Catalina Island Day 2

We woke up bright and early in Catalina! The cutest little island ever. We had to ride a ferry over since the big ships can't port there. 

It's basically this little island owned by the Wrigly (gum) family. It was so fun cruising the island, shopping and finding little gems of excitement! with amazing views! 

We rented a golf cart (probably my favorite thing we did) and just cruised the island! We went all over the town within an afternoon and really enjoyed it! The look outs were beautiful!

We stumbled upon a donut shop that had giant donuts! And they were cheap and SO good. We scarfed them down, then found some pizza for lunch. 

Of course the girls loved shopping for all of the accessories. 

On the way out we found a little crevis in a rock so we climbed up to it to investigate. 

When we returned back to the ship, we were all delighted to find the towel animals. They were so cute and really made the girls excited every day. 

That afternoon, we just lounged, and enjoyed the sun. By this time, our teens had found the teen club and had made a friend gang who all hung out together and roamed the ship as they wished. I was happy they were making friends and being adventurous! We didn't see much of them. Walkie talkie helped tremendously on this trip!

Carter helped Ry across!

Chad was pumped there was a shooting tournament. They played lightning and he was the last one to win!!! It was intense and lots of people were cheering him on. He beat out a really tall guy and a couple of big black guys you could tell were athletes. He was thrilled to death! He went back another to day to play and was beat out in the last few people. 

That night we took our kids to the family comedy show. We had our fancy dinner that night so we all dressed up in our sparkly attire and laughed our bums off at the comedy show. I don't know if the younger girls appreciated it or not, but we had a good time. 

I found all our sparkly clothes at DI and I just had to get them and it was so fun to be sparkly and dressed up!

Here's our fancy dinner. It was good....not amazing, but a fun experience to have a 5 course meal. 

Pasta and steak were among the favorites. 

On the fancy night the teen club had a prom! They even voted for a prom king and queen! Well guess who won....of course Mollie. And this other kid named Jamie. We won't talk much about him...turned out to be a reallll loser. But they had fun for the time being. He even held her hand during a show. Carter even made some friends and had fun hanging out. 

Radiance Prom king and queen 

I spied the whole teen group in one of the elevators across the way. 

And at the dance party boogying up on the balcony. THIS was my favorite thing. I loved letting loose and dancing to fun songs with a fun crowd! One guy even told me he knew I was a fitness teacher or something because I had moves! HA! I didn't even care what I looked like, I was just busting a move. Most of the people are drunk and look dumb anyway, so I didn't care!

My pretty little gal. 

We were exhausted at the nights end waiting for our kids to get back to the room but it was nice that I felt like I could just let them roam and have fun and be kids. 
 

Cruise DAY 1

It was slightly overcast as we made our way to our beautiful ship, the Carnival Radiance! Walking up to these guys always has me in awe of how large they really are! Check in went well, except for an exploding soda mishap! Sorry Chad! He got the worst of it and it made a mess for the workers! But it was so nice to have our own free drinks whenever we wanted them. 

The kids were so excited! They couldn't wait to swim! And we came prepared with swimsuits under our clothes so the fun could begin right then! We paid a little extra for early boarding and it was awesome having most of that first day to an empty ship!

We found our lounge chairs and the kids dispersed to what was calling to them. 

The girls went straight to the water park. It was slightly cold but it didn't stop them. They were the only ones playing so it worked out great! Soon after, they found the hot tub and spent lots of time in that. I couldn't ever bring myself to get in it with all the people that were eventually packed in there!

Carter man went straight for the free burgers and fries. He couldn't believe he could go get them any  time he wanted and not have to pay. (Don't worry bud, we paid PLENTY for them!)

I put my feet up and enjoyed the sounds and sun! This was so exciting to get to experience with my kids!

We found camp ocean and the girls weren't too sure of it at first, but by the last night, they didn't want to leave!

They all did the ropes course several times and it was fun watching them all, even Brielle who is afraid of heights, master it!

You know you're from Idaho when we all go get dessert and Carter comes back to the table with.....potatoes. 

The ocean and sunset were magical and once we had all the kids settled, Chad and I went to the front of the boat for a Jack and Rose moment. 

Perfect first day! on to day 2!
 

Road Trip to CA for our Cruise!

Days before we left to drive 12 hours across the desert, our car's AC decided to die. We didn't have much choice but to hope for the best and take lots of cold drinks and hit the road! It was warm on the way there! We had all the windows down and tried to make the best of it. 

We stopped at the 7 Magic mountains to stretch our legs and admire this random piece of art. 

Pretty unique and very random art in the middle of nowhere!

Next stop was Death Valley at the World's Largest Thermometer in the hottest part of the desert. I think it was clocking 89 degrees. WHEW! We were warm and dreading getting back in the car. Luckily, things got a little cooler from there. 

This is how some of us rode. 

We were so happy to get to California and find that our hotel was absolutely stunning and so nice! 

We immediately went to the pool to cool off our warm bodies. It was warm but there was a cool breeze that felt so nice!

The kids wrestled in the pool while I relaxed!

Look how cute this lobby is looking down from our room. We loved this place and the breakfast was awesome. 

We went to bed happy and looking forward to getting up and getting to our cruise!! All in all, the kids did awesome on the way there. 
 

Cheer pics!!

EEK! Can you say gorgeous?! Brielle looked stunning all dressed up for cheer pics! She has grown alot this year learning about cheer and all that goes into it. 

And she has shone on stage and nailed all of her performances. 

She really has found a love for it all! Except those extra tight arm sleeves! Ugh...the worst for her!

She's so grown up looking!

I even got my picture taken with the other coaches. These ladies are fun to work with and have made some of my dreams come true!

Team Explosion 2023. 

Little did we know that this coming fall the studio would close and this would be their last season as a cheer team. But I'm happy they could learn all that they did this year!