Attention all BARGAIN Shoppers!

Posted by Alyssa

If you were planning on getting up at 3am this Friday to fight the crowds to get those items on your shopping list, let me give you a piece of advice. Right NOW Amazon is already selling their black friday deals. Some deals are going all day, some deals are at certain hours of the day. I've compared these to other stores deals and they're matching other's low prices! Also, sign up for their Prime Membership for a free 1 month trial (details here http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/2009/11/update-amazon-free-trial/) to get free 2 day shipping on everything you buy! Plus, this link shows you how to automatically cancel your trial after 1 month, so you don't ever have to worry about being charged for it! There were a couple DVD's I wanted to get at Target, but instead I bought them on Amazon at the same price with free shipping! There was a Toy Story Woody doll I was going to get at Toys R Us' Black Friday, but instead got it on Amazon at their same price with free shipping! Get the idea? Check out the deals here: http://www.amazon.com/b/?ie=UTF8&node=384082011&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=3451119149&ref=pd_sl_36030tx8xv_e and check every day to see what's on sale! Also, if you haven't heard of CYBER MONDAY, you're missing out! It's the Monday after Thanksgiving and is basically almost all the Black Friday prices but online and most stores have free shipping codes or sales to take advantage of!

Anyways, I just wanted to give some advice for you guys in case you wanted to avoid all the Black Friday madness! I know I'm sleeping in and will join sisters-in-law for breakfast after they fight the crowds! :-)

Our zipling and rapelling adventure in Puerto Vallarta

Posted by Alyssa

Because we have an entire cd with pictures from our ziplining and rapelling adventure in Puerto Vallarta, I decided it needed its own post. This was by far the coolest and funnest thing I've ever done. Once we got off the cruise ship, we took a speed boat for about 30 minutes where the rainforest mountains were. We loaded into big army trucks and headed up the mountain on crazy small and steep roads. We then hopped onto some horses and kept heading up the mountain. After that, we hiked some MORE and then were finally at the top. I think there was a total of 8 ziplines and rapell lines (I may be off by a couple). But they were all very high, very long, and very fast! The first one my heart skipped a beat when I looked down and saw how high I was and realized that rope holding was the only thing saving me from falling to my death! But after that one, I relaxed and had the time of my life.

This was actually our last line and we got to race each other! They let me get a head start and Mike still won!
Us and the Stuarts

I was freezing here, it was after the zipline that dove you STRAIGHT into a river, you get completely wet!
Freefall rapelling, an awesome feeling!
These pictures don't do justice to show how high up we were and how long of a drop we had!
Once again, Mike and Clint were like little boys on these things!

Isn't this gorgeous?!?
What a stud!
Yep, "He's mine"!

Standing on one of the platforms

This was my first zipline and I was concentrating my breaking and footing to get it just right so I didn't smack into the guys that helped us!

Getting our instructions before we went on our first line.

We couldn't take our own cameras because we got completely soaked, so one of the tour guys had a professional one taking pics the whole time and you bought the cd in the end. I thought it was worth every penny, these pictures are priceless-I know there were a lot here but I had a hard time picking my favorite ones to put in this post!

Back to the real life.....

Posted by Alyssa

Last week Mike and I were able to go on a cruise for a vacation and a week of sanity to ourselves. The last time we did this was 3 years ago when I was about 5 months pregnant with Connor on a little 3 day one. After months and months and months of scraping and saving to pay for it, it was WELL worth it in the end. After 3 days I missed my boys terribly and I tried my best to stay happy and enjoy my vacation time alone with Mike. We did the Mexican Riviera cruise on the Sapphire Princess and visited Puerto Vallarta (where we went ziplining through the rainforest and rapelling through waterfalls and rivers-we ), Mazatlan (the boys went parasailing, we ate at Senior Frogs, and walked on the beach), and Cabo San Lucas (we went kayaking and snorkeling). Our shore adventures were a BLAST and I loved every second of them. We had a total of 4 days of being on our ship in the middle of the ocean and on these days we relaxed, ate, slept, read, exercised in the gym, ate, watched shows and movies in the theatre, went to magic and comedy shows, ate, and relaxed some more. If you are thinking about a nice and relaxing vacation, can I just recommend a cruise! I added up the amount it would have cost us to stay a week at an all-inclusive resort on a few different beaches, the airline cost, and souveniers and excusions, the total was way more than double the total cost of our cruise.

Enjoying the beach in MazatlanMike taking off on his parasail
Formal night (this was the first, there were 2 formal nights). We're posing with Clint and Breaunna Stuart, who went with us. We actually went on our last cruise with them too! It was a blast hanging out with them and we've never laughed so much in a week!
We're taking a boat to a private island to go snorkeling and kayaking at Cabo. Here's our ship in the background!
Cabo San Lucas, I can't remember the name of these popular rocks
Mike and Clint hanging out with their favorite bartender. No they didn't drink any alcohol drinks but they had their fill of every version of non-alcoholic drink they could! This night Bre and I were upstairs in the jacuzzi chatting with an old lady till about 11pm. Wondering where the boys were, we went downstairs only to hear them laughing their heads off with this bartender. Bre and I were only reminded that men will always stay little boys-no matter what.
I had a blast and it was definately a joy to be home safe with our little boys. After 2 days with them I'm ready for our next cruise! My mom watched the boys and they were sick most of the time we were gone. They still are and its not fun taking care of sick kids! Most days I just have to keep reminding myself that they're worth all the sleepless nights, throwups, tantrums, fights, messes, and disobedience! We missed our little boys terribly, but everyone needs a little R&R time with their spouse!