Scrapbook Shopping in Tampa

What a fun day we had yesterday, went to two scrapbook stores in Tampa. Started the day by waking up Riley as soon as I got to the apartment, and I mean I woke him up. He usually has his eyes open when I go in to get him but this morning he was all curled up in the corner of his crib just enjoying dreamland and this mean monster came and pulled him out of the crib. He didn't even want to open his eyes and just kept scrunching his face up, very cute.


Got him fed, bathed, and dressed, and we were all ready to go when Tammy showed up. Drove over the Jodi and Robert's, put the carseat in their car and we were off. Didn't hit much traffic and the first scrapbook store was very easy to find. They had lots of stuff and it was a huge store. We were the only ones there the whole time. Robert walked to a farmers market type store and got some mango salsa and cuban bread so we were all happy. Most of all Riley because he was out of his carseat and being pushed in the stroller, although I think he would have liked to have been running around the store.


Then it was off to the next scrapbook store. This is where the fun on the road started. We had to go up around the airport and the road was a mess. Left exits and right exits and we were always in the wrong lane but we finally made it to our exit and all was well. Had no problems finding this store either and again lots of stuff but very crowded here. Still found stuff we had to have.

By this time we were all pretty hungry especially the little boy. Stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch and although Riley wanted our sandwiches he was very happy with his ravioli and sweet potatoes and carrots. I don't think I have ever seen him eat so fast, he was very hungry. Now that our bellies were full it was time to head home. The ride home was very uneventful and went pretty quickly. All in all it was a great day.

Fun Times in Norway

This was Tromso, Norway. We were beginning to think that we would never make it to the top of the mountain.

Started the trek where the ship's shuttle bus dropped up off on the other side of the water. Lots of people were looking to take the bus across the bridge, but not us, it didn't look that far, we had all day, and the weather was beautiful. So off we went on foot. The hike across the bridge wasn't bad, a bit windy but that just made it more comfortable walking. It was also nice to see when we reached the top of the bridge that the long side was the part we had just walked up so going back would be very easy.

The first stop was at the Arctic Cathedral (in the picture of Dan above it is the white triangle just behind him). It was a very beautiful church, very simple painted white inside with light stain woodwork. The stained glass window in the rear of the church took up the whole wall and was beautiful.

Now we were in search of an ATM, so asked the clerk working in the gift shop at the Cathedral and he told us we would find one in the shopping center just down the street about 400-600 meters. So we are talking 1/2 mile at the most. To make a semi-long story short we figure it was closer to a mile but we did find it and were able to get some more kroners. Which we needed to be able to take the cable car to the top of the mountain.

Once done with the ATM we had to retrace our steps to the Cathedral and then walk up to the cable cars. Really don't understand why the cable cars start in the middle of the mountain and not at the bottom but that is what these did. Finally made it to the top and it was well worth the hike up to ride the cable car. The view was fantastic.

We had a good time taking these shots. I took the one of Dan and of course I had to ask him to back up a couple of feet because that is what we do. Usually though there is a fence to prevent you from falling off the mountain but here there was nothing just a drop down about 100 feet or so. As I was asking Dan to back a couple walked behind us and just started laughing and the woman told me to be sure I had his wallet before he took his steps back. I was still laughing about it when Dan took my picture.

The picture of us in the snow was another fun one and if anyone was watching I'm sure we provided them with something to talk about for the rest of the day. From the time we got off the cable car and Dan saw there was snow further up the mountainside he wanted to go up to see it. Well the first patches we saw we quite a ways away and I really didn't want to hike up that far. But when we rounded on of the corners on the trail there was a patch. Not to far away but enough of a distance so not everyone was running over there to see it. Dan got there first, I was dragging my feet looking at the flowers along the way and hoping Dan would just look at the snow and walk back to me and we would be done with the patch of snow. But no, he scopes out the area and sits on the rock waiting for me. I get there and he asks me to set up the camera to take a picture of us. The rock that would be the acting tripod was a ways from the rock we would be sitting on, but beggars can't be choosers. I set everything up and hoped that we were at least in the frame. I wasn't going to lie on the ground to check it out. So hit the shutter button and run, well the snow was slippery and hard to run on and of course the camera went of just as I was turning to sit down, viola, the only butt shot of the vacation and I took it of myself. So I told Dan he would have to do it because I wasn't going to make the running on snow trip again. Dan presses the shutter, runs, makes it to the rock, and we wait and wait and wait. Well he didn't push the button hard enough. So back he goes for the third time is a charm shot and what you see above is what we got. We were laughing pretty hard by the end of all this and i guess it was worth hiking up to the snow patch, (but don't tell Dan that).

That was it for the top of the mountain, rode the cable car back down and walked back across the bridge and headed to a museum that everyone was talking about to see if it was the one Dan wanted to see. Well turned out to be more of an aquarium and not the polar exploration we were looking for. This lead to the most expensive bathroom break of the trip. Dan went into a 7-11 type store to use the bathroom and bought a Coke Light, a $5.00 Coke Light. At least it tasted better then the coke light we would get in Spain when we were there.

Back to the shuttle and the ship, this was quite a day and we had lots of fun.

Lunchtime

I finally gave up and turned the spoon over to Riley at lunch yesterday. Put the last 5 raviolis on the tray and let him have at it. Well, the right end of the spoon made it into his mouth and the raviolis made it in too, but they never made it in at the same time. Fingers are still the main eating utensil for Riley right now.

Riley has been doing lots of new things since we returned from vacation; first he he walking so much better, he can stand up without using the furniture or me to pull up on, this past week he said dada when Andy walked in the door from work. Then of course there are the funny things, like Friday he would go into his room and close the door and a soon as the door clicked shut he would start crying because he couldn't get it open and get out. This was really funny because he just kept doing it, over and over. Also when we went for our walk he heard the ducks quacking and just thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard. This week we are going to try to remember to take some bread so we can feed the ducks and see what happens then.

Last week end we had a get together for Dan's and Dad's birthday and as always Publix outdid themselves on the cake, it was delicious. Dan and Nikki enjoyed the ice cream cake from Cravel also. Then on Sunday Dan and I did our favorite thing, shopping at the commissary, wasn't to bad but the trip home always seems so long.

Got our pictures from Norway and I will be starting to work on the album for them, there are some beautiful shots and I got some nice enlargements.

Who Is This Birthday Boy?

Hard to believe that Dan is turning 52 today, but even harder to believe he was ever this young. Reminds me of new little boy we have running around. Happy Birthday Dan!

She Did It!!!

Nikki graduated on August 4, 2007 and we are all so proud of her, now a year off and then on to Law School. The graduation was very nice, not to long, but we were there early so we could get good seats and they were great seats except we were on the wrong side of the auditorium. We finally found where she was sitting but it took us a bit, thank goodness we had Andy because he was the one that picked her out.

More good news, Nikki found out this week that she got the job at the Law Office that she interviewed for last week. She will be starting on Monday the 13th. Pretty exciting.

Riley Walking

Click on the square to the right that is label powered by google to see Riley walking. He is so cute when he is walking around and very rarely crawls.

Missed Everyone

I love this picture of Riley, it is my favorite expression that he has. He just gets so excited, his whole body shakes and he scrunches up his whole face into a smile.



On to our vacation. The start was not very good. We had been sitting around the house just waiting to go to the airport and we couldn't take it any longer. So loaded up and headed out. Chris dropped us at departures and we got all our luggage and went to check-in. There was no line and we were thinking this is great, handed the guy our tickets and passports and the first thing he says is "Your flight has been delayed 24 hours", we were kind of at a loss for words and just stared at him. He is busy poking away at his keyboard, gets on the phone and reports that we can get on an earlier flight but boarding starts in about 40 minutes. So off we go to try and get through security and to the gate.



Of course the line for security is huge and to us looks to be standing still, but it really wasn't and we were through in about 15 minutes. When we got to the found that this flight had been delayed for about an hour so we had a reprieve and were able to get some water to take on the plane with us. Once we got on the plane our luck got even better. Thought that the flight would be jammed packed full but we ended up with an empty seat next to us, so I moved over and the center seat became our staging area for blankets (which we really needed about froze on the flight) i-pods, video games, magazines, and books. It was great.



Will continue this later.