Caribbean Cruise

On December 18th Scott and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. We celebrated it a month earlier when we went on a Western Caribbean Cruise with some of our friends (kids left home). Here is a quick account of our trip with some pictures.

Day 1- Travel

We spent the day flying out to Florida. Nothing too eventful until Scott and I got bumped off a flight we booked 9 months previously because they changed aircrafts to a smaller plane and our seats didn't exist on the new plane. After some tears and a long wait we got on the flight and made it to Florida.

Day 2- Setting Sail

We got on the boat and set sail. It was warm and sunny, the sea was calm. This was going to be a wonderful week. We started off doing what any sane person does on a cruise.... eating until the buttons popped off our pants and playing shuffleboard.

Pulling away from Ft. Lauderdale at sunset. Scott and Jeff starting the intense shuffle board competition that continued all week. Rachel and Scott at dinner.

Day 3: A Loooong day at sea

Our third day started at about 2am when I woke up feeling terribly sick. I jumped out of bed to run to the bathroom and it was then I noticed I was being thrown back and forth across the cabin by the rocking of the boat. I quickly learned that wind=waves=rocking of boat=a lot of sick people. It seems the weather took an unexpected turn during the night and became overcast and windy. When we left our cabin the next morning, after a long night in the bathroom (I had filled my stomach with plenty of ammunition the night before), we were greeted by a ship full of green-faced passengers. Barf bags and carpet cleaning crews were stationed at every corner. Everyone in our group was feeling miserable, but me being 8 weeks pregnant and battling morning sickness on top of the sea sickness was the worst. We spent the day at the center of the ship where rocking was supposed to be the least. We bought some playing cards and spent the day perfecting our Scum and Hearts strategies. That night was the formal dinner. By that time we were feeling a little better and were at least able to enjoy dinner, although much lighter than the night before.

Katie, Dan, me, and Ali playing cards. Notice the barf bags safely placed across my lap. The girls. The guys.

Day 4: Grand Caymen

I don't think I've ever seen so many people fighting to get off the boat as we did the next morning. Solid ground sounded pretty great to all of us at this point. We were planning on going to Sting Ray City but there were still really high waves which made it unsafe, so it was closed for the day. Instead we went to 7 mile beach which was beautiful. I love the beach so much. We just walked up and down the beach for a while and then when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds for awhile we took a dip in the ocean. We then headed into Georgetown to do some shopping. It was a great day!!!

Scott and Rachel on our walk up 7 mile beach.

Scott and Rachel on 7 mile beach.Us playing in the ocean. Really the only reason I included this picture was because of the guy in the speedo. Welcome to Mexico!! Katie and Rachel sipping Pina Coladas on the beach. Unfortunately, this is the only sting ray we got to pet this trip.

Day 5: Cozumel

The next day was Cozumel. This was by far our favorite day of the trip. The weather was the best it was all week and we actually saw quite a bit of the sun. We went on the funnest excursion where we got to drive mini jeeps. I got to drive because Scott lost his driver's license the day before we left on the cruise. We traveled in a caravan along a highway and then along the coast. We stopped and saw a crocadile named Max, saw some Mayan ruins, went snorkeling, and went to a lighthouse. The snorkeling was AMAZING!! We had a guide who led us on a 1/2 mile loop out into the ocean and along a coral reef. Neither Scott or I had ever been snorkeling before and we LOVED it. We have promised ourselves we will go again soon. We finished off the day with some shopping and eating at Senor Frogs. Apparently not too many mormons eat there because our waiter acted like we were the first people ever to eat there without ordering alcohol. It really was a perfect day.

Ready to go in our "Mexican Lamborghini". Scott looking good. Rachel impressing Scott with her mad driving skills. The road along the beach. Us with Max. Look down in the water right below us and you can see him. A close-up of Max. This is a place they used to use to tell them when a hurricane was coming. The whole group after our snorkel. Scott and Rachel. All of us enjoying Nachoes at the end of a long and fun day. Day 6: Another Day at Sea

This day wasn't near as bad as the first, but I had not seen my little boy in a week and missed him so much I was just counting down the hours until I could at least call him on the phone.

Day 7: The Journey Home

We were supposed to get home in the early evening but due to some plane troubles we didn't make it home until 1 am making it so I didn't get to see Mason until morning.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. Scott and I were able to spend time together without worrying about work or Mason. We were also able to spend some time with some of our closest friends. I loved being on a cruise because we were completely removed from everything with no phones or computers. I didn't like how much something as uncontrolable as the weather effected everything. I realize now I was overly confident in my "never had any form of motion sickness" and "wasn't sick a day of my pregnancy with Mason" mentality when a got pregnant before our cruise we'd been planning for 8 months. I realize how long 7 days actually is to be away from your kids. (Just a side note, Mason stayed with my parents and he never even noticed we were gone... thanks Mom and Dad.) Overall I loved our cruise and can't wait to take a trip again.

Baby Girl Murray

We went for our ultrasound on Scott's Birthday (Feb. 11) and the baby was very cooperative in showing us that she's a little girl!! She wasn't as cooperative in positioning herself in a way the ultrasonographer could get a good look at everything she needed to so I get to go back for a follow-up ultrasound next month. She was so darling sitting in indian style with both her hands over her face the whole time. We are so excited to have a little girl!! One of each so the pressure's off. We're still completely undecided on names but we'll let you know when we have some options to choose from.

Mason's Announcement

Mason is going to be a big brother some time around July 3rd!!

Here is a little list I compiled that might help explain my lack of blogging lately.

Some signs you are experiencing "morning sickness".

*Taken from the last 3 months of Rachel's life

• 
  
  Your favorite foods are no longer based on how they taste going down, but instead how they taste coming up. (Gushers make for surprisingly fruity vomit.)


• 
  
  If you make any sudden movement in bed your husband jumps because he thinks your going to throw up on him.


• 
  
  You make sure every patient's room at work is adequately stocked with emesis basins even though none of them are nauseous.


• 
  
  You throw up so violently you pee your pants on the bathroom floor.


• 
  
  You skip Thanksgiving dinner for fear of offending your in-laws by gagging as you pass Grandma's famous stuffing.


• 
  
  Your little boy thinks it's a game to lean over the toilet and make noises.

Stay tuned for some exciting catch-up posts to come this week.

Let it Snow

Scott and I have often talked about how Utah winters have gotten wimpier over the years. We both remember school and church being canceled and playing in snow piles taller than us. Well mother nature must have been offended by our comments and has been proving us wrong this winter. It has lived up to our all our winter memories and expectations. Scott and Mason have spent many nights out shoveling the driveway, just to have it covered again the next morning. The snow piles literally have been taller than Mason. It has been an absolute blast!! So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Going Private

I'm not really the overly cautious or paranoid type so it has never bothered me having a public blog. Sure I hear stories about creepy people, but I've never experienced any myself.... so why worry? But with a recent breach in our blog security along with several news stories on the dangers of public blogging, I have decided to make my blog private. So please leave me your email address if you would like to be an invited reader.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Really we just did all the ordinary stuff, so I will just let the pictures explain what happened. Back at the beginning of October when Halloween decorations went up Mason found a love for pumpkins. Every time he walks past our pumpkins he stops and points to them one at a time and I have to say, "Mason's pumpkin, Daddy's pumpkin, Mommy's pumpkin" as he points to each one. He would point out pumpkins at the grocery store, as we drove down the street, on TV, anywhere there was a pumpkin he knew about it. I guess we can just add this to Mason's obsessions list. When it came time to carve his pumpkin Mason would not stick his hand in it to pull out the seeds, but once we got the seed out he loved playing with them. Then he decided to scoop all the seeds back into the pumpkin where they came from. (Sorry about the pictures, our camera was on some funky setting.) Mason was thrilled when his pumpkin had a lid he could take off and on. The finished product. Mason was a monkey for Halloween. His favorite part of the costume was the "Nana" he got to carry around. Mason was Curious George and I was the Man in the Yellow Hat. Scott dressed up as Mickey Mouse for Trick-or-Treating because Mason just discovered Mickey Mouse and loves him!! He realized Mickey Mouse is on his diapers so if you ask him where Mickey is he will point to his diaper (most of the time it is his pants he actually points to, but he knows Mickey is under them.) Mason enjoyed Trick-or-Treating but didn't really understand the concept of filling his pumpkin bucket with candy. He would get a piece of candy and when I would try and help him put it in his bucket he would hold it out and babble something to me. I'm pretty sure he was telling me, "Mom, why do I need to go get more candy when I have some perfectly good M&Ms here I haven't eaten yet." We would end up stopping to eat the candy then going to the next house, then eating the candy, then going to the next house. I don't think Mason ever had more than 2 pieces of candy in his bucket and we didn't end up going to very many houses. We went down to Scott's work to go trick-or-treating around the office with Mason's friends Jackson and Halle. We were sad Katelyn wasn't there.

Falzz Alarm Update

Some of you might be a little confused concerning the previous post... as am I. You see, we seem to have had a annonymus guest blogger last night. So sorry to disappoint you all, but unfortunately Scott has not made it big as a pop star. The true story behind the dance picture is that for Nu Skin's regional convention two weeks ago the US Sales team performed a dance together. It has kind of become a Nu Skin tradition to do this. The distributers love it! One of the administrative assitants in the office is a really good dancer and she choreographed a dance for all the guys. They had dance practice every day at work for 1-2 hours and if you missed more than 1 practice you were out of the dance. This was some serious business. When Scott told me about it I was a little concerned about his ability to dance, but I misjudged him. Apparently he got the same dancing genes as Janessa and Becky because he was actually pretty good. He even earned himself a front and center spot in formation. I wasn't able to be there for the actual performance but have been promised a recording of it, which of course I will post for your entertainment. Hope you all got as good of a laugh as I did out of Falzz Alarm.

Falzz Alarm

I wanted to write a short post today to update everyone about the most recent developments concerning Scott's career...no not his career at NuSkin, but his singing career. As many of you know, several years ago Scott joined a group known as "Falzz Alarm." The group consists of five guys who sing pop songs while performing on stage. They have been working very hard at making a name for themselves and it appears as if their hard work is about to pay off. After several years of performing at the Scera Shell and Thanksgiving Point Theater, the group has finally been invited to open for the Jonas Brothers in both Utah and Arizona. The dates of the concerts have not been finalized yet, but we will let everyone know as soon as they are released so you can all attend. I am very proud of Scott and hope you all will take time to congratulate him when you see him.

Daylight Savings Time

It's daylight savings time once again. Fall is supposed to be the good one where you get an extra hour of sleep.... unless you are working all night, then you just get an extra hour of work. Yep, my 12 hour shift is now a 13 hour shift. Do any of you know the actual time we turn back our clock and which hour we repeat? Or do you just change your clocks before bed and know it will be the right time when you wake up? Well for the record the time change occurs at 2am. So I got to do my 1 o'clock patient rounds and then an hour later do my 1 o'clock patient rounds, again. These are the valuable things I am learning by working nights. Hope you all enjoyed your sleep!!

Cornbellys

You might remember my post a few months ago when I was worried about what I was going to do all winter to entertain Mason. I have been pleasantly surprised this fall with all the activities that have been available to keep us busy. One thing Mason really enjoyed this year was Thanksgiving Point's Cornbellys. I was introduced to it by my friend Karli who invited us to go one day. It was too perfect for Mason. All the different activities are spread out and it's a very free environment with no lines and no workers telling you to go here or do this. Mason and Payton just ran from one thing to the next and did whatever appealed to them. There were times they went seperate ways, but for the most part we were able to stick together. We had so much fun with the Bells that I wanted to go back again before it closed. Last week we went again with all of my family (except for the Chicagoians, and yes I made up that word). Here are some (okay, a lot) of pictures showing how much fun Mason had. This was the giant bouncing bubble. Mason wanted to do it with all the big kids and was getting bounced all over the place and laughing hysterically the entire time. They have these sheds filled 2 feet high with corn. It was a mix between a sandbox and the pits filled with balls. Grandpa took Mason on a bike ride. Once Cannon got going on the bikes we couldn't get him off. They had all sorts of slides for the kiddos to go down. Kennedy had fun crawling around the pumpkin patch. Don't mind my cheesy smile. We didn't take Mason in the real corn maze at all, but he really liked the mini corn mazes. Daddy and Mason went on a tractor ride through the pumpkin patch.

You win some, you lose some

This fall has been nothing short of Scott's dream sports season. The Phillies, Scott's lifelong baseball team, played great at the end of the regular season to clinch a spot in the playoffs and have flown through the first two series and are now headed to the World Series for the first time since 1993. On top of that BYU football has been undefeated and ranked in the top ten with talk about them in a BCS bowl or possibly even the National Championship game. Scott has been in sports heaven and I have been glad we have DVR. (I enjoy sports, but don't enjoy revolving my life around them). Tonight it all came tumbling down when BYU lost to TCU in what was an embarassing game for them. Scott is a little out of practice when it comes to accepting a loss (he wasn't a happy camper). Despite this unfortunate turn-around we've had a good time cheering on our teams. Below are some pictures from the tailgate parties we attend before every BYU home game. Brad and Tyson Camp sure know how to plan a great tailgate!! Here I am with Kennedy and Mason. These guys come to the tailgate every week, but usually come home with me so we can take naps (yes me too) while everyone else goes to the game. Mason, Scott, and crazy Uncle Beetle in front of the Camp's cougarmobile. We don't just tailgate, we tailgate in style. Going to the game 2-3 hours early to tailgate has its disadvantages like missing all the other NCAA football action....oh wait, not if you're at the Camp's tailgate party where they have a satelite hookup and you can watch all the games while tailgating. Here are the masterminds behind every tailgate, Brad and Tyson (in the middle). Thanks guys for all you do to make every game a fun time.