It was an incredible, relaxing, perfect vacation.  We were incredibly grateful and feel so blessed that my parents chose to take us all on this trip.
I highly suggest it if you can make it happen.  Get pampered, endulge and kick back and relax while you see beautiful cities.
If you want to see more pics of the ship and get a feel for our experience, follow this link.  This blogger got some great shots of our ship as well as info about the experience.
THANK YOU NANA AND PAPA!!!

Of all the ports, Ensenada was my least favorite.  So hard much more poverty, kids as small as Erin in a life of begging and selling Chicklets and trinkets for pennies. 

 They did, however, have Super Viagra Man and I loved that we got this picture of the boys with him.  Sparked some major conversations about what Viagra is and what it is used for (there’s a pill for that!?).
We had the very best cerviche tostadas on the street.  Deeeeelish!
Boys got some hats (Levi went Indiana Jones, Trey opted for the straight up cowboy) and we found a cool minion bank to give to our friend on the boat, Carlos.
Seeing the young kids on the street was a real eye opener for our guys.  We felt good spending the rest of our pesos on a few little trinkets for a young boy on the street and also seeing his face light up when we gave him some cookies we bought at the Oxxo store.  Guessing he doesn’t get treats often at all and glad we could help with a little money and sweets.  Just wish I could take all those little ones home.

 I remember my mom telling me about cruises they have taken in the past and the people onboard that they met.  I didn’t realize how much you really get to like and get to know the people you see every day onboard.  I was sad to say goodbye.  I know, for them, we must just be passengers passing through but I truly looked forward to our evenings in the Vivaldi Dining Room with Carlos and Carlos.  They were hilarious and treated our family like we were something special.  The kids were always on the lookout for the Carloses.  And, of course, our Carlos made a special relationship with them because of his cool name.  Erin won their hearts, too and got some pretty top notch service.  She knew that if she made minion noises (Bee-Do! Bee-Do!) “the other Carlos”, as she called him, would come over and chat. 
One night Erin was so exhausted that she fell asleep before dinner and ended up sleeping the entire meal on me.  We got her back up to the room after we had eaten and had planned to order room service for her.  We asked what she wanted to eat and she said she wanted “the other Carlos’ Mushroom Soup”  We

figured it was worth asking…so my Carlos and I went down to the dining room and asked “the other Carlos” if we could get a cup of soup for Miss Erin.  He was so sweet and had some (hush hush!) sent up to our room.  The girl was soooo excited and ate it up!  We will SO miss our evenings with those guys.

At about mid point in the trip, Erin decided she didn’t want what was on the kid’s menu and started eating what we were having.  On formal night, she tried escargot and caviar and had a full lobster tail as her entree.  Believe me, now that we are home she isn’t quite sure about our plain ol food.

 While we were trying to figure out what to put in our carry ons, Carlos asked me if I would buy him a journal so he could write about the trip.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea and I wondered if he would write anything past the plane ride.
To my surprise, Carlos spent a LOT of the vacation journaling.  It was a beautiful thing to watch and I was excited to capture a few of the many moments with my camera.
This picture outside of a church in Puerto Vallerta is my absolute favorite.

 Ah, Cabo…the place where I finally crossed “snorkel in crystal clear water” off my bucket list.  Well, mostly…it was mostly clear and not totally warm but I’m guessing it’s as close as I’ll get to tropical so I’m making it count.
 Jumped on the tenders and had plans to meet up with our pre-paid Greyline tour to board a catamaran, enjoy a lunch and open bar and go snorkeling.  You know what they say about best laid plans…we shopped the local crafts market while we waited for our tour and eventually found out that the boat we were supposed to be on had broken down and our tour had been cancelled. 
We ended up grabbing some fish tacos at a local taco cart and hopping a water taxi out to Lover’s Beach.  It was gorgeous!!!  The sand was a bit coarse but the water was clear (and Carlos and I finally found some fish to watch while we snorkeled).  We had a mostly private spot and settled in for a few hours.  The boys built a giant sand hole with moats around to keep the water out.  We swam and worked had at keeping Erin off the huge rocks.  I swear she will be a rock climber someday, she is fearless and sure footed.  Good thing her uncle loves to climb, too!

Our visit to Puerto Vallerta did NOT disappoint!  What an incredible city.  The water, the beach, the people, the sun, the food.  Loved it all.
Ok, so maybe not ALL.  We had a super bumpy crazy bus ride that I could have done without.  The picture of Erin on the bus is one of my favorites.  I asked her, “Are you ok?” and she said, “No, no I am not ok.”  I think it is safe to say that we were all happy we survived that trip!
We taste tested tamarind (yum for some, not so much for others…Carlos and I liked the Chile Tamarind that was spicy & sweet) 

Checked out some really amazing crafts, visited a church and bought rosary beads and took in the silence.  Much to the delight of the kids, we found a Mexican candy store and stocked up on Chicklets and other candies.  The gummy display in the window was really fun.
Next was meeting up with our friend, Sarah, who is living in Puerto Vallarta.  She took us to some tasty street food off the beaten path, which was the highlight of the day.  We strolled the beach a bit before we had to say our goodbyes and head back toward the boat.
Grabbed some lime and chile popsicles and made our way back.  A great day!

 We spent a LOT of time at the pool during our cruise.  It was warm, the kids were entertained, and it was so relaxing. 
The coolest part was that the pool was designed so that the water can swish back and forth with the motion of the water.  Didn’t always make for easy swimming but the kids thought it was super fun to get bobbed back and forth.
Next to the pool was the soft serve, pizza, bar and hamburger places.  Walk 20 feet and you have food!
I thought it was amazing that they played movies while you swam.  We saw Princess Bride, Top Gun,

 Mamma Mia and a Billy Joel concert.  Also, at night, they would play movies while you sat on the loungers with blankets.  They brought around pizza, cookies and milk and popcorn while you watched.  We saw Captain Phillips (amazing movie, but an odd choice to play on a cruise) and Gravity.
We have realized that all we really need for an incredible family vacation is the people, a pool, good food and warmth.

Our family doesn’t travel much, and when we do go places it is always very local.  We camp, we find vacation rentals and ever so often a hotel w a pool.

Today is about love – I love my wife and the life we share, I love my kids and my family and friends, too.  Valentine’s Day is expressing the love.  For us, we celebrate our love as a couple, but it’s also the day we adopted our sweet girl, Erin Carly.
Hope you all feel loved today, take it in and soak it up.  It’s out there.  I know I’m feeling it.

 Today was a day of celebration for our city.  The Seahawks won the Superbowl!  I remember back when the Sonics were the champions and there was a big parade with Jack Sikma and Downtown Freddie Brown and Lenny Wilkins.  The streets of Seattle were abuzz with excitement, much like today.  I knew that I needed my kids to see it for themselves, to hear the cheers and feel the excitement. (Trey chose to stay in school, can’t argue w that and Erin went to my parents since she is still recovering from the tonsils coming out) but Levi, Carlos and I made the trek into the city to

 celebrate our Hawks.
We parked at a friend’s house, then headed for the 8:40 ferry.  There were NO parking spaces anywhere near the terminal and the whole ramp was full of fans all the way up to the parking lot.  I have never seen the boat so crowded, standing room only!
The ferry worker told us the boat before had been overloaded w foot passengers and we heard later that the boat after had been as well.
The cheers of “SEA-HAWKS” rang out every so often and everyone was in their blue and green.

 We walked up to 4th & Columbia and found a place that the kids could see that parade and waited and waited and froze a bit and waited some more.  At one point, someone threw a bunch of Fruit Gushers into the crowds as a snack and the boys loved that.  We were offered a blanket by a complete stranger and everyone was in the moment.  Many cell phone pictures were taken, but there was not much cell service at all.  A good thing, we could all be present.  Turns out that there were 700,000 people watching this parade!
Once it started, a nice lady in front of us let the boys come stand w her so they were right next to the vehicles going by.  She was really aware and kept a close eye on them to be sure they were safe.  They got to see the players up close and that was amazing.  Marshawn Lynch threw Skittles into the crowd and Derrick Coleman signed “thank you” to everyone as they went by.
Once the parade was over, we headed down to the boat and Carlos was talking so loudly and quickly, he couldn’t believe he had seen at his idols in person!
So many memories, great day we will never forget.
 (on a side note, major Seattle pride as there were ZERO arrests today w this crowd!  We were given a 12th Man flag by a fan walking by and I said thanks and the woman said “it’s what we do, we’re all fans and your boys need this more than I do”)