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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Cruise December 2012, Day 1

This past December, Josh and I were able to take our first big trip together: a cruise to the Western Caribbean! Josh had been on several cruises before but it was my first. I've wanted to go on a cruise for a long time, and so we decided to celebrate Josh's 30th birthday by going on one. One of Josh's best friends also turned 30 last year (2012) and he and his wife were able to come with us as well. I was worried about leaving my kids for that long, but I had two great babysitters that I trusted to leave my kids with. I was mostly worried about dropping them off, but we had been telling them this was going to happen for a while, and when we got to the babysitter's house, she told everyone to get their coats on and that they were all going to see Santa at the mall and then they were going to see a movie the next day. That distracted them sufficiently that they weren't upset at all when we left. That was such a huge relief to me! If they had been crying when we left, I know I would've had a much harder time leaving them.

We had to leave the day before our cruise sailed because we were sailing out of Florida. We were able to get on a flight with only one stop (but no connection) so our flight to Florida was pretty short. We actually had to switch planes when we stopped (which we weren't expecting to do), but that gave us a little bit of time to get some food and we were still able to be the first ones back on the plane. Our friends were flying from Oregon (he is going to school there) so they weren't able to be on the same flight as us, but we were able to meet up with them at the airport in Tampa before going to our hotel. That wasn't the plan, because their flight got in about an hour before ours, but the shuttle driver that they called took forever to get there and they were still waiting when we landed. We checked in to the hotel and then walked across the street to Denny's to get some dinner. It was probably 10 or 11 PM local time, but it was earlier to us and we hadn't eaten much that day. We of course didn't go to bed early that night because we hadn't seen each other in a few months, but we were able to sleep in the next day, which was nice.

Josh & I on the airplane on the way to Florida

We wanted to get up early enough to eat the free breakfast at the hotel, but it ended a lot earlier than we had thought so we missed it. We just walked across the street again and got breakfast/brunch Subway. One of their breakfast sandwiches was the $5 footlong of the month so I think we all got that and it was delicious! On the way back to the hotel, Josh & I stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks for when we were going to be out on excursions. We hadn't really packed any snacks and thought it would be a good idea. Josh had also forgotten to bring sunglasses so we picked up a pair of those, too.
The shuttle driver from the airport told us to give him a call in the morning and he could take us to the cruise port. He also told us that he charged $10 a person (EACH WAY) and it was the best deal we would find. We knew that couldn't be true so we asked at the front desk and then called some cab companies. We found one that only charged $25 total, no matter how many people were in the car. Much better deal.

L-R: Armyn, Josh, me, Tyler in the taxi van driving to the cruise port

The earliest we could check in at the cruise ship was around 1 PM and I think we got there by 2 PM. There was a pretty long line to check in, but fortunately it moved pretty quickly and we were able to be in the shade for most of the time.

Josh and I waiting in line

Tyler and Armyn

Tyler getting random close-ups of everyone

After checking in, we had to wait a little while until we could go to our rooms. We sat up on one of the top decks and just relaxed while we wait to set sail.

Josh and I at the front of the ship. What a gorgeous view in the background - an industrial ship yard.

We didn't have to wait very long before our bags came to our room and we were able to get in there. I wanted to change and then we came back out to the deck to hang out. We were supposed to sail at 4 or 5 PM but were delayed. Earlier in the morning, there was a lot of fog in the harbor. Very fortunately for us, our ship was able to dock before it got too foggy, but some ships were not so lucky. There was at least one ship that had to wait outside the harbor all day before being able to come in and dock. All those people on that ship probably missed their flights, and the people waiting to start their cruise had to sit around and wait for the ship to come in. As a consequence, we had to wait for that ship to dock before we could leave (I'm not sure why) so we didn't leave for an hour or two after we were supposed to.

Josh and I sitting on the deck hanging out. I think Josh is making a face because we were having to wait to leave.

We wanted to wait and watch the ship pull out of the harbor, but we also had made dinner reservations at one of the specialty restaurants that night so we had to go eat before the ship actually pulled away. It seemed like there were more specialty restaurants on the ship than regular ones, which I didn't love. There were 6 or 7 specialty restaurants (that you had to pay extra for) but only 2 (free) dining rooms, one buffet, a little 24-hour bistro, an ice cream place (that was only open for a few hours during the day), and a burger joint by the pool. I guess you get what you pay for, though. We decided that we liked our cruise, but the next one we go on we will definitely be more picky about and go with a cruise line like Royal Caribbean or Carnival (we went on Norwegian for this cruise). Anyway, Josh & I had already made reservations for this Teppanyaki restaurant, but Tyler & Armyn decided to join us. I'm glad they did because it was really good food and a fun dinner.

Armyn & Tyler making paper swans while we were waiting for our food

Tyler was really proud of his swan

The instructions and the finished product. We brought two home for Steven & Sofia and they were not all that impressed

Our really cool chef

He made the fried rice into a heart and made it "beat"

Josh & I enjoying the show

Tyler couldn't handle the chopsticks so one of the waitresses brought him the ones they use for kids ;)

The waitresses liked taking lots of pictures for us

Tyler excited about his food

The funky dessert I got. It was a green tea cake. The ice cream was pretty good but I really should've gotten the fruit dessert instead...

Josh, me, Armyn, and Tyler after dinner

I broke my sunglasses the first day we were on board and so I went to the gift shop to buy a new pair. These were the ONLY ones that weren't designer and that didn't cost $100+. Seriously.

After dinner we went to the "Welcome Aboard" show in the big theatre and then after that we went to this lounge (called the Spinnaker Lounge, but we all said "Spinnakah" because our cruise director was from South Africa and that's house she said it) for their evening show.

Josh & I joking around while waiting for the show to start

Monday, April 1, 2013

November

So I was just looking through my Facebook pictures as well as the pictures on my camera, and I found ONE picture from November. I'm sure there must be more somewhere, but I can't find them. This makes trying to blog about November all the more difficult. I will try my best but it's going to be incredibly unsatisfactory, just be forewarned.
Josh's birthday was November 4th and mine was November 22nd. As per tradition, Josh's parents took us out to the restaurant of our choice to celebrate our birthdays. For Josh's birthday we went to Benihana's. They have a birthday club that you can sign up for and when you do, you get a free meal (up to $30) during the month of your birthday. Both of us sign up for that, and because our birthdays are in the same month, our meals were both free! It was quite delicious and we had a great time. For my birthday we went to a place we really like called Caffe Molise. It's an Italian place, and it's delicious!
My birthday was also on Thanksgiving this year, which was kind of fun. We spent Thanksgiving with Josh's family, and went to the Grand America again. Always a good choice :) Thanksgiving kind of trumps birthday, so we didn't actually do much on my birthday. My mother- and sister-in-law and I did go see the last Twilight (Breaking Dawn 2) movie on Thanksgiving afternoon, which was fun.
In between my birthday and Josh's birthday, we did a combined family dinner at his parents' house to celebrate our birthdays. It's always really nice to have dinner at his parents' and be able to spend time with his family.
All-in-all, we didn't do TOO much for our birthdays this year because we went on a cruise during the second week of December so we were saving our money for that. The cruise was in celebration of Josh's 30th birthday so our birthdays were pretty low-key.

The one picture I could find for the month of November. Sofia enjoyed herself very much at the dessert table on Thanksgiving Day ;)

Halloween

Since I've been home, and not working, I've tried to make each Holiday special. I try to keep it inexpensive, but I do try to do stuff to lead up to each Holiday and create memories that my kids will remember. We don't always do the stuff I have planned, but I do think it's fun to get the kids excited about that kind of stuff.

I found this idea on Pinterest (I love Pinterest!) for a Halloween count down. The lady had a theme for each day (witches, ghosts, pumpkins, etc.) and ideas for treats, activities, games, books to read, etc. for each day. Some of the days I did stuff that went along with each theme, but not every day, and mostly the kids liked having a visual count down until Halloween.

Our countdown wall

For the past 3 years or so, I've wanted to get a season pass to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. Each year there has been a Groupon for it, but each year I have seen the email too late and by the time I go to buy it, it has sold out. This year I was able to get a deal on some passes to go to a different corn maze. We drove all the way down there to find out that they don't open on weekdays until later in the day. It was fairly early in the day (probably around noon) and it wasn't open to the public until after 4 pm. Oh, and it was down in Pleasant Grove (a 30+ minute drive from our place), and we didn't really want to hang out down there all day. (I think we had other stuff going on that day that we needed to get back home for.) Instead of making the day a complete bust, though, we took the kids to this awesome park in Pleasant Grove. I don't remember what's it's called (it might be called "Discovery Park" or something like that) but I went there as a kid and loved it. The kids had a really good time, even though it was pretty cold.

Steven playing in one of the "dinosaur heads"

We went back to the corn maze the next day and the kids had a lot of fun.

Sofia riding in this "animal train" pulled by a lawn mower. The kids wanted to ride on that one over and over

The kids in a big corn pit

Sofia in the petting zoo portion

Sofia sitting on some huge pumpkins waiting for the pumpkin drop

One of the "themes" on our Halloween countdown was mummies so we wrapped Sofia up like a mummy with toilet paper

We don't host a lot of parties at my house, because it's not very big, but we have made it a tradition to carve pumpkins with my family at our place. Steven, Anna, Mandy, and Ashley with their finished pumpkins

Josh and Steven with the pumpkin they carved

My sister-in-law and I like to take our kids to this pumpkin patch every year (it helps that it's free). If the kids dress up they get extra candy. This is Sofia the Tiger after she had gotten ahold of some chocolate and a donut

I love this picture of Sofia

I know you can't see her face very well, but you can tell that she's absolutely excited

Steven trying to carry one of the pumpkins we picked out

Sofia, pumpkin, Steven

Steven was Buzz Lightyear

Sofia with her baby pumpkin

Sofia and Steven with their pumpkins

Sofia afterwards in the car with her haul

Steven showing off his teeny, tiny pumpkin

My friend, Trisha, and I decided to take the kids to the Witches Village at Gardner Village. It was a little bit of a mistake because it was SOOOOOO crowded. It took a long time to find parking and there were people everywhere. I think there were a lot of field trips, too, because there were a lot of school age kids there for a week day. I had never been, though, and the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Sofia with one of the witches

Sofia was very intrigued by the witches

Josh was nice and carried Steven for a while

My sister, Sammy, is a hair dresser, but she also teaches. She was supposed to take a 4-day trip to Southern Arizona to teach over Halloween but it ended up being cancelled last minute. Because both she and her husband had the time off, they decided to come up to Utah and spend a few days here. It was really good to see her and she was excited that it wasn't snowing (although 60 degrees is still quite cold to her ;) ).

We went to breakfast on Halloween morning with my good friend, Lisa. Sammy while we were waiting

Me waiting. (In case anyone cares, I didn't start drinking coffee, it was hot chocolate ;) )

Sammy and I. Note that I am wearing flip flops. It was quite pleasant that ;) Also note that Sammy has a scarf and trench coat over her chair. 60 degrees feels like full-on Winter to her ;)

Me, Sammy, and Lisa at breakfast

Sammy was very impressed that I was making soup from scratch for our sister, Ginelle's, Halloween party

This is when Sammy and I went to pick up the kids from their Halloween party at their babysitter's

Pretty much ever since my sister, Ginelle, moved to Utah (almost 7 years ago), we have spent Halloween at her house. Every year has gotten more elaborate, with more people, and it has become a full-on party. This year the weather was AWESOME (with a high in the 60's that day) so she was able to dress up her back yard and have the party mostly outside.

Sofia the cute tiger