Our first stop was the archeological museum...and while yes, it was amazing to see all the treasures of King Tut and the actual artifacts in the tombs, but it also gave us our first introduction to "Egyptian Hospitality." Cory was shaken down for a few Euros from the very cordial tourist police, and a nice lady in the bathroom sold me some toilet paper. Everyone wanted a little sumtin' sumtin' for anything, so we had to get used to that quick.

Our next stop was the Alabaster Mosque, or the Mosque of Mohammad Ali. It was gorgeous, inside and out! Plus, great views of Cairo and the pyramids in the background...

The ceiling of the mosque

Pyramids in the distance, from the Alabaster Mosque

I don't have too many pictures of the evening, but it's not high on the list of things we want to remember...we did this really cheesy "sound and light show" at the pyramids - it was our first up close look at them and the sphinx, but it was super cheezy -- imagine bad music and bad narration. After that, we went on a Nile dinner cruise, with unknown food flavored with diesel fumes, and terribly Barry Manilow and Celine Dion songs sung by out of tune entertainers. I'm pretty sure it was this food that I subsequently had to rid from my system (I'm trying to think of a delicate way to explain this...) the following day at lunch, hence making the second half of the trip not quite as enjoyable since my tummy was a bit rumbly (as Pooh Bear would say). But anyway, I did make it through the next morning and the touring of the pyramids relatively unscathed...

Lots of guys with camels...our guide said it was free to get on a camel, but 20 euros to get off...

Cory made me do it...

And I made him do this...

I love this picture...

So, we made it back to the ship and said goodbye to Egypt... it was mixed emotions, we were very happy we saw everything, but it certainly wasn't quite as made for tourists as a lot of places. We're not the most rugged of travelers (my stomach, to be specific), so I was happy to be going back to Greece!

This is our next port, Corfu -- we rented a car again to get out across the island.

Shopping!!

Gorgeous countryside...

These are the hills of Albania, which was right across the water... never thought I'd see Albania in person!

And that's pretty much it... we did have one more port, but we elected not to get off the ship - we spent the day in the spa and relaxing on the ship, which is just what we needed! Here's a pic of me relaxing on our suite...

And that's it! A great trip, but I'm super excited to be home and gettin' serious about potty training. ;) I'm sure I'll blog about that a lot in a bit...

Anyway, for the whole 318 pictures, you can see my flickr album at this link But I'll blog a few with descriptions and all...

We started out in Istanbul; this is the Blue Mosque. We finally found it (after hours just wandering the streets), and were disappointed when we couldn't go in because it was prayer time. We were visiting in the middle of Ramadan, so tourist access was limited. It's supposed to be gorgeous inside! But the outside was just as impressive.

This is the Grand Bazaar, a maze of shops in Istanbul - you'd think I'd be in shopping heaven, but every other shop is a carpet place that gives you complimentary apple tea and Turkish delight, trying to get you to spend thousands on a carpet which they'll ship for free! We spent too much time avoiding these guys...

Our next port was Izmir in Turkey. We took a cruise excursion to see some ancient ruins about 30 mi outside the port. This is me learning something...

Us at the ruins of Pergamon... it was a very interesting trip, although we had to deal with more carpet strongman tactics on the way back , since that's where our bus stopped for us to go potty. Then, the driver got lost on the way back to the ship, so we were winding through the narrow streets of Izmir, and the bus actually got stuck on a turn. It was entertaining!

Our next port was Mykonos, and we rented a scooter to shoot around the island all day. It was awesome!!

Here's the beach we hung out at for a few hours... since it was the first beach we hit, we hadn't purchased sun screen yet, so we thought we'd just find a hut on the beach that would have some. Yeah, it was 23 Euros!! For those of you that don't know how much the dollar has been sucking, that's like $30. for suncreen. Well, we didn't get sunburned, so I guess it was worth it.

As you can tell, Mykonos was gorgeous, and the main town was awesome - cute little boutiques and great food. The streets are all narrow little alleyways that you immediately get lost in, so we literally walked for hours just trying to find our way out. It took us forever to find out where we parked our scooter! Our ship stayed in port that night till 11:30pm, so we got the chance to go out to dinner and really enjoy the town!

Our next port was Santorini, another awesome Greek island. On our side of the island, all of the towns are on the tops of these huge clifs, so our choices were to take a tram up (which, luckily, we were the first people off the ship this morning, so we avoided the long lines!), or you could ride a donkey up the switchback trail on the right. On our way back to the ship, the line to take the tram down was so long, that we opted to walk the trail down the hill. It just smelled of donkey excrement, plus we had to deal with a group of Japanese tourists on donkeys that couldn't control them very well!

This is the gorgeous town of Oia, on the cliffs of Santorini. More great shopping and food, not to mention the scenery!

We rented a convertible bug on Santorni to see the sites - the first place we went was this black sand beach to have a swim before seeing the rest of the island.

Cliff walkin' Cory...

Alrighty folks, I'm going to have to do the rest later. I haven't even gotten to Egypt, and that's gonna take a while! The country definately had some stuff to see, and we took pictures of it all since we're pretty certain we'll never be back. Ever. Despite all precautions, we both got sick, and up until yesterday I was still dealing with the aftermath. I can forgive a country for having different parasites and bugs than we do, but that on top of getting shook down for money every time you go to the bathroom (which is often when you get sick!) as well as the Giza mobs selling postcards and lame headresses at all the sites, it kinda soured the whole trip. But it was sumtin to see, I know. I'll post those pics later... I've got to get my rest, since my vacation will officially be over tomorrow as I enter the wild world of Revolution Foods again!!

sorry they're kinda small... I must tout my super-mom-ness, though...after I got her all dressed up and looking cute, I took her to Babies R Us because that's the only place you don't need an appointment. Well, of course, they said they were booked all day and I'd have to come back tomorrow, so I said okay, but that we'd stick around for a little while to see if anything opened up. 20 minutes later they squeezed us in!! Ha! It's the little things that excite me, really...

Getting ready...

Twirling!

Splashing mommy in the face...

Floating & kicking

Investigating the pool toys

We had a great holiday weekend...Audrey had a marathon 4 hour nap on Friday, she was encouraging us to let her stay up to watch the fireworks, which is exactly what we did. After burgers and fries at home, we jetted down to Jack London Square at around 8pm to foolishly look for a parking spot. There was of course nothing, so we headed over to Alameda and found that at the ferry terminal, we could see the fireworks both off the Hornet in Alameda and JLSq, so we were set! Audrey made friends with the other tots there, and enjoyed her second fireworks show (we got her up briefly at D-land to watch them from our hotel room.) She really enjoyed her 10pm bedtime, so much that she gave us a hard time on Saturday night...

Today we decided to pack Turks up and head to the beach for a little frolicky fun! I took some pictures, without realizing that Cory had set it to black and white (and blue), but it turned out to have some cool effects.

We went from 72 degrees in Oakland to about 60 in SF - could've been worse, and we were expecting the summer fog!

A very happy Turkey...

A science lesson from Daddy.

This is the hole that Turkey dug.

C'Mon Turkey!!! Get it!!

Woah! A wave is chasing me!!

I'm experimenting with video right now...enough moms I know have sent me you tube videos, so I'm feeling very low-tech with only pictures. Hopefully soon I'll have Audrey up here in live action!

Here's a few pics of our fun weekend wedding!!

"I'm ready for my closeup..."

"Aunty Shannon, you want me to walk AND toss petals out of my basket??"

We kinda had to battle to get Audrey to sit still for the photos, we realized she literally had to sit on the little stool the photographer had. I think we got a few good ones!

Audrey and her flower-girl partner in crime, Makayla, liked Aunty Shannon's veil

The Omands are all fancied up!!

Okay, it's off to bed for me...vacation is over and I've got a board meeting tomorrow!! ;)

So we got to the hotel at 11pm on Friday, but Audrey still woke up at 6am rarin' to go! Even Friday night when I told her we were at Mickey Mouses house, she said "Mee Mouse! Okay!" as though we were gonna go party with him that night. We got a scant few hours of sleep, and hit our first ride, the Nemo ride, at 8am. Here she is, excited in line for her first ride. Nemo was a great ride, and everyone in the sub was laughing because she just kept shouting "Nemo! Yay! Bubbles!!" with such exuberance.

She also loved the Dumbo ride!! We took about 10 failed pictures, because we were goin' so fast, but you can kinda get the idea with this one... she was screaming "Hi Daddy!!" the whole time!

Audrey also loves trains, so the Casey Jr. ride. Here she is sayin' "All Aboard!" to all the passengers!

And here she is with Daddy on the carousel. This time she was screaming "Hi Mommy!" as she whizzed by. Some random man came up to me and said "Is that your daughter in the pink shirt? She just looks like she's having such a wonderful time!"

As much as we loved all the rides, we had a little warming up to do with the characters... here she is quite wary of Goofy ("Goosy," as she liked to call him.) The first morning, while having breakfast, Chip and Dale were around, and she was terrified. In the park, she was interested in Goofy and Mickey and Minnie, but still a little too nervous to touch them when we got up there. By the end of the trip, she actually kissed Mickey on the nose, so we finally figured out they were there for good and not evil. ;)

Here we are, a bit nervous of Minnie, even though we have many Minnie dolls!!

Over at California Adventure, we spent some time cooling off in the water park at a Bug's Life Land!

And here we are on the Caterpillar ride, or "allupita" in Spanish (although I know I'm spelling it wrong) as Auntie Ana taught us. We decided it was too baby for us, we like our trains going a bit faster!

We spent some time with Uncle Toddy and Auntie Ana, they met us at California Adventure and snuck them on the new Toy Story ride. They watched Audrey while Cory & I went on Tower of Terror, which was great!

And yep, we got a little exhausted in the middle of the afternoon, but we took a little siesta on Mommy's lap to recharge for the Pixar parade!

So on Saturday night, we were excited to come across the parade at California Adventure, which was dedicated to all Pixar movies!! You can see Nemo, Ratatouille, Toy Story, The Incredibles, and a Bugs Life! Up above, Cory and Audrey were giving thumb's up to Buzz Lightyear. After the parade, we had a nice dinner at a restaurant at the park, and decided to have a little dance party outside afterwards. Audrey was saying "C'mon Uncle! C'mon Auntie!" while boogying down, and that's when it happened...her little legs were so tired from the big day, she ate it big time and smashed her chin into the pavement, cutting her lip. It was bleeding quite badly, so we took a trip to Mickey's infirmary and got a prescription for a Popsicle. All she really wanted was a tortilla, though, so I wrangled our way into the last tour of the Mission Tortilla Factory at CA Adv and got her a free sample. Ugh, trauma! Mostly for Mommy and Daddy, she was still raring to go, with just a fat lip, but it didn't slow her down any the next day...

Here we are the next day, with our ears on at Pooh Corner!

And a great family photo with Mickey, the last day, when Audrey finally gave him a kiss on the nose.

Whew, so as you can see, it was a great action packed weekend. I hadn't been to Disneyland proper in forever, and it was funny how small it seemed, kinda like going back to your elementary school and remembering how big the hallways were when you were small. It was so much fun being there with Audrey and watching her take it all in. We definitely did it right to stay at the hotel right in the park, so we could go back and nap and relax so that we would be refreshed for the afternoon. We also took a couple missteps, like taking Audrey on Pirates of the Caribbean - she spent the whole ride with her hands over her eyes, and when we were leaving the ride she said "All done scared. Bye bye scared." She was also pretty scared of Alice in Wonderland and Pinnochio - you don't realize just how messed up these stories are!! Turning boys into donkeys? And a mean ole' queen saying "Off with their heads!" Nightmares! And these rides were actually made for two year olds!

So I highly recommend Disneyland, if you couldn't tell. We had a great time!

(And BTW Kat, sorry, we had to do a surgical strike to fit it all in!! Sorry no side trip to Chino Hills... :( )

We had a Dora the Explorer theme, so her head held the cutlery.

The guests are arriving... Xander welcomes Fritz by sucking on his pacifier!

Our youngest party-goer - 7 week old Kayden, and her Mommy Tammy.

Cory cookin' the tamales - with the borrowed Rev Foods bulk equipment!!

The masses getting ready for cupcakes!!

Blow!! Cousin Mia helps blow out the candles. Mia kept singing "Happy Birthday" because she knew after we sang that, that meant everybody gets cupcakes...she's so smart!

Our daughter, shocklingly, doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. I guess her parents have it all!

Xander likes cupcakes...

...and I think Nathan is already in sugar shock...

Audrey opening up all of her presents - a new Dora dress and Dora plate!!

And we got a new camp chair, just Audrey's size

And, a party favorite, a Dora tent to play in!! Since the party, Audrey has been saying "C'mon Mommy, house!" or "C'mon Daddy, house!" She makes us sit in the house with her and have tea...she loves her little house!

So that's it for now...it's off to bed to rest from our party-ful weekend!!

So, it's hotter than hell here...maybe the courts just said "if it hits 100 degrees in SF, we'll let gay people get married." But I get to sit on my high horse, since the new house has AC! Now I get to participate in the brown outs. Naw, we're being good, but it is nice to come home to an inside that is actually cooler than the outside, and we couldn't say that about our last house. Especially since last summer, I could look forward to at least 9 hours in an office that had AC, and I don't have that luxury now - I work in an office that is right next to an industrial kitchen with a bank of ovens on all morning. Yeck. We were all a bit stoned by the heat and couldn't think straight by the afternoon - I hope we didn't accidentally wrap the burritos in paper towels.

So I know I keep doing a bunch of writing, with no pictures! I'm sorry. I brought up the idea of actually taking some video last weekend about our first weekend in the house, but that didn't happen. And I keep thinking we should take pictures too of some of the chaos, but that still hasn't happened. I even know where all the cameras are. I'm just too wrapped up in unwrapping I guess. I promise (Grandma), soon!!

The big move happened on Friday, yay!! It has been an amazingly exhausting weekend, but exciting as well. The new house is awesome - we've been having a great time arranging our stuff and getting new furniture to fill in the gaps, and not such a great time unpacking everything. But at least we're doing it knowing that it's the last time for a looong time.

Audrey loves her new house too...she didn't have an iota of trepidation about her first night in the place. She's running around like she's owned it for two years! It's so funny to think this will probably be the only house she knows, even though it's the third one she's lived in. I absolutely love that thought - I know you can't guarantee what's going to happen in the next twenty years, but I truly hope we'll love it here, and remain here for the long haul. Great schools, a great house, and I really do love Oakland for the cliche of diversity, but it really is true. I went to the Oakland Economic Summit last week for work, and it was really enlightening to see how dedicated the people of Oakland are to making it a great place to live and work.There are definitely problems - I just got on the yahoo group for crime in my neighborhood and it doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies, but I'd like to be a party of the solution, rather than get a longer commute. Well, we'll see how it all goes...I'll give you the play by play...

And onto the barf - I got my first call from Audrey's daycare provider today, the first one in a year and a half! Scary, since I knew it was something big - she had vomited during her nap. So the little bug has another little bug - we came home, watched Nemo, and she fell asleep on the couch at 6pm. I sure hope she feels better in the morning - this flu seems to have gone around and around, it better stop soon, cuz we have her big Dora birthday party in a few weeks!!

Speaking of kids, plural, I'm going to be a plural auntie!! Yay!! Allison told me last week over the phone, and I promptly dismissed her saying she was lying, but she brought it up again yesterday so I guess I must believe her. Due date is Dec 24th! Merry Christmas Mia!!

We had a fun time yesterday at Gilroy Gardens - I won't post the pictures, because they are basically the same as last fall (Audrey in flying goldfish, Mia in flying goldfish, Audrey and Mia in mini cars, Audrey and Mommy in caterpillar, etc), just everyone a little older. It was SOOOO hot! 93 degrees in Gilroy! Summer has come early. And only 10 days before we live in a house with central air. The good life...

The move is still on and we're still super excited! Our final walk through is Wednesday, so I can't wait to get in the house again. We signed all the papers last week, and I got the opportunity to walk the path from the backyard to the "Village" - the place in our 'hood with restaurants, shops, and Audrey's soon to be (well, okay, 3 years off) elementary school. It's literally a three minute walk. I'm so excited!! A farmers market every Sunday, and Starbucks lattes to boot, I'm going to be in heaven. Plus, we finally agreed on a new couch for our new family room, so on top of it all I get to shop and buy things. I know I pretend to be above consumerism, but I relapse from time to time. So whenever you're in Oakland or the SF Bay, do stop by!!

It's a shame, too, because it's beautiful weather this weekend, a perfect 70 degrees, which would be great for park goin'. We'll have to see how we feel tomorrow!!

In the meantime, here are some pics from a few weeks ago; we had friends visiting, so we took the ferry over to SF to the farmers market for some shopping fun! Audrey became obsessed with running through the big fountain, we had to tear her away! It was great fun!