Bad decision.....

......I decided to go to Garden Ridge yesterday. I walked through the Christmas isles and it was like bumper cars with shopping carts. Not fun! I wore my head phones to drown out the sounds of the screaming children, which helped. Then, I'm standing in this one isle trying to decide which "lighted mechanical reindeer" to purchase, when I became witness to a real live "Mexican standoff". I'm standing there, and these two women, who looked to be in their 60's, come head to head with their baskets and actually begin to argue over which one was there first and which one should back up so the other can pass. There was a big long dolly next to them blocking the other lane, so they couldn't get through until one backed up, and apparently neither was willing. This is when I made the decision for them. I went around, moved the dolly to the end of the isle and moved their baskets around each other. Of course they were still spouting off to each other as they passed by, but I did get a "thank you" from another woman that had been patiently waiting to get through behind them. Then I grabbed my reindeer and headed for the aproximately 30 person long checkout line. Though, it's not as bad as it seems, they form one line and a guy at the front directs you to one of 10 available registers. It actually goes pretty quick. The director guy says, "Register 4 is clear! Go, go, go!". Then you run! The cashier starts scanning your stuff before your cart wheels even stop spinning. And by the time you come to a stop, your stuff is already bagged for the door, and she's got her hand out for your money. It's all quite impressive!

Then I went next door to Walmart, cause I hadn't been tortured enough.

Later in the evening, after watching my favorite character get royally screwed off of Survivor (the only reason I watched this season was because he is from Lafayette, where I went to college), I put up my new Christmas tree that I bought after Christmas last year. Yep, no more Charlie Brown tree for us, this one's taller than B! I haven't unearthed all the decorations yet, but here it is so far.

Outdoor Adventure Video

This video shows a good bit of what we did on the zip lines.....

http://www.puertovallartatours.net/videos/outdooradventure.htm

Date Night

Went on a date with my honey last night. Went to the movies and saw "August Rush" and then to dinner.

Back from vacation

Well, I took hundreds of pictures on this trip, and have weeded through them all and posted some of my favorites........

Saturday, November 17th - San Diego, California

Me, B, and 7 family members flew to San Diego and boarded the ms Oosterdam for a 7 day cruise. We settled in and met up with the rest of my family, 19 of us in all.

Public Service Announcement: Always practice safe drinking! (especially during a lifeboat drill) Sunday, November 18th - At sea

Black and white

Um....there's 7 people missing from this photo Monday, Movember 19th - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

I started out the day by crossing off a very important item from my list of "Things To Do Before I Die". It was so amazing, I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time!

Then we went kayaking and snorkeling
Lover's Beach

This is right before that wave wipes me out and sends me sailing across the beach, hehe. Fun!B jumping off "Neptune's Finger"
Me and my friend the starfish
Our cruise ship in the distance
The kayaks
Land's End

The Arch Another amazing sunset

Tuesday, November 20th - Mazatlan, Mexico

With Wanda, the iguana

B and the mermaid

Wednesday, November 21st - Puerto Vallarta

Today me, B, Eric (my brother), and Jenn (my cousin) booked an excersion called the "Outdoor Adventure", and boy was it! First we got on this boat that went really fast and we kept coming up off our seats when we would hit waves, it was fun! Then we geared up......aren't we cute?

[Note: I'm really bummed cause something happened to our water cameras, so I don't have photos for the next part of the trip. But, there was a photographer that went with us and took pictures and they will be arriving by mail soon (I hope). I'll post when they come in, until then, I have added some pics from their web site.]

Then we got on some mules that took us up a mountain, where the fun really began......

We soured over the trees and valleys on seven different zip lines, one of which dropped us into a pool of water at the bottom of a water fall. And then we repelled down a water fall. This was an all day event, so by this time it was getting dark and the last two zip lines we did in the dark, which was really cool. At the end we had to hike the rest of the way down the mountain back to post in the dark with little lights on our head. We followed a trail that had us treking through streams. I'm pretty clumsy and had almost made it throught the day without falling until I slipped on a wet rock and fell down in one of the streams, at least I had a soft landing, hehe. Our trip ran so late we were worried we weren't gonna get back on the cruise, but luckily there was another group that was also running late, and they waited for all of us to get back before leaving port. Close one!Heading back to the ship

Thursday, November 22nd - At sea - Thanksgiving!

Relaxed, had a photographer take a group photo of all of us, had Thanksgiving dinner, saw some shows......... .......and then it was time for the "Late Night Chocolate Buffet"....whooo hoooo!Too! Much! Chocolate! Friday, November 23rd - At sea

We finally get some lobster up in this joint....Happy cruisers!

Saturday, November 23rd - San Diego, California

We get off the boat, check into our hotel, and head to the San Diego ZooMy favorite sights at the zoo? The meercats...
...and of course, the 150 year old turtle named "Speedy"

One last sunset ....

Then we all headed to "Little Italy" for dinner at Zagarella's

Cheers to a great trip!

Sunday, November 25th - San Diego, California

Breakfast at the hotel, then everyone heads out for home.

Thanks grandma! We had a blast!