Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Wow I didn't realize that it's been over a month since I've last checked in....

Well we went on vacation in December - we spent about 25 days off the "Rock". I missed my pups so much, it was hard to get on the plane and leave them behind with my brother Tommy... But I knew they would be ok and I was off to enjoy ourselves one last time before our baby is born!

We ended up leaving on the 2nd of Dec - 4 days before we were scheduled to leave. We weren't able to get on stand-by on any of the flights and the one they did get us on ended up having a mechanical and we were still stuck in fabulous Dutch Harbor! A huge storm hit us while we were stuck - winds in excess of 100 MPH causing some damage around the island - for example the huge Gantry crane that loads the huge containers ships over at APL succombed to the wind and ended up crashing to the ground. A mess they are still getting cleaned up. Finally Mother Nature gave us a one day opening where we were able to get on a flight to Anchorage (all on the scheduled day we were supposed to leave!). After spending the night in Anchorage we happily boarded our flight to SoCal!

Lots of walking, sight-seeing, driving around and soaking in what sun we could (it rained a lot when we were down there). We went to all the usual theme parks: Disneyland, Disneyland's California Adventure, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios and 6 Flags Magic Mountain. I had fun on what rides I was able to get on!! My lucky hubby getting to go on all of them, I made him get on a couple twice (Once for himself and once for me!!). I'm going to miss driving around in Beverly Hills and Hollywood - so many expensive cars to be found on the roads in those parts of town! OH, and we got to go spend a little over 4 hours at the L.A. Auto show!! That was so cool getting to sit in all those cars and check them out!! Not to mention see some of the concept cars that might never be put into production, but hey I got to see them!!! I got to sit in a couple of the last of the VW Bugs for sale this year - sat in the droptop version and the hard top version. I liked the droptop!! But the main vehicle I see working great here in Akutan that I really really really want to get is the Smart Car!! OMG those are so cute!! I like the convertible version, gives the feeling of more head space! But hopefully I'll be driving one of those here soon, hell with an ATV... I'ma get me a SmartCar!! :D

After 10 days hanging out in LA, we made our way over to Vegas for the wedding we came down for. My hubby ended up being asked to be a groomsman - he couldn't be any more excited about the wedding after getting asked to be a part of it!! We went and got him fitted at the Tux rental place - 1st time getting fitted or wearing a tux!! He looked so good in it too!! Before heading to Vegas I found the perfect black dress for me to wear, now to just find some cute heels to go with it, yay that means shoe shopping in Vegas!! :D The wedding was a blast, the whole time in Vegas was a blast!! Except for that one time that I went to get the drinks and I didn't get handed back my ID and I didn't notice until the next day when I needed it again. Talk about a panic attack wondering where I used it last and where my ID could be!! Luckiy security at the hotel where everyone was staying had it and I just had to pick it up! See we ended up having wedding rehersals (which everyone was late too.... sorry Sandra).. then after rehersal we all met up at the bride and groom's suite for dinner and drinks... Vegas is awesome and always will be - but me feet hate it there!! Doesn't help that I spent 10 days walking around in LA before walking around in Vegas for 3 more days!! You don't even want to know about the blisters that I got from all that walking... I got blisters on the tips of my toes... WTF? How do I get blisters there?!?!?! Well I know a couple are from the new super cute shoes I bought to go with the dress I got back in LA, what can I say they were super cute... but my feet definately were paying for it later that night and for the next couple days!! It was so much fun spending time with my fellow Akutan residents and showing some of them around Vegas (this was our 3rd time in SinCity). We even drove 30 mins to the Hoover Dam, giggling about crossing not only state lines but time zones! My first time in Arizona and my first time in the Mountain time Zone!! LOL!!!

After the wedding wrapped up we stole my hubby's cousin and drove back to LA for a couple more days of fun in the sun before returning to Alaska. I know we crammed a lot into Darren's head trying to show him as much as we could and get him on as many rides as we could in the 48 hr period that we were in SoCal for! We took him to both Disneyland parks the first day - I don't think I've ever seen that many people in the park any of the times I've ever been there before. I definately don't recommend going during xmas break... OMG there were soo many people!! The next day we drove up to 6 Flags and the guys got on almost every ride in the park in the 7 hrs that we spend there. Then we got to show Darren what real "rush hour" traffic is... 2 hours worth of it to get back to our hotel from the park, bumper to bumper!! The last day we were there we drove to the Hollywood sign, then went to Muhulland Dr to view the city, went to the La Brea Tar pits and Santa Monica Pier. Walked Hollywood Blvd, went to Manns Chinese Theater and Maddame Tussades Hollywood, drove by LA Ink and Pinks Hot Dog Stand, drove up and down Rodeo Dr - all before rushing back to the airport to get checked in for our flight back to AK. We did a lot our last day, not to mention find a post office and get the box of crap that didn't fit in our suitcases mailed back home!! At least the line was short, I was expecting a long long line! Traveling was a pain in the butt... for some reason we got bumped from our original flight and put on the next flight that left about an hour later. Which ticked me off, but what can you do? I'm not going to start fighting and arguing or I might not be able to fly at all.... LOL....

We spent Christmas in Anchorage with my younger sis Ivy and my sweet Cupcake (my neice Aaliyah)... we cooked up a huge spiral ham dinner for the 4 of us... I missed being in a kitchen and cooking!! For a gift to my sister we scrubbed her house down and got it nice and super clean for her!! My hubby did most of the cleaning, I mostly did dishes and vacuum :P I love being able to spend time with my sisters and their babies when ever I can, and being able to spend xmas with my little sis (since who knows when...) is something I'll always cherish! We ended up getting some pretty pink paint for the nursery and shipping it home thru PenAir Cargo the day we were flying to Dutch. We spent the night like we planned and caught the first flight to Akutan in the AM.

All in all our trip was awesome and I'd love to do it all over again... except for the aching feet part and all the rain we endured... I even had to buy an umbrella when we were down there, something I thought I'd never do in The Land of Sun!! But I guess it is their winter and I've never been down there in December... so not like I knew what to expect from the weather other than sunshine!! Only thing that got to me bad was some how losing all our pix off my computer... at least I uploaded most of them online and I was able to get them back (all except a handful that I didn't post). I swear when we flew back from Anchorage to Akutan that my suitcases were full of nothing but stuff for my spoiled pups!! I even brought Tug home a 40lb bag of dog food in one of my suitcases (I didn't trust mailing it, don't know when we'll get it... but I know my bags will make it with me!!), not to mention we picked up all our pups a doggy stocking filled with assorted dog toys then to pick up all the usual chew stuff they like to enjoy - milkbones and rawhide sticks. Spoiled pups, they were so happy to see us come home... I don't know who was more excited - them or me!!! You don't know how good it felt to sleep in my own bed and wake up to my loving pups!!

So I've been home for about 9 days now, the weather is in the 40's - which feels a lot warmer than the teens-20's they were having in Anchorage... but much much cooler than the 70's I was enjoying in California!! For a week after we got home the weather stayed pretty nice, letting us get our 2 flights a day in (or more if there are cannery workers waiting to fly over, that time of the year again... they call it "A" Season). The last day or two we've been getting a little bit of rain and fog with a little bit of wind - bad enough for the plane not to fly that's for sure. New Year's was fun, spending it cuddled on the couch with my hubby and pups watching all the New years coverage on TV, getting up every hour on the hour mark to shoot a couple shells out of the 12ga shot gun.

Work has been great since I've been back, getting back into the routine again... I missed my usual routine!!

I'm already 28 weeks preggo. Baby kicks hard now, then sleeps and wakes up to kick me some more!! LOL... I can't believe I have 12 weeks left to go or so!!! Baby is growing good, I'm still not as big as I expected to be, but that's ok I guess! I've put on about 18lbs or so already though!! I can't wait to hold her in my arms and stare into her eyes and wonder what she thinks of the world!! Her daddy is painting her room pink today!! Should be done with it by the time I get home!! Yay!! Sexy Pink is the name of the color... nice bright pink!! :D We'll paint our bathroom if we have enough left over paint! :D

Ok well I hope everyone is having a great 2010 so far!! Much luv to you all!! Take care of yourselves and keep in touch, as I will try to do so more myself!! Until sometime, TTFN