Ya know, I just have to say that cruises are GREAT! Keven and I are not huge travelers, but we definitely agree that cruising has got to be one of the best ways to travel!
Get ready for details from our Mexican Riviera adventures!!
Here we are getting ready to board our ship, The Vision of the Seas!
We learned some fun facts about the Vision of the Seas -- when stood up is as high as the Eiffel Tower and contains 70 Statue of Liberties worth of metal. Crazy!
This is the bay area of Los Angelos we left from. Our ship left about 5 p.m. Sunday evening. We had a great time exploring the ship, adjusting to our sea legs, and watching our ship leave the bay area!
We also got a quick chance to call home to check on our baby girl. She was just fine and after that one phone call I decided that we couldn't call home again because Hannah was just fine but it was too hard for her Mommy!
This is our fun cruise group, Keven and I and his parents, Russ and Sharon! We took this picture at the very front tip of the ship.
This is Keven and I playing with our camera on our first real day at sea! We spent most of the day playing cards, reading books, swimming, etc. It's so nice to have relaxing days like that! We had to dress super formal for dinner that night so Kev and I dolled ourselves up a bit.
That night we went to a show in the theather. They had shows every night! This particular night was a group immitating the Temptations. They did a pretty good job!
Our favorite part was our fun friends we made that night, Debbie, Rick, Barb, and Dan. They were teasing Keven and I about not knowing the Temptation songs. After that we just struck this friendship and enjoyed spending time with these guys during the rest of our trip!
Yahoo for the Temptations!
Here are Russ and Sharon on the boat we took to get to Cabo San Lucas. We all had great luck with no sea sickness. But others of our group did not far so well on this little boat ride.
This was taken on route to Cabo. Once we got there we couldn't walk two steps without being offered some type of fun Mexico tourism stuff. One guy convinced me to come to his shop because he said his bracelets were only a dollar. Then two minutes later is decided they were actually 22 dollars. Silly man.
These lizards are all over and the people in Mexico like to use them to earn money off tourists. They let you hold them, you take a picture, then they ask for money. I didn't even want to hold this lizard, as I am not a reptile fan, but this lady forced it upon me while Keven and Russ laughed. I was worried it would pee on me and they assured me it wouldn't. Well, that was a bunch of bolony! Luckily I was quick and it missed me!
This picture is great! This guy with the guitar followed us several blocks until we went into a restaurant. Then he proceeded to sing the Mexican version of "Margairitaville". It was great, especially since we couldn't understand certain phrases he was saying!
We went to the beach, two actually. One where tourists are not allowed to swim and one where they are. This picture was at the beach where they aren't allowed to swim. But don't worry, Keven had to go check it out. The waves don't look too bad here but they were sooooo strong! I went in far enough to have it reach my ankles and it nearly knocked me over! I can definitely see why some of the beaches in the area are just for looking and not for swimming!
Here we are in Mazatlan. We went a tour of the old and new part of the city. The mountain in the background has one of the highest lighthouses in the world.
We stopped at a boardwalk that goes all along the city beach and there we met some "professional divers". (By professional I mean local citizens who do crazy things for money.) There is a a very high cliff with stairs carved into the rock. These men come around asking for a dollar and then dive off the high cliff into the 5 ft. water below.
Each night when we came back to our room we had a different towel creature -- bunnies, swans, and even a flying pig!
Each night they had a different triva or relay game. Keven and I grew to be big fans! The first one we participated in was a T.V. Trivia, seeing who could guess a program by it's intro song. We didn't win that night but Keven got an honorable mention for doing a backflip while trying to impersonate "The Fresh Prince of BelAir". The next evening we partnered up with our new buddies in "The Qwest". You had to do all sorts of crazy thing in a very quick manner. This is me sporting very red lipstick, which I had to leave on some bald man's head.
This is one of my favorite cruise pictures! This is our friend Rick dressed up as a lady. He was hilarious!!! I laugh everytime I picture this!
This is Keven participating in a hula hoop contest, which he totally won!!!
This is us with Kev's parents after we won 1st prize in "The Qwest"!!!
This is from Puerta Vallarta. This spot was definitely the most Americanized. Here I saw a Chili's, McDonalds, Domino's, Starbucks, and Hooters.
Keven and Russ went scubadiving so Sharon and I did a lot of shopping. As we were walking around some guy came up to us and asked if we were from Utah. We said yes, then he asked if we were Mormon. We said yes. He was all excited and I was like, "How did you know we were Mormon?" He said that we were the only ones around wearing long shorts and t-shirts. Alright for being modest!
Here is a sunset from the Vision of the Seas!
This was a parade they did onboard the ship. A staff member represents each nation onboard the ship by parading that nations' flag. It was pretty neat!
These were our waiters, Elmer and Debashish. They were singing to us at dinner. They were both super cute and so kind. It was really interesting to learn about their countries -- Elmer is from the Phillippines and Debashish is from India.
Here are our fun friends!! Go Debbie, Barb, Dan, and Rick! Honestly, these were some of the nicest people ever, and we had a blast together! If you go on a cruise, make friends with those around you! It made it so much fun!! We made friends with the people sitting next to us at dinner. They were from Seattle and loved Five Crowns! We also met lots of fellow Jazz fans from Utah!!
That is it!! For the record I would like to write that I was super excited to come home. Loved the cruise, but missed my sweet baby. When we got to our house I ran through the door and Hannah took one look at me and cried. It's like she didn't remember who I was, she wanted nothing to do with me!! Oh, sad was I!! She went to Keven but everytime he tried to hand her to me she would cry and hang around Keven's neck. That was probably one of the saddest stories for 2008.
But no worries, all is well now. It took her about a half hour to forgive me for leaving and now she loves me again. In fact, my non snuggly girl is giving me hugs a lot more these days! And my baby is really a big girl! Keven and I both agree she grew tons while we were away. She can now run, jump, and say bird, & blankie.
I got the opportunity to go to Youth Conference with the Young Women. It was great! I am glad I was able to go, it was super nice to spend time with my girls and get to know them better. We started out by having a devotional at the Draper Temple site by President Hilton. This will be the temple our stake will be attending when it is finished.
Then it was off to Camp Williams! The girls in our car really wanted to stop at the gas station before heading out there so we arrived for some training late. This army guy you see made us get down, do push-ups, and yell "we will never be late again for a camp meeting". While we were doing push-ups he suddenly looked at me and said, "Are you a leader?" To which I replied yes. He then profusely apologized for having me included with the girls. I didn't mind, I thought it was funny!
Yahoo for repelling! I am SO proud of our YW/YM as they were stellar repellers! This is the free fall side.
Here is Bishop Elkins! What an awesome guy! He is in his 70's yet he got right up and repelled as quickly and confidently as the rest of the youth! I was super impressed!
Here is me! The last time I was at Camp Williams on this training equipment I broke my elbow. I am happy to say that this time around all went well!! 
Go Tamarra! She is the one eating the creamy and let me tell you, I have never seen someone who loves creamies as much as Tamarra! Elaine, on the far right, is our Young Women's President. She is also 8 and1/2 months pregnant! --What a trooper! Elaine and I were the only YW leaders there from our ward. We also got in trouble from the stake leaders because they thought we were too loud at night with our girls. Oh well, right? We sure had a great time!
Lexi and Abbie
David, Jamie, Haley, Kylie, Amelia, and Liz.
Okay, now on to Taylorsville Dayz. Each summer we get the great fun of participating in T-Days because Keven's Father is greatly involved with the city. This is Hannah at the parade. Uncle Sean was throwing water on her and she could not get enough of it!
Maleia and Hannah waving their flags!
We invited our neighbors to come because her husband was out of town. This is her little boy, Caleb. I thought this picture was super cute!
Hannah loves ballons lately. She also loves to dance. Here we are trying to play with balloon and dance.
Horseback riding!! Our YW go horseback riding each summer and it was great! I was so impressed at how our girls did. They all jumped right on these horses and acted like naturals. Way to go girls!
Brianne, Kylie, Amy, Ericka, and Kylie
Amelia!
So, I have to be honest. I really am not a horse person. The last time I rode a horse it tried to buck me off. Since that point I have not been a big fan so I really wasn't planing on riding a horse. But my girls are very encouraging and after watching this cute horse, I decided to give it a whirl. Harley was a great horse who is gentle and mild. Thanks Harley for giving me some faith in horses again!
