Cruise time babay!!!!!!

Ok ya'll.... after much deliberation, I've decided, since I have um-teen hundred pictures, I would separate our trip into days.

You know how if you're gonna do something out of the ordinary, for instance, like leave your kids behind and go on a cruise.... you wanna have all your ducks in a row before you leave, that way the caretaker of the kids... say it was your mom... wouldn't have any "strange" things to have to deal with. Well... if you're anything like me, not having your ducks in a row before you leave could potentially cause you to worry and not enjoy yourself. Well.... as life goes, the night before we were due to leave, we had just got through having Madelynn's birthday cake, and getting everything ready to go when Nat noticed (at 10 o'clock at night, mind you) that Aussie's face was swollen..... not just a little swollen, but eyes swollen shut, jowls 10x their normal size.. and honestly, it looked like her face could explode at any given second. It was sad... and we really had no clue what was gonna come of it.

Nat being the awesome guy that he is, went out on the hunt for whatever could have caused this, and I, being the pessimistic person that I am just thought to myself.... Really, how on earth do you think you'll find what did this when you have 60 acres of land to cover, and its dark outside?? But I just kept my mouth shut... and when Nat came racing inside to get his gun, I'm glad I kept my mouth shut about my doubts. He found a rattlesnake.... and it made me wanna vomit cuz we were all just outside in the vicinity of the rattlesnake. Blech.. makes me sick to think about it again.

Much to Nat's dismay, I made the decision when we were getting the puppies vaccinated, to go ahead and pay a little extra and get them rattlesnake vaccinated.... and boy were we grateful that I did cuz it made everything so minor.

**PEOPLE OF THE WORLD. IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE REMOTELY CLOSE TO WHERE A RATTLESNAKE COULD BE.... PAY TO GET YOUR DOGS VACCINATED AGAINST RATTLESNAKE BITES!!!!! IT CAN SAVE THEIR LIFE!!!!!!

Ok, now that I got that out.. Our poor Aussie girl. She was such a trooper and she came through like nothing had ever happened.

oh... and speaking of ducks not being in a row. Remember the cow I told you about that wandered into our yard a few days before we left?? Well while we were away, that cow brought all her other little cow friends to our yard... and my mom had a fun time with cows, along with a dog recovering from a bite. The Cow Dog breed in both the pups came out and they rounded those cows up and chased them back to their home several times.. then they'd come back, and so on and so forth.

Anyways... the cruise.

Days 1-2.

I squeezed my babies, kissed their little foreheads, told them I loved them and walked out the door... and... I didn't even cry!! I was shocked at myself. I was pretty sure I was gonna be a basket-case. It was a nice, pleasant drive to Angelo... and if you've ever traveled with young children, you know traveling is never nice or pleasant so that was definitely a nice start to our vacation. We got to Angelo and (I) went straight out to get some manicures and pedicures with my girl-in-laws. That was just so unpleasant. ;) Not really. It was pretty amazing. After awhile, we all headed out to Mertzon, went to sleep, woke up and the day that we had all awaited for sooooo long was FINALLY here!!

10 hours in the truck with all the In-laws was pretty entertaining. I don't think I can say that there was ever a dull moment. Lots of laughter, thats for sure. It made the long trip seem much shorter.

After we got to our hotel and realized that Nat and I had forgot our bag that had ALL of our toiletries in it, we made a quick trip to the Wal Mart, re-loaded on toiletries, went to dinner, and then back to our hotel for a little swimmin time.

Then... we woke up and drove till we saw some water.

and palm trees.

and beach houses.

and Sheriff's pulling over people on golf carts

(not that we were expecting that... but it was entertaining anyways.)

and my cute honey.

and a pink flamingo.

and then.... we saw THIS:

Oh yes, we made it!

Our cruise ship awaited us. After we got all checked in and junk, my dear husband had a hernia cuz he thought I had forgot to get him the "Bottomless Bubbles" (free soft drinks for a low rate) So Nat's first stop.... first stop of MANY stops at the bar ;) was to get him a dadgum Dr. Pepper.

Nat was pretty in-awe of the off shore Oil rigs. They were pretty neat.

WERE HERE!!!

Vacation time for us sleep deprived, child ran parents.

Our first lunch. You found the food of your choice, got all the food your heart desired, ate and ate and ate some more.

Im pretty sure I gained at least 8 lbs on this trip. No joke. Not to mention ice cream at your service 24/7. Sin is what it is.

and were off!!!!!!!!

... and just in case you don't know,

this is my mother and father-in law

Sharon & Jim

Nat's parents.

Get it??

Good cuz you're gonna be seein a lot of them.

and these 2 too.

This is Karl and Crystal.

Nat's brother, and his wife.

Brother and sister in-law.

Get it??

... and these 2.. I can't remember their names.

;)

Nat and I got a room with a balcony, and boy were we glad we did. Although we didn't spend quite as much time out there as we'd liked to have, it was sooo pleasant. Even to just look out the door and see the beautiful view.

mmm... isn't he cute??

Next stop was solely enjoyable by Sharon. A few tried... and lost, and gave up... but, well, she was just in her element and she enjoyed it more than any of us did. Maybe has something to do with winning?!?

Walkin around outside as the sun went down.

So beautiful.

So perfect.

At the end of the day, you are greeted by a clean room, a towel buddy, and a schedule of tomorrows happenings.

Puppy dog.

Soooo....

I had every intention of blogging about the Birthday girl before we left to go on our cruise..... but, as life would have it, we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off from the time we woke up till the time we left and it just never happened. So, before I tell you all about our vacay....

I have to admit this year was sooo much fun cuz she actually had a grasp of what was happening.... and that she had this special day all to herself. The girls have been into the show "Bubble Guppies" if you've never watched it, you should check it out sometime... its a pretty cute little show. I got this wild idea to try and make Madelynn a cake with Oona on it (her fav. character) Although I am entirly to hard on myself on how horrible it turned out... she loved it and it made all the mistakes and frustration worth it in the end.. .and when all was said and done I was so gld to have made her so happy.

We laid everything out in the living room the night before and had everything wrapped up ready for her to open... Well when I awoke at 8 and there was no Madelynn in bed with me, I first thought it was a miracle that she had stayed in bed all night... until I got out of bed and realized she had had her special Birthday Party all by herself. It was pretty funny.

and of course, Bubba had to be a Princess too.

and Im not sure how many gallons of lipgloss 2 little girls can go through in a matter of hours... but I'm pretty sure my girls set some kind of record. You are not a Princess until you're putting lipgloss on.... Therefore, all us girls in the house had beatiful glossed lips ALLLL day long.

... and I'm pretty sure our little tomboy liked the bike more than the Princess did.

Once we took her out and worked with her a bit, she just kept saying: "I wanna go be a princess, mama"

So naturally, I sent her in to get her princess stuff after awhile of giving it a go on the bike... and when she finally came out, she was blue.

and.....

well....

She enjoyed he cake for a little while while we were all outside.

And cuz the icing wasn't sugar rush enough, we came in and had some cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

It was a pretty awesome day filled with fun things Madelynn wanted to do.

I can't believe I have a 3 year old!!!!!!!!!!!!