Christmas Cruise 2022!

As great as it is to prepare for a fun Christmas Cruise, the reality is we are very much in the middle of a Pandemic. Sadie, Ashley, LT and I kept texting back and forth about the new Omicron wave, churches and schools in the areas going remote, surges here and there. Is this really going to happen???

We all needed to have a negative test within two days of boarding on Saturday. Ashley texted out all the names in our group so she could make sure everyone was assigned a room. (Ashley deserves a giant gold sticker for all she did to make this trip happen and run smoothly!) As I looked over the twenty-five names, I wondered and hoped so hard we would get 25 negative tests back!!!

Shafer texted the night before saying Sam tested positive. Noooooo!!! They would try again, but more Taylor kids started falling. Devastation. All of our hearts cracked, but poor little Ollies broke. Ollie! 

In my frantic scheduling our family, (frantic because lines were getting up to 3 hours long everywhere with the new surge) I booked us at Walgreens (no small feat for a family of 6 to all be at the same place at the same time) but turns out it was the only one in the valley that didn't offer rapid testing. Arrrgh! I learned as we handed over the last test at the drive-up window that we'd get our results after we needed to board! I hopped on my phone and got us in at 11am the next morning at Provo Mall. Stress! We planned on being there as early as possible anyway to beat the crazy lines and then hitting the road to California, hoping for the best!

We were packed, loaded and in line in the 8am hour Friday morning. I am always so pleasantly surprised that my kids can do this when it's Go-Time. As we all got swabbed we prayed so hard! Then hit the road towards our hotel in Barstow, CA hoping for the best. What a relief to get all six NEGATIVES. HOORAY! (But still heavy-hearted about the Shafers. Booo!)

Our hotel was great in Barstow, the kids went down to sit in the hot tub with Jon. I washed my face and went to bed. We were up bright and early Saturday to meet up with Cash and Goulding's at Walmart to get our soda cans loaded up, and then on to Long Beach! This is getting so exciting!!!

We all checked in our bags and starting checking in to board the ship. I had all of our documents ready that Ash texted to me from the cruise site to bring: 16 & up need a valid drivers licence. (I told Adren and Eli I needed my eyeballs on their ID, not just "Yeah, I've got it" before we pulled away.) Younger than 16 need a birth certificate, so I had Paisley and Zeke's, we all had to have our vaccination cards, current covid tests etc. I had everything with me in a folder. As we checked in, we were asked to show all of our birth certificates. I did not bring mine, Jons, Adrens or Eli's! Oh no! They told us there was no way we were getting on the ship without them. The guy was kind but firm, and then called to pull our luggage! Noooo! At this moment, I thought Of course you can't leave the country without proof of citizenship, Duh! Cade and Ashley were in the same shape as us. I asked what can I do??? They said while they do not take a photocopy of birth certificates, they will take a photo/ screen shot if there is someone that can send me one. My mind started racing along with my heart~ WHO  could I get over to my house to find these??? Could they even find them? I wasn't sure I could find them quickly. Panic! I called Abby Penrod, our next door little neighbor gal who is watching Sookie, and asked her to run over right away. I told her I'd stay on the phone with her and walk her through where to find our papers. I told her to grab the file box under the stairs and start going through the files labeled with our names. She was so great! She found mine, Jon's, Eli's- but where is Adrens??? She looked through everything. I told her to just spread out everything and show me what she saw. Papers were everywhere. No Adrens birth certificate! I told her to look up in a cupboard, up in my nightstand, out in the garage in the files out there. Nothing. I kept telling Abby how grateful we are that she is doing this for us, she is so cheerful and great! Cade had a neighbor go to his house and locate theirs. Everyone was so nice to wait to see if we would get on. Security had a lady named Evelyn take us over to an area while we worked it out. I know her only job was to keep us away from the passengers in case it got ugly and escort us out when it didn't work out. She was so sweet with us. Jon kept asking me if Adrens birth certificate might be in the glove compartment of the van. I couldn't imagine why it would be, and finally told him he may as well go check while I was on the phone. Before he looked, he said a quick prayer... and there it was!!! I guess I didn't put it back after we pulled it for HEFY documents last summer. (Oops!) He texted me  that he found it! I told Abby right away it looks like we had it with us and thanked her, and all the family that had gathered around started cheering. Right at that moment, Eli was holding a soda can and it exploded. Quite the moment! Such relief, I was so sweaty and now covered in soda. You better believe we thanked Abby later big time with her payment and a box of cookies from our favorite bakery when we got home! 

The gang with Evelyn 

It felt great boarding that ship finally with everyone! 

Everyone gathered up top to see the view and grab a bite to eat. Jon and I needed a minute to decompress on our bed! That was really draining and I tried to not think of "What If..." 

Jon and I watched this boat pull up to the side of us as the the guy who pulls the ship out of port hopped on and they sped away. What a job!

Because the ship was at half capacity, they offered to upgraded our rooms to suits for a small cost. It was soooo great to have our own balcony. The best part was that we all had access to the family lounge just across the hall. It had couches, tables, unlimited cones ;) they stocked it with breakfast and snacks and it was just so nice to always meet there and made it easy to find kids. I liked grabbing a warm drink in the morning and sitting out on my balcony before breakfast, taking in the view. I really loved propping open our door to outside and listening to the ocean all night with that dreamy breeze! It was really lovely.

That first night we met up for a show. It was a funny dance group. I say funny because they dressed and acted like they were from Saved by the Bell. We all kept imitating the funny dance moves. We would go on to see them two more times and always left scratching our heads. 

It was so fun to all get up, meet at breakfast and see the cousins table. Sooo great! 

Breakfast Morning #1

The kids got the hang of ordering whatever they wanted~ and then started a cone tally....

The deck felt so lovely in the warm sun! 

This picture really makes me chuckle. Eli on a cruise ship on a gorgeous day, Mexico-bound with a waterslide in the background... and his expression.
Funny guy!

Everyone went exploring on the ship. We all enjoyed miniature golf, there was a neat ropes course, a pedal track that would take you around the perimeter of the ship, water slides.... FUN-FUN-FUN!

This night moon at sea!

Our Cruise Director was a funny guy. He would lead us in dances at night out on the deck. It was basically an aerobics routine while he was in a wacky costume and wig, shouting out moves. 

Sunday night was the first fancy night. We all met before dinner for pictures.

The first night at dinner Cade and Ashely presented everyone with a gold chain! If you remember, Cade was on the hunt for a gold chain during the whole Alaska cruise and was happy to find one. Everyone put theirs on and I don't think anyone in my family has taken theirs off! 

Our first stop is Puerta Vallarta! It was in the 80's when we docked. It felt great! We were trying to decide what we wanted to do when a nice guy approached us about renting a car. We told him we had 18 people with us. He told us he had a 15 passenger van and he'd take us anywhere we wanted to go for the day. It was fun to drive through the city, stop for quick errands when we'd see a small store, and just take it all in. He chatted away and pointed out all kinds of things as we drove, it was nice to have Cade to speak Spanish and help translate up front. We really wanted a beach. He took us to one that was quite crowded, he'd called ahead and had a sitting area set up with menus all ready for us. So nice... But we weren't there to eat, and we couldn't see a clear view of the water with little kids swimming. We said thank you sooo much... but no thank you! So he took us to another beach that was empty and perfect! It had big waves that pummeled anyone that dared go in. We saw a guy approaching us with boards of jewelry and a binder with henna tatoos. Before we could thank him and send him on his way the kids were crowded around the bracelets, handing him money. We ended up all getting matching braided bracelets, Adren got a tattoo and then more wanted a tattoo. They guy was so happy! He said we made his day.

Our driver came back to pick us up and take us back to the shopping area near the ship. He told us he was so grateful to just have the one job for the day and to be able to head home after us. It was fun to browse the shops, barter a little and find little treasures to take home. My favorite purchase made was Zeke's Nacho Libre mask. I found a large brimmed hat for all the sun, the boys found T-shirts and Paisley some cute bracelets. We were all happy people boarding back onto the ship, ready to try a Guy's burger- best burgers ever!!! 

Peeps chillin' in the family lounge.

Me, Ivy and Paisley explored some fun shops on the ship together after dinner. We sampled lipsticks, sunnies and perfumes.

Don't you love these cute towel animals greeting us after a day of fun?

The next morning was Mazatlan! So gorgeous, warm and sunny. We hopped off the ship, made it through the shops and waited for our tour guides to arrive. We had three trucks with covered seating in the back to take us to the boat dock. We chuckled at the radio station playing very loud music like Abba and YMCA. We pictured them saying, "These Americans love this music! Play it loud!" It was fun to drive through Mazatlan on such a balmy day seeing the beautiful city by the water. (While listening to The Macarena at full blast...) Our boat tour guides were very nice. Only one spoke English and told us how their full-time job was whale and sea life conservation. He was very informative and passionate. We went out quite a ways. Finally, as we sat with the motor off, we saw a few whales coming up out of the water. He taught us how you see them arch, then the tail pops up always at the end, this is how they do a deep dive. It was so neat! We could tell he wanted to stay there all day, and as amazing at it is to see a whale, we were ready to move on. Some people were starting to feel a bit sea-sick! Poor Brent was losing it at the back of the boat and Ashley and Cal had their heads down trying not to join him. He asked if we wanted to watch a few more sessions (we learned those are up to 20 minutes each!) or move on. It was unanimous to move on and he seemed a bit perplexed.

We pressed on to find a good snorkeling spot. It was fun to all dive in and enjoy the water. We could see sting rays swimming below us! We marveled at one of the guys who jumped in and swam circles around us like a fish. What a job!

Once back on the ship, we were all hungry, which felt great- and headed up to Guys Burgers! I tell you what- that is a good burger!

The next day is Cabo! Wow, sooooo beautiful! I enjoyed sitting on my balcony and taking it in all morning as we docked. We took boats out to the shore. The beach in Cabo is as dreamy as it gets! There were more fun shops with a lot of the same things to walk through- they know what they're doing. We made a deal with some guys to take us out in a glass bottom boat to see the iconic arch and Lovers Beach. (the other side is called Divorce Beach) They brought some moldy bread for us to feed the fish that made them swarm like crazy underneath us. After they dropped us off, we all really just wanted to swim in that blue water with that beautiful sand! We set up an area by the water and dived in. Soon enough, locals came by to sell their wares. Even though we were all in the water, they just stood there on the beach, holding up boards of jewelry and pottery. Funny! 

Zeke had wanted a bracelet made with his name. I asked a guy about it, and he said, "Wait one minute, I'll get someone!" Sure enough, he brought a guy over who wrote down his spelling and color choice and started braiding. Soon enough, all the cousins were crowded around filling orders. They grabbed another guy! Those guys sat there and braided like the wind while we all swam the entire time! I think they made 8-10 bracelets for us. 

The water felt so great. My view in one direction was the giant cruise ship and beautiful rocks, and the other direction was the pristine beach with Cade and Ashely getting massage's. I kept shouting, "I'm having so much fun!"
We gathered that night for fancy dinner #2. Jonny wore his brand new fancy hat. 

We sure did enjoy getting to know our servers, they were the kindest people. Our main guy, I Made, is from Bali. He told us about his daughter that passed away from a car accident two years ago while studying in the states, and his son is getting married in March and he is looking forward to going home and spending time with his wife and family. 

The resident magician, Daniel was great. He would always go over to the kids table and show them card tricks. We'd hear them cheering and oohing and awing. On this night, he asked us if there was anything we wanted to see. I told him to blow our minds. Boy did he! He had Cade think of a person and trip he enjoyed and to write it down while he walked away. Cade showed us that he wrote down Shafer and San Francisco. Awwwww! Daniel took the folded up paper from Cade, ripped it up and put it in Brents hand. Then he handed me a stapled together envelop and told me to open it and read what was inside. On the back of his card he wrote, "You are thinking of a trip you went on in 2021 to San Francisco and the person you are thinking of is Shafer." WHAAAAAAAA??? We wondered if Cade was in on it- then we wondered how much money we could give him to give up his secret. We felt that if you could master that one trick, you would be a hit at every gathering you attended for the rest of your life.

The final night all the servers came out to perform a song with us and say good-bye. They all carried a flaming Baked Alaska! So festive and delish. We looked over to see every single cousin at the kid table bawling. Sooooo sweeeet.

This dessert was available every night. Cade called it "The Dead Mouse". And ordered it every night. Along with three others.

We all agreed as fun as it is to visit the cities in Mexico, we enjoy a Sea Day just as much!

I thought this was cute of all the kids hanging out at the bar. I think they were asked to sit elsewhere right as this was being taken, since they are not 21.

We enjoyed magic shows (nothing compared to Daniel!), comedians (the first was kind of funny and got progressively worse), and doing the activities up on the deck each evening. Ashley brought plenty of games we enjoyed on Lido deck, just steps away from a cone!

Every. Single. Face.

Our last morning we all gathered for breakfast, filled our last cones, and talked about all the fun we had. We hated to leave! 

Faces full of joy!

We decided the reason cruise vacations are so relaxing is because everything is decided for you. The meals alone on a family trip are so stressful! Where to eat, how much is this going to cost etc. etc. By the last day of cruising you really feel all the tension gone from your shoulders. I don't know any other family vacation where you drive home so relaxed!

On that drive home (our whole group ended up driving straight home Saturday, we all had too many Sunday responsibilities), I ordered a better filing system for our important papers. It is fireproof and waterproof. By Monday, just two days later it had arrived and I had everything organized. I texted this picture to our group thread to rest assured I was now on top of things. 

I told them I will be keeping it under Abby's bed.