Baja Cruise.... ahh!

For Christmas I suprized Andy with a 4 night cruise. We left the kids at home with two sets of incredible Grandparents and headed out to California!

We had so much fun! It was wonderful to be together and be able to focus on one another with out any interuptions! We flew into Long Beach at 9:30 on Monday morning and decided to save ourselves $50 and take the city bus instead of a cab. It was a little adventerous... especially when we found out we were on the wrong bus.... but we ended up making it to the ship in plenty of time and it only cost us $4!

We got on the ship at 11:30 and did a little exporing. The boat was beautiful and we met nice people everywhere we went. We couldn't have asked for any better weather, it was in the 70's and sunny every day, with the exception of Friday. On Friday it started pouring rain as soon as we got our rental car! I'm so glad it didn't start while we were trekking to the bus stop... that would have been miserable.

Tuesday we spent the day at Santa Catalina Island. We were off the ship at about 8:00, there were literally probably only five other people on the streets. It was so beautiful and peaceful. We walked up and down the streets bordering the ocean and admired the scenery. It reminded me a lot of pictures I have seen of Greece. Later in the day we walked through all the little shops, picked up a few souveniers, and then took an open air bus tour of the city. The bus took us up to the top of one of the mountains were there was a beautiful look out point. We loved the layed back atmosphere of the Island. Apparently it is pretty crazy during tourist season, but we loved it in January.

I had to leave the picture below big because I think it is hilarious. If you look in my glasses you can see my arm taking our picture. If you look in the back you can see the man looking at us like we are crazy!

Wednesday we spent the day in Ensenada, Mexico. We had heard from a lot of people that Ensenada was the "armpit of the world," but we couldn't disagree more! We started off the day with a trip to La Bufadora, or the Blow Hole, it was about a 45 minute drive were our tour guide gave us all kinds of interesting information about the area. He pointed out olive orchards, asparagus fields, tuna farms, and oyster farms. The Blow hole itself was very pretty and we had a lot of fun bardering in the little stores along the way. I even picked up a Dolce & Gabana Bag ;)... never mind that the silver is already rusting a bit! lol! Then we went back to the ship and had a deliscious lunch and headed to downtown to explore a bit. Everything was so quiet. I even got a pedicure while we were there. It was very nice, and sanitary.... but definately not high tech! I soaked my feet in a little foot bath... (i have the same one at home) while I sat in an office chair.... it was padded. Afterwards we said goodbye to Ensenada and headed back to the ship for dinner and a show. Afterwards I convinced Andy to go to the Kereoke Lounge with me for a little adventure! We both had a lot of fun... I sang.... Andy laughed. I had a blast though, and will definately do it again if I get the opportunity.

On Thursday we were "at sea" which was a nice relaxing day. We did see a whole bunch of dolphins playing and jumping right by the boat. It was a lot of fun to see... of course we didn't have the camera until they were mostly gone. We spent the day going over our personal and family goals for the year; we also went to a hilarious newlywed, nearly dead game, visited an art auction, and watched an ice sculpture demonstration. By Thursday, I have to admit that I was missing my kiddies and looking forward to going home the next day.

Oh, and you can't forget the cute towel animals!

On Friday morning we got up and were off the boat by 9:00. So we took a free shuttle to the rental car place and saved ourselves another $10. Can you believe a rental car was cheaper than a cab! We drove to Sea Line Village and walked around... don't waste your time. We weren't too impressed. We did have a lot of fun in arcade there. Let me just say that two people who have been on a ship for a week playing Dance Dance Revolution can be pretty comical! Then we had lunch, walked around a mall to kill some time, then headed to the airport.

We boarded our plane at 4:00, waited on the tarmack for an hour for a clear to take off, never got it and got off the plane at 5:00. Salt Lake was too fogged in to land, therefore we were delayed. We waited in the airport for like 4 hours until they finally ended up canceling our flight. It was quite an ordeal, but after two flight changes, at two different airports, we finally ended up with a flight our of Long Beach at 7:00 the next morning. So we got all of our luggage and found a motel.

Saturday morning we headed home without any problems and were so excited to see the kids. Easton was quite upset with me and didn't want me to touch him at all. He just kept glaring at me with his bottom lip sticking way out, as if to say, "What kind of mother are you? How could you just leave me like that!" He got over pretty quick though, and was very excited to cuddle and take a nap. Sadie was very excited to see us... mostly because she knew we had presents! All in all it was a wonderful vacation! We had a lot of fun together and are so glad we went... we are also glad to be home and feeling reinvigorated and rededicated!