Cruise time baby!... well... maybe

After unpacking a little on Friday, we headed down Saturday afternoon to Orange County. Houst loves to travel as long as he gets to carry his own roller bag (lower left). It was fun to have my "other family" on my turf. I asked Michael some of his favorite Irvine things and he did not disappoint. We headed straight from the airport to Rubio's where we met up with Tiff and Brooklyn, our fabulous chauffeur for the day, and Meg and Matt. We couldn't help but get excited by the sign showing how far Cabo and Puerto Vallarta were knowing that we would all be there in a few days. Then we headed for the swap meet (where we quickly saw the Johnsons and Dittbrenners).
After picking up a few items, we headed to the hotel to check-in. Houston and Brooklyn played around and made themselves comfortable, especially in the bathroom. Then we headed to dinner at the Claim Jumper. Of course we all overate and so we headed home for a good night's rest... or so we hoped. We all rolled out feeling very full but Eileen in particular was having an extremely bad stomachache.
We headed to the Conleys while the Nelsons and mom and dad headed to the hotel. We tried to get Houston adjusted to his new home for the week. He did great.

When we woke up, we called to see how Eileen was and to wish her a Happy Birthday. We found out that she and Mike were in the ER. The plan was to head straight from sacrament meeting to the cruise ship. But while in Sacrament meeting we found out that Eileen was having an emergency gall bladder removal so a little change of plans.
We headed to the hospital to say our good lucks and happy birthdays... and then... the four of us... feeling guilty yet knowing the ship was leaving with or without us in a few hours... headed to Long Beach. We were a little somber knowing that Mike and Eileen wouldn't be there for our family vacation that we had been planning for a year. I was grateful that the ER was just minutes from Tiffany's apartment so I knew they would have someplace to stay and could be with Houston.
We tried to touch base post-surgery to see how things went before hitting expensive international waters but she was still in surgery. So in honor of Eileen and a Happy 30th anniversary to Mike and Eileen... we set sail to party for the week. Stay tuned for the rest of the cruise soon!