Cruise 2012!

Our cruise was only over a month ago, I'm not THAT behind, right ?;) At the end of Feb. we dropped Ella off with my parents (who had her for half the time, then passed her on to Jer's parents, she was spoiled while we were gone, and the grandparents had withdrawals when we came back!) and drove to Cali with some friends to cruise on the Carnival Splendor. We had an AWESOME time! But I missed my girl. I looked at pictures and video of her to get my "Ella fix" for the day. We had a day at sea, 2 days in Cabo, 1 day in Puerto Vallarta, and 2 more days at sea. I wouldn't recommend days at sea unless you're in a group that can entertain you!

We didn't spend ALL our time with them, but those days at sea were so much more fun than I expected. In Cabo we spent our days shopping and lounging on the beaches

A little love on Lover's Beach

How do you like my Henna tattoo?

Such a weird name for a jewelry store! In Puerto Vallarta we found a tour guide, Oscar, who took us for the entire day and drove us to the Eden Canopy Tour It's where the movie "Predator" was filmed (not that I've seen it). It's gorgeous there, and zip-lining across the valley between the mountains was amazing! Jer and I are both afraid of heights, but this was so much fun and the rain forest below was gorgeous. We recommend Puerto Vallarta if you're ever down there. We wished the cruise would have been there for 2 days and only 1 day in Cabo. It's such a beautiful town, very clean and organized, and the sellers aren't pushy like they are in Cabo. We joked with our friends that we should buy a little vacation house down there.

Formal nights were fun too. I don't have the chance to get all dressed up and fancy very often (not that I'm very fancy here), but since the cruise was a week long, we got to dress up twice!

Since my birthday was right before we went on the cruise, they surprised me with (another) dessert and sang to me!

Can't forget about our super nice waiter Marion, from our talks, that job wouldn't be very easy if you got a bunch of jerks that you had to deal with every single night, eek!

Ella had another birthday!

I'm so behind in posting anything that's been going on, but I thought I'd start with Ella's birthday! She turned 2 on March 26th! We didn't do anything big (like last year). We just had the grandparents over for cake and presents and Ella seemed to be fine with that. She was so cute and confused when we sang to her, I just LOVE this girl! I have video of it, but I can't figure out how to load it :( She knows the letter's sounds, she counts with me sometimes, she loves to jump on the bed and climb on and off the toilet. She's got major attitude and throws a couple of tantrums a day. She talks a ton and loves to be my little helper (even though what she does usually isn't exactly helpful). She knows I like to cuddle, so she's become the little manipulator with that. At bed time when we're trying to put her in her crib, she'll start saying "no, I wanna cuddle with mommy on couch, cuddle mommy on couch". It's hard to say no to her, but we do most of the time. It's also super adorable when she says, "hold you? hold you?" makes me feel so loved. She gives wonderful big hugs with her cute little arms. She likes butterfly, Eskimo, and fishy kisses. She likes to take my drinks as her own, then share sips with me :) I don't know what I'd do without her in my life!

As you can see, she enjoyed her birthday cupcakes, and made sure to lick the ones she wasn't holding so no one else would eat them! She got some great gifts this year too: From her Auntie RaKell she got a cute swimsuit and cover up, some fun books, butterfly stuff, and bubble stuff. It's been so windy we haven't been able to play with the bubbles, but she keeps reminding me about them every day! From her Keller grandparents she got a hand-made apron (in the picture) and some fleece hand-made squishy balls (my mom is so talented!) From her Thorne grandparents she got a magna-doodle (I think that's what it's called), a cute little dress, and some comb-looking blocks. From us she got an activity table (in the picture), some jammies, and some Sesame Street books (she's a big fan of Elmo all of a sudden). Happy Birthday little girl, but please stop growing up so fast!!

I'm sorry for the weird alignment of my posts, I write them one way, but they publish all together. Not sure how to fix that :/