Cruise

Four years ago, when Drew started dental school, we said that we would go on a cruise when he graduated. It seemed SO far away at the time. Well, we did it! Drew had his clinical boards on Friday and Saturday (an extremely stressful few days) and then we left on Sunday for the cruise. He had his spring break, so it worked out perfectly. This summer is a little too busy for a cruise. We invited Ty and Dana, my brother and sister-in-law. We absolutely LOVE them, and knew we would have a great time vacationing with them. And we did! It was a blast. All the planning, packing, and stressing was well worth it. We left Sunday and got back late Friday night. It was a perfect length, any more than that would get too tough being away from the kids. And a special thanks to our family for watching the girls. We split them up three ways for the week.

Drew and I flew to Vegas, where we met Ty and Dana, and then we drove to LA together. When we were about 20 minutes away and Ty said, "nothing can stop us now," and then we blew a tire. What made it a little interesting is we only had about an hour and a half until the ship left, so the boys made it happen. Let's just say we had a few other times we almost missed the boat.

Don't worry everyone, our Carnival Cruise made it back without any problems!

We were SO excited to see the ship! You could tell we were first time cruisers.

Leaving LA

Let me just say a cruise is amazing! A big part of cruising is EATING! Right when we got on the ship they set out all this amazing food. We were so happy to know that we could just take whatever we wanted because it was already paid for. It felt so weird at first, but we got pretty used to it:) They have food out most of the time, but they have hot chocolate, pizza, and ice cream 24 hours a day! Every time we were even close to that part of the ship we had to grab something. Also, the dinners were so fun. We loved our waiter, and the people who sat at our table. We also LOVED the melting cake that we ordered every night! Drew ordered 2-3 starters, usually two entrees, and at least two desserts every night! It was slightly ridiculous. Oh and I can't forget the Churros we had in Ensenada! I don't know if I will ever be able to have any other churro again; they were amazing.

We loved sitting out on the deck with our hot chocolate at night.

Like I said dinner was always a good time!

There is one formal night, but don't worry I left my sequins at home.

The boys rocked out at karaoke. They sang with the live band behind them. It was awesome.

There was a little Mexican Fiesta on the lido deck one night. We danced the night away.

The first place we went was Catalina Island. They couldn't dock the boat, so we took a little boat ride over. Catalina Island is beautiful! We loved it.

Dana and I did a little shopping, and got our matching hats!

We did some zip lining. You can tell by our faces that we were a little nervous.

It's just when you first step off that you feel the panic.

It's hard to tell by the pictures, but it was gorgeous. There were five zip lines you do all the way down the mountain.

We enjoyed our towel animals and chocolates each day.

There was a track on the top of the ship. I had to work out, so I could keep eating ALL day!

The water slide on the ship. The slides were a bit chilly, so we enjoyed hangin in the hot tubs.

We love our aviators!

We took a bus to La Bufadora, which is basically a blow hole. It was fun to see some really pretty places in Ensenada.

For some reason it was so exciting when it blew.

I was maybe a little too excited when I bartered for my necklace and earrings. We really loved this little market. Mostly because we ate a lot of churros!

What first caught our eye was number 7 with the mittens. Then number 10 was funny too. I am just curious what happened to make them forbidden.

Overall, I would say this trip was a success! I just keep replaying it all in my mind. It was so much fun, and we made many lasting memories.

The Offspring

I am caught up on all my blogging! Sorry I don't normally like to do more than one post in a day, but I had to get it done:)

These girls are ALL OVER THE PLACE! They absolutely love to look and laugh at each other. They also love to touch, scratch, and grab each other, which always ends badly. I can't believe they are 7 months old already!

Lacey

Abby

Melanie is always having fun. She loves to play with her friends. In the upper left she is talking on the phone to Clayton, and on the bottom right she is playing with her best friend Isabelle. She also loves to dress up in anything she can find!

Sometimes we like to go play basketball and run around in the gym at the church.

Yes we look ridiculous when I take them all to the store. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it does we get a lot of looks. We can't ever go for very long, because clearly there isn't enough room in the cart.

Melanie loves to be outside. If it is even slightly warm she has to go out. Check out her shoe choice.

I think the biggest problem we have is socks!

They are in the beginning stages of crawling. It is so stinkin cute. I'm torn because I want to see them crawl, but then it is so much more work.

Friends

I just love my friends! I feel so lucky to have the friends I do in my life. A couple of weeks ago we had our friends Keith and Tash, and James and Tracy stay with us for a long weekend. It is always so much fun when we get together. We met when we lived in Utah, and now we all live in different places so we try and get together once a year.

We did a ski day at Keystone, and the snow was so perfect. James and Tracy aren't big skiers, so they hung around Denver.

We had a fun ladies shopping trip!

We have no idea how this started, but they got really into having an egg toss. We had to have a couples competition of course. Well done Keith and Tash.

I go to Cafe Rio pretty much every week it seems like. It is one of my favs.

We always have to play pictionary.

Don't they look so stressed? That's because they always lose to us:)

Champions! (As always)

This was so funny. They got cyclopse really quick, unfortunately it was cyclone.

The guys ended up having to make two meals due to losing.

We hit up Yogurtland.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my friends here in Denver too? Well I do. I have a hard time thinking about not seeing them all the time when we move. I go out for lunch or dinner or dessert or just hang out for a girls night often. Drew is always so great about watching the kids if I want a ladies night.

Craft night!

I had a fun girls weekend get away with my friends Lori and Audra. We basically ate, shopped, and talked a lot!

Emily and I got to meet up with our college bud Kella. Of course we are at Cafe Rio:)