Bon Voyage and We're Off!!

My amazing parents were so kind to take my whole family on 7-Day Cruise to Mexico! It was the one week where we would all be together out of the year. My brother had just gotten home from an internship in Brazil and it was the week before my sister and her husband moved to Arkansas. It was honestly the best vacation I've had! Friday night Matt, Addi, my sister and I drove to St. George and stayed the night there. Saturday the rest of my family drove down and met us in St. George and we drove to Long Beach, CA. Addi did surprisingly well with the drive! That night we stayed in a couple of suites and hung out. Sunday we drove to the port off of Long Beach and loaded up on the Carnival Splendor. It sure was a splendor to be on!

Monday
Monday was a day at sea. We decided to take full advantage of the splendid weather and caught some rays:) It was so neat laying out and looking around you and you're out in the middle of the ocean. Addi LOVED looking over the edge into the splashing, vast ocean. I was a little nervous to stand by the edge with her but she did really good. We had lunch up on the deck and layed out most of the day. Their lunch buffets are so delcious. They have a pizza bar open 24 hrs. (That was not good for me, I went there all the time)! That night was a "Formal Night" where we dressed up for dinner. Our dinner each night was at "The Black Pearl" and our server's name was Ika. She is the cutest thing in the whole world. She's from Indonesia, and has a two year old daughter and only gets to see her 2 months out of the whole year. She is the sweetest little thing. Whenever she was taking our orders she'd say, "Yes Please", in this little high pitched voice. Loved her. At dinner we could order whatever we wanted, however many we wanted. So we took full advantage! I ordered at least 3 starters and a meal and dessert every night.





The Black Pearl Restaurant...


Matt showing off his Lobster Tails (Gross!)



Each night they had an animal made out of a towel.














Puerta Vallarta
Puerta Vallarta was our first port. We all took a tour van over to a place to go off 12 intense zip lines. One of which was 600 meters and down hill. My dad was so nice and stayed back with Addi while we went. I am so afraid of heights and would've been happy to stay with her, but I'm glad my dad insisted that I go because it was AWESOME! Afterwards we were all so hot and went swimming in the waterfalls! Matt, Russ, and Janessa went off the waterfall slide thing. Matt spiced it up and did a flip off of it! We love the water :) That was probably my favorite activity we did, although it was as humid as a beast. ? On the way back, Addi was so worn out from the heat and humidity, we fell asleep together.


>






Dinner again at The Black Pearl. Addi got so much attention it was ridiculous! She seriously got so spoiled on that trip I was afraid to come home! One night at dinner my brother ordered escargot. Does anyone reallly like that disgusting thing? I almost threw up from the smell.






Mazatlan
Mazatlan was actually the biggest port we went to. The population is about 650,000. It was BEAUTIFUL! We had another tour guy take us around in a van and tour the city. They had some great shopping markets, an old Catholic cathedral, and then we went to the beach and saw this... So these two guys dive off of this cliff. If you look closely you can see that right below them is a bunch of rock. They have to jump clear out away from the rock in order to land in the water. Not only that, but the water is only 5 feet deep. Yes, it's true. So they stand at the top and wait for the exact moment when the waves will wash up and make the water deeper than 5 feet. It was crazy stuff. Our tour guide told us that last year one of the divers hit his head on the rock below and died instantly. He said that is the price they pay for making money to bring bread home to their families. Before and after they dive they go around with a hat to collect money. Mazatlan was a really fun place to be. After this our tour guide drove us over to a private resort to have lunch and body surf on the beach. It's so nice to have a ton of family to take turns watching Addi so I could get in and body surf and swim, also!











Cabo San Lucas
This was our last port on Friday. My mom LOVES to snorkle so we took a "water taxi" out for a ride on the ocean and played at a beach. My two brothers and Matt decided they wanted to go cliff diving, after seeing the cliff divers the day before, so they found this rock away from the beach. They dove off of the very top and everyone thought they were crazy. After a while people were swimming out there to jump off it, as well. I even mustered up the courage to jump off the lower part! It was a lot of fun. The snorkeling was great, also. My mom took an under-water camera and got some neat pictures of all of the different sea animals. There were some neon fish, some crabs, and a lot of cool things to see! We also got to see some sea-lions while we were out there.



THe last night was a lot of fun. All of the servers got up and danced to "Low" by Flo Rida and Addi and I decided to join Ika. It was a blast! Addi was just looking around wondering what the heck was going on, but she started dancing after a while. We had a GREAT time and are so grateful we were able to spend a whole week with my family all together. We miss you Rebekah and Nick! You are the greatest Aunt and Uncle to Addi and love her so much! Thanks for helping us out all the time. We LOVE you! Thanks Mom and Dad for the best week ever! We will never forget it.