#3 DONE

Go on a cruise

This is one of the most anticipated and exciting things on my list! I was so excited for this to happen. We had mentioned to our friends, Amy and Ryan, that we wanted to go on a cruise for my 30th birthday. They said they wanted to go too since Ryan was turning 30 as well. It worked out perfect that we could go with them and it was seriously one of the best weeks of my life!

The cruise started out a little rough for me as I came down with something a few days before we were supposed to leave. It got so bad that I caved and went to the doctor the night before we left. I was at the instacare until 2 am trying to figure out what was wrong and get some medicine so I didn't spend the entire vacation miserable. The doctor diagnosed me with strep throat and an upper respiratory infection. He gave me an antibiotic and some cough syrup and sent me on my way. I have never had strep and it was the most awful thing I have ever felt (minus labor of course). I was pretty sure I was going to die.

Amy and Ryan picked us up around 7am. I felt so bad for leaving my mom with my kids because Zeke was sick and was screaming when we left. I felt horrible! We drove to Baker and stopped at the Mcdonalds inside the train, one of Ryan's childhood favorite memory spots. We ate and then got back on the road. I can't tell you much about the trip because I slept the entire way because I was so tired.

We got to the dock and checked in. We finally got on the boat after waiting in long lines. We set up our rooms which were only one door away from each other and we were ready for the week to begin!!

The first two days were spent at sea. We had 2 entire days to eat, sleep, hang out, sleep, eat and play! It was SO much fun! We spent a lot of time playing board games and eating ice cream cones. We sat out on the deck one afternoon and I fell asleep which led to a pretty good sun burn. It was so nice to just relax and not have a care in the world!

We ate at the restaurant every night for dinner and almost everyday for lunch. I would highly recommend taking advantage of this part of a cruise. It is so amazing to have people wait on you every meal and not have to pay at the end of dinner! We always ordered 2 apps, an entree and dessert. Sometimes we would get two desserts! There was even one night we wanted to try something so we got two entrees. It was so awesome! The food was awesome and our servers were the best! They were so much fun! There were a few nights when they would stand on the tables and dance. It was a blast!

Ariel and Al. Our fantastic Servers. They made dinner so much fun!

My most favorite dessert....the chocolate melting cake! I ate it every night!

Our first stop was in Cabo San Lucas. We had scheduled to go four wheeling on the beach. The bus picked us up at the port and drove us about 30 minutes outside of town. There we were each given a helmet, goggles and a four wheeler. The tour guide lead us on a trail for about 20 minutes through the desert and then it opened up to the most amazing beach! He told us we had and hour and a half to go play and he let us loose! We had so much fun cruising all over the sand, up the hills and down! There were some pretty good hills that if you hit them fast enough, you could catch some pretty good air. This was probably my most favorite part of the trip for me. I loved it!

Waiting to get off the boat


On the tiny boat taking us to shore

Our little lunch spot

The next day we went to Puerto Vallarta. We had on our schedule to go to a water park and swim with dolphins. We were all so excited especially Amy since it had been a life long dream! We caught a taxi and he took us to the water park. This was the water park of dreams because there was no one there! We pretty much had the entire park to ourselves. We first went to do our dolphin swim. We had about 30 minutes in the water with 2 dolphins. We got to touch them and give them a kiss and we each got to hold on to their fins as they pulled us through the water. One of the coolest parts was when they pushed us with their noses. It was pretty amazing! We would just float in the water and they some how would find our feet and at the same time put their noses on the bottoms of our feet and push us through the water! It was pretty awesome! They are pretty amazing creatures! We then played at the water park for awhile, going down slides, sitting by the pool and floating in the lazy river. I think that was my favorite thing about the water park. We only saw about a dozen people at the park so we could just float and not worry about anybody or anything. It was so nice and relaxing. After swimming for awhile and eating a pretty sketchy mexican cheeseburger, we headed back to town to get back on the boat.

The next day we went back to Cabo. We didn't have any excursions planned for this day so we just got off the ship and went to some of the shops. We spent a little money buying some souvenirs for the kids and a few things for us. It was fun to try to barter with the shops and get good deals.

We spent Saturday at sea going back to LA. We had so much just playing games, eating, hanging out, talking and sleeping! We played countless games of Settlers of Catan, Trivial Pursuit and Balderdash. We played a game of Monopoly which I hated every minute of. Amy and Ryan did karaoke, we saw lots of the shows they had on the ship and just had so much fun being together. It was probably one of the best weeks of my life!

Just a few other pictures...