We're back!!! Actually we came back on Sunday at lunchtime, but catching up is time-consuming stuff. I did laundry for 2 days, cleaned, we celebrated Savannah's birthday, and then took my mom back to the airport on Tuesday afternoon (with tears from Savannah & Jacob...and Grandma). So here is the run-down of our trip...
On Sunday morning we left and drove to Galveston (a 4-hour drive). All 4 grandparents got to take our kids to church, without us. Dallin's parents left Monday, my dad left Tuesday, and my mom stayed on to endure the whole week. When we got to Galveston Dallin dropped me off at the "Cruise Terminal" with our luggage and parked the car. The ship was HUGE. This picture was on deck 12 (that's the jogging track). It goes up to deck 14 I think at the front on back.
We had a late lunch...they never stop feeding you. And they make awesome watermelon sculptures every day.
This was a viewing window above the "bridge," where you could watch the captain and crew drive the ship.
Monday we did some rock-climbing, ping-pong, went to the gym, and explored the ship. We watched Wall-E in the movie room and went to an ice show at the ice-skating rink. After dinner there was an Elvis impersanator (and the guy next to me sang along for the whole thing). Oh, and I figured out I do get a little sea-sick...but not too bad. It was a formal night, but we decided we didn't like the dining room and skipped it. We were alone at our table and didn't care for our waiters, so we ate other places most nights.
Tuesday we were in Cozumel, Mexico.
We took a boat (that was way too bumpy and I barely held my breakfast in) to the mainland and then a bus to Tulum. Tulum is the only set of Mayan ruins that are on the coast. They were very cool. This picture shows some of the buildings...right behind the tallest one is a cliff that drops down to an awesome beach.
Dallin with his iguana friend. They were all over the ruins.
Yes, the water is really that clear. Beautiful!
This picture was taken just for our niece Maya...we were thinking of you! Tuesday night we went to a singing and dancing show and then a movie.
On Wednesday we were in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Our bus driver was horrible!!! It took us the entire day to do our tour, which was only supposed to be about 4 1/2 hours. We were disappointed we couldn't do any shopping or walk around, but oh well. Our first stop (after we finally got there) was a turtle farm. We got to see and hold all sizes of sea turtles.
Dallin had fun catching them from the tanks (the younger turtles are in tanks, the older turtles are in pond-type things with a beach).
We also visited the Rumcake Factory (and bought chips since we weren't eating the rumcake), and a village called "Hell." There is a post office there so you can mail postcards from there. Nice. Our last stop (after LaMar got lost) was the boat dock to take us to Stingray City. We took a boat ride out to a sandbar where there are hundreds of stingrays. It is only waist-deep and we got to feed them little tiny squids. Dallin loved it there. We have pictures from our under-water camera...I'll try to post them later.
On Thursday we were in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had canceled our excursion to the waterfalls and bobsled ride because we didn't want to be on a bus all day again (and it was at least 4 hours on the bus). Instead we went to Doctor's Cave beach and swam and snorkeled. Here is Dallin heading out into the water (ignore the man on the left who stepped into my picture). Again, how clear is that water?!!!
We loved it until Dallin had a run-in with a sea urchin. He was snorkeling and saw that the reef was getting higher and higher. So he turned over to start back and his foot came down on the spines. He got four in his heel. This picture also shows the bruise he got when he stepped on an anchor the day before at Stingray City.
So we left the beach and walked around to do some shopping (Dallin walking on his toes with that foot). We at lunch at the Pelican Restaurant and had authentic Jamaican food. I had jerk chicken and Dallin had curried goat. We then bought some souvenirs and headed back to the ship. We were so happy that we had some time to relax at one of the ports.
Sunset in Jamaica (taken from the balcony of our stateroom on the ship as we were leaving). We got to talk to the kids for 3 minutes that night.
When we canceled our shore excursion they credited the money to our seapass card, which can only be used on the ship. Since we don't drink, gamble, or buy expensive jewelry or art (which is pretty much everything there is to buy on the ship) we were wondering what we'd spend it on. One night they had a kiosk with cameras, and we got a new digital camera! I'm so excited...it's much better than our old one.
Every day there was a different towel animal on our bed. That night we got a monkey hanging from the ceiling. We went to a magic show that was pretty cool and ate dinner at Johnny Rockets on the ship.
We loved going up to the front of the ship to sit...it was so peaceful and amazing to look out from.
On Friday we were at sea. I went ice-skating while Dallin rested his foot. But then the boat got swaying and I was laid up in bed for the whole afternoon while Dallin went to the gym and stuff. By dinner I was better though and we went to another dance show and watched a movie.
Saturday we went to a "backstage tour" at the theatre. This was taken from the stage.
We also went to a towel-folding demonstration (getting a little bored, yes) and an ice-sculpting demonstration. The guy made this eagle in less than 10 minutes, no kidding. It was awesome.
We both went ice-skating...
...and played some ping-pong and miniature golf. After dinner again at Johnny Rockets we went to a gymnastics show. It was interesting. We then packed up!
Sunday morning we were off the ship and heading out of Galveston at 8:00am. We did the express departure and carried our own luggage off the ship. This was what a couple of hours of our ride home looked like...
We got home at lunchtime and were SO excited to see the kids. Overall I think they were okay for Grandma. My mom did an awesome job taking care of them and we'll be ever grateful. The kids had so much fun with her. They even went to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. I had friends who took the boys to school and picked them up, took Jacob to scouts, took Savannah to the park, and one who watched all 4 of them one afternoon so my mom could take a nap. Thanks so much everyone!!! We have an awesome "Texas family" that we can always count on for help.
Connor was asleep when we got home. When he woke up he called "Grandma!!!" I went in to get him. He just stared at me in shock for a full 30 seconds, then broke into a huge smile. I will never forget that moment.
It was a WONDERFUL vacation and so nice to spend some quality time with Dallin...we sure don't get that very often.
Two new pairs of cute sandals from Grandma & Grandpa!
Two new pairs of cute sandals from Grandma & Grandpa!
A "PINK!" shirt and pants from the Strongs...
Notice the hair is back in a ponytail this year...we didn't want to tempt fate again this year with the candles.
A new swimsuit (that she actually picked out a couple of months ago and forgot about. She wanted to wear it all night.
She also got this "pet bed" from us. It's actually a tea tray or something from Hobby Lobby, but when she saw it at the store she said "Mommy look! A cute little pet bed!" I love that her music box gets to sleep in the bed with her 2 favorite pets.
