Day 1:
Traveling
to LA/Boarding the ship
Traveling
to LA/Boarding the ship On October 4, 2008 grandma Lesia flew to Albuquerque to watch Spencer and Jamie. I spent the rest of the night packing mine and Jared’s luggage and getting the kid’s things ready for grandma. We had to get up at 4:30 am and had to be to the airport by 6 am. So, I just pulled an all-nighter. On October 5, 2008, 
Jared and I flew to Los Angeles, California to board a HUGE cruise ship. We were on a Royal Caribbean ship to the Mexican Riviera. It was so awesome!!!
Jared and I flew to Los Angeles, California to board a HUGE cruise ship. We were on a Royal Caribbean ship to the Mexican Riviera. It was so awesome!!! After getting aboard the ship we went straight to the buffet while they took our luggage to our room and got our roo
m ready for us. When we finally got to our room after lunch, I laid down on our bed and didn’t move for 3 hours. I was so tired. Once I was awake, we wandered around and explored until we left port. We found an ice-cream machine 
on deck 9 by the swimming pool and it soon became my best friend. ;-p Leaving port was an extravagant event. Everyone onboard the ship goes to the outer decks and waves goodbye to anyone on land that is willing to watch. We even had a restaurant get on their PA system and wish us a happy journey. It was really fun. Later that night, we went to dinner in the
dining room and found out that one of the couples at our table (Stan & Alberta) were the ballroom dance instructors for the ship. They were awesome!! After dinner, we went back to our room and found that our bed had been turned down, mints had been placed on our pillows and there were towels folded into the shape of an elephant. He was wearing my sunglasses. It was very cute!
m ready for us. When we finally got to our room after lunch, I laid down on our bed and didn’t move for 3 hours. I was so tired. Once I was awake, we wandered around and explored until we left port. We found an ice-cream machine 
on deck 9 by the swimming pool and it soon became my best friend. ;-p Leaving port was an extravagant event. Everyone onboard the ship goes to the outer decks and waves goodbye to anyone on land that is willing to watch. We even had a restaurant get on their PA system and wish us a happy journey. It was really fun. Later that night, we went to dinner in the
dining room and found out that one of the couples at our table (Stan & Alberta) were the ballroom dance instructors for the ship. They were awesome!! After dinner, we went back to our room and found that our bed had been turned down, mints had been placed on our pillows and there were towels folded into the shape of an elephant. He was wearing my sunglasses. It was very cute! Day 2:
Playing around at Sea
Playing around at Sea
The second day we spent on the ship making our way to Cabo San Lucas. Our second day went like this: I slept in while Jared went and explored,
Jared brought me breakfast from the buffet, I got up and got ready, we explored our beautiful ship some more, took pictures of us on the ship, found a snack bar, got ice-cream cones, found the Casino on the ship, ate lunch, took dance lessons, went and got ice-cream cones again, wandered again, had dinner, saw the after-dinner-show in the theater, went dancing with Stan & Alberta, got tir
ed and went to bed. As you may have noticed, there was a lot of eating going on. I think I gained about 10lbs, literally, on our cruise!! Our dinner that night was a formal dinner. I wore the red dress that I wore for Karri’s wedding. When we went dancing, Stan asked the band to play “Lady In Red” and asked me to dance. 
It was a lot of fun. After a short while, Stan asked me if I knew how to line-dance. I was pretty excited about that because I love to dance but was out of my comfort zone with ballroom stuff, so, I line-danced in my formal dress. It was pretty fun. A few hours of dancing and a lot of talking led Jared and I back to our room so we could crash. It was an awesome day!!!
Day 3:
Cabo San Lucas!!!
The first day that we were on the ship, the captain announced that
there was a tropical storm heading for Cabo and that we may not be able to go there. We were very sad when we heard this; however, the storm slowed down and wouldn’t hit Cabo for a few more days (which I will talk about later, scary). Cabo was interesting. The 
port is so shallow that the ships have to dock away from the shore and then take passengers to shore on smaller boats. We had to get “tender” tickets and wait until our number was called to be able to go to shore. We went and ate breakfast at the buffet while we waited (I told you there was a lot of eating). Once on the dock at the shore, the first thing that we noticed was that there were men in military fatigues 
holding machine guns waiting to greet us. That was a little unnerving. We walked around the dock for a little while. There were a ton of people selling everything and anything. One g
uy even grabbed my arm, put a locking bracelet on my arm, and tried to haggle the price with Jared for us to buy it. They do not take “no” for an answer either. We finally got rid of that guy and then saw another guy with this HUGE igu
ana walking around offering to let you take pictures with it, for a price of course. It was crazy. After that we went horseback riding on the beach. That was so much fun!!! I have wanted to do that for as long as I could remember and Jared surprised me with it. I loved it!!! The “Mexican Cowboys” were really funny. The leader of the group was always singing Spanish songs to us. He wandered up to the front of our little caravan and stood up in his saddle and sang. That was really funny. After the horseback ride, we walked on the pier some more and bought a t-shirt. We then went back to the ship. We ate dinner in the dining room and were going to take in the nightly show, but were so tired that we just crashed.
Day 4:
Mazatlan!!!
This was a very relaxing day. We were able to dock at the pier there and it made getting off the boat a lot easier and we didn’t have to be on the ship’s time. We were immediately met by people trying to get us to listen to a vacation time-share. Normally we would say no to a time share, however, this deal actually sounded good. We gave
them one hour of our time and in exchange we were able to use their private beach and got free food and drinks at their restaurants all day long. We thought that was a pretty good deal. The food was great and the beach was very nice. While on the beach, Jared and I played 
in the water and used a boogie board. I also got my hair braided by a little Mexican lady on the beach. That was pretty cool. After we had swallowed our fair share of salt water, we walked around to all the little shops. We bo
ught Spencer and Jamie some little toys and some shirts. I also got a t-shirt. When heading back to the ship we had to find a taxi, although, I’m not sure that “taxi” is the right word for them. In the USA we would call these “glorified golf carts”. We got back onto the ship and ate dinner. The show for this night was a magic show called “Knight Magic”. It was so cool!! I love magic and this guy was very good. This day was fun and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.
Day 5:
Puerto Vallarta!!!
This city was very cool and reminded me a lot of Albuquerque. We even found a little square in the middle of the town that looked like a place called “Old Town” in Albuquerque. This day was spent shopping
and walking around. I found a little silver sombrero charm to put on the charm bracelet that my kids bought me for mother’s day a few years ago. It is so cute and tiny. We also saw some sand sculptures. They were amazing! I have never seen anything like them before and doubt that I will again. These people have some real 
talent. After a few hours of shopping, we finally ate lunch and changed into our swimming suits. We then walked down to the beach. It was getting a little cold and the beach was very rocky, so I decided against swimming. Plus, having been in a motorcycle accident only one month earlier, my knees were still healing from all the road rash and they 
were screaming at me to let them rest. Jared was so kind and agreed to take me back to the ship. On our way back, we saw some guys offering to take people parasailing. Jared had been talking about doing this fr
om the first day, so we took the guys up on their offer. Jared had so much fun. Looking back on it now, it was a bit crazy. He was being pulled around behind a boat on a flimsy rope, while flying over the city on a parachute that he really had no control over. He says that he would definitely do it again, though. Once back on the ship, I was too exhausted and to get cleaned up to go to dinner in the dining room. Jared and I then decided that we would go up to the upper decks and eat a hamburger and fries while watching the ship leave the port. That was a good decision. It was storming by then and so we watched the lightning over the city from a good safe distance on the sea. There was a huge bolt of lightning directly over the city and in a split second, 
all the city lights went out. It was just like in a movie. It was crazy!! Jared watched and filmed the storm some more while I took a short nap. We then went to the indoor pool and decided to go for a swim. Because of the storm outside, the ship was rocking enough that it turned an ordinary pool into a wave pool. That was awesome. Jared and I had so much fun! We laughed and played around like we were little kids. When we got tired, we sat in the hot tub and then went to bed. This too was a very fun day.
Day 6:
Sailing back to Los Angeles
This day was pretty much like day 2. It was a very relaxing day filled
with dancing lessons, sleeping/napping, and lots of food. We hung out with Darin and Amber later that night. They were an awesome couple that was also at our dinner table. They are LDS and from Logan, Utah. We had a lot in common with them and really enjoyed their company. We watched t
he nightly show with them, then stayed in the theatre and talked until the “Love and Marriage” game show started, which was about an hour. That was a very funny show. They pulled couples out of the audience and had them answer questions about their spouses. It was hilarious!! After the game show, we watched a comedian. He was pretty fun too. I am very glad that we got to know Darin and Amber. We are going to keep in touch with them. This day was nice, relaxing, and slow paced; which is exactly what I needed.
Day 7:
More Sailing
Copy day 2 and day 6 and you pretty much have day 7. The only real diffe
rence is that later in the night we found out that the tropical storm set to hit Cabo San Lucas had turned into a hurricane and had in fact hit Cabo. Apparently we were out to sea, passing the point where Cabo would be when the storm hit. That is what caused the wave pool. It was crazy to know how close we came to being in a hurricane. Things like t
hat help you to appreciate the life you have. We did have a demonstration on animal towel folding. It was pretty cool to learn how to fold a towel into an animal. I would really like to do that for my kids. I think that they would really like that. Dancing lessons this day were a lot of fun due to the fact of the rocking ship. You know 
when you were a kid and you spun around in a circle so many times that you made yourself dizzy and could hardly walk. Well, try taking dance lessons when the ground is moving out from under you and you feel like that little kids again. It was pretty fun and Stan and Alberta made it enjoyable. They laughed and joked with us when we all shifted our big circle to keep our balance. It was hilarious to watch. I even received a gold medal for being a good dancer in their class.
Day 8:
Jared brought me breakfast from the buffet, I got up and got ready, we explored our beautiful ship some more, took pictures of us on the ship, found a snack bar, got ice-cream cones, found the Casino on the ship, ate lunch, took dance lessons, went and got ice-cream cones again, wandered again, had dinner, saw the after-dinner-show in the theater, went dancing with Stan & Alberta, got tir
ed and went to bed. As you may have noticed, there was a lot of eating going on. I think I gained about 10lbs, literally, on our cruise!! Our dinner that night was a formal dinner. I wore the red dress that I wore for Karri’s wedding. When we went dancing, Stan asked the band to play “Lady In Red” and asked me to dance. 
It was a lot of fun. After a short while, Stan asked me if I knew how to line-dance. I was pretty excited about that because I love to dance but was out of my comfort zone with ballroom stuff, so, I line-danced in my formal dress. It was pretty fun. A few hours of dancing and a lot of talking led Jared and I back to our room so we could crash. It was an awesome day!!!Day 3:
Cabo San Lucas!!!
The first day that we were on the ship, the captain announced that
there was a tropical storm heading for Cabo and that we may not be able to go there. We were very sad when we heard this; however, the storm slowed down and wouldn’t hit Cabo for a few more days (which I will talk about later, scary). Cabo was interesting. The 
port is so shallow that the ships have to dock away from the shore and then take passengers to shore on smaller boats. We had to get “tender” tickets and wait until our number was called to be able to go to shore. We went and ate breakfast at the buffet while we waited (I told you there was a lot of eating). Once on the dock at the shore, the first thing that we noticed was that there were men in military fatigues 
holding machine guns waiting to greet us. That was a little unnerving. We walked around the dock for a little while. There were a ton of people selling everything and anything. One g
uy even grabbed my arm, put a locking bracelet on my arm, and tried to haggle the price with Jared for us to buy it. They do not take “no” for an answer either. We finally got rid of that guy and then saw another guy with this HUGE igu
ana walking around offering to let you take pictures with it, for a price of course. It was crazy. After that we went horseback riding on the beach. That was so much fun!!! I have wanted to do that for as long as I could remember and Jared surprised me with it. I loved it!!! The “Mexican Cowboys” were really funny. The leader of the group was always singing Spanish songs to us. He wandered up to the front of our little caravan and stood up in his saddle and sang. That was really funny. After the horseback ride, we walked on the pier some more and bought a t-shirt. We then went back to the ship. We ate dinner in the dining room and were going to take in the nightly show, but were so tired that we just crashed.Day 4:
Mazatlan!!!
This was a very relaxing day. We were able to dock at the pier there and it made getting off the boat a lot easier and we didn’t have to be on the ship’s time. We were immediately met by people trying to get us to listen to a vacation time-share. Normally we would say no to a time share, however, this deal actually sounded good. We gave
them one hour of our time and in exchange we were able to use their private beach and got free food and drinks at their restaurants all day long. We thought that was a pretty good deal. The food was great and the beach was very nice. While on the beach, Jared and I played 
in the water and used a boogie board. I also got my hair braided by a little Mexican lady on the beach. That was pretty cool. After we had swallowed our fair share of salt water, we walked around to all the little shops. We bo
ught Spencer and Jamie some little toys and some shirts. I also got a t-shirt. When heading back to the ship we had to find a taxi, although, I’m not sure that “taxi” is the right word for them. In the USA we would call these “glorified golf carts”. We got back onto the ship and ate dinner. The show for this night was a magic show called “Knight Magic”. It was so cool!! I love magic and this guy was very good. This day was fun and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.Day 5:
Puerto Vallarta!!!
This city was very cool and reminded me a lot of Albuquerque. We even found a little square in the middle of the town that looked like a place called “Old Town” in Albuquerque. This day was spent shopping
and walking around. I found a little silver sombrero charm to put on the charm bracelet that my kids bought me for mother’s day a few years ago. It is so cute and tiny. We also saw some sand sculptures. They were amazing! I have never seen anything like them before and doubt that I will again. These people have some real 
talent. After a few hours of shopping, we finally ate lunch and changed into our swimming suits. We then walked down to the beach. It was getting a little cold and the beach was very rocky, so I decided against swimming. Plus, having been in a motorcycle accident only one month earlier, my knees were still healing from all the road rash and they 
were screaming at me to let them rest. Jared was so kind and agreed to take me back to the ship. On our way back, we saw some guys offering to take people parasailing. Jared had been talking about doing this fr
om the first day, so we took the guys up on their offer. Jared had so much fun. Looking back on it now, it was a bit crazy. He was being pulled around behind a boat on a flimsy rope, while flying over the city on a parachute that he really had no control over. He says that he would definitely do it again, though. Once back on the ship, I was too exhausted and to get cleaned up to go to dinner in the dining room. Jared and I then decided that we would go up to the upper decks and eat a hamburger and fries while watching the ship leave the port. That was a good decision. It was storming by then and so we watched the lightning over the city from a good safe distance on the sea. There was a huge bolt of lightning directly over the city and in a split second, 
all the city lights went out. It was just like in a movie. It was crazy!! Jared watched and filmed the storm some more while I took a short nap. We then went to the indoor pool and decided to go for a swim. Because of the storm outside, the ship was rocking enough that it turned an ordinary pool into a wave pool. That was awesome. Jared and I had so much fun! We laughed and played around like we were little kids. When we got tired, we sat in the hot tub and then went to bed. This too was a very fun day.Day 6:
Sailing back to Los Angeles
This day was pretty much like day 2. It was a very relaxing day filled
with dancing lessons, sleeping/napping, and lots of food. We hung out with Darin and Amber later that night. They were an awesome couple that was also at our dinner table. They are LDS and from Logan, Utah. We had a lot in common with them and really enjoyed their company. We watched t
he nightly show with them, then stayed in the theatre and talked until the “Love and Marriage” game show started, which was about an hour. That was a very funny show. They pulled couples out of the audience and had them answer questions about their spouses. It was hilarious!! After the game show, we watched a comedian. He was pretty fun too. I am very glad that we got to know Darin and Amber. We are going to keep in touch with them. This day was nice, relaxing, and slow paced; which is exactly what I needed.Day 7:
More Sailing
Copy day 2 and day 6 and you pretty much have day 7. The only real diffe
rence is that later in the night we found out that the tropical storm set to hit Cabo San Lucas had turned into a hurricane and had in fact hit Cabo. Apparently we were out to sea, passing the point where Cabo would be when the storm hit. That is what caused the wave pool. It was crazy to know how close we came to being in a hurricane. Things like t
hat help you to appreciate the life you have. We did have a demonstration on animal towel folding. It was pretty cool to learn how to fold a towel into an animal. I would really like to do that for my kids. I think that they would really like that. Dancing lessons this day were a lot of fun due to the fact of the rocking ship. You know 
when you were a kid and you spun around in a circle so many times that you made yourself dizzy and could hardly walk. Well, try taking dance lessons when the ground is moving out from under you and you feel like that little kids again. It was pretty fun and Stan and Alberta made it enjoyable. They laughed and joked with us when we all shifted our big circle to keep our balance. It was hilarious to watch. I even received a gold medal for being a good dancer in their class.Day 8:
Tour of Los Angeles
This day we
arrived in LA at 7 am. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave LA until 8:20 pm. So, we decided to take a tour of the city of Los Angeles and the beaches there to pass the time. This day was pretty cool. Jessi, I posted this pictur
e just for you. Do you see the “Bones” picture on the wall? We saw the studio where they shoot it. Also, for those 1990’s movie buffs…the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Which movie??? Pretty woman of course!!! We also saw the Santa Monica Pier. This was where they shot the mov
ie “Cellular”. We had a lot of fun and didn’t have to waste our entire day in the airport. We did end up spending a lot more time than we wanted to in the airport. We got there at 4 and had to wait for 2 ½ hours to be able to go thro
ugh security. Then our plane was 1 ½ hours late landing which made it that late taking off. It was a very long night while waiting for that plane. I was so glad to be home after that. I loved my vacation but I really missed my kids and my own bed.
This day we
arrived in LA at 7 am. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave LA until 8:20 pm. So, we decided to take a tour of the city of Los Angeles and the beaches there to pass the time. This day was pretty cool. Jessi, I posted this pictur
e just for you. Do you see the “Bones” picture on the wall? We saw the studio where they shoot it. Also, for those 1990’s movie buffs…the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Which movie??? Pretty woman of course!!! We also saw the Santa Monica Pier. This was where they shot the mov
ie “Cellular”. We had a lot of fun and didn’t have to waste our entire day in the airport. We did end up spending a lot more time than we wanted to in the airport. We got there at 4 and had to wait for 2 ½ hours to be able to go thro
ugh security. Then our plane was 1 ½ hours late landing which made it that late taking off. It was a very long night while waiting for that plane. I was so glad to be home after that. I loved my vacation but I really missed my kids and my own bed. 
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