Day 6 & 7 - Time to wrap this up!

Okay, it's time to wrap up all this blogging about the trip. I need to move on with my life!

After our very fun day in San Francisco, we got to spend one whole peaceful day on board, sailing ALL THE WAY BACK to Los Angeles! I don't even think the engines were running. I think they just put the ship in neutral and we just floated downstream to LA! Anyway, it was a wonderfully relaxing day and just boring enough to get us to the point where it would be okay to go home! In the morning, we did workout again (I know, we're nuts... but it DID help on the potential weight gain front!) and got some breakfast at the buffet. Then we got our swimsuits on and went swimming again. It had been a long time since I'd been thrown in a pool... at least I was prepared!

Pretty much, we roamed around the ship and accomplished the following:

1. watched a little bit of the art auction - some of those pieces were going for less than what the frame would cost. And some others, well, they went for MUCH MUCH more!

2. put a deposit down on a future cruise. Check this out! Because our itinerary for this "Mexican" cruise was completely changed, Princess offered everyone a 50% credit of what we paid for this cruise toward a future cruise! So, with that, plus the deposit we put toward another cruise, plus the onboard ship credit they'll give us for putting down a deposit, we're minimally already $850 down into our next cruise. We just have to book it before April 2011! I'm so excited! We definitely won't be waiting another 10 years to go on another vacation.

3. talked with some of our new found friends. We spent some time chatting with Gary and Tracy again. They are very cool!

4. purchased some of the photos they had of us. We got one of our formal picture poses and the one they took of us at dinner together. It's very much like the one we purchased 10 years ago on our honeymoon, so we thought it would be cool to put them side by side! Seeing this photograph was one of those moments where I was SOOOOO grateful I'd lost so much weight before the cruise. It would have been more depressing to be 10 years older AND 40 lbs heavier. I'll take the 10 years, but I'm very glad to leave the 40 lbs behind!

5. settled our account. We were glad to see we hadn't wracked up too big of a bill. We actually kept it pretty frugal compared to some I've heard of. It helps that we aren't drinkers. I can only imagine the bar tabs some of those people were stuck with!

6. packed up all our crap. Paul was actually hanging out with the guys doing something before dinner, while I managed to get all our dirty clothes folded up enough to fit them back in the bags. I was glad we got most of this packing done earlier in the evening so we didn't have to stay up late doing it.

All of our party gathered again for our last meal together. With the way I ate, you would have thought it was my last meal EVER!!! I know it's cliche, but "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" I had 3 of the appetizers (shrimp, salad, & some fishy thing), the steak that came with fries, and one of Paul's fajitas for the meal. They were serving baked Alaska for dessert, so I thought I'd try that, but the deep dish apple pie sounded good, so Paul and I got one of those to share. Well, I only ate about 2 bites of the baked Alaska, but SNARFED that apple pie! It was so good! But with each bite, I felt myself getting sicker and sicker. I still laugh at myself that I went so crazy! Even Ken told Paul later, "I wasn't going to say anything to her, but DANG!!!" I literally wanted to throw up. If it had been alcohol instead of food, my body would have FORCED me to throw up in order to avoid alcohol poisoning. I'm not proud of it, but I did end up going back to the room and did try to throw up, but chickened out. Just more proof that I could never be anorexic OR bolemic... which is good!

Somehow I managed to avoid a food coma and we made it back downstairs to the theater to watch the last rock concert by the band Wavelength. They had the jazz combo and the string quartet playing with them on several numbers. The concert was awesome! Since Paul became such a big fan of the group, we found them afterword and got a picture taken with them...

We didn't stick around to "party" with them or anything (can you imagine!), so off to bed we went!

The next day, we got up early (6:00 early) to get ready for the day and get some breakfast eaten before we took the "walk off" option. This was actually pretty slick since we didn't have to worry about transferring anything to the airport or anything. We got everything out of the room and just left! We were glad that we were all able to get an early start on our drive home. We were in the car and heading back home by 9:15. I don't have much to report about the drive home. Shane drove the first half and Paul drove the second. We made it to Payson and needed to get some gas. It was here that I figured, "oops, we never got anything for Charlie." So I found him a cute stuffed froggy (he loves his froggy blankets) for $5 and called it good! Hey, it was still technically a souvenir from our vacation, just the very end of it!

We pulled in to Paul's parents house at about 8:00 pm. It was great to see the boys. I think we were gone just long enough that I was really ready to be their mom again! Charlie looked like he'd grown in the last 9 days, and it was nice that our bigger boys were ready for us to be home too! There's no question that grandma and grandpa were also VERY glad for us to be back! We are so thankful to them for taking care of our sweet boys all week and allowing us to escape the way we did. They are wonderful parents and awesome grandparents! Thanks again, Mom & Dad!

So... that does it! It's been fun to relive the trip by blogging about it and trying to remember all the details! We had an incredible week. It was just what we needed! To those that managed to read the whole thing, thanks for sticking with me!