Mexico!

Devin and Amanda decided they wanted to go on a cruise. They did all the research and found a great deal and invited Darryl and me to join them. I wouldn't have even considered it if it hadn't have been for my mom insisting that we need a vacation and offering to watch Teagan for the week. We set a budget and we were still a little short for the trip so I worked lots of extra hours to pay for it and we were able to go! We flew to Los Angeles and took a shuttle to the port where we were able to meet Darryl's parents for a while before getting on the boat. It was great to see them and luckily we had extra room in the suitcase, because they never pass up a chance to spoil their grandson and they sent us home with an Easter basket for Teagan.

We sailed on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. It was a beautiful boat and I was quite impressed with the stateroom. I went on a cruise with my family about 10 years ago and I remember the rooms being miserably tiny. The boat had lots to do and we had a great time on and off the ship during the trip.

Amanda and I during formal night. We had fun dressing up.

Devin and Darryl during formal night. Darryl didn't bring anything formal so luckily the people that also sat at our table loaned Darryl and shirt, tie and jacket. Thankfully they were close to the same size.

We spent the first two days at sea and we explored the boat and all it had to offer. I think my favorite was the shuffle board. It's not a game I have played many times and it's usually on a trip that I play it, so it was fun making the attempt again. I am horrible at it though!

Amanda and I waiting for our turn at mini golf.
Devin and Amanda basking in their love.

Put the lime and the coconut . . .

Darryl's great shot in shuffle board.

But it wasn't good enough . . . I won!Darryl looks great anywhere, but especially at sea!

Our first stop was to Cabo San Lucas and it happened to be on St. Patrick's Day. It was a beautiful city and the gossip magazines said we just missed Vince Vaughn and his finance by about a week. Darn. We went shopping and explored the city. We have heard all kinds of horror stories about eating in Mexico and especially about drinking the water so we decided the Hard Rock Cafe was a safe bet. It was near the mall where we had been shopping. The waiter chuckled a bit when we all ordered our drinks with no ice. I am sure they get a lot of paranoid tourists like us. Better safe than sorry.

Apparently Mexicans don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Darryl wore the shirt Steph and Joe bought for him in Ireland, and he had people ask him all day if he was from Ireland and when he told them no, they asked why he was wearing a shirt that said Ireland on it. They just laughed when we told them that it was St. Patrick's Day and that you were supposed to wear green. I guess there isn't a good reason for Mexico to recognize an Irish holiday, but it just seemed strange not to celebrate St. Patrick's Day since it is my favorite holiday. There was plenty of St. Patrick's Day celebrating going on aboard the ship so I didn't miss out.

The next day we were in Mazatlan. This was certainly an interesting city. It is much more populated than Cabo San Lucas. We got off the boat and there were some shops that we looked at but nothing different from Cabo, so Darryl and I decided to head to the beach. The best beaches in Mazatlan are about a ten minute drive from the port so we got a taxi and headed out. The taxi had one seat belt, the drivers! It was an open air taxi so there was no windows or anything it didn't feel safe at all. We leave the brick walls of the port area and immediately thought "This is the end. I will never make it back alive." We drove into the scariest part of town. There was graffiti everywhere and the buildings were old and crumbling and a few people walking around openly carrying guns. It was broad daylight and I was scared. I can only imagine what happens there at night. The taxi driver was driving like a maniac and I didn't know if I would get shot by someone on the street or killed in a car crash, but I knew I wasn't making it back alive. Thankfully, I did.

I started breathing again when we stepped out of the taxi and into the beautiful resort area of Mazatlan. It felt safe there. The beach was beautiful and we were able (after all that) to spend a relaxing day at the beach. Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I avoid sunburns since a tan just isn't possible on my fair skin. So, I was easily the whitest person on the beach, but I didn't mind at all. I spent the entire trip burn free thanks to my spf 70! (not even joking) Darryl on the other hand, refused to apply any sunscreen and he got burned. He said the burn was "nothing" and it "didn't even hurt" but he was lobster red and flinched if it looked like anything was anywhere near his shoulders. It did go away after about two days which wouldn't have been the case if I had been burned, so he was lucky in that respect, but someday I hope he listens to me and decides to wear sunscreen!

The next day we were in Puerta Villarta. This was my favorite city. It was by far the largest city, but also the most beautiful. Darryl and I splurged and booked an excursion with the ship. We took a 45 minute drive to the jungle and did a zip line through the trees. It was called a canopy adventure since the zip lines go from tree top to tree top. It was SO fun! There was a series of nine zip lines, a "tarzan" swing, a really scary bridge, and then a free repel back down to the ground. We were up in the tree tops for about 2 hours. It was a blast. The area was beautiful and the company that does the zip lines make sure to build everything around the vegetation so there were no cables or anything nailed into the trees. They were really big on not disturbing the habitat. They used climbing rope that they tied around the trees as the zip lines. It was really cool. I have never been rock climbing but Darryl was a regular climber before I met him and he said the equipment they used was top of the line stuff. That eased my mind once I realized only a rope would be holding us. When I think of zip line, I think of a thick metal cable.

Then next 2 days we were back on the ship sailing back to Los Angeles. It was a lot of fun being on the boat. Devin and Amanda are really fun to be around and we all had a blast. We sat at dinner with two couples from Idaho that we got to know pretty well. They were a lot of fun to get to know, and we ended up doing lots on the ship with them too. One couple was about my parent's age and the other couple was their son and his wife. It was the younger couple, Jesse and Michele, that we ended up spending the most time with. We had a big shuffle board tournament of sorts on the last day. The weather was windy and cold, but we made the best of it and braved the chill to get the most out of our trip.

I made Darryl pose by the round windows that I loved on the ship and he made me do the same.

The midnight buffet. None of us even ate anything, but all the food was really cool to see. They really dress it all up at the midnight buffet.

All of us with our new friends Jesse and Michele at Karaoke. We loved watching all the people filled up on "liquid courage" performing horrible renditions of great songs.
Michele and Jesse playing shuffle board.

Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?

This is the title of my favorite Dr. Seuss book and also the subject of my post today. Every now and again my favorite Uncle gets a little down. Although living with a disability is enough to get anyone down, Lynn has never known any different and he certainly has a great life. He is surrounded by people who love him and love to spoil him.

Over the years I have developed a special relationship with Lynn. He has lived with my family for a good portion of my life and when he is distressed, he often turns to me. I am not sure what troubles him, but when he is upset it really gets to him. He worries about all sorts of things and occasionally gets angry about things that never even happened. He has been told many times that these made-up events that trouble him never actually happened.

This approach has been effective in calming him down many times, but has also had an alternate consequence. Since he had been told some of his concerns weren't valid, he stopped voicing his concerns altogether, but still remained visibly upset. I came to realize this a while back and instead tried a different approach. I encourage him to tell me what's on his mind and I try to create an environment where he feels he can voice his frustrations without reproach. The results have been very insightful and have provided priceless opportunities for me to share wonderful conversations with him.

Now, my grandma and mom have certainly given Lynn plenty of opportunity to voice his concerns without reproach, but I am in a unique situation being his niece and not his mother or big sister who have both been caretakers for him. I have never been the one "in charge" of him so that in itself makes me seem less threatening. A little kid that thinks they might be in trouble (even if they aren't) wouldn't go talk about it to the person who supplies the punishment. A less threatening third party would be the clear choice. He has confessed quite a bit to me and despite the fact that I encourage him to tell his mom when he has done something wrong, we have still created a wonderful bond.

Recently, Lynn was feeling pretty down and my mom could tell he needed a little encouragement. She started telling him stories about when he was younger and all the fun they had. She reminded him of several fond memories. This seemed to do the trick. She told him he didn't need to worry about the fact that their dad was gone. (He passed away over 20 years ago and Lynn still has a hard time with his death.) She told him about all the fun things he and his dad did together. Lynn felt better and was genuinely happy.


A few hours later, Lynn decided to run an errand with me and we got in the car and he wanted to make sure I knew he was thinking about the happy times with his dad. I encouraged his positive thinking and reminded him of what a great life his dad had, and how spoiled Lynn is. Lynn loves to be told how spoiled he is. All I said was, "Well Lynn, you certainly have a great life. You're the luckiest son-of-a-gun I know."

The response I got back from him was hilarious. He smiled his wonderfully huge grin and said, "THANK YOU!" He acted as though that was the best thing I could have ever said to him. I have never seen him that excited. I wish I had thought to call him that long ago.

Teagan Update

It has been so long since I have posted anything. It's been a crazy month! I thought I would catch up on my posts by starting out with a post about Teagan. He has changed SO much! He has long since mastered walking and loves to run everywhere, especially away from me. He thinks it's a blast to run away from anyone who seems like they are coming near him. He also loves to hide. It's so fun to see him run all over and come up with interesting places to hide. He tried to hide behind the toilet today. Thankfully he didn't quite fit.

He is quite the talker and he loves to talk on the phone. He has moved past just listening to the person on the other end (which is usually Darryl), and now joins in the conversation. He says dada the most. (Shocking, I know.) His vocabulary has improved vastly. He says: dada, mama, baba, ball, dog, hat, what's that?, love you, no, mine, num-num, sit, this, more, and much more that I can't think of at the moment. I couldn't believe he started putting words together. He doesn't do it very regularly, but it is becoming more frequent everyday.

He loves to play "ring-around-the-rosie" and if you sing it, he turns around in circles and then falls down about half of the time. He also LOVES music. He certainly got some of those Young genes in that respect. My family is all sorts of crazy about music. He really enjoys being sung to and also loves watching Garrett play his guitar. He grabs the ukulele and tries to play along. He also loves sitting at the piano and playing his own songs. He used to just pound on the keys but now he plays them very methodically and with purpose. I would love for him to study an instrument someday, but that will, of coarse, be up to him.

He loves books and brings books to me constantly. He loves being read to and especially when the book has flaps to open. He is thankfully past the stage where he just wants to rip them. One of his favorite books is one that Grandma and Grandpa Pearson got him for his birthday. It is electronic with buttons that read and sing the nursery rhymes. He especially loves that one when I am not available to read to him. He still feels entertained and can push all the buttons over and over. Needless to say, I have that whole book memorized!

Because of his love for both books and animals, Teagan has already learned several animal sounds. If you ask him what a cow, cat, dog, duck, lamb, or pig says, he will then imitate the correct sound. I was pretty shocked since this is something he didn't learn from me. He loves being read to and I read to him a lot, but he never wants me to read his animal book to him. He only likes it when my mom reads that one to him. She is pretty entertaining imitating all the animal sounds, so I can't blame him, but I left on vacation for a week, and came back to a kid that knows which animal "meow's" and which one "moo's". Kids change so fast! He is pretty fickle as to who he will perform his new trick to. He usually only cooperates when my mom is the one asking him.

As previously mentioned, Darryl and I did leave Teagan for a whole week to go on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. It was hard being gone for that long, but we had a wonderful time. I will post about the trip soon. I still have LOTS to post. Like I said, this month has been very crazy and very eventful.

Girl's Night!

A very rare occurrence happened this weekend. I had a whole weekend of fun with friends I hadn't seen in ages. It all started off Friday night when I went out with Deanna and some of her friends (which I now claim as my friends) that I had met a while back when I was pregnant. We had a great time and I laughed so hard it hurt several times that night.
Saturday, I was able to go out with Melissa, Angie and Tiffany who happened to be my best friends in elementary school. I was so glad to catch up with them and we had a blast at lunch and later Barnes and Noble.

Last but certainly not least was visiting Andrea at her parents house to celebrate her birthday. (which isn't til the 10th.) It was SOOOOO good to see her and of coarse her family. I claim them as family too. I am looking forward to our next night out when Andrea and I go to see the opera Shane is in at the U. I can't wait. It seems we don't see each other nearly as often as I would like, but such is life. She has been my very best friend for quite a while now and even if I saw her everyday, it probably still wouldn't feel like enough. :)