DAY 1 - TRAVEL & CRUISE DAY
Grandma and Grandpa Pikus decided to celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking the entire family on a cruise. Grandma had mom plan the trip since it was going to be a big chore and mom was happy to do it since she loves to travel! Kevin, Shauna, Jared, Noelle and our family along with everyone's children and grandchildren were able to enjoy the trip! Unfortunately Gege and Damond and their kids were not able to join us. We made a lot of great memories and are hopeful to have another trip in the near future!
It was a little challenging getting the entire group from the airport to the cruise terminal. Jared and Jodi had to run and grab carseats so mom took their younger kids to go grab a bite to eat while everyone else waited at the airport for the rest of our group. Then it was Uber rides to the terminal. Mom and Grandma and Grandpa ended up with a driver that did not speak English and didn't know how to get inside the terminal so he wanted them to walk. But mom said no and had to get her own directions to direct him where to go using sign language of some sort. We all made it and were ready for an amazing week!
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DAY 2 - CRUISE DAY
Since we had a day to hang out on the ship, we made sure to plan out our day with all the activities and tournaments we wanted to be part of. First up was Gaga Ball. We used to play this all the time in our sports court so it brought back memories. It was a much smaller area than we were used to but loved palying as a family.
It was then onto basketball tournaments, swimming Dodgeball, rock climbing, ice-cream eating, ping pong and soccer. The weather was perfect! Those that weren't playing in the tournaments were happy to cheer each other on from the sidelines. We had a big group of cheerleaders!
Ammon won a medal at the Rock Climbing competition!
Our family always looks forward to the soccer competitions on the cruises. Jayden and Skyler had been looking forward to it since the last cruise when the tournament was cancelled due to weather. This year, their team was Noelle, Janson, Jayden and Skyler. The BIG rule was if the soccer ball was kicked out of bounds (AKA off the cruise ship) the tournament would have to end since they only had the 1 ball. Aysia was on a team with Jared, Ammon and mom until a random guy came along and wanted to play and mom gladly gave him her spot since she was only playing to be the 4th "body" on the court. The 2 Pikus teams kept winning until Skyler's powerful kick booted the ball right off the cruise ship ending the tournament. We were laughing since he waited so long for this moment. They awarded Aysia and Jared's team 1st place and Jayden and Skyler's team 2nd. Skyler was quite frustrated and will now have to wait for the next cruise vacation for redemption.
We loved the evening! Dressing up for dinner, playing games, going to shows, dancing in the promenade and late night hot tubbing for the kids. We loved always having something to do with someone in our huge group. The kids and cousins met a few friends as well during some of the activities.
DAY 3 - CABO
After a long day at sea, we were ready to get off the boat and enjoy some time in Cabo! After getting off the cruise we walked through the markets and took a boat ride over to a beach to relax. Several of our family members made it as well including Grandpa in his wheel chair. It wasn't easy getting him in and out of the boat through the sand so mom went with Grandma and Grandpa to find a taxi to get him back to the port. We were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset before heading to the dining hall for our amazing dinner.
DAY 4 - MAZATLAN
Mazatlan was our favorite stop! We decided to rent bikes and ride the boardwalk down to Punta Velentino's at the end of our excursion. We made several stops along with way including getting slushi drinks, picture ops, and even a waterslide that the kids loved! It was a dry slide so no one was using it, but the kids used their water bottles to wet the slide as they slid down. It was definitely a highlight from the day. We then walked to the town center where we shopped, toured the church, ate an amazing Mexican lunch and took little tuk-tuks back to the port.
DAY 5 - PUERTO VALLARTA
Grandpa forgot to pack extra needles he needed for his insulin he takes on a daily basis to control his diabetes so once we ported at Puerto Vallarta, mom took a taxi with Grandma and Grandpa to go grab him some new needles. It was a little difficult as the language and metrics were different so we just bought 2 different boxes hoping one of them would work and it did! So then it was off to enjoy the day. Most of the Pikus crew took taxis to a more private beach. The cousins swam, looked for crabs, took naps and played games. It was a great, relaxing last stop on our trip!
After boarding the cruise again, we ate dinner and headed over to karaoke night with some of the family. Ayisa, Auri and Nici talked dad into singing Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. He still remembered every one of the lyrics from when he had it memorized in high school. The girls were his back up singers. It was so fun to watch. We loved the karaoke nights and a few of the kids performed as well. We then headed to the "silent" dance party where everyone is given head phones and get to choose the station they listen to so they can dance to the music of their choice. It was almost more fun to watch without listening to the music while people danced. The kids then found their friends to go hang out and hot tub.
DAY 6 - CRUISE DAY
Day 6 started with a majority of the family going to watch the Family Feud Game in the auditorium. Noelle had added our family name to be drawn for one of the games. There were quite a few who had their names in the drawing and to our surprise we were drawn. Mom didn't really want to go up but they convinced her. It was Noelle, Shauna, Mom, Damond and Kevin. It was a little bit of a hot mess as Kevin already had enough alcohol in his system by 10am that his answers were no where close to what they were asking, but made the game hilarious. One of the questions was what would you find in your freezer on any given day, he answered with "a dead body". At that point, we all separated our chairs from him on stage and everyone was laughing. Needless to say we didn't win but we sure had some good laughs.
After the game show, it was onto volleyball and paper airplane throwing competitions, lounging by the pool, watching the ice-skating show and eating as much ice-cream as our stomachs could handle!
On the last night of the cruise, Kevin proposed to Lisa out on the deck before going into dinner. Shauna would have rather had a better backdrop for the pictures she snapped during the proposal, but we are happy for Lisa to join our family and were excited to be part of their engagement!
DAY 7 - CRUISE DAY
We wanted to make the most of the last day on the cruise. We started off with a Dart Throwing competition (no mom did not throw, someone would have definitely been rushed to the medical center down below). Nici actually took 3rd place in the event! It was then more volley ball, waterslides and dinner. It was a great cruise and we are grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for making it happen!
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