Disney Cruise

Here is a great picture that can explain the whole trip. This is what it looked like everywhere we went. There was never a boring minute because there was always someone to do something with.

This is where we stayed the first night. It was right in the airport which made it really easy to leave in the morning to get on the ship. It was so pretty and we were all the way on the tenth floor. Here is what it looked like from our balcony.

I finally found time to write about our Disney Cruise! It was so much fun and it was nice to get away from everyday activities and treat ourselves everyday to ice cream. When people say that you eat a lot on a cruise, that is a total understatement. I felt like all we did was eat and swim or other water activities. There wasn't any cleaning, work, or just the little things that consume our lives everyday. We went with Spencer's whole family, all 36 of them. This was a Christmas gift from grandma and grandpa Gygi. Everyone has been counting down the days and it was finally here. Since they had been on a couple in the past they knew exactly what to do in order to make the best of our time. We made sure to carry our swimming suits with us so that we could get straight into the pool while we were waiting for our other baggage. Everyone has been telling us about the Aquaduck slide that goes outside the boat and then comes back and circles around. It was really fun and the best part was we remembered our suits so there was a short line!

There was always something to do on the ship. It is a tradition to go to the shows at night. They were so cool. One my favorites was the comedy night with Alfred and Seymour. I laughed so hard! One night we found them and asked if we could get a picture with them. They told us that they might me coming to Utah soon. We both would love to see them again. Most of the time we hung out in the D lounge, this was a place for the whole family. We played a lot of games and won every time we played because the size of our family we had everything that we needed. It was a fun way for me to get to know the family better. Our favorite thing was bingo! Spencer's uncle won three different times! It was fun for me to just go and watch. Then there was a baby race, it was so funny to watch. Most of them just sat there but one little boy knew what he was doing and went straight to his mom. Who would think of an idea like this? 

 Here is a picture of the big ship. This is the new one that they started doing in January of this year (Dream). It was the biggest ship that I'd ever been on. We were on the the tenth deck at the back. We had a balcony that made it fun because we opened it so that we could be connected with the rest of the family. Everyone could come and visit without having to leave their rooms.

After the cute sailing away party, and traveling through the night, our first stop was Castaway Cay. We were woken up with the boat trying to dock, man was it loud! This is Disney's own private island. It was a relaxing place to:  swim, snorkel, build sand castles, ride bikes, play volleyball, and last of all get a nice sunburn. It was fun to go snorkeling and see all the big fish! I hadn't ever been in such clear water where I could see so deep. I wanted to go and touch them but the salt water in my mouth wouldn't be worth it! They really fixed this island up with a nice white sand beach. On our bike ride we were able to see the rest of the island and it wasn't that pretty in the middle where they hadn't done work to fix it up. Not a lot of people actually see that part of the island though. We also stopped here on the way home also but we were all a little more tired the second time around and most of us just sat and enjoyed the great weather.

Our second stop was Nassau, the biggest island in the Bahamas. We were told that there was a lot of great shopping on the island so that was the first thing I wanted to do. It reminded me a lot of Mexico with cheap stuff that you can usually get for less if you just pretend that you don't really need or want it. Here it was in one big white tent with spots that they rented that went clear to the ceiling of the tent, it was really tall! Spencer got three great traveling shirts to add to his wardrobe, he loves his traveling shirts. I got a magnet, my favorite thing to do is find the most unique one out there that I won't see on any other fridge. I think I accomplished my goal, we found a flamingo and it is way cute and unique for sure.

haha.

After shopping it was off to scuba diving. It was Michelle, Christina, and my first time. We got on a bus that would take us to the place where we would do our first dive. On the way there Jason said, "Well we're not in Kansas anymore." The guy behind him started to laugh and said, "I'm from Kansas!" We all laughed for awhile about that. How often does that really happen? What he meant by that was they could take us where ever they want and we would have no idea. We were in a foreign land and just had to trust others. It was about a 40 minute drive and I never got used to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road. It was weird....but we got there in no time and then it was time to dive! Our first one went down to 90 feet. There was a coral reef wall that went from 6 feet to 6000 feet. There was no end. Michelle was funny to watch, she just wanted to touch everything and keep going lower and lower. Our second dive was by a plane and boat crash. It was neat to touch all the coral and see what would happen. One of them that the guide showed me attached onto your hand. It felt so weird. Spencer's favorite were the things that looked like little christmas trees. Now I want to go diving again. There is so much to see underwater, it is like a whole new world.

This was such a fun trip! Thanks grandma and grandpa for all that you do for us. You guys are the best!

Road Trip to Seattle and San Fran

Where to start? Well first of all sorry that this post is so late but I still want to post it on the blog because we had so much fun! Thing have been crazy since we moved here to Salt Lake. There has been a lot of things to get done. For some reason I thought that things would slow down once I graduated but that never happened. I will explain that more later. Now I will tell you about our trip. I have been telling my best friend Kellie since she moved to Seattle that I would come and visit her and I finally made it. We were going to take a trip to New York but that will have to wait until we have a little more money. It was so great to see Kellie and what it is like in Seattle. It seems like such a cute place to live and there is a lot to do. If you know us we tried to fit in all in one day so we could see as much as possible. 

Here is a great picture right before the ferry ride that we took to a cute little island. As you can see in the picture it was a windy but very pretty day. I was happy that it didn't rain on us. 

This is Spencer trying to throw me in the fountain but I was successful in not getting wet. He thought that he was being so funny because I just wanted a cute picture so I wasn't even expecting it.

We got in a little shopping before we went to Kellie's favorite Mexican restaurant. It tasted really good after a long day of walking around to see the whole city.

These were probably our favorite two things that we ended up doing. Here is the public market there was a cheese festival going on and we love cheese. We were able to try a lot of new types of cheese by just fighting our way through the people. Lets say there was a lot of gross ones but also some good ones. It worked out perfect that we were there on the right weekend.

Then there was post alley. This is where you can find the famous gum wall. We all decided to make our addition with Kellie's gum in her magical purse that can hold everything. There was so much gum and you can see gum forever! I thought it was a neat idea, whoever thought of it was a genius. We will for sure go here next time we are in Seattle.

The last thing that we did was stop to see the Fremont Troll. It is under a bridge and is the most random thing ever. It was just something you have to go and see so you can say that you did it. 

 Thanks Kell for showing us around! Let's just focus on this part of the trip and not the last couple of hours. We will have to come again soon. Then we left that same night to try and get to Cali. We spent a lot of time driving those first two days but that is what you do when you are young and crazy. We drove through the Red wood Forest and some of the trees were bigger than our car. They were so big and they looked fake at times but I don't think you could make a tree that big even if you wanted to. We made some fun stops along the way and took some funny pictures. 

Our first stop in San Fran was seeing the sea lions. There were so many that were all just sitting there. Some of them were even playing king of the hill. It was funny to watch. I think we could have stayed there all day and I would have been happy. 

Then we went to China Town and that was probably the scariest thing of the whole trip. I felt like I was in China for real there were so many people going so many directions. I don't ever want to go back there again. We got lost trying to find our way back but we had some good laughs along the way. We are really good at pretending like we know what we are doing.

We got back just in time to go on our tour of Alcatraz. If you break the rules in prison then you got send here. It was impossible to escape and if they did escape they didn't have anywhere to go. That didn't stop them from trying. There was a lot of interesting stories of what happened for the few years that it was open. I don't know what makes someone become that angry that makes them only want to do evil but I am grateful that we have places for them to go when it does happen.

The next day we went and saw all the normal tourist sights like the curvy road, the houses that looked like they were from Full House (one of my favorite shows), ate sourdough pizza, rode the cable cars, ran into some Germans, and finally went on a tour at the Giants Baseball field. I learned a lot about baseball and also spend some time being confused about what they were saying. I just sat there and nodded like Joey does on Friends when he has no idea what is going on. Good thing I have Brian and Spencer to explain things to me afterwards.

On our way back to Utah we stopped at a way sweet hotel! This was the view out our window and it was so peaceful after being in the big city for so long. There were even little birds that had just been born. I love being in the nature but still having a bed to sleep on. It was perfect! Thanks Heidi and Brian for putting everything together for us. The trip turned out a little different than planned with a few unplanned events but we just worked through them together. We had a great time and look forward to our next road trip. Does the mall of America sound good to you guys??