Our First Full Day at Sea

One thing I especially look forward to when we go on vacation is eating amazing breakfasts that I don't have to prepare. One of my favorite things is the fruit. I love to eat fruit, as much as I can get my hands on. What I don't love is sitting there cutting it all up into nice, bite-sized pieces. This trip did not disappoint. This picture is reflective of my breakfast every morning we were on the ship. I got a little spoiled!

Jeremy goes for a little more variety. The nice thing is that he gets what he likes and I get what I like - and everybody's happy!

Jeremy's work paid for everyone to get the onboard soda package. We got these neat little mugs to carry around with us that say, "Hey, I can drink soda!" The mugs don't talk, if that's what you thought I meant you'd be wrong. But it sends out that signal, and the staff will fill them up with soda at your delight. The only bummer is that they only offered Sprite, Coke, and Diet Coke. Not much to choose from. I'm not much of a soda drinker, but I did indulge a little.

This was my view at around noon or so. It was foggy outside, but warm enough to sit out on deck.

Warm enough, meaning, if I wrapped up. Jeremy thought it was hilarious that I was all bundled up on our cruise. However, I wasn't the only one using my towel as a blanket!

A lot of people still made use of the hot tubs, despite the lack of sun.

Here is Jeremy's footy view.

About an hour after we took all those dismal pictures on deck, the fog lifted and the sun came out. The afternoon turned out to be BEAUTIFUL! We changed into our suits and enjoyed a couple of hours sitting in our lounge chairs IN THE SUN. I forgot to mention that even though I was on vacation, I got up early and used the outdoor track. Then I went to the fitness center and enjoyed a little taste of home by participating in a hips, buns, and thighs workout offered by the trainers. It was so fun! Way to start the trip off right!!


The first night was formal night. I don't own any formals, so I brought along a few of my church dresses. Here we are on the deck outside our dining room before we went in to eat dinner.

The dining room was really pretty! Here is a picture of the chandelier. I can't believe the size of the place - it was a 3 story dining room, and there was also another dining room below ours! Amazing!

Awww.

This is the sunset outside our window at dinner time. I believe it was way more beautiful in person, but this is a small reminder for me.

We really had a lot of fun at dinner. Everyone at our table got giddy and we were laughing so hard that I got an ab workout good enough to last the rest of the week! I took a few pictures at our table of our company. This is Rhonda and Art.

In this picture - at the far table is Dave (yellow shirt), Elizabeth, Troy, Heidi, their baby, and the server is Amelia. At the closer table you can see the back of Tanya's head (blond hair), the back of her husband's head (Shawn), then facing us is SuAnn, Yun, and James.

What do you think, did we have a general authority sitting at our table? We all thought Art resembled a certain general authority. He kept us in line.

Then there was Jen and Jim. We ended up spending quite a bit of time with them.

Cathy and Diane. Diane isn't married so she brings her best friend Cathy on the trips. Cathy lives in Idaho.

It turns out Cathy is very self-conscious about her neck. She forgot to cover it in the first picture. I think she felt better about this second picture for sure.

This is Jeff and Carlie. We all wondered what the food did to him, but she doesn't seem to mind!

So, let me explain. Tonight something was served that I've never had before, but decided to try. When this dish was served, it looked to me like little poop balls sitting in green slime. It was actually escargot. So, black snails sitting in a pesto garlic sauce. 

It really looked pretty gross, but I told myself that I would try it and I couldn't back down on myself. Well, the longer I looked at them, the more everyone decided to join in on the peer pressure. I really didn't like them talking about the fact that the eyes are scraped off first, and the fact that the snails have been de-pooped, and I especially didn't like their offer to hurry and get out the video camera. Once the camera was mentioned I just hurried and popped one in my mouth and started chewing. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was just a mushroom because it was a little rubbery and I could mostly taste the garlic. While I was chewing, everyone kept asking me what I thought - How did it taste? What did I think? How did I like the texture? Just questions questions questions. Just let me chew for pete's sake! This picture was taken as I was turning my head to tune them all out so I could swallow it before the whole thing came right back up again. All in all, not bad, but not something I feel inclined to repeat.

After the snails, I got my salmon. Now that was something to look forward to! It was so good!!!

Jeremy had the pork loin.

Once we started taking pictures, everyone wanted in on the fun. This is Jen's plate of food.

Art's dinner. :)

Jeff and Carlie's potatoes. Uh, could someone please get a little more sour cream? We don't have enough!

After all the taste dinner fun, we ended with dessert. Jeff is just finishing off his ice cream and moist cookies.

After dinner was the big party across the promenade. This is the deck we can see from our window. I'm not really one to go down and party with a huge group of people I don't know, so we mostly walked around a bit, took some pictures, and went to change into jeans. BORING US!

One thing I realized about our culture. As mormons who go to church every Sunday, we dress up quite often. At least once a week, if not 2 or 3 times a week, depending on events. So, when it's time for us to get dressed up it's like - whoop de doo . . . I'll put on another dress. I think a lot of people don't really get dressed up as often so it's really a big deal when they do. There were some people who went all out on their formals and tuxes. I think when they buy a dress, it's probably for a special occasion. Thus, they would have a decent collection of formals in their closet. As for me, the closest thing to a formal in my closet is my old choir dress from high school (totally laughable!). So, I was content to simply wear a normal church dress out of my closet and try to blend in. I did have fun looking at everyone else's "fancy" dresses.

When we did make it back to our room, this is what was waiting for us on our bed. Isn't it so cute? Our very own little towel elephant!

We hurried and changed clothes (put on jeans) and made it to the theater in time to see the entertainment for the night. It was a good day.

We Are Cruisin!

This year Jeremy reached his sales goals with his company, so we got to go on a cruise! :) That was the sales incentive. We just got home yesterday and it was so much fun!! We took a 7 day cruise down the Mexican Riviera. I'll start from the beginning, so you don't miss a thing.

We dropped the kids off at various homes on Saturday night. They were all VERY excited to be going on mini-trips themselves. Nathan went to his friend, Alex's house. Athena and Samantha stayed with my parents, and Alexandra stayed with Lisa. Jeremy's sister watched Max. After all the rounds were done, we got home late, made one last trip to Walmart, and then came home and went to bed. After getting up super early on Sunday morning, driving to the airport, flying to LAX, and getting on a shuttle bus to the port terminal, we FINALLY made it to our cruise ship! The Mariner of the Seas. It's a Royal Caribbean ship.

Here is Jeremy getting ready to board the ship.

As always, we found our room and I just had to get a few pictures of our accommodations before we dirtied everything up with our stuff. Our cabin was very small, I think it was around 135 sq. ft.

I had to get several pictures of the bathroom because it was so tiny that I couldn't just stand back and get a big view of the whole thing. This is the vacuum toilet. WATCH OUT!

Sink and mirror.

Itsy bitsy shower. During our cruise, one of our friends told us that he dropped the soap in the shower and it was so tight in there that he had to get out of the shower, then bend over to get it, and get back in.

Our stateroom had a window that overlooked the promenade deck below. That was really nice because it made our room seem not so closed in. We also had a pretty good view for people watching.

That's the vanity.

So, all in all our room wasn't too bad. We didn't spend much time there anyway, so how much space do you really need? After putting our stuff away we took off to explore the ship. This is the emblem out on the activity deck.

This is looking across the upper deck where the jogging track was. Below are the swimming pools and hot tubs.

ME!

These are the pools.

We were on the ship for about 4 hours before it left the port. Jeremy and I spent a long time watching the cargo ships load and unload the containers. It's fun to imagine what is in all of those huge containers. Exactly what are they hauling? And will any of it end up in my house eventually?

This is inside the ship, looking down from one of the elevators. The elevators went all the way from Deck 1 to Deck 14. This ship is huge!

Before we left port, we had to do the whole safety check drill by the lifeboats.This is everyone at our meeting stations. We had to stand there FOREVER and wait for people who were late, until everyone was there. I think we stood here for about 1/2 hour just waiting. Then they did the drill. I think they should have the late people pay the rest of us who were actually there when we were supposed to be.

Finally, when that was all done it was time to leave. :) Well, we had to wait for this cargo ship to pass first . . . then we left.

I find it quite amazing how the captain can guide an enormous ship through such a small passage. Jeremy took a few really pretty pictures as we started to sail.

I took this one, because Jeremy couldn't balance the camera very well on the railing and I was just standing there doing nothing.

Then I gave the camera back and he took more pictures.

Once the excitement was past, it was time for us to get to dinner. Our dinner time each night was at 6:00pm in the dining room. We had great seats for dinner! We were right by the window, nestled in a little corner. I took this picture from the window of the dining room. The sun is setting behind Catalina Island.

This is the action inside the dining room. Art was explaining something to someone. I'm sure it was easier to understand once he added the hand gestures.

There were about 30 of us from Jeremy's work and we got to sit together each night. It made dinner quite entertaining. Definitely something to look forward to! Here are some more from our group.

Ah, here we are in our perfect seat. Nice dinner view, huh?

That's the end of Day one. It was very tiring and busy, but a good start to the week. :)

Amazingly Generous

Jeremy's aunt has been struggling with cancer and has had a difficult time. She decided at the beginning of the summer that she wanted to do something special for all the daughters and daughter-in-laws in the family. She coordinated with everyone and purchased 24 tickets for all of us to go up to the Capitol Theater and watch Lion King together. It's one of her favorites. She is the one dressed in the purple dress, standing in the middle next to me.

We ended up sitting at the top of the theater and she was actually apologizing for our seating! I told her that we were all just really grateful for her generosity in treating us all to the show. It doesn't matter where we were sitting, we were happy to be there with her.

We all went out to dinner at the Olive Garden and enjoyed a nice dinner together. As we all got ready to pay for our meals, another of Jeremy's aunts told us that it was already taken care of. She had paid for the whole thing. She totally didn't have to do that! I was really touched.

This was a great evening out with all the girls and I'm humbled by the generosity and love shown by Jeremy's aunts.

Here are a bunch of us lined up in our seats.

This is everyone from Jeremy's immediate family who came to see the musical. We all rode up together in the same car. I feel really lucky to have a family on both sides that I get along with and feel comfortable going out and doing fun things together.

Me, outside the Capitol Theater after the show.

This was a great night out. I enjoyed myself and learned some great lessons as well. Thank you to those who made it all possible!

A Grim Discovery

I woke up this morning, wandered into the bathroom, and found that my trusty watch - the poor thing - gave up the ghost at exactly 4:20am. Right down to the very last second of it's beating guts it let me know when.

It's been a hard day for me. My wrist has been so bare. I'm trying to stay strong and look to tomorrow, when I get my friend a new battery.

Another First for Nathan

Yesterday Nathan started Kindergarten! I can't believe he is finally old enough and I only have one little kid at home for the afternoon. It's sad to see him go, but at the same time it will give me a little more quiet time. Isn't he cute?

Here he is with his homework. I asked him if he wanted me to walk him to his class for the first day. He said, "No. I know how to get to my class." So I said, "Well, then can I take some pictures of you for your first day?" He agreed, so I got to get out of the car and take some pictures. Then I asked him, do you want me to follow you in to make sure you get to your classroom ok? He then said that would be OK and I let him proudly lead the way.

I don't much care for the feeling of just leaving my kid somewhere new and I don't get to see him for the next little while, so of course I had to make sure he was all set up. I took him into the coat room and he knew just where to hang his backpack.

Then we went and found his table. I guess I was waiting for a grand send-off or something, but he was just like - "Bye Mom".

Being the wonderful mom I am, I hung around for just a minute more to make sure he was OK and happy to be there. He then said, "When are you going to leave?" (this was all in about 3 minutes, it's not like I was there for HOURS!) "Why do you want me to leave?" His response . . . "So I can start to learn!" Fine then. I gave him a last hug and left him there, to learn.

I'm really excited and happy for Nathan. I think school will be great for him and he will love the experience. I've noticed for awhile that he has needed a change, and I'm hoping this is exactly the change he needs. :) I do miss him at home.