Bookworm

So Ali and I were thinking about all the books we had read in a one year time-span. (Insert Jackson family joke here, "Jon you can read?"...) Haha yes that is still so funny =). So yeah, Ali and I made a deal that if she read the Work and the Glory series (my favorite series) that I would read the Harry Potter series (her favorite series). Anyways I thought I would post all of the books we have read in the past 12 months.

Ali has read:

Work and the Glory I
Work and the Glory II
Work and the Glory III
Work and the Glory IV
Work and the Glory V
Work and the Glory VI
Work and the Glory VII
Work and the Glory VIII
Work and the Glory IX
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse

Prince Caspian
The Host (half of it)

- A total of 17.5 books, very impressive Ali!

Jon has read:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Fire of The Covenant (started)

- A total of 11.5 books

I usually don't like "sci-fi" books so I didn't think that I would like Harry Potter very much, but of course I ended up loving them. As far as the Twilight books, what can I say? They brought out the 12 year old girl inside of me =) I would recommend any of the books I read to almost anyone. I doubt that either of us will read that many books in the next 12 months but it should be interesting to see.

The Cruise (part tres)

The final excursion of the Jackson clan brought them to the strangest land yet. Some call it Mexico, but others call it Morodor. Clembo was very excited for their journey to Morodor because he and his granddaughter could both speak their strange language. Most of the people of Morodor new about 5 english words "I give you good deal", but with all the others we had translators in Clembo and Laine. Laine really took to the people by getting her hair done by them and getting some of their authentic clothing.

My father always told me that the Devil was from Mexico but when we were there we ran into him. He was nice enough to take a photo with us. It was a long walk in Mexico and we were tired and wanted to sit down and get a drink but we all new the dangers of eating or drinking in Mexico so we hurried up and got back to our vessel (but not before Ryan and I bought our "Mexican Rolex's"). Mom of course bought some "pharmaceuticals" and all the kids got a bracelet with their names on them.

Since we all survived Mexico we decided to have a party for our final night. We had kids dancing with parents and waiters, eating, kids swinging from bars and of course karaoke (see the bottom). All in all I say that we were pretty happy on our final night on our ship.

After our last night on the ship it was time to go home. Luckily on our way home we were treated with a short stop in Primm where we relaxed at the pool. All in all it was an awesome journey that the Jackson clan will never forget. A big thanks to Clembo and Anne for the wonderful trip!!!

Hopefully my reader will enjoy the pictures and video =)

(thanks for being my reader Marie)

The Cruise (part deux)

The Jackson clan was happy to return to their vessel from Sea World where they were blessed with an abundant meal. The little ones were happy because they could order a gourmet peanut butter & Jelly or some Mac & Cheese (hold the cheese). Jeremiah was also happy because he could order three (yes 3) entrees =) (although I'm pretty sure he only ate a little from all 3).

Now that we were back on our vessel we found that our room had strange stuffed creatures in them. We weren't sure why they were there so we decided to take some pictures with them and then use them to clean our dirty feet. You may notice that my monkey face is not as good as it used to be, this is because of my few stints with Bells Palsy=(

Our next stop was the beautiful Catalina Island or (middle earth) which was filled with tons of little trinket shops. Here we found our customary hoodie purchase (See Ali's sweet red hoodie above).

After Catalina, some of us decided to use some of our excess energy at the dance club. Since there was nobody there I decided that I could get a little lypsing action on.

Tune in next time for our trip to Morodor (aka Mexico) and some sweet Karaoke....

The Cruise (the beginning)

So I decided to write an epic trilogy about our cruise. Not a tale of dragons and trolls, but of cars and boats. It all began with a man named Clembo Baggins Jackson......



Clembo was a simple man who enjoyed working hard and spending time with his hobbit family. While Clembo was aging in years he came across a brilliant idea to take his family on a cruise. Now this wasn't Clembo's first cruise but he somehow new that this cruise would be different. So he came to his family with the idea. Clembo was thrilled to find out that his family accepted the idea, and thought that it would be a fun journey together. All of the Jackson clan knew that the journey would be long, scary and have treacherous terrain, but all agreed that the trip would be worth the hardships that they might face.


So with determination in their hearts and the grit to take on the journey, the Jackson clan took off into the unknown; caravanning their way west. It was a tight fit getting 13 people in 3 cars but the Jackson clan was determined. Stopping only to sleep and go to some outlet malls (where Jonnyboy and AliJ bought new sweet shoes) the Jackson clan made it to the coast. There they found their new mode of transportation in all its glory. Some of the clan wanted to leave Clembo behind (fearing that he couldn't make the long journey), but determined as he was Clembo walked into the ocean until he couldn't swim anymore and the clan reluctantly threw him a life preserver. So off the clan was to their second destination, a strange land called Sea World...



Sea World was an interesting place. After waiting for an hour to get in the locked gates we were met by strange creatures. We noticed that these animals were everywhere; they were jumping through hoops, eating fish from peoples hands (gross), and there was a gift shop full of stuffed animal versions.
We were happy to report that none of the animals attacked us, although a few of our young ones were sad that they didn't get splashed in the face by them (apparently some kind of greeting from the creature). The clans feet were extremely tired after a full day of exploring Sea World so they left the land to find a Romanian taxi driver who could help them return to their vessel.



Tune in next time for part duex of The Cruise.