Mexican Riviera Cruise - On the Ship

In the end of January, we took a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We flew to California on Saturday and spent that first night at Brian and Maryn's house with their family. We all left early on Sunday to board the cruise ship in Long Beach.

These pictures are a little out of order, but the kids spent a lot of time in the pools and hot tubs on the ship. There was a little kids splash pad and slide area, but you had to be 12 and under to play in there. There were also 2 bigger slides on the ship. One of them was a tube slide that the kids went down a lot. It had some flashing lights inside and some see through the tube parts when it was over the edge of the ship. Tyler was most excited about the other big slide, a drop slide with a trap door. He has never been on a slide like this and it is his life's goal to go on one because he thinks they look so fun. He was so sad to find out on day one that there was a weight restriction for the slide. You had to be at least 120 pounds and he was no where near that weight.

The kids were also slightly disappointed that the pools were saltwater pools. Their skin would get irritated from it if they spent too much time in them.

Dinnertime was fun, but the kids (and maybe some of the adults, LOL) preferred to eat dinner at the buffet. The first night at dinner was a bad experience, where it took 2 hours to get through dinner. The service was quite slow and we had an appointment after dinner that we ended up being late for. Because of that, we always ate at the buffet if we had anything scheduled for a specific time after dinner.

Another problem with the dining room was that the menu did not differ that much from night to night. Half of the items on the menu stayed the same the entire week. Also, Tommy struggled to stay awake through dessert.

The shows were lacking a bit, IMO, on this cruise. We also had to reserve seats for the shows ahead of time and that proved to be difficult. Danny and the boys skipped out on all of the shows. Ashley and I went with Brian's (or some of Brian's family) to 2 of the shows. The first one was ICONs. I think Ashley was a little bored with this one because she didn't recognize a lot of the artists and songs that were highlighted in the show. I thought it was fun, but it was more like a concert. The other show that we saw was Jersey Boys. I had never seen this one and didn't know much about it, but it was a lot of fun. I recognized most of the songs from it too, so that was fun.

We also went and watched an illusionist one of the afternoons on the ship. I think everyone thought that was fun.

There was a glow party one of the nights, but we didn't get up there until the kids one was over. The pool deck was still lit up with black lights and playing music as they were waiting for the adult glow party to start. Camden and Kat put on a dance show for all of us.

The kids tried out the miniature golf course on the first day. It was pretty small though, so I don't think they enjoyed it that much. They never went back to do it again.

Everyone loved the buffet. We had fun surprising the Filipino workers in the buffet area with the greetings in Tagalog that Alyssa had taught us. The kids always sat at their own table and had fun making designs with their food.

Lydia and Ashley always sat together to eat and the adults sat together. They only really had tables for 2 and 4 in the buffet area.

We paid to ride the racing cars one of the days. Our boys struggled a bit with turning them and crashed a couple of times before the workers told them they had to be done. They were pretty upset about it so we didn't do it again. Tommy did really well on the racetrack (I think he has done it quite a bit around home).

I think the highlight of the cruise on the ship was the ice cream. We all ate it a lot.

We played a lot of card games on the ship during down time. 

We loved having a balcony in our rooms. Ashley and I caught a bit of the sunset on the last night.

On our last morning in the Long Beach port, we also got to see the sunrise.

Our overall impression of the ship was mid. There were a lot of fun features for the kids, but some of them ended up not being as fun as we expected. The food was good on the first day, but kind of repetitive so we got bored with the options halfway through the week. The service was great on the ship and the overall feel of the cruise experience was good. We didn't wee a single towel animal on this cruise, which surprised us. That being said, it was still a cruise and a really fun week away. We especially loved spending the time with Brian and Maryn and family.

More Catch Up From January, February, March, April, and May

 I have a lot of random pictures from the past 5 months, so I am going to put them all in this post and try my best to highlight some of the things that we have done. Camden got to go on a lot of field trips in the 5th grade year. This day was one of those field trips. They went to Biztown (where they were each assigned a job with a company from the area and got to spend the day pretending to do that job). Camden got assigned as the CEO of Techslopes. Because he was the CEO, he had to wear his best clothing that day. He said it was a fun field trip.

Lula and I hiked to the top of the Y on one of the many nice days we had this winter/spring. It is always a hard hike, but the view is pretty amazing up there.

We have the Get Out Pass this year, so I took the kids to do one of the activities on it one day. The website described it as a trampoline and climbing park. After we got there, we saw that it was more of a giant playplace with a climbing area, a trampoline area, and a basketball area. They had fun, but we did not stay for very long. They were able to get into the climbing area (which had really long wait times) and enjoyed doing that.

I took the kids to see the Mario Galaxy movie shortly after it came out in theaters. We all liked it a lot.

One of the teachers at the school I work at gave me this cup full of tulips right before spring break. They were so pretty, but they only lasted for the week.

Danny and I got invited to participate in a dining experience at the Sky room on the BYU campus. There were only 8 of us in the whole room that night with a handful of waiters. They brought us course after course and we needed to roll ourselves out of there after we were done because we were so stuffed. The view was amazing and the food was delicious.

We got a taster, soup/bread, a salad, a fish entree, a pork entree, dessert, and 2 different fancy drinks. This is the dessert. I didn't get pictures of the other foods. 

I got to go with Camden on a couple of field trips a week apart from each other in May. The first one was to the space center in Pleasant Grove. We got to see a planetarium show, and then Camden got to do a space simulation while I watched from the control room. Camden is quite popular and it was hard to secure a seat next to him any time we sat down (on the bus, at lunch, and in the planetarium show). It was fun to see the one lady show from behind the scenes during the space simulation. Camden had the part of the captain, which is the one that makes all of the decisions. He did a good job.

We joined the Blakes at Airborne Trampoline park on Kendall's birthday. The kids had a lot of fun jumping and celebrating with her. Tamma was staying with us that weekend, so she got to join with us.

Ashley and Tamma also got to go to a BYU Basketball game with Danny that weekend. 

I made heart shaped pizza's for Valentine's Day this year. That is about the extent of my celebration of this holiday. It is definitely not one of my favorite holidays.

The other field trip that I got to go on with Camden was to the state capitol. It was fun to spend the day with him.

It was hard work to get a picture of him on this lion. The other kids were non stop climbing on it the whole time we were there. 

Camden's class

For Danny's birthday, we ordered Chinese takeout for dinner. It was a better restaurant than Panda Express (which is normally where we get Chinese food). The food was really good. We even got a couple of sushi rolls.

We met up with Shannon and the girls at Jurassic Jungle (a huge play place at Thanksgiving Point). The kids had a lot of fun playing.

After we were done playing and the Kilgore's had left, we got some ice cream at the creamery that is right next to it.

Tyler got a bright blue ice cream, and it colored his lips.

Danny's mission president had a reunion at the end of April. He had so much fun catching up with some of the missionaries from his mission that he hadn't seen in a really long time. We even had his MTC companion stay with us for a couple of days. He is from Finland so he traveled a long way to come. Danny and his 2 MTC companions went down to Provo to do some sightseeing on Saturday before the reunion.

The group picture with all of the missionaries that came.

President and Sister Lenker.

We have been talking about getting a hot tub for a long time and finally went for it about a month ago. We go in it 3-4 times a week and have really been enjoying it.

My nephew, Nick, passed away in April. He was so young, newly married, and will truly be missed. Danny, Ashley, and I attended the funeral. It was a beautiful service and it was good to see a lot of our family.

Danny got the boys all hyped up for the NFL Draft. Camden even got all decked out in his Chargers gear for the occasion.

We celebrated Lula's birthday with homemade dog bones and some gifts. We also gave her a lot of attention that day.

Grandpa attended Grandparents Day at Camden's school with him. They had lunch and Grandpa went to the book fair with him and got him a book. He is always so good about attending this event with him and we appreciate this so much.

Camden needed to learn a couple of new skills to earn some points for his class house tournament (like Harry Potter). He learned how to make eggs and to check the chemical levels in the hot tub.

We bought some flowers for Danny's mom for her birthday this year. We went back on the Saturday before Mother's Day and planted them in their front planter.

Another skill that Camden learned recently is how to solve some of his new cubes that he got on his birthday.

Our microwave melted a hole through this plate in the top of it. We looked it up online and learned that we could purchase a new plate and replace it easily on our own. It was an easy fix, the hardest part being living without a working microwave for 24 hours. LOL.

We are now at the start of our summer and the kids are so excited for the break from school.

Ashley's 18th Birthday

Ashley had a good birthday. She didn't really want to have a party (but we talked her into hanging out with her friends the night before her birthday). She wanted a chocolate Mario themed cake. We decided to just use her figurines to decorate the top. She designed the cake and decorated the top herself. I made the cake and frosted it for her. She had fun doing it

We tried a new restaurant for lunch on her birthday. We thought it was a Japanese steakhouse where they cook the food on the grill right in front of you, but when we walked in, we realized that we were wrong. They must have remodeled the place since the last time dad and I went there. We stayed and ate there anyways and the kids all thought the food was really good.

Ashley wanted to go to Soldier Hollow to go sledding that day. We weren't sure if they would be open since we hadn't had any snow all winter long. I guess they make their own snow when there isn't snow to fill the hill. But the snow on the hill was icy because it was so warm outside that day. We got to go down the hill a lot more than we have in the past when we have gone sledding here because we got there right when our time slot started and got to go down 2 times before most of the crowds showed up. The conveyor belt stopped working at one point for a little bit and we had to walk up it the rest of the way and then had to wait at the bottom of the hill until they got it working again. But other than that, it was a lot of fun.

It's hard to believe that half of our kids are adults now. 

New Years Eve

 On New Year's Eve, we went over to Danny's parents' house for a party. They had planned some fun activities for their grandkids (and their kids). They even had some prizes that they had gotten for the kids. We had dinner together and then played a lot of games including Bunko, trivia about 2025, and a football target game.

We watched the ball drop at 10pm and then called it a night. The kids were gifted these noise makers that we told them they could only blow outside.

The boys brought them home, but we promptly hid them because we did not want to listen to them being blown over the next weeks. It was a fun night. After we got home, we watched the ball drop again when our clocks hit midnight and then we went to bed.