and the rest of those days: old news on the cruise

two part post

Part 1: Marie
geez. sometimes it's so annoying to be so slow. but anyway, here's the end of the cruise, in a nutshell.

Laine is obsessed with mail, right now, and specifically the receiving of mail. but she's also discovered that it helps to send mail if you hope to get mail. here she is writing postcards at the mini-table in our room. she wrote portions of it in spanish (like Hola and como estas), once we overcame this little hurdle, "Mom, how do you write H in spanish?" (you need to imagine her saying that in her best spanish accent. hilarious.)

here's catalina - another big boat (the ferry) taking us to the island; hanging out with uncle jer on the "submarine" where we got to shoot "torpedos" of fish food, thus causing absurd numbers of fish to swarm around us through ridiculously long kelp (it can grow 24 inches in 24 hours, incidentally - how's that for fecundity, cath?) we cruised around on a golf cart (only the run-of-the-mill regular kind, not the tricked out mercedes or hummer versions that the locals drive), ate some really fabulous tacos...and went back for more, picked up Laine's most coveted souvenir of the trip - Del Sol fingernail polish that changes color in the sunlight! just ask her about it. AND we made it back to the ship in time for some freezing swimming! awesome.

Part two: Jim
"oh oh Mexico. i've never really been but I'd sure like to go." I'd bet five bucks James Taylor was not thinking of Ensenada when he wrote those words. Not that Ensenada isn't great. It is all about managing expectations. If you are looking for a street where you can buy anything from dried sea horses to pink sombreros, to really inappropriate coffee mugs....This is the place for you! We did happen to be looking for dried sea horses (and starfish) as well as pink sombreros so we were not disappointed. (no coffee mugs for us, thank you. yuck.)

Right off the bat we also had to hit some of the standard stops on any Ensenada street. We bought a bracelet with Laine's name on it and we got her hair braided into corn rows. I'm not sure why, but Laine sat still and chatted up the locals for about 20 minutes while the woman braided her hair. Laine won't let us put a clip in her hair without running away twice and crying at least once, but she did great here. It must have been the large bag of beads she got to choose from. Then back to the boat for another cold and windy swim on top of the boat. (blessed be the name of my brother Jer for getting into the freezing water with her and being an awesome uncle.)

And finally the drive home. We were scared of the drive to California and back but both worked out great. We stopped in Vegas and stayed with our great friends Eric, Jennie, Mollie, and Rubie. The kids had a blast, we had fun catching up. Such a fun vacation! Thanks mom and dad for making it happen!


Stay tuned for the next addition......you might be a redneck if.......you like to dig your own grave....with your own tractor. Yeah - go Jackson family!

days 3-4: the big boat and Sea World

get ready for a serious understatement: cruise ships are really big. REALLY BIG. this was confusing to the wombat who remained convinced that we were at the hotel, and when were we going to get on THE BIG BOAT for crying out loud? fortunately, the other boats in the harbor were very entertaining and distracting until we were moving and Romney realized that we were on the big boat after all! saved!
what a happy discovery for the kids to find a port-a-crib AND a bunk bed all ready to go in our very own room - and such a tiny bathroom and shower! this was a highlight for our little toothpicky kids, not so much for us. hanging out in gigantic life jackets in ridiculous lines with the sun in our eyes at the muster station, on the other hand, not a highlight.

another mega-bonus on the cruise: FOOD! very delicious and plenty of it (just ask my bro-in-law who ordered three entrees at one time), and waiters who don't flinch when your kids say, "macaroni and cheese, no cheese" and then proceed to make a big mess of the 18 pieces of silverware they give you, spread their very plain noodles all over the place, and then practically fall asleep at the table. it was a big day...

next day, 1st exotic stop: SAN DIEGO! the comedian on the cruise ship made fun of us for taking a giant and expensive cruise ship to san diego and catalina (there are cheaper ways to visit, it's true...) but we had fun anyway. highlights of sea world:

we all loved feeding and petting dolphins (the little girl at the dolphin show announced that they feel like hot dogs - ever noticed that?)
the incredibly high jumping dolphin, Duncan, was a hit (Laine was devastated that she did not get splashed, despite sitting in the splash zone and made me move up with her, hoping to get drenched by those crazy dolphins, but no luck.)

what's not to love about a place with so much water to splash in, especially when that water is full of bat rays and starfish to touch, flamingos to feed, sharks to stare at, and on and on. we're converted - sea world is awesome, and being there with all the fam made it even better!

interlude: the aftermath

Laine's braids had to come out for mother's day. it was just time. she would have been happy to keep them in indefinitely, I think, and I loved them too. I won't lie. Especially considering how easy it was to not have to do her hair with the braids in. If anyone sees one of those ladies with photo albums of braids here on the streets of slc, let me know. I'd do it again. But still, it was time for them to go. They were getting kind of nappy.
The upside of taking the braids out, is that she got to have Dora hair all day! Doesn't she sort of resemble one of the stooges in the first picture?

And here's Romney in the aftermath of the Cinco de Mayo pinata party (which, by the way, has caused Lainey to ask EVERY DAY since if we could go to the store and buy a pinata.)


I'm not sure what possesses him to unwrap EVERY sucker at the same time, but once he starts there's just no stopping that boy!

the bloomin' desert: days 1-2

okay, so I guess it's about time to start telling about our little trip last week before it gets too far behind. Jim's parents decided it was high time for a Jackson family vacation, and they thought a-cruising we should go. wahoo! but we didn't need to be to the ship in LA until Monday afternoon, so we thought we might as well make the most of the weekend and take the kids to Zion on our way. Besides, we reasoned that anything we could do to break up the drive to cali had to be a good thing. we're all about surivival here.

I will say that the kids did such a good job in the car - it gives me hope for future car trips. once again, we took the emergency barf kit along and didn't have to use it once! if that's not success...I don't know what is. AND we didn't watch movies the whole way, either. another success. actually, this experience confirmed what we had heard, but hadn't known to be true yet, which is that kids grow up! holy cannoli! call me a bad mother if you want, but wow. that's such a relief.

so we rolled into Zion Saturday afternoon. Romney started shouting, "we're in Goblin Valley! we're in Goblin Valley!" it took a little convincing to get Romney to believe that we were in Zion, and not in Goblin Valley as he'd thought. we'd told the kids we were going to Zion National Park, but they looked pretty confused when we said, "we're here!" and finally one of them asked, "but where are the swings?" a little explanation later, we hopped on one of those nifty shuttle buses (serious highlight for Romney, well, that and the REALLY BIG ROCKS) and headed into the park.

We, not being quite as ambitious as some of you out there, opted for the mellow Emerald Pools hike (over, say, Angel's Landing! yeah, maybe in 10 years. Maybe.) The kids hiked the whole way! I was equally proud of them for walking themselves and happy for not to having to carry them. actually, they really ran (and sometimes danced) the whole way. Turns out that playing tag along the trail is really motivating. Hide and seek works well too. I also recommend bringing along a creative and energetic husband!

the desert was absolutely and incredibly gorgeous - everything was in bloom. Laine is turning into quite the photographer, and wanted to stop every other minute to photograph every flower she saw, and the blooming cactus in particular. yep, that's my girl! Romney was way more interested in the sand, the rocks, the water, and especially all three in combination.

the next morning, we drove through the very long tunnel (Laine snapped pictures the whole time, which added up to lots of black photos - one more reason to love digital cameras) and found some sweet slickrock to scramble around on for a while. the kids were in heaven, and would have been happy to stay and play all day if we could.
this whole outing brought back so many fun memories of doing these same kinds of things in the same kinds of places with my own family - I cannot describe how happy it makes me to be continuing this tradition with my kids, AND that they love it so much. long live trips to the desert!

stay tuned for the next installment of the trip.

*my apologies for a completely inconsistent pattern of capitalizing the beginnings of my sentences. apparently I'm losing the english major edge because I just don't care enough to fix it.

Ole! Ole! Ole!

Here is how it went down:
4:45 - My cell phone rings. It's Marie. "Jim, do you know what today is?" "Monday." "cinco de mayo! We're having a fiesta tonight, it is going to be awesome." "Can we have Churros?" "we'll see, gotta go so I can make it happen! Ole!"

5:30 following a trip to costco there are tacos, quesadillas, and other tasty treats cooking

5:35 Laine looses control and is writhing on the floor because she knows there can be no true fiesta without a pinata and there is no way we are going to go buy one because then she will never go to bed.

5:38 Marie and Jim remember that Laine made a pinata at her preschool a few months ago and it is one of the few art projects we have not thrown away. Saved!

5:42 Jim stuffs the round molting chicken pinata full of left over candy. Attaches string and acquires large stick to pound molting chicken.

5:54 Red, White, and Green (tomatoes, quesadilla, kiwi) meal is served to the kids and family home evening lesson on strengthening the family.

5:55 Romney leaves the table in search of princess slippers to wear with his super-romney cape.

6:03 Laine has been tricked into eating her quesadilla by having a contest to see who can eat faster, me or her. It is a tie.

6:09 pinata slaughter commences.

6:25 sugar high begins.

6:58 sugar crash occurs, children go to bed.


7:15 Laine comes out of her bedroom and goes sits on the toilet for 25 minutes saying she is going potty but really just trying to stay up later.

7:45 kids finally sleep so mom and dad can have seriously good tacos in peace for our fiesta!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!