Thursday I went visiting teaching. We spent a good chunk of the day organizing and de-cluttering. Dan and I had a temple date in the evening while my mom babysat.
Friday my visiting teachers came over. McKenna got to go baptism dress shopping with Grandma and Whitney.
They had some yummy bread at Great Harvest afterwards.
Instead of camping (due to impending snowstorm) Dan and the Teacher's Quorum made dutch oven pizzas and enjoyed a movie night. Meanwhile, I cleaned bathrooms to get ready for us leaving for our trip.
Saturday my mom packed up and went home to Florida. Dan and I started packing for our cruise. I got a new haircut. Dan helped our neighbors with a roofing project. In the evening I attended the General Women's meeting with these lovely ladies!
I gave Dan a haircut that night as well and I continued to clean the house as much as possible. With Joana coming to stay at our house and babysit, I didn't want to be embarrassed. :)
Sunday was a very memorable day for the Webster family. The important news we shared with both my parents the previous week was that Dan was called, sustained, and set apart as the new Bishop of the Orchard 7th Ward! His counselors are David Turley and Keith Koehler. Both men are in their 50s and 60s and their youngest children are in their 20s,
Dan's dad (our Stake President) had struggled for a long time to extend the call to Dan. For many weeks and months, he didn't even consider Dan. He said, "You don't do this to someone you love." But in the end, he knew this call didn't come from him. It comes from the Lord and is approved by the First Presidency! Our ward members were so supportive and had many kind words and comments!
Sunday evening Joana came to spend the night since we had to leave early the next morning. We spent the night at Dan's parents house.
Early Monday morning we flew to Long Beach, CA. We had a lot of extra time before we needed to board the ship, so we rented a car for a bit and drove to Balboa Island. Dan has a mission buddy who has family living there. We borrowed their bikes and had fun riding around the island. We even took the little ferry.
Look at that cute green baby seat on the front of Dan's bike. We ate lunch at a really good Mexican place then bought me a new outfit at another shop. We just HAD to get a famous Balboa Bar too. YUM! And check out that fancy golf cart decked out to look like a Hummer.
We returned the rental car then caught an Uber ride to the cruise terminal. That day in Long Beach they happened to have record heat! Super hot!
And there's our ship! We boarded, rested a little in our room, then did the safety drill and headed to dinner. After dinner we found our first towel creature.
And there's our ship! We boarded, rested a little in our room, then did the safety drill and headed to dinner. After dinner we found our first towel creature.
We also got this sweet picture from Joana and the kids back home!
After dinner we showered and got cleaned up from our hot sweaty day. I was feeling the boat rocking quite a bit and was concerned I'd start to get motion sick so I took a second Dramamine (I took the first one on the airplane earlier in the day). Well, apparently the "less drowsy" formula didn't hold true. The second pill made me SUPER sleepy! I could hardly stay awake for the "Welcome Aboard" show (not surprising, but still!), so we went to bed fairly early...but good news, no motion sickness! :)
The next morning we were in beautiful Catalina Island! We ate our breakfast on the deck of the ship.
We changed into our swim suits and took a tender boat to the island. I forgot sunglasses so we had to buy some. Then we headed to our first excursion- Parasailing! There were two other pairs on the excursion with us, but we went first! I really wasn't too nervous even though people kept telling us we were brave!
It was so cool to see the line get longer and longer! I only freaked out a little when I saw how HIGH we were and that the line had slack in it. Then I remembered if we fell, we would fall slowly because we had a parachute attached to us. ;)
We sailed for a good 5-7 minutes. As they reeled us in, the driver knew how to drop us down just slow enough that he dipped our feet then he pulled us right back up. So fun!
The next excursion we went on was a 1 hour golf cart self-guided tour of the island. We took turns driving and loved seeing all the cool houses. The overall state of the island was brown, pretty dry, and dessert like. But still pretty in it's own way.
Some of the views.
More views.
Our last excursion at Catalina was renting a double canoe for an hour. It was so hot outside the cold water felt so nice! We mostly paddled around the harbor.
We even found this LIGHTHOUSE! :) We had nachos and ice cream for lunch. Then we got back on the ship around 3pm. We facetimed the kids then we showered and got cleaned up for dinner.
That night was the fancy "formal" night. So fun to get dressed up and the food was great!
Our dinner mates were named Brent and Erin Landsem from Oregon, They don't have any kids and have a dog.
After dinner we changed into more comfortable clothes and watched two comedy shows. We went and bought candy then headed back to the room. I was SUPER tired again and watched "St. Vincent."
I should also mention our stateroom attendant was named Muhammad Ali. You could tell he was still learning English because we used a lot of the same phrases over and over again. Our favorite saying he said a lot was "Party Harrrrd!" :)
2 comments:
You make me want to go on a cruise again! And good luck Bishop Danny Boy! May the odds be ever in your favor :)
Ahh baptism dresses...I know I'm late commenting and she already got baptized...but how has time gone so fast..,and dan's a bishop...how are we that old?!?! You look gorgeous in your cruise dress!
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