In The Homestretch

Our last port day we went to Manzanillo. We just decided to get a taxi and head to the beach for the day. The temperature was in the 90's, so we got a lot of good sun that day.

On the beach, there were many people (locals) trying to peddle their wares to us. It was fun to watch them and how they went about their business.

You could hardly see this guy because he was carrying so many inflatable toys to sell!

These two ladies were selling mangoes and pineapples and just balancing everything on top of their heads! Very talented!

The waves were getting pretty big the later it got in the day. We wanted to rent a body board, but they were all the way down the beach! Too lazy to get them! We just played in the waves and took pictures of our feet in the sand:

As we walked back down the beach to catch another taxi, we decided to stop and get something to eat. It's always a bit scary eating strange food in Mexico, but we were so hungry we didn't care! We ordered a pina colada, guacamole and chips, and chicken quesadillas. It was all actually pretty good. It was nice to just relax under an umbrella and watch the waves come in and out.

There was a little flea market right by where we were eating, so we decided to check that out. We bought the rest of our souveniers here, it was so cheap!

Then it was time to get back to the ship, eat dinner and do some karaoke. And maybe dance a little with the waiters:

Here's Mike doing a little rendition of some country song:

And a little turkey waiting for us back in our room:

The next two days were sea days coming all the way back up to San Diego. We just took it easy, relaxed by the pool, ate a bunch of food, and worked out a bit. We could see Cabo San Lucas our first day back at sea. You can kind of see the island behind us:

Then it was time to get ready for our last formal night of the cruise:

And our last cute little towel animal; a monkey:

That's the end of the pictures. The last day must not have been very exciting. We had a great time and can't wait to go on another one! I would rate this cruise a 6 or 7 out of ten, just because the water wasn't as clear for scuba diving, the weather going down wasn't very warm the first day, and the boat was a bit small. The food was good, but not as good as some of the other boats we've been on. The sand on the beaches was nice, but not as nice as the caribbean. All in all it was a great time; lots of food and great service, but I prefer the caribbean cruises better.

Cruisin' Part Deux

The next day we went to Zihatenejo and Ixtapa. We decided to just catch a taxi and head over to the Isle de Ixtapa. We tendered into Zihatenejo from the ship with Robert and Toni, grabbed a taxi for $30 roundtrip, and headed over to the dock and the boats that took you over to the Island.

This is where we caught a boat to go over to the Island of Ixtapa.

You can see the island just behind me. It was pretty nice. Mike and I just swam in the ocean and sunbathed while Robert and Toni sat on the beach under an umbrella, people watched and enjoyed some nachos and guacamole. Yum.

Here's the view from our balcony and the tender boats going back and forth. We did a bit of our shopping here and brought back a shark tooth for Ethan, and bracelets for my Young Women. It was a fun, relaxing day at the beach.

And our little towel animal elephant was waiting for us when we got back! Too cute!

Cruisin'

This post may be long and boring for most, but I wanted to write down everything I could remember about our cruise for my benefit! Feel free to skip all the mumbo jumbo I'm writing!Mike and I were able to go on our 5th cruise to the southern Mexican Riviera last month. This was our 4th Carnival cruise. We cruised the Sapphire Princess our first time. My Mom and Dad and Mariko and Naomi were able to come down and watch our kids. They are so awesome to do this for us everytime!! Thanks so much! We have been really lucky that way!

We flew out of Salt Lake on a Wednesday morning after staying overnight at the Super 8 Tuesday night. Mike's parents decided they wanted to come with us too, even though they had just gone on the EXACT same cruise last year! Our cruise went on an awesome sale about a month before it was scheduled to leave and they couldn't pass up such a good deal! It was fun to have some company around. We played cards with them a bit and ate dinner with them every night.

So, we arrived safely in San Diego about noon. The plane did a weird thing when it was about to land. We had almost touched ground when the plane pulled up suddenly. We wondered what was going on. There was another pilot sitting just behind us, hitching a ride, and he said that planes do this all of the time. He said that there might have been another plane needing to take off ahead of us or the runway was just not available at that time, for some reason. It made people panic a little bit, but we just circled the airport and landed just 10 minutes after that. Crazy!

We hitched a taxi from the airport and we were at the cruise terminal in about 10 minutes. It was the best check-in process so far. It only took about another 15-20 minutes and we were up on the lido deck, enjoying the first of many gluttonous meals!

Then we were able to go to our stateroom. This is the first time we were able to get a balcony room. Since our cruise went on sale, we were able to upgrade our room. It was pretty nice. This is the view from our balcony before we set sail:

This is part of the inside:This ones' kinda dark since it was taken in front of the balcony doors:

Here's the view of the other end of our room:As we were getting ready to set sail, we were up on the lido deck and noticed something falling from the sky. It was a bunch of parachuters with colored smoke coming from their feet! Since we left on Veteran's Day, I think the navy ship next to us was having some sort of celebration. It was cool to see them fly and then land right on the navy ship.

Here's a view of downtown San Diego from the top deck of the ship, just before we shoved off:

At the muster drill. Some guys behind us were not enjoying themselves! Ha ha!

One of the many beautiful sunsets we were able to see. We chose to do late dining this time and we really liked it. It made us able to see the sunsets and have more time to play before getting gussied up for dinner.

Our first of many dinners in the dining room:

Our first towel animal of the cruise. It's a dog if you can't tell!

That was only the first day! The next day we had another day at sea. We hung out on the lido deck almost all day in the aft. It had a hot tub just for adults:

I had to get a picture of my pedi, lounging out on the balcony:

Our second towel animal, a froggie:

The next day we stopped at Acapulco. We didn't get there until noon, so we got up, worked out, and had a lovely breakfast on the lido in the aft. Here I am fishing a bug out of my drink:

Here we are, in Acapulco!

We went scuba diving in Acapulco. Here's the Acapulco Scuba Center who took us diving:

Here's their dock:

The inside of the scuba shop:Heading out to our dive spot with our ship in the background:

This is after our dive was all over and we headed back to our ship in the white van:I just got scuba certified only about a month before we left, so this was my first ocean dive. It was AMAZING! I can't wait to go again, only in the Caribbean. This water was pretty murky. You could probably only see about 30 feet in front of you, whereas in the Caribbean you can see more than 100 feet in front of you! It was still pretty cool though. We saw barracudas, starfish, sea snakes, eels, and a bunch of coral and a ton of fish. The second dive we went on ended up being a night dive. That was a neat, different experience. We each had flashlights and got to see a little octopus and a sting ray! AWESOME! We took some pictures with an underwater camera, but I still have to get them developed. I will need to get an underwater digital camera soon. Hmmm, maybe for Christmas?!...

Anyway, we got back to our ship in time to get ready for dinner. Here's our third towel animal, a gorilla I think!

Since we didn't get to Acapulco until noon, we got to stay until one in the morning. So after dinner we decided to go for a walk and do some shopping.

There was not too much going on, so we went back to the ship and checked out the karaoke lounge and then danced to the Philipino band in the Versailles Lounge. There were A LOT of pictures of naked people on this ship and many naked statues as well. This was Mike's favorite statue located just outside of the Versailles Lounge. Tee Hee!:

That was the first 4 days of our cruise, with only 4 more to go! Hopefully I can post those 4 days soon before the craziness of Christmas hits. Wish me luck! TTYL! :)

November Birthdays

Here I am playing catch-up again! Story of my life! Ha! Anyway, we celebrated Asia's birthday at the beginning of this month with a family party. We invited all of the family over for cake and ice cream. She ordered Hawaiian pizza for her dinner with root beer of course. Then the family came over to open presents and eat cake. She wanted a princess castle cake again so this is how it turned out, moat with blue jell-o, drawbridge and everything:
Opening presents time:
All of her loot: Here is our beautiful birthday girl, enjoying her birthday cake:Asia is turning into quite a helpful and kind little girl. She helps me out so much. She likes to have jobs where she can do things like mommy does them; like doing the dishes and getting the babies ready for bed. She'll be a great little babysitter in a few years. She is very tall and people wonder if her and Ethan are twins! She loves to go to dance class with her friend, Mara, and she still loves to dress up and dance to music at home. She wants to learn how to play the piano and she had fun playing soccer for the first time this fall. She was the fastest runner because of her looooong legs! Her favorite thing to do is color with her mom. She's loves going to school and is trying to read chapter books already! It's fun to watch her learn so many new things and to see how excited she gets when does learn something new. Happy 6th Birthday my sweet Asia! :)

Mia Turns One!!

We celebrated Mia's birthday a few days early since we'd be on our cruise the day of her birthday. Here she is enjoying her favorite meal of pancakes and eggs:

Here's her doughnut cake. I decided since we just had cake last week, we would have doughnuts this week. Mia loved them:The classic 1st birthday chocolate face and hands:

Mmmmmm, finger-lickin' good:

New hat and gloves from Grandma Yamada:Mia has been such a good-natured, happy little baby. She loves to follow her older brothers and sister around and tries to do what they do. She just learned to walk a few weeks before her first birthday, so it's cute to see her waddle after them! She loves to read books and turns the pages all by herself. Just like her mom, she doesn't like to wear socks. When she notices them on her feet, off they come. She likes to dance and sing. Her favorite song right now is Itsy Bitsy Spider and she does all of the actions. She still sucks her thumb, mostly when she's tired or upset. She doesn't like anything in her hair and pulls everything out that I try and put in. She's a fun little girl to have around. Happy Birthday our Princess Mia! We Love You!