The Cruise

We left Thursday afternoon on December 17th to go on our cruise. The night before, however, Sarah's orchestra gave us a send-off concert! It was her first orchestra concert ever. I thought she did a great job (and the rest of the orchestra, too). They played many favorite Christmas songs, but started off with "Twinkle Little Star" which I suppose is mandatory to playing any string instrument.

Kevin and I flew to Long Beach on Thursday and boarded our ship on Friday. We were so excited!

About halfway through dinner, when the ship pulled away from the dock and started chugging through the seas, I did start to have second thoughts. The motion of the boat made me a little sick. Luckily, we slept through most of it and we woke up to find ourselves in Mexico -- as proclaimed by this giant flag!

We had a great time shopping in Ensenada. I had been to Mexico a few different times with my dad growing up, so I felt comfortable with the town and the people and on asking for a different price! One shop owner saw us with all our bags and said, "Hey big spenders! Now you come in my store! It is my turn, eh?" We just laughed and had a good time and spread our money some around Ensenada.

That night our ship chugged out to sea again. It didn't bother me as much that time and Kevin and I spent some time walking around the ship and seeing the big show. The next day, Sunday, we were at sea all day. The ship dropped anchor and the seas were calm. Kevin and I found some lounge chairs up on the top deck and watched the sea and talked about our kids and things we want to do. We ate really well all day and in the afternoon we went back to the main showroom and watched a funny show called "Love and Marriage" and then watched their Christmas show, which was decidedly lacking in spiritual content, but I suppose was a good effort. We also watched a movie in our room that day, too. It was fun and relaxing.

Monday was officially Kevin's birthday. Happy Birthday, Kevin B.!!! By Monday morning, we were ready to head home and see all those little girls that we call our own. We got home without any mishaps and were able to give the girls all the Mexican skirts we'd bought in Ensenada (as well as the necklaces with their name written on a piece of rice!) Don't they look lovely??

We even made it back in time for Megan's birthday! She is now officially eleven! Happy Birthday, Megan! We love you!

The girls spent the time we were at the cruise with their Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik. We never could have done it without them! We are so grateful for all their hard work! They even had a birthday dinner waiting for us when we arrived back on Monday so that all these birthdays could be celebrated. It was the greatest! We love you Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik!