UlRiCh CrUiSe SuMmEr 2009

I warn you this is going to be a really long post you dont have to read it all I just wanted to put it all down since I am using this as my journal...but atleast look at the pictures they are really fun.
I am FINALLY updating our blog...Our CrUiSe! Sorry about the two month delay we have been super busy. But don't you worry we are back and ready to post. The highlight of our summer was our cruise that we have been saving for since last year for a graduation present to ourselves. We aren't completely done with our education but we are done with a big step so of course we are going to CeLeBrAtE! June 27th at about four o'clock we started our journey to Primm, Nevada. We stayed the night there at Buffalo Bills and then drove the rest of the way the next day. When we got to the hotel they told us they could upgrade us to a bigger room with no charge so of course we took it. It was only for one night but why not. We got a king size bed and a huge room. After we were all checked in we decided we would check out the cAsInO. We ended up playing in the arcade and eating at some yummy sandwich place for dinner.

Ty and I playing the Harley Davidson racing game at the Arcade. We had so much fun in that place the poor children never got to play anything we were throwing elbows to get the good games. Then of course we have our excited jumping on the bed pictures :) I got this picture of the roller coaster and palm tree outside of the hotel.... and it turned out really PrEtTy with the sun going down don't you think? P.S. no we didn't go on the huge roller coaster that buffalo bills is famous for I am a CHICKEN...one day i will...one day.

Sunday June 28th

The next day we were off to Long Beach California to get on the ShIp. When we first got on we had to wait until our room was ready and had to wait for the luggage to be checked in. While we waited we were able to wonder around the ship and get familiar to where everything was. I imagined a cruise ship was awesome but oh my gosh it was so huge and AWESOME! There was everything you could think of it was like a little town and there were so many nice people and cute families. Also our room was a steal :) we got a bAlCoNy room for the same price as a interior room because of a deal Utah had going on it was so fun to be able to go out on the balcony and just watch the ocean waves whenever we wanted. When we first got all settled in we had to do a safety drill. everyone on the ship had to put on the life vests and go out on the big balcony it was kinda funny to see everyone in the huge oRaNgE vests. After the drill we got our room all ready and then we were off to the welcoming parade and show. The parade was sooo cool i know a parade in the middle of the ocean how sweet is that. The show was also really fun it was a comedian juggler and another stand up comedian. The jUgGlEr was the best he was hilarious. :) After the shows we were off to the dinning room for dinner. Oh my heavens the food is soooo good on cruise ships. We had a very interesting experience at dinner the first night. Our table consisted of two lasdies from Russia and a couple that the lady was drunk off her rocker and really mean. The Russian ladies were so NiCe but we just couldn't communicate so that was kinda awkward and then the drunk lady was so mean and we had to repeat ourselves a million times cuz she kept asking us the same question. She was also really mean to our waiters so we were extra nice to them to make up for it. Good thing Ty and I had each other at that table cuz oh my heavens. haha. The rest of the night was filled with wondering around the ship, talking and taking pictures.

Don't you just love those orange vests on us. Those are some pictures of the ship, our room, our balcony and the view off of our balcony. What a fun first day and it didn't even start until one.

Monday June 29th
The next day was a day at sea (we were on the ship the whole day in the middle of the ocean). It was just a fun relaxing day. We started the day off eating breakfast in our room and then got in our swimming suits to soak up some sun and lay out and read. We weren't out there very long when we decided that we were going to go see what the digital photo sCaVeNgEr hunt was all about. We got there at the tail end of the instructions and they asked if we wanted to play and we said sure so they gave us a list and told us to find all these things on the list throughout the ship and take pictures of them and after we're done to just come back to the spot we started. So off Ty and i went just having a fun time RuNnInG throughout the ship we barley knew at this point. Oh my gosh though it really was so much fun and we did so good. We expected to come in like last because it was just us two on a team with one camera and there were other teams that were huge that could split up with two cameras. But low and behold we ran into the meeting place after getting all our pictures and we were SeCoNd place hahaha. We got a medal that's right a silver royal Caribbean medal haha oh my gosh so cheesy i love it! I was proud of that second place medal and wore it around some of the day i think Ty was embarrassed and so was i a little. After the hunt we were off to the ice show. They had a small ice rink on the ship isn't that awesome. We thought the show would be a little cheesy but thought we would see what it was about anyway. Its free entertainment right? Well it kinda started out cheesy but it got really good and ty and I both really liked it there was a guy doing back fLiPs and all the girls were really good. Ty's favorite was the ice skating quick changers. Quick changer are CRAZY! We also heard the most ridiculous and cheesy song during the show by Meatloaf I would do anything for love! it ended up being our theme song of the cruise haha we couldn't ever get it out of our heads and would just randomly sing it to each other and then just start cracking up. After the ice show we were off to the room to get ready for the first FoRmAl night. Formal nights are so fun you get to get all dolled up awww I love it. After we got all ready we went to the song and dance show and then we were off to the formal dinner. While we were in line to take pictures we met this really cute couple Trey and Jamie from Texas that were on their honeymoon. They were way fun to get to know and talk to. We would run into them a few times throughout the week and chat. Dinner was interesting again but not as bad as the first night we were at the same table but the drunk couple wasn't there instead the Russian ladies were there again, an older couple that were really nice (he was LDS) and another older couple that was nice but very werid haha. The couple next to us was a really old rich guy and his wife that had a lot of plastic surgery she was so so nice but couldn't show any emotion in her face and she was hard to understand. After dinner we went to one more late night show it was the same comedian from last night he did pretty good we laughed a lot. After the shows we went back to our room and relaxed in the HoT tUb.

Those are our silver medals and the random guy in the picture with us was the guy incharge of the game he was really nice.
The top picture is the one of the ice show and that is the scene with the Meatloaf song but really good skating.
The bottom picture is us in our first formal get up.
And last but not least those are our first day towel animals :)

Tuesday June 30th
Tuesday was an easy day to wake up it was our first port day...Cabo San Lucus! Oh my gosh i was so excited when we got up. We hurried and got ready went up to eat a yummy breakfast and packed our back packs and off the ship we went. It was so exciting getting off the ship and seeing Mexico. If you can't tell it was my first time being out of the country. We got off Ty did some bardering in Spanish and our first destination was LoVeRs BeAcH. Cabo is famous for this beach and let me tell you it is beautiful. We paid for a guy to take us on a boat tour around the beach to see the arches and stuff and then to drop us off at the beach and pick us back up two hours later. Our boat tour guide was a cute eighteen year old boy him and Ty talked a lot in spanish he seemed super nice. The tour as beautiful and it was fun to get dropped off at the beach. The sand was white and i just cant say it enough beautiful. When we first got on the beach and set up our stuff a couple came up to us and was like "hey can you watch our stuff while we go oin the water and then we will watch yours and just take turs so our stuff isnt just sitting here on its own" we were like of course sounds like a good plan. Well we got talking and they were on their honeymoon around our age and from UTAH! oh and they are LDS! we were so excited to meet some people that were LDS and our age. So we took turns getting in the water and watching stuff. The water was freezing but it was fun. Ty and I also walked around the beach discovering cool caves and stuff we also went to the other side that opened up to the Pacific Ocean and watched some skim boarders. We got talking to Dan and Kristen and we both wanted to go Para sailing..what a coincidence! Our water taxis followed each other and we went Para sailing with them. Ty and I were able to do it together at the same time it was so fun oh my gosh i want to do it again so bad. Thank you Ty for doing that with me :). After pArA sAiLiNg we went shopping for a bit and then back to the ship for the night. We ended up going to the show with our new friends that night..it was a singing impressionist and then we were able to work something out called mytime dinning and we sat with Dan and Kristen at dinner. Oh my gosh dinner was sooo much better with them then it was the past two nights. Along with Dan and Kristen we were sat with this really cool family that ended up being like our adopted families the rest of the week it was Michelle and Steven and their Son that was my age Evan and then Steve's dad Papa Don. Oh and Papa Don shoed us a really cool trick with his fork knife launching the spoon into his glass of water it was pretty sweet. Dan and Ty kept trying it they weren't very good at it yet...

These are some Lovers Beach pictures...we swam, laid out, walked around, saw sea lions, and pirate ships and locals skim boarding and made new friends

we LOVE para sailing!

Wednesday July 1st
Wednesday was another port day yay!!! We decided MaZaTlAn would be our beach and shopping day. When we got off we went to some shops but only looked around because we didn't want a lot of stuff at the beach then we were off to this beach and resort it was a beautiful beach except all the people trying to sell us stuff they were everywhere. WE just stayed in the water as much as we could so they couldn't bother us. When we were on the bEaCh Ty would just keep telling them in Spanish we weren't interested and when ever they looked at me I would just keep saying no. I felt bad because this was how a lot of people made their money and they would have their kids there so i would want to say yes to help them but i really didn't want what they were selling. So when we first got to the beach Ty was bartering with people to get a good deal on renting a jet ski. We ended up getting a really good deal for 45 minutes. The people that were renting it out to us were actually from Utah. Well they were from MeXiCo but moved to Utah and were now in Mexico again (something about not liking the cops on them all the time...yikes). Despite their problems with the law they were really nice they were brothers and kept saying they love LDS people cuz they are so friendly. Anyway Jet skiing in the ocean was a blast I have been jet skiing many times but never in a wavy beautiful ocean i loved it! After Jet skiing we set up camp the the beach and went swimming. Oh my Gosh the water was PERFECT! It was as warm as bath water I loved it and never wanted to get out. We also rented some boogie boards that was super fun I had never done that before. Thank you Ty for teaching me how to boogie board and for telling me when to go for the good waves :) After a long day of of swimming beach fun and fried skin we were starving so we went to a cute Mexican authentic place call Margaritas. Ty got this crab salad thing and I got beef tacos with rice and beans. It was so so good and there were even people singing and playing guitars. Then we went back to the ShOpS that we liked and got tons of fun stuff and little presents for our familes. And of course we got way fun stuff for us. We got a cool mexican blanket, i got a sun dress, we got a cool mask, some Tshirts, and much much more. After shopping we headed back to the ship in a really cool taxi. I don't know how to explain it but it was like a little buggie. On our way into the port we saw some more shops and there was this awesome artist. We went to go see what he was all about and he was Awesome he painted full beautiful scenic paintings with just sPrAy PaInTiNgS. Coolest thing I have ever seen. I loved it so much we bought two a small one and a big one of a sunset in Mazatlan. Then we were right back on the ship. It was a full yet relaxing day. After getting ready for the night we met up with Dan and Kristin and went to the ice show with them again. Then to dinner with them then went to the song and dance show and then later that night we went to a hilarious show It was the Love and Marriage Newlywed game show. It was so so funny The newly wed couple was from California but But go to BYU and are LDS they had been married for four days haha. We met them later on they are so sweet. The middle couple were interesting and the older couple was from Utah. It was awesome. The Last that night at midnight they had a buffet at midnight up by the pool it was fun and super yummy.

Swimming in that beautiful warm water was a Blast!

Thursday July 2nd
Our very last port day and maybe our favorite was Puerto Vallarta. The whole day was taken by our adventure of the cruise....zIp LiNeS Baby! We got off and Ty did what he did best he spoke Spanish and worked his magic and got an awesome price for a Canopy Tour! We road up the beautiful mountain on a Bus we saw a part of Mexico that was hard to see but what I wanted to see the most. We got out of the tourist city and saw some of rEaL Mexico. It was kinda hard to see and I wanted to cry when I saw how some people live but it was fun to wave to the cute little kids and seeing people ride down the mountain on donkeys. I know I'm weird but I love new cultures and love meeting new people. It did make me so grateful for what I have and the opportunities in America. After a long beautiful ride we got to the top of the mOuNtAiN. We got all our gear on and listened to some instructions and we were off. We did twelve different Zip Lines they were all a little different some were short, some were long, some were fast, but they all had a gorgeous view that I will never forget. We were allowed to take pictures (lame) but luckily I will always remember that view. I was so nervous on the first one and screamed really loud in fact one of the guys said I win in the sCrEaMiNg category of the group haha but I got a lot braver and it was amazing. There was one of the zip lines that I got to go backwards and upside down with one of the tour guides. WOW that is all I have to say about that experience. When we got to the bottom we got to ride donkeys back up...the only problem with this is that for some reason they didn't bring enough down so ty was a gentleman and walked by my side he is so sweet but I felt bad for him. We got back and ate at a little restaurant they had right there we just got our favorite Mexican drink MaNzAnItA sOl and some beans and cheesy chips yummy. After our ride back down the mountain we were back on the ship. Then we were off to dinner with Dan and Kristen and our adopted family and of course the food was incredible like always. The show this night was another entertaining super funny one they called it the Quest Game show. The game show was like this: they split the room up in teams and we had a girl captain and a boy captain for each team. Then they would give us something to find that we had to give to our captain to bring up to the gAmE sHoW host and if we got it up there fast we got points. some examples of stuff they had a bring up were: mans pants unworn, a belt, a memory card, a bra not worn, a thong (he meant flip flops but of course he said thong so the crazies would come out), a man wearing heals and so much more but you get the idea it was scary and very funny.

gotta love the handstands on the beach...that is another tradition from our honeymoon

The bottom left pictures are of the Quest Game show... the rest are just pretty views of Puerto Vallarta

Friday July 3rd
Friday was another day at the sea all day on the ship and we entertained ourselves don't you worry :) Friday was full of sleeping in, food, laying out and frying my legs, mini golfing, Johnny Rockets food, fake TaTtOoS and another fun Formal Night Dinner. First of all Mini GoLfInG was a blast I love to say I golfed on a ship. Ty is such a fun husband and good husband for doing all the crazy fun things I wanted to do. The formal night was so so so much fUn and dinner was with our awesome crew of our adopted family and Dan and Kristin. I have a story about Dinners. Well I told ty that this cruise was going to be full of firsts and me trying things. Some of my firsts were parasailing, ziplining, rocking climbing on a rock wall, ice skating in the middle of the oCeAn, boogie boarding and trying new foods. Ty was taking advantage of my firsts so the deal was that I would try the different things that Ty would order at dinner. I was adventureous! The best part of the day though was when Ty sang KaRaOkE! I was so proud of him he did soooo good and by far got the most cheers everyone loved him. He sang Two Pina Colatas! You did the best babe!

There is us mini golfing, eatting Johnny Rockets for lunch and having a blast at Formal Night.
Can you see my lobster red legs in the formal pic hahaha

Saturday July 4th Last day :(
I kinda missed the typical fourth of jUlY festivities but I can complain I had an amazing fourth in the middle of the ocean with my cute hubby! We totally took advantage of all the things to do on the ship this day since it was the last day. We hung out with dan and Kristin pretty much the whole day. First we went ice skating it was so so so so much fun! After about an hour or so of that we decided to climb the rock wall. This was a fun aDvEnTuRe because ty had never rock climbed before. Good job Ty I am proud of you. He is always so willing to try new things. :) I hadn't been rock climbing in a really long time and I have never rock climbed on a wall only a mountain and they are diferent. Well since it had been so long since I had climbed I forgot to ise my legs more so my arms were getting so SoRe I didn't feel like I could finish so I told the guy helping me that I wanted to come down and he said no hahaha yeah he said no he said you can do it and you are strong so I kept going cuz he wasn't letting me down and even though I didn't think I could I got to the top of a pretty difficult path. Thank you Rock Climbing worker for pushing me to do better! After rock climbing we changed and went to Johnny Rockets again. This time when the workers started dAnCiNg Kristin and I joined in it was silly our boys enjoyed watching us though. After getting super full at the diner we decided to take advantage of the ArCaDe. We were the only adults in there haha. It was so much fun though I think the favorite game of all of us was the surfing one. Its the closest I have ever come to surfing....one day I will do the real thing (huge goal of mine) Ty has already been sUrFiNg lucky ducky. After all of our fun it was time to get ready for our last dinner. We didn't get sat with our adopted family so we were a little sad about that but we were the table right next to them and we sat with Dan and Kristin so it was all good and we still got pictures with all of them that night. I wish we would have exchanged email with that fam to keep in touch :( After dinner we went to the ending show which was the juggler again and another comedian and then later on that night they had the end of the week parade! I got my fourth of July PaRaDe :) After everything started dying down that night I started getting really sad that it was already over. So I kept telling Ty that I didn't want to go to bed cuz then it would be over sooner so before we went to bed we took one more walk around the whole ship and took some pictures and got one more late night snack of pizza. Then we were off the bed :(

These pictures are of us ice skating, rock climbing and Johnny Rockets!

The Arcade! We are allowed to act like little kids on vacation right?!

Our pictures of our last dinner with Dan and Kristin and our adopted Family.
The bottom left picture is of Ty's victory he finally mastered Papa Don's trick that he showed us earlier in the week and got the spoon in the water glass. Go job Ty it was awesome.
That Evening sky was beautiful and the sunset was gorgeous.

These were some of our many random pictures from our last walk that last night.

These were all of our towel animals from the whole week. Everynight our housekeeper would make a different towel animal. Aren't they awesome!

Sunday July 5th
When we woke up we got ready, finished packing got some breakfast and out the door we went off of the ship with our bags. It was so sad to get off I was totally stalling haha. We got off the ship around ten and started our jOuRnEy back to Utah. We decided to hop off the freeway and take a detour. Our detour was a couple hours out of our way but ended up really exciting. Ty has been wanting to take me to one of the places he served on his mIsSiOn called Lake LA and so of course I wanted to go. When we finally got there all the people he knew were still in church so he decided to show me his house. After looking at it he then showed me where his favorite family the Fransens lived and then showed me around tOwN. Then he wanted to go to the church to see if there car was there and it was. I could totally tell he really wanted to see them. We were not in church clothes though we were in jeans and a t-shirt and flip flops since this was a spur of the moment thing. After much debating we decided to go in the church anyway. I got to finally meet brother and sister FrAnSeNs and their kids that I have heard so much about they were sooooo nice and I am so happy we stopped to see them. We talked to Sister Fransen at the church for like two more hours and I could tell Ty was loving being back there. When it was finally time to get back on the road I could tell Ty was sad to go. Thank you so much babe for sharing this part of your life with me. We got back on the rOaD and our next stop was the big huge thermometer. On our way home from our honeymoon we stopped and took a bunch of pictures by it so we decided to make it a tradition and do it again. The drive then continued until St. George we decide to stop to see them and tell them about our cruise and check out their new house again. It was fun visiting. We were stalling in st George and didn't want to leave because that meant our vacation was over :( That night when we finally did get to Cedar City it was so good to be back and in our own home.

As you can tell we were very sad to leave the habor. But we did both wear our new Mazatlan T-shirts on the car ride home. We are such typical tourists I love it :)
The middle big picture is a picture of me with our housekeeper Clemente! I loved Clamente he was so sweet and always greated us with such enthusiasm and he knew our names and he was just so cute! Ty made fun of me for always saying I love Clemente but he made me sooo happy! Thank you Clemente for everything

The two bottom pictures are the view to and from Lake LA its pretty and there are a lot of Joshua Trees.
That is the house that Ty lived in while in this area...spoiled it was old but BIG!
And yes that top picture is a picture ty took of me when he was filling up with gas and I was sleeping he thought it was so funny because my mouth is open and I am soooo out of it.

Our favorite part of the California/Utah drive is the big Thermometer! And yes it was July so it was freakin hot.

Thank you Baby for such an amazing vacation. I got to spend so much time with you and I couldn't have asked for a more fun time. Thank you for all the adventures, for dressing up with me, for all the fun pictures, for getting fake tattoos with me, and most of all for all of the memories that we get to share together. I can't wait to do this with you again!

Sorry for the long post but since it is a journal I didn't want to miss anything. A lot has happened in our lives since the begining of July so stay tuned for some more updating posts.