Sick Day

Last night we spent a few hours cleaning & picking up Christmas. We had gone to my parents to eat dinner with my sisters family before.

At 5am Kelly was up heaving in the kitchen. It scared me so I went down to see what was going on. He had gone back and forth to the bathroom. 

At 7am he called in sick to work & wasn't getting any relief. I went and got some pepto, crackers and Gatorade. I was feeling a little gross but I thought I had just made myself sick from seeing Kelly sick. 

I went to do some errands with my mom & sister. We made it to Target & I had my mom drive me back home. I knew I would be miserable. I got home & went straight to bed for a few hours. 

A couple times to the bathroom & I had my first time puking. I hate that feeling, getting warm & hot. I also was feeling very light headed every time I went to stand up. 

Kelly's amazing mother brought us some heavy nausea medication & so far since Kelly took some early afternoon he has been calmed without throwing up & has just been sleepy. 

My mom just stopped by to bring me some applesauce because I am a little hungry. Okay. I am super hungry. I took some nausea stuff that Kelly took and I am hoping that will help! 

Now if we can keep sleeping it off throughout the night I will be happy. I don't like laying in bed awake, but for how much we have slept I think we may be up. 

Dear sickness you suck, I hate you & your tacky. 

I wanted to enjoy my sisters family today and get some things returned from Christmas. Hopefully tomorrow or next week we can make it happen. 

Not Your Mothers! (hair products)

Okay, I don't know if you have seen posts on Pinterest or any Social media site about ways to grow your hair or reviews on products. 

Well for months now I have read things on what to do to your hair; masks, products, washing, drying, sleeping & almost just how to look at your hair! 

At first I saw the Way To Grow Shampoo & Conditioner. I thought that it was probably a gimmick in a cute bottle. But I found myself checking out at Walmart a month later with it in my basket! Ever since I have gone back for more products of Not Your Mothers!

Starting from left to right I am just going to say my favorite things about the products and how I use them! 

Miss Freeze Freezing Hairspray: Ever wanted to hold that volume or not have sticky hair after hairspray but something that will hold shape, and fly aways. This is it, I think it's one of the best hairsprays I have ever had. It holds & my hair doesn't feel dirty!

Beach Babe Texturizing Hair Cream: Since the waves are in and full ringlet curls are not very popular what are you suppose to do! I have semi wavy hair but, getting use to the messy part of having 'beach waves' was hard for me. I felt like I need a product that would hold the curl but not make them stiff like they got dipped in a can of hairspray. 

I love using this before I make my waves with the straightener. For me it works great after I get out of the shower & part my hair! It has sea salt in it so beware of that feeling. After it's in my hair I either go to bed with damp hair & wake up with it just needing a little help! If I am not going to bed I wait till it's half dry & blow dry some & start waving it (although, I feel like it takes me longer because I have to do my whole head. 

(Yes I have a travel size of this, in fact I bought that first to try it out. You can find the bigger bottle at Ulta & the spray at Target, Walmart or Ulta) 

Beach Babe Texturing Sea Salt Spray: like the cream it is awesome although I use this mainly to help calm my hair from being huge and to brush out the curl if it gets to ringlet like. The spray helps with fly aways & the perfect shine. Both of the Beach Babe products smell amazingly good too! 

Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream:

I have days where I want some bounce and right curl like Shirley Temple. But as you probably can guess it I hate products that make my hair gross feeling! 

This gives the perfect tight curl & helps with fly aways! I normally put this on after I shower, I let it sit for a while and let my hair air dry a little then I will add more & blow dry. Then style with my little curling iron. 

Clean Freak Refreshing Dry Shampoo:

This is the other big hit on social sites! I love this stuff when I am running late! Have you noticed it's the days you are late that you really needed to wash your hair. 

This is a nice clean feeling & helps with oil control. I don't get way oily hair but it has helped with my bangs being somewhat greasy. It's best if you get this right onto your scalp and rub it in! 

I normally will spray it on my scalp in the areas needed & pull my hair back into a ponytail or bun! It makes my hair not feel gross & it goes back easier! 

Way To Grow Shampoo: 

As I wrote earlier. I was a skeptic. I wasn't sure what Sulfate Free was, did it matter, would this work! But, Pinterest said it might! 

Well after 3-4 months into using it, I have given up on buying my normal Big Sexy Hair brand and going for this! It smells great & I really feel like it cleans my hair, keeps it healthy & in return I feel like

my hair has grown with its help. 

It took a while getting use to the Sulfate Free! Sometime when my hair feels extra dry I will wash it twice or double conditioner! 

Way To Grow Conditioner: I bought this a couple months after I was halfway through my first bottle of shampoo! I wondered if I would like the pair and what the benefits would be. 

Sometimes you just have to have the total package & life is easy. I love this stuff & how creamy it is. It has add a lot of moisture to my hair! 

I love washing my hair now & styling it! In fact it makes me wonder why I ever had such short hair, even though there are days I loved the spunk, sass & easiness of it, these products together have made me feel more confident about my hair as it grows! 

So it's Not Your Mothers! 

But it should be yours! At least try one or two items!

#cruiselife (day four)

Thursday
Sea Day.

Two words Hate it! Okay these boats are pretty big, but this one didn't have a whole lot to satisfy my attention. Especially after the hangover of Mango soup the night before.

We ate breakfast at the Dining room I ordered Chocolate chip pancakes! They came drenched in chocolate sauce & I was afraid that it would be too much and make me sick so I didn't eat much. Even though I wanted too!

I took a nap in the morning because I wasn't really loving the rocking of the boat nor my stomach.

Kelly went and played with Steve & Janae. They played hide & seek on the ship, a game they came up with in the exercise room with weighted balls & aerobic balls.

I got my bum out of bed and was feeling better for some lunch, we then played some mini golf.. man was it cold. No one was up playing because it was like 20mph winds. It was still fun & Car-key was happy because she got like 5 hole in ones! Yay! I gave up after two and just watched with Kelly.

We also took some fun pictures with all of us couples, two things I found out.. when you give Moss your camera you will get a million photos.. he just holds down the shutter and so you're left with this story of photos.. which would be awesome if it wouldn't eat up my memory!!

 Dinner time..

It was kind of sad to have this be the last night with our amazing waiters.. So we had to get some pictures with them!

Wonder why they were so ridiculously awesome! Steve asked if they would be doing Creme Brulee any of the nights. The waiter said if they don't have it that the last night he will have the chef make some for him.

So after we had cleared our plates of dinner & millions of appetizers. Our waiter didn't bring out just 1 creme brulee.. But one for every single person on the table! It was so awesome!

Last but not least the whole crew! 

As we were taking the picture my favorite waiter who brought me the soup multiple times was touching the top of  my head saying Mango...

Anytime he saw me he would call me Mango girl! I loved him & his enthusiastic way of enjoying his job. 

He was so great at what he did. I love how he would tell us about where he was from & things about him.

He was awesome!

(PS. he is the one behind me doing a thumbs up)  

#cruiselife (day three)

Wednesday:
Ensenada, Mexico

This was probably the most annoying time to be in the very front of the ship because you could hear them dock us starting at like 6 am. I just wanted to sleep & Kelly wanted to watch them go and dock, I stayed in bed while he went and watched them dock.

We had breakfast in the Dining room this time, it was yummy! I had some hot chocolate, a stack of pancakes once again.

I got ready for the day and we headed off the ship where we had our picture taken by the cruise. So I know you aren't suppose to take pictures of the pictures they take but.. I did..oops.

I love how some of these turned out!

Especially the parrot one it was so fun to have a parrot on your arm for the half a second they let him on you.
Plus aren't we just so darn cute getting off the ship..

We got on to a bus that took us to Downtown to go shopping. We were told that this part of town they don't barter and that if we wanted we could pay $15 to go to a place that would.. okay, last time I checked Mexico never ever kept to any of their prices, nor do they even have prices written on anything. That was a good joke made by a Mexican tour guide!

We were also asked not to buy anything from the kids that walk around trying to sell things because they want to encourage them to go to school. I guess my question is why don't they have a law or ask them to go to school instead of us American's ignoring them. I understand that by buying things it doesn't help the situation but most people aren't going to probably be educated without follow up from someone.

Any ways, we kind of had a list of things to get and things people had wanted us to get! I was very shocked at how clean the streets were compared to when we went to Cozumel for our honeymoon. Although, I really don't love the fact that they come up and beg for you to buy things. 

We stopped in a few stores & laughed at some of the crazy tourist things they have. Its almost sad how corrupt of a society we live in and the things that suddenly are okay to use as a marketing tool. We did however come across some really cool blankets in a few stores. Moss wanted to get some for their cabin and he was trying to talk different people down on price. We finally found a lady who would do $10 instead of $12. We ended up walking out with 10 blankets between the 6 of us. We only got one. It may or may not have been because it was Hot Pink & adorable.

As we were walking out of one store our friends pointed out to me these minions that were next to the building.. I screamed.. not just a tiny scream. Enough that the owner of the store came outside and thought that there was a spider. Nope it was just a minion.

I loved them. We talked him down on price but being the Americans that we are, you walk away & go back later and see if they will go down more! I am not someone who gets a big kick out of this but Kelly & Moss definitely are pros at chewing people down on price.

Before we went back onto the ship & everyone had got the things they wanted Kelly let me go back and get one minion! I was a little elated.. 

Now, you may be thinking what the crap is a 21 years old girl do with a Minion? 

Answer: I have no clue but I love it & it's mine. I now officially own a Minion! How cool is that!

We ate lunch on the ship & played in the small little gym. We hung out and talked to Janae & Moss a lot since Carli & Dan had their afternoon nap scheduled.

I really got to learn so much about our friends and things that I don't think I would have ever known.

Dinner was once again amazing. 

There was Mango cold soup. Did the waiter bring me out a ton? Yes. Did I get sick? yes! 

Did I totally rock at doing the Gangnam dance with the waiters? Of course!

Was it worth eating that much soup? No!

I will be honest I like cruise food, but when it comes to dinner I get a little hesitant because I am not a big fish eating, meat eating person. But I luckily can find something that satisfy's me. Kelly always gets the Didja plate. Which is normally something off the wall weird like; sushi, escargrow, frog legs etc.

He got alligator legs and loved them. He made me try a piece, it wasn't bad in fact it tasted like chicken, although I have to say I couldn't keep eating it because I just was thinking about a alligator starting at me.

I ended up getting sick & going to bed early that night. Kelly came and cuddled me. He didn't go to the marriage/love show. Which I know he wanted to & so did I. I was glad he came and took care of me even when I was passed out asleep!

It was kind of refreshing getting a few extra hours of shut eye.

#cruiselife (day two)

Tuesday!

We arrived in Catalina, also known as Avalon.

This was a cool little site to see! We couldn't dock right next to the island so I felt very cool that we got to get off the boat on a small staircase that dropped us in to a ferry, I felt like some celebrity when really I just was one person out of 2,000 other guests!

We got up for breakfast and went to the buffet.. yummy pancakes and bacon..
Although, along our way they had all of their towel characters placed along both sides of the swimming pool! I had to snap some pictures of these cool things.

Toad/Frog

Polar Bear

My favorite! Elephant!

Aardvark.

Monkey

We then headed off the ship to Catalina. It was a pretty day and nothing better than being able to wear shorts in DECEMBER!     

We started to walk around the streets and look at the houses around the town, they were really expensive homes but I felt like they could of used some outside TLC and they were so squished together that for the price of them being at least a half million that they should be able to have space from their neighbors.

Car-key and I on the boat.  Love her!

We went down the main shops and wandered since we didn't want to pay for excursions and there wasn't anything we were dying to do. I found a giant ice cream statue & of course had to have a picture taken!

Something you probably didn't know! I own a store in Catalina its called Maggie's Blue Rose. I decided that red roses were to ordinary and so we dye white ones blue and sell them.. its a great business & it happens to be next to Steve's business. He owns Steven's Steakhouse, excellent meat and great service I suggest you check them out.. 

Okay, I am kidding we don't own any business but we sure got a kick out of the fact that both of our names were so close to being together!

Kelly even has a part time business when we travel to Catalina.. he's a Realtor. Just Kidding but we found his name too & he of course had to have a picture taken by it! While walking the streets we saw this flag hanging... Kelly made me stand underneath it..

It's not entirely true because it should say 'whine' instead of the drink, but whatever.

Most people have golf carts here, kinda different. I don't know what many people do for work or if the houses are mostly summer homes, but its a charming town. I love the detail in all of the pathways and landscaping.

You may be wondering what that crap this picture of Kelly & Steve is.. well there was a huge staircase that they wanted to race each other up.. and well boys will be boys. This was the high five before they started the race while me & Janae filmed it.

Steve ended up stubbing his toe but yet they still raced to the top.. it was a pretty few so of course Janae & me made the trek up to the top. I can't tell you how bad my legs hurt after climbing them. It was like the great wall of Catalina. (get it?)

...it keeps going & going

But, I would of been bummed if I didn't climb up there because I took this amazing picture with my Pano setting on my iPhone!

Taken at the top of the stairs

the circular building use to be casino & now a theater

We then sat and watched the ocean for a little while & talked to some of the people who work at what use to be the casino but now is a movie theater.

After we went through a museum about Catalina. It was cheap and yet really nice and I enjoyed it.

They had a lot of cool things that I otherwise probably would have never known. 

Things I thought were cool:

Marilyn Monroe moved to Catalina with her husband James after they were married, he was part of the Coast Guard and was stationed there.

Wrigley gum owned Catalina and built up most of the city and the main design of what it still is today before the USA bought the island later. Mr. Wrigley also owned the Chicago Cubs and one year flew them to Catalina for Spring Training. His house sits up very high on one of the mountains is estimated worth is 60 million.

John Wayne funded some of the money that built the casino & hung out a lot on Catalina

They have wild buffalo in the 1930's they brought buffalo there to film a movie and they were left after the movie was filmed.

These are the awesome lights of the Casino/Theater

Aren't these some cool bright flowers

 This is a little cove of condo's. It took them three years to be able to start the building of this because they couldn't find bedrock & it was a struggle to really build them for how slanted they are. It was a cool little sight to see!
I was shocked at how many mountains, for some reason I was thinking it would be pretty darn flat!

Last but not least this adorable photo... I just love how cute my husband is and how much he loves me!

Dinner Time:

Tonight was formal night! 

We took a nap after we got back on the ship and had lunch. 

I borrowed a dress from Car-key and I gave Kelly an early Christmas gift before we left, a cool new blue tie. 

I have some pictures from formal night but they are on my actual camera I will have to put them here..

They had my absolute FAVORITE thing tonight! Strawberry cold soup. I was SO happy! I know it sounds gross if you haven't had it. I had 4 1/2 servings of it, this is when me and the waiter became really close. Toward the end of the night he had brought me out a glass filled with strawberry soup!

It was delish!.. I can't even remember what my entree was because it was just so dang good! I get all giddy, happy & twitter-patted thinking about that soup.

After dinner we went to the Punchliner comedy show. It was hilarious & I really love comedians! We enjoyed them & then headed back to our room after the adult show was over.

#cruiselife (day one)

Day 1:
Finishing the drive to California & embarking on the cruise!

After six more hours in the car we made it to Long Beach.. It was so nice to have it be so warm when we got out of the car. It was 75 degrees! So much better than the 20 degrees we left behind in Utah.

We were all shocked at how fast & quick it was to get onto the ship, we didn't have any lines to wait in and the whole process was smooth! Yay.
After we got our stuff to our rooms it was time for lunch!
I can't tell you how happy I was for the Off the Grill bar.. French Fries, Honey Mustard & Chicken Tenders. YUM!
After some serious hard core eating we had to try out the ice cream and cookies... it was the first of many delicious servings.

We walked around the ship and got familiar with all the fun hang out places! Like the mini golf course, comedy club, adult hot tub section & the performance lounge. It was a pretty day & was so happy to be heading off into the sunset on a fun vacation.

 Kelly hates selfies and I wore him out by the amount of pictures I wanted to take! But I know somewhere down the road I will cherish these pictures even more than I do now!

The Carnival Inspiration is one of the smallest boats that Carnival Cruise Lines has operating. We were in the very bottom deck in the very front of the boat so we felt all the rocking motions and the anchor dropping everyday. It was right next to a crew member door and we could smell spray paint sometimes & turpentine.

The adult only zone... love those chairs!

Long Beach.. Hardly any inversion!

View from the back.. Let the fun begin!

Then we had the lovely hour of Muster Station and where to go for the lifeboat after you meet in your Muster Station.. pretty sure if there is an issue I am just going to get on any dang lifeboat! 

We then headed off for dinner I am not sure if any of us were even really hungry but lets be honest on cruises your always eating or thinking about food. We had the coolest waiter, he is from Indonesia.I just love him. We also have two older ladies on our table one is from Michigan and the other from San Diego. 

I had lasagna, fruit bowl, salad & of course Chocolate Melting Cake!!! That stuff is just so dang good although I have to say its rich and even somewhat more than what I can handle.

After dinner we headed back to our rooms and got into our swimsuits, Carly & Dan went to bed while the four of us went and got into the hot tub. There was already a black lady in it and she was super friendly of course she had a glass of wine in her hand, but still super nice.We stayed and talked to her and her husband for a long period of time. Then some fellow Utahns came to the hot tub they were from Cedar City and recently married they were super funny & nice. I love meeting people on cruises.. mainly because you have such a different interests and it makes life just interesting. 

Moss sat and told several stories about hunting, snowmobiling and well he showed that he truly is our redneck friend. I love that kid though, he's like my big brother in a sense he teases me all the time and I try to get back at him but it never works. He is such a genuine kid & a great friend to Kelly and me!

This was our little towel animal! I was so excited to go to our room and see what we had on our bed! 

Lights were out by midnight and so far the boat wasn't that rocky and we were on our way to Catalina Island!

Las Vegas Time!

We made the long trek to Vegas. We left home about 8am and got here a little before 5pm. 

It was an easy going drive & I started a new book from Meg Johnson. If you have not heard of her you need to look her up on Deseret Book, Facebook or YouTube.  

Before we took off I took a photo of us all in the Van. We were so happy & ready to start this trip!

We stopped in Beaver & ate Subway for lunch! Yummy I know. 

Once we got to Vegas we checked into our hotel & went out to eat at a nearby Chilis! 

We stayed at the Plaza hotel! I liked this black and white picture of it! It's sweet isn't it! Plus the cool sink, it's different & unique! Therefore, I like it! 

I snapped a few pics from the view of our hotel! It was so pretty & better yet we got here before it was completely dark. 

Carli & Dan stayed at the hotel and the four of us went to the strip! Yay! 

I had never done it before. I have heard how crazy it is & nasty. But for the most part it didn't seem so scary. It may be because it's winter & a Sunday night. But I wasn't too shocked by it. Of course the cigarette smoke gives you a headache instantly! 

We found this first. Statue Of Liberty made out of Jelly Bellys! Wow! Isn't it so cool! 

Steve & Janae were our tour guides! I wanted to do the M&M World & Coca Cola. 

It's hard to decide what one to talk about first because I love chocolate & Coke. 

Okay the M&M World was awesome the crazy amount of chocolate inside, shirts, bags, plates, toys. Oh and 4 floors. Wow! 

We were looking around and wanted to see the show they play but it was done for the day. But I have something even better to tell you. 

PS. This is only half the wall of M&Ms

Janae & Steve had made it to a floor above us. As we came up they were waiting for us like usual! Then Steve moved and there was an M&M standing there with his little Elf hat. I freaked out! 

Not your average happy smile. I was happier than any of the kids in that store. I even jumped up and down clapping. 

I think he caught on how happy I was he even hugged me! Ahhhh!!! Chocolate Hugs. Woo! 

We snapped a few pictures with him & after we did I started like prancing away. Still completely on cloud 900!!! Yup. that high. I turned around because I could hear people laughing the M&M was following me and dancing like me! It was awesomeness! 

This was before my dreams of hugging a cute Elf M&M came true! 

Oh and then nothing better than hanging out with some stars.... 

Okay onto Coke!!! Ahh! So many amazing things. My expectations were met once again. 

I have loved Coke for quite sometime now. I don't remember having it until college & ever since it's just apart of my

life. 

Here I am just happy to see all the cool things inside. I turn around and walk in to the store & boom! At the famous green screen is the Polar Bear. What!!!  I flipped. I ran up there and had to get my picture taken. 

Well I wish I would have known to have Kelly take some too because it's not cheap to buy the photos that they take with you and the bear. But after the lady took one with my phone she did 3 more. One the bear was leaning down & eating my head. 

The one that was my favorite is I picked the pose! I started to blow a kiss and at first the Coke bear wanted me to do something else. But then he changed his mind. And did MY POSE!!!

Okay, I shouldn't be so excited but just thinking about it makes me smile. He did what I was doing! I felt like I had approval! Even the girls taking the pictures thought it was a cute one & kept saying good job bear.

Okay are you ready to see it... Drumroll!!!

I wish I could have gotten the picture of us blowing kisses but this will satisfy me.

They had some great trivia things inside the store, old vintage logos, tables and old antiques for sale. 

If I could have something in my house that could just have Coke things I would love it. They have some of the coolest stuff. I really like the shirts they had especially one in particular. 

Isn't that so cool!!! They had tons of different ones for different countries. 

We started walking & saw this guy! He spray paints these amazing pictures. He had different characters from shows and scenes of Vegas. He paints them all with spray paint! It was so neat! He would use a metal can to get the perfect affect or a piece of paper rolled into a tunnel. 

This was another thing I would of bought. I think it's so cool to have art like that in your house. It's original and to see them do it in front of you is just ridiculously cool! 

This was one of many pictures they had out for sale. I love the detail they have and it's just spray paint. 

Next was Paris. It was so cool the mini Eiffel Tower. I loved it! It was so fun. They have so much detail into this small street. 

I don't remember what hotel we were cutting through but they had these amazing draped crystal strands and I looked down over a balcony & there was this BEAUTIFUL, SPARKLY, RHINESTONED Curella De Vil car. I once again got so excited. We walked down and had to take some pictures of it. 

Okay I love blingy things but now that you can have a car with bling all over it!! I think I just died and went to Rhinestone Heaven! 

Then we went to the Bellagio for the water show. Wow oh wow. I recorded the whole thing. They are amazing. 

Plus look at this cute adorable hunky husband! Man I love him! 

Next was Ceasars Palace. I loved the inside of this one. It was like you were strolling the streets of a different country. We didn't get to see the moving statues since it was down. But it was still awesome to see these stores that I dream about! Like Versace, Coach, Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton! 

This is inside Ceasers. It was so cool! 

 

Also they had a H&M that was huge. We didn't go inside it but it was glitzy and I was in heaven looking at it. I mean who doesn't love these glitzy balls? 

Well, it was quite the night! We ended up getting a cab to take us back to where we parked since Janae still isn't totally back up & going from having the Flu! But it was fun to experience it with such great tour guides. 

I did realize one thing though, just because I don't have a Louis Vuitton shoes or a Fendi bag! I am so grateful for the parents I had who raised me the way they did. I saw so many people who were completely lost in life! I feel so bad for them and that they probably deep down aren't happy! I am so glad I have the gospel and the way it has directed my life.

Well, we have another 6 hour trip ahead of us to get us to Long Beach! It will be awesome! I am pumped but at the same time nervous! I don't want the ship to be horrible and rocky or have problems.

Oh and I am loving the weather here. Good ole Utah you are just to darn cold! 

Man, this post was long! (Thumbs up if you read it!) 

 

PS. Kelly's countdown Christmas gift today was Crash My Party, Luke Bryan's new album. I thought he would like it!