vacation recap

i’ve finally got a moment of peace and a spurt of energy to get this done.  ahh, vacation.  feels so long ago now that we’re back to our regular grind of daily life.  but looking at these pics now brings back happy memories of good times spent together as a family. 

so phil had a glorious two weeks off at the end of january.  we spent the entire time together– a day at disneyland, a few days at my dad’s place, and a five-day cruise to mexico.  unfortunately, it was cold and rainy almost the whole time we were on the ship, but we managed to find fun things to do nonetheless.  the weather made the boat rock more than normal (so we were told) but happily, the kids didn’t seem to notice and did fine the entire time.  phil felt sick one night and surprisingly, i felt a bit woozy a couple nights too.  i say surprisingly because i’ve never had motion sickness in my life.  must be the added pregnancy hormones that did me in.

happy and excited to begin our new adventure!

phil booked us a suite on the ship.  i was a bit apprehensive at first, worrying over the extra cost, but it ended up being totally worth it to have the extra room.  it was just as fun to hang out in our room as it was to explore the rest of the ship!

our lovely king-size bed.  came in quite handy as allie ended up sleeping with us.

hanging out in our “living room”.  the steward later converted the couch into a double-sized bed for mikey to sleep in.

saying good-bye to long beach from our private little patio.

we had to do the emergency drill but they didn’t make us wear the life vests for more than the two seconds it took to put them on and then take them right off again.  so phil later made us all put them back on for a photo op.

the next day, we docked at catalina island.  the kids thought driving around in this golf cart was the best thing ever!  mikey especially didn’t want the ride to end since for once he got to sit in the front seat.

a peek at our ship from the island.

the family at our private table (hooray!) for formal dinner night.
  

another highlight was coming back to our room each night to see the towel animal on our bed.

the next day we docked in ensenada, mexico.  we were one of the last ones getting off the boat that day (somehow we weren’t able to get to bed til after 10:30 pm each night but thankfully, the kids conked out and slept past 9 am each morning.  allowing phil and i to sleep in as well.) so we ended up getting half-price tickets to go see “la bufadora” (the blow-hole).

allie and i coming down the stairs to take a look at this bufadora.

here comes the blast…  it actually rises much higher, but the picture wasn’t that interesting since all you’d see is white haze.

daddy and allie getting hit with the spray.

picturesque ensenada.  just before the local street vendors swarmed around us to get us to buy their wares.

the final day on the ship was a day out on the sea.  we took the opportunity to just hang out and take it easy.  it was much too cold to use the swimming pool (darn!) but we did get in a game of mini golf.  except that playing with two small kids means extra playing hazards.

mikey working hard to get par.

allie thought her club was more fun as a horsey.

we couldn’t resist ordering a couple of fun ship drinks.
  

in the afternoons, allie took a nap in our room while mikey went to “camp carnival” for an hour or two.  he’d always come back beaming as he showed us what he made there.

sure there were gloomy skies overhead, but we wouldn’t have seen this double rainbow from our patio if it was sunny!