Cruise: The Final Word

So, the last day was a Sea Day and everyone stayed out as late as humanly possible so as to soak up every last ounce of vacation and fun. Okay, they were out until I dragged them back in.

We played cards, blackjack, went to the comedy show, bought a canvas portrait of the family ($89 for a 20x30) in black and white. We enjoyed our last night with friends and family and were sad as we packed up for the journey home the next day. Marshel and Kellee stayed late at Camp Carnival and fell asleep watching a movie. They came home with painted faces: Marshel with Batman; Kellee a butterfly.

On this cruise, Brittan ordered the Escargot after trying some of mine last year. Rachel tried it and liked it also. Nate decided to try Lobster and loved it and ate seafood every night I think. Mike didn't like it and stuck with steak. I think he ordered 2 appetizers, 2 entrees and 3 desserts every night. He ate all of it too. Where does he put it all? Lindsay played it safe like me and Martin with steak, chicken, etc. We ended the night dancing and singing with Henry, our waiter from the Phillipines, who taught us Salamat (Thank You), and Ida, our assistant waiter from Indonesia.

It was a great vacation and we can't wait to do it again. Everyone should try this.

Cruise Part Five: Progreso

To start off with, we left Marshel and Kellee at Camp Carnival for the day, so we could explore without worrying about them or listening to them complain when they got tired and hot and cranky.

Progreso has the longest pier in the world, I think about 5 miles. It was so long, but we could see down in the water and saw fish, eels and also the pelicans everywhere. We got off at the Free Market, which was fun with a lot of cool Aztec and Mayan stuff. There was a band playing and singing there as well. We bought a picture from a guy who painted with spray paint and his hands and used lacquer and a lighter to seal his pictures. It was pretty cool. All the kids bought some kind of souvenir.

We took a 20 minute tour of this little town, for a whole $2 per person (plus tip at the end). This is real Mexico right now, without all the tourist traps, yet. They are working on that. We saw their schools, church, city hall, lighthouse and security system (broken bottles set in the cement on the tops of the walls surrounding their homes and yards). It was fun getting to see how others live. I made sure to remind the kids how good they have it and how they should appreciate where they live and what they have.

We walked down to the public beach, about 3 or 4 blocks. We had to dodge or ignore all the pesky vendors on the way there, but the water felt so good and we liked just being somewhere without deadlines, work, school, phone service and stress. It was great. We headed back to the ship and took a little nap and watched a movie until dinner.

Cruise Part Four: Cozumel

Our first stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. We found a van to take us to Playa Mia Beach Resort, where we had paid $49 per person for the all-inclusive package. It was so worth it. We had open bar, with strawberry daquiri's, pina coladas, sodas, bottled water. We also had an all you can eat lunch buffet of great food. There was a freshwater pool, free snorkel gear, kayaks, paddle boats, paddle bikes, a trampoline in the ocean, and as much beach as you could handle.

The one bad thing there was that one guy drowned, a big guy, with his daughter and son and wife there. They left with him on a stretcher still performing CPR and water was coming out of his mouth as they pumped him. The mom was just screaming and the daughter almost had to be carried out. The boy was younger and seemed to be in shock. That was really sad and the kids all saw it happen, but it was a good opportunity to talk to them about water safety.

Anyway, on to happier things. Marshel and Martin headed out to about 5 feet of water, where Marshel donned his mask (not the snorkel, b/c he didn't like it) and proceeded to dive to the bottom of the ocean to find shells. Martin also took Kellee and Marshel out to the trampoline and they loved that. All the girls took turns with the paddle boats; Nate stayed on the kayak for a long time; Mike and me did the paddle boat - talk about a workout. My legs were like jelly after.

We had a great time, but were ready to get back to the ship, shower and relax for a while before dinner and the night time activities. It was a fun day.

Cruise Part Three

We had family members join us on this cruise. It was fun to hang out with Cousin Junith and Blythe (Jackie's cousin and 2nd cousin) from New Jersey and Junith's friend, Sherry. They were so much fun. Michael hung out with them the whole week when he wasn't with us. The last night of the cruise, he and Blythe sat on the top deck at the front of the ship and watched as we passed the oil tankers and laughed at all the stupid drunk people. We played 5 Crowns and the Dice game with them. We laughed every night at dinner and enjoyed each other's company.

The kids sat at a different table, but right behind us so we could keep our eyes on them. We made sure to notice the boy, "Power", who appeared at dessert to sit with the girls. Brittan and Nate hung out with the 15-17 age group at Club O2 and we hardly saw them at all during the cruise. Lindsay and Rachel were in the 12-14 age group and seemed to always have a huge group of girls and guys surrounding them. They all made good friends while they were there.

Mike was really excited that he was old enough to play in the casino, so we decided to teach him how to play responsibly. We went with him to the gaming lessons; taught him how to give himself a limit to play with; and then played Blackjack with him. He seemed to have fun and did quit when he lost his allowable amount. Martin and I did pretty well in the game, considering we just learned how to play in February.

We enjoyed some of the comedy shows and musicals on the ship. We went to the pool a few times with the kids, but mostly we just relaxed and had a good time being together with friends and family.

Cruise Part Two

The first night was a little exhausting as Marshel and Kellee were tired, cranky and wanted to go to Camp Carnival, which didn't open until the next morning. So, after a long 5 course meal with Kellee asleep on my lap and Marshel climbing over the tables, we tried to entertain them, and eventually went back to the room to watch a movie on TV and put them to bed.

The next morning was a Sea Day. Marshel and Kellee were so excited to go to Camp Carnival that they didn't even say goodbye when they went in. They just walked in without looking back. We were pretty happy with that and headed off to enjoy ourselves. This was pretty much the same every day. We dropped them off around 9am, picked them up at noon, went to lunch and the pool, took them back until 5pm, picked them up while Camp Carnival got ready for dinner and then returned them from 6pm to 10pm. They were much happier there than being forced to behave at dinner.

At Camp Carnival, they loved face painting, all the pictures and things they made. Marshel's class learned how to make volcanoes, drew ships, had paper airplane contests, played video games, sang songs, played mini golf, watched movies and much more. Kellee's class had themes everyday like Dora, Bob the Builder, Blue's Clues. They made hats every day to go along with the theme; they had their faces painted; played games; watched movies; sang songs, colored, played with blocks, etc.

Cruise Part One

This is a lot of info with pictures, so I'm dividing it up into sections.

Once upon a time, the Jackson/Cortese family set off for their 5 day Western Caribbean cruise, which departed from Galveston, Texas. Despite Mom leaving her purse in a McDonald's and panicking all the way back that her passport and cash are in it, we found the purse and continued on. We played at the beach in Galveston for about an hour to cool off and wait until we could board the ship.

We then headed for the Fun Ship, Carnival Ecstasy. The first thing we always have to do is the Muster, where we practice how to put our life jackets on in case we hit a glacier (in the middle of the summer in the southern hemisphere). After that fun adventure, we set out exploring the ship.

Mike's Graduation

This was a pretty busy week for Michael. The big event was his high school graduation. He worked extremely hard to get here. When we moved to Texas, the requirements for graduation were different than in Utah, so Michael had to take night school and lunch time classes to make up the classes required. He didn't get to have the laid back, easy classes like most seniors. It was frustrating and disheartening for him, but we persevered and pushed through to the end. He never gave up, even though there were many times he wanted to.

Besides all of his brothers and sisters and us, his dad, Frank, was there. Also, Grandma Hazel Jackson; Grandma and Grandpa Welch; Andy and Keri Welch and their 4 kids; Uncle Mark.

We cheered and yelled and clapped and cried (OK, that was just me). Mike said he almost cried when they announced, "Seniors 2007 - Graduates 2008".

After graduation, we all went out to one of our favorite places - CiCi's Pizza.

I am so proud of Michael for this great accomplishment. He is so ready to move ahead in his life to greater things. Although I am happy for the fact that he is moving into adulthood, it is hard to realize that my little baby is now a man. He set a great example for his siblings today by graduating with a high school diploma. He has great plans for the future as he looks forward to a career in the United States Navy.

Our Day at Sea World

We had a fun day at Sea World. We made sure to get wet when we could as the temperature was near 100. Mike did a behind the scenes tour and got to pet a shark, a manta ray and played a little with the dolphins. He really enjoyed that. Marshel loved the Journey to Atlantis ride. Everyone liked the Shamu show. Rachel fell at the waterpark and spent an hour with the EMT, before he sent us to the Instacare for x-rays of her shin bone. She had landed on a corner right on the shin, but it turned out to be okay and is still sore a week later, with a nice shiny bruise. Other than that, it was a good day.

But, the kicker is this video of Marshel at the Journey to Atlantis ride, waiting to get splashed. ENJOY A GOOD LAUGH...WE SURE DID!

Mike's Eagle Scout Award

Just a few words from a proud mama!

Mike received the top award in Boy Scouts of America, his Eagle Scout Award. We had a really great program, which included his dad, Frank, telling about the award; his Uncle Andy, a former Eagle Scout, awarding Mike the badge; his grandparents all had a small part as well. He had many people attend, friends and neighbors, family, even Uncle Mark came from Mexico for this great occasion.

We topped it all off with cake and root beer floats and visiting. Mike received an Eagle statue and the Trail to Eagle plaque from Grandma Hazel; and from me and Martin he received an Eagle engraved silver pocket watch.

It was a great evening.

Our Landscaping Boo Boo

Well, we had this great idea to build planter boxes behind our patio and put plants in them. We also wanted to put a frame around our trampoline and put pea gravel under there, so we wouldn't have to worry about mowing or killing the grass. Well, we had a few setbacks:

The trampoline frame went in without a hitch. I told Martin I was worried that he would hit a sprinkler pipe, but no water ever bubbled up, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

A couple of days later, we started on the planter boxes. After pounding in the 3rd or 4th rebar, we heard this really strange sound, like we had woken up an animal and they were scratching the wood. We actually had a few scary thoughts of the ants in the latest Indiana Jones movie, but those went away pretty quickly when we started seeing the bubbling water coming up. We dug that up and repaired the main sprinkler line. We decided that at least we knew now where the sprinkler lines were, so we moved in about 6 inches. As we got almost the last rebar in, guess what? Here we go again!

We dug that one up and to our amazement, the sprinkler lines were not put in straight, but at an angle. This time we got 2 of them, but got those repaired. Meanwhile, Martin mentioned that he saw a wet area by the trampoline, so we dug that up. 3rd times the charm! We got another one.

Now, we're on hold, while we decide whether to continue or not. Our backyard is starting to look like an excavation site.

TO BE CONTINUED...