sooooo early. It's still July!!!! Oh well, next year, she'll be on the same schedule as me. My baby will be in kindergarten next year.

My nephew Grant stayed with us for a little while

Zowie with her teacher Mrs. Albert, and 2 aides Mrs. Angel and Miss Mary

Zowie and her preschool teacher, Mrs. Albert

Church History Roadtrip

2010-07-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

Prepare for a long post.....We took a 2 week roadtrip visiting my 2 sisters and visiting our church's history sites. It was a lot of fun.

Zowie and Zoe (cousins that are a month a part) playing together during Grant's baseball game

eating pickles, Zowie didn't like them

Grant at bat

The spiral staircase at Loredo Chapel in New Mexico

MAJOR hailstorm in New Mexico, had to pull over

looks like snow

my sleeping baby

Saw many huge blades to a windmill being transported on the freeway

Winter Quarters temple in Nebraska

Winter Quarters temple

My little pioneer

Zowie holding a handcart

Kansville Tabernacle

Liberty Jail

Soooooo much corn in many, many states

Jake and Zowie in Far West, Missouri (where the four cornerstones to a temple are)

A mill stone from Hauns Mill

Adam-ondi-Ahman

Mississippi or Missouri River, I forget (we crossed both a few times)

Sears Tower in Chicago (don't want to ever go back there again, crazy traffic)

Chicago Temple

My new niece, Avery. In Michigan visiting my sister Crystal

My cute nephew Rosswell

My other cute nephew Elliott

And another cute nephew, Donovan

Having fun

We all went to one of the lakes, I think it was Lake Michigan, but not sure

Zowie the mermaid, I did each child into something different

Detroit, Michigan Temple

Kirtland, Ohio Temple (not owned by our church, The Community of Christ still owns it)

The Johnson Farm, those steps by the door are the steps where Joseph Smith preached the next day after being taken away during the night and being tarred and feathered

Avery

Avery's blessing dress, my mom made it

4th of July in the backyard

light sticks

Carthage Jail, see the bullet hole? This is where the bullet went through Hyrum Smith

The the same bedroom, this is the window that Joseph Smith fell out of after being shot, he fell to his death

standing next to Joseph and Hyrum at Carthage Jail

Outside Carthage Jail, the 2nd story window is the one Joseph fell out of

Nauvoo, Illinois Temple

In Nauvoo

Gravestones of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith

St. Louis, Missouri Temple

Dodge City (Get the heck out of Dodge!)

Albuquerque, New Mexico Temple

Swim lessons

2010-06-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

We put Zowie in swim lessons this summer with Mandy Bailey. She was awesome! Zowie showed no fear.

Zowie just wouldn't jump feet first. It was always a belly flop. Poor thing.

She wanted to jump off the divingboard when none of the other girls wanted to. Like I said, no fear!

Family Pictures

2010-06-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Love her

So grown up!

Hoppy Easter

2010-04-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning and had Zowie search for her hidden Easter basket. She loved it!!! We went over to my parents in the afternoon, in between conference sessions, and had lunch and watched the last session. We also hid eggs so Zowie could find them. She really liked doing that. We didn't get to go over to my grandma's yesterday, but my cousin Toy gave Zowie a goody bag. Inside were some gummy teeth. I put them on Zowie and they were freakin' hillarious!!!! I laughed so hard and couldn't stop. They're bunny teeth.

After I showed her what she looked like, she then smiled.

hunting for eggs

Our Eternal Family

2010-03-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Today we took Zowie to the temple, inside this time, to have her sealed to us for time and all eternity. What a spiritual day! I kept getting teary. I'm so relieved to know that we will be together for eternity, not just here in this life on earth.

What a cutie pie!

My friend Valerie made this BEAUTIFUL temple dress for Zowie. She is so filled with talent in that area. She looked like a princess.

Our Eternal Family

My parents and Zowie

No nap + too many pictures + hunger = A little cranky princess

Daddy and his princess

Some of the family that joined us at the temple

Our beautiful cake by Costco

Temple Pictures

2010-03-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

We took Zowie down to the temple in her blessing dress and took some pictures of her. What a beautiful day, and girl!!

Blessing Day

2010-02-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Now that Zowie is officially adopted, we had her blessed in our church the following Sunday. Usually, they are blessed when they are babies, but obviously we couldn't do that. This is where they are given a name which she'll be know by on the records of our church and a blessing by her father. It was a beautiful blessing. Because she is older, I was able to sit with her on my lap while Jake and some friends and family gave her the blessing. My mom made her blessing dress. It was adorable and just perfect for Zowie.

My mom and Zowie

My dad and Zowie

Our Happy Family

We took this picture after church and Jake already got out of his church clothes.

Adoption Day

2010-02-22T11:03:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the court house to officially adopt Zowie. She is now Zowie Elizabeth James!!!! What a nice experience. The judge was amazing!

Getting her hair ready

Our lawyer, caseworker and judge

Jake, Zowie and me

It's official now. Nice judge

My parents and grandma came too.

The judge was so cool. He let her talk into his microphone.

And let her use his gavel.

My parents, grandma, us and judge

Zowie's 4th Birthday

2010-02-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

We had two birthdays for Zowie. A friend one and then a family one. We rented a bouncy house for her and she LOVED it!! We had a "princess/fairy" birthday with her friends. They all dressed up. Some of the parents said that when they drove by, it was funny to see all these little girls in their dress-ups jumping up and down.

Zowie, my Tinkerbelle

Opening up some presents

They decorated their own cupcakes

More bouncy house, woohoo for sugar

I made her "Barbie" cake

More cupcakes for all the family

Opening more presents from family

This is Zowie's family that took care of her before she came to us

New Mexico Visit

2009-12-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas we traveled to New Mexico to visit with my sister, Vanessa and her family. Zowie got to meet her new cousins, Zoe (who's the same age as my Zowie) and Grant. We called the girls Zowie Beth "short for Elizabeth" and Zoe Lynn so they knew the difference between themselves. They loved eachother so much while together.

Best cousins forever

We drove up to Colorado to play in the snow

Zowie loved the snow. She kept eating it too and didn't want to leave.

Movie star

Happy Family

Snow Angel

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas with Zowie. Santa brought her a bike, just what she asked for. It was a wonderful day.

stocking gifts from Santa

Zowie loves the slinky she got in her stocking

After Zowie opened this baby, she wouldn't stop feeding it. It makes sucking noises and then when you pull the bottle out, it cries. She loved it!

Riding her new gift. It only took 1 day to get use to the not going backwards or else you'll stop.

Can you say spoiled?

My cute spoiled daughter, how can I resist

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

We did Christmas with my parents at their house on Chritmas Eve because my mom had to work on Christmas Day. Bummer!! Oh well, that just means two Christmases for us.

I love doing Zowie's hair

My parents' tree

Papa and Zowie

Opening stocking gifts, Zowie was so excited

Dad got this cool head massager. It looked like a whisk with the ends cut off. You put it on your head.

Dad didn't like it too much

Mom thought it felt weird

And I fell in love with it. I even did it to myself throughout the day because it felt sooo good.

More Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here's some more Christmas Eve pictures from my parents' house.

Zowie and Nama

I Love Dad jammies

I Love Mom jammies

Princess shoes

Puppy Love

2009-12-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

While my dad was in the hospital, we took my parents' dog, Gracie into our home for a day. Wow, I think that getting a dog won't happen anytime soon. Zowie loved her. She would follow her around and lay next to her. Soo cute!!

Our Little Musician

2009-12-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

Jake brought out his instuments (sax, clarinet, and trumpet) to play for Zowie and let her try. She got sound out of all of them, but we think she liked the trumpet better.

Here's a short video of her too.

Wink Wink

2009-12-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I was asking Zowie if she could wink. I showed her what I meant. So she tried it and it was hillarious. She was so stinkin' cute. At first she just smiled in the camera (she's gotten so much better at that).

There's the food smile again

My cutie pie

Ok, here's a partial wink

Getting better

Oh, she's trying harder

There it is!!! I love this one, tongue and all.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Jake took Zowie on a short trip to Mesquite, NV for his grandmother's 98th birthday. Wow!! While they were gone, I caught up on a lot of things AND surprised them with having all the Christmas decorations up. They both loved it!!!

Our family room tree

Our living room tree that shows through the front window (have to have one of those)

For Thanksgiving, we first stopped by my grandma's house for a "light" lunch (yeah right). Then headed off to Jake's brother's house in Goodyear for dinner.

Zowie met some new cousins that came down from Utah

After about an hour and a half, we moved on to Kyle's house (Jake's brother). We spent the night and then did the CRAZY Black Friday shopping.

Zowie takes after me being a tomboy. She's still girlie, but there is definite tomboy there. She loved playing with the trucks and Kevin.

She couldn't get enough of the chips and dip.

Pushing the BIG remote control truck.

Random Zowie Pictures

2009-11-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

So motherhood has kept me pretty busy lately. So busy that I haven't done much on our blog or facebook. I wouldn't trade it for anything!! Here's a few pictures of what's been going on this month.

How can you resist a cute spaghetti oh face like this?

Jake helped Zowie build this truck out tinker toys. He's so creative!!

Then he built this windmill of sorts. She had fun spinning it.

This was her first day of preschool. I forgot to take one with her teacher.

Going to church in one of her many cute dresses. I LOVE dressing her up. Girls are soooo fun!!

Goofing around in Mommy's jacket

Jake bought a bike seat for Zowie so we can take her along on our bike rides. She loves it!!

School Shower

2009-11-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

My friends/co-workers gave a shower for Zowie in my classroom. It was very nice of them. Thank you!! Zowie loved everything!!!

Princess panties

Halloween

2009-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with some friends down the street. We first had to carve our pumpkins. Jake did a really neat Elmo for Zowie. Zowie and I did a traditional smiley face. I had her help me take out the insides. She kept saying "Ewwww", but after a little coaxing she helped me.

Our friends (There are 4 total fairies, 1 Hannah Montana and 1 Batman) Sometimes hard to get Zowie to smile and look at us when we're taking her picture.

Zowie and her friend Amanda

The 4 Fairies

Zowie trying to scare me

Phoenix Zoo

2009-10-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

We went to the Phoenix Zoo to meet up and visit with Jerry, Rebecca and their kids (Zowie's previous family). We had a wonderful time with them!

We first fed the Sting Rays

Zowie got splashed in the face and didn't quite like that

Rebecca helping Zowie feed them

Jerry and Zowie on the carousel

Trunk-Or-Treat

2009-10-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our church had a Trunk-or-treat Friday night. We started off with a hotdog dinner, then carnival games, and then the trunk-or-treating.

Zowie and her friend Lucy

Fishing for prizes

Beanbag toss

Schnepf's Farm

2009-10-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

When Jake got home from work Thursday afternoon, we took Zowie to Schnepf's Farm. It was nice because it was 1/2 off for Queen Creek residents on Thursdays.

We took a train ride

Zowie loved the slide. She went down with Jake the first time and then by herself a few times.

Petting farm

Carousel ride

Bumble Bee ride

"Toddler" Shower for Zowie @ Jake's work

2009-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Jake's work threw Zowie a little shower welcoming her into our family. It was so nice of them. We went to his work and they had lunch (pizza) and some fun cupcakes made into a cake. Then she opened up some very nice gifts. She got lots of clothes, a fun car that she loves, some princess organizers and a princess bag. She had a lot of fun and everyone loved her.

The store spelled her name wrong, it's an "i" instead of a "y"

She loves Elmo!

Utah trip

2009-10-21T14:50:00.001-07:00

Jake, Zowie, and I drove up to Utah for Jake's brother Matt's wedding. All of his siblings and their kids (Zowie's cousins) were going to be there. Perfect timing for them to meet Zowie! We had a great time, and Zowie had so much fun with her new cousins. They are mostly boys, Tatum was excited to have another girl cousin.

This looks like Zowie is saying "Ugh, 12 hours in a car?!?!" She did really well. A friend from work let me borrow his portable DVD player.

Jake's family gave several gift to Zowie welcoming her into the James family. Thanks everyone, she loves all her toys and clothes.

"Z" for Zowie and "J" for James. We'll paint them and put them in her room.

Jake, Zowie, and I visiting the Mt. Timpanogos temple taking pictures waiting for the new couple to come out to get their pictures done. This is Zowie's first temple!

Some of the cousins, there are a few boys missing from this picture.

Zowie and Carson

Zowie being a monkey. She was swinging on the bars.

Carson and Zowie playing together

Carson's sister, Tatum, doing a little dance for me.

Zowie in front of the temple. We're going there someday soon to be sealed.

All the cousins on the James side.

The new couple, Matt and Lydia coming out to get their pictures taken.

Tatum at the luncheon

My sister-in-law, Kerstin, made these beautiful wedding cakes. She is soooo talented.

Lydia had all sorts of candy placed out for people to fill in little boxes to take with them.

Lydia and Zowie

Matt and his siblings, minus Kyle and Joe

Tatum and Christopher helping Lydia with her dress

Lydia and her new sister-in-laws

Going home through the Hoover Dam. The new bridge is getting closer to being finished.

Park Playtime

2009-10-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

Zowie and I went to a little park near our house. I met another parent who was playing with his two daughters who are also adopted. They let Zowie ride one of there 3 wheelers. She had a lot of fun. She saw people swimming in the nearby pool and wanted to go too. Next time.

She loves slides

First Visit

2009-10-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Last night, we got together with the family that gave us Zowie. They wanted to do a celebration for her being adopted. We met at Peter Piper Pizza. Nana, Aunt Michelle, her new husband (sorry, I forgot his name), his son, and cousin Avery also came. Jerry and Rebecca brought a Tinkerbelle cake, cupcakes, and some gifts. It was a fun time!! Zowie just wanted to play, play, play. She wouldn't even eat a whole lot.

Jerry, Rebecca and Zowie looking at a gift cousin Avery gave her

Riding the mini merry-go-round

Cousin Avery, best buds

The gang (Taylor, Andrew, Rebecca, Jerry, Zowie, Mommy, Daddy) The only one missing was Nicholas.

The movie stars, Zowie and Avery

Visiting Daddy's Work

2009-10-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

I took Zowie to go visit Daddy at his work. She was sooo excited. He was too! He showed her off to people at work and they just thought she was the cutest thing. They gave her 2 lollipops and a cookie. Yea for sugar!!

She even tried on his safety glasses

Feeding the ducks

2009-09-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

We took Zowie to Freestone Park to feed the ducks. She had a blast! She kept saying "Here duckie", or "Here birdie". She used up the whole box of cherrios! We then took her over to my parents house to meet them for the first time. They love her and thought she was so adorable!!

She was talking to my sister, Vanessa on the phone and then her future cousin, Zoe. She didn't want to give up the phone.

Hugging Papa

Hugging Nama

Chuck E. Cheese with Zowie

2009-09-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

We had a "play date" with Zowie Monday evening. This was our first time being able to take her out on our own. When we got to her house, she saw us and said hi and then came over and hugged us. Zowie showed us her bedroom. So cute...tinker belle and purple. As we were leaving, we expected tears, but she is just a happy girl and said bye to her mom and dad. Rebecca, her mom, encouraged us to go ahead and start teaching her to call us Mommy and Daddy. We went to Chuck E. Cheese and played, ate pizza, and played some more. What a beautiful, fun girl she is!!

She loved banging on the plexiglass

Watching Chuck E. from a distance, she wouldn't go near him

Taking a picture of ourselves

She's a hugger!

Can you say "Daddy's Girl"?

Zowie has this hilarious face she does. Sometimes she'll be facing forward but then she'll be looking at you out of the corner of her eyes and then make this face like she's trying not to smile. It cracks me up! You'll see it again at the beginning of the video below. WE LOVE HER SO MUCH!!

Camping with family

2009-09-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

At like 6am, Saturday morning, we left for Flagstaff and then on to Williams. We went camping at Kaibab Lake. My sister, Vanessa and her family from New Mexico came down and my parents, who live in Mesa, went up. Since we didn't have any plans to have a visit with Zowie, we decided to go ahead and go on up there, even if it was for only one night. I love my niece, Zoe (who is the same age as my future Zowie, same name, different spelling) and her brother, my nephew, Grant. We had a great time. Grant caught his first fish. He was soooo excited!!

Zoe had some princess lip gloss and kept wanting to put some on my lips.

I got into the truck to get something out and Zoe kept following me around and wanted to get into the truck while I was unpacking. She even fastened the seat belt. Silly girl!!

Adopting Zowie

2009-09-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well family and friends, our prayers and dreams are coming true. We were contacted last week by the mother of this beautiful 3 1/2 year old girl named Zowie. We all met at a park Wed. early evening, talked, and played with Zowie on the playground. We were there for about an hour and a half. Rebecca and Jerry (parents) were so awesome!!! We felt so comfortable talking with them, just like old friends. Rebecca talked about how she found us on parent profiles and that she just kept coming back to our profile. She saw that one of my favorite movies was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is hers also. We had a lot of similar interests. They actually remind me a lot of my sister Vanessa and her husband Stephan. Anyway, we totally clicked. They wanted our next meeting to take place at our house so they could see where she would live. We were totally cool with that. We want an open adoption where we could meet with them every once in awhile and on birthdays and such. When we got home, she called us and said that they were getting in contact with the lawyer and that everything was looking good and that after everything was said and done that we would probably have Zowie living with us by the end of November. Waaaahooo!!!!! We can't wait to be parents!!! We've only met her once, but we love her already.

So on Friday, we told them that they should just come over and eat dinner since they were coming over in the early evening. While on the phone with Jake, she told him that they were moving and that they really didn't want Zowie to have to move with them and then move with us. So.....they moved the date from the end of November to the end of October!!!! Oh my, we're getting so excited!!!! This time they brought 2 of their biological children, Taylor and Andrew with them so they could meet us too. They were so well mannered and super nice. We ate, then showed them around the house. We showed them the bedroom downstairs and Zowie immediately started crying. They said that she probably thought we were putting her to bed. Poor thing. We then went upstairs and she started crying more. Her bedroom is upstairs in their house. We told her that there was a surprise in her room. We finally got there and she quickly squirmed down from her mother holding her. She was instantly smiling and happy. We bought a kissing Elmo and put it on her bed. She ran and grabbed that Elmo and wouldn't let it go. So adorable!!! As the evening came to a close, Rebecca said that they had a meeting with their adoption lawyer on Tuesday and that we should get in contact with ours so we could get the paperwork started. We set up a time to meet over at their house on Monday and Wednesday this coming week so we could take Zowie out on our own for a few hours or so. Can't wait!!! After they left, we decided to go up to Williams and go camping. We canceled on the camping trip because meeting with Zowie was more important. My sister Vanessa and her family and my parents were all meeting up there. We decided that since we weren't going to see Zowie until Monday that we were ok to go on up there. It was so nice to see my family and my niece, Zoe whose also 3 1/2 and my nephew, Grant. I was happy to see them and spend time with them, but sad because we got a call from Rebecca. She said that their plans fell through on Saturday and that if we wanted, we could come take Zowie for awhile by ourselves. UGGGGG!!! We weren't able to because we were already up there. But.....she mentioned that they were going out of town next weekend and that we could take her for the weekend. SWEETTTTT!!!! Can't wait to get to know her even more. Thank you so much Rebecca and Jerry!!! We feel so close to you and thank you so much for making our dreams come true. We can't wait for the years to come. We are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Here's Zowie ready to play the guitar

Zowie and Elmo

What a cutie!!

Taylor, her older sister and Andrew, one of her brothers. They are such nice kids. Very helpful and well mannered too!

I got this picture from Rebecca's facebook. Doesn't she just make your heart melt?

Camping with friends

2009-09-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping with some friends. I had 1/2 off of school and Jake was able to come home early from work, so we packed up and traveled for about 2 hours or so and went to Rose Creek Campground. It's North of Globe off the 288. Anyway, we had friends from our FHE- Family Home Evening Group and also another family in our ward. It was short but lots of fun.

Jake, me, and Elijah

Trying to catch Jake with marshmallow on his face from the smores. He tried to hide, can you tell?

The Browns'

Little Miss Lucy, cute as can be

Little Miss Indy, short for Independence (cute name)

Devin with a toothbrush behind his ear. He even took it with him on the hike because he didn't want to go put it back in the tent.

We brought up our BB guns and the other guy brought up their Air Soft guns.

We all piled into the back of our pick-up and drove up to where the hike started.

Devin and Jason, always joined at the hip! Their poor wives.

The beautiful hike. We traveled along this creek and ended up at some beautiful falls.

Mushrooms growing out of a tree.

Not the real falls yet.

The real falls!!

Some of the guys ran through the shower of water.

Raspberry Jam

2009-09-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again!!! We ordered raspberries, pears, and peaches from a gal here that gets them from Utah. Oooohhhhh so yummy!!! Not at all like the ones you buy in the store. Anyway...the raspberries came in first. Last year we cooked them down and turned it into jam. This year we decided to try the freezer method of canning jam. We've heard it tastes fresher, so much more yummy, and easier than the cooking method. We did it and I don't think we'll do the cooking method again unless we don't have room in the freezer. Sooooo delicious!!!

My 3rd Grader's Wedding Reception

2009-08-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

I got an invitation from one of my old 3rd graders to attend her wedding reception. She was in my very first class I taught, and what an awesome first year that was. I had some great kids, I do every year. I'm getting old :( I believe that she, Natalli Smith, graduated 2 years ago. So young and beautiful. I'm so VERY proud of her for making good choices in her life and being able to get married in the temple.

Natalli and me

Her husband Jacob

Mr. & Mrs. Ellsworth

Slumber Party

2009-08-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

I promised the Potterf girls that we could have a sleepover during the summer before school started, so we did. I had ALL 4 beautiful girls over. We watched movies, ate popcorn, played barbies, and played the Wii. We had a lot of fun. Went to bed around 11pm and heard Amanda up around 6am. Lovely!

Barbies, everywhere

Deandra watching the movie

Amanda posing

Playing the Wii

California Vacation

2009-07-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

We were going to go camping with some friends, but due to the monsoons taking over almost every evening...we decided that camping wouldn't be the best idea with small children. So....we went to California with Jake's brother Kyle and his family. They had a time share and let us come along for the vacation. We got a great deal on tickets to California Adventures and Disneyland with fast passes. So we spent ALL day and night there. We left Disneyland at like 12:15 in the morning.

Jake and I getting ready to do the Grizzly River Run

Niece Tori and Jake

Nephew Kevin and me

The kids and Kyle with their bug eyeglasses getting ready for It's Tough to be a Bug 3D show. It was totally freaky with all the stuff they did to us.

Jake and I getting ready to do the Bug's Life show. Can you see that I'm still wet from that raft ride.

Tower of Terror ride. We loved this one!!!

Jake and I entering Disneyland

Pirates of the Carribean (one of my favorites)

Thunder Railroad

Matterhorn (we got in line for this one about 20 minutes before midnight)

Star Tours

Jake acting scared because of the "huge" Big Foot print found in Switzerland. (He's always been kind of scared but interested in Big Foot)

One of my other favorites...Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

The beautiful castle

It's A Small World..during the fireworks show

On another day we went to a museum and the kids fell asleep in the car due to the late night at Disneyland. Kevin fell asleep with his foot propped up and a straw in between his toes.

Kyle's wife Meeya had her nieces from Korea come down for a long visit. Sumee is in the white jacket, and one of the twins (Sudeem) in the pink, and then Tori Kyle's daughter in the yellow.

We went to a dinosaur museum which was free on Wednesday. It was pretty cool inside.

All of us, except me in front of the museum

A giant crocodile fossil, it was bigger than a T-rex, can you believe that!!

More bones

woops, sorry, we burried one of the twins and made her a mermaid

I don't think I've ever been buried before, so I let my niece and her cousins do it. They gave me some big boobies.

Tori with even bigger boobies.

Jake taking a nap, as usual, so was Kyle next to him

Kyle and Sudeem (we tried boogie boarding here, but we just couldn't ride the waves. We aren't sure why..there were plenty goods ones, but just not ridable...maybe it was all the rocks close to the shore...won't go to this beach again!!)

Santa Monica Beach (didn't like it much)

Kyle and Jake found some good smooth, round rocks for skipping

Girls Night

2009-07-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

I had another girls night at our house tonight. We had lots of fun!! We played Wii Rock Band and then SCUM. We had lots of yummie munchies too. Thanks ladies for coming!!! I took these pictures from Nikki's blog. Some people left early and some even came later, but here's some of us. Thanks for taking pictures.

Baking Bread Frenzy

2009-07-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

So....I'm home for summer break....what to do?? Hmmm, let's make homemade whole wheat bread by hand, meaning no mixers of any kind. I have a really good recipe for a mixer, but I thought, hey, I've got time, let's do it by hand today. So the first day I did a recipe found on one of my food storage websites and tried it to see if I liked it. It makes two loaves. Pretty darn good!!! So a few days later....I go all out and make 4 loaves, BY HAND!!!! It took about 3 1/2 hours total with all the risings. My wrists were tired from kneading it. But oh so good!!

Gotta rise for the last time, one more hour

looks ready to bake now

mmmm, after I brush them with some crisco

If you have that kind of time, you've got to try this recipe. It comes from a wonderful blog that shows you how to use your food storage and many wonderful recipes. Check out the blog: http://safelygatheredin.blogspot.com

Whole Wheat Bread--made by hand
recipe by Jeri Shelton

1 Tbsp yeast
2 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp honey (or 2 Tbsp sugar)
4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup hot water
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp honey (or 2 Tbsp sugar)
2 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water. Add salt, honey and four cups of flour to yeast mixture. Mix together until smooth (will be a very thick batter). Cover with a warm moist towel. Let rise until light and bubbly--about one hour.

To this mixture add the hot water, oil and remaining honey and flour. Mix thoroughly--gradually add more flour (1 to 2 more cups) until dough becomes manageable to knead on counter. Dough should be soft and tacky (not sticky and not stiff or dry). When it reaches this point, knead for 10 minutes.

Put dough back into bowl and cover. Let rise another hour until double in size. Punch down and form into loaves. Put into greased loaf pans and let rise until doubled. Back at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans and brush tops with shortening for soft crust. Eat. Groan with pleasure.

Zucchini and Deer

2009-07-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

My zucchini and deer have nothing in common, unfortunately. I wish it was a deer that ate my zucchini, but it wasn't. I picked some more zucchini from our garden and found this:

Isn't that yuckie!! It makes me wonder what visitor entered my garden. If I had to guess....I would say either a rabbit, gopher or prairie dog. We don't have problems with gophers or the others for that matter, so I'm not sure.

I forgot that we had this picture. While camping for the 4th, Jake and I went driving just about everyday in the woods near where he goes hunting, on dirt and paved roads of course, when I spotted this deer eating. She wasn't afraid either. She never ran away, just looked at us and keep on eating, even when I honked the horn.

All Caught Up----FINALLY

2009-07-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well, friends and family, I am finally caught up on the blog from our trip. I'm so glad!!! So we just got back from camping for the 4th of July with Jake's brother Kyle and his family. It's so nice to get away from the heat and go somewhere cooler.

Just real quick...when we got home from our trip, we went out in the backyard to look at our garden. This first picture is of our sunflowers that Jake planted back in the spring. I just wanted you to see how much they have grown since then.

Jake is 6 feet tall and the sunflowers are a tad taller. Unfortunately, some are bent over because they are either to top heavy or because of the heat.

Here they all are in a row

Here's a close-up, does it look big enough?

Umm, yeah, it's quite big compared to Jake's hand. He's so excited to get some of the seeds out and eat them.

Last day in London

2009-06-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

We flew back to London today and stayed here for one more day before we fly back to Arizona. We did one more touristy thing this early evening. We went on The London Eye. It's like a Ferris Wheel but with capsules where about 20 people can stand around and walk in at once. It's over 400 feet tall. It's the 3rd largest in the world, but the 1st largest that is held on one side, if that makes sense. Anyway, you can see a lot of London in there. It takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around. It was beautiful and fun.

Jake and I in front of the London Eye

The capsules on the outside

Here's the inside of the capsule

The view, The Parliament and Big Ben

Mom, me, Jake

Buckingham Palace from the Eye

Me and Big Ben

Jake touching the top of Big Ben

The classic double-decker bus and the London cab (we rode in both, so fun)

Dunnottar Castle : Stonehaven, Scotland: aka: MY CASTLE

2009-06-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today we hopped on a bus and traveled for about 3 hours to a town called Aberdeen in Scotland and then took a taxi for about 25 minutes back down to another town called Stonehaven. This is where my ancestors (Clan Keith) lived in a castle for a time. This is on my mom's side of the family. I'm not sure if they built the whole thing, but I believe there was a tower that one of them built. Anyway, it's called Dunnottar Castle. It's in ruins now, but still has many standing buildings. As you can see in the pictures, it was a very rainy, windy, cold day. This was the one thing I wanted to see the most and out of all the days in Europe, this had to be the worst weather day, although the tail end of Sweden was pretty bad too. Oh well, we're here, I can't believe it!!!! It's still a very beautiful place, rain or not. At least there wasn't any snow!

Over there you can see Dunnottar Castle, you may have to click on the picture to see it better. It's there in the distance, I promise.

Here's a sign showing Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle. WE'RE HERE!!!!!! Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming.

Jake and I in front of a sign with the castle behind us. We had to walk about 20 minutes to the castle. Many, many steps going down and then back up.

There she is. I wish it was more clear, but what else can I expect on a rainy day next to the ocean.

You can see the pathway and a little hole at the bottom in that massive rock. The castle is just behind it. You can kind of see a little part on top.

We loved this rock work on some of the steps going into the castle.

Here's the layout of the castle.

Some of the building ruins. I just loved all the green grass. So not use to this in Arizona. Do you think all the rain has to do something with it?

Mom sporting her lovely blue poncho

There's a grassy circle where a deep well or cistern is located. When it was excavated last century, they found four brass pans, a small French sword, five cannon balls, part of a Dutch pot, and one and a half silver teaspoons.

Breathtaking views

This dark, small area is called the Whigs' Vault. On 24 May 1685 to the end of July, they imprisoned 167 men and women, whose only crime was refusing to accept the Episcopalian style of church that Charles II imposed on Scotland. They were held for 9 weeks with little food and no sanitation.

You can see the outline of a fireplace and chimney. This was called the Smithy or forge.

We went up inside the Towerhouse or Keep. Mom poked her head out of one of the windows.

Jake and I sitting inside this huge sit-in fireplace inside the Towerhouse or Keep

Here's the Scottish crown jewels that were safely hidden here at Dunnottar Castle and again safely smuggled out so that an Oliver Cromwell wouldn't destroy them like he already did with the English crown jewels.

While we were waiting for our cab driver to return and take us back to Aberdeen, we saw a line of cows walking down the country street followed by their owner on a quad and a dog making sure all was well.

Back in Aberdeen, we ate lunch in this restuarant. This is where we tried the famous "haggis" from Scotland. It's basically the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep minced and mixed up with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt and baked inside the intestine. Sounds yummy right?? It actually was quite tasty. I would defenitly eat that again.

I'm going to plan on coming back someday. I love the people and the place here in Scotland and have a crazy love for their accent too. It was a crazy day trying to get to the castle, but we made it. We planned on going to see other sites that my ancestors inhabited, like the town of Peterhead and another castle in ruins, but Dunnottar was the main castle of importance. I just love the idea of walking where and touching things that my ancestors once did. I have a special place in my heart for geneology and where and who I came from. I can't wait to meet them all one day.

Scotland's Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle

2009-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

I LOVE SCOTLAND!!!!!! Scotland is #1. Sweden is now my 2nd best country. It is amazingly beautiful!!!! If I could live here, I would move in a heartbeat. Here's our cute Bed and Breakfast called Drumorne. The man in charge, Abby, was so nice and friendly. I would go back there again and recommend anyone to stay there. It's about a 1 1/2 miles to the Royal Mile where all the tourist stuff is. An easy and beautiful walk.

We saw this ruin castle on our walk to the Royal Mile. I'm not use to all this green. Arizona is quite brown.

At the start, or the bottom of the Royal Mile, there is the Scottish Castle called Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the Queen of England stays in Scotland.

This is the Palace of Holyroodhouse

Some pretty scenery up the Royal Mile. We tried a deep fried battered Mars Bar. Apparently it was founded here in Scotland. It was ok. I won't buy it again, but it was warm and gooey inside.

One of many "closes" which are basically alleyways between buildings

At the top of the Royal Mile there is this magnificent castle, Edinburgh Castle. I love how it's just built on top of this huge volcanic rock.

Mom and Jake at the entrance

Mom and I standing inside one of the guard pillars

This is a church inside the walls of Edinburgh Castle

We visited the place where they held the prisoners. This is one of several doors that held the prisoners in. They left many markings on them which were cool to see.

One of them had an early version of the American Flag "Stars and Stripes". Can you see it?

Another view of the castle inside the walls

This is a BIG GUN that they use now just about everyday at 1pm. They said that the Scottish people were very practical in that they didn't want to waist 12 bullets to signal at 12 o'clock when 1 bullet would do just fine. That's why they do it at 1pm. It's very loud and fun to watch.

I wanted to share our experience with the 1 o'clock gun. We didn't want to stand too close for fear it would be too loud. We got an excellent view from another area up higher. The weather was starting to look a little scary with rain about to drop, but we were able to get the gun going off before the rain really started. After the gun, we went and saw the Scottish crown jewels. There were very few compared to England, but these were the best because these Scottish crown jewels were hidden in my ancestors castle, Dunnottar Castle, keeping them from being stolen and destroyed by an Oliver Cromwell. YEA Keith Clan!!!!!! I'm soooooo stoked to see "my" castle tomorrow.

Edinburgh, Scotland

2009-06-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

When we were finished with Edinburgh Castle, we walked back down the Royal Mile and came across this mime dressed up. He wouldn't move unless you placed money in his container. We did so and he started moving, grabbed my hand as if to kiss it and my mom took our picture.

There was a bagpiper, except his was more electronic sounding. I liked what he was wearing more.

While we were waiting to take a tour, we saw this strange pierced lady. She was charging people to take her picture. I saw a sign that said she was in the guiness book of world records as having the most piercings. OUCH!!!!! I didn't pay, so I went on line later and looked her up, that's where I got her pictures. Her name is Elaine Davidson. She lives in Edinburgh and we saw her in person walking right by us.

After seeing Elaine Davidson and her many piercings, we did a tour of an underground close called Mary King's Close. This is where many people had the Bubonic Plague. It was very dark and it is said that there are ghosts down there. Woooooooooooooo.

Here's some tour guides dressed in their clothing from that time period (1600's).

Here's the close (which means like an alley between buildings). One funny/gross thing they told us was that the people living there would keep a pot in their small studio type apartment where about 12 people would sleep. They would all use the same pot for disposing of their bodily fluids (all kinds) and they were only allowed to dispose of this pot at a certain time each day. They would take the pot, throw it out the window where it would land on the streets in this close and say really loud "gardeeloo". I know I probably spelled it wrong, but you'll probably be able to say it better with that spelling. So basically...if you hear that word, you better make a run for it! Everyone did it at the same time, I think with the chimes of the clock at a certain hour. I told you it was gross/funny.

After our tour there, we heard all this bagpipe playing outside. We ran out and saw a bunch of bagpipe players. We only saw the tail end of it, darn, it sounded so nice. I LOVE that kind of music. We asked one of them is we could get a picture with him.

At Sea Fun

2009-06-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

We are at sea for 2 days and then we'll fly to Scotland for a few days there. One night at sea, we had a Chocolate Lovers night. They had all these statues made out of chocolate and then there were tons of things to eat that were chocolate. Honestly....the tasting part wasn't that fantastic. I've had better chocolate desserts. Here's just a few statues.

This clock one was my favorite

Way up here in the North, the sun doesn't go down until like 11pm and then it rises at 3:30am. I'm so glad that our room lets no light in. It's totally dark. We didn't get a window or balcony. Never had one and don't see the point since I don't spend a lot of time in my room. Here's one of the beautiful sunsets.

On one of the nights they had an "air show". It was basically a paper airplane throwing contest. Jake tried it while mom and I watched. Here's Jake's creation and how it flew. I'm so glad I got it on video.

Stockholm, Sweden

2009-06-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

This is our last stop with our cruise and I'm sad that it's coming to an end. We arrived in Stockholm, Sweden and by far this is my favorite day so far!!! We did an excursion called Roof-Top Walk. There were only 9 people in our group which was so nice. We got to take a tour on top of one of their government buildings. We wore harnesses and were hooked to a cable so we couldn't fall to the ground, hopefully!?! We had two tour guides, one in the front and one in the back. They were so cute and friendly. I love Sweden!! I guess I'm a little partial to this country because some of my ancestry is from here, not Stockholm, but Malmo. Anyway, here's some fun pictures from our Roof-Top Walk.

Our two tour guides

The roof

The harnesses, we are in the attic

Mom getting suited up

Jake's turn

Now me

Ready to go

Outside getting ready

This is the cable that we're all hooked to. We had to pull it along like a leash.

Some great views

This water freezes over in the winter and they can walk across it, skate, whatever. Fun!

Jake spotted this funky motorcycle. It's a BMW with a covering.

Had to do it!! Again!!! This time, do you notice something different about the Royal Guard?? Not only are they looking at me, but it's a SHE!!!! Cool.

In the center of the palace area. We didn't stay for the changing of the guard. Bummer. I love that stuff.

Do you know what this is?? If you can read Swedish, you might be able to tell. Even if you don't know Swedish. RIKSTELEFON. Yup, it's a phone booth. Very creative I would say.

After our tour, we could choose to go back to the ship or wander around on our own. This was the first time that we chose to wander around. We shopped a little bit and then we had the BEST authentic, Swedish Meatballs. This is not IKEA either!! I thought that we ate the best meal in Berlin, WRONG!!!!!!! This is numero uno #1. It was just melt in your mouth meatballs, delicious mashed potatoes with a special gravy sauce and then some lingonberry jam on the side. I'm telling you, we were all in HEAVEN!!!! I will go back to Sweden just for this meal!!!!!!!!

Here's some videos of when we were on top of the roof.

When we were done eating, it started pouring rain. We walked all the way back to the ship in the freezing wind and rain. I was the only one who didn't bring a jacket while on this excursion and I paid for it. Later that night I even ran a fever. But thank goodness I felt better the next day.

Helsinki, Finland

2009-06-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

We docked in Helsinki, Finland today. We went on our excursion and found that there just wasn't a whole lot to see here. We just weren't in awe like the other countries. We did think that it was very beautiful with it's green forests/parks. So different from Arizona!! I love green!

Our guide said that almost everyone owns a boat there.

We're in the city center.

Jake ran up the stairs and pretended to be Rocky with his arms up. Can you see him?

Here he is closer.

They write their street names twice, once in Finish and 2nd in Swedish.

We then went to a church built out of the rock. They call it the Rock Church.

The inside.

Organ pipes

In one of their parks, an artist created this. It's a bunch of pipes.

mom and me

the artist

I'm looking up and took this interesting picture. I like how it turned out.

A cute little park area, great for pictures.

more pretty flowers

This is where the Olympics were held

Last day in St. Petersburg, Russia

2009-06-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd day in Russia. We went to Peterhof Palace. This is where the Romanoffs stayed (Catherine the Great). I really enjoyed this excursion. I just love palaces!!!

This is our tour guide, Anastasia. Isn't that the perfect Russian name?

Common Russian cars, the Lada

Another church

Peterhof Palace

More beautiful gardens, Peter was good at this

We look so cheesy with our headphones for the tour

The wonderful fountains.

We weren't aloud to take pictures inside, so I found these on the internet. This is exactly what we saw. Don't you just love the internet!!

This is a painting of yes, Catherine the Great dressed as a man on a horse and that one of the royal chairs. This palace had magnificent wood floors. Just look at the neat designs. They actually made us all wear booties covering our shoes while inside the palace.

This is one of a few Chinese Rooms

More neat woodwork flooring

One of the ballrooms

The guilded staircase that we walked up

Jake took a few videos of the fountains going off with the music. The fountains have the water come out by gravity only.

Evening in St. Petersburg, Russia

2009-06-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

This evening we went on our 2nd excursion for St. Petersburg. We went to a Russian ballet, Swan Lake. I've never seen Swan Lake and didn't even know what the story line was about. At first, we got into the place where the ballet was taking place and thought to ourselves, oh boy, cheesy. It wasn't that big, not like Gammage at ASU like we were use to. We were also appalled at what people were wearing to a ballet. We got all dressed up fancy and people were there wearing jeans and a t-shirt. No respect. We weren't aloud to take pictures or videos either so we didn't even bring our camera. We should have, because the building inside had other beautiful rooms. I got some pictures off the internet of the ballet we went to and we were lucky to get a picture of our guide the next day. Anyway..once the ballet started...holy moly....it was fantastic!!!! Our first impression was soon forgotten. We loved this ballet, even Jake liked it!!

This was our ballet tour guide Elena. She was awesome. She's also a teacher of English to older students. We told her how we would like Russian Rubels as souveniers and how hard it was to get it. She told us to give her a dollar and she'd give us the equivelent in rubels. She said there was no law against it and would be happy to help us out. She was awesome!! She did tell us that if our dollar was not that clean looking that they would give you less money for it. They have 30 Rubels to our one dollar.

The outside of the building

The inside seating area. We were on the ground floor sitting in like row 12.

One of the other rooms. Great woodwork.

The stage and swans

These four ladies were awesome!! They did everything synchronized. I just loved when they would jump up in the air and their legs/feet would go back and forth really fast. I don't know the term they use in ballet for that, but it was so cool to watch.

St. Petersburg, Russia

2009-06-09T05:19:00.000-07:00

St. Petersburg, Russia was the one place that we were really excited to see. And to tell you the truth...we were a bit disappointed. Our first day here made us feel like the Russian people were only showing us the best parts and were keeping things from us. Like they had something to hide. We even had the hardest time trying to get rubles, their type of money. They wouldn't exchange our dollars for their money like the other countries would happily do. We were even told by someone that it was against their law to trade money. What is that all about, whatever!! So needless to say, we were a little turned off by Russia our first excursion. When we first got off the ship, we had to get a special Visa just to visit their country and once your excursion was over, you had to come straight back to the ship. You weren't aloud to wander around on your own unless you got your own Visa months ahead of this trip. I find that they are very controlling. Just little things like that turned us off about Russia. The people there didn't even seem happy. It just seemed like a dark dreary country, it didn't help that it was cloudy either. Enough about my rantings. Here are some nice buildings we saw on our first excursion. We were in Russia for two days, so we did 3 excursions. Our first one was called Cathedral on Spilled Blood & Waterways. We did the waterways first. St. Petersburg is a bunch of islands joined together by bridges.

I just love the "onion" shaped buildings. Most are churches.

This is Peter and Paul Cathedral

While we were on the canal boat, we saw a young boy on one of the bridges waving to us and then he would run along side of the boat and go to the next bridge and wave. He did this for quite a long time. Our guide said that they do that for the tourists and want tips at the end.

I got a picture of some Russian military men. I felt like if I got caught taking their picture that I was going to get in trouble. Thank goodness none of them saw me taking the picture.

After our canal cruise, we went to this magnificent church. It is called The Church on the Spilled Blood or Church of the Resurrection. Nice name huh? There's a good reason of course. Inside there is a spot where Alexander II had an attempt on his life and some of his blood was spilled. They covered that spot with big rock and built this church around it in honor of him, hence...the church on the spilled blood. This building was the most beautiful of them all. Inside there is not a single painting...instead...there are 308 mosaics. Breathtaking!!

Inside here is where the stones cover up the spilled blood of Alexander II. We were able to take pictures inside this church for a small fee. Most churches we've gone to, we weren't able to take pictures inside, so this was a nice treat.

The walls were all covered with these beautiful mosaics. There was not a piece of wall not covered.

I think this was the 12 disciples and Jesus

This was Christ as a young boy

And here's a video of some of the inside of the church.

The Newlywed and Not So Newlywed Game Show

2009-06-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

On the evening we went to Tallin, Estonia, we went to a game on the ship called The Newlywed and Not So Newlywed Game. We got there early so we could sign up to maybe be one of the contestants picked to play. We were the first ones to sign up, but a lot of people signed up to play. They picked four couples. One couple was picked who was married for only 2 weeks, then we were picked, married for 10 years on the 19th of this month, another couple married for 22 years and the last couple married for 40+ years. I was so excited to be picked!! They first had the guys leave while the host asked us 4 questions about the guys. My questions were: #1- Where was our first date and did we get a kiss at the end? #2- Who was his last girlfriend and name one word to describe her? #3- What funny thing does your hubby do in the nude? #4- When your husband wakes up in the morning and you look at him, what nautical term would you choose to describe him? Then he gave us four choices. After the women answered the questions, they brought the guys back to see if they got the same answers correct. Then in the second round, the ladies left while he asked the men four questions about us. Jake had #1 What is the first thing that your husband touches in the morning? Get your head out of the gutter, I said computer and I was correct!! #2- This was a fill in the blank. My wife has the best _____, but you haven't seen ugly until you've seen her _______. #3- Where was the strangest place we've made whoopie? #4- What animal does your wife most resemble? He gave them four choices. Jake got 3 out of my 4 question correct and I got 2-1/2 out of his 4 correct. One couple, the ones married for 22 years, only got 1 question correct out of all of them. Sad. At the end, they tallied up the score and Jake and I won!!! Can you believe that?? All the couples won a bottle of champaigne (woohoo, like we can drink that!, we gave it to our cabin steward to share with whomever he works with, he was really nice) and since we won, we also got a 25 minute couples massage on the ship. It was soooo nice. We went in a few days later and got massages while in the same room together. It was nice and relaxing!! My mom recorded some of it on our camera but am having a hard time getting it to upload on to blogger. It's just taking too long so I'm going to dump it. Sorry. The ship actually taped the whole show and then played it a ton of times on the tv's in our rooms. I guess you could say that we got our 15 minutes of fame, sort of.

Tallin, Estonia

2009-06-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a day at sea while we sailed to our next destination. Today we are in Tallin, Estonia and to be honest with you, I'd never heard of this country before our cruise. It's a small country close to Russia. Anyway, we went on an excursion called Uppertown and Kadriorg Palace and our guide was named Christiine with two i's. She was cute and fun to talk with too. We only took pictures with the guides we liked.

me, Christiine and Jake

This is their Parliament building

This was one of their churches that we got to visit. I have to say that in all the churches we were aloud to go in and view, it was a weird feeling. It's like there was no spirit and almost like I was intruding and shouldn't go walking through it. I couldn't imagine just anyone go walking through our temples at anytime. There were even people in this one doing worship. I couldn't believe it. It was very beautiful inside, they all are.

Mom and me with a scenic view

me walking down into the dungeon, just kidding, this is the way to the bathroom

one of the castles

Kadriorg Palace, a Palace built by Peter I for his wife Catherine

Peter created beautiful gardens, this one is in the back of the palace

We were aloud to take pictures inside this Palace. Yea!! Mom, me and Jake in front of one of the fireplaces.

This is one of the other stoves to heat the house. It had Delft pictures on it.

Some of the beautiful sculptures and wall work. This was above the fireplaces.

More beautiful ceilings

Gorgeous and fragrant purple flowers. I don't remember the names of them. There were white ones too.

me and Jake with the Ocean behind us.

Berlin, Germany

2009-06-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Warnemunde, Germany today. We planned an all day excursion in Berlin so we had to take a 2 -1/2 hour train ride to get to Berlin. Our excursion was called East meets West, meaning East and West Berlin with the whole Berlin Wall thing and lots of history. While on the train, we saw some real pretty countryside. Lots of fields and forests. We saw tons of Poppy flowers and deer stands in the farm fields. They get lots of deer, rabbit and other animals to hunt for. I even saw a deer. As we got into the more city parts, we saw a ton of graffiti. It was everywhere. Some were nice pictures but a lot was just words and scribbles.

Examples of some graffiti

A funny sign that tells us to walk. He has a hat on.

We got a lot of history and facts about the Berlin Wall and how each side coped and dealt with it. It was so sad. I just couldn't imagine how it really was. Thank heavens for our freedom in the US.

Here's some of the Berlin Wall that was left over.

Here's another part of the wall where they let artists create their own art on "the wall". They periodically paint over it and let others make their art.

more "wall"

Me and mom next to the wall. We even left our mark on "the wall". We wrote our names on it, but the picture didn't turn out that well.

One of the guard towers

This was one of the buried tunnels the soldiers had from the war.

Here is Checkpoint Charlie.

Jake and me in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

One of many beautiful churches

A building that was hit by bombs in the war and is still standing.

We ate an authentic German meal. It was the best!!! We had an interesting salad at first. It was a bowl with four different salads on it. It had pickled green beans, pickled white cabbage, sweet grated carrots, and marinated cucumbers. Hated the green beans, it reminded me of the 3 bean salad. Blech!! I really only liked the carrots and cucumbers. Then we had our main meal. YUM!!!!! We had these meatball sized smashed hamburgers. I don't know what they were called. We also had link sausage size bratwaursts with finely shredded saurkrat and some sliced smoked pork. We also had small round potatoes, mashed potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli. It was so tasty. The best meal we've had so far on this trip, even on the ship. Then, for dessert....apple streusel with a creamy sauce. I forgot to take a picture of the main meal, but got one of the dessert.

Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-06-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Our first stop on the cruise was Copenhagen, Denmark. As we were coming to the dock, you could look outside and see these massive windmills of sorts. They are used to generate electricity to 20,000 homes in Denmark.

We went on an excursion called Charming Copenhagen Walk and Cruise. We met our cute, adorable guide named Klaus. He was so laid back, friendly and fun to talk to.

Jake, Klaus, and me

This statue is pretty much like the mascot for Denmark. She is called The Little Mermaid. Hans Christian Anderson was from here and this was one of his stories.

Jake is sporting the lovely bus sticker on his shirt

This is the larger mermaid statue. Jake just had to do this. It was too tall to touch so we were creative with the camera. I'm sorry if we offend anyone. We find it quite funny.

Lots of boats in the harbor

Awesome windmill. Klaus said that it actually ground wheat during wartime.

Denmark's Queen's Palace

I just love these guards. I don't know why. I was actually a little scared to get too close. I didn't want to get in trouble.

On our canal cruise, we saw these monks on the side and realized that they were pouring ashes into the canal. I guess it was a burial service.

One of the cool buildings here. This spire is actually the tails of four dragons twisted. A lot the the tops of the buildings or statues are green which I found out use to be copper color and when it tarnishes, it turns green.

The Queen's personal yacht

Jake has a HUGE thing for ice cream. On the cruise he had ice cream once or twice a day. So when we saw this, I had him pretend lick this statue next to one of many ice cream shops in Europe.

After our excursion, we went back to the ship. Later that evening we watched an awesome performance by a man named Romano Frediani. He is the 8th generation of Italian juggling performers in his family. He juggled in the dark with lighted balls, juggled off the floor, and then brought out two drums, one on each side of him. He had music going and would bounce/juggle the balls to the beat of the music with the drums. It was amazing!! He was kind of a comedian also.

At Sea

2009-06-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

No pictures today. We just relaxed and enjoyed some of the activities they had on board, ate lots of food, and explored the ship some more. Norwegian has FreeStyle Dining which means we can eat our meals anytime we want and wherever we want and with whomever we want. I do like that part of it. It was sure a rough day at sea. I think they said the swells were like 5 feet or something like that. It was a very rocky ride. I don't remember our other cruise like this. One guy said that it's because of where we are and there's like three different waters coming together. We were all walking around like we were drunks. Quite funny to watch. I'm glad I don't get sick easily, although I was feeling it a little. We played Free Card Frenzy Bingo, Jake and I, we also bought some more bingo cards, no winners, bummer! We went into one of the extra rooms in the Fyzz Lounge and played Scene It with eachother. We had lots of fun! We'll be in Copenhagen, Denmark tomorrow, can't wait!!!

Cruise Ship Time

2009-06-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

We finished touring London for now. It's time to board our cruise ship for 12 days of fun. We got a train ride which was about 2 hours and traveled to the city of Dover in England. We found our ship The Norwegian Jewel. It is quite huge. It had 13 floors and many dining/show/lounge/etc. areas. Lots of fun activities to keep you busy. So we first got there and checked in and then as soon as we walked on board we were greeted with waiters handing out champagne or orange juice in wine glasses. We chose OJ of course. It was a nice surprise, we weren't expecting a nice greeting like that. In fact, Jake and I had never cruised with Norwegian before. We've done Carnival before and heard that Carnival is more of a party ship. I have to agree. I would say that the majority of the guest were older retired people. After the greeting OJ, we checked into our room and then went up top to look at the view. Dover is famous for their White Cliffs and their Dover Castle. On the opposite side, we could actually see a little land which was France. Cool, huh? Too bad we didn't have enough time to visit their too. We then sailed off and then investigated the ship and it's many floors becoming familiar with it. We also had a manditory evacuation drill. Tons of fun!!

The Norwegian Jewel

Our cabin #10073, Jake and I had the King on the bottom and mom had to fold out bunk sort of bed above Jake's side of the bed. Jake got a taste of his own medicine with mom's snoring. He's thankful I don't snore so loud. Love you mom.

The pool/hot tub part of the deck. Even though it was very cold most of the trip, we did go in once on everything

I even went on the waterslide, by myself. No one else wanted to try it.

White Cliffs of Dover

Me, Mom, Jake topside while the Jewel was sailing off

Leaving Dover

Exciting evacuation drill

Awe, our first towel animal. Our cabin stewards make our beds in the morning and then turn down our beds in the evening and usually do a towel animal and leave the agenda of activities for the next day. I think this one was a seal. What a day! Tomorrow is just a day at sea.

London: Bus tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath

2009-06-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today we took an all day tour to go visit Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and then the Roman Baths. It was a fun tour and our guide had some fun info and was quite amusing. This wasn't a very good picture of her, but oh well, her name was Susan.

Susan told us that there is a lot of "rape seed", which is the yellow flowers, I know, not a nice name, but that's what they call it. They process it into a form of canola oil.

We went to Windsor Castle first. Another WOW!! We walked into some of the rooms and they had tons of sword, rifles and pistols on the wall in patterns. The walls were decorated in beautiful painting and tons of gold. Everything always looks so elogant. Of course, no pictures aloud. Dang it!!! I'm really starting to get annoyed. So....we bought another book. There was another place here where they had the HUGE dollhouse. One of the kings made it for their daughter. Get this, it had real plumbing inside it and electricity. There was a real electric vacuum that worked and of course it had to have it's own set of crown jewels in a special room that was locked up. We then went to the church that was also there. No pictures! It had more people buried there. One in particular: Henry VIII.

These are the Apartment areas where the Queen of England stays.

Just a pretty garden with a pond at Windsor

We then went to lunch at the little B&B. Jake and I had the beef and potatoes and mom had the bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) Very tasty.

Our next stop was Stonehenge. It just doesn't seem real that we are actually here. They had it roped off so we couldn't get that close. There were also the huge flying beetles that were attracted to my white shirt. Scarey and annoying!! We got some great pics, we had fun with them too.

Jake holding some of Stonehenge up, no sweat

Mom getting ready to lift this piece

I'm getting ready to pick this piece up

Here's a burial mound with sheep on top, they must be guarding it

This flat stone on the ground was the sacrificing stone.

After Stonehenge, we traveled to Bath to view the ancient Roman Baths. It was interesting to view but not that big of a deal to us. We couldn't tough this water because it was so dirty.

Jake and I in front of one of the baths

Jake and a "Roman" teaching us how to say hello

Mom and me with the Roman

We traveled back to London after this. It took a two hour drive home on the bus. We also saw some real thatched roof houses. I guess some people like the old look. It actually cost $20,000 to put it on, they have to pay higher insurance because of the fire risk and then they have to cover it with a mesh to keep the birds from nesting. Worth it?? Not for me.