Seriously there is so much to do on the ship, it really is it's own little city! The crew that works on the ship is amazing! I can't believe how much they pull off in one week and can't even fathom doing it day after day with new people every single week!
Mommy & Gabe at the dining room.
Here are some various photos of Brian and the kids around the ship. They had little adventures while mommy napped, read, and showered. Aahhhhh! :)
Looking very deep in thought.
So I wasn't really impressed with Mazatlan. To be honest, it really just reminded me of Tijuana. It seemed kinda run down and I was surprised that anyone would even want to stay at a "resort" in such a place. We didn't stay very long and went back to the ship fairly early. We didn't book any excursions there and maybe that's why we didn't see anything really impressive.
We ate at this outdoor restaurant and they had this
The whole family went on a cruise to Mexico Oct 30-Nov 6 and we all had such a great time! We sailed on Holland America's Oosterdam, which was a really nice boat. It was definitely different cruising with kids. We had to sort of follow their schedule a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. They had the time of their lives in Club Hal. The club was open every day from 9-11:30am, 1-4pm, and 7-10pm. So plenty of time for mommy & daddy to be kid-free! Our cruise was 7 days and went to Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We'd never been to any of those places and in the interest of saving a little moolah by avoiding the need to fly somewhere, we figured why not? Brian & I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in August (wow, really???) and now that the kids are old enough to be more independant, a cruise was a great vacation for us. We did a lot of fun things and took lots of pics so I'll break this up into a few posts to cover it all. This first one is the first couple of days on the ship.
Waiting for the door to the club to open...
So everyone has been wanting an update apparently...
There really just isn't a whole lotta new going on in our house! Nothing unusual at least.
Both kids are back in school, Ashlyn in 4th grade and Gabe in Kindergarten. Ashlyn was also accepted into the GATE program this year so that should be interesting.
Gabe is loving Kindergarten, although he told me last Friday that he was done because they learned all about "Z" that day. :)
I'm a room parent for his class, which actually keeps me pretty busy! I help run the centers in the classroom on Mondays and Tuesdays and then on all the other various occasions (Teddy Bear picnic, class parties, scarecrow making!).
I also signed up on the PTA and got suckered into chairing the Santa's Breakfast for this year. This school is busy!!!
Brian and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary which is pretty exciting. We planned a family trip to celebrate and will be going on a cruise in a few weeks. We're heading to the Mexican Riviera (no flights and we've never been). We are all pretty excited about it.
Small home improvements continue. My craft room/guest room is completed with the exception of new baseboards and the front yard is looking really great. It finally feels like a home!
I think that's pretty much it... we're just living the life!
Has anyone ever done a boot camp workout? A company here is offering 10 classes for $35 (a $250 value) which seems like it's probably a great deal, but I'm having a hard time finding out the schedule. If you've done one, how often do they meet? Once a week? 3x a week?
I recently found out that my childhood friend, Danere, has stage IV mestastic breast cancer. She is 27 years old and is undergoing aggressive chemo therapy. I just keep thinking to myself how unfair it is for her to be going through this. She is young and happy and I guess I just don't understand why she got it. Really I don't understand why anyone gets cancer. It just seems like we have enough in our lives without it, so why is it neccessary?
If you pray, please pray for her. If you don't pray, any positive thoughts you can send her way would be well appreciated right now.