Post Carnival Adventures, More Day 6, Friday---California & A Drive

After our trip we'd contemplated staying in California for a day and then leaving the next day and the weather was so beautiful, I kind of regretted that we weren't staying!  However, we decided to make a stop at the Los Angeles Temple before making the drive home.  The kids loved the palm trees and the beautiful temple, but boy was it warm!  Even warmer than our trip had been!

 

Eli refised to go sit by the pretty tree for a picture, instead, he stared into the fountain.....forever!  Pretty sure he wanted to get in and was figuring out how ;)

 

No one was around to take our picture as 1 big family, so we made do with 2 pictures.

Naomi wanted to smile for Justin and take a picture under a tree.  Came out beautifully, she's so gorgeous!  Man I love that girl!

 

In case no one believed us, I took a picture of the temperature (blurry, but it's in the top right corner), 89 degrees.  Don't worry, Justin was driving!  And then I couldn't resist taking a picture of the traffic going the opposite direction!  Coming into CA and leaving, the traffic was always going the opposite direction from us and boy was I grateful!  One time the people had been sitting so long they were getting out of their cars to stretch and wait!  Not something I wanted to try with 5 kids!

 

 

 After the excitement of California wore off and we continued to drive, the kids had a plan and most of them followed through with it........

Towel Animals & Sudi

Towel Animals were the kids favorite part of each night to come back to our rooms and our steward Sudi had created some very cool animals for the kids to enjoy.  The kids especially loved when he used the sunglasses and ties that they left laying around!

 

As a mom, I loved that someone made my bed fabulously every day, cleaned up after my messy boys in their room (I would probably be embarrassed if I saw it before he picked up their stuff and neatly folded it on chairs!) and he learned all of our names, making friends with the kids even.  Eli came back from his pirate night with all the make up and ran to show Sudi right away.  My only regret is that we never got a picture with Sudi and Eli and Naomi--they adored him!  I did too ;)

Just the other day Eli had a sad look on his face and told me that he missed his friend Sudi and wanted to see him again!  It was adorable!  Then I asked him why and he said so he could clean his room, give him high 5's and make him more towel animals.  The love of a 3 year old is so simple and so honest.  It made it extra exciting each day!  The kids even got to learn how to make a couple of the towel animals in their activities, Payton said it was like origami, but with towels!

Carnival Cruise Line Adventure, Day 6---Friday

Back to Long Beach, California

We decided to have breakfast in the dining room for our last meal on board.  I'd wanted to have another meal there all week and finally we got everyone to cooperate.  I just wanted the eggs Benedict that they only served there, is that too much to ask!?  They all loved their food there too, so obviously they were fine with it.

Since we had pretty much packed up the night before (That was a serious nightmare!  So much stuff!!!), mostly because we were afraid it wouldn't all fit.  Between the tons of souvenirs that we bought and some of their Camp Carnival crafts/activities/treats....I'm not sure how it all fit.  Next time, remember to have extra space!  Plus, I'm pretty sure I over packed on quite a few of us because it was just so early in the season that we couldn't predict the weather, so I didn't want the kids to freeze the whole time or be too hot. 

Before we started getting off the ship the kids wanted to go up top one more time.  They ran on the track, played a little mini-golf and just enjoyed the view from the boat.  It came time to get off, so we went to go get our things.  If we had only known the chaos that would follow this moment of peace and tranquility!.....

We waited and waited and waited in line forever!  We were told that carrying our luggage off the boat might be the faster way to go....So we all loaded down with bags, backpacks, suitcases and even wearing some of our treasures and then we waited and waited and waited in line!  I wish I'd timed it, but it was definitely longer than I would have liked.

 

Eli loved the elevator and kept asking if we could ride it while we waited.  I kept telling him no, but probably should have said yes!  And taken his picture inside with the pretty glass, he adored it!  But alas, this was the closest we got on our way out the door!

One of the employees handed Eli his walkie-talkie so I could take his picture with it too, he was in heaven!  Seriously, everyone on that boat babied my babies, loved it!



We had to have our birth certificates and drivers licenses ready when we got off the boat so that they could check us at customs.  Prior to leaving for almost a month I kept thinking I needed to get all the kids birth certificates out and make sure I knew where they were.  I would promptly forget......then less than 3 days before we leave, I finally remembered to go check.  We had 1 for Justin and I, then Hyrum, Payton, Naomi and Eli.  Couldn't for the life of me figure out where Alec's had gone!  We searched the house high and low in every possible location for it and then some ridiculous places too.  We couldn't find it.  Thankfully we came across copies of all the kids birth certificates that we had made, so we grabbed that for him, called Carnival and they said it would be fine.  I, of course, worried the whole time that something would happen and they would decide it wouldn't be enough!

When we got into the customs line, the line for American Citizens was moving quickly, so we weren't too concerned.  Alec's was close to the top and he checked it, talked to Alec for a minute and went on to the next kid---phew!  Then he got to my birth certificate and license (We've worried about mine for years because the seal is coming off and it's an Overseas Birth Certificate, so they always look at it like it's fake or not in English!).  He looks at me, apologetically and then tells me that my birth date on my birth certificate and my license don't match!!!! WHAT!?!?!  I just about died.  Told him that couldn't be (and honestly had a moment where I was questioning my whole existence!  My life was a lie!) because I used the birth certificate to get the license.  He looked again and realized that the date he was looking at was the date they created the birth certificate and not my birthdate.  He apologized more than was necessary, but wow was that a sigh of relief after that moment!  We were let back into the country and on to the car!

Now to make it all fit back into the car.................thankfully mom's car wasn't packed full, so we gave her the crazy big hat and a couple other things we weren't going to need, so it would all fit comfortably.

They were sad for our adventure to be done on the boat, excited to go home and probably tired enough that riding in the car seemed like a fun idea again!

Of course, in true Justin fashion, we weren't just driving straight home :)

Carnival Cruise Lines Adventure, Day 5---Thursday

Day at Sea

After breakfast my mom made arrangements for Justin and I to take a behind the scenes tour of the boat.  Not sure I would have even considered paying for it myself, but since she really wanted us to go, we decided to go for it.  It was a lot of walking, but it was pretty neat that we got to go into the kitchens, meet the captain and see just how many people it really takes to make a boat run.  Bonus, we got a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries brought to our room afterwards!

We didn't discuss plans before we left that morning of where we would meet up with Mom, Dad and the kids (Tyler mostly did his own thing.  He ate with us sometimes, but mostly slept, read and just hung out.  He didn't even get off the boat in Mexico because he said he'd already seen Mexico-party pooper!), so after we were done with our tour we went to the usual places to see where everyone was, but couldn't find them, but knew mom planned to pick up the kids from Camp Carnival for lunch, so we waited near there for them.  Of course, we found padded seats in the sun.

The kids colored their own t-shirts this morning, they thought that was the coolest thing ever!

 

I think the first 2 days were hardest on Justin because he has been so busy with work and his calling at church that relaxing was super hard for him.  He didn't exactly know how to just lay in the sun all day long and be okay with that.  Thankfully I pushed him to relax and he found his groove!  Though for him, I'm pretty sure he needed a couple more days ;o)

 

After an afternoon of playing in the pool, laying in the sun and just general relaxing they had a build-a-bear workshop that you could do, so Naomi, Eli and Payton all wanted to make one.  Grandma loved the idea as much as they did, so we all went together.  I'm pretty sure Grandpa, Justin, Tyler, Hyrum and Alec were either watching TV or in the pool or lounging about and loving it!

 

 

 

 

The kids adored their finished products :)  Payton's was a soccer player, Naomi's was a princess of course and Eli's was a fireman.  If you look past the fireman, you can see Eli's awesome shirt---he totally went to town on it and loved it.

 

Remember when I said all we did was eat :)  Haha!  Here's more food for ya!

 

 

Above is a strawberry bisque that was so super yummy!  I could have ate it, drank it and loved it all day long, so so so good!  Below...is escargot!  And believe it or not, it was so buttery and garlic-y that almost everyone liked them!  Let's be clear, I wouldn't want to eat them all the time, but it was much better than we had originally anticipated.

 

After a day of relaxing and just vegging on the boat some of us were tired, some were happy and shocking....Payton is still crazy :)  We tried to teach her that she would love her pictures taken of her more if she would smile for the camera.....she's a work in progress.

We sat in the same spots every day for dinner, it made it easier to sit alternating adult and child all the way around the table, so we could help them read the menu, understand what they were ordering and help with anything else they needed.  Funny thing was, the waiter and other staff would just come help the kids cut their meat or butter their roll or whatever they needed help with, so we weren't necessarily needed, but it was a good plan just in case.  We even sat in the same place each day, so clockwise went Me, Payton, Justin, Hyrum, Grandpa, Alec, Tyler, Eli, Grandma and Naomi.  The kids liked the adult attention for sure.

 

My dad and I ordered chili rellenos on the last night for dinner.  Mine was HUGE and his was just an average size, so we switched plates.  Then, mine was super spicy and his wasn't spicy at all!  I should have kept my plate!  It was very yummy, but so spicy I just couldn't finish it.  Thankfully we had dessert to make up for it.  I'm pretty sure it was one of the yummiest apple pies ever :)

On the last night all the wait-staff sang some songs to us.  Eli was listening so intently, but he didn't realize if he turned around he would have gotten a good laugh :)

They even sang a song and had everyone dance.....Alec was hilarious!  Wish I'd gotten a video of it!

We were taken such good care of in the dining room each night, I loved having someone else make my dinner, bring it to me, refill my water.....possibly one of my favorites because it really did allow me to relax and just enjoy every day!

After dinner all of the kids went to see a movie, I think it was How to Train Your Dragon 2.  It was the only time Hyrum went with all the other kids because they had snacks, treats and a movie, even an 11 year old who thinks he's too old for kid stuff couldn't pass that up!  Eli, of course, fell asleep during the movie, but they all had a great time!  While they did that, we went to 1 last comedy show---he was just okay.  If only they'd repeated another family friendly comedy show with the other comedian, I could have laughed at his jokes all night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carnival Cruise Lines Adventure, Day 4---Wednesday

Ensenada!  My children's first time out of the country!  They were thrilled!  Except they thought it looked similar to Catalina (so unobservant, about 100 times dirtier, but oh well!).  With a group of 10 we didn't feel like it was worth it to do any of the excursions (and would have cost a fortune!), so we decided to just walk into town and do some shopping!

At first, Alec was a little grumpy and probably a little tired of a million pictures :)

 

Happy!  Happy!

 

Kids in awe!  Seriously, we stuck out like sore thumbs, between the Jazz gear and BYU, you could spot us a million miles away.  We did run into a couple LDS members that picked us out due to our BYU gear ;)

The kids were enamored with all the random pretty stuff you could buy.  Most of it was junk, but they loved it anyway!

 

 

Naomi had already purchased her allotted 2 items, but had to try a pretty hat on.  Alec on the other hand, was all about the crazy big hat!  At the time, how we were getting it home wasn't even on our minds!

 

 

At the end of our morning tour of Ensenada!  The kids were hungry for lunch and ready for some Camp Carnival fun, swimming and relaxing the afternoon away, so we got back on the boat!

Naomi and Eli went and did all sorts of bug activities at Camp Carnival while Alec and Payton played in the water and Grandma and I sat in the sun (running theme for us!).  Justin and Hyrum went wandering around the boat and had a great time!

 

Eli wasn't into letting someone draw a bug on him, but Naomi loved it.

 

At dinner time they had a magician come around.  He put a ball in his hand and when he had Alec tap it, it became 2 balls.  The pictures are horrible, but I think it was their first magician and the kids all thought it was so cool!  He also took a $1 bill and made it into a $1 million dollar bill.  We kept the fake money because it was too fun.

 

Okay, maybe we were all glued to the amazingness!

The delicacy for dinner that night was frog legs!  Basically tasted like rubbery chicken!  Naomi even tried that one and thought it was pretty fabulous.

After dinner Naomi and Eli, Payton and Alec all went to Camp Carnival to play video games with the big kids while the little kids had a pirate themed night.  I didn't realize it at the time, but wish we'd taken better pictures of their face paint.  They looked adorable!  They loved it!

The people that played with them were so creative and the kids just adored them and had a great time.

Payton and Alec also made sand art fish, they are our creative 2, so that was a perfect activity for them!

After Camp carnival we went to a comedy show.  There is okay and sometimes funny and then there is crying I'm laughing so hard funny.  One comedian was just okay and the other one was rolling-on-the-floor-laughing.  We saw the okay one a second time to see if he got any better............nope!  The hilarious one though, he was fantastic!  I, for some reason, have a hard time remembering when we saw each of them, but they were all spread out through the 4 days, mostly in the evenings!

 This was the main area in the boat where there were a bunch of shops and the dining room was off here.  It was so pretty in the dark.  Unfortunately, I got lost on the boat the entire time I was there, so I really never knew where I was ;)  Dad and Justin had their bearings almost immediately.  Me on the other hand, I kept getting lost.  I'm pretty sure if I had tracked my steps I would have had twice as many as everyone else, just because I couldn't find my way!