Mazatlan was another fun day at the beach. Steve and Christine went on a Kayaking excursion and Jeannie and Trent took a tour of the town while the rest of us hit the beach. We found cheap taxi rides to the beach and headed over . The boys put on their snorkel gear and hit the waves.




My favorite thing to do on the beach is lay there reading a book. By this point I was already well into my 2nd book for the trip. I'll admit they weren't big books and very fast reading.


I love this picture of the boys body surfing. They would go out and body surf, then come in to rest and relax, then head back out to the waves.


Emily joined them for a few waves and then one got the best of her - she managed to be out there for the biggest wave of the day! I went out there after her and tried catching a few waves too. The first one I caught knocked me into Timmy and Brandon into me and pulled my swimsuit bottom a little more than I liked. The next few waves I would put one arm out then grab my swimsuit bottom. On the third wave my swimsuit top came off and I had to sit there in the water trying to get it back on while a few more waves pelted me. When I rinsed my suit out in the shower I was amazed at how much sand was in my top.


When we got to the beach this guy was completely covered with shade. He didn't stir once the whole time we were there until a few minutes before we left when a local family decided to use the shade for their family and doubled up with him since he was out cold.





After lunch we hit the tide pools. OK so the boys hit the tide pools and Emily and I sat there watching the bags...but the ocean was beautiful and watching the boys play is always fun.



After this we headed back to the ship to get ready for formal night and New Year's Eve.

We started the New Year's Eve celebrations with a formal dinner on the boat. Trent pulled out the baby blue tux to celebrate the occasion.






After dinner we headed to the karaoke lounge (like we did most nights). Jeannie took the stage and even pulled out the splits in her song. It was AWESOME!


Then we headed up to the Lido deck for the party. There were so many people there it was CRAZY! I bought a special sparkle scarf for the party and wore it as a belt. Nothing like sequence to get you in the party mood.











This was definitely one of the most memorable and fun New Year Eve's I've ever had. Most years I try to stay up until midnight...but after the kids go to bed I'm usually tired and go to bed before midnight. It was so much fun to just dance and party with the family. Good times.

Our first stop on the cruise was at Puerto Vallarta. Several of the boys (Todd, Timmy, Mark, & Steve) went scuba diving at this port and Jeannie and Trent did the zip line excursion at this stop. The rest of us were on the hunt for a beach with good snorkeling, sunshine and reading time.


Brandon and Sherry talked to a few people about the best beach for snorkeling and how to get there via public transportation. We got on the "blue line" bus for $0.50 a person and headed to our transfer.
Our transfer stop was a little crazy. There was a circus in town and for advertising they put all the animals on trailers and pulled them all through the town. This caused quite a bit of extra traffic, but it was hilarious seeing lions, tigers, monkeys, camels and elephants drive by us. A funny thing about this picture is how sweaty we are...the bus was SO HOT!!! Another funny thing about the circus is that the next day we heard a few people on the cruise talk about how they went to the circus when we were in port and they got to hold the animals and stuff and one guy totally got bit by the bear....what the heck???



Here we are waiting at the bus stop with all the locals after the circus was finished driving by the bus stop was VERY crowded. Trent became buddies with the surfer dude and he helped us get to our stop.

The beach was BEAutiful and so warm. I called the kids from here to see how they were doing and how my parents were holding up. While I laid on the beach soaking up the sun my dad told me that they had just gotten 6 new inches of snow. When I told Luke I was laying out at the beach and it was really hot he was so surprised - it was so cute. Tayson told me he was trying hard to help out but Luke just wouldn't listen to him and Claire barely said 2 words to me. The last thing my dad said to me was "Sophie sure does have a lot of energy...."

We were attacked by all the local vendors on the beach but ended up with a few cute things by the end.


Danny got bored and took off to swim to the scuba area (which everyone else took a boat out to since it was quite a swim). We couldn't see him and he was gone for a good 1 1/2 hours. Emily started to get worried since we had no idea where he was and called him a "flibbity jibbit" since he can't sit still for 2 minutes. It was so funny to me! This picture is of Danny when he finally came back into view.

Around 1:00 pm we decided to head back to town for lunch and to meet up with the scuba boys. The bus we took back was beat down. The back door didn't close, there was graffiti everywhere and there was a lone toddler shoe hanging from a pole in the front. It was hilarious. The bus driver drove soooooo fast and the ride back was VERY bumpy and I really had to pee. I thought a few times I might pee my pants - luckily I made it.

Danny was our best translator, he speaks some mean Spanglish, so he asked a local for a restaurant recommendation. We walked 3 blocks to the El Brujo. It was THE BEST food! Just thinking about it makes me hungry. I've never had pico de gallo as good as it was there.




With a few phone calls and the walkie-talkie's we were able to meet up with the guys and found another beach to hang out at. The funniest was the first call when Todd called me. I picked up the phone and without even a hello he said "quick where are you? this is expensive". I'm not sure why but it was hilarious to me. Our entire conversation lasted less than a minute.



This guy was on the beach with his coke, towel, speedo, hat, camera and tripod. He would spend 10-15 minutes setting up his towel and camera so it would be just right, then he would set his camera on auto and do a sexy pose. It was HILARIOUS and totally disturbing. Seriously I'm just waiting to see his pictures on Facebook.


At Steve's suggestion we decided to wait at the beach for the sunset before heading back to the boat to eat. I swear it was the slowest sunset ever. I guess we were just all antsy to get back to eat. When Schultz's are hungry it isn't pretty!




The show that night was a local group from Puerto Vallarta who did traditional Mexican music and dancing. The announcer guy was hilarious and I usually couldn't tell if he was speaking English or Spanish. The last dance of the night they came out and got passengers to dance with them and since our whole group was pointing at Emily (in the pink shirt and shorts) she ended up on stage. It was awesome!

I loved Puerto Vallarta. It was beautiful and the food was the best.

Another day at sea....but it was warm today! We went to the gym in the morning then hit the deck for some sunshine and reading. We could see Cabo San Lucas as we past it and even saw some whales jumping while we were out there.