Ahh...June! Oh how I look forward to you! You give us glorious weather, a plethora of outdoor activities, and time for a recharge. Our last day of school was June 7 and it was bittersweet. Abigail had a graduation/promotion ceremony for 5th grade, which means she is off to middle school next year. What?!?! That means Andy and I no longer have any kiddos at school with us. It's time for Abby to spread her wings and fly! And Emma...she is off to high school! Our district is in the process of a realignment so Emma will be the last 9th grade class at the junior high.
June 1st: Emma and I did some volunteer trail maintenance work in Round Valley.
Abigail was one of a few kids who aced their states and capitals quiz so what does she do? She offers to grade the rest of the class' papers.
June 5th: It's Field Day! Our entire school spent the afternoon playing games and doing activities outside.
This girl...sometimes I just have no words...
June 6th: It was a great afternoon for a water fight!
June 7th: Today was the last day of 8th grade and 5th grade in our family.
The 5th grade teachers put together an amazing "graduation" ceremony. (I only cried once.)
June 9th: One of Abby's best friends will be traveling the world with her family for a year. We got a few of the girls together for one last time together until next summer.
Abby likes to make sure the birdies have food and water.
June 10th: Emma is a working girl! She is an assistant coach for Young Riders.
June 13th: Abigail's first practice with the Park City Soccer Club
Meanwhile, Emma was at bike practice, riding the trails around the Utah Olympic Park. You always have to throw a little fun in there.
June 14th: Emma decided to bake a loaf of bread. It was delicious!!
June 15th: It was an exciting day! We opened the cabin and got it all ready for summer.
June 19th: Tonight, Emma had a GRiT (Girls Riding Together) activity for the bike team. They made protein balls and bracelets.
June 21st: Knowing we were leaving the next day for a week, we got out for one last bike ride before cruising to Mexico.
That afternoon, I took the girls for manicures and pedicures. They wanted to be cruise-ready! Andy's mom met us there.
June 22nd: And we're off...Today we flew to Long Beach, CA to board our cruise ship to Mexico!! There were 14 of us! What a week full of wonderful memories and amazing time with family. (And yes, we all had matching t-shirts.)
After finding our stateroom, we quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool with Andy's sister's family (who flew in from Boston for the cruise).
Then we watched the send-off party. Now that's a lot of people!
That night (and each night of the cruise), we had a dinner reservation in one of the dining rooms.
After dinner we played in the arcade and explored some of the ship.
We also watched some of a movie and played a little bingo.
June 23rd: This was our 1st full day at sea. Each morning, we at a delicious breakfast of just about anything you could possibly want.
That morning, we went to do a little crafting...
...followed by exploring more of the ship.
We got a little spoiled by having daily housekeeping. Our stateroom attendant, Rudi, left us a different towel animal each day.
It was a gorgeous day so we spent most of our time in the water and going down the water slides.
The girls and I did the obstacle course.
That night was our first elegant dinner.
June 24th: Today was our 2nd full day at sea. Emma and I started off the day by jogging on the outdoor track.
We hit the Sky Ride before the rush.
Again, most of the day was spent at the pool and water slides.
That afternoon, Emma, Dodie, and Kyler took a cooking class.
June 25th: This morning, we pulled into Puerto Vallarta. From our balcony, we could see the captain guiding the ship into port.
We hired a driver for most of the day. He took all 14 of us around Puerto Vallarta.
We started at the Malecón where we viewed the sand sculptures, perused through a few shops, and visited the Choco Museo and Church of our Lady Guadalupe.
Then it was a drive through the rainforest up to a restaurant next to a little waterfall. One the way, we saw the house where Elizabeth Taylor and her husband lived and the restaurant they often frequented.
After that, our driver dropped us off at the market area. We all tried to use our Spanish as we visited some of the stands.
This was one of the craziest bridges I have ever walked on--very wobbly.
After getting back on the boat, and eating a delicious dinner, it was back to the water.
We also watched one of the Family Feud games.
This is what the main lobby of the ship looked like. The lighting would constantly change.
June 26th: Welcome to Mazatlán! It was a hot day and, unfortunately, the lighthouse I wanted to hike up to was closed due to renovations.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the Malecón and watching cliff divers (scary!).
We took a pulmonia (golf-cart-like vehicle) back to the ship and spent the rest of the day in the water to keep cool.
our towel animal of the day
June 27th: Welcome to Cabo San Lucas!
On the way to breakfast, we also noticed that the pool area got taken over by towel animals.
We couldn't pull up to the dock (like in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan) so we had to take a tinder from the ship into Cabo.
We got right to the adventuring. We hired a company to take us on a quick tour of the Land's End area and then spent about an hour snorkeling at Pelican Rock.
Afterwards, we headed to Cabo Wabo, a local bar/restaurant founded by Sammy Hagar.
June 28th: It was a chilly morning so I decided to try out the fitness room. Not a bad view!
Then we went to a class on how to make towel animals.
The weather just didn't improve so spent the rest of the morning playing trivia and Identity Crisis (where a person asks yes/no questions and they have the guess what person they are). Kennedy and Abigail participated!
We tried our luck at bingo one last time. No luck.
Abigail, Andy, and I went to a Harry Potter trivia. Abigail is only on book #5 but she still did really well.
After our last delicious dinner on the ship, we enjoyed one last evening all together and let the cousins play a bit.
Both Abigail and Emma tried the frog legs!
June 29th: We pulled back into Long Beach about 8:00 a.m. Before debarking, however, Abigail left our stateroom attendant, Rudi, her own version of a towel animal.
As we waited our time to debark, we spent one last time on deck 10, the Lido deck. It became our 2nd home while we were on the ship.
I can't say enough how much we enjoyed our time on the cruise but, more importantly, with our family. We made a lot of memories that we will cherish forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment