Caribbean Cruise!!

Alright I know, I know Im the worst blogger EVER!! I guess its just because since my last post (in October!) We have been so busy with moving back from Reno to Pocatello, and then Christmas/ New Years, and then Nick and my cruise we went on and then we came to Burley for Nick's pharmacy rotation, and thats where we are at now. See what I mean? We have been going and going and going! And I will eventually get to all that we have been up to, but for this post I would like to just write about our Cruise because it was THE BEST EVER, and I want to tell all I can before I forget. :) WARNING: This is a very long post!

So in January Nick and I went on our first Caribbean Cruise. I have been on a Caribbean cruise before with my entire family on my Mom's side, and ever since I have really wanted to go back!! So I finally convinced Nick that we needed to go, although, it didnt take much convincing. ;) We decided that this January would be the perfect time to go since Sophie would be about 18 months old ( we didnt want to bring her with us, I know, we are the meanest parents ever right!?), and this is Nick's last semester of school and he would be on break in January so it just worked out perfect! SO... We did it!! We went, and it was AWESOME!!! We left January 21 and flew to Miami. We stayed in Miami that night in probably the classiest hotels ever! (NOT REALLY) It was pretty ghetto actually, and kinda freaky but it worked. HA. So then the next morning we headed to the ship. We went on Norweigian Cruise Lines and we really liked it.

Our awesome hotel room

waiting for the shuttle to get to the ship

Day 1: The first day we just ATE and ATE, we did a lot of that this week ;), and we just hung out on the ship the as we headed out to Sea.

Waiting in the theater on the ship for the show to start

Our huge stateroom on the ship

Day 2: We got to the Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. Which is a small island the ship line owns. It was pretty cool. We took a ferry to the island and stayed there all day. Nick and I snorkled and explored around the isalnd. It was pretty fun! The best part of this cruise, though, was the weather. Which was perfect the ENTIRE time. Like 78-84 degrees all day every day even on the ship and at night! It was so great! This island also prvided a huge free buffet that the ship brought and so that was cool to be able to go and eat during the day whenever we felt like it on the isalnd without having to go back to the ship.

Day 3: This was another day at Sea. But they have so many things on these cruise ships to do that the days at sea are pretty fun. Nick joined a bunch of foreign guys for a soccer game and basketball. I would watch and take pictures. None of them were too good, so Nick was like an all-star to them haha, and so they all loved him! It was pretty funny because after that anytime we would see any of the guys around the ship they would always say "Hi" to Nick and make sure he was coming to the next bball or soccer game that was going on. We also played dodge ball and went to some shows and things like that. Oh ya... and we ate and ate and ate. ;)

Day 4: Ocho Rios Jamaica! Ok actually Jamaica was kind of a bust for us. Our original plan was to try and walk to these cool falls that we heard about but when we got off the ship and asked someone about it they told us it was WAY to far and we couldnt walk there (which we find out later is not true because apparently people do it all the time) So we were kinda bummed about that and we really didn twant to pay $40 bucks for a taxi so we decided instead to go to a beach and go snorkling. Well on our way to find a map this crazy guy named Rocky comes up to us and bsically makes us follow him and long story short we end up taking a taxi with Rocky's friend to a beach that is like less than a mile away and we had to pay $10 for it and it was terrible snorkeling and the water was kinda murky and so we only stayed for like 30 min and walked back to the ship. SO LAME!! We did go look at some shops and got Sophie a cute little Jamaica dress. So that was kinda fun.

Day 5: This day we were at the Grand Cayman Island! It was super fun! We took this awesome tour thing where we went out to the middle of the ocean on this little boat and we went to Sting ray heaven! It was pretty cool. in the middle of the ocean there is a sandbar where a bunch of wild sting rays are at and we were able to feed them and hold them and swim with them and it was cool. I will admit I was kind freaked out by them because they are kinda nasty things that are HUGE! But I still held one. I was pretty proud of myself. After that  the ship took us to a cool reef to go snorkling and it was really neat! I love the water in the Caribbean because its SO warm and SO clear. It was awesome!

the boat we took out to the stingrays

Unfortunately I couldnt get a pic of Nick with the stinkgray so this is all ya get

Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico. This was our last stop before heading back to Miami. Nick and I decided to rent a scooter for the day and just go check out the island. We had a blast!! It was pretty funny because right after we hopped on the scooter and headed off it started pouring rain!! It was crazy! So we were driving around soaking wet and laughing our heads off. It stopped after about 15 min and the sun came out it it was nice the rest of the day. We drove all around the island and saw neighborhoods where people actually live. Honestly I couldnt believe how impovrished it was! People were literally living in shacks. It was very interesting. Then we drove to these old Myan ruins to look around and it turned out that cost money and we didnt have enough with us so we turned around and decided to find a cool place to snorkle (what a surprise huh! ;) we actually checked out a few beaches that were busts but then Nick spotted this little tiny beach just off the road with about 8 people on it. We saw a bunch of rocks and figured that it had to be good snorkling and it turned out it was! In fact it was AWESOME!! So we spent the rest of the day there and had SO much fun!

the Myan ruins we didnt actually get to see :)

a "nice" house in cozumel

an iguana

nick and our scooter

Day 7: Our last full day on the ship was a sea day. So like before we just hung out and had fun!

Day 8: Back in Miami! We just woke up and ate and then got off the ship. Our flight didnt leave until later in the day so we had a lot of time to kill. This day actually was kind of funny because we really didnt want to pay for a taxi ( we are SO cheap!) So we walked with our luggage (we actually didnt have that much) through Miami so we could find a bus or something besides and expensive taxi to take us to the airport. Our efforts paid off and I think we spent $8 on the transit which was way better than $35 and we had a fun adventure. :)
We had such a Fun time on the cruise! It was so relaxing and just great!! I would definitely recommend it to everyone!! And although we really did miss Sophie ( My mom watched her most the week and Nick's mom took her for a couple days too, we are very lucky to have such great parents who will watch our child for us!) It was totally worth it. Im so so so glad we did it and I already want to go again someday. Although I dont think we will for a few years ;)

Halloween and more...

Well to say the least this week has been...not the greatest. First I got sick, which is never fun, but its really hard when Sophie isnt feel too well either, and Nick started a new rotation which I like to call "the rotation from H". Basically he leaves the house at 7:30 am and doesnt get home until about 5pm, which isnt too bad, but then they have been making him work on these stupid article things that he works on as soon as he gets home until about the time we go to bed. So I have hardly seen him all week. And with me and Sophie both sick, and nobody around that I know (that doesnt have a job or is not in Pharmacy school) to talk to or possibly help me out with Sophie, it just hasnt been great. Needless to say, I am getting very ready to head back to Pocatello. :) Which is now less than a month away!! YAY!!
Ok but that is enough of me being negative.... Actually besides this week, everything has been really good. We had a fun Halloween, that we actually celebrated the Friday and Saturday before halloween.
Friday we went with a few other people in pharmacy school, and their families to a pumpkin patch. We went on a little hayride and looked at the farm animals they had. That night we had pizza and watched "Ernest Scared Stupid" (which is becoming a tradition for Nick and me). Then on Saturday our ward had a trunk or treat/ carnival thing and we all dressed up for it.

Sophie was a very cute little kitten, Nick went as a Mad Scientist, and I went as the Progressive Lady (there is a story behind that, but I dont feel like telling it) Anyways it was fun. Sophie was actually supposed to be a witch, I had made the costume for her, but for some reason she refused to wear the witch hat I made, so last minute I made her some Cat ears and she became a cat... with a tutu.. haha. It still looked pretty cute! :) 
So like I said that was all on the weekend before Halloween. For the actually day of Halloween, we traveled, yet again back to Idaho. Nick had to go for a pharmacy fair and so thats why we went. We spent the first day and a half in Burley with Nick's parents, then Wednesday Thursday and Friday were in Pocatello, and we headed back to Burley on Saturday and left for Reno on Sunday afternoon. It is always fun to see our families and Sophie really enjoyed all the attention she got. :) We had a good trip. 

So guess what else... SOPHIE IS WALKING!!! WOOT WOOT!! Ok So I know she is kind of a late bloomer when it comes to things like rolling over and crawling and, now, walking, but she finally got it!! YEAH!! She took her first steps on October 30 and, ya she still is a little wobbly and she still prefers to crawl since she gets around much faster that way, for now, but she is getting better. And its about time because she is officially 15 months old TODAY! So lets hope she starts picking it up quickly. :) ( by the way we do have a video of it but i cant figure out how to post videos on here that actually play, so you will all just have to come see her in person and watch how awesome she is! haha)

Our life

Ok Ok... I guess its about time for me to update this thing. I should really do it more often than I do because I feel like everytime I update, there is so much time that has past that I just dont have the time to put everything in here that I want. So I think im going to just generalize here and then put pictures, because they seem to tell more of a story than I can write.
Basically we are really enjoying our time here in Reno, and I can't believe that it is almost time for me to start packing up the house to head back to Idaho. (I am a little OCD when it comes to packing so I usually start like a month in advance, we move Dec. 9th) We have done so many fun things and had a good time just being somewhere new. Lake Tahoe has been one of our favorite places to go, and since the weather here is STILL really nice, we have been able to go more than I thought we would. Its so beautiful, I definitely recommend it to everyone! We have also had fun going on hikes near our house, going to different parks around the city (there are SO many), playing golf and tennis, going to the temple (its only about 10 min from our house), and SO many other things.
Sophie is getting so big! Ok well big for her. She still isnt walking but she figured out yesterday how to use her little car thing she got from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Scott for her birthday, to walk around with it. But she deosnt know how to turn so she runs into the walls and then just waits for me to turn it for her. Its pretty funny. She also is talking quite a bit, mostly its not words we can understand but she says "uh oh" all the time, usually when she drops something, and she says "dada" all the time too. She also says "hi" now when she waves to people but she will only do it when she wants to, if we try and tell her to say it she never does. Im afraid she picked up Nick and my stubborn-ness. haha Its inevitable, we are bound to have stubborn children! She is just so fun to have around though, she is my little buddy. Its so fun to watch her grow and learn new things. I swear she learns something new everyday. She is a very good little girl though. She has had quite the string of sicknesses the last few months but she stays mostly happy the whole time.
Nick is doing really well in his rotations and he has recently decided that he would really like to work in a hospital as the "infectious disease specialist" He just got done with his infectious disease rotation and he loved it. His preceptor (which i think is a fancy word for the guy in charge) Was really impressed with Nick and said he is willing to help him out on figuring out what he needs to do to get a job in a hospital. He also told Nick that he would give him great recommendations to wherever Nick wants to find the job. So hopefully that will help. We really want to live somewhere in Idaho close to family, so thats where we are going to be looking. But I know that Nick will just do great with whatever he does. He does so well in school and Im just glad that he likes it! :)
Anyways... so that is our life right now. Isn't it just so great! haha
  Here are pictures to show what I forgot to blog about:

This is Lake Tahoe... and you cant really tell from this picture how pretty it really is. By the way they are sitting on a paddle board, which is a board you are supposed to stand on and paddle around... its actually is very fun!

This is me on my birthday, Nick got me a Kindle and I LOVE IT!!!

My birthday cake

This is at my cousin Benji's wedding (I unfortunately never got a picture of him and his cute wife Kayla) But this is me and my two cousins Tina, and Missy

My brother Brandon with Sophie and Nick

Sophie with Grandpa Scott in his office chair at his work place

We visited Pocatello (during Benji's wedding) and went to the Blackfoot fair! Sophie was loving the animals!

Grandma Sherri and Sophie

more Tahoe

This little boy looks nice here but dont let him fool you haha... he loved to hit and push and scream at Sophie and yet she still loved having him to play with. This is the little thing she pushes around by herself now.

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and this is where we go hit golf balls. Its a driving rang where you try and hit onto these little islands. Nick loves coming here... in fact I think we are going tonight.


Also while we were in Pocatello, I had my parents next door neighbor take some pictures of Sophie for me. They turned out super cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!!

Sophie is now 1!!! Her Birthday was August 11!! I cant believe how time has flown!! I know people always say it goes by so fast, and I believed them, but it still is crazy. :) Anyways... for Sophie's birthday Nick's parents came here to Reno.It was so fun to have them here. They got here on her birthday, so we had a little party that night for Sophie. It wasn't anything too special, but I made her a cake and we opened presents. She loved the cake! I made a little lady bug cake for her, and the "head" of the ladybug was a mini cake for Sophie to have all to herself.

 We let her eat it all by herself and she really dug in! It was hilarious!! She went from using her hands to just stuffing her whole face into the cake. It got all over her, and the walls, and everything, but it was definitely worth it!!

I realized in the middle of her eating the cake that the color of frosting I used probably wasnt the best choice. It looked really gross haha (but it tasted good)

After cake (and a bath) we had her open presents.She was very excited to be opening them. It was so fnny because She would scream ( a happy scream) everytime she opened a new present. It was very cute, and she definitely got spoiled, especially by Grandma Sue and Grandpa Scott. :)

Anyways... in celebration of her birthday I wanted to tell about some of the things she has learned and likes to do in this first year of her life. so here it goes:

1. She has learned how to crawl (ya it took her a long time, but she definitely has it down really well now, I think she will be walking any day now, but you never know with her)
2. She can feed herself (and she now doesn't choke on things as much, which I am very glad for)
3. She can wave.... at everything, its her favorite thing.
4. She can give mommy and daddy kisses... SO CUTE!
5. She can sleep through the night (YAY!!)
6. She can clap her hands
7. She can draw (kind of)
8. She loves to look at books
9. She loves her pink blanky
10. She loves to play catch with daddy (but she wont throw the ball for some reason, she hands it to him nicely haha)
11. She can brush her own hair... this is so cute!
12. She loves mommy to hold her.... ALL The time!
13. She loves to watch baby Einstein movies ( best invention EVER)
14. She loves to go on walks in her stroller
15. She loves animals, especially dogs and birds
16. She loves to go swimming
17. She can dance, and she loves music... its very cute
18. She loves little kids and babies
19. She loves to look at pictures of Jesus (and wave to him, cutest thing ever)
20. She loves her mommy and daddy, and we love her very much!!

We are very blessed to have such a sweet little girl. It definitely is such a learning experience but I am very grateful for it. I love (almost) every minute of it. I love watching her learn and grow and sometimes I still cant believe she is ours, and that we actually have a little girl! Being a parent is the best thing in the whole world! Happy Birthday Sophie!!!!