James is a sophomore so we don't have many more years before his mission. We have a trip bucket list of places we want to go before James's mission. Going on a cruise was on the list. We decided to plan a cruise for fall break. We chose Carnival because the dates worked with our fall break.
We left on a Saturday afternoon after Kade's soccer game. We checked into our hotel and then went to the temple open house. It was amazing! We all loved it so much. We came and wanted to go back in and through the temple again. My favorite was the assembly room. It was so cool.
After the kids got to swim in the hotel pool. Marshall had some work stuff to do and it was too cold for me to swim. The hot tub would have been my choice but it was full of people.
Sunday we went to church at a random 9:00 ward in St. George. The sister missionaries spoke and it was so good. One missionary was from Oklahoma and one was from Germany. They both were such great examples and I loved their talks so much!
We drove to California after church. Our hotel there wasn't too exciting but it was ok since it was Sunday and we had a week on the ship to look forward too.
Monday morning we drove an hour to the Port of Long Beach. The weather was sunny on the way there and then it got foggy as we got closer to the Port. It was so foggy you couldn't see very far. We didn't realize how many ships, barges, and such were all around us because we couldn't see through the fog. We loaded the ship around 11:00am and we were all so excited!
We found the dining room on level 9. Everyone found something they liked at the buffet. There was also Guy's Burgers and Big Chicken so everyone was satisfied.
We explored the ship: mini golf, sports square and the ropes course.
Lynnlee was ecstatic to do the ropes course! We were the first in line. While waiting we realized you couldn't have sandals. Sienna and Lynnlee both had sandals on. Since we didn't have our luggage yet we couldn't go trade their shoes. I let Lynnlee wear my shoes and I wore her sandals. Sienna and I left to go find something to do while the others did the ropes course.
Sienna loved her time with me. We registered at the kids clubs. We rode the glass elevators. We went shopping and we were given two necklaces from one of the shops.
We met up with the others and had ice cream. I loved all of the ice cream machines they had. I think we counted six ice cream machines spread out on deck 9.
Thankfully the fog cleared after lunch and we could see all around us. It was a beautiful afternoon!
Once we got our luggage we got swimsuits on and enjoyed the pools, hot tubs, and tried out the water slides. There was a big party when we left the port. The dj was so fun!
The kids thought the towel animals were so fun! Their reactions were priceless.
We had dinner in the dining room. It was really nice. The younger kids didn't like the food so much.
After dinner Tag, Sienna, and Kade checked into the kids club where they got to play games with the staff and other kids there. We checked on them half way through and they looked like they were having the time of their lives. James went to the club for his age a little later. Lynnlee didn't want to go so she went to the show with us and hung out with Marshall and me.
