Now, 45 of the 50 Nifty

Alaska makes 45 . . . states visited that is (who really wants to go to the Dakotas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Wisconsin anyway?). It is one of my favorites, no not in terms of shopping but definitley in terms of scenery, food, weather, and nice people.

At first I though it slightly sucked to have to take Chubs but it turned out to be a great snuggling opportunity and everyone helped with him, and the truth is I couldn't have stood to be away from him that long. We had such a fun time on our cruise, for one thing we were some of the youngest people on the ship which allowed us free reign of the boat after about 9:00 p.m. We took Holland America and it was a great cruise line, friendly and delicious.

One of my favorite things we did, which I did not get pictures of, is the spa treatments. We spent three different days getting facials, massages, exfoliations, toxins released, hydropooled, and just relaxing on the mosaic warming chairs watching the mountains and the ocean pass. Lance and I had a couples massage which was very romantic, while Shanny tended/slept with Chubs (thanks peentz). It was one of our funnest family trips, here is a visual re-cap . . .

Here is the Oosterdam, our ship . . . Here is downtown Juneau, Alaska's capital. It is built on a very small strip of land sandwhiched between the mountains and the ocean, beautiful. They had the MOST amazing peanut butter chocolate chunk fudge I could've imagined.
Juneau after lunch at The Hangar. Good choice Woggie.
The sea planes coming in for a landing.
Taken leaving Juneau from the deck of the ship, Allyson, Lindsey, me, Shannon. Is it just me or is Ally's flower attacking Lindz?

The bears in Alaska are actually very friendly.

This is Sitka, our least fave town.

Lance and chubs on the deck of the ship while we viewed the Hubbard Glacier.
Hubbard Glacier, the largest Glacier in the world. This glacier is one of the only glaciers expanding, it is 76 miles long.
Chubs in his chef's hat at the chef's parade dinner.

Jeff and Chubs on our last formal night.
Ketchikan, our favorite city. This city was lively and fun. I've eaten fish and chips in England and Ireland, from Boston to San Fran and Seattle so HEAR THIS: They can't hold a candle to Ketchikan Alaska. The fish and chips here were made of halibut and just melted in your mouth. And the tartar sauce was made with fresh dill not dill pickle relish, mmmmm.

Victoria, British Columbia

This city is a West Family favorite. We vacationed here a couple of times growing up, then had an adult trip here two years ago, then we were lucky enough to get our cruise ship to stop here. If you ever get the chance to go it is so beautiful, the weather is perfect, it is lush and green, incredible buildings, some pretty great shopping, and wonderful restaurants. Below is Shanny snuggling with Chubs (the empress hotel is behind).

POP! Goes her tongue - on the water front, gov't building in the background.
Grandpa making Chubs laugh as usual.
The bay and Empress Hotel, this is the city center.

Getting Our Groove On

One of the funnest parts of the vacay for sure was the night activities. Most of us are night owls sans woggie (ally) and sometimes Lindz so we partied into the wee hours most nights and closed down that big ship if you know what I mean. We played card games,and got our ping pong on in the tournaments until 2 or 3 a.m. We spent the last two nights at Northern Lights, the ship's night club. D.J. Matt knew how to put the needle on the record for 70's night. Of course we had to request "Raining Men" Jeff even got into that one (not so much). I loved the Mojitos and Strawberry Daquirris, here are the pics of us taking over the dance floor . . .




By the end of the cruise Ally kept saying she was pregnant . . . with a food baby. Here she is moaning about it and showing it off. Below you get a feel for the true hidden talent within the West family, you'll see particularly Jeff's got a huge talent!

Formal Night

I guess everyone knows that these cruise ships have formal night, here is ours:

Above is my parents at dinner, below is me and my date. Lance wasn't about to let some cruise ship tell him how to dress at dinner so he didn't bring anything nicer than a pair of jeans. As a result they wouldn't even let him in for dinner.


Here are Lindsey, Ally, Jeff, Shannon, and me while we were having "after dinner drinks and dancing" in the Ocean Bar.

Mom and Dad cutting a rug - so cute.

Heavy Heart

It is with a heavy heart and teary eyes that I come to you now. I have received some news that is absolutley the worst news I've heard since, since, maybe since I found out Chaz has a kidney condition (that is a little dramatic, I know, but I am truly sad) MOONLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. I am devastated, this show was the best blend of action, romance, comedy that I have ever seen on TV. Not to mention the beautiful cast, I even love Shannyn Sossaman after her evilness here.


This song playing, Lucky, is from one of my fave Moonlight scenes when Mick and Beth are discussing their relationship on the roof top, they share a passionate kiss, then he flies to a post to look over the city at night and it's totally a Moulin Rouge moment. It just kept getting more creative and interesting with cool plot twists and vampire fight scenes. I love Beth. The second song playing is from the final finale of Moonlight, shower scene wooo. I am trying to "let it go" but the sadness just keeps sinking deeper, somehow I don't feel like "we are the lucky ones" now.

PS just found out Men in Trees is cancelled too - are you kidding me? Like people are still watching Grey's Freaking Anatomy and skipping these Gems?! I guess that's why stupid movies like Independence Day and Iron Man etc are so popular, uh!!!!

Zoey's Moment

And so I'm back, from outer space, you just walked in to find me here with that sad look upon my face (the sad look is due to the lack of attention my blog has received) BUT I will survive . . . anyway, sorry V for the lack of posts but I am really deliberating my posts because I am sick of posting about kids and their activities all the time and I've been out of town and been in hibernation over a couple of really bad migraines anyway, so here I go with another post about kid acitivites . . . but these ARE special and come back soon cuz I am posting about my fab Alaskan get away.



Zoey's artistic year culminated in two events; her art show, May 10, and her dance concert, May 17. She was SO excited for both, she lives for art class each week and spends several hours a day coloring and drawing. Here are a couple of examples of her work at the show (she painted the teddy bear):






Below, she is preparing for her Enchanted "Happy Little Working Song" dance number.



Waiting for their curtain call . . .

Marlee and Zoey after

Movie Mavens

Have you ever wanted to see a certain movie and said to yourself "I wonder what Hillary thinks of this movie?" Well then, GOOD NEWS, http://movie-mavens.blogspot.com/ is here for you. For a while now, my sister and I and our friend Christy have been reviewing movies on our Movie Mavens blog (this picture is an artistic cartoon rendering of the three of us). Feel free to visit if you want to hear more of my opinions or if you want to wisely invest your $8.25 on movies you will enjoy. Keep reading and scrolling down for my most recent review, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day . . .

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Movie Review

hmmmm it appears I liked this movie so much more than Shannon. This is the best new movie I have seen in 2008. The storyline is fresh and the writing has the perfect balance of corny humor and genuine emotion. I love Amy Adams, she reprises her roll as Giselle in Enchanted in many ways but it's perfect for DeLyssia Lafosse! Just her character's name cracks me up. The leading men were adorable and loveable, and the sets were fabulously 1930's. Francis McDormand was amazing; normally her rolls don't excite me because she plays harsh characters but here she is warm and sad.
Miss Pettigrew has a sweet surface story but it moved me with a reminder of the plight of unmarried and destitute women prior to the women's movement. DeLyssia LaFosse had no choice, if she wanted to progress in her career, she was forced to use her sexuality. Miss Pettigrew didn't have that option so she became homeless. As much as I dislike Gloria Steinem, and I believe the women's movement had some negative effects on families and society, I can't deny the gratitude I feel for her and the choices her efforts have given modern women.
Miss Pettigrew gives us a typical fairy tale ending, but it was handled in a believable way and it was quite satisfying.

A bit of Shopping on the Border City of Shenzen, China

Today's Meals

Yes, that is a cooked chicken head.

Hong Kong UPS

Today I spend the day at the largest logistical center in the World. It is very nice to have a new audience (1.4 billion Chinese people) that I can talk about Fo Da' UPS.

Fo Da Qweezy Tummy

Yes, we are in China. Oh yea, just kidding-since I decided to have a baby a few months ago I get to sit all of these exciting cultural experiences out. LANCE is in China, he has never even wanted to go there. I HAVE, ever since I saw the Ming Dynasty exhibit at BYU like 7 years ago, but of course he is the one that gets to go. The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, the modern Shanghai skyline, the SHOPPING in Hong Kong, people camping out in yurts and eating raw potatoes, (oh wait that's Mongolia I hope to NEVER go there) I will get to you one day even if you are Red and abusive to human's rights . . . Ok, I just need to look at "my favorite time of the day" post and I will feel better :).

Look's like he's a little bit obsessed with the food over there; he hasn't eaten a bite of it (let's put it into perspective, he doesn't even like P.F. Chang's) except the night they went to Ruth's Chris. Anyway, he is sending us a few pics; the temple does look very cool.
That was what was for dinner.....

Fo Da' Olympics

Fo Da' Food

Fo Da Skyline

Fo Da' Hong Kong Temple and Hong Kong Skyline

I have tapped into Hillary's blog account. He is the temple in HKG.

Babybliss for everyone!

If you've seen Jeanette's blog lately, you know the girls went over to my sister Allyson's for a photo shoot of her product line Babybliss Accessories. She has been making accessories for young and old and selling them at boutiques for a while. She has just created her web site so we can now make ourselves more beautiful from the convenience of our own home! These are just of few of her beautiful things, most of the hats you've seen me and Zoey wear with flowers, etc come from her also. I love these pics because the kids look adorable (above are Micah, Allyson's boy, Brynn, Zoey, and Brooklyn); so enjoy the pics or check her out at http://www.babyblissaccessories.com/


Look at him! Have I mentioned that I adore this blue-eyed chubby boy?

This is my sister, Lindsey, see they are cute for big girls too.

Makeover Time!

BEFORE

AFTER

Heather made the mistake of asking me about make-up, it's kind of like asking Lance about UPS or Shannon about Stamps. So we did some damage at the MAC counter and it was worth every penny, don't you think? She let me have free reign on her face to do as I pleased, it's not too difficult to work some magic when you start with such a beautiful canvas.

My favorite time of the day.

I feed Chubs every night right before I go to bed between 12am and 1am. After he eats a full bottle in about 5 seconds, he wiggles his face into my neck and we snuggle cheek to cheek for up to 30 minutes like that. This is one reason I don't get enough sleep, I can't put him back to bed. He is so warm and soft and I can feel his breath on my neck and I think it's my favorite baby moment ever! Everyone comment, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TIME OF DAY? (PS it doesn't have to be about kids, usually mine would be when I get the kids to bed!)

Gunner's here too!

Gunner Wade Dupaix was born on April 1 (no joke) to Lance's sister Mindy and her hub Chuck in SLC. We are so happy he is here, what can I say, we are a bunch of baby makers in the Rose family. Gunner is grandchild number 9, there are four children in Lance's fam, and Zane is the oldest (he just turned 7). So, things are busy when we get together with all of these little ones, but when these kids get a little bit older, family reunions will be a Partay! Gunner is still in the hospital working out the kinks so we are keeping him in our prayers. Here are his stats:

Born April 1, 2008 5:20 a.m.
Weight: 7 lbs 1 oz

Height: 21.5 inches

Madonna

What can I say, I grew up in the 80's . . . I LOVE MADONNA. Despite my Mother's complete disgust and forbidding us to listen to her - she is a true fave. I can't beleive she is still putting out AMAZING music , isn't she like 70 now? Plus she looks and moves great for 70 :). Can't wait till April 29.