It was a Sensational trip on the Elation! (in my best australian accent)

For Christmas my parents gave all of their children a Cruise to Mexico. Brad and Vanessa couldn't go because her immigration papers had lapsed. So they are heading to Hawaii on Monday instead. January 12, 2008 we all left from different places in the US and met in San Diego, to board the cruise ship. Imagine our surprise when we walked up to the cruise line to see this was our ship! The Black Pearl.....cool huh? A little small though.
Oh whoops, I guess if I looked the other way I would have seen this monstrous ship....The Elation!
After setting sail and getting situated and eating anything and everything. We went to bed early and slept in. (wahoo!!)
Our first real day on the boat we enjoyed beautiful weather, food, sunshine, massages, and music. We had our formal dinner that night and here are a few pictures of us all dressed up.
It was great to see Bryce and Lisa. I haven't' seen them in a year and it was really fun to spend time with them.

The lovely ladies after dinner. (yes, I do wear this dress a lot.)
My dad, Trevan, Bob and Bryce. Nate and Dustin had already taken off too the casino.
Trevan and Kennan
Doesn't she look great for being 7 months pregnant?
Bob and I
Mom and Dad....I love this little fifties dress my mom was wearing.

After dinner many nights we hit the hot tub. One night Bryce bet Trevan $50 if he would wear Brooke's swimsuit to the hot tub. Dustin had already said he wasn't going to the hot tub until he saw Trev. Without a bet he put on Brooke's other swimsuit bottoms and joined in. Oh, Dustin.....
Trevy baby.....who wouldn't pay 50 bucks?
How can I not mention our lovely towel friends? Who didn't love going into your room to find one of these little gems? Wii, our stateroom steward made this one special for pregnant Kennan.
As it turns out Wii, has worked for the cruise line for 19 years and he was the actual person to start the towel creatures. He told us how he use to get in trouble for making them and using all the towels; but after so many people sent comments about loving them they asked him to teach everyone.

~Cabo San Lucas~

Kennan and Trevan rented a wave runner and followed us around while Brooke & Dustin and Bob & I Para-Sailed. Yes, Kennan did fall off once not being that balanced with her belly. Trevan rode wave runners for the first time ever.

After we hit land in Cabo, a man with an Iguana walked over to us and handed Bob the reptile. He then looked at Bob and said "two dollar". Yes, we were taken at every turn!
My personal favorite is the sweet little Mexican hat the Iguana is wearing.
Brooke was determined that she and Dustin were going to Para-Sail. Me, Bob, and my dad decided that we were going to ride along and watch.
After seeing how much fun it looked Bob and I decided to try it out also.
My Dad, just hanging out. (He doesn't do that much.)

Here we are para-sailing. It was so fun. We watched as Manta ray's jumped out of the water. It was great.
Yeah, we were up pretty high.
Here is the famous arch right off of "Lover's Beach".
We took some little tour that showed you all around the cove and here was the ledge where all the Seals were hanging out. Our tour boat took us about five feet from them, they were REALLY stinky.
Here are Brooke and Dustin Snorkeling.....Brooke had to snorkel! Don't mind that the boat they took out was nasty, the man didn't even have life jackets for them and he was throwing food around them so the fish would come right up to them. If you can see Brooke's face she is FREAKING out. We just giggled as we drove past.

*On a side note: Apparently, you are not supposed to take these little adventures unless it is through the cruise. It is supposedly really dangerous and a real "no no". We didn't know this until after our little adventure and we could actually see the Cruise Line point. Oh well, Brooke and Dustin lived. We also spent half the money we would have if we went through the cruise.

Bryce and Lisa had a little less luck and were stung by jelly fish....


~Ensenada~

La Boufadora (the blow hole)
Once again we took the tour that was local....we like to live dangerously. My mom and dad went with Bob and I on the tour and we had a lovely time.
It was really neat to see this, I guess there are only 2 others like this through out the whole world.
We hit the flea market while we were their and found Tucker an awesomely disgusting real shark head.....what 8 year old wouldn't love that. Also a great Nacho Libre mask for Abe. It got kind of chilly the last 2 days on the cruise....that was a little sad but we brought jackets....anything seems warmer than where my parents live.

Okay, I know that you can't see this very well but it says Carnival Legends. As you know most of my family does not drink so we kept to a few places at night. The most popular being the Karaoke Room. Well, Kennan is quite the performer so she did a few numbers, Brooke also joined her for a little Back Street Boys number. I might add it was Awesome! Bob even performed a little Garth Brooks and made twenty bucks from Dustin who dared him to do it. Lisa, who did do a little drinking, performed a moving rendition of a Madonna's La Isla Bonita. It turned out that she was in a competition with a few other ladies, Kennan being one of them, and she won. So the last night of the Cruise she had to perform Madonna's Like a Virgin.
Here she is....a few drinks later.
Don't mind that they made her have a rehearsal, gave her a costume and an MP3 player to practice her song. She was stressing out, saying "how did I get myself into this?" She was great and we all had a fabulous time watching her. She was our claim to fame the whole trip......"Madonna's my sister-in-law!"
Bryce and Lisa.....After the show. Doesn't he look proud? He was, it was cute.(ahhh...I know)
Mike and Pam with the super star.

Our cruise was a great time. Bob picked up three new accents...Australian, Mexican , and eastern European. It made my dad laugh so hard every time Bob would use any of these accent. He especially LOVED when he quoted our Australian Cruise director. Dad made him say it to everyone, even if they had heard him 20 times. My family is so funny. I have to say, if you only know me and you think I am out of control you need to meet the rest of my family. I am one of the most reserved of them. I have to say that our parties are never dull, and you are guaranteed to laugh your head off. I cannot tell you how funny it was to see everyone Karaoke, I swear they should all be in movies. We missed Brad and Vanessa but we still managed to have a good time. I had hoped to relax and not worry about anything and that definitely was achieved. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great time and creating a sensational environment for us to hang out in. I am so glad you two decided to have 6 kids! I count them as my biggest blessing.