Major Blogging Drought!

So sorry that I have not posted in FOREVER! Our computer is having issues. I am hoping I can get through these postes without that computer freezing. So there will be many posts on here to get us all caught up to date. So lets go back in time to Mid October, the 15-19th to be precise.

AFLAC National Convention in San Diego.

So again, Chad has been kicking butt in Aflac this year and we got to go on our first National Convention. It is a trip to just congratulate everyone for doing a bit above and beyond. It changes every year and next year it is in New York City. We really want to go to that one since neither Chad nor I have been there. They literally just wined and dined us. It was so much fun! Again another added bonus was that we had no kiddos. Although I think Grandma Carter needed a vacation from her vacation when she got done watching the girls for 5 days. We are sure thankful that she was able to come, and the girls had a lot of fun.

Out of our Hotel window.

So our first day at San Diego, we had a great lunch buffet and got to just hang out until dinner. Aflac rented out the entire USS Midway for the night. We had a great dinner with a live band. They had all the planes out on deck and we were able to do all the flight simulators for free. I felt like I was inside one of Chad's video games. One of the agents from AZ was actually stationed on the Midway for 3 months before he was put on the sister ship. He said he was actually blown off the ship once. He was standing on the wrong side of the plane and when it spun on the platform the jet engines blew him off. Luckily he was able to be picked up by the helicopter hook. Normally they don't come back after being blown off. They had several 'shells' of planes that you were able to sit in.

USS Midway

Group from AZ-West


Our next morning we had the Prayer Breakfast. One of the things I love about Aflac is that they are a very religious company. At every meal there is always a prayer. Someone is asked to say it and they are all from different religions, even here at the local level when we get together there is a prayer. I love that. Anyway, at our prayer breakfast Kurt Cameron spoke to us. At first I thought (very sarcastically), 'Oh goody Kurt Cameron, yawn.' But he was great. He spoke a lot about keeping the Lord in your life and the importance of marriage. He spoke a little about his new movie which sounds Awesome by the way. He also told us he vowed to only kiss his wife when they got married. That also applied to movies. So (sorry to spoil a bit) but in the movie towards the end apparently there is a kiss between his on screen wife and himself. So that he could keep his promise, his wife flew in put on a wig and the dress so he could still be kissing her. I thought that was so sweet.




We then had a day at Sea World. Chad and I had a lot of fun. We felt a little guilty about being at Sea World without the girls. We went on the water rapids ride (like Rattlesnake Rapids at Lagoon) and you go under a waterfall! We were sure it was going to shut off when we got close. NOPE! We were soaked through. My cell phone got soaked so it did not work. I had to blow dry it at the hotel when we got back. The park was all decorated for Halloween and the Otter show was so cute for the holiday. Clyde was dressed as a rapper with a chain around his neck. They also did a little skit about Scooby-Doo and Micheal Jacksons Thriller.

Little Thriller Video. Pretty funny!!

They also had an formal awards night. It was interested to see peoples version of formal. Some of the gals there looked like they should be on a street corner. Oh well.



We also had a concert the last night, by Earth Wind and Fire. It was a little older for us and not in our generation of things but they were good. There are a few songs they have that I know but they didn't play ANY of them. We danced around a bit then headed for the hot tub. All in all it was a great vacation.

Debbie my pretend Mom. We had a lot of people think we were mother/daughter.

BOO AT THE ZOO

For Halloween the zoo does Boo at the Zoo. Since we have a zoo pass we went. I tried to get a few pictures of the girls in their costumes before we left but Charlotte wanted nothing to do with it. We had fun running around the zoo in their costumes.

DYED HAIR

So on Sunday the 26th of October I got some weird crazy idea to dye my hair. I had oodles of dye at my house that I had got for free. So I dyed it brown. Oooooo .... I hated it. It did not go with my complexation and my eyebrows just seemed to stick out. Only one person said anything about it, and I ran into lots of people I know. So either they counldn't tell ( I thought it was drastically different; refer to pics from San Diego) or it was so bad they thought better of saying anything. The pics are not as bad as it really was. Some of the pieces of my hair would not dye. So I had random chunks of blonde. Not pretty. So after buying a $20 bottle of shampoo to make sure I get all the metallic residue out I bleached it back to blonde after 4 days. Yes my hair is offically fried! It did look a lot better when I actually DID my hair. But still not to my liking.

TRUNK OR TREAT

We had our Trunk or Treat this year on the 28th. Since I was frantically trying to finish carving pumpkins for our decorations I did not get into costume this year. I was pretty bummed about it because I love to dress up. But since Chad does not, I feel like I am an annoyance to him when I dress up, and I feel stupid cause he thinks it is stupid to dress up (so what does that make me?) so I think I'm about done. I did wear my red contacts and funky eyelashes though. People thought I was just being a vampire with the upcoming Twlight movie opening. The girls had fun and we gave out little squeaky ducks for the little spooks and mini beach balls to everyone else. Who really needs that extra candy?

Halloween

We had a great time going trick or treating this year. I think Savannah was especially excited because her friend Karianna and her family came with us. One of our neighbors projects the Scooby Doo Cartoons onto their garage on Halloween. The kids got their candy from them and plopped down on the driveway to watch. Too bad it was at the other end of the street and they had lots more to walk. Our little witch and tinkerbell enjoyed themselves. Tinkerbell was especially fond of her glow stick.

Kitchen Play Time

The girls got a play kitchen from Santa last year. Charlotte is now really enjoying it. She crawls into the playroom and pulls herself up to the little kitchen. She loves to pull all the food out and put it into the sink. When I saw her in there I had to take a picture because she has her foot in a pot while standing there. Too funny.

Tag of unspectacular Quirks

The rules are:
* Link to the person who tagged you .... Amy
*Post the rules on your blog
* Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted
1. I hate to fold laundry. It may sit in the basket until it is time to do laundry again so I have to put it away because I need the baskets.
2. I have ADD when cleaning. I go to put something away in one room, and start cleaning up in there, then remember 'oh yeah I was cleaning in the other room' and go back to the original room. I seem to go back and forth and none of the rooms really get as clean as they would if I just stuck to the one room, then went on to the others.
3. I do squats while I brush my teeth.
4. I talk way too much.
5. I use the cruise control all the time. Even on surface streets, since it makes the car go to econ mode.
6. I sweat the small stuff. I let too many little things totally bug and aggrivate me.

As far as who want to do it, Rachel, Heather, Melissa, Andrea, Preeti, Beth

Cruise to Mexico

So last weekend (not the one we just had but before) ... Let me start over, Conference Weekend we got to go on a little weekend cruise to Ensenada, Mexico! Chad is doing so great with Aflac. He is in the top 5 districts in the state many weeks. That is awesome but even more so since he is a rookie district! Sorry I have to brag about my sweetie a bit. He kicks butt and Aflac has been so good to us. So since he has been doing such a great job, Aflac likes to reward you. He hit his requirements for State Convention and so we got to go on this little cruise for free! It makes it so much more fun when you don't have to pay for it. So we dropped the girls off to Todd and Anna on Thursday night since we had a very early flight to catch on Friday. We were up late packing until about midnight all the while knowing we had to get up at 3:30am to get ready and head off to the airport to get there early since we were on standby. (Aflac gave us $600 to use to travel to California. We pocketed the money and got some buddy passes from good ole cousin Kurt. We love Kurt!) So since we were up late packing we were bound to forget something. But I will get to that later.

We get up and head off to the airport. We did not get up as early as we had hoped since we went to bed late ... Soooo we missed the 6am flight. Luckily there was another one at 7:20am that I had checked on to just in case. We get into LAX and it is a nice day. A little chillier than Phoenix but the sun was shining and it was nice. We find a shuttle to take us to the ship. As our life flashes before our eyes as our driver nearly kills us many times we arrive at the ship a little more car sick than when we got into the van. We are WAY early, since we are not allowed to board the ship until 11:30 and it is 9:30a but we were able to pre-board and totally miss all the lines. Since we had time to kill we decided to wander through the Queen Mary. Somewhere between the airport and sickening van ride, the weather had gone south a bit. I was freezing! Okay so my blood has thinned A LOT since moving to Arizona, but the breeze from off the water added with the sun hiding somewhere in the clouds makes me cold. I was really glad that I remembered a light jacket, but it was in our bag which we had already given to the porter. Queen Mary was fun and we learned a lot about her. She was an amazing help during the World Wars and helped to transport many young mothers and their babies, as well as soliders across the Atlantic. It must have been hosting the Miss USA, United States, America or something since there were beauty girls all over with their little sashes. So we were constantly asked to get out of the way because they were on camera interviewing and such.

On the Queen Mary

All the pelicans lined up on the ropes

I was sent to the isolation ward. I would not have wanted to go to surgery on a ship!

The Carnival Paradise

Seeing if his arms were long enough to hold the ship .... nope

We finally get on the ship and it was really nice. We hung out with a few other Aflac Agents and then went off to discover. We played a little shuffle board (which is actually rather fun), played bingo, watched a few shows, I even was in the speed slots finals! I didn't win though. I would have liked the $500 prize. Oh well. I got a tee shirt out of it.







We stopped at Ensenada to port. It was Chad's first time in Mexico. He wasn't too impressed. Everyone kept bugging you saying, '4 shots of tequilla and 2 margaritas for only $20!' Chad quickly learned to say 'Los Mormon' and the guys would throw their hands up and say 'Oh sorry man.' It was pretty funny. We got out Rx at the pharmacy and got the girls some little dresses. Then we went to the bar with Chads Regional manager Shawn his wife Autumn and another agent and her hubby. They all had their beers and what nots while we drank our coke. We were pestered by everyone while we were hanging out. Then this guy comes to ask about shining our shoes. He would polish your white tennis shoes. It would take him like 10 minutes on each shoe. There was only one guy at our table that had on the right type of shoes. He was charging $1 per shoe. So Chad pays him for only 1 shoe on the gals hubby. It was really funny, so then he had to pay for the other one. But man he did a great job. Then all of the sudden the waiters came up to Shawn and start taking off his backpack (he was our pack mule for our drugs :) and his sunglasses. They say 'A guy inside bought you a drink.' He was another Aflac agent. Then put a giant sticker over his eyes, lean him back in a chair and pour some tequilla down his throat then have two guys pick him up in the seated like position and rock him back and forth. They almost dropped him on his head. Now, Shawn is not the type of guy you do this too. He was ticked. If they had done anything else, I think he would have punched the guys. I am so glad I don't drink.



We did get the 'Cruise Bunny' made for us with our towels. It is fun how creative they get with them. We did see a book they sold on how to make all sorts of animals.




We get back on the ship and just take a nice nap. Saturday night is the Captains night. So that means elegant evening attire. So when we went to pack for the Cruise everyone said, 'Oh you just wear your bathing suit and a tank top the whole time.' So that is how I packed. Note to self, you need to pack clothes for both the day and dinner. I did pack a nice dress but since we were packing late at night, I forgot the jacket that I wear overtop of it to make it garment friendly. The dining room that night was, if you had 'beach' attire you were not going to eat there. I really didn't want to eat pizza, fried chicken when I could have nice good food. So I was only half Mormon that night. I know shame on me. I will remember for our next trip though. My jacket along with Chad's windbreaker jacket were both sitting on our bed where we left them when we got home. Anyway, the elegant night was fun. It was great to get dressed up. Hard to walk in heels when the boat is swaying but was fun. We watched one of the comidians that night too.

Yup we bought the cruise pics. Us on the Captains Night.


Sunday was just a relax day and at the end of the day we found out that another couple that was on the Aflac trip with us from Flagstaff was also LDS. We should have asked sooner. Us along with 3 other couples played family feud in one of the couples staterooms that night. Good times. Then it was up and adam early to disembark. Our deck was scheduled to get off at 6:45am. They had to have all 2000 passengers off by 10am so they could clean and get the next cruise starting to board at 11:30am. Wow they run a tight ship...ha..ha..


We had a great time and thought I would post about it. It has been a crazy week since we got back getting laundry and everything back in order. Then getting everything ready for Super Saturday this weekend, and I won't be here for. We leave on Wednesday to San Diego compliments of Chad kicking butt and qualifying for National Convention. It is nice to be able to get away just the two of us. Well it is now 11:30pm and I have a busy day tomorrow to get everything ready and pick up my mom tomorrow night. So I know you all can't wait to read about our next trip. Hopefully if Chad keeps things up like he wants to, we will get to go to the Bahamas to the Atlantis Resort for a week in February!!!

What Have You Done? - Kristine

Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.
49 out of 99 48.51%
I still have a ton of stuff to do but not bad...
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

SUPER SATURDAY

Since Conference Weekend will not allow us to display our crafts an extra week, I am posting it on my blog so the ladies from my ward can see what we are doing if they haven't got a chance to see our display table.

You can click on any of the pictures to make them larger.

Soft Bottles ~ $3
Inside is a velum paper that can say Family name, Grandma's etc.

Money to Christen Temple

Pumpkins ~ $4

$1 if you bring own fabic (22x22)

Money to Christine Beazer

I Spy Bags ~ $6

Money to Christine Beazer

Merry Christmas Tags ~ $5

Money to Karen Hunsaker

Christmas Planner ~ $5

Money to Karen Hunsaker

ABC Quiet Book

5x7 pictures ~ $25

3x4 pictures ~ $14

laminate/binding on books is an additional $5

Money to Kristine Wright

Temple Quiet Book ~ $7 ~ laminate/binding included

17 temples with dedication date & part of dedicatory prayer

Money to Kristine Wright

Exploding Box ~ $3

16 pictures in a little scrapbook box

Or FREE if you want to bring your own paper/embellishments

Money to Kristine Wright

Sedona

Well considering we are going to be having a fun little trip that I will be blogging on, I had better update on our last fun little trip. Over the Birthday Weekend for Chad we headed up to Sedona. On the 13th, Chad had his flag football game and Savannah had a primary activity. When they were over we packed the car up and headed to Sedona to see my dad and Theresa. Savannah was so excited to go see Grandma and Grandpa's little house. I think she thinks they actually live in the places they stay with their time share.

Hanging out at the playground

We stayed with them in their condo they had. We went driving around and saw the beautiful landscape that is up there. We attempted to do to one of the many vortex's but the parking was all full. Chad was okay with that though because whenever we go to those it actually makes Chad nauseous and he puked at the last one in Montana we went to. They are really cool though, so if you ever are by one you should check it out. But we went to a view point and saw a rock formation that they call the 'kettle pot'. It looks like the old time tall skinny tea pots they used to have. While we were up viewing the valley Savannah wanted to look through those telescope thingys. Well Theresa had been holding her up, then we posed for a picture which we had a nice gal take. So after she wanted to look again and both Chad and Theresa went to help her. So Theresa is trying to lift what she thinks is Savannah and thought ' Wow she is heavier that just a few minutes ago' but she was grabbing Chads leg from behind his knee since he had Savannah propped on his knee. We were all laughing so hard. Savannah then started to cry because I think she thought we were laughing at her.

We drove down along the river and stopped to see the crystal clear water. It was cool and refreshing. We think we may need to come back up there to do family pictures. It was beautiful. Going back to the condo we had to stop at the local Dairy Queen to get a treat. There were lots of tables outside with native jewelry. Savannah had to have some. So she is our little Pocahontas with her jewelry with dream catchers and feathers.

Me being all artsy fartsy at the river.

Back at the condo we went to the pool and also played a little mini golf. They had a little course there which was pretty fun. Grandpa had to keep getting Savannah all lined up right to putt. But in the end Grandpa beat us all. We quit at around hole 13 because Savannah and Charlotte were getting pretty toasty so we went to cool off in the pool.


We got into the pool and I put Charlotte in her little lady bug floaty. It is one of those new ones with the mesh seats and it has two rings around them so the kids can actually splash a bit in the water. Well there were 4 little grandmas sitting at a table next to where we put our stuff. Chad and I were in the water with the girls and by Charlotte. Then we took a few steps away from her. I thought all 4 of those ladies were going to have a heart attack. They were like, 'She can't hold on to that tube forever! How old is that baby?' My dad put them at ease a bit and told them she was sitting in a seat in the water. Honestly I can see the headlines how, "Parents watch to see how long their 9 month old child can hang on to floatation before the child goes under." Give us a little credit. We didn't drown the first one.



On our way back I saw something moving off by the bushes. It was this HUGE spider making his web. We sat there and watch him make the web. It was amazing. I have never watched a spider like that before. I could not believe how quickly he was able to make a web of that size. It gave me a new respect for spiders. Still don't want them in my house though.





Anywho, it was a fun weekend and it was good to spend time with family.

Fangs

As I have posted earlier my daughter has fangs. Charlotte broke her bottom teeth in mid July then about a week later broke 2 on the top. But NOT her two front teeth, she broke the ones next to it. So she has been Fangs since July. Savannahs did the same thing but within 2 weeks the front two broke. I have been trying to get a picture of her fangs because they are so cute and possibly to use on her later in life. But whenever I get out the camera she starts hamming it up and not doing what she just normally does. So I finally got while playing peek a boo with her so she kind of forgot the camera was there. They are too funny. She now even crinkles up her nose and curls her lip but like people do when they iminate a cat hissing or something. It cracks us up.