Our Great Escape!

Dave and I had the awesome opportunity to go on a cruise to Mexico with our friends Austin and Shaeli Ellis at the end of October. I'm so thankful for our very supportive families who were willing to watch Jesse while we spoiled ourselves with some fun and sun. We missed Jesse a ton but it really was so much fun and a much appreciated break for us.

Our ship left out of L.A. so we got there the night before our ship departed so that we could see WICKED! Yep, I finally saw WICKED and it was incredible! I think I had a huge open-mouth smile-wide-eyed expression on my face throughout the whole show. What was surprising to me is how much Dave loved it too! I think he might be more obsessed with it than me now.

Here are some pictures of our time aboard the ship. Being my and Dave's first cruise we had fun checking out the sites on deck as we were leaving port. Some of the things we found to be fun on our ship were the murder mystery dinner, playing board games in the game room, ping pong, shuffle board (yes...we're fans), Karaoke, swimming, a little B-ball, Salsa dancing lessons, and watching movies. We also loved eating at all the different restaurants. My favorite was getting all "dolled" up for formal night. Not so much Dave's favorite though.

I have to tell a little more about the Karaoke. I got to be one of 3 contestants in the Karaoke Idol they did. I got to choose the first song, (I think the last time they updated there music was back in the 90's so it was hard to choose one), and then the "judges" would choose the 2nd for me. After we sang our first song we had to go back into this room. When I got there the guy before me was in there wearing a full out chicken suit and I immediately thought, "Oh no!" Yeah they dressed me up in this afro wig, the funny glasses with the big nose and mustache, and this horrid "Pink Ladies" jacket that must of been used for Grease at one point. Anyway, the song the judges chose for me was I'm Too Sexy. AHHHHH! If anyone knows me you know that that's way outside of my comfort zone, but some how I did it and managed to only ditch the clothes and accessories they gave me while singing it. I'm afraid my toned down version of the song cost me the competition, but the winner got a bucket of bears so I wasn't too disappointed. SO EMBARRASSING!!!

We had fun jetskiing and hanging out on the beach at Cabo. Yay for warmth and sun!!!

We didn't really have a plan when we hit the port at Mazatlan. We ended up taking a taxi to the downtown area where we were able to hang out at a resort right on the beach. We used the pool there and also boggie boarded and went parasailing. It was a blast! Cabo was pretty americanized but Mazatlan deffinitely felt like Mexico.

Puerto Villarta was by far my favorite port. Probably because we did the most fun activity there but I also was amazed at it's beauty! We went on the "extreme adventure" where we took a rubber motorized boat down the coast a ways, stop at this little fishing village in this beautiful cove where we got on this 4x4 bus/truck thing that drove us on dirt roads that were very badly erroded into the jungle and up into the hills (we had to hang on to the hand holds in order to not get bounced out of the truck). We then we rode mules up further into the hills, afterwhich we proceded to zip-line and repel back down the mountain. Oh my goodness it was fun! At one point we zip-lined into a pool at the base of a water fall and another time we actually repelled down a waterfall. Yes, we're amazing. JK. They wouldn't let us bring our cameras because they probably wouldn't have made it through all the water, but they had a photographer along taking our pictures the whole way. Of course when we finished they offered to sell us the pictures for an insane amount of money which I maybe should have just paid so that we could have those memories, but being cheap....didn't. I just couldn't let myself support their little scam. Next time I'll bring a waterproof camera...you know....if there is a next time. Most of the pictures in the slide show are of the cove where the fishing village was. I was taken back by how beautiful that area was.

Our boat got back to L.A. Saturday morning, but we're not done yet. Next stop....DISNEYLAND! (Ya we probably had too much fun on this trip). Somehow we managed to get in everything we wanted to do at Disneyland and California Adventure in 1 day. We even went on some of the rides more than once. I had forgotten how much I love Disneyland. This was Dave's first time (that he could remember) and he was blown away by the "Disney Experience." Dave especially loved the new "Tower of Terror" ride. I really liked that one too but my favorite is still "Space Mountain." How fun to feel like kids again for a day. I can't wait to take my kids there someday.

We had so much fun on our trip, but we were super anxious to be reunited with Jesse. I was a little worried that he wouldn't want us anymore since we abandoned him, but thankfully he accepted us back with no problem. We're so grateful, shamefully grateful, to our families for taking care of him while we went and had our fun. I wonder if they'll ever let us do that again?