Mexican Riviera Cruise 2011

For Christmas 2010, we gave the kids a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. The trip was scheduled for Spring Break in April. The excitement was building. We were scheduled to leave Saturday April 9th and were driving to California where we would stay for one night and board the ship on Sunday, April 10th. Friday night as I began getting everything together so we could leave early Saturday morning, I started packing all the necessary paperwork and had the worst realization of my life! I did not have a birth certificate on Alyse! 4 years old and I had never obtained one from the Department of Health! The panic that set in was overwhelming! I began calling, emailing and texting EVERYONE I knew that worked for the state! Did ANYONE have a in to getting me a birth certificate? NO! Dena contacted her attorney, who said it would be worth a try to get a notarized letter from the hospital she was born in, but it was a long shot!
I was experiencing the kind of dread and anxiety I have only read about! I stayed up all night researching any loophole in the paperwork, on the Cruise Ship's website, on the booking agents website, EVERYWHERE I could think to read, I read and read and read, but to no avail!
We decided to head out Saturday morning anyway. Dena was doing me a HUGE favor, and meeting a notory at the hospital where the weekend manager was going to give a letter that Alyse had indeed been born there and who her parents were. Then she would bring it to California since their family had booked the same cruise. I gathered every bit of information I had on Alyse, from the documents I was given in the hospital when she was born, to the most current insurance and immunization records I had on her. If none of it worked, the plan was for Kim, Kierra and Dalton to go on the cruise and Alyse and I would spend the week in California. It was far from a good alternative but rather than staying home, we had to try! In the hotel that night, I tried to prepare Alyse for the possibility that she wouldn't be able to go, but that I would stay with her and we would still find a beach (her main objective :), it would just be in California. She was dissapointed and sad, but being the super sweet girl that she is, she didn't cry, and she started trying to comfort me, saying "It will be okay mommy, we will go to the beach, that will make you happy."
We got to the port Sunday morning, Dena gave me what she had, I organized all my information and we got in line. I was shaking and scared. If they didn't let us on, it was a year and a half of planning down the drain over one major oversight on my part! Kierra said, "Mom, show them that one" (picture attached) and I said "I don't want to show them that one, it is handwritten, I don't want them to think we are trying to get one over on them because anyone could have written that."

We got to the front of the line, I presented everyone's information, and the kind young man (looked a lot like David Archuleta) said, "I don't think I can take this, I have to call my manager." We were sunk! The manager came down, told me they were mandated by Homeland Security and the notorized letter wouldn't work, but he would call his manager and check. They sent us to sit in the Guest relations building. The "BIG" manager came down, we brainstormed idea's, I told her there was a way to order birth certificates online, could I order it and have it sent to the port, then by the time we needed to get off (which is when Homeland Security is involved) it would be there, she said there would be no way to get it to the right people. Dena's attorney had said when you ordered the birth certificates online, it was possible that it would show you a picture of the birth certificate, so I got online in with the manager, ordered one (quite expensive) and what it showed me was a generic, so no go. She said there was just no way to let her on the ship, I was starting to get hysterical, then she said "If you only had the temporary birth certificate you were sent home from the hospital with." I couldn't believe my ears! All this turmoil and heart ache, and the "legal" document they were willing to take was the handwritten birth certificate??? Kierra was RIGHT!
I said, "WAIT, I HAVE THAT!" I capitalized that because I am pretty sure I YELLED it!
I sifted through my papers, pulled it out, she looked at it and said "I can take that!"
Then I Lost it! Tears, hyperventilation and the biggest amount of relief I could ever imagine! We were saved by a hand written (1/2 of it was my handwriting, the hospital didn't even write her name) child-like temporary birth certificate!

This trip could be full of rain, crappy food, beligerant people and it wouldn't matter because we we made it on with the whole family!
It turned out to be an AMAZING trip and Alyse not only saw the beach, she saw the beach in Mexico!

Kayden, Kierra and Braxten, Ready to Board :)

Arnold, Brita, Ashley and LaLoni Anderton were on the ship and this picture was after we all went ziplining in Puerto Vallarta.


We spent two days in Cabo, this was saying goodbye on the last day. We Love it there!

Alyse's favorite of the Towel Animals




The sunset on our last night on the ship.

Dalton is an official Pre-Teen! 12 years old :)

Dalton has been asking me for a couple weeks "are you ready for me to be a pre-teen?" Ready or not, here we are.......

Dalton has had this hair for awhile now! We have wanted it cut, but he has been fighting us. This is the before:

After the forced birthday haircut, he did not want a picture taken:

Trying to ignore me:

Sibling Love :

Now I am preparing to take a dozen, YES 12, kids to the movie tonight! Shoot me, shoot me now!

Alyse is 4

I honestly can not believe my baby is 4! This has been the fastest 4 years of my life!

We were in St. George on her birthday and for several months she has been saying she wants an ice cream cake, even though she has never had ice cream cake, she loves cake and she loves ice cream even more, so apparentely, it seemed like a great idea. I found a Baskin Robbins in St. George before the trip and ordered a cake and since her cousin Brigette was there too (for Grandma and Grandpa Faulk's 50th wedding anniversary party) and their b-day's are only one day apart, we decided to have a pizza and ice cream cake party. It was so much fun!

I want to just take some time to put into words the amazing 3 year old she has been!

I, of course, think she is a one of a kind! No, I am not biased, she really is :)

The number one thing about her that truly amazes me is her LOVE! Her heart is so big I am not sure how her lungs have room to expand! She has no trouble expressing it either, I probably hear these statements dozens of times a day "Mommy I love you sooo much" "your so beautiful and sweet" "Mommy your the best" there are many more, but those are my favorites!

I think the most amazing thing about how often she expresses these things is that they are not in conjuction with her wanting or getting anything. She just says them, and truly means them. When I have been having a bad day and been far more 'onry than I should, she will say, while fighting tears, "Mommy you are not being very beautiful or sweet" it is a heart melter and snaps me back to reality pretty quick!

She is truly been the glue in our family, she is so loved and adored! We can't get enough of her!

She is also been a 3 year old Master of Lyrics! She loves Music and with older siblings always playing something, she knows lyrics to songs so quickly! A song will come on the radio in the car I have never heard and she will be belting out the lyrics, Correctly! Amazes me! She tends to have a thing for Eminem, his lyrics are challenging to her because of their speed, but she keeps up pretty well (probably better than me I have to admit) fortunately the bleeped areas just seem like breaks to her, and she has no idea the words being omitted! HA!

I could go on and on and on......I adore this child! I will put some of my favorite pics from the past year, and am so grateful I get to move onto her 4 year old adventures with her!

First haircut as a 3 year old last year.

Alyse is a beach bum! She could spend hours upon hours (and usually does) playing in the sand.

She LOVED her first trip to Disneyland!

This was on Halloween, however, dress up became a serious part of our lives in the past year! She has about 10 different outfits from Pirate girl to princess to Hippie!

Jewelry is part of dressing up too! While we were school shopping last August, she wanted her ears pierced! Fortunately Kierra insisted they do both ears at one time, or I am pretty sure she would be sporting one pierced ear to this day. It was traumatic, but she was over it in about 5 minutes and then had to show her "flowers in her ears" to everyone.

Alyse is also very loyal to her friends! Her best friends are her two closest aged cousins Abrie and Haydn. She loves them both dearly, and loves to play dinosaurs and trains with the boys and dress up and barbies with the girls!

My beautiful girl!

New Years Eve 2010-2011

Another great New Years Eve at the Dastrups! Great company, and can't beat the distance :)

Thumbs Up from Kayden Braxten's face, not running from my camera as he was last New Years! It's been a year of growth I guess! ha!

Kim and Alyse

Kim U. and Penny P. and of course a big Thumbs down from Kelton! (growing love for my camera, for him, is not manifesting yet)
Alyse singing a song! She is such a night owl these days midnight was a piece of cake for her!

Deep thought provoking conversations! YEAH Right!

Kim U. and Marci (aka Me)
Some are hiding from the camera, Not Nick or Corbin though! SUPERSTARS!! I think something must have been smelling real bad for Corbin?

The Aftermath! This was New Years Day around 10am. We pretty much all looked like this :)

San Antonio 2010

In August 2010 my grandma (aka Aunt Eursle) decided to sell her car before she turned 91, her reasoning was this "I just have no business driving at my age" which clearly shows her state of mind, she functions better than people much much younger than her. Never-the-less, she was selling a car I loved and wanted to buy (2000 Pontiac Grand Prix, with, get this 26,500 miles :), so Kierra, Alyse and I decided to fly to Texas and drive it home. It was a short, great trip! We spent a few days hanging out with her and then made the long (about 1300 miles) trek home.

Alyse like Dora in Texas as much as home.Hung the new curtains my mom sent with us.

Primping happens in Texas too :)

AMAZING 90 year old, about 10 days before she turned 91.

Eursle, Alyse, and Kierra