Puerta Vallarta

Excursion #2

Puerta Vallarta

Las Caletas

I think this ended up being my favorite day on the cruise. We took this catamaran from the cruise ship on a 45 minute ride on the ocean to this private beach. We had lunch under these tropical umbrella tables and hung out on the beach and exploring the jungle. On the ocean ride back to the cruise ship on the catamaran... they were playing this fun music and the wind was blowing, and you could smell the ocean, we saw whales close up, and they played the cutest games with all the kids aboard. As we approached the Disney Cruise ship I really got tears in my eyes because it was such a perfect day. It was like a dream. I felt so thankful to have had such a neat experience with our children.

Cabo Again

Excursion #3

Cabo San Lucas

Resort & Beach

We took another catamaran on the ocean to get to the resort.

We were suppose to go to Mazatlan for the 3rd port, but apparently there was too much violence there... so the Disney Cruise ship canceled the Mazatlan day and just went to Cabo again. We paid for this excursion to take us to a beach front resort, oh man, it was BEAUTIFUL!

You can see the Disney Cruise ship behind Ashlin below:

This resort was right on the beach, so we could swim at the pool or hang at the beach.

They provided a buffet lunch, it ended up being the ONLY good mexican food the whole Mexican Riviera Cruise week.

The slide was FAST. We did a family train down the slide and I was in the back. The force of the water when you hit the pool at top speed forced my legs apart almost like middle splits... I was sore the whole next day... so worth it. It was so fun.

Below is the jacuzzi grotto behind the above waterfall.

Disney Meals

Something we don't do a ton as a family normally is go out to eat. There is just so many of us. So it was such a treat to eat all together every night and be served. We had the same servers every night.

The character breakfast was so fun... though we had to carry Lily there in her pajamas still sleeping and grumpy. She was wiped out from days of excitement. Once the characters started coming around she cheered up quick.

Our family gives Disney 2 thumbs up for the trip!

(The best part about leaving though was driving home to see our little Sophie that we missed so much)

MESS

This is my entry way.

Yesterday I was walking up my entry way stairs and looked in to the playroom on the other side of the railing (which luckily you cannot see from below).

Seriously, I use to be way more on top of things.

How does it get this bad so fast?

Years ago a friend of mine and I were complaining to her mom about how hard it is to keep a clean house with kids. Her mom was divorced, all kids grown, and she lived alone.

She looked at us and said, "some day your kids will be gone, your house will stay clean, and you will be sad."

Jennifer Conference

Last weekend was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We get to listen to our Prophet, Apostles and other leaders of the church share inspiring messages right from our television.

We always make homemade cinnamon rolls for the morning session and yummy appetizers for the afternoon.... Lily kept asking me if we were having treats for "Jennifer Conference"... ha ha. She referred to it as "Jennifer Conference" all weekend (instead of General Conference). Oh how cute it is to be 5.

All the talks shared were so inspirational. There was an especially wonderful talk on "Parenting in love" sunday morning. I would have loved to listen to it without my children nearby though as they kept making comments like "yah mom" and giving me "the look" whenever something was said I could especially learn from... like "disciplining should not be done in anger"...

Dallin came home with these 2 beautiful pictures he made in Art Class with chalk. I thought they perfectly represented how our family left the Arizona Desert last month to go on a Mexican Riviera Disney Cruise.

I really am going to post pictures from the cruise... it was so amazing... but I took like 250 pictures and narrowing them down for a blog post is really stressing me out... but its coming.