Spring Break Cruise

We have made it safely home from our family vacation to California and Mexico. We started 5:30 AM on Sunday and squeezed our luggage and ourselves into the Volvo to save on gas. Here is a picture of Weston trying to stretch out in the back seat wedged between his sisters.

We stopped in Cedar City for church and made really good time on the way there, no weather or traffic hold ups to speak of, and arrived at Jared's Uncle Steve Smith's house about 5:00 PM. The kids love playing with their dog, Brooky.












Monday morning we spent browsing the Pacific Aquarium in Long Beach California. The kids each got a pose with a funny whale. We saw many different fish, sharks, manta rays, coral, frogs, and other marine life (like a sea horse that looked like a plant), and even parrots and lizards. The best part was the sea lion show, in my opinion. By 11:30 the kids were anxious to get out of there and get on our cruise vessel.



Boarding! It was very exciting exploring the giant ship. We immediately hit the lunch buffet and stuffed ourselves, then the kids wanted to try the water slides even though it was blowy and cold. We just loved our tiny cabin with the ocean view, our beds when unfolded were literally on top of each other but it was very cozy and comfortable.


The first night at the diner was exciting. The kids loved being able to order whatever they wanted and two of anything. We were lucky and got a table with another family of five who had a boy Weston's age and a girl Savanna's age, and they didn't drink or gamble. It was fun to have dinner with them each evening.





CATALINA! What a beautiful island. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring this city, we did a glass bottom boat tour and rented a golf cart to drive up to the tops of the hills. That morning there were a TON of dolphins surrounding the cruise liner, and I don't know if you can see them in these pictures but it was one of my favorite sights from the ship to see the dolphins cresting the water.









Formal night at the diner on the ship. We were as formal as we could muster, all in tennis shoes and no ties or evening gowns, but we did wear skirts and try to do our hair nice. We all ordered lobster and unfortunately none of us like it much, but we didn't waste a drop of it. That evening was the funniest comedy show, some guy named JEROME whom I've never heard of but will never forget. Every night when they turned down our beds they left a towel sculpture on our beds, they were so fun and cute!









ENSENADA. It was rainy on our day in Mexico, but thankfully not cold. We had an umbrella and it wasn't too bad. We found a taxi right away and he took us 25 minutes south to the Bufadora, or blow hole, where water shoots 100 feet in the air when the waves hit the cliffs. It was really cool. The store vendors there were very aggressive, and Jared was totally up to the challenge, and he got talked a fellow WAY down on three items, but we wanted to do most of our souvenir shopping downtown Ensenada so we got back in our taxi and away from the psycho vendors at La Bufadora. Jared bought me leather sandals and the kids got themselves what they could afford, Jared being their negotiator every time. Jared had the taxi driver drop us of at a Tacqueria, taco shop, and we enjoyed authentic mexican tacos and paid a nice Senor $2 to sing to us while we ate. I felt like I was in Nacho Libre. We all left happy.









"Fun day at sea" we played on the ship Thursday. Ping pong, swimming, hot tub, mini golf, and a child program called "Camp Carnival" where the staff entertains the kids for a couple hours and the parents go enjoy some time to themselves. The pool on that ship was FREEZING cold. Jared and Savanna both jumped in it a few times, but I don't know how they could stand it, literally ice cold. I just sat in the hot tub or sat on the side and read my book. Of course lots of eating was done this day, we were all very stuffed. And believe it or not, I participated in Karaoke night and sung "Open Arms" by Journey to Jared in front of everyone.










Last night at the diner. Savanna ordered the asparagus soup and hated it! But otherwise it was all very tasty. We took pictures of our waiters.






Knotts Berry Farm. When we disembarked it was cold and rainy and windy, but we were die-hards and tried to go to Knotts Berry Farm like we planned to anyway. We had a great time for the first couple hours, then the rain came, and after a couple more hours traipsing in the wet rain we finally gave up. But what we did get to do was very fun!