PV/Mismaloya

Laura has the pictures to prove we actually made it onto the ship, but this was our second night on the ship and it was fancy night. Here we are...fancy (Please note I am actually the tallest of the Freeze girls, I just don't wear super high heels..or horny shoes as my girls call them):

Puerto Vallarta was our first stop on the cruise. Uncle Parry and Aunt Kris were meeting us there, but while we were looking for them, we found these friendly folk.

Uncle Parry and Aunt Kris got us on our first Mexican bus of the day. We went up to where they live in PV and got instructions on what bus to take to Mismaloya where we had intended to snorkel. The Mexican bus seemed very similar to a Gautemala bus, but they did seem a little more safe and controlled. I believe this was a first Mexico trip for all of us, except Mom and for Megan a first out of the US/Canada trip. Yippee!

We made it to the beach and it was gorgeous. To the unexperienced snorkelers (Me, Megan and Laura) it seemed unlikely snorkeling was an option, but Mom gave it a shot anyway. We made friends with Jose who had fairly good English and worked at the restaurant we sat/ate at. As Mom was trying to get out of the ocean with snorkeling gear, the tide as pulling her back in and Jose saw the distress, so he ran in after her and helped her get out. Mom really was OK and didn't need help, but it was funny to see Jose run out into the ocean to her rescue. Lets just say, he earned the tip we left him! Thanks Jose.

Plus, the fresh squeezed lemonade he brought was delicious.

Token local.

Me on the beach looking for shells.

Mom at our place on the sand getting ready to leave.

This is only half the day in Puerto Vallarta. Uncle Parry took us on an insiders tour, which was super cool. Stay tuned!

LA

Catalina was entirely too much fun. After Laura, Mom and Megan got their medals, we hit an eariler ferry back to Long Beach. At this point, Mom was exhausted. This may have been the only time she was exhausted the entire trip.

We made it to the parking lot, only to find that we had left the interior lights on in our van. Yikes. It was totally my fault, but Mom called her Canadian equivalent of AAA and there was a man there trying to sell us a battery within 15 minutes (not bad). We declined the battery purchase and were on our way after he jumped the van.

That night we made it (barely) to the LA Temple. We realized that it was the first time that all of us had gone to the Temple together, so it was really cool and I'm glad we were able to make that happen. It was also the first time I'd been inside that Temple and it was pretty awesome. By far the largest one I've seen!

Finally the time arrived to get on the shuttle to go to the boat. Laura could NOT contain her excitement and grabbed Megan in a lovely side hug. It was SO exciting.

Catalina Gold!

The first part of our Cruisecation was a trip over to Catalina Island to run a 5K together. It was SO much fun! We have all been training for this race for several months, so we were all excited to run it together. Here we are outside our hotel room before the race. We were all sure Mom was going to beat us all. She is speedy.

The race went fabulously well, with Laura beating everyone! Megan was next, then Mom and then my pregnant self. Here we are waiting around until the medals ceremony. There was a morning race ferry coming from Long Beach that didn't make it on time for the race, so a second race group started out for the half marathon and 5K over an hour later than the original start. So, we had a lot of time to wait until the results came in.

The results:
Megan was 1st in her age group with a time of 28:28
Mom was 1st in her age group with a time of 28:48
Laura was 3rd in her age group with a time of 27:55
and I was 6th in my age group but I'm not sure my time (I just know I ran it under 35 minutes and 'ran' the whole way, which was my goal).
Here the ladies are waiting for their medals:

Yippee!!! Way to go Ladies!

Race Day

I apologize for not posting on my most amazing Cruisecation that I got back from about a week ago, but there are entirely too many pictures to choose from and I would need to spend some serious time arranging them and combining thoughts before I could realize a blog post on the subject...so it's not going to happen anytime soon. There are all sorts of crazy things going on in this Cohen household right now, but I'll just share some photos from this morning's race. Brandon ran in the 5K "Hares N Hounds' Race and the kids ran in the 1/2 mile kids race.

You can really never stretch too much.

Elle and Bryn mid race. They did such a great job, until Elle slipped and fell on the pavement. Brandon ran out to help her, and went with her for a while until she regained confidence and started running again, and then slipped again scrapping up her knees. I was closer to Elle at that point and ran to her and we started running together again. Then she slipped her 3rd and final time successfully bloodying up her other knee. Somehow, she managed to finish. We'll have to go shopping for some less 'slippy' running shoes!

I did't sign up Wade for the race, which was a mistake. I think he was the most independent runner of the troops. When he saw the girls take off, he took off and ran the whole way. Brandon ran with him the majority of the way (unless he was helping the girls) and at the end of the race, Wade just took off running towards the finish line right into the finish shoot. You can see Greta (on leash with Grandpa) in the background trying to keep up with him!

Congrats on your first 'number' race! It was a great morning and something I hope we can do every year!

Gators!

Wade turned 2! The girls practically opened all of his presents. We gave him Harry the dog, which he has been carrying around some.

Wade really likes dogs, so we made his cake in the shape of his favorite pup, Bolt. I was going to try and recreate Bolt's face, but instead we just decided to put the piece of paper on top. The girls choose the candles to put in his eyes. Elle chose the Sheriff star and Bryn the cactus.

Wade blowing out his candles.....

And right before he took a big bite out of the #2 wax candle. Delicious! Happy Birthday Waders!