the one about Brett's hairy chest

I was just thinking about this funny thing that happened on our cruise and thought I would share...

Seriously, cruising is so much fun! Whenever there is a "Day at Sea" the crew works really hard to make sure you are having fun and they schedule activities for every second of the day. Our second day at sea, they had a Hairy Chest competition. We had been begging Brett to do it. He was a little hesitant at first, but he finally decided to go for it. The only requirement was that you started the competition with a shirt on so you could take it off for the big reveal. There were 8 contestants. They had a panel of 4 female judges that could touch and feel the men to determine a winner. For round one, they took all of the men (yes, the contestants were all male! thank goodness!) to the second level of the pool deck. They had these curvy stairs and the guys had to walk halfway down the stairs, take their shirts off then go the rest of the way down the stairs. Then the judges felt the hair and eliminated a few men. Brett was super funny as he came down the stairs and everyone was cheering for him. He cleared round 1.
Here he is meeting the judges.

In round 2, the contestants had to show their muscles (or lack thereof), make their best Tarzan yell then "aligator wrestle" a beach towel. Brett may have not been the hairiest man, but he was by FAR one of the best performers!! He was so funny and everyone was laughing at him. Another guy, Rich, was also super funny, but the real crowd favorite was on old man named Bob.


Brett cleared this round too. The last part to determine the winner was a popular vote. Brett did pretty well on this round too, but like I said before, the real crowd favorite was Bob. Brett did a great job and I was so... ummmmmm.... whats the word I am looking for?? Not proud... but, well... I guess HAPPY for Brett for doing so well and for being a good sport. He got a nice medal for participating and a lot of cheers for being so dang funny!

the one about our super amazing vacation

I am sitting at the LA airport bored to death waiting for our flight that is still 2 1/2 hours away. I was wondering what I should do to kill some time... hummmm.... what to do, what to do? OH! I could BLOG!!!! I just loaded up all of our vacation pictures so to help pass my boredom, you can hear all about our cruise!

Let me start you off with a pick from our pre-cruise planning party the Monday before we left.We left last Saturday, April 24th around noon so we could go watch my nephew Brennen's traveling soccer team play in SLC. Once we got there, we met up with my uncle and brother's family and had lunch. I had a little bit of pre-vacay shopping to do and then it was bed time. My super awesome amazingly cool uncle Kim let us stay at his house that night. (Thanks Kim and Jayme!!!!) Of course I couldn't sleep worth a dang because I was SO excited! We got up early on Sunday morning to make it to the airport for our 8:15 flight. Everything went very smoothly. We landed in LA and found the Carnival Cruise people right away and boarded the bus for the pier. It was a pretty quick drive and once we got there and got checked in, we could walk around the ship, the pier and there were lots of things to do there. We were so excited though, that we just kind of hung out by the ship. It was pretty cool. We were able to board the ship around 1:30. It was so beautiful! It was shocking to see how big the ship really was. It was incredible. Our ship left Long Beach around 5:30 that evening.
It was a beautiful sight!

Our first two days were sea days. We played on the ship and soaked up the sun for 2 days as we traveled to Puerto Vallarta.
Quayd took advantage of the kids programs on board and totally loved it!!! He got to do a build-a-bear, make a t-shirt and played lots of fun games.
On Wednesday morning, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. It was Brett's 30th Birthday!!!! And the city, the ocean, the weather, EVERYTHING was beautiful!

We just kind of explored the city. We shopped, went to Senor' Frogs and just hung out.


We had a great time there. They were having a real live bull fight in the evening. Brett thought that sounded awesome, but nobody else would go with him. He went all alone, and hated it. He said it was totally different than what he had expected. He was thinking one on one, man vs. beast. But they actually give the bull a tranquilizer first, and there were about 5 people helping the matador. I thought it was gross and I didn't really pay attention to details, so if you are really that curious, you will have to ask him. Gross. Oh well, happy Birthday to him!

Thursday was Mazatlan. Beach Day.



Amazing.

By the time we made it to Cabo San Lucas on Friday, we were BEAT! We were only in Cabo for about 7 hours, so we just went into the city and looked around. We bought some treasures and enjoyed the beautiful city. I am a BIG shopper! Love it, love everything about it, however, I hate shopping in Mexico. I hate bartering, bargaining, and listening to all of the beggers. It drives me crazy. Brett and Quayd love it though!!! So needless to say, they did all of the shopping. I pointed and things I liked and they took care of the rest. I actually forgot my camera on the ship the day we were in Cabo, so the only picture I have is this one I took from my cell phone.

The last day was another sea day and the seas were so rough!! It was a hard day and night! It kind of threw us all over the ship. Crazy. It was windy and awful too. Yuck. Anyway, it was nice to have a day to relax and wind down after a week of non stop GO GO GO!

Here are a few more pictures of some highlights of the trip.








Ok, that is all I am going to add. I don't want to bore you anymore. Plus, its almost time to board our flight!!! YAY! We are finally making progress home!!!!

the one about my freaky rash

I'm not sure what this is all about, but I got the weirdest rash in the WORLD!

Brett and I started going to the tanning bed 1 week ago to get ready for our vacation next month. (We are going on a Mexican Riviera Cruise April 25th - May 2nd!!!) I have not been able to tan for years because of the medicine I was on for my heart. Since I went off my medicine in January, I just assumed I would be able to tan like I did when I was a kid. I have started VERY slow! The first 2 times I went was only for 6 minutes. I did get the tanning bed itches that come standard with your first couple of visits to the bed. I only went every other day and by the third time, I upped it to 7 minutes. I got a little toasty and even more itchy so we took it back down to 6 when I went last evening. My back had really been bugging me so I left my shirt on and made sure my back, belly and boobs were totally covered, since they have been itching so bad. I even adopted a spatula that I carry around and I so affectionately call "Scratchula." As soon as I got out of the tanning bed, I knew something wasn't right. Brett and I got in the car and I was about to go crazy with itch. I took my bra off first thing and it was just getting worse and worse. We got home and I took my top off. I had Brett rub lotion on it and it would help for a second, but it just kept getting worse. It started breaking out in hives and wherever I would scratch, it was looking like it might bleed. By about 8:30 I was in tears because it was so bad. The hives/welts were huge and covering my whole back!!! I showered, Brett ran to the store for cortisone cream and I started popping benadryl. NOTHING. I tried EVERYTHING! By 11:30 I couldn't take it anymore, so I took myself to the ER. They got me into a room pretty quickly and started me on several pills. Steroids, something like a benadryl but much stronger and something else. They said it should start to improve within 20-30 minutes. By this time, the rash and hives were spreading to my legs. Well, they monitored me for about an hour and nothing was changing so they came in with some shots. I don't know what or how many but I told them I didn't care if it was battery acid and dog crap, if it would help, I would take it! After another hour, it was still really bad but I felt like it was getting a little better. They told me there was nothing else they could try and that they had given me the max dose on everything. They sent me home with a prescription for a week worth of steroids and 3 other things. Today was much better, but I am still very red and itchy. It is just making me feel like crap. I didn't want to broadcast my back fat on the Internet, so I just took a picture of my legs. This is looking about 100 times better. There is little to no swelling, just lots of red dots.


I think we finally decided that 7 1/2 years of heart medicine messed with my blood and skin and that it is probably not in my Best interest to tan. I guess it is either pasty white, or tan in a bottle for me. :( By the way, Brett has the nicest tan and he looks so good!!! I am going to be the ghost woman on our cruise ship. I am so white I am nearly translucent.

Just as I was leaving the hospital last night, the Doc started to say something about the dangers involved with tanning and sun exposure. I just looked at him and said, "Seriously, look at me.... I don't need a lecture about tanning beds!!!"