Our Vacation

Since March, we had been looking forward to our summer vacation. Matt's parents decided to take us all on a short(four-night)cruise for a family vacation. We boarded the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship, Monarch of the Seas in Los Angeles. As soon as we boarded, the boys were amazed at the size of the ship and all the stuff to see.

One down side is that Andrew was not feeling well when he woke up that morning at our hotel by the pier. He didn't feel any better when it was time for us to get on the ship. He did his best to be upbeat and have fun but we could see that he was feeling worse and worse as the afternoon wore on.



Nate was feeling fine and started exploring the ship and our stateroom with his usual curious nature. He had fun jumping on the bed and looking at the harbor from our stateroom balcony.




Our stateroom was amazing! It was spacious, beautiful, and had a large private balcony. We even had goodies delivered to our room each night of the cruise. We had sushi, little desserts, and chocolate covered strawberries.







Our first stop (the next day) was at the exotic port of San Diego. That morning, Andrew had gotten sick enough to... uh... be glad he didn't eat the day before. He and Matt decided to stay on the ship while docked in San Diego. This was very disappointing to Andrew, who was looking forward to visiting the Space Museum and the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park. We've been there several times but he loves museums and couldn't wait to go.




After promising to bring back a few surprises for Andrew Grandma, Nate, and I took a taxi to Balboa Park. We found some break-apart archeology kits for Andrew and enjoyed some time at the Art Museum. Nate got to ride on the merry-go-round at the park (my bird/fowl loving boy chose the rooster to ride on). He loved it!




Our third port of call was Catalina Island. Andrew was feeling much better and we all went into Avalon together to do some shopping. Andrew was determined to find a jewel for his museum collection. I was determined to find a nice sweatshirt. I found a sweatshirt but Andrew was not as lucky finding his jewel. He did, however, find a little pirate treasure chest filled with pirate money, a treasure map, and an eye patch. It wasn't the ruby he was looking for, but it was a close second.

Our final stop on the trip was in Ensenada, Mexico. Nate and I stayed on the ship and had a fun time walking around, sitting by the pool, and riding up and down the glass elevator in the main part of the ship.

Andrew, Matt, Grandma, and Grandpa all went into Mexico. Andrew was very excited to visit another country and was certain he would be able to buy a jewel there. There were no jewels there (at least none that were appropriate or affordable enough for a six year old boy). He wasn't too disappointed because he found a silver Mayan necklace charm for his museum. He is so proud of his "medallion". He also was elated to get some genuine Mexican money to add to his collection of foreign currency.




We arrived back in Los Angeles on Friday morning and headed home. We were all very tired but carried home a Mayan medallion, two archeology kits, a comfy sweatshirt, a few extra pounds, and of course memories to last a lifetime.


A few more pictures:

Here are Nate and Grandma at dinner.

The elephant made by our room steward. There was a new animal each night!

Andrew hits the pool!

Nate and Daddy on the pool deck.