Our first cruise ever!

My very generous in-laws surprised us last Christmas by telling us they were sending us on a cruise. We were accompanied by my brother in law and his family along with their friends from Texas. After moving out of our apartment in Philly we drove straight to Dallas, Texas. I spent a week with my sister in law but we didn't get to do any sight seeing. Unfortunately the freezing temperatures seemed to have followed us down there. It got so cold in Dallas it was in the teens plus all the roads were icy. Luckily the weather cleared up just time for the cruise. I drove down to Galveston, Texas where we met up with the rest of our party.

We took a 7 night cruise to the carribean. We stopped at Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel, Mexico. We sent the kids to Camp Carnival every day. Unfortunately these kiddos were too young and had to sit with us during dinner. They entertained eachother half of the time. The other half our danicing waiters would entertain. Isela loved to clap as the Maitre D would sing and the restaurant staff would get on tables and dance. I really enjoyed that part.

All dressed up for one of the fancy nights.

Just about to dock in Jamaica. You can see all the people looking out to the beautiful islands. It kind of reminded of a third world Hawaii; mountainous, turqouise waters but very poor.

Okay so the pictures are a little out of order. Cozumel was our last stop and we weren't really sure about what to do there. Right when we got there it started to pour but we decided to venture out anyway. We rented a car a drove to the south side of the island. Blair caught this picture of an iguana perched on top of this structure. There were iguanas everywhere!

This was part of a preservation park. Its a look out point and an area inhabited by crocodiles.

If you look behind Isela you can see the back of a crocodile. I was really scared they were going to snap at the kids but they were just hanging out. As we were leaving the guy at the post warned us not to get out of the car until we got to our next stop because the forest was full of wild crocodiles and they would attack. That was a little scary!

Our next stop was El Faro or lighthouse. It was really hard going up all those steps with an 18 month old in your arms but P90X helped out in that department. This was the view from the top. On one side you have the lagoon full of crocodiles and the other side was pristine waters of the ocean.

Mayan ruins! I wanted to see the actual pyramids but that was an all day excursion and we really wanted to snorkel. According to our guide, this structure was a house and the entrances were so small as to make it hard for predators (i.e. crocodiles!) get inside.

The beach we went to was private and they had tons of these hammocks which the kids loved.

Jamaica! Since this was our first port day ( we had been at sea for 2 days) we decided to head to a beach known for snorkeling.

The kids had a blast playing in the water and sand.

One of the fishes that we saw as we went snorkeling was Lionfish. These fishies were hanging out by the pier.

If you look in the background you see a big floating island. That had a trampoline in the middle that allowed you to do tricks into the water. Max was brave to go out there and jump off once but he wouldn't do it again afterwards. Blair and I went out there a few times because it was so much fun.

Okay so this is a pic of us on our way to swim with sting rays in Grand Cayman.

After watching everybody else not get killed like Steve Erwin, I decided that I would have a go at swiming with the sting rays. And just so you know their stings are not removed. These animals are big especially to me since I'm short but I even mustered up the courage to kiss one of them, eeks!

Afterwards we did some more snorkeling and then the kids were exhausted. Here they are sleeping on the boat.

We definately enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a blast even though it was hard some times with the motion sickness and the cabin fever on sea days, it was a trip to remember. Now we are in Utah enjoying ourselves with family and just waiting to hear where we will end up for the next three years.