Sunday, September 28, 2008

What a Week!

Well, we just arrived home from our incredible trip down Baja California! We had so much fun that it's hard to know where to begin! We drove down to Vegas our first night and stayed at the New York New York (pretty spiffy, might I add). Jake showed me around on the strip being that I haven't been there since I was 12 for a swim meet! We gambled in a few casinos (where I showed Jake the ropes, yet again, to winning 21... bwa ha ha) and ended up walking away with a bit over $300 in winnings! Woo hoo! We tried our luck a few more times at the casino on the ship, but I think we stayed right around that $300. Anyway, later that night, Jake surprised me with tickets to Zumanity, the show by Cirque de Soleil (sp?!). And not just any tickets - a front row loveseat! It was shirtless flying midgets galore! SCORE!!!

The next morning we woke up to finish our drive to San Diego. I ended up falling asleep and making Jake drive the whole day :( but I'm pretty sure I made up for it by only getting us lost for 10 minutes while trying to find a Park N Ride, as opposed to the 20 it certainly would've taken him ;) We embarked our amazing Carnival Elation in our dingy driving clothes after checking our bags (me in pajamas, no less) and shortly thereafter stuffed our faces in the chaotic Tiffany Dining Room. After expanding our bellies and touring the ship, we decided a shower and change of clothes would certainly feel wonderful, so we headed back to the cabin to de-stink-ify. We were in cabin M-1, right under the bow of the ship on the starboard side (or was it port?). Pretty cool to tell people you were in cabin 1 - not so cool when they're turning the ship or pulling up the anchor. Anyway- after tripping over all the luggage in the halls, we found our cabin. Just not my luggage. Jake's was there of course - what would a man do without all his toiletries?! (Please tell me you sense the sarcasm.) Lucky for me, it finally turned up after spending an un-de-stink-ified day in pj's. :)

Most of the cruise is a blur- you do the same things over and over, like eat, hot tub, eat, get asked if you're honeymooning, eat, kick Jake's ass in a ping pong tournament, eat, kick Jake's ass in mini golf, eat, kick Jake's ass in canasta.... it all gets very tiring :) Ok, in all fairness, Jake did take 2nd place in the ping pong tournament. I wish I could say that it was I who beat him, but alas, it is not so. I hate squashing his hopes and dreams all the time, so I gotta let him win every once in a while! Right? I'm such a good girlfriend.....

We went to Cabo San Lucas after ... actually I don't remember the sequence of a lot of our events. Damn cheap alcohol.... But anyway, we went to Cabo. We hadn't signed up to do any excursions but thought we might try renting a jetski or something. So we sunscreened up and headed off the ship. We decided to walk around the dock so that the locals selling their wares would have a better shot at molesting us. We found a map and a helpful local to tell us how to get to the beach around the port for some cheaper haggling. It only took about 30 minutes and a bit of luck down a Mexican backalley to find it, but by the time we made it there, we looked like we had already been swimming in our clothes! I have never been convered in so much sweat in my entire life!! SICK!! So I got a couple watered-down pina coladas while Jake let the local beer do him some good. We didn't really care much for haggling at that point, so we jumped on a jet ski and headed out to cool off! Jake only purposefully threw me off twice... or so he claims - but the water felt so wonderful I wasn't really complaining! After jetskiing (is that a word?) we headed out to Lover's Beach for an hour where a jellyfish tried to eat my leg. It wasn't exactly the Lover-ing I was looking for.... Maybe next time? :)

The next day we noticed some awesome sun burn marks on the back of Jake's hands - seriously, who sunscreens the backs of their hands? We also noticed Jake up all night vomitting in the toilet, and our cabineighbors probably did too! Poor guy! We thought maybe he had the flu, but looking back, it was probably heat stroke! Some nurse I turned out to be, eh?! But before he got sick, we had our formal dress night (Jake in a suit...mmmm mmmm, delicious) and danced the night away at the Jekyl & Hyde bar. I wish I could say I remembered more of that night... seems to happen every time he takes me dancing! I think he does it on purpose so I'll continue to think he's an amazing dancer. And while I really don't remember if that's true or not, I can tell you this: he couldn't lead if his life depended on it! ;)

A day or two after the sunburning of the hands and the wretching of the gut, we ended up in Ensenada for an ATV tour and wine tasting. Jake still wasn't feeling 100%, but still went and sunburned his poor hands again! Maybe he should start dating a real nurse who can take care of him? The ATV tour was really dusty and sprinkled with emaciated animals. They gave us some ghetto bandanas to sport across our faces like bank robbers.... Jake in a helmet, sunglasses, and bandito - hell yeah! Anyway, those doubly sunburned hands ended up blistering all over, and look totally disgusting. What a great souvenir to bring back and show the family, eh? Yes, let's make it obvious to everyone as to why I only do babies!!! I can't even bring the boyfriend home in one piece!

After another day or so of additional eating and Jake-ass-kicking, we were finally back to San Diego to start the long car ride home. There was only one problem. Somehow, the air conditioner in the car went out! WONDERFUL! And because we were kind of on a time crunch to get home, we didn't have time to stop to fix it, a minimum of 2 hours! So we braved the Sahara and sweltered home in the middle of the day! :) Actually, sweating to death together was a blast (at least I'll admit it was, don't know about Jake)! Lots of conversation and reliving the previous week.... I'd definitely do it all over again! If we can survive near three digit temperatures across the desert for 11 hours with no air conditioner, I think we can make it through just about anything ;)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

And so it begins....

Hmmmm... where to begin? I passed the NCLEX recently and became a full-fledged RN! Woo hoo! No more of that Low-Paid Nurse crap! I love love love my job as a nurse in the NICU at a brand new state-of-the-art hospital in Salt Lake. Not loving the repaying of student loans, however. I'm trying to get motivated to go to the U and keep being edu-macated, but definitely dragging my feet.

Easton is my happy boy. He's just about 3 1/2 but when talking, I still refer to him as my baby :) I'm sure by the time he's in college, he'll be hating me for it. He just started at a new preschool. His teacher, Joann, says he acts like he's known her for years! He's a smart little bug, but thankfully, won't start kindergarten for another couple years. He loves his cowboy bed, his books, and playing hard outside. He recognizes all his letters and numbers up to 9, and his logic makes me laugh.... "Mom, we always hold doors for the ladies, huh?" -Yes we do, good job! What else do we do for the ladies? "We hold the hands of the ladies on the stairs so the ladies don't fall... we hold the door.... we be big helpers.... And then the ladies cook us dinner, huh?" -WHAT?! :)

Jake and I leave for our cruise to Cabo and Ensenada on Friday, and we're really excited! A whole week without work and responsibility? Yes, please! Jake just got back from Alaska where he caught a huge salmon! It's in his freezer and totally grosses me out.... I could SO be a vegetarian if the damn stuff didn't taste so good! I just try not to think about the fact that it was once happy with it's little fishie life swimming up rivers to make little fishie babies, ignorant to the evil plotting fishermen on the shore, and the fine delicacy growing beneath it's flesh. Er, scales. Does it surprise you that I absolutely hate the movie Bambi? Damn hunters.... He's a poor innocent deer! And he was ORPHANED! Ok, I don't think I can eat that salmon now....

Anyway - I'm hoping to figure this website out soon and post lots of photos. Check back soon!