Lisa's Visit Part I

Like last year, Lisa and her kids came out for a visit on their Spring break; they must have had a really good time to come back! This year, (much to my annoyance) Easter was early, so they were able to enjoy Easter with us. I guess one good thing came out of Easter being early! The Blaylocks (except Eric who had to work) arrived Tuesday March 26th and left Wednesday April 3rd. Most of our days were spent shopping and eating out. The boys played together nonstop while they were here...Calvin and Aiden love Ian so much! Even though the Nelson kids all had school, they had a blast with their cousins. Luckily, they did have Friday off that week. Calvin and Aiden slept in Ian's room. Aaliyah slept most nights with Lisa in the guestroom on a blowup mattress, but she slept in Elisa's room when Elisa didn't have school the next morning. I had a lot of organ to practice, but in the evenings, Lisa and I would watch shows on the couch upstairs and stuff our faces with junk food. Here are the pictures of some fun things we did:

While the kids were in school, Lisa, her kids, and I went to Cheddars (there's a new Cheddars restaurant in Glendale by the mall). It was yummy, and we all enjoyed the food--the kids sure were hungry! We went to the Cheddars last year near Chandler and Lisa really liked it, so I was happy to have one closer.

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On Wednesday night, Ian had his Evening of the Arts. Erik worked late so he missed it, but the Blaylocks were able to go. We almost missed it because the boys went on a hike without telling us, and it took a while for Lisa and me to find them. When we did find them, it took a while for them to walk down the hillside to the car. Ian was a bit grumpy during his performance because I scolded him for running away when it was time to go and almost missing his event. His mood improved after not too long. After the recorder performance, we went to the gifted classroom to see a couple of his projects and to talk to his gifted teacher who knew Gabe and had nothing but good things to say about both boys! 

Here is the link to his recorder performance.

https://youtu.be/aI_TML2pvyw

Ian in front of his gifted class

The kids made all sorts of neat projects using computers

Ian with a few of his projects.

There was a Kona ice truck in the parking lot, and I bought the boys some ice cups.

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We went on several trips to thrift stores. I found a really pretty decorative bowl made in Limoges, France. I couldn't find any info about it online unfortunately. 

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On Friday (March 29) we decided to take the kids to a jump place. We tried Urban Air but it was too costly at $40 a kid for only a few hours of play, so we decided to go to Luv 2 Play which was a lot cheaper since it was just the boys that went, plus I had a free ticket for Ian. The girls were too old/big for that place, but they were fine going across the street to the Urban Boba Tea House and drinking some yummy drinks and playing a game of Uno. Luv 2 Play has a food court, so we ordered the boys some pizza for dinner. It was plenty of food to fill them up and even the girls had a slice. Erik was done with work and stopped by the shopping area to see about dinner, but no one could agree on anything, so he took the boys home instead and Lisa and I went with the girls to Panera Bread for dinner. They nibbled on a little bit of our meal.

Aaliyah ordered a fun birthday cake drink.

Playing over-sized Uno game

Eating pizza at Luv 2 Play

Being silly outside

The girls giggled and giggled while we ate our food at Panera bread.

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On Saturday morning, I took Lisa and the girls to the Farmers Market off of the 101 and I-17, the same that I took my mom to. We looked around, tried samples, and even bought some treats for the girls. I bought some freeze-dried skittles for Gabe's upcoming birthday because he loves skittles but isn't supposed to have them because of his braces. After browsing the Farmer's Market, we walked over to Petsmart to look at the animals, but there were only a few dogs and no cats. For lunch, we all went to the Poke bar (same place I took my mom). The girls actually ate and enjoyed the food and especially the boba drinks (yes, more boba drinks!). When we got back home, we took the boys out to McDonalds to play and eat a late lunch/early dinner. We stopped by the Goodwill around the corner, but I didn't find anything worthwhile. Later that evening, Erik and I went out for his birthday dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse named Serrra Gaucha. It was okay, the meat was pretty good, but the buffet didn't have a good selection of food.

The Poke Bar. The girls ate their fill! Elisa likes the seaweed salad.

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The boys enjoying their happy meals after playing in the playplace. 

Erik got a birthday flan--on the house! We were so stuffed we could only eat a few bites. We took the rest home.

Random March Happenings Part II (Post-Cruise)

Here are some fun things we did in March, after our cruise:

March 23
I'm not sure the exact date that I started this painting, but I really wanted to paint something Easter-ish to put in our front room. I chose Easter lilies. I was hoping to have it finished in time for Easter, but unfortunately it was not--but certainly early for next Easter! 

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March 23

I sent this cutie to the park to participate in the ward Easter activity at the nearby park. Even though I sent him with over 30 eggs to share, he came home with only 12 which is expected, but he wasn't happy with so little.

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March 23

Elisa made a cake, almost entirely by herself! Half of it baked out of the too-small pan, but it came out all right. I helped her frost it. 

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March 24

I made Elisa a new dress for Easter using a curtain I found at Goodwill. If I had to do it all over again, I would have passed on the entire project. The curtain material was cheap and hard to work with. The dress itself turned out just okay. I had a few issues, but those were mainly due to the crappy fabric. She'll wear it every once in a while, though.

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The many silly faces of Gabe. He apparently forgot how to smile!

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Gabe helped take the old organ to the curb

Erik bravely agreed to sing some solos as in Thomas in The Lamb of God production put on by the Stake. He dutifully went every Sunday to practice and worked hard on his solos. This was Erik's first time singing solos. He did a great job and received lots of compliments afterwards! Here are the links to the videos I uploaded on Youtube.  

https://youtube.com/shorts/EmrnUj5iv7E

https://youtube.com/shorts/S7OR5L5PaMY

https://youtube.com/shorts/R-H9D6FKd8k

https://youtu.be/KsC2vZ0_N7w

https://youtu.be/PmHGruSh4e4

https://youtu.be/FG_bzQ_2dBE

Here a link to a professional production of the Lamb of God on Youtube:

Lamb of God- Rob Gardner (youtube.com)

South Caribbean Cruise: Day 8 Nassau and Going Home

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Nassau, Bahamas—the last day of the cruise. We woke up a little earlier so we could get out to the pier by 8:30 to go to our excursion: Atlantis water park. All of us ate breakfast at the Windjammer café. Erik had to go to guest services to get a new sea pass card since Ian could not find his. It took the ship a little longer to dock, and they even called a Man Overboard code, which they quickly canceled. We took a bus to the Atlantis hotel. After signing a digital waiver, they gave us wristbands and let us go into the waterpark. The kids took off in multiple directions, so Erik and I spent some time walking around the park together. We rode one of the slides, the lazy river rapids, and went to the beach. After we found the kids, we went on a few more slides.

There were other ships docked at Nassau: another Royal, a Disney, and a Carnival.

Congregating around the Leap of Faith water slide (the white one that when straight down). Everyone rode it but me and Gabe. I said I would go on it if Gabe did, but he was too chicken. It was fun watching the people go down as they screamed--even the men screamed like little girls.

There were so many pools to swim in! Ian and I swam in this one--it was chilly water!

We found some empty chairs, claimed them, and then smothered the kids in sunscreen. They all ran off as soon as we were done and had the time of their lives going down waterslides.

There was a beach that Erik and I visited for a bit. We got part way in the water. The kids didn't go to the beach though. They were too busy going down the slides.

The waterslides were structures that were made to look like ancient ruins. 

These were the racing slides that timed how long it took to get to the pool at the bottom.

Erik took these videos of Gabe going down the Shark Tank waterslide. The main feature of this slide were the sharks swimming around outside of it. The slide actually does go underwater.

A family picture on our way out with the iconic pink Atlantis hotel in the background.

On our way out, I spied this glass sculpture. I just checked and I was correct in my guess that it was a Dale Chihuly--it's worth at least 1 million dollars. The entire building that houses this sculpture (and several others) is a 1,200-room, $650 million hotel and casino. You'd think they would take care to fix any leaks in the ceiling--I didn't take a picture, but there was a crack in the ceiling and water was dripping on me while we were walking in the lobby.

Leaving the water park

Finally, it was time to go back to the ship. We looked around a few shops at the port before getting back on board. While we were away, another cruise ship arrived for a grand total of five ships.

Checking out the expensive shops. They have changed quite a bit since we last came. Erik bought a magnet. I would have liked to try their jerk sauces but I didn't think they were worth the price.

The kids and a few of the ships behind them.

I enjoyed "spying" on the other ships with the binoculars.

Everyone was hungry when we got back on board, so Erik, Ian, and I had some pizza. Later, I had to stop Ian from eating more pizza, and I sat down with Elisa at the café. I paid the kids to rub my feet, and we got ready for our dinner at Hooked. It took a few minutes for a waiter to serve us, but he told us we could all have two appetizers. I had the baked oysters and calamari, the captain's platter with grilled salmon, grilled shrimp and lobster (forgot to take a picture), and cherry pie for dessert. All of us were overly stuffed after the meal. Erik tried Harry Potter trivia but missed too many questions. We went back to our rooms to pack our suitcases and go to bed.

I ordered the baked oysters and calamari for appetizers. The calamari was good, and the oysters were okay.

Erik ordered the raw oysters. I liked these better than mine.

I was surprised that Elisa not only ordered but ate her clam chowder. She didn't finish it, but the portions were ridiculously huge for being an appetizer.

Cherry pie. It wasn't that amazing. At least, I was too full to enjoy it.

Erik showed the kids this overhang with a glass floor that looks straight down into the ocean.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

We woke up early again to eat breakfast at the Windjammer. We left our luggage in our rooms since we were told that we didn't have to leave our rooms until 8am. After breakfast, we found that our stateroom attendant had made our beds and started throwing away some of the stuff we left out: trash, papers, and Elisa's medicine. Oops. He was nice enough to look through the garbage and dig it out for us.

Being silly in the elevator 

Gabe at Breakfast.

Getting off the ship was pretty quick. There was a long line around the elevators going through the dining room, but some of the crew members basically invited us to cut in the middle of the line. Luckily, there were several check out stations set up, so we walked through quickly. We were able to skip baggage claim since we already had our luggage with us. Customs was also quick because they had facial recognition cameras; we didn't have to show our passports to anyone. We actually sat outside for a little while waiting for our shuttle since debarkation was so fast. We all were decked out in green except Erik, and we got a lot of stares in the airport. I guess St. Patrick's Day isn't much of a thing outside of the Chicago area. An uneventful flight to Charlotte and then Phoenix and we were home!

Waiting for our shuttle

In the airport waiting for our luggage. Nice face, Gabe! 

South Caribbean Cruise: Days 6 and 7 at Sea

Thursday, March 14, 2024

A day at sea! Erik, Ian, and I ate breakfast with Rick and Marsha in the main dining room. Gabe figured out how to order room service for free by getting a continental breakfast each morning. Erik went to play sudoku, and I went back to the room to read my book. Erik came and got me so that we could change our departure time to leave the ship early and take our luggage with us. We also signed up for a short excursion for Nassau. I wandered around the ship with Erik for a little bit, and we had a very small lunch in the windjammer where we found the oatmeal raisin cookies. The captain announced over the PA system that we were making a detour towards Puerto Rico. One of the guests needed medical attention, and the Coast Guard was going to land a helicopter on the ship to take that person to a hospital. Luckily, it wouldn’t affect our arrival time in Nassau. Next, we went to the gym to work out for a while. I came back to the room afterwards to check on the kids. Erik came and got me and we played color trivia. All the questions had to do with the color green, and we won with a perfect score. We added two Royal Caribbean cups and keychains to our prizes. Next, we showered and got dressed up for dinner. It was a bit of a celebration, which they called a salute to Royal. For dinner, I had escargot, shrimp cocktail, lobster, and a cheese plate for dessert. The lobster was good, but the cheese plate was just so-so.

Lobster!

Erik said the baked Alaska wasn't good. It was mostly ice cream with a squished base of cake.

After dinner, Erik and I wandered around the ship until it was time for our escape room. There were over a dozen people in our group. The goal was to launch a torpedo into a volcano. We had to solve several puzzles to open up several locks to load the torpedo. We found the lock combinations by naming different types of boats, placing magnetic drawings on a map, and solving number puzzles. We solved the escape room with 59 seconds left to go. We came back to our room to go to bed only to find that Gabe was still out wandering around the ship.

Our escape room team saved the world. The crew member said very few groups succeeded.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Our last day at sea! I woke up a little early. Ian was up too, so I took him to the windjammer for breakfast. We tried to go back to our staterooms after eating, but they were being cleaned so instead we wandered the ship. While Ian and I ate breakfast, Gabe and Elisa ordered a free continental breakfast via room service, and Erik and his parents went to the dining room for breakfast where they were seated with two random women who turned out to be members of the church. We found Gabe amidst our ship wanderings; he was in his swimsuit heading for the flowrider line, except he didn’t have a signed waiver so he left the line. Ian and I accompanied him back to the staterooms. Erik was back from breakfast, and we wanted to do the zip line. We all got shoes and socks on and went up to the 16th deck, but alas, the zip line closed just as we got there. The Abyss slide had just opened, so we rode that all the way down to the 6th floor boardwalk. We looked in one of the shops, and then went back to our staterooms again—I wanted to get out of those shoes and socks.

Eating breakfast with this cutie

Me and my cute Ian

Gabe and Ian on the promenade 

Riding the carousal 

Erik being silly

Her 20th or so time going down the abyss slide

Who won?

Best siblings

Erik went off with Elisa to go on the water slides and flowrider, and Ian came with me—we went to the windjammer for some water and then got an ice cream cone. We rode the slide again down to the boardwalk. Ian and I rode the carousel, and then I bought Ian some $3 cotton candy. On our way back to the staterooms, we had some pizza from the promenade. Ian decided that he wanted to get his swimsuit on, so a full hour later he was all ready, wearing some really smelly swim trunks that must not have aired out properly because they smelled awful. He waited in a really long line to go down a water slide. I waited so long that I thought I must have missed him going down! After the slide, he decided that he was done with any water fun (the main pool was full of adults boozing it up), so we went back to our rooms. I put my running gear on and Erik got ready to go to the gym too, but on the way we were able to set up an appointment at NextCruise in the promenade. We booked a cruise for next spring break on the sister ship, Wonder! I did my run (the last one for this cruise), and Erik did his weights.

Taking a ride on the carousal 

I spent $3 to get Ian some cotton candy

Pizza time

Riding the elevator 

Ian stood in line for a long, long time. So long that I was worried that I had missed him going down the slide.

He finally got his turn down the slide

I had just enough time to shower and dress before going to our fancy dinner at 150 Central Park restaurant. The dinner was good, but not amazing. Erik thinks it wasn’t worth the extra money. The pork belly was pretty gross, but everything else was pretty good. I got the beef tenderloin, which was tender but under seasoned. I forgot to get a picture of it. I got some passion fruit dessert with mango ice cream. I thought it was pretty yummy. Most of the table got the fried Nutella cheesecake, which the kids devoured.

My appetizer--scallops

My dessert. It was pretty good.

This cutie ate all of his fried cheesecake Nutella balls

After stuffing our faces, Grandma and Elisa went to Effy for their free necklace pendant. I tried to get one too, but I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds for some junk jewelry so I left. Erik went back to the restaurant because I accidentally left my seapass card there. We watched two shows: Flight: dare to dream and iskate 2.0. The flight show was mostly a medley of songs, loosely tied together around the theme of notable events in flight history. The show ended with an old-fashioned airplane being flown over the audience by a cast member. The skating show was also a collection of routines put to different songs.