August 25, 26 & 27
Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful view off our deck of the tip of Cabo San Lucas.
We got up and ready and headed onto the tender.
We arrived in Cabo San Lucas with almost all of Tom's family. Eric and Carlee had gotten off earlier for a shore excursion, but when we bumped into them on the deck, we were able to get a picture of the whole group together!
Sophie and Cedric wanted to get pictures with the military men too.
We were able to find someone who was willing to give us a boat tour and take us to a beach. We saw such beautiful rocks and beaches on our tour!
There were several pelicans on the rocks.
The tour guide threw food into the water and hundreds of fish swam up to eat it! I was glad I was in the boat as I do not like fish!
It was a breathtaking!
We spotted some sea lions on a rock as well.
We made it over to the main beach (my family had also played there on our last cruise). Lily was given a lizard by a lady and I tried to tell her no, but it was too late. I took the kids picture with the lizards and paid the lady for her "service".
This beach had courser sand, and huge waves! But it was fun. Here's Cedric and I with our ship in the background.
Jeff had forgotten his goggles and refused to swim without them. Since it'd take too long to go back to the ship, he and Tom went looking in some nearby shops for goggles instead (ironically, with all the people coming up to us on the beach and wanting to sell us stuff, none of them had goggles). Lily took Sophie to the bathroom, but was taking a long time. I was getting worried, so I left Cedric in the care of Bryce and Sara and went to look for them. I found Tom also at the bathrooms and a sad Sophie. Apparently, she'd locked herself in the stall and neither she nor Lily could get her out. So Tom went into the woman's bathroom (Lily made sure the coast was clear) and helped get Sophie out. Well, she still hadn't gone to the bathroom and I was starting to figure out why. She'd gone just after we got off the tender and really didn't need to go again. We told her she could just pee in the ocean, and encouraged that because we had to pay to use the bathrooms there. However, I realized she had a fear of peeing in the ocean, which is why she kept wanting to go to the regular bathrooms. All was well once Tom helped her and he and Jeff had found some goggles, so we were finally good to go and enjoy the ocean as a family.
The waves were quite powerful though, and several of us had gotten knocked over by them, including Tom's mom. Once you got past the surf though, the water was quite nice.
We played at the beach most of the day. Tom and Lily wanted to do some more shopping, but the rest of us were hungry and wanted to get back to the ship. I took the other three kids and headed back with the rest of Tom's family. Sophie and Cedric wanted to change, but I didn't want to take time to shower them off until after lunch. I was hungry. When Talmage left the boys room he said Jeff was still in there, but then Jeff quickly came out of the room and caught up to us. As we headed up the two flights of stairs to the restaurant, Jeff started complaining of the sand in his swim suit hurting him. I told him to go back and shower, but he didn't want to be in the room alone, and he didn't have a key (Tom and the key to their room, but needed it to get back on the ship). I kind of got mad at Jeff (I'm not too patient when I'm hungry) and told him I had to get the little kids lunch and I couldn't help him. He went off and I went the other way. After I got the kids lunch figured out, I asked Sara and Bryce if they'd watch the kids while I went to help Jeff. Hunter loaned me his room key, so I could get in their room. I headed down to our cabins, but Jeff was not there. I had no idea how to find him. I tried calling the customer service line to see if they could page him, but they didn't answer. As I started heading out to go look for him (I was still in my wet, sandy swim suit, mind you), He came side-sliding down the hall with an ice cream cone in hand (I guess it didn't hurt so bad to side-slide). I apologized and waited while he showered, and then we headed up to lunch.
We spent the afternoon getting ready for dinner and cleaning up.
That night was our last formal night. I'd done some laundry on the ship earlier that week, but when I took everything (mostly whites) out of the washer, a lot of things had brown, dirt-like stains all over them?! One of which was Cedric's white dress shirt. So even though it was formal night, he wore a white polo shirt instead.
We went and saw more comedy after dinner.
Here's the kids with one of the cruise entertainment directors, Scott (with pink eyebrows and long, pink fingernails).
And with one of the comedians.
That night, I woke up several times with trips to the bathroom. I had gotten sick, probably from the food in Mexico, as I was not the only one who wasn't feeling well. Despite having diarrhea for the last two days of the trip, I tried my best to enjoy it. The kids enjoyed playing with toys, games and cousins on our last full day at sea.
We went and learned how to fold towel animals, and then watched a cute puppet show about them.
Lily enjoyed the chocolate bar they had at lunch that day. I had a bowl of soup as nothing sounded good.
Several of them also went and watch Zootopia in one of the theater rooms.
We went and saw the Hasbro Game Show again, this time, Kate (our niece) got picked to be one of the contestants.
Jeff trying frog legs.
We had our final dinner in the dining room. I had soup again.
We loved our waiters, Su, Budi and Leria.
The relationships our kids built with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on this trip was priceless.
The kids enjoyed more comedians after dinner. Sophie didn't have any interest, so I took her back to our room to play and enjoyed relaxing, reading and packing up to go home.
As we headed back to the room, we said good-bye to our room steward, Rony.
The next day we were back in Long Beach. We decided to just wait in the restaurant until the crowds were off the ship. I still wasn't feeling good, and not looking forward to driving back to Utah that day.
Here's the waitress, Sangi, who just loved my kids and would always come and talk to them in the restaurant.
We did play a few games while waiting.
Cedric had bought a tow cross bow in Mexico and we had to check it, since it was a weapon. We were literally walking off the ship when I remembered we were supposed to pick it up! Tom had to do some tracking down for it, but finally, he got it and met back up with us.
I think we waited a little too long to get off the ship, as we were officially the last ones off (as far as we could tell).
The first thing we did when we got off the ship was stop at a grocery store (things are expensive in Long Beach, CA!) and got me some medicine for my tummy.
As we drove home, I continued to let the kids open goodie bags every 100 miles. They were very good kids on the drive home!
We arrived in St. George after dark, and ran to Swig to get some beverages.
We had booked a hotel room with three queen beds, but when we got there, they said that room wasn't available, so they upgraded us to adjoining suites! We headed back out and got food at the grocery store for dinner that night and breakfast and enjoyed watching TV while we ate our late meal in the rooms.
Lily and Cedric had a room together and each had their own bed. Poor Jeff volunteered to share a bed with Sophie. I'm not sure he realized how much she moves in her sleep!
After a good night sleep and sleeping in a bit, we woke up Sunday morning to head home.
We got home to find Lily's camping stuff from Oakcrest still on the couch, bags and bags of laundry to do, suitcases to unload, and kids to give Father's Blessing to and get to bed on-time before they headed off to their first day of school the next morning.
It was an adventurous trip and we are so glad we got to experience it with our kids! Now Tom and I are ready for a kid-less vacation. :)
