I've avoided writing this post because there's just SO MUCH to say! It's overwhelming. But Aubree is sitting behind me chanting, "Write a blog, write a blog!," so I guess I'll get started.
A little background first... A few years ago, a quick trip down to Southern California turned into an
impromptu Sister's Trip. We had SUCH a good time together, that we started brainstorming ways to make get-togethers a more regular occurrence. We settled on the idea of having 40th birthday trips. Basically, the birthday girl gets to plan a trip and sisters, moms, aunts, cousins (whoever!) can join in on the fun.
As the oldest sister, my trip was up first. I tried to think of something that was convenient, reasonably priced, and required minimal planning on my part. I settled on a 5-day cruise out of Long Beach. Even better, we manage to schedule our cruise the week of my birthday in November. Even even better, we had our cruise long before Covid-19 turned cruising into a nightmare.
Katie and I flew out of Seattle early Saturday morning. It still blows my mind how easy it is to travel without kids! When we arrived in LA, we met up with my Aunt Amanda who had flown in from Texas at the same time (note - though she is my aunt, Amanda is 4 years younger than me and has kids the same age as my kids). What a joyous reunion! The laughter started immediately. Amanda commented, "I want ALL the minutes" (meaning she didn't want to miss any of our time together), and "All the minutes" quickly became the theme of the week.
Another Aunt, Emily, picked us up at the Van Nuys flyaway and treated us to lunch at In-N-Out. That marked our official return to California. We went back to Emily's home and the day kept getting better and better as more sisters and family arrived in waves. We soon realized our laughing muscles were out of shape. They got a lot of exercise over the next week.
Once everyone arrived, we moved over to my Uncle Rick's home for a special dinner.
Rick made fried rice on his outdoor grill. That sentence sounds bland, but I assure you, he put on a show worthy of any entertainment restaurant, and the food was phenomenal!
My 40th birthday coincides with my baby sister Lauren's 30th birthday, so we finished off the evening with cake and singing for her.
Sunday morning we were able to attend church with my Grammy Bunker.
She was so excited to have all of us with her in her ward, and we were equally thrilled to be there with her. We dramatically increased the regular attendance in her Relief Society meeting, and since the majority of us are definitely NOT quiet or reserved, we might have talked and participated in the discussion a lot.
After church, we had just enough time to change clothes and grab a little lunch before heading out to the cruise. Only a couple of us had been on a cruise before, so there was a lot of anticipation and excitement. Impressively, the check-in process was super easy and quick.
And just like that, our cruise adventures officially began! First things first - lunch!
There were ten of us split in three rooms. I had the privilege of bunking with Sue and Colleen. They were great roommates!
After eating and getting settled in our rooms, we spent some time exploring the ship and just enjoying being together.
We spent Monday at Catalina Island. It's not the most exciting of destinations, but the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed walking around the main thoroughfare. We wanted to rent a golf cart to further explore the island, but they were all sold out by the time we were ready to rent one. Boo!
Some members of our group also got a bit of shopping in (not me, in case you're wondering). Kira let me borrow her hat because my Washington eyes weren't used to all the sun!
Back on the ship we quickly gained a reputation for being loud, fun, and a little obnoxious. We thought we were extra funny because we were probably the only group on the "booze cruise" that wasn't drunk, but you couldn't really tell from our behavior. Every time we left our rooms, while we waited for stragglers, we would make a tunnel for any of the passengers or crew who happened to walk by. Our rooms were situated in an area where a lot of crew passed by, so they were the main targets of our cheers and victory tunnel. When the crew members would see our group in other parts of the ship, they'd always raise their own hands up and cheer. I think we could all probably use more victory tunnels and daily cheers, right?
In the main dining room, we were a big enough group that we got our own table. We loved getting to try out the different appetizers, entrees, and desserts, and would regularly share with each other to sample a wider variety. I thought the food on this Carnival cruise wasn't quite as good as on our Celebrity cruise, with the fish tacos as the biggest exception to that statement. Those fish tacos were incredible! However, the dining room entertainment was better on this ship. Most nights the waiters would put on a little show that ended with a huge dance party. Fun!
Speaking of dancing, when we had down time on the ship, we often sought out the dance classes. A few members of our group are excellent dancers, but the rest of us were just along for the experience.
The main dance/singing/entertainment group on board soon knew our group because of our attendance at the dance classes. We mostly became buddies with Frank. We got special shout-outs from them at some of the nighttime shows.
On Tuesday we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico. Even though I grew up in California, that was my first time in Mexico.
It's not easy keeping ten people together, but we did our best...until we gave up and split into smaller groups. Ensenada was an interesting place to visit. It's a good place to go if you like vendors yelling at you and constantly trying to get you to buy their stuff/go to their restaurant/drink their margaritas. Mostly we wandered the shopping area looking for souvenirs and take-home gifts, but part of our group also got massages.
During part of our explorations, Kira, Lauren, and I passed a bar with a sign that said, "Mormons drink free." Ha! We thought it warranted a picture.
Back on board we were spoiled by our aunts. Aunt Sue brought a birthday cake on board for me (we ate it earlier in the week), plus noise makers and party hats. Yeah, we looked plenty ridiculous.
Aunt Emily made gift bags for each of us full of goodies like socks and facial masks.
Emily and Sue conspired to decorate my cabin. There were streamers everywhere and the walls, mirrors, and even the ceiling was covered with print outs of birthday memes. They were hilarious. We were all laughing so hard we couldn't talk.
Wednesday was an at-sea day as the ship ever-so-slowly made it's way back to LA. I am 100% sure I'm not accurately keeping track of what activities we did on which day, but we managed to keep ourselves happily occupied all of the time. Kira was excited to get the best score on a mini-golf competition.
Katie and Amanda were our most outgoing group members. They plotted their way onto the stage one night for a men vs. women game show.
More impressively, they weren't even embarrassed by the wild things they were asked to do. With their help, the women's team won, breaking an 8 week men's team winning streak. They came home with silly trophies for their efforts.
On the last night on board, we went to the finale dance show and afterwards tried to perform a small part of a routine we'd been practicing along with the dance team.
We did a fairly terrible job, but boy was it fun!
It was sad to leave the cruise and say good-bye to all the family on Thursday morning. I couldn't have possibly had a better time. So much laughter, so many memories, ALL THE MINUTES!
And major props to Mark for handling the home front! I didn't have cell service for most of the time I was gone, so he was really flying solo. A bunch of really wonderful friends stepped up and pitched in so Mark could still go to work a few days. I am overwhelmingly grateful for everyone's sacrifices and efforts on my behalf. It was the best birthday ever! Hurrah for 40!
Can't wait for the next sister to turn 40...
Everyone's happy with birthday doughnuts!
