Keep Calm and Cruise On

After entering our stateroom for the very first time, and being hit with a wave of.......a smell that should only belong in the bathroom,

  (the shower curtain was discovered as the culprit - it hung right next to the toilet, which apparently had caught a lot of "pee spray" from the previous occupants of the room!),  

we had a wonderful week on the Fowers Family cruise!

Here's a sampling of our "yearbook" (weekbook?):

Port 1: Puerto Vallarta

 {Note: Contrary to what this may look like....we are NOT drinking at the bar!  Well, kind of.}  

My brother, David, and us both got the "non-alcoholic drink card" (unlimited virgin pina coladas, strawberry daquiris, "Miami Vice's," "Bahama Mamas" etc. that we HAD to get from a bar).  Without giving you an exact daily number, let's just say we tried REALLY HARD to get our money's worth each day!!  ;)

Port 2: Mazatlan

Port 3:  Cabo San Lucas

The Crown Princess 

AND....interestingly enough, it was WAY easier to get my 10,000 Fitbit steps each day on the cruise...without really even trying!

It turns out, if you don't have to work your desk job for 6 hrs. a day, you get a lot more steps - and there's no last minute running around the block at 11:50 p.m!  :)

It also helped that you walk up 5 flights of stairs to get breakfast in the morning.

Then walk the same 5 flights back to your room to change into your swim suit.

Then walk to the middle of the ship and up 7 flights to the top deck to be by the pool and catch some rays.  

Then walk 2 flights down and over to the the drink machines to fill up your water bottle (and to the bars to get a "sunrise cooler" smoothie).

Then walk to the middle of the ship to watch a movie on the big outdoor screen.

Then you walk around the Buffet, the Pizzeria, and the Grill to judge who has the best lunch options, and then walk the whole outer edge of the ship trying to find a window table to eat at.

Then you go back to your room because you forgot your a) book, b) water bottle, c) sunscreen, d) pen

Then you go around to all the hang out rooms/areas around the ship, on 3 different decks, to see if there is an open table to play cards at.

And then you walk up 3 flights to your room to get ready for dinner.

Then down 4 flights to the dining room.

Then you walk in and out of the dining room a few times to go to the restroom during your 2 hr. dinner, from the constant water you drink.

Then walk to the very front of the ship for the evening entertainment in the theatre.

Then back to the middle of the ship and up one floor for the game shows.

Then down a couple decks to the lounge where you dance the night away.

And then, finally, walk back up 4 decks and to the back of the ship to your stateroom to retire for the evening!

Oh...It was fun while it lasted (which is never long enough!) but now it's back to reality.  boo hoo.

And we've decided (I think, but I'm not convinced) we'll have to try to be "responsible" and take a sabbatical from cruising for the a while......until the next great "opportunity" arises!  ;)

A Sure Way to Have a Whole Month Fly By Without Even Realizing It

If time is ever moving too slow for you - just dragging on and you're wondering HOW you can make it go faster.......just GO ON A CRUISE.

Because it takes a WHOLE WEEK of pressing preparations before you can even leave:
Laundry
Writing up lists
Shopping
Making an instructions guide for our children's caretakers
Packing
Accomplishing THE LIST
ON TOP OF the extra hours at work that I had to pick up for others in trade to get the cruise week off, and Matt had to work to get all the things done that were needed for deadlines that would come up while we were gone or very shortly after we returned.
PLUS, add a daughter's birthday and party in there with my annual girls' shopping weekend in Park City on the side....

....and pretty much I was going non-stop for that first 8 days of the month.

THEN we made it on our [20th anniversary] cruise!  Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!

 The Allure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean

Relief.

No Responsibility.

Restful.

{Haha.  Matt took this "selfie" on the first evening.  

I was so worn out by the time our vacation actually started, I fell right to sleep waiting for the show to start!} 

 Recreational.

{Yes!  There is a operational Carousal on the ship.} 

Rejuvinating.

 Refreshing.

Royal Treatment.

from our awesome waiters, "Jeff" & "Lito"

 Romantic.

 Rewarding.

Sadly, that week went by way too fast.

Side Note:  My #1 tip for married couples:  Get Away Together (alone) often! (anything from a date night to an extended vacation)  There's really no substitute.....but that's a whole other blog post for another time.

And then we came back home.  Here's another adjective beginning with the letter "R" to describe that experience:  Rude Awakening. 

Not only was is COLD, but I had to now cook my own food, pick up my own towel, wipe my own nose......Oh no!!  

  
(It's been pretty much back to work non-stop again)

So, on MONDAY, I worked my shift all day and had to go to the grocery store for all the, "Mom! We're out of (fill in the blank with anything & everything)! items the kids bombarded me with upon my return.

On TUESDAY, I worked my shift all day and had to catch up on paying bills.  What in the heck was the current status of our bank account?!?

On WEDNESDAY, I worked my shift all day and did the miscellaneous "office" stuff...and finally decorated for Thanksgiving!  With a side of planning our ward's Christmas party.

On THURSDAY, I finally had a day off work, so I got around to unpacking all my luggage.  I also tackled cleaning the stove which appeared as if a 10 gallon pot of an assortment of foods & other stuff had exploded all over it in my absence.  I also slid on in to the Post Office in the nick of time - 4:56 p.m. - to send off this month's missionary care package (a blog post for another time) for Ryan Elder Brenchley.  (It's that time again, already?!?)

So, there's another week that's gone by in a FLASH.  It's November 20th already!?!?!  That means practically the whole month is gone!  And then Thanksgiving week always goes by fast and after that, November's over.  I really can't believe how quickly it went.  Here I am left reeling.

There you have it.
Prep week + Cruise week + Catch up week.....
How to lose a month in 20 days. (but what only seemed like a few)

What Could've Been (or A Pity Party on a Friday Night)

Tonight we were SUPPOSE TO be getting on a plane to fly out to Cancun.

This was our "replacement vacation" for our failed Cruise attempt back in February.

Matt & I (no kids) had a week long reservation at an ADULTS ONLY All Inclusive Resort on the beach in Cancun, The Golden Parnassus.

We had a room booked with breathtaking views of Nichupte Lagoon and the Caribbean beyond.

 

We were going to eat to our heart's (tummy's?) content at any or all of the six restaurants at OUR resort and/or the ten restaurants at it's sister resort down the road.

We wanted to take advantage of the Spa part of the Resort, too.

BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED!!!

Which pretty much creates all kids of problems for a vacation like this.

 Matt can't even walk on his own, so....

I present to you Problem #1:

He can't bend his leg either.

Problem #2:

And he can't even get his knee wet.....

Problem #3:

{"They" say the Ocean's crashing waves against ruptured knees is also BAD = Problem #4}

And if he can't even drive a car, how is he going to manage any of these?

{Problem #5}

That "SUPPOSE TO" phrase I opened this post with, was the key word.  NEEDLESS TO SAY, we had to cancel our vacation.

{Boo hoo hoo.  Bwaaaahhhhhh!}

And, tonight, instead of flying to Paradise, I stayed home - on a Friday night - being crafty:

 

(Which would you rather be doing?) ;)

Imagine that:  TWO failed vacation attempts so far in 2013.

Don't you wish you had my "LUCK?"

I Never Should Have Been Writing this Post

Are you wondering if we got on the Cruise?

Ya know THE CRUISE that was suppose to cure my Winter BLAHS?

Well.......NOPE!

I am back in the hazy frozen tundra (A.K.A. UTAH)

We DID try, though.  We flew down to So. California on Friday night, so we could be on time for the Saturday ship departure - because THERE JUST HAD TO BE A CANCELLATION for us!  I NEEDED to get on that ship, right?!?

We arrived at the cruise ship terminal and every other person tried to take our bags to load them - I would've LOVED to have let them, but we had to tell them that we had to keep them with us since we weren't "FOR SURE."   When we got inside the ICEBOX terminal, we found out there was another couple there waiting, too.  (These strangers we didn't even know all of a sudden became "the enemy" :) - which of us was going to get on?)  The people who worked there told us we just had to sit on the blue iron benches and wait for "the powers that be" to come down and tell us IF there were any cabins for us.

WHAT?!?  My Personal Cruise Consultant - who I stalked on the phone over the last 5 weeks - had told me that I could get through security and up to the ticket counter and they would be able to check me in on the computer and be all ready to go when there was a cancellation or a "NO SHOW."

And with that big Nor'easter storm that hit on Friday/Saturday, I was feeling pretty confident about "NO SHOWS" with literally hundreds of flights that were cancelled and delayed.

BUT.  The "procedure" was quite different at the actual port.  They said that the ONLY way we could get on is if passengers actually called in and confirmed their cancellation.  And they could not let us have the cabin of a "NO SHOW" just in case they flew in to another port of call halfway through the cruise and showed up to get on the ship -- UNLIKELY, but they couldn't fill their cabin with US in case it happened.

So, my brother & sister and her husband were on the inside of the ship harassing the ticket counter and the front desk telling them that we were out there and were part of their group.  They were reminding them not to forget us and asking them how many passengers had not checked in yet.  Meanwhile, I was on the outside calling Holland America headquarters on the phone asking to speak to the ship inventory dept.  (I was denied, but PUSHED, and got the agent to call for me while I held.)  I was getting updates on the cancellations status - in our case, the LACK OF cancellations, but the people on the phone still told me I could buy the cabin of the "NO SHOWS."  My brother was able to get the Front Desk to disclose to him that 30 people had not checked in yet....so we were HOPEFUL.  This waiting and calling and communicating with my family on "THE INSIDE" went on for three hours.  The other couple gave up and left earlier - YES!  (More hopeful!)

But, in the end - no one cancelled!!!  Yes, there were NO SHOWS, but no one cancelled.  So, here's a lesson learned and a PLEA to everyone -- if you're not going to make it, CALL IN and cancel, because you could be helping SOMEONE ELSE.  Unless those passengers had purchased trip insurance (and a lot DON'T - do you?  Or do you just take the risk and save the money?)  they couldn't get any of their money back anyway, so they probably just didn't even bother to call.  I do not know why employees in the SAME company were giving out DIFFERENT bits of information.  There were a few different "Officials" who came out to talk to us -- they had all HEARD ABOUT US :) -- but they all had the same bad news, to which I asked them if they were aware that their phone agents tell their customers something opposite of the real deal.  They were not aware.  Aaaugh!

WHAT A BUMMER!!!

Actually, that doesn't even begin to describe it!  Even though we knew it might not happen.....to actually BE THERE but not be able to get on....and see the ship sail away....to think of what "might've been"....and know what the weather was like back home......it was SUPER, MEGA DIAPPOINTING!

Like we were seriously SADDENED.  LET DOWN.  DISILLUSIONED. BROKEN-HEARTED.  UNHAPPY.  DISENCHANTED.  BEATEN.  DOWN IN THE DUMPS.  HOPELESS.  IN  THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR.

It might sound stupid to y'all, it's just about a vacation, but I REALLY wanted to go at this particular time!

We did have a plan B - to go use our free week in Cancun, but thanks to that same storm that was suppose to increase our chances on the cruise.......decreased our chances for flights.  The flights in & out of the East (the connecting spot to Cancun) were all filled up FOR DAYS with the leftover customers that were displaced previously.

Plan C was just to go home on Sunday.  (It was too late to get back on Saturday evening after the ship left.  THE SHIP LEFT US!!  I can't believe it.)  How depressing!

Plan D was to find another last minute cruise departing out of California.  We found a 4-day cruise to leave on the 11th, so I called.....and guess what?!?  It was SOLD OUT, but the reservations agent happily infomed me that he could put us on a "WAIT LIST" [for a small deposit].  You've GOT to be kidding me, right?!?  This news coming just RIGHT AFTER I spent my day in the icebox on a wait list!  NO WAY!  BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!

We went and got dinner in a Mall Food Court -- so different from the lavish dinner we should've been having in the Cruise Ship Dining Room!  Boo hoo!  Thanks to Hotwire.com, we got a last minute hotel and tried to put an end to this day.

Matt came up with a Plan E:  To stay in San Diego at least a few days so the whole effort wasn't a total BUST.  But, that would cost more money and it wasn't really what we wanted to do.  But, if we went home, that would be worse!  Or would it?  We couldn't decide.  Our minds were too muddled to even know what the best plan of action was.  We would lean one way.....and then the other.  One of us decided one thing, and the other one started to agree, and then the first person would change their mind.  It was so tiresome.

I thought after a night's sleep, I would feel better, but I woke up still disheartened.

My first thought was that I should -- I DESERVED - to just stay in bed all day in my comfy clothes and no bra (my favorite outfit) and do NOTHING, except feel sorry for myself!

But, it WAS Sunday.

I had my iPad with me, and it was super easy to go to www.lds.org and find the closest church to where we were staying.

But, then one of Satan's lies popped into my mind, IF you would've got on the ship, you weren't going to go to church this Sunday anyway, since they don't even have church on the ship.
AND  
You've had a hard day, treat yourself to a day of 'vegging' in your hotel room.

Thankfully, I came to my senses enough and we did go to church.

IT WAS JUST WHAT I (WE) NEEDED!

I felt a little bit better the minute we drove into the parking lot and I caught sight of some men in white shirts and ties.  I felt even better when we walked inside the church and the door greeter gave us the HUGEST smile and a wave.  From there, things got increasingly better and better.

I was reminded of and gained a new appreciation for the scripture in D & C 50:22;  Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together.

Guess what one of the speaker's topic was?  HOPE vs. DESPAIR!  Perfect.

It filled me with the right amount of Spirit that had been missing.  Going to church can do that!  Note to self:  Don't forget that! 


After church, we were able to even JOKE about our situation - and we decided to STAY.  We already had work off.  We already had caretakers for our children arranged.  And we had Hotwire.com......which we used to get a Hilton BEACH resort.

 And THIS scene outside our hotel window:

 Was TONS better than THIS scene back home:

 

I even got in a swim suit (with a hoodie over the top of it) and sat by the pool -- because the SUN WAS OUT!

BTW:  My "Personal Cruise Consultant" called me when I got back to Utah - maybe in response to all my voice mails I left her the couple of days before we left? -  to say she was sorry we didn't make it on the cruise.  I told her that she had given me INCORRECT info about getting on the ship if there are "NO SHOWS" and had I known the REAL policy, we wouldn't have even gone down to CA and waited for the DENIAL!  She claimed she didn't know.  Well, it seems like that would be a good thing TO KNOW so as NOT to lead customers (not anymore) astray!  I think the purpose of her call really may have been to try to book another voyage with me, but after she learned of our situation, and that she had screwed up, she didn't even bring it up!  ;) haha.  Smart Girl.

Cruel, Harsh Reality

LAST WEEK
   


This Week 

Living Life one Cruise at a Time

I was hooked the moment I first stepped foot into the ship's lobby and the Cruise Staff formed a line on both sides of the entrance for us to walk through while the lead guy announced loudly, "Disney Cruise Line welcomes The Brenchley Family!" and the others applauded and smiled at us as we passed by.

And the royal treatment never ceased the rest of the week, either.

I decided then that cruising was the way to vacation!

Disney Cruise, Western Caribbean ~ March 2005 

Holland America Cruise, Alaska ~ August 2007 

Princess Cruise, Mexican Riviera ~ February 2010 

And now I get to go with these favorite people of mine! 

For a Disney Cruise ENCORE.

BON VOYAGE!

WHAT "Lazy Days of Summer?"

This is officially the last week of Summer vacation for us and it's simply CRAZY to me.  How can it be over just like that?  

Every year, my children mourn the end of summer and dread the start of school, lamenting,

"We didn't even DO anything this summer!!" 

in their best feeling-jipped-voices.  Which really means they didn't do a million, ba-jillion, totally outrageous, much-too-lofty-of-a-plan, EXPENSIVE, UNREALISTIC things.  Like go to Legoland, Universal Studios, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, The Grand Canyon, Seven Peaks, Timpanogas Cave, the Taj Majal, MLB games, Florida, Texas, New York, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington, Canada AND Mexico at least once each.  And that they didn't go to Boondocks, swimming, Dairy Queen, Galaxy, the zoo, Classic Fun Center, mini golfing, bowling, gymnastics class, to the movies & museums, boating, hiking, to the beach, and parachuting at least once a week.
And they LOOK OVER the ton of "other things" they DID do!

It never works -- I never have felt sorry for them!

UNTIL THIS YEAR.

Because, THIS YEAR, when they say, We didn't even DO anything this summer.....it's pretty much true!

As far as the traditional SUMMER-ISH FUN that is supposed to go on.

I even bought a pool punch pass and declared, This summer we are going to have "Water Wednesdays" which means we will go swimming every Wednesday.

We went once.

I'm joining the "feeling jipped" members of my family now.

Matt & I even missed our August date....and we were doing SO WELL - DANG!  But, we're in San Diego together right now, just the two of us, does THAT count?!?  ;)


Instead of the "Lazy Days of Summer" we've:

• Sold our home -- TWICE!  (The first people cancelled after a couple of weeks)

• Signed, dated, scanned, and emailed back and forth 14 addendums for the sell of our home.  (Our realtor joked with us that he should start taking a higher commission on offers that go past five!)

• Which also meant I had a continual stream of phone calls and texts from the Realtor

• AND we kept showing our home until we past the "Due Diligence" period with the buyers.

• Built a new home

• Made 1,000 decisions on brick, paint, tile, floorboards, door knobs, driveway and walkway shapes, trex decking color, lights, woods, closet layouts, faucets, stucco, windows, trim, size of patio, banisters, patterns, doors on the left or on the right?, plug outlets down low or up high or somewhere in the middle?, If I should UP my anxiety meds or keep them the same.....

• AND then made many of these decisions AGAIN when the bids came back TOO HIGH or TOO LOW (who am I kidding?  THAT never happened!), or my selections were OUT OF STOCK, or the granite slabs I had picked out BROKE the day before they were to be delivered & installed.

• Called the builder way too many times MORE than he wanted me to.

• Babysat the builder.

• Made the builder fix way too many MORE mistakes than he wanted to.

• Fought with the builder.

• Started the loan process with a lender for our new home.

• Completed tons of paperwork and scrounged up all kinds of info they wanted about past names, drugs taken, jobs, income, marital status, insurance, residences, driving record, credit scores, best recipe for chocolate chip cookies, etc.

• And then the underwriters came back with a list a "conditions" and we had to send them a butt load of other things; copies of account statements and down payment checks and employment verification and my mammogram results....(just wondering if you're still paying attention!)

• All the while fielding 10 calls/texts (minimum) a day from the lender with updates and requests -- one of which I was not able to take because I had just gotten rear ended on my way back from picking out my granite the second time at the warehouse too far away from my home! 

• Closed on our home - and became renters of our own [well now THEIR] home.  We paid more in rent than we did our mortgage pymt - so sad!

• Packing up our home

• Gathering boxes from all sources:  KSL.com, Walmart, friends & family, the Liquor store (it's TRUE - they're great for our canned foods/food storage)

• Packing up

• Packing

• Packed some more  - it just grew!  When I thought we had done a ton - there was still a ton to do!

• Moved the majority of our things into THE GARAGE of the new house (we hadn't officially closed & it wasn't ready yet) because our buyers were taking possession of ours SOON!

• Shop for and buy beds & bedroom sets for the kids who were changing their sleeping situation (going from a shared room to an own room, going from a toddler bed to a "big girl" bed, etc.)

• Packed up the "essentials" we had kept with us at our home, including my work office stuff because I worked up until the last day we lived in that home.

• Moved the rest into the garage 

• Cleaned & did paint touch ups at the old  [empty] home -- thanks to my VT, brother's family, and MIL for helping us with this trying-to-beat-the-5PM-deadline-to-be-out-EFFORT!

• Signed closing papers on the new house

• Got frequent phone call updates from the lender who "camped out" at the title company for two days making sure that our case was getting worked and pushed it through.(thanks to him!)

• Then when we got word that the house was officially ours, we moved AGAIN.  We could move the things from the garage into the new house.  Word came in the late afternoon, so we didn't have anything set up to sleep, so we stayed at our brother & sister-in-law's house that night.(thanks to them!)

• Unpack the new house

• Move things in from the garage to the house

• Put everything away

• Forgot where I put it away

• Unpack some more

• Put together beds

• Unpack

• Hang butcher paper in the windows (after I got tired of crawling around on the floor below window level) so the neighbors don't "get more than they bargained for."

• Unpack

• Called all the Utility companies to stop service at our old home and start at the new one.

• No one knows our address exists, so make several other phones calls to resolve this....still not sure if it's totally "resolved."

• Call for Internet

• Comcast won't serve my "area" - yet the homes on all the streets surrounding me have it - am I not in their same "neighborhood?" 

• So desperate for internet use, set up an "Internet Cafe" on my in-laws porch and "tapped into" their wireless internet.

• Call another company for Internet - they can't come out for another week.

• Begged and bargained with my co-workers to cover my shifts since I didn't have the capability to work from home without internet

• The internet co. came out and couldn't find a ground wire --then they do -- but the main cable has been spliced (inadvertently?) and they can't get anyone out for 4-5 days to fix it. 

• Went over to my neighbor's to use her internet --Since when did we become so dependent on The Internet????

• Had to drive out to the [way too far away] JetBlue office to work (due to no internet and phone at home) when I couldn't get shifts covered at 2:45 in the morning - yep, just me and one semi on the road at that time!

• Unpack

• Meanwhile, we haven't received mail for 10 days - after 3 trips to the post office, we start getting our current mail, but no one knows what happened to all the mail BEFORE she "found" us!

• Unpack

• It takes a couple of phone calls to get new garbage cans delivered, so we have tons of garbage bags piling up.  THEN once they'res delivered, the garbage man passes us by - he can't find us either?!?  This warrants a trip down to city hall myself to get this straightened out.  WHEN YOU'VE JUST MOVED, YOU HAVE TONS OF GARBAGE and we can't be skipped!

• Hire someone to install cold storage shelving

• Get a water softener guy to our new house -- hard water and oil-rubbed bronze faucets and fixtures DO NOT GO TOGETHER!

• Go up and down the stairs 25+ times a day - needing a shower by the end of the day from all the sweating I'm doing.  I've lost 5 lbs. in the last three weeks.  It's called the packing-moving-unpacking diet!

• And I managed to get Ryan registered for High School (his Junior year!) and Kyle registered for Jr. High (an 8th Grader!)  WHAT?! 

• And we went school shopping - four different days for four different children.  I realized, girls are FUN to shop with - BOYS are not.

So, ALL of THAT dominated our whole entire summer!  But, we're in our new home (pictures coming sometime!)  not totally MOVED IN, but we are sleeping there now.  There are still unpacked boxes and things in the garage that need to be put away, but we're working on it EVERY DAY - some project or another.

Next up:
Window coverings
couches
Bonus room organizational system - I don't know what to do!  Suggestions?
yard
other furniture
TV(s) (that's only on Matt's list)  :)

So, we're FAR from done.  WAAAAAAAHH!

BUT, to make up for everyone's "LOST SUMMER" we've got a Fall Family Vacation coming up that we have been saving for and planning for years......

 

It will be a nice break from all the selling/buying/moving WORK we've spent the summer doing.  :)

Cruise 2010 Top 10

2 1/2 years in the planning....

Months of anticipation.....

7 days of a TRUE vacation!!!

It finally came.

Before our Alaska Cruise was even through 2 1/2 years ago, we made plans to go on our next cruise -- somewhere WARM this time. And that's how our Mexican Riviera Cruise idea was born.
Warning: I think this may take the record of the most photos in a single post.....
But here's my own version of the "Top Ten." (In no particular order)

10. Time with Matt

9. Our ABBA impersonation

One night there was an activity called, "Love Boat Legends." We didn't really know what it was, but decided to attend anyway. Turns out, Princess Cruise line (the ship we were on) is the ship in the good ol' TV show "Love Boat" (thus the "Love Boat" part). Apparently, they have had many musical "guests" make appearances on their ship (thus the "Legends" part).
The Catch is....the members of the audience become the stars of this show!
Our group of 4 was approached by one of the Cruise Director staff asking us to be in a foursome. They didn't really give us a choice of whether or not we'd do it, just a choice of which foursome to do: The Beatles, The Monkeys, or ABBA.
They took us downstairs and dressed us in costumes, complete with wigs, sequins, & head bands. When they put the wig on Brett - we lost it LAUGHING!!
As in, I-was-at-risk-for-peeing-my-pants-LAUGHING!! (Crossing my legs and all!)
Matt's laugh went up at least 3 octaves, my stomach was hurting, and Steph was crying....all the while Brett kept a perfectly straight face, which made it even more FUNNY! And then they announced the performance by ABBA...and we had to run up the stairs, on stage, and sing, "Dancing Queen!"

8. Friends
Brett & Stephanie
Jeremy & Gina
Our Motto: What happens on the Cruise, stays on the Cruise!
(And now, I'm posting a gazillion snippets of evidence! hahaha!)

7. Food
Also, on the menu: escargot, frog legs (only Brett was brave [READ: insane] enough to try 'em), caviar, & sushi, to name a few!
An all-you-care-to-eat Ice Cream shop poolside.
On the very night we took a photo of our Lobster dinner, we went to a Comedian for our nightly entertainment, who did a whole number on those "Wackos" who take pictures of their food!! Too Funny!
And, miraculously, I only gained 1 pound -- and Matt gained 4! Finally, some justice! :)

6. Musical "Men"
You've heard of the game "Musical Chairs." This is the same concept, except all the ladies are walking to the music in a circle around the men. When the music stops, you grab a man!
I was in the game for a while...I was lucky enough to be able to grab Matt most of the rounds. The announcer would tell the ladies to give the man a 'peck on the check' before starting the music again. When I had Matt, we took the liberty of giving more than a 'peck,' and the people around us, who didn't know who we were....well, they were surprised! :)
But, see that turf looking flooring on the deck? It was wet...and the combination of walking around in a circle fast, high heels, and a rocking ship...well, I went DOWN - Big Time! (And consequently got out!)
But, Matt was one of the last ones standing - just look at those ladies fighting for him when the music stopped! :) So sad for them -- he's MINE! :)
That lady on the ground WOULD NOT LET GO of Matt's leg!
Ironically, the prize for "the winners" (Steph & Matt) was a bottle of champagne. Why couldn't it have been something good & useful like chocolate or shipboard credit?
Steph & Brett won some more champagne later on in the cruise when they played "The Marriage Game."
They just found people to offer it to - who all gladly received it! ;)


5. "Wildlife"
How many Iguanas can you find?
Flamingos & Swans (Mazatlan)
Pelicans at "Pelican Rock" (Cabo)

Sea Lions (Cabo)

Not Pictured: whales, monkeys, tarantulas, & pythons.

4. Life of Leisure

If you look hard, you can see me. I'm on the lower deck, on the left side, wearing an orange shirt.

Line Dancing

This picture is kind of deceiving -- Matt really only got through 20 pages of his book the whole week, but we tried to read! :)

3. This Car

You can't tell we're tourists, now, can you?!? :) One car filming the other car as we drive. Sticking your camera out the window for pictures!

This "taxi" we took was a cross between a Golf Cart & a Jeep.

There is some fierce competition between the taxi drivers! Apparently, another taxi driver thought that our group's taxi driver "stole his customers" and he came after the other car in our group! He pulled up beside them on the road, was yelling, and attempted to run them off the road!

What a blast!

2. Sun & Beach

1. Zip Lining in the Rain Forest (Puerto Vallarta)

We zipped from tree to tree on a total of 14 cables.

The longest cable was 400 meters long.

The zip lines, affectionately called, "Banana Split," "Speedy Gonzalez," and "The Big Enchilada" are designed to gradually take us higher and faster.

You travel at speeds of up to 30 mph, and find yourself gliding over a dramatic river gorge.

Until the final cable shoots you over the river rapids.

And what way to make it more authentic but to be raining that day - the only day it rained all week. As in POURING DOWN rain! (during their "dry" season, nonetheless!) My clothes were completely soaked!

Which made for slippery-er, faster cables!

And for a lot of MUD!

One of the guides rode "tandem" with me once, so I could go backwards and upside-down...

(watch for my red jacket coming in)

I think I'm suffering from Post-Vacation-Return-to-Reality-Traumatic-SHOCK-Syndrome!!! :(

Y'all missed out! When I invite you next time....you REALLY ought to come!!!