More Sunday Smiles from Sea

As you know we just got back from almost 2 weeks of cruising

so I thought I would show you some pictures I didn't take time to put on last week's blog. I wasn't feeling up to much last week.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Almost everything about cruising makes us smile.

It is especially nice when you can visit beautiful ports with loved ones.
Little Cal turned out to be a great cruiser.
We had so much fun with him...and his parents too of course.

We all enjoy sea days on the ship as much as we enjoy visiting the ports.

The ships have water slides...and...

multiple pools and hot tubs.

There is all sorts of entertainment around the ship during the day

and a special full production in the big theater at night.

Just about anything you could want to eat is available 24/7.

We usually have a light breakfast and lunch....

...so we can really be hungry and enjoy...

....the fancy dinners in the dining room at 6:00 p.m.

On sea days I had time to do one of my favorite activities which is scrapbooking.

And John had time to enjoy his favorite activity which was napping.

...
We got home from our first cruise on Sunday afternoon...

Then we had to leave on the next cruise the next day.
I had booked 17 cabins on that cruise and a lot of them were senior citizens who had never cruised before. I felt I had to go with them to assist them....besides John and I were required to take a short cruise in order to keep our CLIA travel agent cards.

Little did we know that the first downpour in So. Cal in 2 years

would arrive that Monday.
I love the rain....I never get to enjoy being in the rain...
but driving to Long Beach to the ship in a downpour was not fun.

The rain and the wind was so hard that we got soaked to the skin walking onto the ship.

(It doesn't show up too well but if you look close you can see that my coat was dripping wet and so were my clothes under my coat.)

However, we quickly dried off and set about enjoying another beautiful ship.

I am always amazed at these floating cities.

As we boarded we were told that with the big storm and high seas it was too rough to sail in So. Cal....... so.....we got to go back to Cabo San Lucas instead of Catalina which is only 26 miles away.

We couldn't believe that our little Catalina Cruise had added one day and turned into another trip to Cabo.

Smile Smile

It took 2 sea days to get down to the bottom of the baja peninsula to Cabo

so I had plenty of time to finish the scrapbook I started on the first cruise.

Our new waiters were delightful.

And we all enjoyed spending another day in Cabo.
We took the same glass bottom water taxi out to the arch that we took the Fri. before with Erin, Patrick and Cal....
But this time Raoul took us out 3 miles farther and we got to go whale watching.

It was amazing seeing whales close up...but it was a bit scary at the same time.
They seem much bigger when you are up close and personal in a small boat!!!
...
It is a good thing that we had such a wonderful time in Cabo...
because the trip home was a bit of a different story.

The pacific storm still was playing havoc in So. Cal.

The storm at sea made 15 to 30 foot waves.
We did not get sea sick but the boat was really rocking.

My first time cruisers got a rough view of cruising that last day.

...

Then disaster struck!!!

John and I both caught a virus I guess.
We both spent the last night running back and forth to the little cabin bathroom.
It is not fun to have the stomach flu when the ship is rocking all over the place.
...

Can you just picture it?

It does seem kind of funny now....but it didn't then!

...

I had to be taken off the ship in a wheel chair.
It took us both about 4 days to recover after we got home.

We are fine now....but we would not recommend getting a flu bug on a cruise.
It is not much fun.

...
However, in spite of the difficult ending we had lots to smile about....

at least we were smiling the first 11 days of cruising. LOL

...

I guess that it wasn't too bad because I think we are going again in in a few months.

We have to complete 3 more cruises before the end of the year.

I think we are going to Alaska next...I'm not sure???

...

That is the end of my cruising stories for you.

I hope you've been smiling too.

...

By the way my sweet little Claire just put a new post on her blog...

Sparkling Claire

She is happy that Marie already left her a comment.

She would love it if you would drop by and say hi.

...

I am sending best wishes to all of you.

Have a great week ahead.

Hugs, Lura

Asi es la Vida... and such is life!

Julia says "Wow....I think that cute guy likes me."

"??*//#??"

Julia.... "I quess he goes for older women!"

Cal says "Well.......

"....What can I say folks....

...When you've got it......you've got it! "

Hello again with Sunday Smiles from Sea

Hello dear blog friends.

We are back from almost 2 weeks of cruising.
The first week was for fun.

The second week was for business....what a job huh!

On January 10th we boarded Carnival Splendor

The best part of the cruise was we went with Erin, Patrick,Cal

and several of our friends.


The week was full of smiles.

We went to beautiful ports of call.

We saw beautiful scenery.
Cabo San Lucas was one of our favorites.

But the most smiles came from just being together.

Mazatlan was another lovely stop.

And so was Puerto Vallarta.
But actually, we enjoyed our time on the ship as much as we enjoyed going ashore.

(My red face was from a bit of sun burn....in the middle of winter no less...fun huh).

Cal had smiles for everyone.

He made friends where ever he went...
...and had everyone smiling.

Of course dinner on the ship was our favorite time of day.

We had 2 formal nights where Cal charmed everyone in his white shirt and tie.

He actually made a girl friend.

I don't have her picture downloaded yet but I will show you next time.

Smile....smile....smile

Erin and I thought Patrick ....
...and...

John cleaned up really nicely too.
It made us girls smile to get to dress up, go to a lobster dinner
and a beautiful musical show with our sweethearts.

"Oh, no....we don't want to leave!"
It isn't time to go already is it?

...
Sunday to Sunday went by in a flash.
We were smiling the whole week.

I hope to share more pictures with you on my next post.
...
However, I did miss being in touch with all of you.
I thought of you often.
I wish that we could plan a
Lura's Blog Friend Cruise.

(Are you interested?)
...
We got home Sunday afternoon.
I unpacked, washed, repacked and headed back to the ship on Monday...
...but that cruise is a whole different story.
I will share that another time.

For now I must close and hurry off to visit your blogs and catch up.

Hugs, Lura

Goodbye for now

for now dear blog friends.
I am going to be away from blog world for a couple of weeks.
I will miss blogging with you but I will be back on line when I can.
Until then I wish you all well.
Be sure not to post about anything interesting while I don't have an Internet connection.
I wouldn't want to miss anything important, interesting, funny, cute or inspirational.
On second thought, I think you should all stop blogging until I get back on line.
I just can't stand to miss any of your blogs.
All of you take a little blogging vacation and I will be back ASAP.
O.K......Whew....I am glad that is settled.
LOL and hugs, Lura

Sunday Holiday Smiles

I can hardly believe that 2009 is gone and this is my first Sunday Smiles for 2010.
Again I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.
...
We traveled home from Utah yesterday.
It was a mistake to make the trip home over the New Year's weekend.

The weather cooperated and we made it all the way through Utah in record time.
However our luck changed when we got to Neveda.

It took FOREVER to get from Las Vegas to our CA home.
Much of the way we only could drive from 7 to 20 miles per hour.
We kept inching along because we wanted to be home in time to attend church today and babysit Austin.....but we won't do that again. It was a very long, hard trip.
...But...
This blog is suppose to be about smiles....not complaints...
...so...
Here are some of the things that we are still smiling about.

It is so nice that we are made to feel so welcome in all of our children's homes.
That surely makes us smile. What a blessing that it.

Words can't express the joy we have when we are together with our family.
Each one brings a smile to our hearts.

Wouldn't you be smiling if you were with this happy baby boy?

It made John and I smile when we went with Erin and Patrick

to take Cal for his first visit with Santa .

Cal didn't know what to make of Santa but he didn't cry...
...and that made us smile too.
...
Getting up bright and early on Christmas morning with our grand kids made me smile.
(Notice I said me smile....I think John would have liked a couple more hours of sleep.)


This is my oldest grandson, Jordan sitting with us.
I am showing a macaroni and play dough Christmas necklace that Jordan made me.
Doesn't that make you smile? It does me.
Of course he made it for me when he was in kindergarten.... I have worn it every
Christmas morning since then and it still makes me smile.

Waking up and seeing that Santa had come made me smile.
It has not been an easy year for Dathan and Lynell since they had to start a new business.
Dathan had been in construction since he graduated from college.
Starting a new property management business has been very difficult...
...but the Lord has blessed them...
...they were able to keep their new home...
..and they have made it through the year...with struggles...but they made it...
... and Santa even found his way to their house this year.
That makes all of us smile.
....
Meeting Hiroko from The Sweet Escape made us smile.
We have been wanting to meet Hiroko for some time now.
Her husband sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and she gave us 4, much in demand, tickets
for their Christmas concert. John and I could not go to Utah in time to use the tickets
but my girls and their husbands went and had a wonderful time.
(We were told that 4 million people requested tickets and the conference center only holds 20,000, so you can see why we were thrilled to get 4 tickets.)
THANKS AGAIN HIROKO!!!
Hiroko drove about 30 miles to meet Erin, Lynell and me for lunch.
She is even more beautiful and sweet in person
than you can tell from reading her blog.
(Her blog is great, but she is even better in real life.)

Spending time with Hiroko made us all smile.
...
Sewing with Lonica made me smile.

I gave Loni a sewing kit for Christmas.
All 4 of my little granddaughters love to sew....
...and I love helping them learn.

Loni made this darling bunny.
We named her Honey Bunny because that is my nick-name for Loni.
...
Those of you who read my blog regularly know that our family
thrives on Karaoke.

We can't be together very long without getting out the karaoke machine.
We may not have the world's greatest voices ...

...but...

we do have the greatest time in the world singing together.

...
My son's family made us a CD of all of them singing for our gift this year.
We listened to it over and over and over on our long drive home.
(John said that was the only good part of our trip taking so long)
My family singing karaoke always makes me smile.
...
Baking with Loni made me smile.

New Year's Eve we made Marie's from A Year From Oak Cottage delicious Eggnog Cake.

It turned out to be about the best cake we'd ever tasted.

Even with all the other good food we had out on New Year's Eve
it was a favorite.

We all gobbled it down with smiles on our faces and in our tummies.
...and it made us think of our sweet friend Marie with smiles too.
...
Bringing in the New Year with family made me smile.

We ate, karaoked, played wii guitar hero and all kinds of games.

Here Justin is playing pool with his dad and cousin

on his last night home before returning to his army base in Texas.

Then at the stroke of midnight we made our sparkling cider toast to the new year.

We smiled as we counted the blessings that were ours in 2009
...
Friday, New Year's day, we had to pack up and leave Lynell's house.

Justin had to go back to Texas that day too.
A snow storm delayed his flight so we got to keep him home 3 hours longer than planned.
That made us smile.

Lynell had been in tears at the thought of him leaving earlier that day, but she was able to find her smile in time to tell her precious son goodbye.

When their family left to take Justin to the airport, John and I packed up and headed down to Erin and Patrick's home.
It was nice to spend our last night in Utah with them and little Calan.
Our holiday was filled with family and smiles.
I hope that yours was too.
You blog friends also fill my heart with smiles.
I wish all of you a very....

I wish you all the very best for the year to come.
Hugs, Grammy Lura