A Day in Ensenada Mexico

The final day of the cruise was spent in Ensenada Mexico. We spent the day shopping in the little shops and exploring the city. I bought a beautiful painting in one of the shops and Maddy got one that was similar. Our husbands did the bartering and they talked the guy down to $26 for both paintings. I thought it was a good deal.

Everywhere we went people were trying to sell us something. It got annoying, so Brandon started trying to sell them a wooden dolphin that he had purchased earlier- to show them how annoying they were. When they would follow us around, he would start following them and try to sell the dolphin in Spanish. It was pretty funny. Also, a lot of people were trying to get us to come into the bars and buy drinks.

Brandon taught us how to say "no tomamos" which means we don't drink. We said that to all the bartenders that were in the street trying to sell us alcohol. Eventually we started saying it to anyone who tried to sell us anything even if it was only a bracelet. We got some pretty funny looks but they would usually laugh along with us. It was hilarious!

Watch this!!!

Cruise Day Two Catalina Island

We went to Catalina Island on the second day of the cruise. It was so beautiful: it resembled Greece with the houses built on a hill overlooking the ocean.

We spent the day playing around. We planned on renting a golf cart and riding it around town and to the botanical gardens. Unfortunately, there were no six-man golf carts available, so we decided to just walk. We didn't know how far away the botanical gardens were, but a native elderly woman with a walker told us they were just up the hill, not far away. Well... after a long, steep 2 mile hike in flip flops we finally arrived; I guess the elderly woman either has a motorized walker, or has never tried it herself!

We were worried because golf carts kept passing us along the way and none of them seemed to stay at the gardens very long. We were wondering if it was going to even be worth it. Well, we made it worth it. There was an ancient Aztec temple there (it was actually a memorial built in the 1990's but ancient sounds cooler) and so we used it to take a bunch of pictures. We thought the silhouette picture was pretty cool. The "botanical" gardens only had different kinds of cacti (no flowers) which didn't really interest me, but we had a fun time at the memorial.

We were planning on going kayaking that day, but because of the unexpectedly long hike. We didn't have time. That is why we are all in our swimming suits.

The Cruise Day One San Diego Cali!!!

For our graduation we decided to go on a cruise to celebrate. We went with two other couples. Brandon's cousin and his wife and my cousin and her husband. We had a wonderful time. The cruise left on Monday May 12 and our first stop was San Diego California. It was a beautiful day in San Diego. We walked around down town and also went to Sea Port Village and went shopping. We passed a huge statue of the famous couple kissing after the war. It was probably at least 100 feet tall. We couldn't resist posing.
While we were standing there a guy came up to us and made us some cute flowers out of a palm leaf. It was weird because he just came up to us and started making them without asking us if we wanted one and then he told us he accepted 50's and 100's. We each game him $2 and called it good. The flowers were pretty though.

Graduation!!!

Brandon and I finally graduated! It feels so good! It was a great day for us. I walked in my own convocation and I carried Kayla with me. We rented her a little baby cap and gown and it was so cute! She got to meet Elder L. Tom Perry and he mistook her for a boy saying, "How are you doing young man?" It's okay though because it will be a fun story for her to tell when she gets older. I was able to walk with Brandon for his convocation later that same day. I loved that we were able to share the day together. We had both our families attending and we were just so happy to be done with school!