Our Cruise!!

I finally have time to post pictures.  (How many pictures is "too many"??  I have a ton, beware!)  It was really hard to get back into real life after being gone for a week.  We had an absolutely amazing, perfect time!  It was everything I could have asked for and more.  This was our first cruise, but it definitely won't be our last.  Blake and the kids drove down to Galveston, TX.  Since we don't all fit in one car, I flew down.  Everyone is happy with this arrangement.  I didn't think to take any pics of me at the airport.  It was just a normal (bumpy!) flight and nothing exciting happened (which is a really good thing when you fly!  lol).

Sunday, May 3rd

All packed up and ready to go!   9 people, packed for 7 days - and it all fits!  Queen of Packing!  I love packing.  I find it as fun as going on the actual trip.

Rest stop on the way to Galveston:

Another stop to get out and move around:

They had ham and cheese bagels in the car (faster to pack food, then you don't have to stop!).  This is Blake's "microwave".  He makes me laugh.

We stayed in at a hotel.   I had to get a picture of this... Katie packed her favorite Backyardigan, Austin.  She also packed all his clothes, all on her own.  She asked me for a "suit case for Austin".  I found a toiletries case that could work.  She was beyond happy about that.

Reading before bed.  They were so happy and so cute together.  I can't decide which pic to post, so you get all 3.

Anna and Elizabeth:

Caleb crashed hard!  That's Baby Blue, his favorite bear.  He told me he "HAD to bring Baby Blue to see the ocean,since he's blue, you know."  

Monday, May 4

Waiting to get on the boat!  Blake had to park the car and take a shuttle over.  It probably only took like 20 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity!

In line.  (That's me telling Blake you're not supposed to take pictures while in line!  I got in trouble for taking the above pictures while Blake was parking the car.  Oops!  Apparently neither one of us read the posted rules.)

I remembered everything for 9 people for 7 days... except for 2 things.  My own deodorant (duh!), which we bought some more at Walgreen's in TX.... and MY OWN BIRTH CERTIFICATE!  I couldn't believe it!  I went checked and double checked everything thoroughly.  And so did Blake.  But my birth certificate somehow got left behind.  We all panicked, had a heart attack, and almost cried.  They took us back to a room - I call it The Dork Room, with 2 other people who forgot their birth certificates.  Luckily they accepted photo copies.  My nice neighbor went in my house, dug through my papers, FOUND IT, and emailed us a copy.  One really stressful hour later and we were on our way!  There was a cute little old lady that couldn't figure out any way to get a copy of her birth certificate.  She didn't have family or neighbors to get into her house.  She tearfully said, "I guess we can't go." as we were leaving.  Broke my heart But good news, I saw her on the ship.  So apparently they work really hard for The Dork Club to get everyone onboard.

First things first... ICE CREAM!  The first of LOTS of ice cream.

And some yummy food.  We were so hungry by this point.

Then we explored the boat.

And played shuffleboard.  It was fun!  More fun than I thought it would be.

Later we got our rooms situated and explored some more.  Then we went to the dining room for dinner.  The kids are playing some finger game while we wait.

Super yummy food!  Elizabeth and Caleb were more concerned with the "fancy dishes".  They loved them!  The waiter took away their dishes and tried to replace them with kid dishes.  Elizabeth and Caleb begged them to let them use the fancy dishes.  They gave in to their wishes and 2 little blond kids beamed!

Every night they had something called "didja" on the menu.  As in, "Did you (didja) ever want to try this but didn't dare?  Or didn't want to pay for it?"  Blake and a few of the more adventurous kids loved this.  I'll pass, thanks!  Nathan ate escargot.  He really liked it!  Contrary to the look on his face in this picture.  I think he was pretending to be scared.  He hadn't even tried it here.  I think Lydia liked it too.

Caleb had a hot dog.  Big surprise - I think he had a hot dog every single night.  So did Elizabeth.  And she figured out she loved their hot chocolate.  So she had hot chocolate like 5 times in one week.  While on a cruise in the (hot!) Carribbean.  Silly kid!

Anna loved the escargot as well!

I can't remember what they're eating here, but they liked it.

Back in our cabin and there were TOWEL ANIMALS!  They kids loved them!  **I** loved them!  It was so much fun to come back to beds made all nice and OCD-like, and a towel animal every night.  Can that happen every night at home too, please?

Tuesday, May 5th

Caleb spent a lot of time watching the waves.  And Katie spent even more time watching the waves.  She LOVED it!  I couldn't get her away from the window.  On the first day, I had to close the curtain because it would make me sea sick.  (I later took some miracle pills that my friend told me about, and they became my best friend on this cruise.  They seriously saved our vacation.)  Anyway, I would find Katie behind the curtain, watching the waves any time we were in our room.  And with no motion sickness medicine for her.  I can't imagine!  But she loves water.

Playing mini golf on the top deck.  It was so pretty up here!  But windy!

Bunny towel animal again.

Katie got to sleep on the pullman bed.  She started out sleeping on a double bed, but was so excited to sleep on the "top bunk" that we switched.

Craziness in the cabin.

I guess I didn't get many pictures from this day.  We were too busy on the ship.  The kids went swimming and then they all went in different directions to the kids clubs.  They all loved the kids clubs and activities onboard!

May 6th

First port, Cozumel, Mexico.  This is the home of the most beautiful beaches and ocean I have ever seen.  Apparently a bunch of documentaries and commercials are filmed here because of the crystal clear, insanely blue water.  Now I see why!  It's amazingly beautiful!

For our shore excursions, we decided to split up.  It takes so long to go anywhere with all of us.  Plus we all wanted to do different things.  I have wanted to swim with dolphins since I was a teenager.  It's on my bucket list!  And Blake wasn't really interested in dolphins.  Instead, he wanted to go snorkeling in the ocean.  So we let the kids pick where they wanted to go.  Katie, Anna, Elizabeth and Caleb went with me.

This is the drive from the ship to the dolphins.  I took random pictures that I thought were cool.  This is what I imagined Mexico looking like based on Blake's descriptions over the years.  So that's why I chose these particular pictures.  Bright colors, palm trees, a bit run down, but still awesome. 

We made it.  Check out that water!  That's ocean water, it's just fenced off so the dolphins don't swim away.

Dolphin time!

 I was so excited that I couldn't stop smiling a HUGE smile the entire time.  I look like a dork, but I was a happy dork.

It was AMAZING and INCREDIBLE!  I think I was more excited than the kids.  I know I was more excited than the kids.  I'll post these 2 cheesy pictures, just to show you how much I couldn't stop smiling.

Anna's turn:

Now Elizabeth.  They had me hold her at first, and then decided she was fine.

 Caleb couldn't hold himself still in the water (he was cold, and it was deep, and he's tiny).  So I helped him (and smiled hugely the whole time.  lol)

 Katie was super excited... until we got there.  Then she got really nervous and shy.  I'm posting all of her pictures because it shows the progression of her warming up to the dolphin.  

 She touched it!  And then she relaxed and loved it.  

 I love her face here - checking out that dolphin so timidly.

It was so, so fun!  Did I mention how much I loved it?!!  Definitely worthy of my bucket list.  And now I crossed off "swim with the dolphins".  It was an experience of a lifetime and I'll always remember it!  It was AMAZING!!

Walking away after our swim, the dolphins kept following Katie.  It was cute.  Poor Katie fell on the rocks and got all beat up.  :(  But she was happy when she got to watch more dolphins.

They had a place where you could go snorkeling afteward.  Like I mentioned earlier, it's the actual ocean, but just sectioned off.  So there were waves and a beach and everything.  The coolest thing to see here were stingrays!  (Without stingers - that helped Elizabeth feel better about it.)

Stingray!

Anna loved it and stayed out there for a long time.

Caleb and Katie tried to drown.  Caleb started swimming off without his life vest inflated.  That was a mistake.  After that, he refused to go.  And I couldn't keep track of both Katie and Caleb, so I just set them up in the shallow end and let them play.  They liked that better anyway.

The food was terrible.  Don't eat pizza in Mexico!  lol.  But they did have really yummy pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris!  Funny story, I ordered 5 of of them, "Virgin.  No alcohol please."  Then I watched the guy make them and had to ask, "What is that first thing you added to them?  The clear stuff?"  Yeah, glad I noticed!   THAT would have been an adventure.  Can you imagine Katie with a real pina colada?  Or Anna??  That would be hilarious!  So I'm glad I caught him.  I told him, "For KIDS.  NO ALCOHOL."  He finally understood and redid them.

After lunch, we shopped a bit and then headed back to the boat.  I love this picture.  It was one of those, "I can't believe we're doing this" moments.  Thats OUR cruise ship! 

Katie was exausted beyond belief, and her legs hurt from her fall.  Too much walking and swimming.  She could barely make it back.  And she fell in the shower when we got back.  Poor thing was just so tired.

Look at that water!  That's the color of the water everywhere.  GORGEOUS!

Between the 2 cruise ships.

Meanwhile, Blake, Nathan, Michael, and Lydia all went snorkeling.  They didn't go a resort that was as nice as ours.  They were in the straight-up ocean, with no roped off area, and no stingrays without stingers.  That's the way they wanted it though.  They loved it!  I can't give many details about their adventure, since I wasn't there.  So I'll let the pictures do the talking.  I will say they had a coconut and didn't get a picture!  How does one eat and drink a coconut in paradise and not take a picture???!!!  They were having too much fun to think of it.  They needed me there.  ;)

We were all super tired, but super happy.  We got showered (and Katie brought the whole beach back with her in her swim suit somehow.)

Then we headed to the dining room.  More good food and great conversation! Everyone was smiling so big and it was awesome to just look around the table and see my family so happy.

I'll include this one even though it's embarrassing.  My eyes close whenver I smile big.  But that's how happy we were.

After dinner, there were more towel animals!

Nathan's impersonation of... whatever this animal is.  We all have differing opinions.  He's so funny!

What is this next one? Swan?  Lach Ness Monster?  Who knows.

Thursday, May 7

We sailed around the peninsula while we were asleep, and ended up in Progresso.  (Did I mention how awesome cruises are?  You play, eat, sleep, and wake up in a different place!)  A comedian on the boat mentioned that "Progresso isn't very progresso."  Very true.  Oh and speaking of the comedian, that reminds me they had awesome PG rated comedy shows that our whole family enjoyed.  We went to 3 of them.  Anyway, back to Progresso.  We were amazed at how the water color changed!  It was still beautiful, but now it was a green-ish blue instead of that aqua blue of the day before.  So cool to see!

Progresso has really shallow beaches.  So they built a highway out to the boats.  It takes like 10 minutes to get to the city from the boat.  Luckily I didn't know we were driving in the ocean because I would have freaked out.  But even on the way back, I was having too much fun to care.  We had been on a gigantic boat in the middle of the ocean, afterall.  If we were going to drown, it would have already happened.  Katie was so tired from the day before.  And I was so tired from helping her along.  Michael didn't want to go, so we left Michael and Katie to watch TV on the boat.  They also went to the teen club and ate at the buffet.  They were happy with that set up.  And the rest of us were all happy to go out and explore!  

5 of the kids on the bus:

They dropped us off here - some kind of (scary!) market.  We learned about bartering.  Wow, that was an experience!  Anna and I really got into it and had a lot of fun!  Elizabeth said she was scared.  lol.  They all bought bracelets and necklaces for their friends.

Nathan bought a cool hand-made Mayan chess set.  (These pics were taken after we got home.)

Shopping.  Scary shopping!

Blake led us into some less touristy places into a true native market.  Wow! is all I can say.  It was an adventure, for sure.

Motorcycles everywhere.

And lots of tables with jewelry.

We found a table by the beach and got some drinks.  A guy with his guitar sang to us.  

We had planned on just shopping and then going back to the boat.  But the beach was too perfect.  There was a breeze and it was all just so beautiful, and we were right there!  I decided we couldn't come all this way and not at least get our feet wet!

These two are so close.

And so silly together.  

They wouldn't turn around for a decent picture, so I gave up.

And they went off to tell secrets.  That's what they do nowdays.

Too bright for Elizabeth and her fair skin.

My handsome boy.

Caleb loved it!  He couldn't stop laughing.

Look how pretty!

Anna didn't want sand on her feet after she put her shoes on.  So Nathan carried her over the sand.  It was funny to watch.

Blake, Nathan and Anna wanted to deep into the heart of Mexico, where they could shop and practice their Spanish skills.  I took the rest back to the boat.  However, it was so beautiful and we had so much fun sitting on that beach, that I decided to take the whole family to the beach.  Luckily this was a long day at this port, so we (sorta) had time.  We went back and got Katie.  Blake wasn't back by then, and I couldn't take Katie AND Caleb to the ocean by myself.  I'm just not a strong enough swimmer if something were to happen. So we said a prayer and got swim suits on.  Still no Blake.  I decided to just be brave and tgo by myself.  As we were headed to elevators, Blake showed up!  I know it was an answer to our prayers.   He just "happened" to be there when we were leaving.  And we just "happened" to run into him on that gigantic boat.  And this was after days of trying to search family members out on the boat, so I knew what it was like trying to find someone even if I knew where they were supposed to be.   And there was Blake, right when we needed him.  So we went back to the beach and had about 45 minutes to play in the waves and sand.  I'm so glad we changed our minds and went!  It was hard to haul Katie again, but so worth it!  So much fun and so pretty!  Caleb was in heaven!  This was the highlight of our trip for him.  He made "moats" in the sand and waited for the waves to fill them with water.  And he laughed the entire time.  He was just so happy being there.

Back across the bridge (eek!) and then we hiked Katie back to the boat (eek again! The poor thing.)  We made it though, showered (Katie brought back more beach in her swim suit again! lol).  And then we watched as we pulled away from the port.

Dinner in the dining room.  I took a lot of pictures of this.  They say a picture tells a thousand words.  And while these pictures tell a lot, they just can't say everything about how amazing this night was.  Everyone was so happy!  I looked around the table and tried to take it all in.  I tried to take mental snapshots because I wanted these memories to last forever.  It was just too perfect - everyone sitting around the table, talking and laughing, and recounting our adventures of the week.  We were all together and all feeling so much love!  We wanted this to be an amazing vacation as our last time together with just our own family unit.  And this trip totally exceeded those expectations.  I just can't express how amazingly perfec it was.  I might have gotten a bit teary-eyed as I watched my sweet children interacting with each other, as we all ate delicious food and as I watched the ocean waves out the window.  Perfection!  Paradise!

Towel animals back in the room.  This turtle is my favorite.

We don't know what these things were.  Rabbits?  Llamas?  A mom and a baby "thing" with lots of wrinkles.

Friday, May 8th

Back at sea.  And more ice cream.  Always more ice cream.  I think this was ice cream for breakfast.  They were shocked when they asked for ice cream for breakfast and I said yes.

The waves outside the dining room that I was talking about earlier.

More ice cream... for a mid morning snack.

We watched some ice carving.  It was too hot, and there were too many people, so we only stayed for a minute.

The kids went to the kids clubs, we went to another comedy, Blake and I went to a Thomas Kinkade  art show, some of the kids went to a Dive-in Movie out on the deck at night. Anna had room service for breakfast and stayed in the room all morning, just relaxing.  She thought it was awesome to have a BLT and potato salad for breakfast.  She hates breakfast normally, and all breakfast food.  

That night, they had sushi for "didja".  Michael liked it.

Blake's birthday was the next day.  That's the day we had to get off the ship, so we couldn't celebrate properly.  The kids all conspired. They had the waiters sing Happy Birthday.  And Elizabeth made him a paper hat.  (Katie didn't like all the attention!  lol)

Caleb had a rough time with his lungs on this trip.  Blake decided to take a picture of him having a breathing treatment at dinner.  My face says it all, "You're taking a picture of this?"  Yep.

The comedy show we went to.  We all laughed so hard!

Every night at dinner, the waiters all did a dance for everyone.  They invited Katie and Anna to dance with them.  They had a ball! 

A movie of the waves that Katie and Caleb enjoyed watching so much.  By this time, I wasn't even remotely sea sick and I really enjoyed watching too.  It was so beautiful!  And I was happy that I could actually watch the waves without getting sick.

Towel animals for our final night.  Penguins.

A monkey swinging from the curtains, which made the kids laugh.

(He looks tired here.)

This is what Nathan did a lot of the time... read.  He was too old for the teen club.  And the activities for his age group included the bar and gambling.  So he read a lot.  I think he liked it, but I think he would have liked to hang out with kids his age.  This shows our adjoining rooms.  That was so nice that we had an inside door!

And then it was over.  (snif, snif).  No pictures of anything on the ride back.  I flew back, so our photographer/documenter was gone.  And everyone else was too tired to think about pictures.  They stopped at a really yummy ice cream place in Oklahoma.  (Brahams).  They had shakes for dinner.  Just shakes.  What better way to top off a week of ice cream than ice cream for dinner?!  lol.

And I took these pics when they got home because I thought it looked cool to see all those suitcases lined up.  We barely fit it all  in coming back.  Nothing ever fits as well coming back as when you left.

Tired!  They dropped their luggage... and themselves.  Tired, but happy.

As I've said before, it was an amazing trip!  A perfect trip!  A family vacation of a life time!  We will all treasure those memories forever!  We had an incredibly time!