4 Months!

Holy cow, it feels like I've given up on my poor little blog! There, there, Shupaloop blog. There, there. Is it time I rename the blog? Or should we forever be the Shupaloops? I'm pretty sure Chris and I are the only ones who know where Shupaloops started from. Eh, we'll see.
So yes, how are you blogosphere? We are good, here are a quick few photo updates to catch you all up:
Chris and I had an actual date night out that included dinner AND a show. Not just one or the other, or fast food and a movie. A sit down dinner and a nice seat to see Jim Gaffigan. It was full of Hot Pocket funniness.

 We met up with my family from Kansas in Branson, Missouri for some long over due catching up. It was absolutely great.

 Halloween brought out the witch, the crow, and the football player.

One regretfully boring Saturday we hopped in the car and drove to the humane society and came home with a mini Spike named Rue.

She also may be part cat.

 Millie continues to have daily fashion shows that sometimes include her dad.

 Someone turned 32.

There's no better way to celebrate 11 years of marriage other than buying dog food. All we needed to do next was buy a package of diapers. That's when you know you are knee deep in wedded bliss.

For the past eight years we've read this little board book every Christmas Eve.

This guy woke up Christmas morning a little too anxious or had too many Christmas cookies the night before. He had a whopping two cookies, but was convinced he over did it.

A case of the barfies will not take away his happiness, though. All the kid wanted was this jersey for Christmas. And it hasn't come off his body since. How did we get a Dolphins fan in this house?

 My mama retired.

 The New Year came. (at 9:30)

This guy turned 32 last week.

Now, I promise I won't will try not to let this happen again. Shupe overload! We have a few house projects coming up. And I will someday soon show pictures of the awesome playhouse Chris and his dad built last summer. It is the best thing ever!

Oregon 2014

So sorry, but this post is going to be picture overload. But be thankful, if I had Chris's phone, there would've been more. In all fairness, this trip was to Oregon. Seriously one of the most stunning places in the country in my opinion. It was my first time, and most definitely will not be my last. 

So let's start our journey.

Our destination: Olivia Beach, Lincoln City, Oregon. Da Beach House.

Our drive started out looking like this:

Then we encountered this:

We played a lot of games, crafts, and movies.

Five hours later and we made to Ontario, OR. Just over the border from Idaho. Happy-I'm-Out-Of-The-Car-Kiddos.

The next day I was doing a lot of this:

The teenager comes out in me when I think of the drive along the Colombia River. I can't. I can't even.

We made it!

We also headed up to Portland for a couple nights on the way home. We hit up food trucks and VooDoo Donuts of course, but the rain really came down on our Portland Parade. The children's museum was awesome. But other than that, we needed to plan a little more when it comes to bringing our kids to Portland. I would love to go back and walk the farmer's markets and food trucks for hours without kids in tow. 

So we ended up checking out early and headed to Boise. On the way to to Oregon we had passed a water park just outside of Boise, in Meridian. So we beat the rain and headed for the sunshine. Roaring Springs was a blast!

I know I say it a lot about our family trips, but this one will go down in the books. A few things we will do or won't do again when it come to the Oregon Coast. 

• We will definitely stay in Lincoln City again. It was central, clean, and most important, not too crowded. We went at the end of July. The weather was great, a little cool, but not much rain at all. And we basically had the beach to ourselves for three of the four days.
• We will stay more than four nights. This place easily deserves a week vacation.
• You only need to drive to Astoria once. We will not do that again. We should've learned from our last trip on the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Fran. IT IS MUCH LONGER AND WINDIER THAN YOU THINK. Which is all fine and dandy and beautiful, but not so great to spend half the day in your car with three littles when your vacation is only five days long.
• The drive. Will we drive again? I don't know. Most likely yes, because we might not have a one year old ever again. And we saved some dough! So we will see.

GO VISIT OREGON!

Special Surprise Vacation...Revealed!!

If you haven't heard or guessed, it was a Disney Cruise!!!

And forgive me now for picture overload. We actually only had the camera with us a few of the days because we were too busy having fun!

And be not mistaken, we did board the ship in our swim gear. That is my tip numero one for you. You may look a little white trash getting on the boat in your swimmies, but when you don't have your room until the afternoon and have kids, you need to head to the pool.

This cruise was out of Florida. The five day to Key West, Nassau, Bahamas, and Disney's private Castaway Cay. There were definite ups and downs with the cruise, but nothing that was a deal breaker that wouldn't make me take another one, because we will! The rooms are the largest of any ship I have been on. We went to the show every night and they were impressive. The kids clubs, awesome. Dinners, tastiest I've had on a cruise. Check in and out was the easiest thing EVER. The service was top notch. Now to the downers. The breakfast buffet was nothing to be desired and super cramped. The pools could use some updating. On our sea day they were jam packed. And they didn't have endless snacks. And mama needs her snacks. On other ships you could mosey somewhere and find a cookie or pizza (the did have pizza actually), but on this ship it seemed like everything but the bars and lounges  shut down at night. I guess there is room service.

And lucky for us there was a rocket launching over at Kennedy so we got a once in a lifetime, front row seat, to the launching of it. And it was insane! We saw it launch. Moments later heard the rumble. And moments after that actually felt the power of the take off. It rocked! 

The rest of these photos are just a couple of my faves. Jack endlessly water sliding. My favorite Indonesian, Arsa. A sweet shot of jumping on the bed. Kisses on the deck. Making flubber (one of Jack's favorite activities on the ship). Pirate night. Millie stealing the camera (and the show) and walking around with a winch at bingo taking random shots. Standing like flamingos. Jack learning to swim under water.

I know this looked like a blast. And it was. But nothing brings you back to the reality of traveling with a five year old and a two year old when Jack tells Millie she is a sassy britches in the airport and her screaming at the top of her lungs," I AM NOT A SAAAASSSY BITCHES!"