The trip was awesome! It was so great being on beaches in the middle of December! We returned home in the middle of a huge blizzard, so not a very pleasant welcome home. When I was bundling Ryan up in the dark the first morning back to school, he said, "Mom...did I just dream that we were just on the beach a few days ago?" It did seem to go by pretty quickly.
We're not sure that we're "cruise vacation" people. We really were on the boat most of the time, with stops in the ports between 5 and 8 hours. We felt like we ran the whole time we were in port to see and do everything we wanted. We rushed with the other 2400 people to get off the boat as soon as we docked, then rushed to get back on in time. We think we like to spend our vacations relaxing in our own space and on our own time schedules (or no schedule for that matter).
The boat had a lot of fun activities, as well as about a dozen incredible restaurants. We walked on the upper deck every day (about a mile), played mini golf just about every day, went to the gym, but didn't ever play shuffleboard. The day of the Las Vegas Bowl (BYU played Oregon), Marc & Frances & I went to the spa for massages. I now know how I would spend disposable income. Regularly. Then we got (free) room service for dinner & ate while we watched the game. Amazingly, we were able to get the game in our stateroom. (They had it on TV at the pub, but we decided against that option).
Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the entertainment on the cruise revolved around drinking and gambling. They had several pubs/lounges/bars and a casino. Plus, there was always Bingo (at $15 per card) and other non-casino gambling going on. As the 40-ish of us (our family and Frances' family) sat at dinner together almost every night, we decided they probably didn't like us much. We were loving the free (ok, included) lobster, prime rib, shrimp, filet mignon, creme brulee, etc., etc., etc., but weren't buying a single drink or dropping a single dollar into any of their little gambling ploys. They LOST money on us!
Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas were all a lot of fun. We had a great time shopping & sightseeing & spending time on the beach. Since so many people wanted to see pictures, I've put them on a different photo hosting website. Here's the link:
http://melanieandryan.spaces.live.com/
I got my hair braided in Puerto Vallarta. It was so great not having to worry about long hair while snorkeling, playing on the beach, hiking, etc. In the pictures, I wrote, "Think Bo Derek, but not as tall nor as thin." What I didn't add in the pictures was that when I took out all 26 braids, I looked more like Gilda Radner, except...well, no, I pretty much looked like Gilda Radner. :)
We stopped in Las Vegas on our way home and spent some time with Grandpa Olson and Uncle Brandon. Brandon hadn't seen Ryan since he was a baby, so they had a great time getting to know each other. It was fun to be with them.
We had a close family friend pass away in January. Jane Chase, our neighbor across the street, whom I have known since I was 4, died of cancer on January 8. She was first diagnosed in 1996 (yet threw my wedding shower in the midst of treatment). When I was expecting Ryan, I flew home from Las Vegas to attend a baby shower she gave for me. Her cancer has come and gone over the years. She was like Ryan's second grandma. He spent a lot of time there, and they really loved each other. She was always so cute to have Ryan over when she knew I was working on a big assignment for school. Jane's college degree was in Education from BYU. She loved children's books, and had a large collection of them. Often when she bought new books, she picked up an extra copy for Ryan. The picture below was taken September 25, 2004, with the two of them reading a book that Jane gave to Ryan. Jane was the first person to welcome me back into the Orchard 7th ward with open arms. She always had very wise words of encouragement for me, which helped me through some very challenging times. One particular Sunday, I was really hurt by some comments that a woman made in Relief Society about people who divorce. Jane was at my house as soon as church was over to reassure me that I had done the right thing for myself and for Ryan, and that people who have never had to deal with the things I dealt with have absolutely no idea what it's like to be in that situation, and have no room to judge. She was such a good friend to both Ryan and me. We will miss her dearly.
No comments:
Post a Comment