Cruisin' Mexico (Part 2)

After Cabo we got back on the ship and went out to see from Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, arriving back in San Diego.  Our whole trip was filled with amazing weather and we got to see dolphins and whales as we cruised; however, the last day at see was windy and cold making the ship rock so hard that we couldn't even stand to sit through a nice dinner and had to return to our room before little miss prego could throw up! We attempted to go into the pool since it looked as though you could surf in it from the big waves being created by the enormous rocking. The sun did come out for a couple hours and I was able to complete my tan but needless to say we were more than happy to get off the ship Saturday morning!
Here are a few extra photos I couldn't fit on the last post:

                                                          A nice dinner on the ship.

                                                              My dinner!

                                                              Matthew's dinner!

                                                            Baked Alaska on FIRE!

                                   This is what Matthew did on the ship the whole time: study!

                                              This is what I did the whole time on the cruise!

                            We loved the animal towels that appeared in our bedroom every night.

                                           Matthew pretending to be an elephant . . .

                               This monkey animal towel scared us when we walked into our room!

Cruisin' Mexico

Saturday December 4th we headed off for a much needed vacation. We drove into San Diego, spent the night at my parent's house and then boarded the Holland America cruise ship. This was our first cruise so everything felt new! The ship took off at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and we were at sea until Tuesday morning, arriving in Mazatlan.

 Mazatlan was probably the most rural of our three destinations but it was different and beautiful. We first took a tour of the city with a crazy taxi driver and then got dropped off at a "ferry terminal" to take a boat to Stone Island where we heard we could find the best beach. The "ferry terminal" was nothing but a little stand and tiny boats where NO ONE spoke a bit of English. We get onto the boat and the person managing the boat says something in Spanish followed by everyone immediately putting life jackets on. We followed suit and prayed that the tiny boat would not sink! Stone Island was even more rural and as soon as we stepped onto the island we felt as though we were on a mission.

                                                 Mmmmmm coconuts!
                                                       

The day ended with shrimp tacos and enchiladas and we didn't even get sick!

On Wednesday we arrived in Puerta Vallarta. It felt like Spain with all the art work and cobblestone streets. We spent the first half of the day walking around old town and going to the Cathedral, which was gorgeous! We went through a little market where tons of people tried to sell to us with every line you could think of. We bought fresh Vanilla and a cute little baby girl dress. Haggling became a team effort!

The second half of our day is such a long story that it would take up pages and pages to tell but to give a quick synopsis: We were tricked into going to a nice resort where we were pressured to buy a time share and given disgusting food. A big waste of three hours but lesson learned!

On Thursday we arrived in Cabo San Lucas, our favorite place! This is where we spent our honeymoon 3 1/2 years ago! It was so fun to go back here. It was nice because we knew the town and no one could trick us into anything! When we arrived we walked over to the beach in the heat and plopped ourselves at a restaurant on the beach where we got to lay out under umbrellas and have virgin pina coladas and fresh guacamole. The best part for Matthew was that he got free wireless internet and was able to download school lectures! After finishing up there we went swimming in the perfect water; not too cold and not too hot. Matthew was in a panic the whole time because there were little fish following his feet and he was afraid they were going to bite him. I fell in love with swimming while pregnant! We ended the day at our favorite restaurant, Squid Roe. We loved going back to the fun restaurant that we enjoyed so much 3 1/2 years earlier!

Pop!

With Christmas around the corner I am starting to not sleep as well at night thinking we are quickly approaching March! It's only 3 months away! And just to increase how quickly the time is flying by we are leaving tomorrow for a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise. This will be our first cruise and I am getting kind of nervous . . . what if the ship crashes or something! And I don't know how I am going to feel about being in the middle of the ocean . . . this will definitely be a new experience! After the cruise I will stay in San Diego and Matthew will return to the Bay Area for a week to finish up the semester at school and then join us for Christmas. So time is really going to fly by!
Little Scarlett kicks all the time and even wakes me up in the middle of the night. Matthew and I love seeing my belly move, it's lots of fun! We went to the doctor a couple days ago and she said everything looked great. She measured my belly and listened for the heartbeat and said everything is exactly on track. Perfect!
To top this all off I have noticed that I have completely POPPED in the last week! My belly really looks big and there is absolutely no hiding this soccer ball under my shirt.

                                                                           24 weeks