Formal Nights

One of the fun things about a cruise is getting to dress up for formal nights. It was a bit more of a challenge this time for me since none of my formal clothes are maternity, but I made it work.
The first formal night was on the 2nd night of the cruise and started out with the Captain's Cocktail Party.

Mommy and her Little Man

Daddy and his Princess

After enjoying some music and dancing for a bit, we headed to take a quick family portrait before it was time for dinner. Here we are all shined up, looking our best...

If you happen to enlarge this picture, don't mind the food in Tyler's teeth. They literaly snapped this picture of him between bites!

We went on a cruise with Tyler when he was 18 months old, and had some portraits taken of him. So, to make it fair, we did the same for Allison on this cruise. This is one of my favorites.

The second formal night took place after our day in Vancouver, and the group picture we took captured proof of my poor swollen ankles I mentioned in my previous post. Why is it that I'm always asked to stand on the back row for photos until it truly matters??? And no, they couldn't even put me in the middle so my kids could hide them. Oh well, what do you do?

Pictured from left to right: Marc and Kandee Anderson (Billy's aunt and uncle), Bill and Betty Farish (Billy's grandparents), Mark and Mandee Farish (Billy's uncle and cousin), Charlie and Melanie Zite (long-time friends of Bill and Betty), and us. :)

This was our table for dinner in the Gold Pearl Dining Room. We got lucky enough to have the windows behind us with a nice shot of the ocean in the background!

I just couldn't resist posting this adorable picture of Allison. It was taken on the first formal night. Tyler ordered a hamburger that night and it came with a couple pickle slices. Allison loves pickles and Tyler gladly passed them her way. When they were gone she wanted more, so we asked the waiter if he could bring her a few more pickles (you can pretty much ask for and get anything you want!). He said "of course!," and came back with an entire bowl of pickle spears for her! She was in heaven!

Welcome to Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Isn't this classic?! I would say it's great blackmale to use in a few years, but he's a boy and he probably won't care. In fact, he'll probably think it's funny. What I think is so hilarious about it, is that he still managed to pose for the shot and give an adorable smile. Oh well, maybe one day I'll be successful in breaking that habit!
Our day in Vancouver was spent walking around downtown. There didn't prove to be too many things that were very picture worthy, so I don't have a whole lot to document for that day. Maybe it was because I was hot and swollen from being on my feet too long, and wasn't really in the mood to take many pictures. So here's what I have. There aren't any of Allison because she was...yep, you guessed it, asleep! By the time we would wake up and get ready each day, eat breakfast, and get off the ship, the poor little thing was ready for nap time. She really didn't miss much this day.
Here's Tyler posing with a cowboy outside a western attire and gun store.

This clock was pretty cool because it ran off of steam. (If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see some of the steam coming out of the top.) The best part was when it sounded off each hour. LOTS of steam came out with a sort of steam-train sounding whistle that played a melody.

Before heading back to the ship, Tyler posed with a moose and black bear in front of this gift shop.

After we got back on the ship, we decided to head over to the water slide since Tyler had been anticipating going down it for so long. (It was only open for a couple hours each day, so we hadn't been able to make it there on any previous day.) Once we got there and climbed to the top, we discovered that Tyler wasn't quite tall enough, and the guy in charge wasn't letting him pass on his tippy-toes. AND, it was one-person-at-a-time only, so they wouldn't even let me go down with him. Poor guy. He took it rather well though. So we decided to play at the spray park instead, and he ended up having a great time! (Please excuse Allison's falling, lop-sided pig tails. She hadn't been awake from her nap very long, and that's the result of laying on them in her stroller.)

Welcome to Victoria, B.C. Canada

In Victoria, we took a guided tour to see some of the highlights there. Our first stop was Hatley Castle. It was quite a magnificent structure and very beautiful.

Then we got to make a stop at the beach. Of course, all beaches are pretty in their own special way, but this one wasn't quite the best beach I've ever been to...

LOTS of driftwood...

SUPER cold water (notice the snow-capped mountains in the background)...

No pretty white sand...

But the kids still had a blast and enjoyed the time they had out of the van to run around for a few minutes! Tyler didn't even let the temperature of the water get in his way of getting as wet as possible!

Our last stop before heading back to the ship was at a nature park. We got to walk down a nice nature trail to a gift shop where we enjoyed an ice cream treat!

Check out this HUGE red wood tree! They were everywhere, but we thought this particular one offered a great photo opp! (Once again, Allison was sound asleep by this point of our tour, so she didn't make it in any pictures here.)

Welcome to Astoria, Oregon

Astoria was one of the filming locations for both Kindergarten Cop and Goonies. And although I didn't get to go to Cannon Beach (the beach in Goonies with all the cool rock formations) as I had hoped, I did get to experince some Goonies history! Once off the ship, we took a shuttle bus to town where we discovered the Flavel House Museum. It is a very beautiful house with a lot of history behind it. It was built in 1885 by Captain George Flavel (a Columbia river bar pilot, who was one of the areas first millionaires) and his family. In Goonies, it was featured as the museum where Mikey's father worked.

Here's the whole gang (minus Kandee, who is across the street taking the picture).

Quick family photo by a gigantic tree.

I really enjoy touring museums, especially places where people actually lived. It is just a cool feeling to me to get to stand in the same place where these people did so long ago and see some of the things they used on a daily basis. They even had the children's room set up with toys and games they would have played with back then. It was the only room in the house where you were allowed to touch anything. So, most of my time was spent here with Tyler and Allison.

Tyler took some time with Great Uncle Marc to play a little game of checkers.

In the meantime, Allison decided to read a story...

...and made sure she was still the fairest of them all.

Once our tour was complete, we headed over to the local Maritime Museum. Due to time restraints and the expense of the tickets, however, we decided against touring it. We took a few minutes to look through the gift shop and take some fun pictures.

Here's Tyler, me, and his two new turtle friends (thanks Great-Aunt Kandee) in a life raft.

Outside the museum, we found this bell. It wasn't very hard to find...you could hear all the kids ringing it for miles. Tyler had to take a turn of course!

I guess we like taking family photos by things that are gigantic. Here we are with an anchor. Notice Tyler's little turtle friend hanging above our heads? He has magnetic feet! Tyler discovered he would stick to the anchor and posed him for the picture. Allison was one pooped little girl and decided to take a quick snooze. We didn't want her left out of the picture though!

On the shuttle bus back to the ship, Tyler decided his turtles needed their very own seats.

Bon Voyage!

I know, I know...I promise posts about our cruise and then I disappear! There has really just been a lot going on lately, and honestly, I just haven't felt like scanning the pictures taken on the ship that I wanted to post. But I finally did it! So there will be a series of many cruise posts coming up. There is just no way for me to sum up an entire week in one post. Maybe I'm long-winded?
Our flight out to L.A. ended up being a VERY packed one, so Billy had to sit in a completely different part of the plane than the kids and me. Not exactly what I had signed up for, but what do you do? Luckily, Tyler and Allison are good fliers and were very well behaved. They even napped for much of the flight. At least I didn't have the burden of getting the kids off the plane and collecting our luggage on my own. Phew! Here are a few pictures of the kids while we were awaiting take-off.

Being Silly

Oooooh, we're finally moving!

Check out my shades!

Once we arrived in California, we stepped off the plane and discovered that it was a bit cooler out than we had anticipated. Good thing jackets were easily accessible...and so began our oh so tropical cruise!

The next day, after waiting in a horrendously long line, we boarded the ship.

Anchors Aweigh!

(As Tyler and Allison would say.)

(Great-Aunt Kandee and Uncle Marc are in the middle, and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Farish are on the right.)

Once on board, Tyler got to meet and pose with Fun Ship Freddy, whom Allison referred to as the Easter Bunny and would NOT even go near! Even several days after she continued to remind us, "I don't want to see Easter Bunny."

Then we had some lunch and our very first soft-serve ice cream cones! What a great way to start a cruise!

By the way, those cones are available 24-hours a day on Carnival ships!

A Different Kind of Clock

As with many other children, Tyler gets a bit wound up when he's awake past his bedtime (true sign of fatigue!). Since we are still struggeling to get our internal clocks back on east coast time, he has been up a little later than normal. Earlier tonight, as Tyler started showing signs of rambunctiousness, he and Billy exchanged the following:

Billy: Tyler, your internal clock is telling you you're tired and it's past your bedtime.

Tyler: I don't see a turtle clock. But we need to buy one!

***This is even cuter if you know that Tyler LOVES turtles (maybe even more than T-Rex these days). He eats, sleeps, and breaths turtles!

Please Help

I know, you were all expecting a cruise post...
I will be getting to that soon. I need to scan some pictures and get some from Billy's aunt before I can start.
Until then, why not post something baby related? It's actually in regards to one of the most important components needed when having a baby...

The baby's NAME!!!

And, it's supposed to be the most fun part too, right?! Well, not this time around. We are so stuck! We used up the boy name we both liked when Tyler was born, and now we can't agree on anything.
I know that we still have about 4 months to go, but it's definitely creeping up on us. I am just feeling a little stressed that I may have to bring home an un-named baby from the hospital. After all, we didn't just come across this problem yesterday. It's been looming over our heads since the moment we found out we were expecting....and we havn't made ANY headway.
So, does anyone have any suggestions for us?
For the most part, we like more common names (although not too overused) and normal spellings. The teacher in me just can't stray from common name spellings. Also, I have an issue with naming any of our children after a close friend or family member. I've just never liked being a "copy-catter," and I feel like I would totally be a hypocrite if I did so.
So here is our meager list of name ideas, with reasons why we can't come to a consensus on any of them.

1. Braden - This is Billy's top name choice. In fact, I think he's SO stuck on this name that he can't even consider any other option. In my opinion, it's not a bad name. I like it too. There's just one small detail...it's Billy's best friend's name. That would just be very difficult for me and my "copy-cat" syndrome.

2. Cameron - This is my top name choice. Back when we were pregnant with Tyler, this was one of the name choices for him and we BOTH liked it. We decided to put it on reserve for a later date because we wanted to pass on William and thought Tyler went better with it. I still really like this name, but for some reason, Billy has decided it doesn't suit him anymore.

3. Zachary - This is another boy's name choice that was considered back when I was pregnant with Tyler. This was a name Billy LOVED, before the thought of Braden came along. He actually just liked Zack. He would say, "Zack Hadley. It's just a good name." It's a cute name, it just wasn't at the top of my list...and still isn't. Something about the Z maybe?

4. Spencer - This is a name that has always kind of floated in the back of my mind as an option. But the problem of the copy-cat issue arises again. I have a friend named Spencer, and our families are actually in the same ward now. It's probably so lame of me to think this way, but I can't help it. Any suggestions on helping me get over it??? As far as I know, Billy likes this name too (although we all know it doesn't come near to competing with Braden).

5. Devon - This is just a random name choice. I was looking through lists of baby names one night, and this was practically the only name we didn't laugh at and both said could possibly work. It's WAY at the bottom of the list though....

So, that's it. 5 possible name choices. Feel free to offer your opinion...I know you have one! Please give other suggestions too!