Cruise to Mexico!

For Christmas Lamont suprised me with a 3-day Cruise out of San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico on January 15. Cruises are very inexpensive right now and the airfaire was good, so it all worked out. The other fun surprise was that his brother Kimball and wife Marianne were to cruise with us as well. We all had a blast! My Mom was so great to volunteer to watch the boys on such short notice and we flew her out to Denver. The boys had a lot of fun with grandma, and it truly was a nice get away for us.

We arrived in San Diego early on Friday morning and hung out around town until it was time to board the ship. We ate at a cute local breakfast restaraunt, did some reading at Borders, and it was onto the ship. We first took some time out to check out everything on the ship. It was very large and elaborately decorated. That evening we set sail on the Carnival Elation. San Diego is such an impressive and beautiful city. I can see why so many people love it. It amazes me how their airport is right downtown and the airplanes just fly in between all the tall buildings.


Saturday was a day at sea. We ate, played some games, ate, saw some shows, relaxed, and ate some more. It really was an enjoyable day. We even saw hundreds of dolphins swimming in the ocean right beside our ship.

On Sunday we were ready to head out and see Ensenada, Mexico. That morning we went to church. It was very cool to see how other wards are run. I didn't understand anything, so it was a good thing Kimball was there to interpret for me. The talks were given by two recent converts. It was about 60 degrees that morning and it cracked me up how the members came to church in their wool coats and gloves. I guess they have never been to Denver!

After church we decided to rent a car and see the downtown market area. We did some barter shopping and ate some lunch at a good authenic Mexican restaraunt called El Charro. They grilled their chicken at the front of the restaraunt on a spit-grill and the tortillas were homemade - delicious! It was then on to La Bufadora. Which is an area along the Mexican coast where water is pulled down into some caves and the underwater pressure shoots the water into the air up to 70 feet. To me it was like Old Faithful Geyser of the water. There are only three in the world. It was fun to see. It was then a race to make it back to the Cruise ship before it set sail again.


Monday it was time to end our cruise already. I look back on our cruising time now and it almost seems like a dream. It was a wonderful 4 day weekend get away. We had so much fun catching up, laughing, and eating. Thanks Kimball for being the unofficial photographer. Thanks Mom for taking care of the boys! We are hoping to one day in future set sail again.

Christmas Festivities (part 3) ... and New Years

Grandma Moreton with all the grandsons!

The morning after Christmas we headed out to spend the next week in Utah to spend time with my family. To say the least, the drive there was an adventure. We usually go I-80 and saw that the night before it was supposed to be sunny along our way. Sure enough after entering Wyoming we found out that I-80 was closed due to high winds with blowing snow. We quickly looked at our map and decided to take a back road in hopes that when we again met up with the interstate that it would be open. The back road was much trickier to find than we antipated and when we finally met back up with the interstate we did not see the flashing sign that it was closed. We cautiously entered I-80 only to find that we were the only ones on the freeway and that it must not really be opened. We faced the dilemma of what to do next, and decided that the only thing we could do was to keep driving. We also quickly realized why the freeway had been closed as we drove through some pretty deep snowbanks. We went several miles and exited the first rest stop area. After being stranded by ourselves at the rest stop Lamont realized that we were only about 7 miles from Laramie and that the freeway was open after that. So, it was back on the closed freeway hoping not to get a ticket ($500 fine). Once we reached Laramie I could see the policemen ushering people off the freeway that were going I-80 East. We quickly exited and got some lunch at Carl's Jr. I have never been so happy to see Laramie in all my life. We made it into Sandy just over 10 hours later (it should have been an 8 hr. drive). We felt lucky and blessed to have made it safely-and without a ticket.

The rest of the week was very relaxing and fun. We opened presents with my family and just enjoyed our time together playing lots of games and catching up.
We took the boys to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point, watched lots of football, took in a movie, went bowling, did some shopping at the outlets, and went to a BYU basketball game.
We also rang in the New Year together after a tasty dinner at Tucano's Brazilian Grill and more game playing. Carter and McKay rang in the New Year a little early with some fireworks and cheesecake. It was a great way to start the new year off with family!

Christmas Festivities (part 2)

This was our first year to spend Christmas at our own home! We had a relaxing Christmas eve together. In the evening we went to Red Lobster and then came home to sing some Christmas songs, read from the Bible, the and watch the Nativity.
Santa came early the next morning. Lamont's family has a tradition of hiding from Santa which is really fun. McKay hid with Lamont behind the recliner, Carter hid under the kitchen table, and I hid behind the counter. Sure enough, Santa made it to our house at about 6am. Much to the boys surprise he carried in a new bike for Carter and a Cars scooter for McKay. Tanner got a little Ernie doll. They were thrilled. We then opened presents as a family. Lamont gave me a huge surprise this year. I opened a present with some suncreen, lei's, flip-flops, and a cruise guide that said we were to set sail on Janurary 15 to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. It was such a surprise and I am so excited to go on the cruise soon!

The rest of the day was spent talking to family and playing games. It was a quieter Christmas than we are used to and we are still deciding on many of the traditions that we would like in our family. However, it was nice to not have to travel in all the Christmas rush with all the presents and we enjoyed our time together.

Christmas Festivities (part 1)

Of course December was very busy getting ready for Christmas, but most of it was filled with enjoyable activities. We started off the month with our ward Christmas party. This year we participated in Back to Bethlehem. As a child, Back to Bethlehem was the Christmas party that I remember the most. It was also very memorable this year as we were able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and dress up like Bethlehem days (thanks Carmen!)and travel from room to room and participate in a program like we were of those times witnessing the events leading up to Christ's birth. It was a very nice evening. The Young Women leaders were in charge of the Inn.

Later in the month we hosted several gatherings at our home in preparation for Christmas. If nothing else, it made me get all my decorations up quickly and kept our home very clean all month. Carter and McKay both had their school Christmas parties as well. Although, Carter's was a "winter party" (I will not get started on the whole don't even mention Christmas thing...no candy canes, trees, ect.) which his grade did the winter olympics. I ran the paper airplane toss and all the kids had a lot of fun. McKay enjoyed his preschool party with cookie decorating and candy cane reindeer making.Let the games begin!

But, Christmas wouldn't be complete without a trip to see Santa. This year we visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop. The boys enjoyed the morning playing in Santa's Wonderland and loved every moment of it. They had guns to shoot, cars to race, and sports video games to play. I would definitely recommend going here next year. The best part was that everything was free!