So I've been trying to get Clinton to go on a cruise with me, after all- it's not so romantic with my mother. So one day, we're looking up ticket prices and there's an AMAZING deal online and Clint books tickets for the whole family for Spring Break. We were so excited, but the only problem was, it was a year away. Holy cow... a year is a long time to wait when you're so excited about a vacation! What also made it exciting is our trip was planned for a month after Zach got home from his mission, so we were so excited to have a vacation with the whole family together.
To save money, we decided to make the drive to Southern California from Kennewick. The timing was pretty good because my mom lives near Sacramento which is more than halfway. Well, we got so excited about leaving, that we ended up leaving late Thursday night and driving as far as Eugene, Oregon and getting a hotel that night. The next day we stayed in Esparto with my mom and we got there pretty early in the day which made it nice to visit. Then on Saturday, we drove to LA and got there in time to pick up Emily at the LA airport as she was flying in from Rexburg, ID where she was going to school. Unfortunately, her Spring Break didn't coincide with ours (which we didn't know a year out!) so she was a little stressed about assignments she was working on during the week.
The first night in LA, we stayed a hotel near Long Beach where the ship departs from.
It was fun hanging out with Emily and she loved the warmer weather after the cold Spring in Rexburg!
On Sunday, we boarded the Carnival cruise ship that stopped in Catalina and Ensenada. So remember.. I had been on that exact cruise about 3 years previously and thought it was the best thing since pebble ice was invented! Here's a picture of my kids about 2 seconds after getting on the ship.
No lie... they were like, "I'm bored... what do we do."
I turned around and saw this...
And then turned back around to see this...
Seriously.
So I'd have to say our cruise experience was not exactly what I had envisioned. Both Clinton and my kids were not big fans of the cruise. Zach was sick almost the whole time and everyone else went through little bouts of queasiness and headaches. I'm so sad! I absolutely love cruising and Clint is not a big fan at all- I doubt I'll ever get him on one again! They did enjoy the ports however. First we went to Catalina and walked around the little town there...
Kenzie... enjoying the sun!
Allison... looking cool in the shades!
Zach... still tanned from Brazil!
Rachel and Emily avoiding the paparazzi.
One thing about cruising that's awesome is the food! It's such a smorgasbord of yummy choices! My favorite was the formal dining every night. Each night, we would go to dinner at 6:00 and eat at the same table with the same waiter. He got to know my girls dinner choices each night as they never changed! Chicken breast was the choice of the week. I loved trying all the different foods each night.
Here's some pics on the ship...
The families favorite stop was Ensenada. I was a little concerned originally- when my mom and I went, it was a little creepy with just two woman. But with Clint I felt totally secure. We walked into the main shopping area of the town and walked around the streets. The kids had fun using their money to try to make a deal with the street vendors. Their very favorite thing was holding a lion cub... so cute!
The longest thing was waiting for Rachel's bracelets to be done... took forever! Really, like about 75 minutes of standing on the corner waiting for about 10 bracelets to be made.
After a day of shopping, bargaining, and waiting (and waiting) we headed back to board the ship.
After the cruise, we still had a couple of days in Southern California to do some fun things. We spent a day at Magic Mountain and it was really GREAT! I say that... but I didn't go on one ride. Not. One. I do not like roller coasters at all!!! But they looked like the best darn roller coasters I've ever seen. And I took lots of pictures! Here are some of them..
And finally, on our last day, we spent the day at Venice Beach. It was hardly crowded at all since the weather wasn't super warm. We had fun watching the street performers and ended up seeing a movie later that night at a nearby mall.
All in all, it was a great vacation with all of us back together at last. We haven't done a big family vacation ever. Usually, we go see family in Utah, California, and occasionally New Zealand with one or two kids at a time. I had the best time just hanging out with my grumpy, bored, amazing kids and husband! After we dropped Emily off at the airport in LA at 6am we drove home... literally- as in, Clint didn't stop in Esparto to spend the night with my family- he just soared on through Sacramento and on up interstate 5 for 19 hours until we got home. Gotta love that man! And that was our Spring Break of 2014!!
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