November Cruisin'

Here are Jenna's group pictures for Sadies.

Jenna and her date AJ

The girls

The boys

The Group

Before leaving for our cruise Jenna had 2 ballroom events. The first was "Ballroomfest" which is basically a showcase of Enlight Ballroom to help them prepare for competitions. Jenna and whichever partner she danced with received 1st place in all 6 syllabus events. She also showcased her open routines with Aiden for Latin and Kade for Standard and then danced with the medley group for their routines. She was a busy lady that night! I only have once picture since I took video of the rest of the dancing. Here she is with one her her teammates after their final routine of the night.

On Friday, November 15th Jenna, Aiden and I drove down to BYU for a competition in the Wilkensen Center. It was Jenna and Aiden's first competition competing in the Pre-champ American Rhythm event. They danced in the semi-final, but didn't advance beyond that. It was really good for them to dance and get some experience under their belt for future competitions this year.  Unfortunately Aiden graduated from high school last year so they can't dance in the high school division, they can only compete in the adult division.

I was sitting in the worst possible location to see them unobstructed when they came out and danced. Here they are leaving the floor. She is in the middle in the gold, white and black fringe flapper dress on the other side. I mostly took video since pictures are difficult to get at a ballroom dance event!

We left on Sunday, November 17th after church for our cruise.  We arrived in St. George that night and stayed with Aunt Bethany, then left bright and early the next morning to make our way to Long Beach, California where the Carnival Inspiration was docked and ready to sail. We arrived early enough to board and eat lunch and enjoy activities in the afternoon before setting sail at 6:30 p.m.

The sail away dance party on deck

Goodbye Long Beach!

Every night at the end of dinner they always have a little dance party for everyone in the dining room. Our waiter brought out some wigs for the boys and they had a great time dancing to "Gangnam Style"

Day 2- Catalina Island

We got off the ship early and took the ferry to Catalina Island. We walked around to see what we could see and enjoyed the amazing views! We returned to the ship and enjoyed lunch, swimming and kids club activities for the boys. The older kids found the clubs for teens on the ship and spent some time at their activities, too. 

Jamo found the desserts!

The boys didn't do as well during our second dinner on the ship so we I left early to take them to the evening Camp Ocean activities as soon as they opened at 7:00 p.m. We enjoyed the evening entertainment before getting the boys to bed. Because we are such a big family we stayed in 2 different rooms. The boys stayed in one cabin and the girls in another. Except for AJ, of course, who slept in both depending on his mood. Both AJ and Jameson had a hard time getting to bed while we were on the cruise. They were overstimulated by everything and it really took a toll on their behavior. They had a hard being in the same room and not fighting with each other.

Day 3 Ensinada, Mexico 

 We took a bus to see La Bufadora which is one of only 3 ocean blowholes in the world. The other two are in Hawaii and Australia, but the one just outside of Ensinada is the biggest of the three. We saved money by not purchasing the excursion through the cruise ship, but we also had to make an extra stop for an hour where they tried to get us to pay extra money to pet baby tigers. We passed, but some of the people on our bus didn't so we had to wait for them. It was a chilly rainy day in Ensinada.

They have a lot of shops set up on the walkway to and from La Bufadora for the cruise ship passengers. The older kids were excited to find their Mexican pullovers and the boys were really happy with their toy cars that were made in China.😁😜

On the way back to the ship it really started to rain so instead of driving us back downtown where we would have to take a shuttle back to the ship they just took us straight to the ship. We really appreciated not having to switch buses in the pouring rain. This is the view of the ship from our bus window.

Eating a late lunch/ early dinner after returning from the days' activities. Britton, Jenna and Korinne were happy they had their warm pullovers as the rain made it a little chilly.

The boys swam at least once every day, but the older kids braved the rain and cold temperatures for a quick dip that night.

There is a reason the pools weren't crowded. I watched them with a jacket and pool towel over my legs to keep warm.

Day 4- Day at Sea

The last day of the cruise was a full day at sea. Unfortunately the waters were rough and the boat was rocking significantly all. day. long. Britton and Korinne each took some of the motion sickness pills I brought. The rest of us didn't get physically ill, but the constant rocking did drive me a bit squirrely. The boys went swimming before dinner and then AJ fell asleep around 5:30 p.m. after a big temper tantrum so we had to take turns in the dining room. I stayed with AJ in the cabin while Adam ordered my food and then when he was done I ran up to eat. We also had to leave half way through to take Jameson back to Camp Ocean when it opened for the evening. Even with our random comings and goings we still had time to celebrate Korinne's 14th birthday!

She was one of the teens featured on the board for having her Birthday during the cruise.

The next morning, November 22nd (Korinne's actual Birthday!), we got up bright and early to have breakfast before getting off the ship around 7:30 a.m. We drove straight to Universal Studios where we celebrated Korinne's big day in style.

We definitely picked the right day for Universal because we pretty much walked onto every ride and even the weather was perfect. We got there in plenty of time to park, get into the park and rent a stroller for AJ before the rope drop.  Once they let us go to the rides we were able to go on every ride at least 2 times without waiting. It was awesome.

As you can see in the pictures AJ really struggled throughout the day. The whole trip was a little too overwhelming for him so the fact that we didn't have to wait in long lines and moved easily from one activity to the next really saved us. It made it so the rest of us could really enjoy the day. 

Our original plan was to spend the next morning doing something fun in California and then start the drive to St. George that afternoon and finish the drive home on Sunday, but Jameson and AJ were having such a difficult time by this point in the trip it was universally agreed upon that we would get up early on Saturday morning and drive straight home as fast as legally possible. We made it home by 10:00 p.m. and it was definitely the right decision. The boys made the ride home very painful, but we made it! Once AJ was home he immediately calmed down and it didn't take him long to return to his normal self.  I'm really glad that we were able to go on this family vacation and there were many amazing moments, but it also allowed us to see that the boys aren't ready for so much change and stimulation. It was too overwhelming for them and they didn't know how to process it so I think we will stay close to home for a few more years before we try anything like this again.