Happy 2010! My Top 10 of Our Cruise!

Our family just returned late last night from a Mexican Rivera cruise on Royal Caribbean and we had the time of our lives! I'd highly recommend this cruise. It is very kid friendly and there was something for everyone. It departs from Los Angeles and goes to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. There were so many incredible things about the cruise. Here are my top 10:

1. The beautiful sunsets! Simply breathtaking.

2. The wild ride in one of these Jeeps! We were heading up to the rain forest terrain for our exciting adventure. Well--this ended up being a REALLY exciting adventure. It was exactly like being on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland except it was for REAL!

3. The amazing ziplines at this place:

Ziplining down the mountainside over rain forests and waterfalls was simply the most exciting and scariest adventures I've ever been on!

I was very grateful for these triple carabiners.

4. Repelling down a waterfall:

This is where you ended up!

Kade loved it!

I thought Brecken was enjoying it:

All the sudden she got really scared and started yelling "Mom!" I was at the top and was trying to give her advice. Luckily we had some great guides who got us all down safely.

5. Riding mules up the mountain to get to the ziplines.

The dogs in Mexico are very relaxed (really nice) and hilarious!

6. Visiting an orphanage in Mazatlan was an experience our family will never forget.

We took stuffed animals, picture books written in Spanish and these adorable Shake and Find bottles:

A church youth group in Washington sent several of these to give the kids. I was touched at how much work and effort they went to. They carefully washed out water bottles, filled them with rice and small objects, then labeled them with a list of things to find--of course written in Spanish. Very clever.

Each of my children had a child they wanted to take home. I would have gladly taken any or all of them! They were all so adorable and our hearts went out to their circumstances.

7. Hooking up with our dear friends, the Palmers. (Paula and I have been friends since we were three.) They showed us the ropes of Mazatlan (they go almost every Christmas).

8. Having the chance to be with our entire family one last time before Kade leaves on his mission. The "boat" in the background was our stomping grounds for a week.

9. Playing on the beautiful beaches. Sage and I were lounging on the beach when Steve snapped this shot.

And then this one:

10. Meeting fellow scrapbookers onboard the ship. This is Missy from Iowa and her cute family.

Really a great time. I highly recommend it.

Hope you're having a great week and are getting back into the swing of things.

Happy 2010!

Lisa