Ten on Tuesday- Our Cruise!

I thought it would be fun to break down our cruise into 10 bullet points and since it is Tuesday I am doing a Ten on Tuesday.

1) TRAVELING
The kids love traveling someplace new- especially on an airplane. Perhaps it is because I always sneak surprises into their backpacks. Here they are on the plane waiting for take off, their seat belts buckled and each of them has one of their animals safely buckled in as well. (footnote- the "real" camera never came out of the bag so all of our pics were taken on our point and shoot camera or Bec's cool digital water camera that she was so kind to loan us).

Since the trip to Miami would be at best 6 hours we didn't want to risk missing the boat so we went down on Saturday and stayed in a hotel. The kids were very excited to go swimming in the pool and do some crazy jumps.

Here they are at the airport waiting for our shuttle to the ship. They each got a new game for their DS on the trip so they were quite engrossed when given the opportunity and travel days are screen time days.
2) THE BOAT
We were so excited to get on the boat and go exploring. But first you have to go through the muster drill. These pics are for you Kelly.


Our favorite channel on the TV was the map channel. We were constantly checking it to see how far we had travelled. Here is a shot of us rounding Cuba.

We loved the waterslide! The first day Justin was quite thrown off by the fact that the pool was saltwater and not chlorine water. The next day when he decided to go down the waterslide I was waiting anxiously for his arrival at the bottom. There was a good chance he would be in tears when he got there, but here is his departure, with Jessica waiting...



and then it wasn't long before he decided to play around and arrived like this:



Many trips down this slide last week- for all of us.

3) CELEBRATING GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S ANNIVERSARY
On Monday night- our first elegant night we decided to celebrate the big event. Aren't they handsome?

Sheri with the bubbly.




4) TOWEL ANIMALS
Anyone that has been on a cruise knows what I am talking about (and probably has many of these same pictures). Every night when Manuel, our cabin steward, would come to our cabin for turn down service he would create a different towel animal. The kids loved this! They would rush downstairs after dinner to see what Manuel had left that night. They would beg him to let them in on the secret when they saw him during the day- but he never told. I did not get pics of all of them, but here are most of them.





5) GRAND CAYMAN
Our first stop was Grand Cayman Island. We didn't plan a shore excursion and decided to play it by ear. We bought tickets on an island tour. The first place they brought us was Hell. That's right. A rock formation that they call Hell. I am happy this was our first stop since I am afraid Jessica would have arrived at school telling everyone they should go to Hell too.


Look! They agreed to pose together!
The next stop (after the rum factory tourist trap) was the Turtle Farm. I literally laughed out load when I saw how big these turtles were- very surprising. Pretty sure you don't get the full idea here, imagine that shell is the size of my kitchen table- and you begin to get the idea.

Then they let us pick up and hold some of the smaller turtles.


They told us that when they see the water they get all excited but all you have to do is rub their neck to calm them down like this:



The last stop was the beach. Unfortunately we forgot to pack swimsuits but the kids were so excited to be at a beach we let them go swimming in their clothes.

6) ISLA ROATAN- HONDURAS
Our next stop was Isla Roatan. We signed up to do Sea Spis. This is basically lazy man's snorkeling. We lie down on these crafts and look through a spy hole. It was cool when we could see all the fish and coral- when those things disappeared Justin let his disappointment be known.

We also made our way over to a 30yr old shipwreck.

So we had the camera on our craft but Marc wanted it so he drove his Sea Spi over to us and very smoothly came up alongside. This prompted him to say, rather loudly, "Did you see what I did right there? I am so coordinated and impressive." (or something to this effect) Then as he leaned over to grab the camera from Jessica, Justin chose that exact moment to put the craft into gear forcing Marc to flail around and scream like a little girl- much laughing followed- including Marc who had a hard time scolding Justin while cracking up. Anyway Marc got me back by taking many pictures of my backside. Here is one picture I feel is acceptable to share.


7) COZUMEL, MEXICO
The last stop was in Cozumel. The ship also stopped in Belize but we decided to just stay on board and go down the waterslide and hang out in Camp Carnival instead. This was the day I was looking forward to the most. We had booked a dolphin encounter for all of us. Here are the kids after we excited the ship- look they posed for me again!


Here is Jessica giving the dolphin a kiss.

After Marc kissed the Dolphin he said, "well I got over my fear of kissing dolphins". Me: "I didn't know you had that fear?" Marc: "neither did I until 2 minutes ago". The kids loved it. They got to touch the dolphin many times in addition to getting and giving the kisses. Justin loved when we got to give the hand signals to make the dolphin do things- like splash and turn around. At the end all of the dolphins jumped together- very cool.

Here we are in Mexico... I have to have a Margarita- right? I wasn't really paying attention when I ordered and I got a slightly bigger one than I should have. Mmmm it was good!

We told the kids they could each choose a souvenier. Jessica chose a clay painted dolphin. Justin chose this cup...

... I shudder to think of his college years. This picture cracks me up- could be because I was a little tipsy when it was taken.

Then they pulled out the big guns!

We ran into Grandma and Grandpa on our back to the boat.

oh and we did not bring back swine flu either.

8) OUR HIGHLIGHTS
Jessica: she will tell you everything was her favorite thing about the trip. The thing about Jessica is that she loves everything she does. We were 10 minutes into anything and she would tell us that it was the best thing and she was so glad we were here.

One night on board we all went to see a Magic Show. At one point he asked for a boy and a girl from the audience - both our kids hands went up. Then he said they had to be between the ages of 7-9. Justin sadly put his hand down. Jessica stood up straight and tall with her hand in the air- how could he not choose her? She went up with a boy who was also from MA. They had a camera on the two of them and put their faces on the HUGE screen up on stage. Jessica loved every minute of the attention. She thought the magician was so funny and was appropriately amazed by everything he did. An unforseen outcome of her participation was that she was recognized many times for the rest of the cruise. She was told that she did a great job and that she lit up the screen. She even got recognized in the airport before we left.

She loved going to the comedian/ ventriliquist with Grandma and Grandpa. She loved watching a movie at Camp Carnival and making new friends. She loved everything! She is already talking about her next cruise.

Here she is showing off her collection of excursion bands...

Justin: I am pretty sure he would tell you that his favorite thing was playing Laser Tag! They had a makeshift laser tag set up- Justin has been begging to play for a LONG time and we thought this was a great opportunity. We all played together and the kids loved it. Justin also loved the magicians that would come to our dinner table at night perform tricks. After the first night he would ask the waiters every night- "magic? do you know magic". I have to say the waiters made a gallant effort.

Marc: I think Marc's highlight would be our final day at sea when the seas were a little rough, causing one of the pools to turn into a wave pool. He and the kids had a blast riding the waves inside the pool. [it made me a bit of a nervous wreck so I paced alongside the pool and gave them a strained smile when they looked my way]. Maybe Marc's other highlight would be the pre-dinner nap he took each night.

Deb: my highlight would just be the overall relaxing atmosphere (minus the stressed pacing when they were in the wave pool). I did not have to cook a meal or clean up my house for an entire week- ahhh bliss. I left the sleep nazi at home and the kids went to bed between 9 and 10 every night. Oh and I will certainly miss the 24 hour self service ice cream machine- well we will all miss that.

Sheri: on Wednesday Sheri got the news that Sandy had survived the surgery and was doing well and recovering nicely- a big sigh of relief for all of us.

9) THE LOW POINTS
Anyone that has been on a beach vacation with us knows that Justin has very sensitive skin. After a few days in a wet bathing suit gets these horrible rashes on his thighs. These were a real bummer for Justin the last few days. I think I may have to get him some dorky Speedo suits for the summer to minimize his skin exposure. Last night the itching woke him up and he asked for more lotion. As I was applying the lotion he said, "I hate having sensitive skin" Me: "I know buddy it stinks" J: "do you have sensitive skin?" Me: "nope" J: "Does Daddy have sensitive skin?" Me: "nope, I think it is a Justin problem" J: "awwww why did you name me Justin!"

10) JUST BEING TOGETHER
The best part of the vacation was just being together. I don't think the 8 of us have been together that long ever. The cruise gave us each the opportunity to do what we wanted and then we all got to sit and enjoy dinner together- as well as some hang out time.




Thank you again- it was a great vacation. Same time next year?