Cruise: Day Four - Day at Sea

What did we fill our time with?

Learning how to fold towels:

Ben and his bulldog

Me and a chicken that I was admiring so the guy just gave it to me.

Going down the waterslide:

Ben's tribute to Karli.

Sliding Thurm

Here comes Ben.

Saltwater Pool Ben

Bean Bag Toss Competition!

Bruce: He was also in the karaoke competition, and his Frank Sinatra impression was one of my very favorites. Plus, doesn't he just look so cute and cool?

I found myself shouting things like, "You got this!" "Next time, own it!" "You're just a squirrel trying to get a nut!" I said this to strangers too, sometimes I have to shake my head at myself. I just get so excited.

Ben's Concentration

Bean Bag Jig (I got my first one down the hole!)

3rd Place Champ!

Ping Pong Competition!

Thurm doing his thing.

Ben competing.

So glad I didn't sign up for this one, both boys got out in their first round, but they looked real good.

Crazy Pictures from the Cruise:

Ben loved Manjo's (the magician) dinner tricks.

How'd it get in his mouth?

Taking it seriously.

My living space for the week.

I was top left. How'd I monkey up there? Hop on to Rachel's bed, then use the skills I learned in gymnastics when I was six. Later, we found the ladders.

Cruise: Day Three - Beach at Ensanada

Thurm's head

Action Thurm

Save the Glasses

Cry Face is a combination of salt/sand/sunscreen wiggling into my peepers.

My Favs

Cruise: Day Three - Ensenada

Lovin' the bus ride.

Viewpoint

Waiting for the elusive blowhole.

Never snapped a decent shot, so here's a small vid, too bad it wasn't one of the amazing blasts.

Me, Ben, Blowhole

Ben's brother Thurm, sister-in-law Natalie

Can't get over how cute every single one of their pictures is.

Ben's Ensenada Souvenir

Cruise: Day Three - Ensenada

Our day begins:

So happy.

Touchy.

Cruise: Day Two - Catalina Island

View from our tender boat.

Goldilocks

First couple to parasail. I was very nervous.

View of Catalina Island from a parasailer's perspective.

These bottle nosed dolphins were jumping like crazy. Ben and I got to see them from above; it was so fabulous to watch them jump and dive and spin. We got to see their white underbellies, and we even saw two twisty turny seals.

This was by far one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Sea Kayaking

My digital camera's first plunge in to the water during our sea kayaking adventure.

We weren't sure what it was going to capture; we couldn't see these guys very well from our kayak.

Ready to snorkel (imagine my bright blue flippers).

I walked backwards in to the water, and walked backwards out of the water when I was done. Ben's brother-in-law Mark thought this was beyond hilarious.

I just thought it was efficient.

Mr. Ben

Don't mean to be so dramatic about holding my breath.

Nat and Thurm (adorable even while snorkeling)

Ben's brother Anth aka Snorkel Angel

Ben

My tribute to Karli

Mexican Cruise - Day One

Ben worked with his brother-in-law to set up the ultimate family surprise. Ben got leave, invited me along, and jumped out on the cruise ship and surprised his family. I cried like a baby, realized no one in the family was crying, then felt very sheepish.

Ben was so impressed.

Lobby.

The ship was so detailed.

I loved watching the elevator crawl up and down with its blue eggs.

First DinDin

I got so tired of people walking around in their robes.

This lady was the craziest of the crazies at Karaoke. She had her robe half on when she started to perform her tribute to Michael Jackson, but she was told she had to put it back on, she sauntered off for a second with a, "I should have known," drawl. During her dance, she turned her back on us, undid her robe, and started to shake and shimmy while we all screamed, "Put it back on!"

Ben and Thurm busting out Ice Ice Baby.

Nothing ruins a good soak in the tub like a pervert spider.

I was patiently standing in line at TJMaxx, waiting to return something for Em. I was called to the register, explained my situation, and waited for the huffy teenager to complete the transaction. From behind me came a,

"Excuse me? Excuse me? Is there a man that works here?"

An older lady was calling out to the cashier, but I was the only one who heard. The lady called out again, and the cashier was very confused, as was I.

Then the flustered lady confessed:

"There's a praying mantis back on the plates in the kitchenware. You know? The bug that pinches? I think you better have a man get it; it's big!" To emphasize her point, she both pinched and swung her arms out real wide at the appropriate moments.

I laughed, the lady smiled, and the cashier was still oblivious.

I regret not going back to see this huge praying mantis.

Please be my Gym Buddy

• lunges around the 3/4 of the perimeter of the gym combined with shoulder presses
• last 1/4 up the lunges to bouncing lunges
• bike on a level that feels like you can't even push it down until you finally get it spinning for one minute as fast you can, immediately jump off and do a set of 12 shoulder raises (repeat this process two more times)
• run up and down the stairs as fast you can for one min, immediately do 10 squat jumps (think of a frog bending down touching the ground, then jumping straight up as high as he can, smoothly going straight back into squatting and touching the ground), then a set of twelve shoulder lifts (arms straight out in front of your body), repeat this process three more times
• feel like you're going to fall down the stairs because your quads are so wobbly and tight
• talk yourself into not puking
• get dizzy
• sweat like a logger
• finish and grab a yoga mat, and pretend to stretch
• close your eyes, camp out, get scared to be able to stand up again
• swear off working out
• convince yourself that you have to run at least two miles on the treadmill (you've got your new Bon Iver purchase to sweeten this idea)
• stumble into the pitch black Cardio Cinema, use your ipod as a flashlight so you don't bang into the ellipticals
• start entering info on the treadmill, look around, no one's around, not too bad
• look up at the screen and realize this is an older movie ... with Gizmo!
• literally run out of there, terrified and mad

Dear Gym Buddy,

If you were with me, I wouldn't have been so scared of Gremlins because I wouldn't have been alone in the dark.

Visit soon,

Sweaty Belly

So many things to tell you ...

Here's a list:

• teacher "pretended" to flip off our pricipal during one of our meetings
• news crew almost interviewed me at school
• my Back-to-School Night handouts had my e-mail as amy.batman
• being in charge of the 7th grade team of teachers gives me an ulcer. Think: Pure chaos.
• my student teacher always says, "By all means."
• exhausted one night, people downstairs were being so loud, so I yelled out my window at them, then went downstairs and told a boy to turn down his music because it was shaking my bed. Then I couldn't sleep due to stress about how now everyone probably thought I'm a b.
• Abe's 1st bday party: Eli threw his wolf over the fence, it landed in their neighbor's poo-ridden garden, Eli was very worried, but Zach saved the day. Ezra stuffed two grapes in his mouth to imitate a monkey, then started muffle screaming that he couldn't bite, got very panicked, so I hooked my finger in his mouth and popped out a grape, then we both laughed really hard.
• went to dindin with Zach and his Em, oh and Toby, Em was peeking around our booth right as a guy walked up ... you'll have to ask her for the details
• my Em had a 9 out of 10 first week of college. Last time I talked to her, as we were talking, she fell off of her bed and in to her garbage
• boy's downstairs' basement flooded: sewer pipe broke, poo water everywhere. They drug everything that got ruined out front, and people kept coming to take it, the couch was very popular. Whenever we saw someone out there, we would try to run out and warn them. All of Ammon's poo-riddled shoes got taken. So gross.
• One roommate made out with her custodian and now is super embarrassed