Snip Snip

Getting used to change can be quite the process. In high school, I cut my hair quite short (chin length) and I didn't like it. I don't think I ever got used to my short hair. Let's be honest, braces didn't help the situation. Since then, I've never wanted to cut my hair short again because I've been afraid of the same results.

My hair has always been thin and greasy which is completely opposite of my mom and sisters' luscious curls. My hair has been nicknamed "The Drape" for looking like a long set of curtains hanging limp on a rod. My hair doesn't have much volume and hasn't always had layers.

This backstory was necessary for you to understand what a big risk I took when I decided to cut several inches off my hair. Some factors were different this time than they were when I last cut my hair short in high school: 

1) I had a good hairdresser. Anne did my hair on my wedding day and has been doing my mom's hair for years. I decided to bite the bullet and pay a little extra for her skill. It was worth it! 

2) I showed Anne some pictures of the hairstyle I was imagining (thank you Kristen Bell) and told her how much I hated my previous haircut. Anne said that a collar bone length is flattering on almost anyone.

3) I told Anne that my hair had to still fit in a ponytail and that was non-negotiable. She listened!

I needed a fresh start for my hair and this change was perfect. I do my hair much more often than I did when it was long because it dries much faster and takes way less time to manipulate.

Here are some pictures! 

Maybe next time it won't take me 7 years to muster up the courage to get more than just a trim.

My Word for 2018

My sister always sums up her year with a word. When she asked me what word described my year, I was stunned. After some thought, I decided that the word "SURPRISE" explains 2018 well.

Here are some surprises that caught me off guard and some drastically changed the course of my year:

• My Grandpa passed away unexpectedly in March. SURPRISE! This loss was more difficult for me than I imagined. It has also resulted in an added role and responsibility to be there for my grandma.
• Andrew's car broke down this summer and it wasn't fixable. Suddenly, we were in the market for a new car. SURPRISE! I'd been expecting his car to die since the moment we bought it, but it lasted years longer than anticipated. If we had to go through the process of buying a car again, I think we would put less money down on the car. We have been trying to play catch up ever since we purchased the car. We now also have a car payment which isn't my fav.
• We finally went on a cruise. SURPRISE! This has been something we've talked about doing for 6 years. I'm shocked it happened! It was worth the wait.

After experiencing the loss that I did this past year, I have learned to cherish the time you have with your family, and always remember to say "I love you."

We were able to spend lots of time with family this past year and I'm grateful for that. 

--In January, we went to St. George with my parents, so my dad and I could run the St. George Half Marathon together.

--In February, we traveled to Spokane to be there for our niece, Claire's, "No More Cancer Party!"

--In April, we went to Disneyland and enjoyed relaxing in CA at my parent's condo.

--In August, we camped near Spokane with Andrew's family which shows you how important family is to me-- I went CAMPING with a toddler.

--In September, Andrew was able to go kayaking with his brothers on their annual trip.

--In October, I spent some time in Leavenworth, WA with Andrew's sisters and mom relaxing.

--In November, we went on a cruise to the Bahamas!

--In November, we also flew to Spokane for one final Thanksgiving hurrah before Debbie leaves on her 18 month mission.

We don't plan to travel much this year as we intend to save money to visit Debbie in Barbados. We're also having a baby in July which complicates travel and life in general.

As Andrew and I looked back over some goals we made in 2018, we were both a little shocked at how many of our goals were forgotten. This year I'm going to do a better job at having my goals visible.

So far, some of my goals for 2019 are going smoothly. (knock on wood) Some have already fallen off my radar though... My main goal for the year is to renew my teaching license which expires in June. This isn't necessarily a fun or easy process, but something I find valuable. I feel secure in knowing that if needed, I could resume my career as a teacher and earn money.

Even though 2018 wasn't what I anticipated and was full of SURPRISES, I love my life and look back on my year with fondness.

We'll see what 2019 has in store for me... 

Santa

The holiday season is so enchanting with a toddler! I love seeing Christmas for the first time (really second, but I don't think he remembers much last year) through James' eyes. He learned quickly not to touch the ornaments on the tree and has been such a good boy and has left them alone (for the most part). The wrapped presents, on the other hand, have been a little too tempting for him.

James has always been a happy kid with a pleasant demeanor. Meeting Santa Claus was terrifying to him though. I was a bit surprised because he usually does well with strangers. His first encounter with Santa Claus went better than the second. No tears were involved. (Maybe he could tell that "Santa" was a guy from our ward.) James was quite squirmy though and was eager to leave Santa's lap. 

Round two was pure torture in James' opinion. I'm not sure why? Maybe because Daddy wasn't with us?

James got a lawn mower for Christmas. He couldn't take his eyes off of it in the beginning--quite literally speaking. Taking a nap and having to part with the mower was pure torture. Fast forward 4 days, and James hasn't touched the mower since. His interest in toys seems to fade quickly. 

Shepherds and a baby wise-man for the win

Cousins in matching jammies

Why is Christmas already over? I love this time of year. The anticipation always takes forever, and then it's over in a blink of an eye. Now we get to clean up all of our Christmas decor. Does anyone like that? Here's to hoping that James warms up to Santa Claus next year.

Thanksgiving in Spokane

We didn't intend on traveling to Spokane for Thanksgiving-- mostly because we had just returned home from our cruise. We enjoyed seeing family! I will admit that I was extra glad to be back home after back-to-back trips though. I think James was worried that we were going to leave him again, so we continually reminded him that he was traveling with us (this time) to Spokane.

James loved spending time with Granny and so many cousins. In fact, Granny got James and Rhett matching outfits for Christmas. They looked darling. James was able to interact with a dog, Maggie, and watching him do that was priceless. It actually made me consider getting a dog-- for a brief moment.

So many cousins!

We flew into Spokane on Thanksgiving Day which was a bit chaotic. The flights were way cheaper that day. Also, Andrew had lots of work to catch up on after missing a full week. We landed just after 1:00, made two batches of 7 layer-dip in record time, and rushed to a family picture.

The whole gang

All of the Ditto clan was together for one final hurrah before Granny leaves on her mission to Barbados in January. Our schedule was filled to the brim.

The cousins went swimming at the YMCA on Friday afternoon and James forgot he likes the water. He used to have a blast swimming, so I'm not sure what happened. We had a game night that evening and watched Washington State vs. University of Washington football game. Actually, when I say, "we," I really mean the men in the family. I don't think I watched one second of the game and I'm not sad about it.

Saturday morning the adults went to a session at the temple which was neat. We had a family lunch and did an afternoon scavenger hunt. The adult men went shooting, and then we all met up for a Pizza Potluck to watch the annual ABH premiere-- "All Brother's Hike." 

BYU played The University of Utah that evening in Football, so Andrew was out late once again watching some ball. What a disappointing game. I didn't watch it, but how embarrassing that BYU was up 20-zip at halftime and still ended up losing.

Sunday was spent relaxing and going to church. James thrived in nursery as per usual. We had a scrumptious dinner at Blayre's house and ended the evening playing some games. Our flight left early Monday morning. 

I made (and ate) quite a variety of cookies this trip! I brought Gingersnaps and M&M Chocolate Chip cookies on the plane for Thanksgiving dinner, made Honey Bunches of Oats cookies for the lunch Saturday, and Banana Cookies Sunday evening. I don't think I've made cookies since.

A highlight for me was definitely the "favorite things" gift exchange. Granny sure knows how to spoil us and we all left with full stomachs. 

Bucket List

I have experienced the Bahamas. This has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I guess this means that I can die now? 

Andrew and I recently returned from a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas! We visited 2 ports: Nassau and CocoCay.

The cruise line we chose was Royal Caribbean and we were extremely pleased with our experience. There was so much to do on the ship and we tried to do as much as we could. We went with some friends from our ward-- Ryan and Chelsea McKenna. 

Andrew and Ryan did the flo-rider, all of us raced on the water slides (which scraped my back), we did the virtual reality sky-pad trampoline, the escape room, laser tag, karaoke, a magic show, a comedy show, played shuffleboard, utilized the workout room, hot tub, went rock-climbing, and more.

Escape Room

Look at my form! (I'm on the left)

On Wednesday and Thursday night, we made our way to the top of the ship for karaoke. The first night was kind of lame. The DJ wasn't fantastic and one old guy, Nester, sang love ballets every other song. His vibrato was ferocious. Thursday night was a blast though with a different DJ. The crowd was much bigger and more into it. Andrew sang both nights. On Thursday night, the DJ loved Andrew and kept calling him "brother." Andrew and Ryan befriended Nester night two and even convinced him to do some rock songs and stray from his usual love songs. A couple of people got nervous and requested that Andrew join them on stage. Andrew sang the song 500 Miles and did songs by the following bands: Fall-Out Boy, Bon Jovi, and Journey. Andrew getting so into his performances was hysterical and was probably the most MEMORABLE part of the cruise for me. Several strangers recorded his performances and the DJ, Chris, kept saying that Andrew had lots of "liquid courage." 

There wasn't ever a moment of boredom. I had no trouble sleeping at night either because I was so worn out. One night, we all felt a bit sea sick, but food helped get rid of the sick feeling. The WEIRDEST thing for me was probably the fact that even after we got off the ship, I felt like I was "rocking" for a couple of days. Apparently this is common and I was thrilled when the rocking/unstable feeling went away after a couple days. I actually almost fell out of our shower at home because my body was swaying.

I can't talk about the cruise and not mention the food. Wow! I've always heard that cruises have great food, and now I know that's true. When we first arrived, we were rookies and ate at the buffet which was disappointing. The Dining Room is where it's at. We made dinner reservations every night there and dined there for breakfast in the mornings. 

It was hard for me not to have any limits. Usually, I hold myself back when ordering at restaurants because I'm paying. In this case, I had already paid for my meals, so I had to get my moneys worth. At least that's how I made myself feel better about ordering so much. The meals were multiple courses and they told us to plan on a solid 2 hours each night for dinner. I will admit that I did order more than one entree on more than one occasion. 

As if we were being deprived, we often frequented a pizza place on the boat that had tasty, unlimited pizza. Yummmm. Cookies were also available there at all times. Win-win. 

I did go running one morning and we usually took the stairs everywhere instead of waiting for the super crowded, slow elevators. Note to self: next cruise, pack COMFORTABLE shoes instead of cute ones.

Nassau--Not what any of us were expecting.

It was a very poor city and people were constantly following you around to try to get you to spend money doing an excursion with them.

We went to a beach which was kind of rocky, but it was still gorgeous and the color of the water was unreal. I think the nicer beach was a bit further away.

Andrew really wanted to try authentic Bahamian food, so we went to a local restaurant. Guy from "Diners and Drive-Ins" had been there. I thought the food was ok, but I didn't get any seafood. (I'm boring.)

We booked an excursion through the cruise line and went snorkeling in the afternoon. It helped that food was thrown in the water to get the fish to swarm around us, but it wasn't the most amazing snorkeling I've ever done. We still enjoyed the experience though and were able to see some bright colored fish.

We did some shopping before we got back on the ship. I was hoping to find cheap vanilla like you can find in Mexico, but I didn't have much success.

CocoCay-- Exceeded our expectations.

I believe this is considered part of the Bahamas, but is owned by Royal Caribbean. We had to take a boat to get there and it's exactly what I was expecting. The water was clear and beautiful and the sand was white. It was breathtaking. 

The unlimited snow cones and funnel cakes were icing on the cake. We did some relaxing and reading on the beach. We also took advantage of the water. There was an MC who had beach games going on all afternoon which kept us entertained. We enjoyed playing volleyball, participating in a water balloon throwing contest, a hula hoop contest, and watching other events. 

The day went by far too quickly and we were bummed to leave. We definitely could have spent another day there.

The most AWKWARD part of our trip by far was an encounter with our cleaning lady--Colleen. Not long after arriving on the ship, we took a nap since we were up all night on a red-eye flight. She barged in and may have seen more of Andrew than she should have. Why did she need to clean our room after we'd been on the ship for 2 hours? Mystery to me. She was constantly cleaning our room and went a little overboard. We started using our "sleeping off our adventure" magnet on our door religiously, so she would leave us alone. It was cool that she made different creatures out our towels though.

We got off the cruise ship early Friday morning. Our plane didn't leave Fort Lauderdale until after 6:00pm. This meant that we had some time to kill. We ended up spending our time in The Fort Lauderdale temple which was quaint and beautiful. We were able to do a session and sealings. I'm bummed I didn't snap a picture. 

The SADDEST part of the trip for me by far was the fact that my passport did NOT get stamped. I got a passport a few years ago and ended up not using it. I've never had my passport stamped. I guess we'll have to travel outside of the US again.

Knowing that James was well taken care of made leaving him easy. I owe my parents (especially my mom who was with James most of the time) big for making this trip possible. Jeff and Lindsey helped out a lot too! Unfortunately, James got an ear infection while we were gone and had to go to the doctor. We came home to a clingy, sick boy.

Andrew and I are all talk. We finally took the initiative and actually planned and went on a vacation we've been wanting to go on for years. What an amazing experience we had. I will never forget our trip to the Bahamas.