Day 2- Catalina Island

We woke up Tuesday morning and our boat was docked in Catalina Island! It's only like 30 miles from the California coast, but it felt like we had traveled to the other side of the world!! :) haha okay, maybe not that far....Anyway, we got some breakfast from the buffet and then went to get off the boat! They had little boats waiting for us to take us to the Island since the ship had to dock out in the ocean a ways. It was a cute little town.

 

 

 

Lots of shops to look at and cool looking houses. There aren't many cars on the island. Everyone mostly gets around by golf cart, and while we were walking around we found this awesome thing!

 

Haha Guess you gotta watch where you park your golf cart or this thing will be taking it away! :) I loved being by the ocean and made me miss all of our trips to the beach when I was younger. Chris loved the ocean too! He can't wait to go back. We took pictures by my favorite kind of tree:

 

 
Played by the water

 
Then we sat on the dock and waited for our time to to SNORKELING!! It was both of our first time snorkeling. Chris was scared he was going to get eaten by a shark. :) I was just scared the water was going to be too cold. Haha But our group showed up, and we headed to Lover's Cove to get ready! They gave us wet suits to wear which made me happy, we got our fins, and our masks, had a little orientation, and then they sent us in the water!

 

 
It was an awesome experience and hopefully we can do it again one day. There were tons of fish swimming around us, and TONS of kelp. Our guide would feed the fish every now and then which brought them from all over into this one spot and they would eat like they hadn't eaten in forever. :)

Chris taking a picture of me

 

Chris Swimming

 

I tried to get a picture of both of us....haha didn't work too well :)

 

But they just let us swim around for like an hour and it was really cool. I would love to learn now to scuba dive so we could go scuba diving on our next cruise! :)

When we were all done, we went and got an ice cream cone, a big bag of candy, and headed back to the ship for lunch. That swimming wore us out! After we ate we went and took a long nap. When we woke up, it was already time to get ready for dinner! It seriously felt like we were eating all the time on that ship! But we loved it! That night was our formal night in our dining room, so we got all dressed up and went to our table! We ate lots of shrimp and lobster and salad that night. For dessert I got the chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm All of the waiters put on a little show for us with music and lights. They sang songs while waving their napkins around. And by the end, we were stuffed to the brims!

They were having some comedy shows that night, so we went and got a good seat for it. The first 2 were Family friendly shows that were pretty good! They made us laugh a lot! But then the last 2 were Adult Only shows. We stayed to see how those were going to be, but ended up leaving after the first 10 minutes cause he was very crude, and NOT funny. It just makes me wonder why people think that kind of language, and talking about women in such an awful way is funny. But I am glad we left. We were able to sit out on the deck and enjoy the ocean and cool breeze.

The next day were were going to be in Mexico!

Day 1

We pulled up by the water, and saw the boat! It was HUGE!! You always dream about how big it is, but it's so much bigger in real life! And I guess ours was even one of the smaller ones. I can't imagine how it will be when we go on another cruise on a bigger boat! WOW! The check in process was really fast. We gave them our bags to take to our room, showed them our Boarding Passes and Passports, went through security, got our room keys, and headed to the boat!

We walked inside, and there is people everywhere. You have no idea which level you are on, where things are, or how to get there. All we knew was our room was R15, and they were serving lunch on the Lido Deck......WHERE was the Lido Deck?? Well after walking down a few hallways, we found an elevator that had a big map of the boat next to it, so we were able to see where we were and where we needed to go. :) They have a big lobby with pretty elevators and lights and people singing. It looks really cool at night with all the lights lit up.

Well, we found the Lido deck that had all the food on it :) They had a yummy "Italian" themed buffet with lots of pasta and salad bar and dessert! This was a typical meal for Chris:

As you can see he has a burger, nachos, cake, heaping bowl of salad, chicken strips, fries, and a soda. Haha The food was definitely good! We loved their burgers and had one like every day for lunch. :) After we ate we went and found our room! It was a cute little room at the very front of the ship on the 4th level. We didn't have a window in ours, but it kinda looks like we did huh? It was a good sized room, with a itty bitty bathroom. :)

 

 

We browsed around the ship for a little bit. Bought a watch since we realized we had no way of telling the time since we had turned our phones off. We got lanyards to put around our necks to hold our cards on. We didn't want to lose those since they were our room key as well as our credit card for anything we wanted to buy on the boat!

 

 

 

This is us waiting for our "Safety Orientation" to start where they told us what to do incase of an emergency and then took us out to see the lifeboats.

By that time it was time for the boat to depart, so we headed to the front of the ship to watch it pull away from Long Beach!

We then went and got ready for dinner! Our assigned time was 6pm each night. We got to our table and got to meet all the other people who we would be sharing our table with for that week. They were all really nice! Our waiters were also really nice and funny, and made our dinner experience awesome. Each night we got to choose an appetizer, our main dish, a side, and dessert! And of course you can always choose more than one of each :) Dinner was one of my favorite things about the cruise. By the end of the week the waiter didn't even need to ask Chris what he wanted for his appetizer cause he always got the Shrimp Cocktail. And they all called us by our first names and gave us super fast service.
When we finished dinner, we went back to our room to find this!

Each night our room attendant would make our bed, pull the sheets back for us, turn the lights on above our bed, and leave a cute towel animal and our schedule for the next day. We then went and watched some Karaoke that was very entertaining and fun to watch! We were exhaused but very excited for what the next day would bring us!

Day 2 was our day on Catalina Island, and we bought a waterproof camera to take with us there since we were going snorkeling. I am supposed to pick up the pictures tomorrow, so I will do that post as soon as I get those pictures!

Traveling to the Cruise!

Alrighty, I am finally getting to our CRUISE posts! We don't have internet at our apartment yet so I have been bumming it off of anyone I can! I brought my laptop to the salon with me today so I can update during down time. :)
 The first couple days of our trip were traveling days. We left Idaho Falls on Saturday, September 22nd and headed down to Salt Lake. Chris's cousin Bruce and his wife Lauren were kind enough to let us crash on their living room floor that night since we were flying out of Salt Lake on Sunday. When we got to their apartment, the 4 of us headed out to go to dinner at The Pie! Such a yummy place with a really fun environment. We filled up on cheesey bread and pizza. We could barely move when we were all done. We headed back and visited for a while before going to bed. The next morning, Bruce and Lauren wanted to go out for breakfast before we had to head to the airport. That day, church was cancelled for  all of Utah because of the Brigham City Temple dedication, so they were able to spend some more time with us before we had to leave! Yay! And they introduced us to the BEST breakfast place in Salt Lake City, "The Park Cafe". It's a cute little cafe across the street from a pretty park :) Good name for it right? We ate the BEST french toast, with lots of bacon and eggs and orange juice. The perfect meal to keep us full till we got to California that night. And it was super cheap! They were then nice enough to drive us to the airport, and let us keep our car at their apartment so we didn't have to pay for a week of parking. Thank you Bruce and Lauren! You were a lifesaver!

 

We got to the airport and checked in, and had a couple hours to waste till we departed at 2pm. We made sure we had lots of candy, magazines, and drinks for our traveling. :) Chris had forgotten his sunglasses at home so we ended up getting some cheap ones at the airport for him, which ended up being better so he didn't lose or break his $150 ones! That would have been a tragedy. Well, we boarded the plane, and headed to Phoenix! We had a 1 1/2 hour layover there, where my bestest friend Sarah came and saw us with her cute little baby during that time. It was so nice to be able to see her, even if it was only a short time. She made me some really cute gifts for my birthday, and we got to play with little Lyla who is hilarious! I love the little faces she makes, like this one:

 

We asked Chris to take a close up of us, and this is what we got :) haha

 

Haha. But the hour passed quickly and it was time to get back on the plane and head to Los Angeles! It was a short flight and we were there in no time at all. Our boat was leaving the next day out of Long Beach, so we booked a hotel in Long Beach for that night and a shuttle to pick us up from the airport and take us to the Holiday Inn. We found our bags and went outside to find our shuttle. If you ever need a shuttle service, Prime Time Shuttle is FAST!

Not just with their service.....also their DRIVING! Chris and I were riding in the van on our way to Long Beach, and we were literally scared for our lives! That driver weaved in and out of lanes so fast, and instead of getting in the right lane to turn right, he would wait till the very last second to weave over and turn the corner. We wanted to kiss the ground when we arrived at our hotel. :) But, he got us there quick!

It was a really nice hotel that my mom was kind enough to get for us for the night. Really nice service, comfy beds, and super close to the port. They even had a shuttle service that took us down the street to Jack in the Box after we set down our bags so we could get some dinner. We ate our food, and went to bed exhausted from the day. But we were excited to get on the boat the next day!!

We woke up and went down to the dining room where they made us breakfast. I got on the treadmill for an hour while Chris got ready and packed to leave. I knew I was going to be eating a lot of food that week so I wanted to feel like I was helping burn it off a little bit :) It was finally time to head down to the port! Our hotel shuttle took us down there with a couple other couples who had stayed there that night as well.

1 year Photos

We got our pictures done for our 1 year anniversary. Our good friend Kendra did them. She did all of our wedding pictures, and she did such a great job, I definitely wanted her to do our pictures again. I like the idea to get our pictures done every year to see how we grow old together :) We had such a fun time with Kendra and her husband David. They definitely made the shoot enjoyable. Here are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

And my MOST favorite: The "Stalker" picture

My favorite Month: September!

I have so much to catch up on! September was a super busy month. There is so much to be told about! First of all, Chris and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary!! Yay! I can't believe we have already been married a year. It has gone by so fast. Since our cruise was our celebration for our anniversary, our actual Anniversary day was very simple. We both went to work that day. Chris's mom made dinner for all of us (Chicken Carbanara). Chris and I ate our food in the basement as we watched TV like we do every night. :) We were snuggling on the couch after we ate, and within seconds, Chris was snoring away. Haha and it was 7pm! So, we brushed our teeth, got our pj's on, and hopped in bed with a movie. We were both out by 9 o' clock. :) Yeah we are big partiers! I had put together a little basket with a bunch of $1 treats in it for Chris. There was a bunch of candies and chips and sodas, and I also went to the gas station and got a couple of the $1 lottery tickets for it too (which the cashier at the gas station didn't think I was old enough to buy lottery tickets....don't you have to be 18 to buy lottery tickets?) Anyway, Chris loved his little basket, and he got me a really sweet card and a yummy Almond Joy. :)

The next day was my BIRTHDAY!! I had the day off, and it was such a fun day! I went into my salon and my good friend Jenn gave me a pedicure. She brought me a cake and some fun "gifts" for our cruise, like this awesome hat! :)

After that I went to lunch with my in laws, Chris's grandma and a few of his cousins to Sizzler! I sure do love their salad bar :) It was so nice of them to come celebrate with me and visit with them. Chris came when he got off work and caught the tail end of it, and then Esther took us shopping! I didn't really want any clothes, so I told her I would like some stuff for our new apartment that we were going to move into after our cruise. There was so many things I didn't realize we needed until then. I should have been collecting things this whole past year! But she was so sweet and helped us pick a few things out.  We went to Bed Bath and Beyond and we got some towels for our bathroom, a couple lamps for our bedroom, and a cute red pitcher cause we love to make kool aid! It all got me more and more excited to move into our place. After shopping, Chris and I went over to our new apartment complex and signed the lease so they could hold the apartment till we came back from our trip. Then we went to dinner at my favorite restaurant here in Idaho Falls, Snake Bite! It's a cute little restaurant where they make really good burgers and fries and salads. Chris got their Cowboy burger: 

 I ended up getting their fish tacos and fries. They tasted yummy, a little spicy than what I usually like, but loved the fries! We walked around downtown a bit before going back home where we ate cake and played cards with Esther. It was a nice, relaxing, and fun day. I love birthdays! The one bad thing was during the night I ended up getting really really sick, and was up all night in the bathroom. Guess I won't be getting the fish tacos again....:(