Mexico Cruise, Liver Appointment, Snorkeling, Golf Cart, Lagoon, Back to School, Birthdays, Family Togetherness

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind!!  Matthew had his State Championship Tournament in bowling for the Special Olympics on his birthday.  He was so excited.  He made sure everyone knew it was his birthday-haha!  He loved participating.  He got 6th place and a ribbon for his performance.

Since it was his birthday we brought him a badge to wear on his shirt:

He even got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to him right before he had lunch:

We got to watch two of his three games before I had to go and help out with a funeral.  While I was at the funeral Daniel came home from High Altitude Cross Country Camp.  He left Wednesday morning and camped at 9000+ elevation for four days while he ran a lot.  The culmination of that week was running/hiking from Marsh Lake to Red Castle which is 24 miles in one day.  He did it!!  However, by the time he got home he was exhausted.  It rained a bit while they were there, but he had a great time.  He got home in enough time to do a couple loads of laundry to get ready to leave early the next morning for our family vacation.  

Later that evening to celebrate Matthew's birthday we picked up some pizzas and hung out with him as a family at his group home.  After eating pizza we had cupcakes and he got to blow out his candles and then open his presents.  He loved it!

Matthew is 21 years old!!  That is crazy to me, but he is loving being an ‘adult’ now.  He is starting his last year of school at Vista in a few weeks.  Wahoo!

As the summer was winding down we wanted to do some type of vacation.  We had been pricing things out when we found a killer deal on a short 4 day cruise out of Long Beach, California so we booked it.  We were excited when the time to leave came.  Sunday morning we left bright and early for the airport.  Matthew has a really hard time with the unscheduled-chaotic nature of our vacations so he stayed back in Utah to attend his day program and various very scheduled other activities.  Anyway as for the rest of us, Aaron tends to be super stressed out on travel days so he makes sure we all get to the airport super early.  There are few things in this world he does not compromise on and this is one of those things--haha!  There was some short temperedness from all of us as we left that morning, but we made it to our gate with time to spare.  Aaron is lucky enough to have TSA pre-check with his job so he doesn’t have to wait in the huge security line.  Funny enough when we checked in all the kids showed TSA pre-check as well on their airline tickets.  However, I was the only chump who did NOT have TSA pre-check.  I had to wait in the regular security line while everyone else got to zip through the pre-check line.  Boo!!  Oh well, I survived.  Anyway, We had booked a cruise out of California about two months ago.  We had planned on driving out to California, but the gas prices were insane.  I had been watching airfare and miraculously I found a cheap flight into LAX for about the same price for our whole family to fly as it would have been to drive so I booked it.  We flew out on a Sunday morning.  Here we are walking the mile and a half (I am not kidding) to our gate after check in.  They are redoing the Salt Lake airport and to get anywhere inside the airport takes A LOT of walking.  I guess they are just trying to get the visitors flying in to Salt Lake to experience what the pioneers did back in 1847 with all the walking--haha!

We made it on the flight:

Passing the time with weird face pictures....

We got into LAX Sunday afternoon.  With the volatility of the airlines as of late and all the cancellations from all airlines we did fly out a day early.  Our cruise didn’t leave until Monday, but we flew out on a Sunday.  That way if our flight got cancelled we still had time to drive.  Since our flight didn’t get cancelled we got to hang out in Los Angeles for an extra day.  We stayed out an airport hotel since it was the cheapest and had free transportation from the airport to the hotel.  We got to the hotel a couple hours before we could check in since we had a direct morning flight.  We had time to kill so we dropped off our luggage at the front desk of the hotel and walked a little over a mile to get lunch at In-N-Out Burger.  Luckily, we were in a pretty safe part of town.  When we got our food Daniel tried to be funny to see how many French fries with fry sauce he could fit in his mouth which was a lot.  We are so classy--haha!

We walked back to our hotel after stopping by a grocery store to pick up a few things.  Luckily, we were able to check in to our room at that point.  The hotel we stayed at had an evening reception which is a little get together for all the guests with some snacks and drinks.  They gave us drink coupons when we checked in.  Come to find out the drink coupons for the evening reception were for alcoholic drinks.  We obviously didn’t need those--haha!  We did go down to the reception and got a table. We played the game Sky-Jo which was fun.  We did enjoy some chips and salsa as well as some popcorn.  They did make us a few nonalcoholic  Shirley Temple drinks--which were sprite with some cherry and grenadine syrup.  They were pretty tasty.  It was fun!

The hotel room that was available for us only had two double beds and a fold out couch.  Noah and Daniel got the fold out couch, Sarah got one double bed and Aaron and I got the other double bed.  Let me just say I didn’t get much sleep.  I love Aaron, but sleeping on a double bed--that is way too close for me--haha!  Here we are hanging out the next morning:

That morning Josh called on his P-day and all of us got to talk to him in our hotel room starting at 5:45 am.  I was already awake since sharing a tiny double bed with Aaron wasn’t very restful--haha.  Anyway here we are talking with him:

We were scheduled to be on the boat by 11 am so at 10:30am we took an Uber from our hotel to the Long Beach port.  Our Uber driver was a bit crazy, but we made it.  While we were waiting in line I put my Scopolamine patch on.  I get sea sick/motion sick so I learned the hard way the last cruise, my very first cruise we did, that I needed it.  I came prepared this time and put it on before we boarded:

We made it through everything and finally got to get on the boat.  Luckily, everyone had current passports this time so no last minute scrambling like what happened last time.  Last time I had to have a friend go inside my house, find my birth certificate and send me a picture of it before they would let me get on the ship in Florida.  Luckily, we didn’t have anything like that happen this time.  Thanks for being on call just in case, Maile--haha! Also thanks to G&G T for watching Sophie!

Walking across the plank to get on the boat we got to see a sea lion (or maybe a demon cuttlefish judging by the terrible picture--haha) swimming around:

Since it was humid my hair went super frizzy and poofy.  After this I finally had to tie it back for the rest of the trip.

Our room TV message on our ship cabin welcomed all of us:

I was too cheap to spring for two separate rooms so all five of us were in the same room.  Knowing then what I know now, I may have sprung for two rooms.  Sometimes there is a thing as too much family togetherness--haha!  It wasn’t too bad, though.

That evening for dinner was fun.  Our servers seemed to really love Noah.  They kept asking him to get up and dance with them.  Noah was a good sport and participated.  Every time they would announce, “It’s SHOWTIME!"

They even got him to do a Conga line with all the servers around the dining area.  

The next morning we got up early to catch the water taxi from the ship over to Catalina Island.  Here we are on the water taxi:

When we got to Catalina we decided to rent a golf cart and drive around the island.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone said I was a scary driver, but I beg to differ--haha!  I wanted to see what our golf cart could do.

There is a dirt road that goes all around Avalon (the main city on Catalina) and the back hills as well.  There were some pretty views.  We stopped a few times to check some things out.  We even saw some deer.  Here’s a pretty view with our cruise ship in the background:

Here’s above Avalon:

Along the dirt road there was a pet cemetery.  No one wanted to check it out with me except Noah.  It was pretty cool!

After driving around on the golf cart for two hours we then turned it in and went snorkeling.  We dropped the kids off to snorkel while Aaron and I went to turn in the golf cart.  When we walked back I saw Sarah helping Noah with his snorkel mask:

The water was pretty COLD, but once you got in and got used to it, it wasn’t too bad.  Here’s Noah, Sarah and Aaron snorkeling

Noah LOVED snorkeling.  He was the one that was out there the whole entire time we were there.  We had a hard time getting him to leave.

I brought a cheap waterproof pouch for my phone.  I was able to take a few cool underwater shots of the bright orange Garibaldi fish and some other gray ones that came to check us out.  Here’s Sarah feeding them:

They were really cool to see!

There were quite a few people there snorkeling, but when there was a break Daniel tried his hand at skipping rocks.  Since the water was a bit wavy it didn’t work as well as it does on a lake.  It was still fun to try, though:

It was a fun day.  We headed back to the ship on the water taxi after being there all day.

I love the towel animals the service staff leave after cleaning our room!

The crazy thing about this cruise is that as soon as we boarded the cruise, we ran into a family that lives by us--the Fowler family. We had no idea they were going to be there!!  The kids were excited because they all had kids our kids same ages. The kids had fun doing the different activities on the ship with them.  One night it was a dance party on the deck.  All of them are there, but Daniel’s the only one tall enough you can see:

Monday evening we set sail.  Tuesday morning we went to Catalina.  Wednesday we hit Ensenada, Mexico.  The excursions sold by the cruise ship are crazy expensive.  Before we left we looked at doing something just ourselves, but we were a bit intimidated since none of us speak Spanish.  We can’t wait for Josh to be our translator--haha!  Anyway, we decided to do something a bit more guided.  A few days before we booked a trip out to see the La Bufadora blowhole.  After booking we got the instructions of where to meet when we got off the ship.  To get to the meeting place we had to walk over a mile which was fine.  On the way we passed by a photo op:

When we got to the pick up location there was a huge tour bus so we thought we were in the right place.  Aaron called the contact person and let him know we were there.  As the time to leave grew closer we still hadn’t met up with our guide.  Finally, he came up to us to introduced himself.  He then walked us right past the big tour bus and told us we were not part of that tour and led us to a mini van parked in a nearby parking lot.  I started getting pretty nervous at that point.  Aaron assured me that this guy had a ton of 5 star reviews.  We chanced it, but luckily it turned out great.  He was a great tour guide.  He chatted with us for the hour drive out to Bufadora.  He even stopped a few places along the way to take some pictures for us like this one:

I was just glad we didn’t get kidnapped--haha!!  Seeing La Bufadora was pretty cool, too!

Here’s a short video clip of the blowhole:

Our tour guide stayed with us throughout our whole trip.  He took these two pictures, too:

To get to La Bufadora you had to walk through a big marketplace.  Our guide said to walk through really fast and see Bufadora first and then on your way back to spend time at the marketplace.  After seeing the blowhole we did stop by and get some alcohol free Pina Coladas in an actual pineapple to try out.  They were pretty tasty:

We also stopped and tried some street tacos as well.  I had a fish one, Aaron had a beef one, and everyone else got a chicken one and said they were good.

We gave the kids each $15 to haggle with at the market.  Noah got a marble chess set that we have played multiple games with:

Daniel got a hat and a necklace.  Sarah got a bucket hat.  Aaron got a BYU backpack.  I am horrible at haggling and didn’t get anything. I am glad the kids and Aaron are better at haggling than I am.  

We made it back to the ship without getting kidnapped which is always a good thing--haha!  It was a fun excursion even if I was questioning the validity of our excursion at the beginning when we were led to the mini van.

This was the towel animal we got that day:

We got to try a few interesting foods while on our cruise.  I like to make the most of my opportunities and I try to get the kids to do the same.  Although the cruise offered a lot of ‘normal’ food options, I liked to try the different adventurous ones that we may not always get to try. Most of the kids were on board with that philosophy so we got to try things and compare notes.  One appetizer we got to try was fried oysters.  Ewwww!  It was not my favorite.  it tasted like fishy, fried mucous.  I now know I do NOT like fried oysters--haha!

We also tried fried alligator one night. It wasn’t too bad:

We tried some baked mussels.  They were good.

Noah and Sarah discovered they really like Indian food:

We did have a ‘lost in translation’ moment with our servers.  The last night they offered frogs legs. Everyone in our family ordered it.  So when they it came to my turn to order I said, “I will take some frogs legs, TOO”.  However, the server understood it as, “I will take some frogs legs, TWO”. He ended up bringing me out TWO plates of frogs legs since that is what he thought I ordered when I said I wanted frogs legs, too.  It was pretty funny.  The legs weren’t too bad.  They actually tasted like chicken, but you had to eat it off the bones.  Here’s what the frogs legs looked like:

The last day of the cruise was a day at sea.  The ship had a lot of different activities going on.  The kids really loved being in the audience for the ‘Deal or No Deal’.  All the kids kept yelling at the contestant to tell her which case to open next.  It was pretty funny.

Since all the cruise cabin doors look the same we brought some window cling decorations to set ours apart and make it easier to pick out when walking down the long hallways.  Something very similar to this:

However, as the week went on people (my kids said it was NOT them) kept pulling our clings off our door and putting them on the peep holes on the doors down the hallway.  We found our window clings halfway down the hallway on this peep hole that wasn’t even close to our cabin.  It was funny:

So much for that idea--haha!

Like I said earlier the kids actually hung out a lot with the Fowler family.  We did do a few activities together with everyone--including the adults.  We did the PG rated comedy club together every night.  We did some trivia games.  We also did some sports, and Harry Potter trivia games, too.  Here’s some of us together:

Here we are doing Harry Potter trivia together:

The Fowler’s were fun to hang out with!!  It was a nice surprise to run in to them on this cruise.  The kids really had fun at the teen hangout that was provided on the cruise.  We had to go and get Daniel every night about 12:30 am to have him come back to go to sleep.

The last night on the cruise I took this sunset picture from our cabin window:

Aaron and I did splurge on a nonalcoholic Miami Vice frozen drink.  It was half frozen strawberry colada and half frozen Pina colada mixed together. It was yummy!

The next morning which was Friday was a bit rough.  We had to get up early to get off the ship.  Since Daniel had been out to the teenage activities until 1:30 am--6 am came awfully early.  We disembarked and caught an Uber to the airport to fly out that afternoon.  Again it was a travel day and we were pretty short tempered and snippy with one another which was compounded by lack of sleep.  The kids and Aaron got to go through TSA Pre-check.  I had to get in line with the rest of the chumps and go through the regular security line.  BOO!!  I guess it wasn’t too bad because I didn’t have anyone to argue with since I was by myself--haha!  We walked through LAX and reached our gate where we hung out for a few hours before our flight.  As soon we stopped moving, the kids all passed out from exhaustion.

When we flew in to Salt Lake there wasn’t a regular gate open for our plane so we got to unload on the tarmac and take a bus over to the physical terminal.  That was weird.  Here we are getting off the plane:

Here we are doing our pioneer trek through the airport to pick up our luggage:

After picking up our luggage we went and picked up the shuttle to take us out to our parking spot.  When we got on the shuttle we ran into another family that lives by us who was returning from a trip to San Diego.  How crazy and random is that?!  We did see a double rainbow on our way out to pick up our car:

When we got home all the kids fell asleep again:

The next morning which was Saturday we just recovered and didn’t do much that day.  In fact I enjoyed having some extra space to myself since I haven’t been alone at all for the past week.  We shared the hotel room, the cruise cabin and spent all our excursions together which was tight quarters for 5 people.  I found this perfect meme that sums that up--haha:

Sunday we celebrated Matthew’s birthday again with his favorite dinner.  G&G T were also able to join us as well.  Matthew requested home made Cafe Rio Chicken burritos.  After dinner he got to enjoy his ice cream birthday cake.

Monday was back to reality.  Sarah had a very long day of appointments.  In the morning she had a 3 hour appointment with the ABCD study which stands for Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development.  They are studying Sarah as well as over 11,000 other adolescents through 10 years to track their brain development.  Sarah has been doing this for 4 years so far.  Anyway it was time for another visit.

After the appointment we had some time to kill before her Liver scan and appointment.  I have wanted to stop by the Gilgal Scripture Garden in Salt Lake for a few years now so I was excited to finally be able to see it.  It was quirky and interesting.

After our stop at the Gilgal garden it was time for Sarah’s Fibroscan.  A Fibroscan is a specialized ultrasound test that looks at the health and fibroses/scarring of your liver.  Sarah has something going on as evidenced by some changes in her liver biopsy that was done earlier this year.  Thankfully the fibroscan results were normal so it shows there is not significant scarring in her liver right now.  However, they will repeat the fibroscan yearly to track any progression with liver disease.  The liver doctor met with us and this was the agreed upon plan of care unless anything changes.  Sarah will continue to take medication and get labs done every six months.  Other than this there really isn’t anything else they can do.  Here she is getting her fibroscan:

Waiting to see the liver doctor at Primary’s.  

The liver doctor who I really like, Kyle Jensen, has a 14 year old daughter who loves to read.  After our visit the doctor then asks what books Sarah is reading so he can share them with his daughter. They spent more time talking about books than the actual appointment--haha!

Later that evening Sarah had some friends over to hang out and enjoy her almost 14th birthday.

The next morning was Sarah’s actual birthday.  Aaron picked her up 14 donuts to enjoy that morning:

Later that day I took the kids to Lagoon.  We did rides around the park until Lagoon-A-Beach opened at noon.

Terror Ride:

Music Express:

We spent the rest of the time at Lagoon-A-Beach.  It was pretty fun.  We tried all the slides and spent time in the Lazy river and the pool.  We had a really fun day!

For dinner that evening we had sushi and cupcakes to celebrate:

The YW even put up a birthday sign in our yard for her:

I hope she had a good 14th birthday!!

This last week of summer Sarah and Daniel separately got to do some Baptisms for the Dead at the temple with their youth groups.  They enjoyed it.

My work has started picking back up again.  I have worked a few days this week.  It will just get busier since the flu season is just around the corner.  My orientation is next week.  

Our garden is starting to go crazy.  We had our first ripe cantaloupe yesterday and it was delicious.  Nothing beats a home grown cantaloupe!!

I worked a long shift yesterday.  When I got home at 9 pm Aaron had a toasted BLT sandwich ready for me using tomatoes from our garden. It totally made my night and was delicious.

Matthew also got to try his hand at mowing the lawn at his group home this past week.  He has wanted to do this for a while so he was pretty excited when he finally got the chance:

While I was gone at work Aaron took Daniel, Sarah and Noah to their back to school night.  As soon as they got there Sarah went off with friends, but Noah and Aaron stayed together.  It is a new school for Noah so Aaron went around with him to talk to all his teachers and to see what school supplies he needs.  They also practiced opening his locker. I hope 7th grade is good to him.