Zoo Lights

The Phoenix Zoo does Zoolights every year and this was the first year we decided to go. We weren't to sure as to what to expect, but we have heard great things about it. We went on a Saturday night and first went out to dinner to our favorite Johnny Rockets and then headed over to zoolights. We wanted to make sure we got there right when it opened because our kids go to bed about 7:00.

Hollie was SOO excited to go and couldn't wait. She loved seeing all the Christmas lights around our neighborhood and we knew she would get a kick out of this too. We were all bundled up and ready for a fun evening. We thought it was going to be cold, but lucky us the weather was gorgeous...we didn't even need coats. That is one of the benefits of living in Arizona!!

Here are our adorable kiddos, bundled up for some fun.

One of Hollie's favorite trees

So cute, so perfect so full of innocence

Ethan just hung out in the stroller and enjoyed a churro

Daddy's little girl or shall I say Princess.

She had to carry around her bear so that he could see all the lights too.

Mommy's girl for sure

Hollie wanted to take our picture by the "blue" tree...this is her photo! Pretty impressive for only being 3 1/2

A fun evening with the family. I am so grateful for them and for the joy they bring to my life.

Gingerbread houses!

This year I decided to start a new tradition and that is to have some friends and family over to make gingerbread houses. Ryan and I have been thinking of a few "new" traditions that we can start and do every year and this was one of them. I know Ryan was excited to make one, but instead he was a great father and helped Hollie make hers...maybe next year love. We all had a blast and it was fun watching the kids create their own. Believe it or not, but the mess afterwards wasn't even that bad...hooray!!!

The beginning

hard at work

The Empire State Building

.....And here is Crystal's gingerbread house....so cute and so creative...I love the Santa Clause going down the licorice chimney.

Thanks everyone for coming it was SO much fun! Can't wait till next year!

Our Last Night

The sunset on our last night could have not been any better. We stood at the top of the ship and watched the sun go completely down..while eating a bowl of ice cream...it couldn't have been better!

My handsome man!

Our last night of our dream come true vacation...can't wait for the next one!

Our last couple of days

Our last couple of days were spent on the ship out at sea. We did lots of relaxing, sleeping in, gettting room service, attending shows, and eating lots of ice cream and hot chocolate. We weren't outside much because the weather had really cooled and it was very windy. There were many activities going on inside that we were able to participate in and watch. One being horse racing, this was hilarious! Each horse had a name, there were 6 horses. The funniest name was hoof-arted (you would think Ryan made this is, but I am proud to say he didn't:). Everyone put money down on which horse they thought would win. Every round the horses were worth a certain dollar amount. The main guy "Stew" (who did an awesome job directing ALL of the activities) was the one who rolled the dice and called out which horse moved up one line. Whichever horse got to the finish line first one. It was so loud and people were screaming and yelling for their horse. We sat back and watched and laughed our heads off, it was great!!


Here we are in the dinning room. One of the activities was to take a tour of the kitchen...let me just say that that was amazing. I cannot believe how much food they make for one day! They said they prepare about 10,000 meals a day, yes a day!!!!!! That would be 80,000 meals for our 8 days!!! Oh my gosh! They gave stats on how much alcohol they have on board and that was a rediculous amount, the number of pounds of meat, how much water, everything...it was just amazing!





Here they were preparing for dinner. Look how BIG there pans are!





This is the soup. Can you believe all that...I sure couldn't...crazy

Well, this was my favorite guy. He is the one I looked forward to seeing everyday at 3pm...He was the ICE CREAM MAN. This is where you got yummy delicous ice cream with all sorts of yummy toppings and was simply delicious!!!
(He didn't realize I was taking his picture)

The Sunset in Manzanillo

This needed to be a post all by itself. The sunset in Manzanillo was beautiful to say the least!

Manzanillo, Mexico

Manzanillo was our last port in Mexico. We arrived on Wednesday morning and spent all day here. For our excursion we did an outdoor tour, shopping, plantation and lunch at a resort. This was a great tour! We first stopped in downtown Manzanillo and did a little bit of shopping. Then we were on our way to the plantation in Mexico. This was amazing! We went off on a dirt road and were able to see where the banana's are grown along with coconuts, sugar cane and papaya's. We have never seen exactly how banana's are grown and here there were acres and acres of bananas. These banana's are the best banana's we have ever had!

Here we are in front of a banana tree

The banana tree. The banana's are covered by newspaper and a blue bag.

The banana's grow from flowers on a tree.

All the yummy fruit that is grown on the plantation

Following our plantation visit we headed to this nice hotel where we lounged out on the beach and were served delicious guacamole and chips. This was so relaxing and I could have sat on the beach all day long.

Ixtapa-Zijuatenejo

Ixtapa-Zijuatenejo, Mexico. I can honestly say that this was our favorite port. The little city was beautiful, everything was so green and lush.

The excursion we did here was the catamaran sail and snorkel. We always enjoy doing snorkeling, the water was so clear and calm..it was beautiful. There were many colored fish and the coral was gorgeous. The ride back we were able to sail and relax, listen to music and enjoy the sounds of the ocean. We toured around the cove of Ixtapa-Zijuatenejo and found some gorgeous homes up on the cliffs, we even found one we would LOVE to buy, but we will keep wishing :). We walked along the streets of the city and saw how the people really lived. We even got to see the kids at school and they were so cute! Here are a few pictures from our adventures in Ixtapa.

On our way to snorkel

Here is one of the guys (workers) on the catamaran...he was hilarious!

The house we would love to buy...right on the water...and gorgeous!

The beach of Zijuatenejo

The children at school...so cute!

A beautiful city

Acapulco, Mexico

On Monday we pulled into Acapulco Mexico. It was beautiful being in the front of the ship watching us come in.

We booked our tours through the ship just because we felt safer doing that. Here we did a bus tour around Acapulco and it was awesome.

Here are a few of our highlights from Acapulco.

Pulling into Acapulco. View from the ship.

These are the famous cliffs in Acapulco where diver's jump. I want to say it was around 130 ft. high.

If you look really closely you can see 2 diver's. This is one of the big things that Acapulco is known for are the cliff diver's. Many of the boys start very young. It is an art. There are boys in the water below who watch the height of the water and when it is high enough the diver's are given the okay to jump. At the top of the cliffs are 2 little worship places. Before the boys jump they always say a prayer to the Mother of Guadalupe..who they worship. No one has ever been severly injured or killed. The first girl just started jumping and she is 13 years old.

Here we are at a famous restaurant called Senor Frogs. They have the BEST guacamole ever!! The view from here was gorgeous.

In the evening we were walking along the beach and came to a bunch of men, boys pulling this big thick rope out of the water. We weren't sure what it was until we started talking to someone else from the ship. Every evening these men go way out into the water, in a small fishing boat, and drop the gigantic net. They pull the ropes in with them and continue pulling the rope in while the net is picking up fish. This is how they get their fresh fish everyday. It was a lot of work and took them a little about 2 hours to pull the net in and there were 12 guys pulling the rope...6 on each side! After watching this and thinking all the work they go to to feed their families you become very humbled and really see how blessed we are. There were kids running to get small fish and the mother's were standing behind the men with their bags. It was very interesting to watch how the people "live". And here was our home away from home. I have to say, I felt a little guilty getting back on this ship.

2 Days at Sea

Our first two days were spent at sea. Being on a HUGE ship was like a city on water. We were never board. We enjoyed relaxing, reading, people watching (always entertaining), eating non-stop, having ice cream at our fingertips, attending events that were planned while at sea, miniature golf, sleeping in and being waited on hand and foot! The list could go on and on, it was a blast. We were both so amazed at how a ship this big could float and have ALL that it has...AMAZING!

Our first day out at sea...BEAUTIFUL!!

This was an "elegant" night, where we were able to dress up and go to dinner...so much fun! We have a picture of the both of us, but it was taken by the photographers and is in a frame, sorry.

Here is our ship, The Carnival Spirit. It had 3 pools and a slide...so much fun!

Mexican Riviera Cruise

Ryan and I went on our first cruise the day after Thanksgiving!! To say the least it was FABULOUS and I recommend everyone go on atleast one. All I know is that we are now set on cruising...it IS the way to go. We took the cruise down the "Exotic Mexican Riviera". It was 8 nights and absolutely FABULOUS! Our ports were Acapulco, Ixtapa-Zijuatanejo, and Manzanillo, Mexico.
We bravely left our kiddos and went on a vacation all by ourselves. It was hard leaving the kids, but we knew they would be just fine. It wasn't hard for them to leave us, because Hollie kept telling us it was time for us to go. (I think she was a little too excited :))
We left from Arizona and headed down to San Diego. The drive was great, but felt like forever! We got to Ryan's parents house, dropped off the car and they took us down to the port. Everything went great until I slammed my finger in the door of the car!!!! Can I tell you how bad it hurt? There are no words to describe the pain. The door was all the way shut and there was my index finger in it!!!! Aaaah just thinking about it makes it hurt. Ryan quickly came to my rescue and wanted to look at it. I didn't want to look because all I wanted to do was get down to the ship! I was in such denial that this happened and I wasn't going to let it interupt our vacation. It looked terrible, bruised pretty quickly and I still don't have feeling in my finger where it was cut. Oh well, I atleast had a fabulous trip with my wonderful husband.
Here are a few of our first day highlights:

Don't you love the ice on my finger. Don't mind the face, I had been crying, it hurt SOOOO bad and was throbbing.

Too cute! I love my wonderful husband