Disney Cruise

Mom and Dad Dunn were generous enough to get all of the Dunn kids together on a Disney Cruise. It was so much fun to be with family and I loved having someone clean my room twice a day, having unlimited food that I didn't have to prepare, and having child care available whenever I wanted it. Ahhhh.

Here's some of the highlights from our seven wonderful days at sea. (And big THANKS mom and dad for making it possible!)

Some of the cousins in their cute hats provided by Auntie Shuana. Aren't they cute!?

Henry meeting Pluto at the Character Breakfast our first morning at sea
Looking out the window with H. (Sometimes we saw Dolphins!)
Henry sleeping oh so soundly in his bed. Henry would climb into bed every night and be asleep within 2 minutes or less. Such a change for the hour plus it takes at home. No wonder he loved the "big boat" so much, he was well rested.

More Kayaking

After leaving Lover's Beach we headed to one of the little beaches we'd seen as we paddled. Lover's Beach was a cool beach that went through the pennisula to have beach on the bay and Pacific side. The waves on the Pacific side were intense and almost swept Dad away. But the beach was crowded and lots of tour boats were dropping people off every minutes so we decided to head somewhere quieter.
Captain Henry on our little beach. Dell and Dad were out checking out the snorkling. They said it was amazing! "Swimming through fish."
Playing on the beach.

Henry and Dell playing in the water. Henry just loved hanging on to me or Dell while we floated in the water. He could not get enough of the warm warm water.


We climbed lots of rocks on our little beach and saw crabs, barnacles and all sorts of shelly creatures. Henry liked trying to pull them off the rocks and then watching them scoot back into position.

Cabo San Lucas Kayaking

Cabo San Lucas was our first and favorite port. Being cheap people we didn't book anything until we made it to shore and then found a kayak rental place that would rent us a double kayak and a set of snorkling gear for half the day for 55 dollars. Mom and Dad came with us (aren't they cool adventurers!) and we got loaded up.

Henry wasn't too keen about going in a "wobbly boat" at first but once he helped dump water on it to wash off the sand he was ready to go. Strange I know, but whatever works. We headed out and it took me a while to find my kayaking rhythm but once I did we started moving better (also Dell had to figure out how to paddle with a Henry on his lap.) Henry had a great time. Every time we passed a boat Henry would cry out "Howdy howdy! Launch water balloons!!" We had talked about getting water balloons to attack the boats we'd be taking in Mazatlan and I guess Henry picked up and embraced the pirate tendencies of his parents. Unfortunately we had no water balloons as we figured they weren't great for the environment, so Henry just called with glee and never got to launch anything.

We paddled out to Land's End (the tip of the baja pennisula where the bay and the Pacific ocean meet.) We stayed far from the pacific since it had some good size waves and we were little and with a child-- and with child. (We also wondered why it is that we also end up in a kayak when I'm around 3-4 months pregnant. With Henry it was running the Snake River in Jackson hole in a little rubber kayak, with this one sea kayaking in Cabo. Hmmmmm. What is it about kayaks and pregnancy for us?)

Here's a picture I tried to take while we were out on the water. Sorry about the view of my nose.


Lands End and the arch. Mom and Dad are the kayakers in the picture. The sea lion colony was just to the left, but never got a really great picture of them.


playing in the surf on Lover's Beach. The surf was powerful. Getting our kayaks on and off the beach was tough! But Henry loved the powerful waves. We'd hang onto the handle of his lifejacket (handy thing that) and then just let him we washed around.

Running to the waves!

Mazatlan

Our second port was Mazatlan where dear Dixie has reserved 3 boats to take us out to a kid friendly island beach.

Here we are on the front of our boat zipping out to the island. Henry was not sure he liked being on the front of the boat, or wearing his life jacket, but I bribed him with a sucker and he didn't fuss to much. Instead the motion of the boat seemed to relax him. He just snuggled and almost slept in my arms. So fun to have a snuggly boy! Notice how cute my sister-in-law Shauna looks and how I look like a pirate. I have the cutest sister-in-laws ever!
We dropped anchor off shore of our island and were a little nervous about having to swim to shore-- especially with bags and kids. But luckily a guy with a little boat came and ferried us all into the calm beach.

Henry liked pretending to drive the boat best, though as always he loved swimming in the ocean too. He was not interesting in being on the beach at all. Dell snorkled and saw a blow fish and some other neat fish. (darn nauseous was so intense for me I couldn't even put the snorkle in my mouth without feeling icky, so I just swam with Henry.)

horses in Puerto Vallarta

The horse back riding turned out great, though we were nervous at first. When we got to the restaurant with the crazy diving man all the horses were already out for rides. We decided to eat and then head somewhere else to ride, but Bob our great driver started asking around and found an ex-pat with 8 horses and arranged for us to ride with him so after dinner we followed this guy and his mangy hairless dogs (oh the memories of Taiwan they brought back) up to a little field where 8 horses/burros were waiting for us along with 7 young boys to lead the horses.

Dell got to ride a horse without a leader and he said the horse was the most responsive he'd ever ridden. Guess those horseback riding classes at BYU paid off. Anyway, it was cool to see Dell cowboying around all of us on our more placid ponies.

It was the most intense horseback ride I've been on though. (And I've been on ones with our neightbors up Provo Canyon that were pretty impressive.) We crossed deep rivers, went down steep rocky slopes and just had a fun time walking past houses and beautiful mountains.

Henry cried and cried when he first got on the horse. Big huge tears. Not because he was scared but because he wanted his own horse. "No mommy, only one little boy on a horse, not two people." But by the time we started moving he was fine and chattered the whole way about the horse and what he saw. I love it when Henry is in a talkative mood. He's such a sweetie.



Henry crying on his horse. I'm trying not to laugh. Or maybe throw up. One of the two-- I was pretty nauseous on the cruise.

crossing the river


Headed down the hill. Thanks for taking all the pictures Dell. I had my hands full with trying to stay in the saddle and not squish Henry. You did a great job sweetie.

Puerto Vallarta

By the time we got to Puerto Vallarta we were pretty sunburned and ready for a little time on land. So dear Dell got off the ship early and found a guy with a big van, who spoke great English and was willing to drive us wherever we wanted to go for the next 7 hours. Bine, Mom and Dad, and Sis and Rob decided to come along and so we had 7 adults 6 kids along for the ride. It was so much FUN! I'm glad we had all those wonderful people with us and our driver "Bob" was great. As was the van. A brand new toyota touring van where the driver could hook his mic directly into the sound system to give us all an informative tour of Puerto Vallarta.

We saw some great things.
Beautiful Ocean views.

A crazy guy diving blindfolded from granite rocks into waterfalls. (he clears the middle part to land in the bottom pool.)


Played in the tamer section of the river and had a fun lunch at the restaurant on the shore. Even heard traditional music played while we ate.

And went horseback riding!

Pirate Night

Pirate Night was one of the things I was most looking forward to on the cruise. You know how I've always wanted to be a pirate and all, well anyway, it ended up being the night that there was a huge storm-- there were inches of water on deck and the roof leaked in spots. Wahoo!!! I love a good storm.
Dell and Henry being pirates on one of the lower decks


Henry and his pirate pop gun. Plus there's a nice shmear of desert on his cheek since we'd just left dinner. Nice!

sleeping child

I don't know why, but I love watching Henry sleep. Maybe it's because he's so full of energy during the day that it's fun to watch him holding perfectly still. And then he also tends to sleep in funny positions. I loved this one. The stuffed tiger sitting on his chest ready to protect him. He has different security items every night. Last night he came into my room at 4 am dragging his moon and stars blanket, a book, and his sailor hat. Whatever, we snuggled it all until he fell back asleep. Sweet little boy.

walking in daddy's shoes

one day when Dell came home Henry put on his combat boots and tried walking around in them. It was hard to walk, but he sure looked cute. And look at that smile-- he's so proud of himself for being like daddy. Whenever Dell comes home, Henry runs to him, gives him a big hug and then asks to "walk on the ceiling" and fun trick mom just can't pull off. We've got a great daddy/husband.