Cruise Pictures

The night picture of the ship was when we got back from the ruins at Tulum. I got Julie playing with a turtle and the picture of her with the pirate was the day we went to Hell, then one of the ruins at Tulum.

It was great fun - great weather - great company. I hated to come home to the cold and the snow. Next week I go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute Hospital for some surgery so we will see what the new year brings.

Happy New Year and Love to all of you - JB

Love from AZ

Tomorrow is the start of a new year! I hope it is better and more productive than this year. Unfortunately I think I am going to have to do more than hope to make this happen. I finally have electricity and hot water. My car is broken down again but I am buying the part today to fix it and all should be well before 2009 is upon us. I went to see Dustin on Sunday. He is doing good and he looks great. He said he didn't get any cards for Christmas except from me and a note from Dad and Nick. So if anyone wants to drop him a line it is Dustin Hill #200356, ASPC Winslow Coronado Unit 5B2, 2100 S. Hwy 87, Winslow, AZ 86047 He said when it becomes 2009 he can say he only has 2 years left. It has been cold in Arizona but probable not as cold as some of you have been. Kory, Jen and I went to lunch with Nate and Alayna a couple weeks ago. I am glad they called me while they were down here. Your all invited anytime. Hope everyone has a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Love to you all. Paula

2008 on its way out!

Just got back from 10 days in Florida and the Caribbean. We flew down to Tampa on Friday the 19th and boarded the cruise ship on Saturday. It took until Monday morning to arrive at Grand Cayman, where we played with the turtles, the stingrays and toured the island. I will try to get some pictures on here by tomorrow. Some of the turtles were huge - like 400-500 lbs and and very old, but the ones we got to pick up were a lot smaller - maybe 12-14 inches across and 5 lbs. The stingrays were spooky - we had pieces of squid to feed them and they would just mob you - we were probably 2-3 miles offshore and the water was 3-4 feet deep. There were 8 or 10 boats out there at any given time with 50 or so people in each boat!!

Then it took us overnight to get to Cozumel which is an island but our activities were on the mainland so we took a ferry boat over on Tuesday morning in VERY rough water - lots of people were sick. Then we had to walk about 2 blocks to the buses - they were too big to get close to the harbor and about an hour ride to the ruins at Tulum. The Mayan ruins there were fantastic. I had some fish tacos there with a pico de gallo salsa made with habanero peppers - talk about some serious heat!! I just sat there and kept eating and sweating!! Then back to the harbor and another fun boat ride back to the island and our cruise ship.

We cruised back to Tampa arriving there early in the morning on Christmas morning, and stayed there until Monday afternoon when we flew home. I ate a ton of fish and we saw some great sights. We got to go to the Tampa Bay Bucanneers football game with Oakland - my first NFL game. Loved walking around looking at Christmas lights in 70 degree weather!! We got to eat at some amazing places in Tampa - Debbie works for the company that owns Outback Steak Houses, Flemings, Roys and some others so we got the royal treatment and some awesome food!! We also went to Tarpon Springs, which is a Greek enclave with sponges, great places to eat and a lot of shops with sponges, goat's milk soap, etc. We also went to a fish market where we got a 5 pound filet of black grouper for grilling.

I said before we went I wanted to eat fish 3 times a day and I didn't quite do it, but I did eat fish at least twice a day every day and sometimes I got fish 3 times in 1 day. Mike and Becky were there from Las Vegas and Bruce and Debbie live in Clearwater so there were 6 of us on the cruise - it was a blast.

I think it was about 20 degrees when we got to Park 'n Jet and start shoveling the snow off the Jeep - it was hard to be thrilled about being home at that moment, but when we got home the sidewalks and driveway was cleared - haven't found out yet but think our tenants downstairs did that!!

I will try and do some pictures tomorrow and a few final thoughts before we move on to a New Year - Love to all - J.B.

Clan Flannery Checking In

This is late but only by a few minutes (it's 12:39 by my clock) so I'm going to go with it. Overall all is pretty well here in lovely West Valley City. Maggie and Aidan had the entire month of November off track at school (which is roughly translated into a month of torture for their parents) and yet they continue to draw breath (and we only had to go to the hospital for stitches once) so I'm going to call that a win.

Maggie did cut her own hair again but I figure that she's the one who has to walk around looking like that so any punishment I give her is just redundant. She continues to read a lot and watch a lot of Disney channel (although she has not seen the new High School Musical movie) but suddenly staunchly refuses to have anything to do with either Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus (I find I don't miss them).

Aidan has discovered the exciting world of video games (given his father's prediliction it was only a matter of time) but he's still in that "to make my guy jump, I have to jump" phase so he is still getting quite a bit of exercise.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with at my parents' which was nice, but quiet (for an occasion at my parents') with only eleven children there. Shaun had to eat quickly so that he could get to work and therefore missed most of the fun, (chatting, boardgames, Isacc biting his cousin so hard he drew blood) but at least he didn't have too work hard, since apparently the people in the Salt Lake valley all ate themselves into the kinds of comas that do not require medical attention and he came home early.

Isaac, in addition to the biting, has really started talking, and singing, up a storm and now you can rarely get him to shut up. But I find that the "I have poop again" song is starting to grow on me.

Ian at nearly a year old has decided to walk and it couldn't have come at a better time what with all the delicious things to be found on the bottom half of the christmas tree not to mention the sawdust and woodchips now scattered throughout the house.

Speaking of, our kitchen addition is going quite well we've got all the sheetrock hung and the mudding and taping starts this week (I'm just going to tell myself that the white dust covering every surface is fake snow and was part of my decorating plan for Christmas) and then we're putting the floor on. it's actaully pretty amazing to tlook at it and realize that we did it pretty much all ourselves. (Your family tends to be a little, and by a little I mean A LOT, more constructiony than my family so you may not find it amazing but trust me, it is.)

Shaun and I continue to work a whole heck of a lot and (it seems like) not do much else but we're well and hope you all are too.

Oh and Happy Christmas, in case we don't see you,