Lisapants here.  I had a great Mother's Day on Sunday.  This feels like my first official Mother's Day.  Joshua was born a few days before Mother's Day last year, and I was still flush with leftover pregnancy hormones that left me irrationally and uncontrollably emotional.  It wasn't a good day just because I had to work so hard not to break down crying every five minutes.  Anyway, this year was much more enjoyable.  I didn't want anything that cost money, so Adam gave me an awesome back and shoulder rub and made me the world's biggest ice cream cookie sandwich.



It is so big, it requires a pie plate to assemble.



Here is a cross-section pic so you can see just how big the top and bottom cookies are.  Crazy, but so yummy!

I hope all of you mothers and mothers-to-be had a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day!

Lisapants here.  We celebrated Joshua's first birthday yesterday.  We had a party with family and friends yesterday afternoon/evening and had a grand old time.  My parents came in the morning and helped Adam with a lot of yardwork, which was much appreciated.  Adam's brother Kacy and his girlfriend Krissy came, our friend Kim Paden came with her new fiance Phi, Adam's parents drove over from Yakima, my brother Kevin and his family came, and our friends Anika and Sean (with their son in utero) came as well.  We had a houseful, and it was fun to chat with everyone.

We had a BBQ with hotdogs and chicken with our own special garlic and lime marinade.  It was oh-so-delicious.  Everyone brought salads or chips or drinks, and we had ourselves a feast.

Next we opened presents.



Of course, Joshua likes the bag better than the actual present.



He got some fun books.



He also got a shirt my mom made him and some new overalls, along with a few different sets of blocks with different shapes that you try to fit in the right holes.



He almost got the hang of ripping off the wrapping paper.



He also got a kiddie inflatable pool, which should be a lot of fun this summer, if the sun ever decides to show up.

After presents, it was time for cake and ice cream!



This is the cake I made for Joshua.  I wanted to make an airplane cake and looked in my mom's cake decorating books and on the internet for ideas and found the design for this little airplane cake online.  I took their idea and designed my own cake around it.  My mom helped me with the borders (I can never get that squiggly border on top to look right no matter how many times I try), my dad helped me get the runway right, and Adam made the propeller for the plane.



We stripped Joshua down to his diaper, put him in his new high chair, lit the candle and sang "Happy Birthday."  Joshua got the little airplane all to himself.  Now that I think about it, I don't think we gave him any ice cream.  Oh well.  There's always leftovers.



This is new and interesting.



He liked playing with the frosting.



Some did eventually make it to his mouth.



Ryan thinks it's only fair to share.  Just wait a few months, little guy, then it will be your turn.



This is about as messy as he got.  He was pretty careful about the whole process.  No throwing fistfuls of cake on the floor, no stuffing fistfuls of cake in his mouth, just lots of frosting everywhere.  Afterwards we threw him in the bathtub and hosed him down.

Later that night Anika, Sean, Kacy, and Krissy stayed and played a few rounds of our new favorite game, Bang!  It was good times.  All in all, we had a great day!


***********

In other news, Joshua is healing well from his surgery.  All the pain seems to be gone, and Joshua has gotten used to his new mouth and nose, and the fact that they are separated now.  Everything is pretty much back to normal.  He is able to eat very well, and is also sleeping well again.  He thinks his sneezes are hilarious.  I guess he is tickled by the fact that nothing comes up from his mouth and through his nose anymore when he sneezes.  It's pretty funny to watch the huge grin and giggles he gets after he sneezes.  He is a funny little guy.

He has three more teeth coming in: the bicuspid and canine on the upper right side, and the bicuspid on the upper left side.  He also got his second haircut on Friday night.  He screamed through the whole thing.  He isn't walking yet, but he crawls around pretty quickly.  He usually squeals when he crawls, especially when he's trying to chase the kitties, but he can be pretty stealthy, too.  Sometimes I'll be at the sink doing the dishes and before I know it, he is all the way down the hall and in the bathroom in our room, all without making a sound.  He's getting better at balancing by himself and walks pretty well holding on to our fingers.  He certainly keeps me on my toes.



This past month he has discovered the lid drawer.  It quickly became his new favorite toy.






Our kitchen floor is usually littered with lids.  It's funny to watch him pick up the lids out of the drawer and throw them behind him over and over again.  Throwing things behind him has kind of become his new favorite thing to do with anything he picks up: toys, diapers and clothes from the diaper bag, anything he can reach on the coffee table, etc.

It is so much fun to watch him in this transition period as he goes from being a baby and becomes a toddler.  His personality is developing more everyday and he is always making us laugh.  It's interesting to watch him try to communicate, especially these past few weeks.  He just seems so much more eager and animated.  I can tell there are things he wants to say, he just doesn't have the words yet.  Life is definitely an adventure with a growing boy in the house!  I can't believe he's already a year old!!

Lisapants here.  On the eve of our firstborn's first birthday, I've been reminiscing about the events of a year ago.  I can't believe it's already been a year.  Since I wasn't a big blogger back then, I thought I would share some pics.



This was two days after my due date.  Joshua was born 5 days later.



In the hospital, waiting for the cytotec to kick in.



No wonder it took 2 1/2 hours to push him out.  He's a big boy!



So sleepy.



Three days old and still in the hospital hooked up to his IV.  We had to wait the weekend at St. Joseph's before he could be transferred to Tacoma General (Mary Bridge) for his swallow study, which would determine the best way for him to eat.



Finally, after two weeks in the hospital, we all get to go home!!

Anyway, I was just waxing nostalgic about the birth of our son and the events afterwards and everything we went through physically and emotionally.  I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane with these pictures.

Lisapants here.  We were able to bring Joshua home yesterday morning.  All things considered, he is doing pretty well.  Here are some pictures of everything.



Playing with toys in the waiting room before they called him back for surgery.



As usual, he is the center of attention, especially with the grandparents.



Sportin' a stylish hospital gown and socks.  He still has no idea what is going to happen.  The anesthesiologist came and talked to us for a minute, then took him back to the OR and we went back out to the waiting room to wait.

After the surgery was over, the surgeon came to talk to us and told us everything went very well.  Joshua was in the recovery room for a couple of hours.  In the mean time, we were able to go to his hospital room and get everything situated for when he would come, and also eat a little lunch.



They finally wheeled him into the room, and as soon as he saw us, he wanted no more of being stuck in his crib.  He still had bloody mucus coming out his nose and bloody saliva oozing out his mouth and dried blood crusted in his ears.  It was a little gruesome at first.  He just needed lots of cuddle time, though.  The splints on his arms keep him from putting his hands in his mouth.  He is supposed to wear them for the next two weeks or so whenever he isn't being directly supervised by us.



His lips were really swollen, too.



Poor little guy!  I think his face says it all.  The red sock is covering his IV so he can't pull it out.  He was able to drink a mixture of Pedialyte and glucose water, and once he held it down for an hour the nurse said we could start giving him formula.  He drank a little, but wasn't really interested in it.



He was pretty agitated when he got to the room, so the nurse gave him some morphine.  He slept fitfully for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  He didn't like it in his crib because he would wake himself up and start to cry.  I held him in the rocking chair for most of the time, and then my mom held and rocked him for a while while Adam and I took a break and went out in search of ice cream.

My cousin Ben and his family live near University Village, which is just down the road from the hospital.  They were out of town this weekend and offered their apartment to us if we needed a close place to stay.  I was planning to stay in the hospital with Joshua, but Adam is not a fan of hospital pull-out couch/beds and was planning to go to Ben and Cami's house for the night.  When it was looking like the only way Joshua was going to sleep was being rocked in someone's arms, we quickly realized I couldn't do it all night by myself.  My mom was willing to stay, but Adam decided to tough it out on the uncomfortable bed and stay with me in the hospital.  Ben and Cami, we really appreciate the offer of your house, even though we didn't end up using it.  Thank you!

After that first dose of morphine, his pain meds included Tylenol with codeine that he got every four hours, and later they started an IV form of Motrin that he got every 6 hours.  He finally was able to sleep restfully in his crib at about 9pm and it looked like we were going to be able to get a little sleep after all.  He woke up a couple times during the night and each time I would rock him and try to get him to drink a little formula.  He would drink an ounce here and there, but not much.  When he woke up at 3:30am, things were starting to change.  He drank, and kept wanting more until he had drunk 5 ounces.  Yay!  He was also smiling and playing peek-a-boo after he was done, and I knew my Joshua was back.  He fell back asleep until the morning and drank 4 more ounces of formula and ate some baby cereal and some other baby food.  His temperament had improved dramatically, as well.  He was back to being a busy body, which is a little difficult when you are attached to an IV. 



He played in his crib while we waited for his surgeon's resident to come check him out and determine if he could be discharged.






The doctor came around 8:15am, and Joshua was not a fan.  I think he recognized the surgical scrubs and didn't want any part of it.  It was good in a way, though, because he started to cry and that was just what the doctor needed him to do so he could look in his mouth and check things out.  He said everything looked good and since Joshua seemed to be eating fine, we would be able to go home.



We were out of there a couple hours later.  We swung by the hospital pharmacy on the way out to get his pain meds and antibiotics.  He has Tylenol with codeine for the pain, and amoxicillin to fight against infection, I guess.

I'm really surprised by how well Joshua is handling the recovery process.  Yesterday he ate pretty well and was pretty good natured, except when we had to give him his medication.  He HATES taking medicine orally.  Today, he was a little more grumpy and out of it.



He cuddled like this with Adam for a while, just staring into space.  He's not eating as much today, either.  I think yesterday he realized he was starving because he hadn't really eaten all day Friday.  Now he's not starving anymore and doesn't want to eat very much.  I know it's only been two days since his surgery and things are probably still pretty tender in there.  I try to get him to drink and much as I can so he can at least stay hydrated.  We'll see how things go in the next few days as he continues to heal.

We are so glad he was able to have this surgery to repair the cleft palate and get tubes in his ears.  Now he won't have hearing loss and he will be able to eat better and be able to make more sounds as he learns how to talk.  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  We really appreciate all the support!!

Lisapants here.  Joshua is out of surgery and the surgeon said all went well.  He's in the recovery room until he wakes up from the anesthesia and we'll see him when they bring him to his regular hospital room.  He'll stay in the hospital over night and if all continues to go well, we can bring him home tomorrow!

Lisapants here.  We're just sitting here in the waiting room at the Surgery Center at Childrens Hospital.  We got here at around 9:20 this morning, and they brought Joshua back around 10am.  Adam and I went with him and changed him into his tiny hospital gown and little socks and waited for the nurses and anesthesiologists to come talk to us.  When they were ready, they took Joshua back to the OR and we went back out to the waiting room to wait.  Adam's parents and my mom are here waiting with us.  They took him to the OR at about 10:20am and said it would take about 2 hours, which is right about now.  Just waiting.

Lisapants here. I don’t think there are very many things that are more sad than a baby casket. Yesterday we went to the funeral for Baby Tabitha. Our friends Stephanie and Matt Tyler had their second baby girl in January, and last week she died from SIDS. It is very sad and heartbreaking to see our friends hurting so much as they grieve the loss of their little one. As a new mother, I can’t even imagine what they are going through. My heart goes out to them along with our prayers. It will take a long time to heal.

Lisapants here with some random funny stuff that has happened lately.



The hazards of a grandma with lipstick.



This was at Erik and Gina's house in Yakima when we were there last weekend.  They have three cats that aren't afraid of people (like our cats are) and just love any kind of attention they can get.  Especially this cat, Mr. B.  Even though Joshua is pulling his whiskers and trying to eat his ear, Mr. B just sat there purring away and loving every minute of it.  Joshua was in kitty heaven with cats that actually let him touch (maul) them.

Joshua's favorite game lately has been to crawl down the hall or toward something he knows he isn't supposed to get into (like the cat food) then stop and look behind him to see if I am coming after him.  If he sees me coming, he takes off crawling as fast as he can while laughing like a maniac until I catch him.

Lisapants here.  Joshua is 11 months old today!  It's been about a month and a half (not including Easter) since I've posted some pictires of him, so here are some from the past few months.



This was when he was 10 months old.  Since he started crawling at the beginning of February, he's just gotten faster and faster.  He loves to try to chase the kitties, but they are too smart for him.  He still loves trying to catch them, though.



He has been more and more interested in trying to feed himself, which means his feedings are getting more and more messy.  I think this one above was baby food green beans.



And this one was black beans.  I squish them in my fingers and he just goes to town.  He loves them!



He also loves bath time.  Frankie is very curious, but is careful to stay out of the way of little baby hands.  As I said above, Joshua just LOVES the cats and laughs at them when ever he sees them.



I love me a baby in overalls!



Yesterday I put a little gel in his hair to see how high it would stand up.  Later that afternoon we went to my brother's house (they have clippers) to give Joshua his first haircut.  Well, technically, his first haircut was when he was about a week old in the hospital and they had to shave part of the side of his head to put a PICC line in.



Here we go, getting ready.  Joshua doesn't look so sure about the whole thing.  He was actually in a pretty cranky mood to start with.  He didn't get his afternoon nap, and he was tired.  I held him in my lap and Adam buzzed his head as best he could, considering all the screaming and squirming.



Sad faces!

Since the clippers were out, Kevin and Brandie decided to give Ryan a haircut, too.  He had already had one before, and he just sat there calmly, showing Joshua what's what.  After dinner, they were both pretty tired and cranky and in no mood to play together.



After a little while, they warmed up and played for a little while until it was time to leave.



11 months old today!

I noticed the other day that he has another tooth coming in.  It's the bicuspid on the top right.  That explains why he's been so drooly lately.  Joshua loves to use his teeth to bite anything in his reach, including my legs, arms and shoulders.  Usually he doesn't bite very hard, but lately, he's been digging in a little harder, and it's starting to hurt.  I know it's just a game and a way to interact for him and that there is no malice behind it, but we're trying to teach him not to bite.  Hopefully he will learn soon.  He also loves practicing his ninja skills by coming from nowhere to swipe our glasses off our faces.  He loves to crawl and pull himself up onto anything he can reach.  He hates to be confined and always wants to be on the move.  He cruises along things holding on with just one hand, and sometimes he lets go and balances by himself before grabbing a hold again or falling down.

I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

Lisapants here.  So, it was my birthday last Thursday, on April 3rd.  I am now 31 years old!  I don't feel like I'm in my 30's.  Oh well.  I had a pretty usual day hanging out with Joshua.  Adam brought home pizza and a Cold Stone ice cream cake.  It was yummy!  He got me some games and a knife block for some really good knives we're collecting.  On Saturday, we went out to lunch with my parents and my brother and his family.  We went to Chevy's in Tacoma.



Somehow it slipped that we were there celebrating my birthday. Towards the end of the meal we heard the clapping from afar and all the waiters came to sing Happy Birthday and put a silly sombrero on my head.  I got an iTunes gift card and some cash from my family.  I want to use the money towards getting a bike and a stand that lets your ride it indoors.  I've looked a little on Craig's list and it seems like I can get what I want for pretty cheap.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTDAY to me!!
And thanks, Michelle, for your call.  The above line is just for you

Lisapants here.  One consequence of Joshua's cleft palate is that the fluid in his ears can't drain and becomes a breeding ground for infections.  Fortunately, he didn't get his first ear infections until a little over a month ago when he got infections in both ears.  He had to go through two different antibiotics to clear up the infection.  His originally scheduled surgery was supposed to be right after the second round of antibiotics, during which tubes would have been put in his ears which would allow them to drain properly and he wouldn't have such a problem with infections.  But, the surgery was postponed, and this past week Joshua has been tugging at his ears again.  (He also got another cold.  GRRRR.  He has a month to get over it before his rescheduled surgery date.)  Anyway, he was getting more and more irritable these past few days, so we decided not to wait until Monday to call his doctor to try to get an appointment and get another prescription for his infections.  Yesterday afternoon we headed to the Group Health Urgent Care Center in Tacoma to have a doctor look at him and get him started on the medication.

When we got to the clinic, the signs said there was a 3-hour wait to see a doctor.  As we were checking in at 4:45pm, the wait was changed to 4 hours.  There were people waiting in the lobby, but it didn't seem like it would take FOUR HOURS for a doctor to see all of them.  When the triage nurse was checking out Joshua, she was looking at the waiting list and thought it would only take two hours to get in.  We decided to wait it out.  I had a bottle for Joshua, but I wasn't prepared to spend the evening in the lobby of the Urgent (HAH!) Care clinic, so Adam walked down the block to 7-11 to get some Cheerios for Joshua and some snacks for us.  And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I understand that they treat people in order of medical urgency, but there didn't seem to be anyone there with a super urgent problem.  When we had been there for three hours, we were finally called back to the exam room, where we waited some more.

For another HOUR!

Four hours after we got to the clinic, the doctor came in and spent SEVEN MINUTES looking in Joshua's ears and writing a prescription for the medication.  I honestly don't understand why it takes so long to see a handful of people, and why they bring people back to the exam rooms when they clearly aren't ready for them.  I just don't get it.  Well, Joshua got his medicine, so hopefully his infection can clear up with just one round and he can get feeling better again.  If we can just make it to April 25th, all this business with ear infections will be over, I hope!

Lisapants here, shivering.  Spring supposedly started last week, but it's been unseasonable cold these past few weeks.  I've noticed the popcorn trees are starting to bloom, though, so that's a promising sign of warmer days to come.  But then came Wednesday night when it started SNOWING - and snowing hard - for a couple hours.




The poor popcorn tree across the street.



The tree in our back yard.

I like snow and all, but I am DONE being cold.  I'm so ready for spring because then it means summer is right around the corner!

Also on Wednesday night, around 9pm, the power went out.  It came back on again by the time Adam left for work, but then Thursday morning it went out again for almost four hours.



The snow was still on the ground Thursday morning, too.  It melted by the afternoon, just in time for it to start snowing again.  It snowed off and on for the rest of the day.  It didn't stick anymore, but it was still COLD.  It snowed most of the morning on Friday, too.  Enough already!!  Fortunately, it hasn't snowed since Friday.  Unfortunately, it's still dang cold.  It's almost APRIL, people.  Where is my nice mild spring?  Where is my hope of summer and warmer days?  Where, I ask you?!?

Lisapants here.  When I was looking through old pictures from 10 years ago, I had a good chuckle when I came across this:



This was during his freshman year at BYU.  Enjoy!!

Lisapants here.  I've been tagged by my sister-in-law, Brandie. 

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they are tagged.

10 years ago I was:
Almost done with my third year at BYU and getting ready to go on my mission later that year.
 


This was in Nauvoo during a family vacation we took right after Winter semester ended that year.


5 things on my to do list today:
I don't really keep a to do list, which is probably why I'm a little unorganized.


Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
A billion dollars?  A BILLION dollars?!?  Really, what couldn't you do with a billion dollars?  Of course I would pay off all our debts and those of our friends and family.  We would set up college funds for Joshua and pay for the education of friends and family.  We would buy a HUGE piece of property and build our dream house with the ultimate kitchen, a great craft room, a game room, a media room, and an awesome home gym.  I would also hire a maid.  The property would include our own little air strip so Adam could fly his new plane (after he takes his flying lessons, of course).  Any of our friends and family that wanted to build on our property are welcome to do so, on us, natch.  We could have our own little compound.  We would invest enough so we could live off the interest.  We would open a bakery and invest in the business ventures of our friends and family.  Of course we would travel with friends and family and see the world, take cruises, road trips, etc. Also I would donate to the Church and various childrens hospitals and other charities.


3 of my bad habits:
I procrastinate.
I don't handle stress well.
I clam up when I'm frustrated and don't talk it out.


5 places I've lived:
Provo, UT
Kent, WA
Federal Way, WA
Spanaway, WA
Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Wasilla, AK


5 jobs I've had:
Payroll coordinator at GES
Temp worker
Recreation staff at RAH
Custodian at BYU
Grounds crew at BYU


Something most people don't know about me:
I am a total night owl.  I would rather stay up late to get something done than wake up early and finish it.  I love sleeping in.


I tag:
Since I only know of a handful of people who read our blog regularly, I feel limited in who I can tag.  Michelle has done a few of these recently, so I tag Dean.  I also tag Cami (Roni).  And Susannah, you've made a comment here before, so if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Lisapants here, telling the last chapter (finally! this has taken me a few weeks to write, too) of our Ships and Dip III Cruise EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!1!!  Well, Friday morning meant we were back in Miami and it was time to get off the boat.  On the last cruise we were on (for part of our honeymoon), debarkation was a complete circus, a crowded mess.  This time, though, everything was pretty smooth.  We got off the ship with hardly a delay and the line to go through customs wasn't very long, either.

Our flight back home didn't leave Miami until late that evening, so we had the whole day to explore.  It was a beautiful day with lots of warm sunshine.  We took a shuttle from the cruise dock to the Hertz rental car location in downtown.  There was a big crowd waiting for the Hertz shuttles, so it took us a little while to get there.  Once we got to the location, Adam waited in line while I found a window sill to sit in and wait for him.  It was kind of crazy.  There were lots of people milling about on the sidewalk, either waiting for those in line or waiting for rental cars to be delivered.  One couple (from our cruise) got there a little after us and the wife got in line and the husband came over and shared my window sill.  He had to go talk to his wife a couple times and asked me to watch his stuff while he was away.  When he came back, he asked it we had been able to see the Brothers Creeggan on the cruise.  I told him we hadn't, and he asked if I wanted to watch a recording he had made of them.  I said sure, why not.  He had video taped them during a performance in the Atrium, and had already loaded the video onto his iPod Touch.  He got out his iPod and Bose headphones (nice!), and I listened to the Brothers Creeggan while I waited for Adam to get through the line at the rental car counter.  They were pretty cool.  It was nice to be able to watch the video of the performance, too, instead of just listening to them like on a CD or something.  The band is made up of Jim Creeggan (bassist for BNL) and his brother Andy Creeggan (former member of BNL).  This performance also had Ed Robertson (of BNL) on drums and Kurt Swinghammer on guitar.  I liked them.  I'm not sure how I would describe their music, maybe folksy.  It made me wish we had been able to go to one of their shows on the cruise.

Adam finally got through the line and came out to find me and wait for our rental car to be delivered.  He got to listen and watch a little on the iPod before the car came.  We had originally signed up for a Toyota Corolla, but they were out or something by the time we got there, so we got a free upgrade to a Honda Accord.  It was VERY nice.  As we were loading our things in it, a swarm of police cars converged on our street and cops got out with guns drawn and ran past us towards a building behind us.  We had no desire to stick around and find out what was happening, so we jumped in the car and got as far away as possible as quickly as possible.

Adam's Comments: Since the only knowledge I had of Miami came from either Miami Vice or CSI: Miami, I was pretty sure we had a really good chance of getting shot just wandering around the city. And what should happen within the first hour of being in the city? A group of cops converging on our location with pistols. It's funny when I look back on it, but it was a little harrowing at the time.

There were a bunch of things on our list of things to do in Miami and the area.  We wanted to drive down to Key Largo and check it out, and some internet friends gave us some good ideas to check out the neighborhood in Coral Gables and find some Cuban food.  I also wanted to see South Beach, just to say I've seen it.  We quickly found Highway 1 (Dixie Highway) and made our way south towards Key Largo.  For those of you from the Federal Way area, it ended up being like taking Pacific Highway the whole way.  As we drove we listened to a promotional CD of Griffin House that someone had slid under our cabin door at one point during the cruise.  We didn't have a chance to hear him during the cruise, and as it turns out, we weren't missing much.  He was good, he wasn't terrible, but he sounded like hundreds of other acts out there right now.  There was nothing that grabbed my attention.  After a little detour where I thought Coral Gables was (it turned out I was reading the map wrong), we made our way down the highway and eventually made it to Key Largo.  Our mission was to find some key lime pie.  There was a little road side stand on the other side of the road, but we kept driving for a while.  We eventually made it to the town of Islamorada on Plantation Key before we turned around.  We drove down a residential street until we hit the water just to check out the view.






I could handle living there if I had that view in my front yard.

Adam's Comments: The cool view at the end of this cul-de-sac is only slightly spoiled by the knowledge that this area gets hit pretty regularly by hurricanes and severe tropical storms.... I would definitely NOT want to live there for that reason alone. I was kind of surprised at the feel of the place. After decades of hearing about the Florida Keys, I thought they would be a lot like South Beach or something. Not even close. Key Largo reminded me more of Ocean Shores, Washington, than anything else. One main drag going through a sleepy little rural town that is separated from the rest of civilization by a long drive. It was kind of neat, but just not at all what I expected.

We headed back up to Key Largo and stopped at the road side shop and bought a couple souvenirs and some key lime pie.  We wanted to go to the State park up the road to our pie on the beach, but there was a fee to get in, and we weren't willing to pay it.  We found a parking lot down the road to stop in and enjoy our pie.  This parking lot happened to be for another souvenir shop that also sold something they advertised as "Key Lime Pie Pops" (as I remember it.  Adam doesn't remember the description like that.)  We were intrigued, so went inside to investigate.  It turns out they put a piece of key lime pie on a popsicle stick and dip it in CHOCOLATE!  Well, what else was there to do but try one?  It was delectable.  I personally would have never put lime with chocolate, but it worked really well together.  I loved it!

Adam's Comments: The state park entrance fee was like $6.00, and all we wanted to do was eat our pie while looking out at the ocean. I was not willing to pay $6.00 just to sit in the car and look at the ocean just long enough to eat our pie. I am pretty sure that what Lisa calls Key Lime Pie Pops were called "Key Lime Pie on a Stick" when I first saw the sign for them. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. They were still amazing. My favorite version of Key Lime Pie ever.

We headed back up to Miami, but this time we took the turnpike instead of the highway.  It was MUCH faster.  It also took us right past Coral Gables, so we got off and wandered around a little bit.  Our internet friend suggested looking at the cool old neighborhoods in Coral Gables, but wasn't any more specific than that.  We weren't sure exactly where these neighborhoods were, so we drove around a little.  There were a couple streets we drove down that had some cool old houses, so we thought maybe that was it.  Then we turned onto Coral Way and after a few blocks, we drove right into the old neighborhoods.  It was pretty obvious once we found them.  There was a canopy of really old trees over all the streets, and the houses were beautiful.



This is one of the smaller streets a couple blocks away from Coral Way.  I wish I had taken some pictures of the houses.  You can't really see them from the street like this because the trees are in the way.  You have to look down the driveways and between trees.  They were really cool.

Adam's Comments: The Florida Turnpike is a tollway, of which we have very few out here in the Western United States. And I am very grateful for that. I hate having to stop every few miles at a tollbooth. Coral Gables was really interesting. The difference between the streets and houses there, and the streets and houses in the rest of Miami is dramatic. Night and day. Kind of like comparing the houses on Mercer Island with those in Rainier Beach (for those of you familiar with Washington). Or comparing the Beer Baron Mansions on the lake shore in Milwaukee with the ghettos of Inner City Milwaukee. At any rate, Coral Gables is indeed very impressive.

After driving up and down some of the streets, it was time to find some lunch.  We had been on the lookout for some Cuban restaurants, but all the ones we had seen so far looked like complete dives in the middle of strip malls.  Granted, some of the best and most authentic food comes out of dives, but in a strange city, we weren't willing to risk it.  We found a nice sit down restaurant in downtown Coral Cables called "Las Vegas" that looked really good, plus we were able to find a parking spot close by, so that sealed the deal.  I had never had Cuban food before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It turned out to be amazing!!  We started out with bread that looked like it had been toasted with a flat iron and was really good.  I ordered the chicken fillet marinated in lime juice, garlic and black pepper.  Adam had the churrasco, which is a grilled skirt steak with chimichurri sauce.  They both came with white rice, black beans, and sweet plantains.  Everything was very simple, but VERY flavorful!  It was the most delicious meal I had eaten in a long time.

Adam's Comments: Oh, my goodness. I love me some Cuban food. It is a shame that we don't have a multitude of Cuban restaurants in Seattle like we do Mexican places. Many components are similar, but the end result is very different. Good job, Cuba. Export a little more food now that Fidel Castro is no longer in power. Or end your communism thing so that our government will end its embargo, and I can go on a Caribbean cruise that stops at some places on your island rather than skirting around its edges.

We headed back towards downtown Miami on a road that ended up being Calle Ocho, which goes right through Little Havana.  We crossed one of the bridges from Miami to Miami Beach, which is where all the hotels and South Beach is.  It was hard to see the beach and the ocean from the road, and there were TONS of people walking around and in the streets, so it was kind of an obstacle course trying not to hit anyone.  So, trying to see South Beach was more frustrating than anything, and after trying to dodge the pedestrians and other crazy drivers, we weren't in the mood to find a place to park near the beach and see the water and stuff.  We went back across to Miami and decided we were done with this crazy city and headed toward the airport to find a gas station and find the car rental return place. 

A few thought about Miami:  It is CRAZY!!  The drivers are crazy, the pedestrians are crazy, everything is crazy.

Adam's Comments: Crazy and scary in many parts. I felt like I was almost in a foreign country when I was in parts of Miami. And not a good foreign country like Great Britain or Switzerland. A crazy, scary foreign country, like you only see in SciFi movies depicting apocalyptic futures. I think all the sunshine and humidity boils a lot of people's brains and drives them insane or something. In short, it was fun to visit, but I would feel really out of place if I tried to live there. On the plus side, I would learn more Spanish. I would have no choice if I wanted to communicate with more than 25% of the population, I think.

We were going to be WAY early for our flight home, but we were out of ideas for things to do in the city.  We got a little lost trying to find the car rental place near the airport, but we made it eventually, returned the rental car, and hopped on the shuttle to the airport.  Of course, our gate was in the part of the airport under construction.  After getting through security, we had to walk down several LONG empty corridors to get to our gate.  It was like a never-ending maze.

Adam's Comments: Like the various strange tales I had heard about Miami in general, I had heard horror stories about the Miami International Airport (MIA). Those horror stories were far from the truth. MIA is a million times worse than any horror stories I heard. What an incredibly badly planned, badly built, and badly run airport! Especially compared to the other two airports we visited on this trip (SeaTac and Dallas-Fort Worth). When we arrived, I thought it was an unbelievably long hike to get from our gate to the taxis at the curb. After all, there is no tram or subway or motorized walkway as one would find in First World airports. But then, we had to traipse our way out to our departure gate. To reach the concourse that included our gate, we had to enter a hallway that seemed like it would never end. There were no windows or pictures or anything to decorate it, and only occasional directional signs to let us know that we were on the right course. Every time we turned around a corner, all we saw was another long white corridor. It felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

We finally found our gate (which looked like it was haphazardly thrown together) and found some seats to settle into for our long wait.  We still had a few hours to kill before our flight left.  The flight before ours was still at the gate, and ended up being delayed, and then delayed some more.  We wondered if it would effect our flight, but we ended up taking off only a few minutes late. 

Adam's Comments: Right next to our seats was a puddle of unknown origin. I am not sure if there was a leak in the roof (although it had not rained at all that day), or a leak in a nearby bathroom (although I knew of no bathrooms nearby), or if a fellow traveler had abandoned themselves to the horrible despair--which threatens to overwhelm all who enter the Miami airport--and then proceeded to melt, Wicked Witch-like, into a puddle of depression. At any rate, there were several people who jumped at the open chair next to mine, just to immediately change their mind when they stepped on the carpet in front of that chair and heard the squelching sound made by the liquified soul of a despondent would-be passenger.

We got into Dallas/Ft. Worth after midnight and sleepily stumbled through the airport to find our next gate, which was completely deserted.  Our flight to Seattle didn't leave until 7am, so we had another long wait ahead of us.  The seats at the gate had arms that were fixed in place, so it was impossible to lay down on across the seats.  We curled up on the nice hard floor against a wall and tried to sleep.  I slept for about an hour and then woke up because I was cold and sore from the hard floor.  After rifling through my bag for something warm (Ships and Dip III complimentary beach blanket!) it was hard to go back to sleep.  I feel physically sick when my sleep patterns are disrupted like this, and for a little while, it seemed like the night was never going to end and I was going to be staring at the carpet in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport forever.  I finally managed to get a few more hours of sleep.  Adam didn't fare so well.  I don't thing he slept very much at all.  More people started showing up around 5am, and a little while later, I went in search of breakfast.  Luckily, our flight to Seattle had very few passengers, so we were able to claim our own rows to lay down on and try to get a little more sleep.

Adam's Comments: Adam didn't sleep very much at all. He got around 20 minutes of sleep total that night. And he only got about an hour of sleep on the plane, despite the emptiness and ability to lay down across three seats at once. Luckily for him, working graveyard at FedEx has enabled him to function fairly well on nearly no sleep. Unfortunately, it makes him speak of himself in the third person, which annoys everyone. Especially himself.

We finally landed in Seattle, and my dad came to pick us up from the airport.  Waiting for him outside at curb in the cold Seattle weather, we knew our warm vacation had come to an end.  It was nice to be home again, though, and be with Joshua again.  He took a little while to warm up to us, but eventually he remembered that he likes us.  My brother and his family came over and we all went out to lunch and then went bowling.  I was exhausted, but it was a lot of fun to be out with the family.  We finally made it home and our vacation was officially over.

And now, the cruise blog posts have come to a close.  We hope you've enjoyed reading them.  It was fun to put them together and reminisce about all the good times we had.  And I'm glad we have the experience written down for posterity. 

We had so much fun!  It was an amazing cruise with awesome music and lots of sunshine and relaxation.  Here's to hoping we'll be able to go again next year!!

Adam's Comments: Oh, I am going to do everything in my power to get us on that cruise next year. Especially now that I found out that my friend Christina and her husband are really interesting in going next year, too. It would be a lot of fun to have friends on the cruise. Especially friends that wouldn't spend the entire time drinking themselves into oblivion like pretty much all the other cruise passengers. Anyway, it was an awesome time, even if it sounds like I complain about a lot of the stuff in my comments. It was wonderful to get some vacation time with just the two of us after all the stressful stuff that happened in the last year (Joshua being born and having to stay in the hospital, all the cleft palate stuff, money worries and the housing market getting all messed up, having to get a second job, etc.). If anyone else is interesting in joining us on the cruise next year, let me know. The more people you have in your cabin, the cheaper it is per person. Besides, who wouldn't want to go on a cruise in the Caribbean filled with fun people and awesome music? Nazis, that's who. Nazis and people who kick puppies.

Lisapants here.  Our camera was having technical difficulties when I tried to upload pictures to the computer Sunday night.  I got it to work last night, so here are some pictures from Easter.



This is Joshua's first Easter.  Isn't he handsome?

At church, Adam and I sang in a quartet for one musical number, and I played the piano for another lady who sang a solo.  After church, we went to my parents house for a Pratt gathering and had a good time visiting with relatives and eating a yummy dinner.



Joshua and his cousin Ryan provided endless entertainment while we all watched them play together, and by playing I mean poking each other in the eyes and stealing toys from each other.  My mom made Easter vests for the boys.  They both looked very dapper.

We hope you had a  great Easter!

Lisapants here.  Over a year ago we bought a new faucet for the bathroom in our room.  It sat in the box for a long time, and a couple months ago we finally installed it.  And by we, I mean Adam.  In the process, we discovered the sink was enamel-covered steel and had rusted onto the previous drain stop.  So we had to buy a new sink.  This new sink had a slightly different placement for the drain hole, but not to worry, the pipes underneath the sink are supposed to be adjustable just for this purpose.  But alas, the person who installed the original sink made the pipe unadjustable, so we had to call Adam's brother Kacy, an apprentice plummer, to come help out.  In the process of helping, Kacy accidentally knocked over a can of black goo that spread out over the vinyl flooring.  Adam and Kacy couldn't get all of it cleaned up, so there were black streaks left on the floor and the vinyl was soft where the goo had sat before being cleaned up.  So now we needed a new floor, and since we have wanted a new toilet for a while, we decided to replace that at the same time.  Last Saturday was the day Kacy could come help, so Adam and Kacy spent the day ripping out the old vinyl and toilet and installing the new ones.  In the process they discovered that the original toilet had been shoddily installed and had been slowly breaking.  So I guess it was good we replaced it when we did.

So, to recap: what we wanted was a new faucet.  What we got in the end was a new faucet, sink, toilet and vinyl floor.  Isn't home improvement fun?

Lisapants here with the next day of our cruise.  (OK, so I've been working on this post for a couple weeks now.  I get started, then life happens and these cruise posts get put on the back burner.  Luckily, there is only one more day after this.) Of course, Adam's comments will continue to appear in italics, like so. What with the early mornings and late nights of the previous two days, we slept in on Thursday.  We barely made it upstairs in time for breakfast before they started serving lunch.  During the cruise there were some activities that were limited in the number of people that could participate (ie. wine tasting, Guitar Hero championship, trivia, etc.) and before the cruise you had to enter into a drawing if you wanted to be part of any one of these activities and hope you got selected.  We were able to get tickets to a songwriters panel that was held Thursday morning at 11am.  It was in the big Caribbean Lounge and featured eight songwriters that were on board.

Adam's Comments: This was my most anticipated show of the cruise so far. I love seeing singer/songwriters do their thing like this. It was really good times.



As you can see they each had a guitar and they just went down the line one by one and sang songs they had written accompanied only by their guitar.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!  I must admit I am a little partial to singing accompanied by acoustical guitar, but STILL!  It was truly an amazing showcase of musical talent.   I love the intimacy of a singer with just his/her guitar. 

Adam's Comments: It was also really fun to hear the banter back and forth between these guys (and girl), since most of them have known each other for years, and all of them have performed with, recorded with, or toured with BNL in the past.



From right to left: Kurt Swinghammer, Jason Plumb, someone from the New Odds (possibly Craig Northey)(sorry I can't remember exactly), and Ed Robertson from BNL.



Continuing from right to left: Steven Page from BNL, Sarah Harmer, Alan Doyle from Great Big Sea, and comedian Boothby Graffoe.

Oh my goodness, it was so cool.  Kurt started off, and after a while, it was obvious he was the best guitarist of the group.  He has some mad guitar skillz, yo.  Jason had some pretty cool songs; the New Odds guy was kind of forgettable; Ed and Steve took audience requests for BNL songs; Sarah had a folksy vibe to her, which I really liked; Alan was alright; and Boothby was downright HILLARIOUS!  They went down the line not once, not twice, but FOUR times, going about an hour over the scheduled stopping time.  Not that we were complaining or anything.  We just sat there and basked in the musical awsomeness.  After they had each taken a turn and had gotten more comfortable with each other's styles, they would join in each other's songs with spontaneous harmonies and guitar playing and whatnot.  It was very cool to watch and listen to.  They also told stories about their songs and bantered back and forth with each other, which made for a very entertaining three hours.


Adam's Comments: Boothby was a surprise. I had no idea that he sang or anything. I just thought he was a comedian. But he was awesome. Definitely check him out.



Ed Robertson.



Laughing and having a good time.

A few people at the show had video cameras and put a bunch of clips up on YouTube.  Click here for Sarah Harmer, here for a great song from Jason Plumb, this was my favorite song from Steve and Ed, click here for Boothby Graffoe's first song, this is a good song from Alan Doyle, here's another good song from Ed.  I couldn't find anything for Kurt Swinghammer, which is a shame because he wrote some fantastic songs.

Adam's Comments: Kurt Swinghammer seems like the type of guy that would get played almost exclusively on NPR here in the U.S., but lots of people would claim they are huge fans to increase their musical cred. He is an extremely talented guitarist, but not the world's best singer. Apparently, he is a sort of a guitarist "hired gun" in Canada. Whenever a band has a really difficult guitar part that needs to be flawlessly recorded for an album, and their guitar player is having trouble with it or something, Kurt is asked to record it. Alan Doyle talked specifically about how Kurt has been playing the guitar on at least one song from every one of Great Big Sea's records, even though Kurt had never met him before this cruise.

In fact, if you have some time to kill, you should just go to YouTube, type "Ships and Dip III" in the search box, and take a gander at all the cool music on the cruise.  Since we've been back, it's been a lot of fun for us to look at the performances we went to and remember the great music, and also see some of the things we missed.  YouTube is cool because anyone can look up the videos that people took and see what it was like to be there.  Granted, it's not EXACTLY the same as being there in person, but you get a good idea.

Adam's Comments: I should have thought to bring our camcorder to do the same thing. I guess I have been so ingrained with the ban of all recording devices in all of the concerts I have attended in my life that it never really occurred to me to record some Ships and Dip stuff. If we are able to go next year, that will change.

After the songwriters panel, we headed up to the Lido deck to spend the rest of the afternoon basking in what was left of the afternoon sun.  After dinner, we had some decisions to make.  It was our last night on the cruise, and there were a few bands we hadn't seen yet that we wanted to see.  The major concert of the night was the second big Barenaked Ladies show that we had tickets to.  That started at 11pm in the Caribbean Lounge.  Sarah Harmer was the opening act that started 9:30pm.  We also wanted to see a bit of Gaelic Storm, since we hadn't heard them at all yet (10-11:30pm in the Adriatic Lounge), and also try to catch some of Boothby Graffoe's comedy show (10:30pm in the Black & Red Seas Bar), since his songs at the songwriters panel were so funny.  Luckily, everything was on the same floor, just on opposite ends of the ship. 



We started with Sarah Harmer for a few songs (I wish we could have listened to more; I really dig her style), then ran through the smoky casino to the other end of the boat to see the beginning of Gaelic Storm.  It was really crowded and hot in the Adriatic Lounge, so Adam opted to stay outside while I tried to find a place on the edge where I could get a good picture.






My camera was kind of freaking out at this point.  I don't know why it wouldn't focus very well.  The band itself is pretty cool.  The few songs I heard were very high energy and a lot of fun to listen to.  I wish we had been able to see their full concert.  They are definitely a band I want to check out and hear more from.

The Black & Red Seas Bar was right next to the Adriatic Lounge, but there was a line already for Boothby Graffoe's show.  Ideally, we wanted to stand by the door so we could sneak out in time to run back to the Caribbean Lounge for the BNL show.  Such was not the case, though.  Boothby's show was packed and there was no feasible way to try and sneak out, so we didn't get to see any of his show.

We made our way back through the smoky casino and found our seats for the BNL show.  They weren't the worst seats in the house, but they were pretty close.  We were on the very top row of the balcony on the side.  We were bummed at first, but after the concert started, we were able to move to some empty seats a couple rows down and a little more towards the middle.

As usual, Barenaked Ladies put on a FABULOUS concert!



Adam's Comments: Lisa isn't kidding about the seats. HORRIBLE. I am just really glad that we were able to move down a little bit. By the way, the black bar in the middle of the picture was one of the many supporting posts up in the balcony. And this picture was taken from the BETTER seats that we moved down to.







From left to right: Steven Page at the mike, Kevin Hearn on keyboard, Andy Creeggan (former band member)(in the red t-shirt) on bongos, Ed Robertson at the mike with guitar, Tyler Stewart on drums, and Jim Creeggan on bass.

I love their shows!  There is so much energy and great music, both scripted and spontaneous.  The crowd was great, the band was great, the music was amazing!  Here's a picture from the official tour photographer of the Caribbean Lounge during the concert.  You get an idea of what the venue looked like. 

Adam's Comments: BNL always put on an awesome show, but the energy of this crowd was intoxicating. After all, if you want to be surrounded by HUGE fans of a band, then go somewhere that required each person to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of being there. You really weed out the wishy-washy, "I don't many of their songs, but I felt like going to a concert" types.

One of the cool things that happened during the concert was a kid named Devin got to play the drums with the band for one song.  Apparently, he had been walking around the cruise ship all week with his drum sticks in hand bragging about his mad drummin' skillz.  Ed called him up on stage, and he got to play the drums for "Old Apartment."  Here's a pic from the tour photographer, and you can watch the video here.  (Swear Word Warning: a few S-bombs.)  There were a couple different video's of Devin, but I think this one has the better picture quality.  Devin did pretty well for never having practiced with the band before.  There was one spot where he got off tempo for a bit, but he made it back and totally rocked out.  What a great experience I'm sure he'll remember forever.  Just another reason why BNL is one of the coolest bands EVAH!!

Adam's Comments: Yeah, Devin did a great job until a tricky fill about 2/3rds of the way through the song. It kind of threw things off for a bit, but these guys are great at improvising and getting back into the groove of the performance, so they took it in stride. All in all, what a frakking cool thing to do! That kid must have been freaking out for days.

Whew.  After the concert, we were beat and headed back to our cabin to pack up so we would be ready to debark bright and early in the morning.  What a day of great music, first with the songwriters panel, then the various bands we were running around trying to catch snippits of, then finally with the awesome BNL show.  THIS is what we came for, and it was worth it!

Adam's Comments: We found out later that there was some huge jam session thing up on the Lido Deck stage with most of the bands and a ton of people. It went until 4:00 am, I believe. While it might have been cool, there is NO WAY I would have been able to do that. I was almost pass-out tired just after the main BNL show. At any rate, it was such an amazing time on the boat. The kind of thing that really recharges you and makes you love doing things just for the fun of it. I know I will remember this experience for a long time to come. I just hope that we can afford to do it again. Awesome.

UGH.  Lisapants here, feeling emotionally drained from the events at the doctor yesterday.  The surgery schedulers called yesterday afternoon to reschedule the surgery, and the earliest available date they have is April 25th.  Argh.  Stupid cold.  I was so looking forward to easier eating for Joshua and a reversal of his hearing loss and him having a roof of his mouth to be able to try to talk with.  Now he has six more weeks of delays in all these areas.  At least we can enjoy Easter and still have time for him to get better.

Ugh. Adam here to express a little frustration. Lisa just got done with Joshua's pre-op appointments, and the doctors decided to postpone the surgery that was scheduled for tomorrow. Joshua is getting over a cold, but apparently not quickly enough for the anesthesiologist to be willing to put him under for surgery tomorrow. So now we have to reschedule, which could take anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months before they can get him back in. And what are we supposed to do if he catches another cold right before that surgery date? Ugh.

It all depends on when they can reschedule the operation, but I think we might have to put Joshua into a quasi-quarantine for two weeks prior to the new date. Since all kids pass around whatever they have going whenever they get together, he will have to just not be around other kids for two weeks before the new surgery date. Which, of course, will suck a lot. After all, if we did get it rescheduled for exactly three weeks from now, that would be April 1st, 9 days after Easter. That would mean having to skip out on the big Pratt Easter gathering that Lisa's parents are hosting at their house.

It is all very frustrating. This was the first bit of certainty we have enjoyed in his life thus far, and we were really looking forward to putting all of the special equipment and feeding difficulties behind us.

Anyway, we will let people know when the rescheduled date is so that people will not think we are snubbing them out of spite. We will be snubbing them out of a desire to get this all done with while avoiding as many complications as possible.