Cruise! Day 4 - Home again

We got up again. Not bothering with room service. We were busy! Got packed up. Had breakfast. Got off the boat (more paperwork and scanning). Got back to U.S.A. (more paperwork and scanning). Apparently our shuttle was suppose to come at 2:15!! It was like 9 a.m.!! So I called and they said they could send someone, so they did. Super nice. Dropped us off at airport where we found it out our plane was at 4:30!!! And of course it cost $75 per person to change to an earlier flight that day. (Seriously, that used to be free). So we had SIX hours to sit at the airport, which was about as big as our house. Now LAX, that would have been interesting to sit in for six hours.
So I took a nap, sat in the sun (with the palm trees waving) and wrote in my journal, walked about. We even saw that red-haired comedian that makes fun of gluten-free-ness!! We felt famous - but as you know in California, you have to just act cool and ignore famous people. Josh went over and stood by him. But nada. Is fine. We eventually got on a plane and flew home. It snowed 9 inches the next night. Nice.
Got to our comfy beds. Got ready for Monday. A wonderful time together!

Cruise! Day 3 (Mexico)

I am sure you have noticed that I was not the best photographer on this trip. But we have a few photos to show the children that we were awesome parents! This cruise was a fun adventure. Would NOT go on this cruise line again. Maybe that one to Alaska in the summer with just Josh and me for our 20th anniversary.
We got up early. They had a make own omelet station so I got that and some bacon and lots of OJ and I was set. We got off the boat (more paperwork and scanning) and got a shuttle bus to 'town.' Then we just asked where the taxi's were (our plan was to wing it).  We walked over a bit and Josh spoke to the taxi driver (Alberto) in Spanish and he replied "Thank heavens you speak Spanish, my English is horrible). And I didn't even get his picture! Anyway Alberto was our driver for the day and took us everywhere we wanted to go all day!
We went to the blow hole (apparently famous). And entered bargaining paradise!! But these people ruined it for me. Ashley wanted some bracelets for her and Kaiya. He said $12. I said $3. He said ok. Then we bargained for the custom bracelet. Ashley kept handing out money and I am trying to bargarin it down!
Anyway, we bargained some more with various people. I tried to show the kids how to do it (I am the official Herron bargainer). And they kept throwing out money and saying "But he asked for $5) and I am yelling "Put the money away, I'm getting it down to $3!) A good time was had by all.
Then we went off to a 'zoo' where for (in addition to your $10 'entrance fee' (there were like  6 things to see). You could pay an extra $35 and 'interact' with a tiger or jaguar cub. I voted against it.
We went to the beach and stuck our feet in the ocean.It was cold. Nobody was there.
Then Alberto showed us a museum right there, which was cool to explore.
Alberto took us to a real Mexican seafood restaurant. My lunch was DELICIOUS!!! Shrimp and octapus and squid, nicely roasted. Yum!! I ordered like $40 in drinks we were all so thirst. Ashley ate real food, others ate chicken fingers. Then Ellie literally fell asleep. Whatever.
Then Alberto took us over to another market area. Josh got Michael's hair cut. We looked around Ashley was desperate for a sun dress. So we found her one. The ladies were delighted to sell her one. I bargained down to $20 (it could have been lower!!!)) We found her another sundress (I think this one will be too small). Michael got a leather hat. Ellie got a black leather around the shoulder purse. I got a magnet. Alberto took us back to the shuttle. We got on (paperwork) boat and went to dinner.
After dinner, we went to see the comedians. One had promised if the kids sat in the front row of his next show, he would buy  them milkshakes. So we did. There were two comedians. The second one was making fun of Michael not knowing he was Hispanic or not. Eventually he was asking about cruises and missing school. Ashley yelled she didn't want to come because she was missing school and he laughed. The kids told him they were adopted and he was like 'Where you daddy? What did you do, google 'how to adopt smart kids?!' Then he was asked Michael about his race and if he took showers or changed his underwear. He said no, I was laughing so hard.
Anyway then we went to bed. Ellie had energy to go out and play with her boat-friends some more.

Cruise! Day 2

This was our "Day at Sea." We got up to room service! It is free! I ordered some toast (gluten free did not have a note on it), three orange juices, some cereal (just in bowls, it was weird). Anyway, we went down to breakfast first. Wait, here is a funny story. I went in to get ready and put in my contacts. And I couldn't see. I was walking/shuffling around the room yelling, "I can't see!" Turns out Ashley and I put our contacts in the same kind of case and I put her contacts in my eyeballs. After we got it figured out, I could see much better!
Wait, I have to mention that dinner the first night (we went to one of the restaurants) took AN HOUR AND A HALF. Probably the gluten free-ness threw them. Yes, an hour and a half for a chicken breast. And the dinner was semi-warm. Michael and Josh did eat a alligator hush puppy. But that night I did pre-order for the day at sea and I even got gluten free bread!
We played around. The girls found teen-care and started hanging out with them (they had a karaoke machine and played capture the flag until like 1 a.m. that second night). We went to see a family comedian. Josh and Moo watched a movie (I bowed out after the first explosion and went and took a nap). We met for dinner (only took like 30 minutes) hung out, etc. It was nice and calm. Ashley got semi-seasick but we had those wrist bracelets the Blacks lent us and she felt better .

The cruise!!! Day 1

This was a nice, casual cruise. Thursday we got up at a normal time and went to the airport. We got on JetBlue. We some how got into "extra room" seats. It was marvelous! So we flew right to Long Beach, California. Our shuttle came right when we called them and whisked us off to the boat.
We were earlier than we thought, but got through two kinds of security (including the kid's birth certificates, etc). and got on board. It was very 80's.
We figured out where to go (you could not go to your cabin until 1:30), so we found the buffet and sat there. Having heard people RAVE about the gluten-free-ness of cruises I was pretty stoked. So I asked the buffet woman if they had gluten free dessert. She said she would go ask. She came back with a slice of sugar cookie pie. There was a crumb hanging off and I ate it. Then someone came over and announced it was sugar free NOT gluten free. URGGHHGHGHGHG.
So I    found something to eat and we eventually got to our cabin. It was small. Good thing we like each other.
Then we explored the boat, ate dinner later on and explored some more. Then we watched the boat take off and saw a few dolphins! Ashley about had kittens! Then we went to bed. Here are some pictures.

Before The Trip

Yippers! We went  on a cruise. But this news first:
I can only find two pictures. One is my day of school! I can't find the other one, so we will move onto the cruise! I found it. There was another huge wind storm and look what happened!