The Cruise (now with pictures)

On the Monday before school started (Aug. 17) we headed out on a 5 day Carnival Cruise out of Galveston.  We stopped at Progresso, Yucatan and Cozumel.  It was so very fabulous!  We took Emily and Dallin with us and my sweet sweet mother-in-law cheerfully volunteered to take little Kylie.  I went a little crazy leaving her for that long, we never have before, but thanks to international email plans on David's Blackberry, we were able to email during the entire cruise for next to nothing.  That alone brought a ton of comfort.  So on to the good times...

On Monday we got on the boat and the kids were absolutely overwhelmed by the size of it.  It was amazing to see their excitement.  The first night after dinner they had a little meeting for the kids and parents talking about the kids camp they have on board.  We went and filled out all the camp paperwork.  Afterward they had a dance party for the kids and parents.  We went and had a great time.  They even had a dance contest at the end (to find the best boy, girl, mom and dad).  Well whaddya know, David won the best dad dancer contest and we have a great trophy to prove it.  The kids were so excited about the trophy!

On Tuesday, we were on board all day, the kids went to the camp after breakfast. As a side note, David and I have been on a cruise before, but we had a big picture window in our room last time, this time we had an interior room.  The ocean is amazing to watch and the sunrise/sunsets are too, but the amazing benefit of have the interior cabin--you don't know what time it is.  That first day we slept in until 8:40am!!!  Can you imagine?  I have woken up between 6:15 and 6:30 for so long I didn't know my body was capable of such a thing.  It was glorious!

Anyway, once we got them settled into the camp and had the pager securely fastened to David's belt we headed to the deck to read.  I love that.  That is my ultimate relaxation is to watch the ocean and read a book.  It was so nice too because that day it rained a little in the morning and so it really cooled everything off.  Well, the bliss didn't last too terribly long, because the camp closes from 12-2 for lunch, so we had to get the kids.  We played some mini golf on the top deck and went swimming in the pools and sent them back to camp.  Then came dinner and the show, which we took the kids to and later that night we all went up to the deck and David took some pictures of the kids in the wind.  While this was going on a guy came up to me and nervously asked me to take a picture of him and his girlfriend.  I agreed.  He stood her where he wanted her to be and then came back over to me and I thought the guy must be pretty weird.  Just let me take a picture.  He kept asking me if I was good at taking pictures.  I was like, I'll do the best I can, but I'm not making any promises. He finally leaned over to me and said we was going to pop the question---oooohhhh, now his weirdisms made more sense.  He did, she said yes and I took a ton of pictures for them.  I will say though that was very daring on his part to propose on the second day of the cruise, what if she said no?  That is a whole lot of time to be stuck together with no place to go... :)

The next day we went to Progresso and told the kids ahead of time that the first day was our day and the next day would be their day.  So in Progresso we got off and found a tour of some ruins, a museum and a tour of their capital city Merida.  It was fun and informative and the kids did enjoy climbing up and down the ruins.  It was called the 7 Doll House. Anyway, it was pretty neat.

Thursday was Cozumel.  We got off the boat and took a cab to Paradise Beach.  The kids have found their heaven.  We tossed some life jackets on them and they swam, went on the in-water trampolines, rock walls and giant inflatable water slide.  All of the things were out in the water and we had a blast.  We went on a kayak and got Emily's hair braided on the beach.  There was even a guy with a monkey that climbed up on Dallin's head.  They even played with a crab that the temporary tattoo guy found.  We were all so exhausted by the end, but we had a great time.  We went to the show again that night and watched a juggler, which the kids loved, and a comedian, who although he stayed very appropriate--he wasn't very funny.

Friday we were on the boat all day again as we headed back.  The day went much like Tuesday, more reading, more mini-golf and more kids camp.  That evening after dinner they had a "birthday party" for the Carnival mascot in the kids camp.  Our kids thought it was "so cool" that he "had" his birthday during our cruise.  I love kids. They believe.  It was nice for us to have some time by ourselves in the evening, so I was glad for the party!

As a side note that is a picture of our room with the upper beds down.  Pretty darn small.  The kids never had a problem until the very last night Emily came tumbling out of bed at 4am feet first.  She landed on top of David.  David and I found it absolutely hysterical, Emily didn't even remember it happening.

Saturday morning we were up, bags packed and we waited, then stood in lines, then went through customs, then stood in another line to get on the shuttle bus then waited for the driver to find our car and then got to our car and drove to Baytown to pick up our sweet Kylie.  She came home a bit spoiled, but very well taken care of.  We then headed home and my poor body kept rocking once we were off the boat for at least 24 hours.

Well, we missed meet-the-teacher day for Emily, but she didn't seem to mind.  We had a great time and I guess I should mention that this was all compliments of my sweet husband's employer.  He was one of 20 winners of another sales contest!  Yea!  The cruise he had won was actually an 8 day for 2 people, but we transferred the money and took the 5 day for 4 people. Good times!