Anniversary Cruise

This week, a year ago, Nate and I went on a Cruise to celebrate 10 years of marriage. It was always on my to-do list to get some photos up, but I'm a procrastinator. Self-diagnosed. I think there may be like a 1 year statute of limitations on blog posts, so before it's too late, here's the cruise.

Our friends Ryan and Michelle were going to be celebrating their 10th anniversary too, so we met up in LA and did the 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo. I resisted cruising for a long time because I thought it was for old people. I am not ashamed to say that I WAS WRONG. This vacation was the most relaxing, rejuvenating vacations that we have ever been on.



The first night onboard, we ate at our pre-selected dining time, at our assigned table. We really enjoyed the food, especially the desserts. However, the only other people seated at our table were a couple of little old ladies. They were as nice as could be, and hilarious, but their difficulty hearing the conversation made communication awkward. We abandoned the assigned dining idea and went for the any-time dining option for the rest of the cruise.




Docked at Puerto Vallarta


Wish the clothes matched the rest of this shot, but we just gone done swinging through the Jungle. If you are ever in Puerto Vallarta, you must do the zip line tour with Los Verranos Canopy Tours. It was crazy fun zipping down 14 different zip lines, through the trees, back and forth over the river. Below, you can see one of the Super Mexicans (their words, not mine) towing me to the end of the zip line after I stalled out.




One of the 2 formal nights onboard.

We took one of these open cab/golf cart things to the Golden Zone in Mazatlan. It was hard to tell what was 'Golden' about it. Maybe we just didn't find the best parts of Mazatlan, but I didn't love it.

We did find a beach at Mazatlan, but there were too many locals pitching their goods and services, so we stayed poolside at the nearest resort pool.

The tender boat that carried us from the ship to the marina in Cabo.

We took a water taxi out to Lover's Beach. From there we did some snorkeling (awesome!) and soaked up some sand. Can't decide if I liked this day better or the zip line day.

Lover's Beach is only accessible by boat. It is at the very end of the Baja Peninsula. This side is on the Sea of Cortez. A quick walk between those rocks brings you to the other shore, which is on the Pacific Ocean.

This shot of Nate and Ryan shows one of the water taxis as well as one of the tender boats from the ship and the ship itself.

The boat driver took us a little beyond the beach to Land's End, at the very tip of the peninsula. He said he's driven through the hole in the rock before, but I was happy to take his word for it.

If I look a little uneasy in this photo, it's because the boat was rocking violently while the driver had his hands on my camera, rather than the boat wheel.

I wish I had video of the really bumpy last day at sea, when the swimming pools sloshed out over the sides and once jumped right out of the "cold pool" into the hot tub all over Michelle. Probably funnier for me than for her.

Nate and I are already thinking about where to cruise to next. It's so cool that you get to visit lots of different places, and return everyday to the comfort of the ship. I will say that the first full day after getting off the ship was at times downright unpleasant. I never had trouble with sickness on the ship, but the sensation of rocking while standing on dry land is creepy. Hands down, best vacation ever. I hope to have many more to compete for that title.

Halloween and Stuff

I'm ashamed to admit that even though I was raised by a mother who sewed halloween costumes for me every year, I have never sewed a single halloween costume until this year. Jane wanted to be a super hero. She designed this Super Jane costume and I did my best to make it so. Doesn't she look SUPER?





Lucy is always easy at halloween because she usually prefers to select an outfit from her own dress-up box. She chose Ariel, which is actually too small, but if she didn't know it, I wasn't going to tell her. She did get a new red wig. I didn't love the way the wig looked. Neither did she. She only wore it for photos.

Luke did not want to be a pirate. Aunt Shea brought him this awesome Captain Jack Sparrow costume from Disneyland, but he was really grumpy about it. He wouldn't even wear the red bandana that goes under the hat to cover his hair. His dad hid a music player in the costume that played music from the movie. Hilarious!

Claire was good-natured about her ladybug costume, even though it was pretty warm that night.

Jake is Obi Wan Kenobi.

I dressed up as a dead movie star. Once we got to the trunk-or-treat at the church, I kinda regretted my costume choice. Nobody wanted to talk to me with all that makeup on my face! Jane took some photos for me.

Here are some other shots that I took of everyone just doing what they do. All the craziness that goes on lately means I don't get the camera out as often as I should. I don't want a big empty spot in the photo album from this time in our lives (yeah right, I don't have any albums, but it's on the to-do list).

Playing School

Lucy is my "little mommy". She will do anything I ask to help take care of the baby.

Third Day of School

I'm a couple days behind, but school did start on Monday, and here's how the school kids looked.



I'm not sure who was happier, them or me! It's been rough on everybody being stuck at home during the summer. Jane is excited about her 3rd grade teacher, who seems to be a lot of fun. On the Friday before school started, the mail carrier delivered a beach ball to our door that had been mailed by Janes's teacher, fully inflated, like a post card - with a stamp and the address written right on the ball. It said, "Jane, we are going to have a ball in 3rd grade. See you on Monday!"

Jake and Lucy are in the same kindergarten class. It's only 1/2 day kindergarten, which they seem to like. I miss the days of free all day kindergarten... At least they seem to be getting along with one another and making new friends. I'm grateful for a schedule that doesn't include all the kids all the time. Yay for school!



Me on the last day of summer break. I'm so done.


Enjoying a big rain storm


Luke finds someone he can relate to at Old Navy.


Claire plays referee to Jake and Lucy

A nice game of Sorry in a tiny tent.

Cousins Visit!

All of the Utah cousins came down for a visit at the beginning of June. It was great to watch the kids get reacquainted with each other after a long time apart. My sister Allison has 4 kids and my sister Sommer also has 4, so my kids were in Heaven with so many cousins to play with.

Allison's family stayed at my house for the week. It was my first time EVER having out of town visitors at our house. I really liked the nights, after the younger kids went to bed and having breakfast with everybody in the morning.

We had a really weird cold front move in while they were here, which was extremely nice, but it spoiled the kids' fun on the day we went to the splash pad at the park. They all stayed wrapped up in towels. Sorry, no photos of that.

I did get some photos of our lunch with Granny at Pedro's in Glendale.


Gavin dealing with stretchy cheese


Granny eating by the little girls

Gavin and Amelia sharing a knuckle bump? Mom and Katelyn looking awkward.

Luke and his cheese crisp

Gillain and Jane

Allison, Henry and Elliot

Lucy doesn't like having her picture taken so she always acts like a dork. She's like her mom. Except I don't act like a dork on purpose. It's inherent.

After lunch we took Granny home and then treated the kids (ok, and the moms) to a visit at our favorite candy shop, Smeeks, in central Phoenix.

Allison considers Elliot's candy selection

Jane and Lily play with a wind-up toy.

These glasses are part of a disguise basket that is there for kids to play with.

Lucy is thrilled to be here, as you can see.

Mom with Reese and her gum ball.

Psshooo! Psshooo! Psshooo!

Time to plunk down a bunch of money for not that much treats, but it's the experience, right? At least there's free gum.

The rest of the week was filled up with playing at Grandma's, a birthday party for Henry, an adult date to Kona Grill and Gelato Spot in Scottsdale, and lots of chaos. We also passed around the stomach flu all week. I wish we could get together more often, so we don't have to cram everything into one week, but I'm glad we had the chance to get together!