Cruisin' to Mexico

On Thursday my Mother and Father in-law celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. How amazing is that?!?! 50 years is an impressive amount of time! They are wonderful people that work so hard and have so much to show for all of their hard work including 46 family members who were so excited to board a cruise ship and cruise down to Mexico to celebrate with them. The only family member who didn't come was the first great grand-baby who was too little to cruise. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little anxious about the trip. Cruising with three little kids seemed stressful to me. Especially with Molly's age and the stage that she's in. And while super duper exhausting, no one fell off the ship or got taken in Mexico and we all managed to have some fun!

Our drive over to California was loooooooong!! Molly took a really good nap and then fussed for the rest of the drive. We usually have her backwards facing but because we were going on such a long trip we turned her around and I think she was happy to see the TV screen and not the back of her seat.

Getting to our state room.

Looking out the dirty ship windows :) So excited to see the water!

Rendezvous with everyone on the deck.

Coming back to our turned down beds after dinner. All five of us were nice and cozy in our little room. You can't see Molly's pack 'n play that we set up in the left corner. The boys loved sleeping in their beds.

Tuesday morning we arrived in Catalina.

We ate breakfast with Uncle Kilo.

Taking the ferry to the island.

Catalina!!

Playing in the sand.

Eating ice cream and getting lazy while holding squirmy Molly ;)

Cousins at the beach, two of our favorite things!

Boats

Tim with his Mamma!

The boys were so wiped out by the end of the day. Oliver fell asleep during dinner and Peter was pooped!

After dinner we had some group photos taken. This was Tim's attempt at a group selfie.

Family selfie in the cold ocean breeze on the deck.

Me and my girl!

Molly woke up at 5am every morning. Tim and I took turns taking her on walks around the ship. 

Peter loved this little set up with his own small little pitcher of milk.

On the elevator headed out of the ship to Mexico. We spent the morning with Tim's sister Rachel and her family and Frank and Maxine. It was too hard to travel with the whole group. Even communicating with that many people without cell service was a challenge. 

We took a bus to go see "La Bufadora"  (the blowhole)

Molly slept for most of the 30 minute ride....

Peter also fell asleep. He's not quite asleep in the picture, but he was out.

There wasn't a ton to look at on the drive. Lots of farm land.

And lots of sad housing.

The blowhole itself was pretty impressive and fun to watch!! It kind of looked like waves splashing up on the rocks, but it was definitely water shooting straight up. 

We got nice and wet getting some fun pictures!

I was bracing myself for getting soaked a little too much in the picture.

This nice guy was dancing and drumming and playing his flute and then he'd let you try on his hads and take your picture with him for money.....when in Mexico!

Looking out at the Baja Coast.

Souvenir shopping down this strip was nutty!! The boys loved it though and we stopped by the panaderia (bakery) which is all Oliver wanted to do while we were in Mexico. I also bought me and Molly matching moo moos which I am pretty excited about. 

Taking a break back on the ship, watching National Treasure with Grandma and Grandpa.

Folded animal towels around pool. Pretty cute! I think the cruise staff was one of my favorite parts of the cruise. They were so great!

Breakfast!!

Look at that smile!! And she says "eeeeese" now when you take her picture. I could just squish her I love her so much!

She LOVED it when I let her walk around. She also walked a little tipsy because of the rocking of the ship.

Peter's new spider-man fidget spinner while watching the ice sculpting.

Folding paper airplanes with grandpa.

There was a fun little splash pads with some slides on one of the top decks and the kids had a blast running around and going down slides.

Peter LOVED these little slides. And Oliver loved the bigger ones.

Molly had fun going down with Peter.

And the three obliged me with a train slide. Look at sweet Molly bracing herself.

Thursday the family reserved a nice room for all of us to meet in. Each of Tim's siblings gave Frank and Maxine a little gift that symbolized something that they've taught them. And anyone who wanted to got to say a little something about Frank and Maxine. It was super sweet. There was a big group hug after.

Our last Dinner!! The food was actually pretty good! I got salmon a couple nights and had some other delicious meals.

Going out with a bang. We left the ship pretty early, like 7:30ish and the boys had a fruit loop lucky charms mix.

I don't know if I would have ever considered going on a cruise with the current age of my kids, but it was so nice to be with all of Tim's family. They are all such nice, hard working people and it is such a blessing to be associated with them. We had a great time! And like I said before, no one fell off the ship or got stolen in Mexico so it was a win.

When I asked the boys what the favorite part of the trip was they said, "souvenir shopping in Catalina and Mexico". They both got shell treasure chests, Oliver got some gold deb-looms, a little bobble turtle head, snake and a small bottle of sand. Peter got a fidget spinner, a shell key chain, and a turtle bobble head. They were both super excited about their treasures!! I think they also loved all of the fruit loops, lucky charms and pizza!