Our first night on the cruise, we took Ari to a Camp Carnival parents and kids dance, where she showed everyone her moves. They had a competition where parents and kids danced against each other, and then they had a boy/girl winner, and a mom/dad winner. Guess who won??
Who knew that to win a dance competition, all you had to do was shake your butt and rub your baby belly?
We had a couple of sea days to get down to sunny Mexico. Ari decided that Camp Carnival wasn't for her (I don't know what her deal is, but she HATES that place!), so we got lots of quality family time together. We splurged this time and got a room with a balcony, which was a life saver for when Ari had naptime. It gave a nice opportunity for Ryan and I to spend some alone time outside.
Ok, so she did go to Camp Carnival for a little bit- long enough to get her face painted. I am not sure how this came out of the Pirate theme, but she liked it.
Sun, ocean, alone time... ahhhhhh.
Like Ryan and I, Ari liked the fancy dinners on the cruise, but for a completely different reason. We like to eat our faces off. Ari and cousin C liked to dance together when they did "showtime." Aria also loved the towel animals. On our days at sea, we hit the pool a couple of times, and Ari got to get her dance on with Grandma. I never realized what a dancer Ari is!
All dressed up for fancy night.
I am not sure what Ari is doing with her tongue here, but she and C sure had fun dancing around!
Smiling with her frog. We also had a rhino, a monkey, a bear, an elephant, a dinosaur, and another one that we can't remember.
Monkey!
Dawn had a lady stop her a day or so after this on the boat and comment on what a great dancer she was. Hopefully Aria will get her Grandma's dancing ability, because heaven knows she's not getting it from me!
Our first stop was in Puerto Vallarta, where we spent 2 days. The first day we just hung out at the beach, which was AWESOME. The water was warm, the sand was soft, and the sun was shining! The girls both loved playing in the waves and we remembered sand toys, so they had a good time making (and destroying) sand castles.
I love her smile in these. She really loves the water.
It's not a day at the beach until somebody gets buried in sand!
The second day we went on a pirate ship, which was okay. They had a ton of super loud music blasting the whole time, and they did a pirate show that was in both Spanish and English, so it got hard to follow. The boat was also a replica of the original Santa Maria, so it was on the smaller side and that thing was rockin' like crazy. Lots of people got sea sick, including Dawn, which was no bueno. For part of the show, they brought a couple of kids up, and to turn the tables on the parents (they WERE pirates after all), they had the kids feed their mom's gross baby food while both of them were blindfolded. It was pretty funny, and if you ask Aria what her favorite part of the cruise was, she will say, "when the kids fed their mommies." The pirate boat dropped us off at a beach for a couple of hours where we got to kayak, feed some fish, play with some crabs, and make more sand castles. It was a beautiful, secluded beach surrounded by rocky cliffs lined with trees. Very picturesque- too bad we didn't get a great picture of it!
Our assigned pirate for the day was Pepe.
Pepe even got Ari all "tattooed" out like a pirate.
Another pirate let Aria borrow their hat. They had all kinds of cool pirate things to take pictures of the kids with around the boat.
They even let her drive the ship!
One of the crew found some hermit crabs and brought them to show Ari. I love that she isn't afraid of things and had no issues holding them, even when they came out of their shells and started walking around her hand.
Ryan was going to go on the kayak ride with her, but she changed her mind at the last minute and wanted me to go with her.
Robin and I didn't feel comfortable paddling with both girls in the boat, so another crew member was nice enough to paddle us around. He took us around the corner and gave us some bread to feed the fish. They were beautiful! We also could see lots of jellyfish just under the water once it got a little deeper- I was glad I wasn't swimming in that area!
We got back on the boat, had lunch, and Ari passed out for most of the ride back. I got to have two snuggle naps with her this trip. I don't get those anymore, so it was kind of nice. :)
Our finals stop was in Cabo San Lucas. It wasn't as green as Puerto Vallarta, but it was surrounded by BEAUTIFUL sandy beaches. It also had the cool rock formations that Cabo is known for. We went whale watching at this port. It is a tender stop, and we only had a little bit of time left after our excursion was over, so we didn't want to push our luck timing-wise by going to the beach, which we were pretty bummed about. That just means we'll have to make another trip down to Cabo sometime so we can get our fill of sun and beaches!
I love my beautiful girl! This was on the boat while headed out to find us some whales!
There were pelicans all over at the marina. I don't think I've seen one before.
Beautiful!
There were a bunch of sea lions on a rock in the distance. We also saw some that had hitched a ride on the back of a boat while on our way out of the marina.
Our home away from home.... the Carnival Miracle.
Soo- it's hard to get a picture of a whale!! This is the best we got. None of them ever fully jumped out of the water, but it was cool to see them blow, then you'd see their big bodies come out of the water just a bit, then you'd see the tail splash. It was so cool! I may have clapped and squealed just a little when I saw my first whale. :)
Our final day at sea was pretty rough. It was stormy, and the boat was moving quite a bit. Most of us felt sea sick to varying degrees. It always stinks when you end a trip on a sour note like that, but overall we had a great time. Like I said, we didn't get our fill of the sun and beach, however I can't complain that we came back to Utah with temps in the 50s and all the snow melted from our front yard. We really tried to enjoy ourselves knowing that we won't be able to take a trip like this for a couple of years with the little one coming. I also tried to really appreciate the extra time that we had with just Ari before the baby comes. I was very proud of how well she did with all of the travel and fancy dinners.
Coming up, we have Aria's 3rd birthday in a week! I can't believe she is 3. She is my little buddy and I can't imagine my life without her. I am so lucky to have my little family, and for the opportunity we had to go on this trip and create some fun memories. :)
what! how fun! lucky kids--looks like it was a blast! miss you guys!
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