McCormick Family

We are so proud of Parker. He has done it!! Graduated from Seminary and from High School!! He got all A's, got his first job at Golden Corral and got a hair cut!! Time to grow up :)

We went on our last big family vacation before Parker goes on his LDS mission. We took a week in Orlando Florida to Disney!! We went with our good friend, the Thompsons. They got us an awesome condo for the week a mile from Disney World. It had a full kitchen so we cooked and at there instead of frequenting the fast food places. Our first stop in Disney was to Epcot! We went into the future on Spaceship Earth and learned what we would be doing and how we would live in the future. They take a snapshot of you at the beinging of the ride, we all made goofey faces and then at the end they put your face on cartoon bodies doing all sorts of things in the future. We all heard Jill cracking up at her future! What a great laugh!! Off to space... literally. We boarded a space ship on a mission to Mars! It was my favorite ride. You can feel up to 3 G's pushing onto you as you take off. It was a scary landing on Mars but we made it!! And no one got air sick :).

We spent the rest of the day in the front have of the park where all the technology stuff is. We rode on a "test track" for cars... Driving with me in Utah is much more intense!! Parker was awed by the backwards waterfall... water up?

Next day.. Next park... Animal Kingdom!!

Better than a zoo, the animals were close and in great habitats. On the safari ride the driver was telling us about the animals we were seeing and as we rounded a corner she said that we were coming to the lions area, they slept all day and we probably wouldnt be able to see them and then she gasped and swore as a male lion was on the ridge looking right as us! She said that rare and she was caught of garud. There are no nets or fences to protect us or to keep the lion from making us lunch. He was beautiful! I dont remember what the name of the animal in the middle picture is but he is actully related to the giraffe.

The most amazing thing there is the tree of life. I cant tell you how huge it was and that amzing detail that was carved into it, words and pictures just dont do it justice.

We enjoyed the day and this is one of our 2 favorite parks!!

Day 3 we went to the Magic Kingdom.... To get to the park you either have to take the monorail in or a ferry. The kids were offered the opportunity to ride in the front of the monorail with the driver!! How cool!

Jill was gathering pictures and autographs for Stephens little sister, Crystal, which took alot of time, but having been to Disneyland.. that was all good. We rode the new Pirates ride and got to see Captian Jack on the street, meet Princesses,Monsters and walk thru castles and saw a great firework show!

Then next park was Hollywood Studios.. One of our favorites! and with our kids it is easy to know why :)!! Being terrified of falling I was NOT going on the Tower of Terror. Everyone went but me and the minute they came out they drug me on saying that I would like it.... I was going to HATE it!! I don't do falling rides. I just know that I will crap my pants, throw up, have a heart attack and die before I ever hit the ground. Well.... thankfully none of those things happened and it was my favorite ride of the whole trip!!! Thanks for dragging me on!!

The next best ride?? Aerosmiths rollercoster of course!! Rock On!!!

Pixar was a hit for sure! Everyone took a drawing class and drew Stitch. We met the incredibles, Jill found Audrey Hepburn (her favorite actress) and Parker rode a Speeder Bike 2000 style. and and we watched a stunt show with stunt cars and pro racers that was awesome!

The Thompsons daughter, Emily, has an increadable voice and she wanted to try out for American Idol this last year but missed the 16 yr old cut off by a month. So at Hollywood Studios she auditioned for it there and made it all the way thru to the last 3!! She is amazing!!

The next day we went back to Epcot... well I mean... we went to Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kindom and Canada.

The last full day in Orlando we drove to Cocoa Beach and spent the day there, making sand castels, playing in the ocean and collecting seashells.

It was the MOTHER of all vacations!!!! Truely done McCormick style!!!

Our first port of call was Puerto Vallaria, where we booked an excursion from some blogs and review we read. We were to go on a horseback ride and lunch with Rancho Charro. We found their booth when we got off the ship and the man told us we could take a cab to the ranch. When we asked for the address to give the taxi, he walked over to the taxis with us. He waived away the white taxis (white air conditioned mini vans)telling us they would charge $20 for the trip but a yellow taxi would only charge $6, so of course we liked the yellow one. It was a Nissan Sentra painted bright yellow with all the windows rolled down... no AC. The man told the cab driver where to go in rapid Spanish and the price we would pay, opened the doors, pushed us in and we were off. I think that there is only a few streets with lights, the rest of them are first come first serve. We were cutting off buses and cars and being cut off and almost hit a few intersections. We pulled into a dirt parking lot and were told in broken English, "you here". We gave a $20 and got back 4 $1's and some pesos. We weren't entirely sure if we just got ripped off or not. As he peeled out of the lot an Mexican cowboy, complete with chaps and spurs waived us over to his ride, a ancient vw van, totally rusted and looking like it was on it's last tire. We climbed into the back onto seats covered with horse blankets and we were off again. This time we drove on dirt roads thru the rural neighborhoods. We got a good look at how most of Puerto Vallartans live. Most of the houses are made from cement, including the roof (because of the termites and cost of wood), or shanty's from cardboard or old signs and tin roofs. Every block or so a house would have a sign showing it was also a store. The stores varied from beer to meat, dead chickens hanging in the window. It was a VERY bumpy road and we turned so many corners I thought we were in a maze, if we just made all lefts we could find our way out :).

We stopped in front of a hacienda looking home and were greeted by Pamela, our hostess. I was not expecting a quiet country but was amazed by the sounds. Roosters crowing, dogs and donkeys braying. It was louder than I could have imagined. She introduced us to Martin, our guide for the day, who matched us up to horses and got us up on them. They were very good horses, who where patient with us Gringos who didn't know how to ride or gideeup in Spanish. We had a donkey, a dog and a cow follow us at one time or another.
This was not your flat trail ride, we went across a river several times, once up to the horses belly, OK, only my horse when up to his belly because I steered him onto the wrong spot. Dave and Martin thought that was pretty funny. :) We went up pretty steep trails and around rocks and drop offs and made it to the top of a hill to over look Puerto Vallarta and Nuieve Vallarta. We could see the the whole valley and even our ship.

Well now we had to go back DOWN those hills we came up on!!! AAHHGG!! Going on a horseback ride was one of my fears to conquer, since I am afraid of horses (all that power under you and no control of it) and now I have to conquer a second, falling. Great! The horses went very slow down and we made it, I without having an accident (in my pant or elsewhere). As we came back down across the river we saw boys, from about 8-13 washing their clothes in the river. My kids will never complain about doing the laundry again!! Across the river there was a donkey who sounded pretty ticked off we were invading his space. So much so he did he heehaw heehaw thing until he ran out of breath and sounded like he was wheezing. Dave said the donkey sounded like he has asthma, I said he was an Assmatic. hehehe On down the trail Martin stopped and showed us a tree called a Chickel tree. He cut a v into the bark and white sap trickled out. He wiped it up with a finger and stuck it in his mouth. A few seconds later it was chewy, like gum. We each tried it. It tasted like Elmers glue at first but then it thickened into gum (without any flavor) and we chewed on it for the rest of the ride. Martin told us that kids would collect the sap and add water (to make it thick), add cinnamon or cloves to it, dry it out and sell it as chickles, we would know it as Chiclets. After our ride we had lunch in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had the best mexican food I have ever had. It was in an open area with a palm leave roof. There were decorations hanging from the beams and baggies of water. Come to find out the baggies of water are hung to keep the flies away, something to do with their vision and light refracting off the water bags. It must have worked, we didn't see one fly inside the restaurant. We are going to have to try that at the property the next time we go camping.

We went from this to.......

To THIS!!

We left on Sunday the 11th from Long Beach, California on the Carnival Pride. California was warmer that Utah and didnt have any snow, imagine that. So the after Christmas blues were begining to change to a different kind of blue. We flew on JetBLUE to the BLUE shores of California to board our ship of red and BLUE. Get the drift :)

We sailed for 2 days into the Pacific ocean that turned from a dark blue to a Azure BLUE the closer we got to Mexico. Daves parents went with us, our plan to get them hooked on crusing :). Wally and Dave played in a mens ping pong contest playing aganist other cruisers. There was some stiff compition. Dave was beaten in the semi finals against the guy who had to play Wally in the finals. Wally took them all on and won..... all the beads! (there was a Martigra party on board)

On the second night at sea they had a show called Wonderful World, with a live band playing and the Carinval Pride dances performing music and dances from all around the world. What an amazing show, better than anything I've seen!!

Uncle Eric and Uncle Ryan came from San Fransico, Gram and Papa came from Holladay, and our great friends Bill, Diane, Mitch, Evan, Alex and Paige came over on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us. We ate way too much, played pool and games and watched the snow blowing sideways.

They said that we were expected to get some snow and have a white Christmas, but we didn't expect 18-24 inches at our house. Christmas Day a neighbor came over and showed off his new snow blower, which we were grateful for. It saved us HOURS of digging and sore bodies.

We has the typical Christmas Dinner with leftovers for 3 days, opened pj's, played pool and Mexican train while the kids played video games and then headed to bed so Santa could deliver gifts.



I love Christmas morning. The expectation, ooo's and ahhh's, and now the kids are older, the sleeping in until 7 :). Whaooo! Jill got a sewing machine and a whole bunch of goodies to go with it and sat with it on her lap all a morning, until her legs fell asleep. Parker got a camera (to take on his mission), and a cover for his latest phone. All Abby asked for is clothes, shoes and makeup, and that is just what she got and a few cd's. Dave got an old book, I am so nice:). It is actually an out of print art book by Andrew Loomis that he has wanted for years. I got a freezer for the garage and North's was the "big" gift this year, he got a SNAKE! I know I am crazy!

He is a red tail boa with unique markings around his mouth, which gave him his name, Moostache (you have to say it with a french accent). I hope North likes him because they live for about 30 years!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday and love you all!!