Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 1 (11/7/10)

Here's all the unsolicited details that you may or may not want to know about our family cruise that went from a dream cruise vacation to a rescue operation and our endurance of 5 days being stranded in the Pacific Ocean!

Sunday, 11/7, we finally pulled out of our driveway at 12:30 am! Love going on a family vacations, but it's crazy how much time it takes to pack all 7 of us and get on the road. We enjoy being self-employed, however, one of the cons is no vacation pay or time off. There's always payrolls to be prepared, emails to be answered and phone calls to be made. We looked forward to a relaxing cruise before another tax season started. Another reason for the delay was the 10 payrolls I had to do on Saturday so our clients could pay their employees while we were on vacation. We stopped at In N Out Burger on our drive to California and we realized that it was daylight savings plus California time (PST) was also another hour behind Utah (MST). So in reality, we gained an extra 2 hours! Woo hoo!

The kids & I slept from Sandy, UT to Las Vegas, NV which makes the drive so much easier. Jason is great at driving through the night. We arrived at Long Beach, CA at 10:30 am, which was plenty of time before the boarding which was from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm. Unfortunately, there was a huge line of people ready to board the ship. Alex started the stopwatch on his IPOD and by the time we went through customs and boarded the ship, it was a 2 hour 15 minute wait! Of course, there were a few meltdowns in line with Aliza & Ava and a nice lady behind us gave them some chocolate. I wasn't prepared for a LONG wait and didn't think of packing snacks. Once again, another reason I'll never be "mother of the year." After the line, a Carnival photographer snapped the above picture of the family.

Another shot of the family before we boarded the Carnival Splendor. Little did we know of the adventure ahead of us! We were so excited to take the kids on their very first cruise. Jason & I had gone of 2 cruises before with Royal Caribbean and loved them. We chose this cruise because their kid's program, Camp Carnival takes kids as young as Ava's age (2 years). We had heard great things about Carnival's Camp Carnival. This cruise had 3 ports, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We went on our honeymoon (16 years ago-Sept 1994) to Puerto Vallarta and looked forward to going back to this port. We also booked a zipline excursion at Puerto, which had 10 ziplines.

So after we boarded we went straight to our cabins. Our luggage was already there. This cruise was literally a comedy of errors. We were told the reason for the super long lines was the ship had a scheduled routine coast guard inspection. Also, we heard of a fork lift driver that went a little too fast and drove carelessly and dropped 60 pieces of luggage of passengers into the ocean. They had to send divers in to retrieve the dropped luggage from the ocean. 5 pieces of luggage were never found. What a relief this didn't happen to our family! After this we had the routine safety call and took the kids to our assigned muster station. Jason went straight to bed since he hadn't slept since Friday night. The kids and I explored the ship. The above pictures of Ashley & Abbey were taken with a "pirate" on the ship before we went to dinner.

After the ship left, I noticed the ship was swaying and making sudden jerks and noises. I have a "stomach of steel" and don't get sea sick, car sick or even morning sickness when I was pregnant. The kids & I all felt queasy. I had such a pit in my stomach thinking "I can't believe we're going to be on this ship for an entire week" which looking back seemed foreshadowing of what was to come. Luckily, I packed a generic version of Dramamine that all of the kids were able to take. We explored the ship and went to the gift shop. Ashley's flip flops broke and Alex didn't have any so we bought a pair for each of them (which ended up being free because they waived all charges made on this cruise).

We were assigned the late night dining at 8:15 pm. Jason stayed sleeping and we enjoyed our only "hot" meal of the cruise. The kids all loved their steak which was served with a homemade mac & cheese. I had a tasty chicken & pasta meal. But the bonus of the meal was the delicious dessert. The kids all enjoyed the famous Carnival molten chocolate cake. I was in heaven with my Black Forest Cherry cake. It had a scrumptious whipped cherry layers along with a rich, moist chocolate cake.

After dinner we went straight to bed because we were all exhausted and looked forward to a "fun day at sea" on Monday.
And all of the above pictures were another "freebie" because of the cruise disaster!

Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 2 (11/8/10)

At 4:00 am, Jason woke me up and told me our ship wasn't moving and something seemed wrong. I was out of it and being the deep sleeper that I am, rolled over and went back to sleep.

At 6:00 am, there was a strong jolt, very intense jerks and a hard to describe grinding noise. We heard a lady in the hall screaming. There was a page over the intercom yelling "Alpha Team. Alpha Team. Alpha Team. Deck 0 Engine Control Room immediately." I had no idea what the alpha team was but knew it didn't sound good. Jason opened the cabin door and saw a short man running as fast as he could in a full fire suit with extinguisher. Several Carnival workers yelled at him "Go! Go! Go!" Jason immediately saw thick black smoke and said to me "I think our ship is on fire!"

I looked at all of the kids peacefully asleep in our adjoining cabins. I instantly had a flash back to the scene in Titanic where the mom tucked her kids in bed because they were on deck 1 and there weren't enough lifeboats. This scene always made me tear up. Here we were on deck 1 and I thought "At least we'll all die together." I know it's a morbid thought but I didn't know if we'd make it out alive. We quickly gathered our passports, birth certificates and valuable camcorder & camera in a bag. We woke up the kids and had them put on their flip flops and hoodies.

The cruise director (John Heald, who did an amazing job!) announced an apology for waking us up early and explained there was only SMOKE not a fire, which became the joke of the ship. Isn't the saying true, "When there's smoke, there's fire." He assured not to worry that we were completely safe and we would soon be on our way.

His announcement was: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-SOME OF YOU WHOSE CABINS ARE AT THE BACK SECTION OF THE VESSEL MAY BE SMELLING SMOKE. THEREFORE THE CAPTAIN HAS ASKED ALL GUESTS WHO ARE STAYING TOWARDS THE AFT SECTION OF THE SHIP ON DECKS 1,2,6,7,8, PLEASE DRESS WARMLY AND COME TO DECK 9. IF YOU ARE ON THE MID SHIP OR FORWARD, PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. I KNOW SOME OF YOU MAY BE WORRIED OR CONCERNED SO PLEASE LET ME TELL YOU THAT WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU AND THAT ALL OF THE CREW TRAIN FOR THESE SITUATIONS."

There was a knock on the cabin and a crew member told us we needed to evacuate our cabin. We asked if we should bring our life jackets and they advised us there was no need for them. We just needed to go to the upper decks for some fresh air.

Unfortunately, we were in the "aft" section or back of the ship on deck 1 which was literally above the engine room. I didn't even think about this when I booked the cruise 2 1/2 months before. Our 2 cabins were the only 2 adjoining cabins left on the entire ship. So we walked up to Deck 9 (all elevators didn't work) and we were on deck 1 (which was 16 flights of stairs-2 flights per deck) as we walked to the upper deck every crew member we passed was wearing a life jacket. I have to admit I was a little worried. Why are they wearing them and not us? What did they know that we didn't?

We were served breakfast on Deck 9 at the Lido deck. It was extremely crowded and we grabbed a table and stood in line. For breakfast we had a large variety of cereal, yogurt, fruit but nothing hot since there was no electricity.

It didn't take much to realize that there was no power on board-no air conditioning, no lights and no working elevators. The worst part of it all was no flushing toilets. The public bathrooms on the ship quickly became full. The stench was atrocious. Having 4 little girls I was constantly taking the girls to use them.

Crew members passed large bottles of water to everyone. I was actually impressed by how calm everyone was. It was interesting to see many people hoard food. The mother bear in me felt the need to grab enough water for us as well as boxes of cereal just in case this was they ran out of food. We sat next to these hilarious women that had about 15 boxes of cereal EACH. One of the ladies was so mad because her friend ate her box of fruit loops. She said, "D*$# you #$&!<, how could you eat my fruit loops. I'm going to throw you overboard to the sharks." A Carnival crew member asked if she needed anything. Unfortunately, they couldn't find her another box of fruit loops and she was livid at her friend. It was actually entertaining. Here we are uncertain of what would happen to our ship and life and she was worried about a freakin' box of fruit loops. We were so surprised to later discover her cabin was next door to ours!

We were then told the captain decided to flood the engine room with CO2 and they would continue to update us. There wasn't anything to do but talk to other passengers and walk on the open decks. The chefs & dining room managers were paged to start making sandwiches for lunch. We were later told the good news that the smoke had begun to dissipate and the inspections showed that there are no fires. The captain ordered the ventilation shafts to be opened. At this time we were eating lunch on Deck 3 in the Golden Pearl dining room. Ava needed to go to the bathroom and by this time all public restrooms were locked to the public. They decided they should be locked because it was a health hazard to all of us. Which meant hiking down the flights of stairs to our cabin every time anyone in our family needed to go. When I came back to the dining room are I noticed SO much thick black smoke. I really couldn't believe this was happening to us! Later that afternoon we were told we could return to our staterooms because the smoke had been cleared out. The cruise director really assured us that we would soon be on our way to Puerto Vallarta and would probably be just a little late. We really had no idea what announcement would soon follow.

We then heard the cruise director tell us: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. WELL HERE I AM AGAIN AND LET ME START WITH THE GOOD NEWS. THE SHIP IS SAFE AND IN ABSOLUTELY NO JEOPARDY. YOU ARE SAFE. THERE HAVE BEEN NO INJURIES AT ALL. NOW THE NOT SO GOOD NEWS IS THAT THIS INCIDENT HAS LEFT US WITH NOW POWER. THIS MEANS WE HAVE NO LIGHTING, NO ELEVATORS, NO AIR CONDITIONING, NO PHONES AND THE TOILET SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING. OUR ENGINEERING TEAM IS WORKING HARD BUT THE SITUATION DOWNSTAIRS IS COMPLICATED TO SAY THE LEAST."

During dinner we were informed that the decision had been made to TERMINATE the cruise. They assured us Carnival would be fair to us and we would be fully refunded for this cruise. Of course my mind was racing and just hoping to get all of us off the ship at this point.

We all went to bed early for us (10:00 pm). The kids fell asleep quickly and Jason and I laid in bed listening the waves crash against our boat. We were literally like a piece of driftwood being tossed around by the waves of the ocean. It was an eerie feeling wondering and hoping that we would be rescued soon! We later found out we had drifted 60 miles before the tug boats came!

Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 3 (11/9/10)

We woke up to the cruise director announcing the coast guard had arrived. This picture was taken from our cabin window and we were so thrilled to know they found us and wanted to help us get off the boat safely.

On Monday, Carnival called and arranged for tug boats to pull us to the shore. Unfortunately, one of the tug boats had mechanical problems and didn't arrive. This is the first tug that arrived and named "Chihuahua" from Mexico. What a relief when the tug boat was able to hook to the front of the ship and start the towing process. This happened Tuesday at about 1 pm. It pulled us very slowly at 4 mph, but at least we were moving.

What an amazing sight to see the USS Ronald Regan aircraft carrier in her glory arrive! WOW! We now felt completely safe. Before I felt like a sitting target for terrorists or pirates. Learned the carrier has approximately 6,000 navy men aboard and travels with submarines and several ships to the side. This shot was taken from our cabin window. What a tender mercy that the carrier happened to be close in the area for a training exercise.

Alex enjoyed his several cans of pop. I'm sure he drank at least 12 cans/day. At that point who cares! Unfortunately, they didn't have "Circle C" for the teenagers open (since most of their activities used electricity). He was a good sport although very bored. We couldn't let him play his Nintendo DS because that was our light to use the bathroom. He actually had a pretty intense dream on Saturday night that our ship was stranded and we had to be rescued. He's a great teenager (almost 14 yrs old in January)

Ava & myself in line waiting for Camp Carnival. I was SO tired of the long lines. Notice my nasty, greasy hair. At this point, I hadn't showered since Saturday morning since there was no running water until Wednesday morning. I was grateful for my freezing cold shower on Wednesday.

Ava & Aliza playing at Camp Carnival. They LOVED it!

Too funny! "VOMID bags!" I've never seen so many strangers throw up. The ship had these throw up bags taped throughout the ship. Also, notice the lovely hot pink dots. Who on earth was chosen to decorate this ship? I like pink but this looked like Pepto Bismol pills on steroids.

Ashley & Abbey with their camp carnival worker. Even in a catastrophe situation, they were still concerned about their hair and appearance. They cracked me up. Ashley one morning was complaining about how her hair looked. I told her "Honestly Ashley, I swear no one will even notice how your hair looks. They just care about food & being rescued."

At about 2:00 pm, helicopters started the process of dropping loads of water, pop tarts and Spam and other needed supplies. My biggest question is why our ship didn't have a full weeks worth of water and other needed items?

One of the biggest problems was we still didn't have a flushing toilet. Many of the cabins now had flushable toilets. Ours was so bad that we had to pee in our bathroom sinks because I didn't want the toilet to overflow. We met a cute LDS family from Canada that became good friends of ours. He was SO tired of the toilet situation that he personally cleaned out his toilet and dumped out all of the "goodies" into his garbage can and flushed it down a working toilet. He said it was the grossest thing he has ever done. The stench was atrocious but we weren't that desperate, at least not yet!

Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 4 (11/10/10)

Didn't take any pictures on Wednesday. Thankfully, Camp Carnival was open (for all kids ages 2-11) So Ava, Aliza, Abbey & Ashley were there from 11 am until 9 pm. It worked out great. They played games, fed them, made crafts and met several new friends.

Wednesday morning our showers were working and we had water (although it was very cold). At that point, who cares at least I could wash my hair and scrub down. I do my best thinking in the shower (probably it's the only place where I don't have any distractions) The thought popped in my mind from Elder Wirthlin, "Come what may and LOVE it." I had a really good talk with the kids about being positive. We didn't choose for this to happen to our family but let's make the most of it and enjoy it!

The cruise director did a great job and encouraged people to help another. We were all in this tough situation and we should try to be positive and look for ways to help each other.

Jason, Alex & I wandered around the boat and talked with many people. We also went to the top deck and enjoyed the sun and fresh air. Luckily I brought a book I've always wanted to read (True Believer by Nicholas Sparks). I sat on the top deck for several hours and enjoyed reading without distractions and no kids yelling "Mom" every 10 seconds. At this point we had flushing toilets, which was a huge blessing!

The meals were the same cold cereal for breakfast and different types of sandwiches for lunch and dinner. Jason ate cold cut up hot dogs with a nacho cheese sauce on a bun for lunch and actually liked it. As for me, I'm a pickier eater and was grateful for a pastrami sandwich. At this point most of the fruit had a rotting smell from being served over and over. Had an interesting dessert of cut up bread pieces with dried fruit. Not too shabby!

I met a lady that couldn't walk very well because of her bad swollen knee. It was too hard for her to stand in line for food so I told her I'd get her some. She was so happy that I would do this small thing for her. Of course, she had to show me her discolored, swollen knee....once again another thing to be grateful for - my healthy knees!

We were told on Wednesday that we wouldn't arrive to San Diego until Thursday. The plan before was to tow us to Ensenada, Mexico and then bus us to Long Beach. Carnival decided it made more sense to tow us to San Diego since the ship needed to go to San Diego, CA for extensive repairs. We were grateful to go straight to the US and not deal with Mexico and the line to go through customs.

Probably the 1 question I am asked the most is what will Carnival do for us. Here's a list of what we've been offered:

* Full refund of cruise (by the time we got home, luckily this was already credited to our credit card)

* FREE cruise credit equal to total of what was paid to be applied to a future cruise and to be used within 2 years

* Refund of transportation costs to and from our home (bummer that we chose to save $ and drive to California instead of fly, but our gas will be reimbursed)

* Free hotel until Sunday morning (we stayed at a great hotel in Long Beach)

* All food to and from California will be reimbursed

* Any charges made to our "Sign and Sail" card on Sunday were forgiven. (Hence why Ashley & Alex's flip flops were free). Wish I would've purchased more!

* All photos taken by Carnival were put in the photo shop and were given free of charge

* On Tuesday & Wednesday there was unlimited soda and alcohol. Alex was in heaven and probably drank 6-10 cans of Coke per day. At that point, who cares? I also lived on Diet Coke. Of course, many people on the ship took full advantage of the alcohol. However, one lame lady complained about not having her favorite brand of beer. Seriously? We are lucky to be alive!

* All items in the mini bar in our fridge was free (once again more alcohol which was no use to us)

Stranded at Sea-Our family nightmare cruise vacation turned to rescue operation! DAY 5 (11/11/10)

So we woke up Thursday morning to the cruise director announcing that we were almost to San Diego. We quickly looked out the window and it was such a great feeling to see land & buildings! We arrived at about 6:00 am but it took about 4 hours to get to the pier. Tug boats had to get behind the cruise ship and bang into the boat to get it to move. When I jumped out of bed, I didn't see Ava on the sofa bed. Sometime in the middle of the night she must have rolled off the bed. Had to take a picture because I couldn't believe she could still sleep on top of the luggage (see above picture).

This was our view from the top of the ship. All of the cars and people were news reporters trying to take footage of our arrival. We also had several news helicopters circling around us. Abbey was waiving like crazy trying to get her 10 seconds of fame (she is her mother's daughter, right?)

Here's a view from the top of the ship of the tug boat that tugged us from Tuesday to Thursday, the faithful "Chihuahua" from Mexico. We have a new appreciation for tug boats!

A view of the back of our cruise ship.

A view of the open decks and one of the swimming pools. Kids were very disappointed that we never went swimming.

A shot of the water slide. Also was closed the entire time. Another disappointment.

Here's one of the tug boats that pushed into us to get us to the pier.

More shots of the tugs.

And we had to capture a shot of some of the food that was offered to us at our final breakfast. We had no idea what was in the corn tortillas to the left (but lots of "crunchies"-meats (maybe Spam) and "veggies"). No thanks! To the right was a bagel with raw Salmon. Also, no thanks! Luckily every breakfast there was plenty of cold cereal.

During breakfast the president of Carnival apologized to us over the PA system and invited us to take a free cruise on them. He applauded the crew for the way they handled the "FIRE!" Very interesting since the word "fire" was never mentioned the entire cruise until then. We spoke with friends who talked to the coast guard on the ship and they said it truly was a miracle the ship didn't go down because of the intensity of the fire. We really were lucky to be alive! It also was a blessing to stay on the ship instead of needing to jump on the small tender boats.

A quick shot of the kids in our cabin. Notice all of the soda and water we kept, just in case!

Ashley & Ava during our final packing

We got off the ship at about 11:00 am. The one thing good about being on Deck #1 was we were the first deck off the ship! Yippee! Kids were excited to jump on this bus which took us on a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the Long Beach cruise terminal.

In San Diego, they had a veteran's day parade that we drove by. Quite fitting that we were rescued & arrived on Veteran's Day. Had to pause and reflect on the navy on the USS Ronald Reagan that protected us, my dad who fought in Vietnam and my grandpa who fought in World War II. I truly am proud to be an American and grateful for all of those that fight for our freedoms we enjoy!

As soon as we arrived in Long Beach, we were swarmed by news media. Our family was interviewed several times and we were shown on the CBS Los Angeles news. Jason shared his camcorder footage which they downloaded and also showed at home on Channel 2 news.

Abbey & Aliza hanging out on the luggage and waiting for Jason's interviews to end.

Aliza's cute little friend she met in Camp Carnival, Raquel. They became great friends.

Disneyland, Day 1 (11/12/10)

So we decided to salvage this family vacation and take the kids to Disneyland. We went to Southern California August 2009, so it hadn't been too long since our last trip to "The Happiest Place on Earth." Last year was such a great trip and they kids were SO excited to go back. We talked to plenty of people from California that assured us there wouldn't many people this time of the year. Little did we know that all of the kids were out of school on Thurs, 11/11 for Veteran's day and also on Fri, 11/12 as a teacher's furlough day so for Californians this was a 4-day holiday weekend. So long story short, Disneyland was EXTREMELY crowded! It was seriously 4 times more crowded than the year before. I swear every season pass holder was there. And not to mention, it was the very first day that Disneyland was decorated for the holidays. I searched everywhere for discount tickets, but couldn't find any for a 2-day, 2-park hopper pass so we had some serious shock when it cost $936 for our family of 7 (this was even with Ava being free since she wasn't 3 yet!) Ouch!

Jason & I were SO annoyed with people, huge crowds and long lines after being on the cruise ship and standing in long lines for food. We almost went to ask for a refund but then saw our kids faces and knew this wasn't about us but about our kids! So we tried to make the most of it but still had many moments of feeling postal. So please anyone, if I talk of wanting to go to Disneyland within the next 5 years, please stop me!

We've never been to Disneyland during the holidays so it was neat to see it decorated for Christmas. If you're wondering why Aliza is holding her hands, the professional photographer told her to hold her hands so she could hold Tinkerbell. We just went online to view our pictures taken on the Disney pass and in the Disney's professional picture, they cut off Jason's head. Nice! At least we have this one with our camera.

The Main Stree Holiday parade. This picture kinda shows how crowded it was.

Mickey & Minnie ice skating in the Holiday parade on Main Street. Ava loves the TV show "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and was so excited to see Mickey. Unfortunately, when we went to Toontown to get a picture with Mickey they were closing Toontown. I snuck in the backdoor of Mickey's house for her to get a glimpse of Mickey and Mickey waived at her. She still says "Why is Mickey so shy and he didn't talk?" I asked the worker if we could get a quick picture with Mickey and was denied. The mother bear in me wanted to rip his head off and say look buddy if you realized what we've been through this past week you'd let my daughter have a freakin' picture with Mickey. Of course, I said nothing and moved along.

Goofy's gingerbread house/kitchen in the Holiday parade on Main Street

Of course, we had to take a picture by the letter A by the entrance to California Adventure. You can tell how thrilled Alex was!

The girls with Santa. You can tell how thrilled this kid was to be chosen as the "chubbiest teenager that works at Disneyland." I'm laughing at his interaction with children. When I placed Ava on his lap, he just held her one hand to support her.

Who the heck is "Duffy the Disney bear?"

Of course, the girls had to ride the teacup ride. We rode during the fireworks because there was no line! Yee haw!

The girls in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Abbey, Ashley & Aliza in front of "It's a Small World," which was neat to see all lit up with lights. Of course, this is one of the lines that we waited a long, long time in.

Inside of "It's a Small World."

Disneyland, Day 2 (Sat, 11/13/10)

Before we ventured over to Disneyland, we decided to follow the comedian's advice that we met on the cruise and try "Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles." They were craving the food from this restaurant & told us it would change our lives. We're always game for trying new food places plus Jason saw Roscoe's featured on The Food Network. An extra bonus was to find Roscoe's located less than 1 mile from our hotel in Long Beach.

Most of the family enjoyed this delicious chicken breast with a waffle. Yes, it might sound like a crazy combination, but both items were delish! Then again anything would be after our cold, rotting cruise food.

Aliza & Ava at "Dumbo-The Flying Elephant" ride which they loved! And I loved that the wait was only 10 minutes! Wahoo!

Our final picture on our way out of Disneyland (taken at midnight). Might as well get our full $936 dollars worth of Disney! Yes, we stayed until the very last minute! Drove to our hotel & enjoyed a late night dinner at In-N-Out Burger. Woke up the next morning and drove straight home! "There's no place like home! There's no place like home!" I wished I could've clicked my ruby slippers and could've gone straight to my memory foam bed. On the way home, I felt super run down with coldlike symptoms. I felt very irritable and teared up when it hit me that this family vacation didn't quite turn out like we wanted. I think the stress of the situation finally hit me and I was emotionally drained. This trip is one we'll never forget!

Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Here's a great recipe for a moist pumpkin sheet cake with homemade cream cheese icing. Perfect for the holiday season! ENJOY!

Makes: 20-24 servings

INGREDIENTS:

Cake Ingredients:
16 ounces (2 cups) canned solid-pack pumpkin
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
5 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cups powdered confectioner's sugar
2-4 teaspoons milk

Instructions:
1. Beat pumpkin, sugar, and oil. Add eggs, mixing well.
2. In another bowl, combine dry cake ingredients and stir to mix. Add to pumpkin mixture and beat well.
3. Pour batter into greased 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool on a wire rack (in the pan); cover with a towel after about 15 minutes of cooling.
4. To make frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. Gradually add sugar, mixing well. Add milk until frosting reaches desired thickness.

Aliza, future mommy....

Aliza is at such a fun age and always has us laughing. My sister, Melissa, took this picture of her when she was watching the kids. Melissa sent me this picture of Aliza and included this in the email: Yesterday I was doing dishes and Aliza really wanted to help. She scrubbed while I rinsed. It was so cute. While we were doing dishes Aliza said, "When I a mommy one day I going to have 2 babies...I am going to name the first one Kate and the second one Sparkles. I don't want a daddy though.". When I asked her why she didn't want a daddy she said because then I will
have to kiss him. Too FUNNY!

Ashley, our cupcake maker

JUNE 4, 2009

Ashley loves to bake & has mastered the art of cooking cakes and cupcakes. One of the things she'd like to be when she's older is a chef.

Abbey, our tree climber

MAY 30, 2009

Abbey loves to climb this tree in our front yard. She's always been a climber & a little monkey.

Blocked Tear Duct Surgery for Ava

MAY 28, 2009

Ever since Ava was born, she constantly had a blocked tear duct. Our pediatrician always told me at her checkups to massage the tear duct with my finger. I'd constantly do this, but it remained clogged. When she had a cold, her eyes were always goopy. At her 18-month check up he referred us to Dr. Hoffman, an opthamologist at Primary Children's Hospital. After seeing Dr. Hoffman, he definately recommended the blocked tear duct surgery. So on May 28, 2009, Ava had this procedure done at Primary Children's Hospital. I was a little nervous since it was the first time any of our children had been put under or had surgery. After the surgery, Dr. Hoffman told me her eyes were definately blocked and he even had to use a balloon procedure to open the ducts up more.

When the anethesiologist slowly woke her up, she was fighting & screaming for me. I still nursed her at the time, so it was good to be able to comfort her with the "na-na's" as she calls them! So grateful everything went smoothly!

Ava right before her surgery (not quite sure what she was in for!)

Lagoon Field Trip with Ashley

MAY 22, 2009

(Hallie, Camri, Ashley, Jessica & Hannah-pictured left to right)

I went with Ashley on her field trip to Lagoon. We explored around pioneer village and searched the various houses and stores to find certain things. We had a great time. Probably one of the better field trips I've been on.

Clock shop at Pioneer Village, (Hannah, Jessica, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Brynna & Summer, pictured left to right)

Jessica, Ashley & Hannah at one of the pioneer homes

Hannah, Jessica & Ashley in the pioneer jail

Camri, Hannah, Jessica, Ashley & Hallie riding the Rattlesnake Rapids

Ashley's friend, Jessica's dad works at Lagoon and he let them ride the rattlesnake rapids. They were so excited.