Who wants to move to Cabo? ME!

This past week we went our Mexican Riviera cruise to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. (Our anniversary is actually in May, but we got a better price which is why we went in September). We took Olive with us which I was kinda nervous about but it turned out fine.

Our boat was the Carnival Splendor. It was huge, but not as big as I was expecting. While we were out at sea it was quite foggy and cold, as you can see.

The decor was a little out of control. The main theme was pink zebra stripes, not my style (is all I will say about it).

One of the main things to do on the boat was eat. There was food everywhere all of the time. I knew that was typical of cruises but was still surprised at the abundance of food. Olive was in heaven having fruit to her hearts content. I drank my fair share of hot chocolate. Scott loved him some soft serve.

Ollie also liked watching the water from the windows and running around the decks to climb on all of the lounge chairs, but the other guests didn't love that as much.

Our first port was Puerta Vallarta. Everyone kept stopping and taking photos by this statue so we thought we better not miss out. The board walk was lined with really unusual statues doing unusual things. I found it kind of hilarious how excited all the tourists were to take their pictures with weird statues.

We were surprised at how tropical it was there. It seemed like the jungle came right down to the ocean. It was also the hottest place we visited. We were seriously dripping by the time we got back on the ship.

One of the main attractions to this city, other than the jungle excursions that we couldn't do with a 2 year old, was this gorgeous old church. It reminded me a lot of Europe.


Our next stop was Mazatlan. This was my least favorite stop and most stressful experience in Mexico. This is the only photo I took while there.

Can you tell we are having so much fun?


Cabo was our last stop and definitely the favorite. We had to take a water taxi from the cruise and Olive thought it was marvelous. She kept pointing to "our house boat" as we rode away.

This is the famous Arch that a million water taxi drivers were trying to sell you rides to. Apparently the best view is from the water. We saw it from our cruise ship since we were to cheap to pay for the taxi.

The beaches were absolutely beautiful in Cabo. The water was cool and refreshing since the weather was so hot. It was turquoise color. Seriously amazing. There were no waves so Olive loved going out into the water with dad. Here she is helping him wash his hair.

Pretty spectacular right? Unfortunately it was our shortest time in port so we didn't get to enjoy it quite as much as we wanted to.

Overall we had a blast. Olive was an amazing traveler. She loved meeting the people on the boat, she was in social butterfly heaven.

Everyone just fell in love with her especially the dining staff and the hostesses.

I learned that I am not a "cruiser". It was cool to experience it, but I think I wouldn't do another one. However, it was a great family trip, sometimes we forget to do trips with just our little family. It definitely was an awesome way to celebrate being married to such a wonderful husband!

Only 2 and already an International Traveler!

Olive loves her souvenirs from Mexico. She can now say hola, adios, and te amo in Spanish. Isn't she smart?

I think the hat is her favorite.

Arriba!

The State Fair

Last night we had a blast at the fair. It was not too crowded, the perfect temperature, and because of a 2 for 1 coupon it didn't seem outrageously expensive. I'm not exactly sure why, but I do love the fair!


We ate some artery clogging carnival food. It's tradition!


After dinner we watched a Sea Lion show. Scott and I kept talking about how we would set them free since we felt guilty after watching The Cove last week.


Olive LOVED running free around the booths and looking at all the art. She was pretty nervous when we walked past the animals since they were so close and huge.


We, of course, had to end the night with funnel cake!

Olive loves being silly

Olive has recently discovered that it is fun to be silly and get attention. Thus she has become a big, giant cheese ball in crowds but especially in front of the camera. Here are some of her silliest faces.

It is possible to have too much zucchini

Our garden has done pretty well this year considering we didn't have a clue about what we were doing. Some things have grown better than others, namely our zucchini. We currently have an abundance of zucchini. We have been putting it in every meal or planning all meals around it, but that still hasn't made a dent in our plethora of zucchini. So I decided it was time to get more clever with our use of this vegetable and searched for a bread recipe. I found a cranberry zucchini recipe and it is delicious.

I also found this mini loaf tray and I had to buy it. I have an obsession for anything mini. I mean, seriously are those so cute?

I also tried out some vegan zucchini brownies and they weren't half bad. They are not the real deal, but I thought they were a tasty substitute.

I have the feeling that we are not master gardeners to produce this amount of zucchini, I am guessing they are a pretty hearty plant. We also thought our tomatoes were very hearty since the plant grew to be this monstrosity you see below. It was seriously out of control.

Then we noticed that it wasn't growing any tomatoes. Finally a few weeks ago it started growing these weird, hard, striped tomatoes. My guess is that it a zucchini hybrid because they were next to each other. Live and learn I guess!

We have seriously learned so much from our garden this year and I am really excited to try again next year.

My Favorite

Although I have heard that daisies are the friendliest flower (name that movie), I think that sunflowers are the merriest. I absolutely love sunflowers. They are so bright and cheery.


We planted some in our garden this year (since it was basically an experiment) here is what we learned about growing the merriest flower.

They grow really, really tall so don't plant them all together in rows like all your other plants.

Otherwise you will have a sunflower forest on your hands.

It's fun to watch the birds peck at them. I am so happy I planted them this year, and I will do it again, with some modifications.

Whenever I see these flowers they always brighten my day. I hope it brightened yours too!

Haphazard Hikers

For Labor Day we thought it would be fun to get out on a hike. We went to Donut Falls because I had never been there and heard it was a low key, easy, hike that Olive could run along with us on. Apparently everyone else thought the same thing. It was a crazy mad house with cars and people everywhere. So we left and randomly found another trailhead and decided that it would work.



We were ill prepared for the cool temperatures so I wore Scott's jacket and we draped a shirt over Olive in the backpack. I didn't wear hiking shoes and my flip flops were a little sketchy for the real trail we found.


We brought up a yummy lunch and enjoyed the scenery.









After all our hard work we had to finish our adventure with some frozen yogurt as a delicious reward.

Like it or Not

Much to my dismay fall is on its way. Don't get me wrong, I love fall. I love bouquets of sharpened pencils, all of the "back to school" fever and excitement (I am a former teacher you know), that it is not miserably hot, "harvest" themed anything, and I love pulling out my sweater collection. But this summer has gone by too fast, it seems like it just started and now it is over.
One of the great things about knitting, is that you have to knit during the summer so that you have things to wear in the fall/winter which brings me to my latest project.

One of my high school friends/ college roommates is due this month. She probably doesn't know this but I have always treasured that she was the first person I met, in my first class, on my first day at a brand new high school. She is one of my favorite people in the whole world. So, when I found out she was pregnant I wanted to be sure to have a really awesome present for her. This fall her little baby boy with be bundled in this:

Isn't it cute? It's called a "Duffle Sweater" and I love how chunky and foldly (you know?) it is. I also fell in the love with the hood which was a big reason for making it. Plus, did you notice the pockets? Aren't those great? Just in case your 1-3 month old needs a place to put something! I'm so glad I did the blue buttons because they add that little bit of color.

Happy Baby Corinne!

Twilight Concerts

Last week we had a fun adventure going to the She and Him concert. They are one of my favorite bands. I do love Zooey's voice but I'm also an M. Ward fan. The Twilight Concerts have had a lot of great bands this year which makes me so happy that this great free event is getting support. So for She and Him to play a free show and the possibility of getting Bruge's waffles (although I opted for a Mediterranean crepe) was more than enough reason to venture Downtown. The sad part was that it was the last show of the season which meant that summer is coming to an end. Boo!





We rode Trax to avoid the parking madness and it turned out perfectly. Olive kept yelling "choo choo!" because she was so excited to ride the train. Our game plan was to take Olive for as long as she could handle it. Thankfully we met some of our friends down there so she had fun running around and being silly with her friend.

We put her in the backpack to make her more portable and it worked perfectly for us to watch the concert. Olive made friends with people in the crowd and was very interested in the lights and excitement on stage.

It was a great night!