Caribbean Cruise Day 2

We got to spend a week on the cruise!  We had a couple of days were we were on the open seas, and once we got into the Caribbean sea, it was incredibly warmer!

Eating lunch at the buffet- it was all you can eat and had lots of fun things to try!

Here is the promenade, or the "shopping" area.  Apparently people like to shop at stores while they cruise... we didn't except to buy some nail clippers...

There would be bands playing in the promenade and dances and things like that.   At the end of the hallway there was a little shop to get snacks whenever you wanted.

And the whole reason we chose this ship...the Flowrider!

We braved it when it was cold and got to try it out when there weren't many people.  It did get warm and therefore more people in line...  We also discovered that is is alot of work and is really hard (for us anyway) to do the surfing.  Luckily it didn't hurt as bad as it looked when you crashed!  We did do it so much that we were a little sore the next day (you do get a little bit of whiplash if you fall wrong).

this the boogie boarding.  Amanda didn't like it as much because for some reason whenever she crashed, she crashed hard into the back wall!  It was still fun to try to flip yourself around.l

We also discovered that if you want to meet all the Mormons on the boat, you went to the sports deck because that is where they hang out!  That is probably because they aren't drinking in one of the many bars or gambling in the casino.  We met some really fun people, especially on the flowrider. There was a group of Hawaiian guys that were amazing on the flowrider (they had an advantage though...)

There was actually an ice skating rink on the ship!  Crazy, huh?  It wasn't very big but still quite cool.  There was a show that we will show later on... 

Brian the figure skater!

it was fun to get a window seat and just watch the ship in the water.  

Formal Night:

they had a couple of formal nights on the ships where you were supposed to dress all fancy for dinner.  It was fun to get all dressed up (and can we say we are AMAZING packers for packing a suit and a formal dress in a carry-on bag...).  It was such a romantic evening and not something we get to do a lot.  The promenade was lit up all romantic and there were tons of people in their fancy clothes. 

they introduced the cruise ship crew and our captian was from Norway!

a good looking guy eating dinner right there!

for some reason they had this fancy old car in the promenade.  Not sure what the purpose of it was, but everyone took photos by it.

We also went to a Broadway/ballroom dance show in the big theater for the formal night.  They had some sweet dance moves and some awesome singing!   

Our housekeeper, Nilesh always had some fun towel designs for us when we returned to our room for the evening. This one was a swan.

Caribbean Cruise Day 1

Brian and I (Amanda) got to go on a cruise, just the two of us!  We had talked about it and joked about it and then come November, Brian was serious about it.  So we booked one and sent in stuff for our passports hoping they would return in time.  Luckily they did!
We dropped the kids off at Brian's parents house where they got to stay for a couple of days and then Grandma Turpin would bring them back so Avery could go to school later in the week (he had a couple of days off for break and a holiday).
Then we rode the front runner train to the airport (it was so nice and it didn't cost us to park for the week and the train took us right to the terminals at the airport).
Then we flew to Houston, Texas!  Our cruise was the next day and sailed out of Galveston, about 45 minutes to an hour away from Houston.  We had some really good friends that lived in Houston (Caleb and Nicole) that were so willing to let us stay the night and to take us to the airport.
Here we are getting ready to check into the cruise!  It was a pretty big ship, but its hard to believe there are even bigger ships! Our ship was The Navigator of the Seas by Royal Caribbean.

After reporting to our muster stations for a safety drill, weWexplored a little bit on the top deck as we were ready to set sail.   

towards the front of the ship, on the top

looking out behind Amanda is Galveston, Texas.

And we are off!  This was going to be so much fun!

We got a little overwhelmed with all the activities and what there was to do on the ship that we really didn't do much that first day.  We did find the Flowrider, which is a surf simulator.  It was one of the reasons we chose this ship.  They usually don't have it running on the first day, but they did this day, even though it was freezing cold!  We decided that maybe we would try it out, but by the time we got back up there after putting our suits on they had closed it again.

After exploring some more, we went to dinner.  Brian said it was the fanciest place he has ever eaten.  It was really nice!  They had a really pretty chandelier and the waiter brought us to our seats, placed our fabric napkin on our laps and made us feel like royalty!  They served 3 courses every night in the nice dining room.  We decided to try esgargot, or in otherwords, snail!  It was actually pretty good, since it was drenched in butter and garlic.  It tasted alot like mushrooms.  The food was really good too.  

We explored some more around the ship and  went to sit in the hot tub (it was kinda cold while we were in the Gulf of Mexico). Then we headed back to bed!

  

Sledding over Christmas Break 2014

It may have actually been in 2015 (can't remember which day of the week it was!)  But we were able to go sledding with the little snow we had left after a big wind storm.  We went to our favorite park for sledding (that we have found).  Its not very big but entertains us all enough.  This was Mason's first time this year- and the first time he really knew what was happening.  He LOVED it ofcourse (he's just like his siblings).  It was a fun quick outing and we just loved moments like these!

cool dude!

snow bunny!

going fast!

the 'long' trek back up the hill

all ready to go!

lets race!

Christmas 2015!

Christmas was wonderful as usual, though it was a little bit of a hectic day.
   As always, the night before we delivered plates of goodies to people.  Amanda and the kids baked and made goodies ALL DAY long and it was a little rushed getting things ready to deliver, but we managed.  Most of the people we had thought to deliver things to were not home, so Brian just ended taking it to other people in the ward.  He said it felt good to do something nice for people- even if it was a little hectic.  Meanwhile,. Amanda managed to get dinner all ready and the kitchen cleaned up (it was a disaster before with all the baking).  We had yummy chicken cord on bleu, along with yummy red velvet cake (a tradition).  We also had some delicious rolls- Amanda's Grandma Owen's famous recipe (there is alot of butter and flakes).  It was nice to have them to remember Grandma Owen as she passed away in November.

After dinner we got together to read a book about the Nativity and to talk about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  We had the kids act out the Nativity using the felt Nativity set Amanda made the year before.  Then we got the traditional jammies to open.  Lily loved her princess jammies and Avery & Lily got superhero ones.  Amanda and Brian even got some pajamas too. 

Then it was off to bed!  The kids were excited to put cookies out for Santa since they had made them that day.  Avery also put a big jar of money out with a note for Santa that he was willing to pay some money if Santa could bring him a gas dirtbike.  

When we woke up the next morning it was so exciting!  We had family prayer and then did the family run to the Christmas room, with youngest to oldest.  The video is too large to upload.

Well did Avery's hard work and the money he had save for months pay off?  Yes!  Santa brought him this:

He was so excited!  He didn't even care that he didn't get a lot of presents (though he was happy with the few other things he did get).  He has been dreaming about this forever!  He worked hard and saved money to help Santa pay for it (he even wanted just money for his birthday instead of toys).

Santa had left the kids a note about their Christmas presents:  He talked about what the true meaning of Christmas was- the birth of Jesus Christ.  He also talk to Avery and told him he wasn't going to take the money, but that he needed to save that money for his mission some day.  

He also wrote to Lily who got alot of princess dresses and told her she was a princess- a daughter of the highest king- our Heavenly Father.

Here is what everyone got for Christmas!  We all took turns opening up things that they got.  

Mason loved his kid scooter (you can take the seat off and its a regular scooter) as well as his ball popper (looks strangely familiar and similar to Avery's when he was a baby :-))

Lily got a bunch of princess dresses, a dress-up box, a bunch of movies, including Sleeping Beauty and Frozen, and play make-up.

Santa was nice enough to bring Avery a couple of small presents in his stocking- some Lego Mixels (he wanted some so much!)

After unwrapping what we gor from Santa, we exchanged the gifts we go for each other!  We drew names out of a hat and each person got to pick a 10$ item for them.  Avery thought really hard what he wanted to get Lily (even though he wanted to pick Mason).  When he went shopping with Brian, he told him that she wanted a unicorn (which she had suddenly asked for a few days before Christmas) and some chocolate (because she wanted candy).  Avery knew that Lily liked "the chocolate you make s'mores with."  Brian said it was great to see him really think about the person he was getting the gift for.

with her chocolate and unicorn

Lily got Mason a popper toy (like a vacuum).  Which he loved ofcourse!

And Mason got Avery a couple of Mixels that just so happened to be in the same set as the Mixel Santa had brought him.

Brian got Amanda a pretty necklace:

And Amanda got Brian a watch and a safety vest:

After everything was unwrapped we went outside to try out Avery's new dirtbike!  Overnight it had snowed a whole bunch!  So it was a white Christmas!

Here is Avery on his dirtbike.  It was a way to make it so it doesn't go too fast and Avery did such a great job at riding it around!

We had a quick breakfast of cereal and hot cocoa (from Santa in our stockings, a Christmas Tradition from Brian's family) we had to quickly pack and be out the door to get to Amanda's family Christmas party in Logan.

When we arrived at the party our tire decided to be flat!  Well we spent a good time figuring out where to get it fixed, but no one was open.  So we had to just use the donut until we got to Downey (where Amanda's parents live) later that night.  And then we ended up having to drive it even further to Pocatello on the Donut since no one could fix it there!

What a fun magical Christmas!

Turpin Family Band Moment!

I, Amanda, signed Brian up for a music contest along with his brother Michael.  There was a music competition at Downata Hot Springs where Amanda's parents work.  Well, I got dragged into the band too!  In the end we had Brian (bass), Michael (guitar), Amanda (piano), Alycen (voice) and Candace (drum) all in our family band moment.  We performed a "Head and the Heart Song" called "Rivers and Roads."  It was a really fun song to do even though our kids were a 

little sick of hearing it by the time we were all through.  However, we find that Lily is singing it alot still.

We didn't end up winning the competition, but it was still fun to do!  The kid that won played a cool song on the guitar by doing weird plucking and tapping on the guitar (not strumming).  It was talent!