What a nightmare...

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...for the people on this ship! Thank goodness we were on the other one! :)
(our ship parked right next to this one when we got back)

Being in a sales position can have it's drawbacks, but what I love about it is that there are always incentives for doing well. We have been so blessed that Rob's employers have provided us many family vacations, through his hard work. We just got back from our cruise last week and it was amazing. It truly is the best way to vacation as a family. I just love that it is all inclusive, so that we don't have to worry about anything. We decided to leave Lincoln with my sister, since he is too young to participate in the camp carnival program. We got into San Diego on Thursday nice and early and had our best boarding experience, we hardly had to wait before boarding the ship. Our room wasn't ready for us yet so we went and got lunch and had some ice cream. The boys were quite excited when they realized that they could get ice cream whenever they wanted!

After lunch we spent most of the day checking out every square inch of the ship. We had an orientation for camp carnival for the kids that evening, and they invited all the families for a dance party afterward. Ethan loves to dance, but usually gets shy in front of other people, so he said he didn't want to go. Well, once we got there that all changed. They had the coolest dance club that has a floor that lights up, and they were blasting the music. Ethan just couldn't help himself. Even Porter, who doesn't even like to dance in front of us, got out there and danced. The kids had a blast, and it truly was a highlight of the trip watching them out there.

Porter does more of a kind of break dancing than regular dancing. I laughed as I looked at all the pictures from that night and in almost all of them Porter is on the ground.





While on board, there are always activities planned. After the boys danced their hearts out, we headed over for a trivia game show. Ethan is really competitive, and when he saw that they were giving out little ship trophies he kept telling us that we needed to play. So guess who got nominated...



Me, of course!! I was so embarrassed, I do not like being in front of a lot of people. It was fun though, and although I didn't win, I did get an awesome medal.

On Friday we were at sea all day. The boys were dying to check out the water slide and the pool, so that's where we spent most of the afternoon.

After the boys were done on the slide they ran to the pool with their towels out behind them, saying they were superman. This may be my favorite picture of the whole trip. Just two little boys having the time of their life.

We lounged in the pool...

...and Ethan even got pretty good swimming on his own.

That evening was the formal dinner, so we decide to let the kids eat at camp carnival, so we could have a nice dinner alone. We got a table with a beautiful view of the ocean.

We had a great waiter that loved to joke around. When Rob ordered the strawberry bisque, he brought him a bowl with a tiny little strawberry in it and then walked away. Rob's expression was priceless.

Of course he came back and poured the bisque over it while having a good laugh. We enjoyed a nice quiet dinner. The boys enjoyed their first day at camp carnival as well. When we picked them up they had their own tee shirts they had colored, fruit loop necklaces they had made, and their own crowns.

Saturday was another day at sea. Ethan was hilarious at breakfast. He realized that he could ask for as much cereal as he wanted, and was in heaven.

The ship has a game room so we spent some time with the boys playing games. Rob taught Ethan how to play checkers...

...while Porter and I had an intense game of Candy Land.

Then Rob taught them to play backgammon.

After we were done playing games we went and played a little mini golf. It was on the top deck and crazy windy, so it made it a little hard, but it was fun.

Rob and I spent the evening together, and once again when we picked up the kids it seemed like they had more fun than us!!

Sunday we were in Acapulco.

We were a little nervous about getting off the boat, but we decided to do a kayak excursion, and figured we'd be pretty safe on the water instead of roaming the town. We had met two other lds couples that ended up doing the same excursion, so that was really cool.

We took a shuttle over from the ship. When we got there they split us into two groups and told us that while we waited for the first group to go that we could go to the beach. They warned us to not go into the surf because it was really strong. So we headed over with our new friends, and where do all the boys go??

Straight out in the surf, of course. They got pounded a couple times but had a blast.

The girls just enjoyed laughing at them, and enjoyed the gorgeous view.

We finally got our turn to kayak.

It was so fun, but so exhausting too!

When we got back we took the boys to get some lunch. The boys pretty much had pizza every day, and loved every minute of it.

Monday we were in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. This was our favorite port. It's a small little fishing town, and it was so beautiful there.

When we got off the boat and were waiting for the rest of our group, a group of dancers came out to entertain us. I'd guess that most of them were 70+ years old. They were so cute to watch.

We took a bus on a nice scenic drive over to Ixtapa, and then a little boat over to the island. The island had just a couple of restaurants and some places to rent different water activities.

The view was stunning, and taking it in while resting in a hammock is the only way to go!!

We found a place to rent some snorkel gear for a great price. They had some turtles there that they were taking care of until they were big enough to release them into the ocean. They are endangered, so everyone does this. They were so cute.

We spent the day snorkeling, taking in the sun, and enjoying the warm water.

When we got back on the ship, we were hanging out with the boys and Ethan noticed someone taking their picture with this muscled figure, and insisted he needed his picture taken too.

That night at dinner, there was a magician going around to the tables. He stopped at ours and the boys were thrilled to help him with some tricks. Porter was amazed when he found two balls in his hand when he thought he only had one.

Ethan thought his melon ball would make a good nose.

Tuesday we were in Manzanillo.

We booked a snorkeling tour, and we had a great view of the ship from the catamaran. We were on the catamaran for about 40 minutes to a place called elephant rock where we snorkeled.

The ride over was pretty cool. On the way there we probably saw about 80 stingrays on the surface of the water. As the catamaran would go past they would dive under the water.

I thought that it was interesting that they had a shrine to the virgin mary up on a little island in the middle of the ocean.

We finally got to our spot, and Rob was really excited.

We saw all kinds of fish. We even saw puffer fish, and some stingrays. This little fish was very curious and must have thought Rob's finger was a worm. He kept swimming up to it.

We had an awesome guide with us that kept finding things to show us. When we first got in the water, he dove down and grabbed a sea sponge. He told us to take off our goggles and wiped it all over the lenses. He said that it would keep them from fogging up and keep them nice and clear, and it worked so good. He dove down in the water again later and came up with a huge sea spider. It kind of is a freaky version of a star fish. It was skinny, spiky, and black. So the guide is showing it to us and suddenly puts it in his mouth with just its long legs, sticking out. Then he asks if anyone wants to hold it. Of course Rob jumps on it, and next thing I know he puts it in his mouth and is telling me to take a picture. I could not believe it. He said he figured if the guy could do it, than it was safe for him to. Rob said he was glad that I didn't take to long to take the picture, because the spider was trying to work its way down his throat. So gross!!

The way back to shore was just as exciting. We must have seen a hundred jellyfish in the water! Once we got back we went and got the boys and decided it was time to finally let them get of the boat.

We found a place that sold ice cream, and found a nice place to sit and hang out. The ice cream there was a little different, it melted really fast too. Porter was so funny. I asked him if he liked Mexico and he said,

"No, they're mean because they make drippy ice cream!"

Wednesday we started heading home and had another sea day. We attempted the pool, but it was really windy and too cold, so we spent some time in the hot tub. Then we came across a game of bean bag toss, and Ethan insisted he play. He was so cute standing in line with all the grown men. He didn't win, but the guy running the game gave him an medal for participating.

We enjoyed another quiet evening while the kids were at camp carnival, and when we went to get them, we found some pirates!

The kids program on the ship is pretty incredible. The boys were always retured to us wearing some king of fancy hat they had made and something painted on their face.

Thursday was our last sea day. Ethan insisted that he needed to wear all of his hats that he had made all week.

Rob and I spent most of our morning relaxing and playing cards. We met up with our kayaking friends and played for a while with them too. At lunch they had a huge spread of all things chocolate. The boys were in heaven when Rob returned to the table with all kinds of things dipped in melted chocolate.

Porter especially liked the chocolate dipped doughnut, but decided to just lick off the chocolate instead of taking a bite.

I liked the swan they made out of ice cream and pasteries.

That afternoon we took it easy. The boys enjoyed just watching the water out the window.

We met a lot of awesome people on the ship, and really enjoyed just sitting and talking with new people. A couple of nights we opted to share a dinner table, and it was really fun.
When we got home Friday morning I was dying to see my little boy. We drove straight to my sisters house, and found him as happy as can be. He had 2 of his favorite things there, a ball and a dog. Doesn't get much better for that boy!

A HUGE thank you to my sister Amy for taking such good care of our little man!!