For Christmas this past year, we decided to take a trip together! So we gave each other cruise tix!!
We loved our first cruise SOOOO MUCH that we couldn't wait to repeat history!
So,we were leaving April 10th!!!!
But... 2 weeks later, We found out we could be going to Hawaii in February!!
We definitely weren't planning on 2 trips this year, so we debated canceling one, but we had booked the trip with the MC's and we didn't want to flake out on them, and honestly....what are the chances you get an oppurtunity to hit the Carribean and Hawaii in the same year???
I wasn't complaining.
In fact, I was ecstatic!!
The only down side?? Don't go cruising after just returning from Hawaii..... Hawaii just flat out ROCKS and well....there was no beating it after that trip!
But,
Thanks to our AMAZING, WONDERFUL,KINDEST, MOST GENEROUS, LOVING, FABULOUS,
SWEETEST family in the ENTIRE world, we were able to do them both without the kids!
They truly do make all of the fun things we get to do, possible. I love them all so much and another HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to them for everything!!!
Muah!
{Day 1}.....Day at sea!
It all starts here. You arrive at the port with these fabulous welcome signs.
Super Cheesy??
Yeah, but you are gettin' ready to board a ship, and you'll smile at anything. So this made me smile!
We took this as we were sailing by! I couldn't believe how packed that beach was for a Sunday! ;)
First photo of the next 1,382 to come. :)
Our first cruise we were so exhausted from traveling all night, that we went to our cabin and fell asleep, and we missed the sail away party, this time we stayed awake and it was worth it!!
MIAMI IS GORGEOUS!
A & C had never sailed with Carnival, so of course, Rex had to act big, and show them around. :) Ok, not really. I just have no idea what he is doing here.
MIAMI IS GORGEOUS!
Our first meal together!! (honestly, we were sooo excited for the food! It is the best part!!!)Hmmmm...so many choices!! I knew one thing i wanted.......
Molten cake baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mmmmm to die for!!!!!!
(I can already hear myself getting bigger!)
{Day 2}..... A day at sea!
I actually love these days! Lots of people would rather be on the islands, but these are so relaxing and fun! We explored the ship in the morning....then
did a bunch of Rex's favorite thing...Laying out! :) ha ha!
Ended up at the BOW of the ship where we apparently weren't supposed to be, but it was AWESOME!
Then headed to our first FORMAL night for scrumptious dinner! Divine!
After dinner we headed to the Punchliner comedy club and had ourselves....a good time!
Actually.... I even karaoked. Believe it or not!
We were ....awesome!!! (ha ha! yeah right)
(actually, I love that lady in the background...what is she checking out!?!) sicko!
Actually.... I even karaoked. Believe it or not!
We were ....awesome!!! (ha ha! yeah right)
(actually, I love that lady in the background...what is she checking out!?!) sicko!
Oh i love cruising!
{day 3}..... Cayman Islands!
This was our first stop. We came here on our last cruise and we LOVED it! We even repeated the same shore excursion!! It is so pretty here! In the right pic we are sitting on the edge of a boat, on our way out to the a little reef!
(see the stingray??)
This is just gross. I am holding a SQUID. grosssss, it makes my skin crawl just looking at it!
The stingrays were swimming all around us while we are just standing here!
I was getting a little nervous about them rubbing up on us!
Yikes! :) I wish they would have let us get the super cool pics like we did the first time we were here, but apparently they have changed the rules about things. Kinda a bummer this time. But still pretty fun!!
Then they took us over to a little area away from the boats and stingrays, where we got to do.......
Woot! Woot! We LOVE snorkeling! It's so peaceful under the sea!
After all that fun, we drove around town and did some sightseeing before we headed back onto the ship,
We really had nothin' better to do than take some more pics while waiting in the massive line to board back on!
When we arrived to our room, we found these sweet lil invites! We weren't sure if it'd be worth going, since Rex and I are such HEAVY DRINKERS, but eh, why the heck not, how often do you get something FREE on a cruise??
Ok, seriously, this was probably one of our most favorite things we did on this cruise!
They would've given us ANY drink or cocktail that we wanted, but the only non alcholic they even offered was...
Fruit Punch!
Ahhhh yeah baby. We were suckin' it down.
But...
I must say, it was the BEST fruit punch to ever hit our tastebuds!
No, seriously. It was.
Then for dessert, they served this cheesecake, and oh my.
We LOVED it.
Like after dinner we went to the little 24 hour cafe, and got 4 more pieces to eat, while watching this sunset from a hot tub!
We LOVED it.
Like after dinner we went to the little 24 hour cafe, and got 4 more pieces to eat, while watching this sunset from a hot tub!
Yep, thats right, we ate cheesecake while sitting in a hot tub. Weird? Kinda, but thats what cruisin' is all about. :)
Then we hit a couple shows that night, while we enjoyed our delicious popcorn, or are we eating the boxes??
(Did I mention how much we eat on a cruise??)
(day 4).....Mahogany Bay!
This was going to be our playground for the day! We were super excited!! Gorgeous beaches!
As we made our way through the SUPER hot and humid city, and over to our first excursion....we made a couple random stops for some DELICIOUS gelato and horse ridin'.
We got to zip from 14 different platforms through the jungle and see the beautiful island. (well kinda, as much as you can see from treetops)
We had to take a ride in the back of an OLD truck (i thought we might not make it!) to the top of the mountain, and then hike up to our first platform, from there, they strap you in and check your harness, and awaaaaaaaaaaay we go! It was super fun!
Worth the money??
Yeah! It was fun! But we were ready to get to the water! It was soooooo HOT!
We could see our ship from one of the lower platforms! I just love the water colors!
This pic was cool, cause our whole ship was in the background, the water was turqoise, there was palm trees to be seen, the sand was as white as it can get, and well....we happened to be standing there. :) it was heaven on earth.
It wasn't long till we sank our feet in lots of this stuff!!!!
We staked out our spot along the beach.....where we spent many relaxing hours! ahhhhhh.
(oh why am I such a nerd???)
(oh why am I such a nerd???)
They boys did a bit more of their FAVORITE thing to do.... SNORKEL!!!
Then we acted like total dorks and jumped around in the lush sand before we headed back to our ship.
(see, more jumping!)
Once again, an amazing sunset was brewing while we were eating dinner, so afterwards we headed up to the top deck to have a little fun. (You just can't pass up a good sunset! Right???)
I don't know what it was, but we were all about JUMPING on this trip. It was sweet! We had some mad hops by the end of the week :)
Yes, Rex is eating another ice cream cone. He'd probably downed like 50 at this point in the trip! Did I mention how much we love eating! :)
Rex got this picture of me "taking a pic" while taking one for some people, because he said he wanted a picture of what I did for most the trip! :)
The evening ended pretty dang sweet if I do say so myself. I mean, come on, even Rex put down his ice cream cone for this picture :)
So, there is a lot of pics for this day! This was INCREDIBLE. We went here with no excursion planned, and we weren't sure what we'd end up doing....BUT WE FOUND SOMETHING!
The water here was indescribable! It is so many gorgeous colors of blues! (warning: I take lots of pics of it!)
We had to tender in to the pier, because it was SOOO SHALLOW! So, why not play some sudoku??
After getting off the boat, I was just giddy with anticiaption to see what this day would bring! Hence our really giddy faces here? :) (remember this pic from my previous post!)
yep, we are dorks!
Then we found it.
We knew what we were going to do!
We boarded a 45 minute boat ride to the MOST AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL AND PEACEFUL place we would see this WHOLE WEEK.
GOFFS CAYE!!!!!!
(it was like our own PERSONAL, PRIVATE ISLAND!)
See what I mean???
Is this not GORGEOUS??
I took this pic, and didn't even believe it was really siting right in front of me.
It was like a postcard!
I couldn't wait to stake out the perfect spot, to spend the day here!
With our personal tour guides, we knew they'd find a sweet spot!
And here it was! I am sitting right on the edge of the island!
(pay no attention to the watermarks on the camera)
Could there be a better spot??
We were in heaven baby! Heaven!!!!
Rex and Aaron of course....got some snorkeling in, and well, I did some searching on the beach and found this....
is this not the cutest lil crab ever??? I followed him all over (secretly cringing inside) hoping he wouldn't burrow himself in the sand by my towel!
We found these HUGE conch shells too! They even have living creatures inside. (ewwww!)
Have I mentioned how much I love this place???
I. could. not. get. enough.
It was time to head back to this lovely beauty, but I REALLY didn't want to leave. :( The tour guides for the boats even made the boat ride go super fast, they talked to us the whole way over and even gave us advice on buying land there for
CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!
( I was about ready to make an offer!) No, really I was.
We had to hurry back to the ship, cause it was our last formal night!
(Doesn't Rex look thrilled to be eating again? :) He was just ticked we had to leave our island. (Me too love, me too.)
This was our menu for the evening. It's just fun to go back and read some of the things they served us! I wasn't brave to try these things...but Rex was!
His expressions are priceless!
I could seriously eat that molten cake every night. Oh wait, I did.
Best. Day. Ever.
(DAY 6)..... COZUMEL!
We woke up bright and early and headed into sweet ole' Cozumel, Mexico for our second time in our lives. We knew what to do.
Mopeds were it!
You can explore the ENTIRE island and beach hop
ALL DAY LONG!
We started exploring the whole island! We stopped at this fancy resort and bought ourselves a pass in!
It was such a fun place!
They had this HUGE water playground for adults, and we wanted in on that fun! So we bought the passes, and the fun BEGAN! IF you look at the above 4 photos, you may notice a slight problem occurred while playing...Rex obviously (see pic below) likes to play a little rough on these toys, and he totally RIPPED his suit!
Oh.my.laugh.attack.
I don't think I've laughed that hard in the LONGEST time.
We were all laughing so hard we fell off the toys.
These toys were a serious workout! We were beat, after playing on them!
So we needed relaxation....
We walked on the beach, found messages in the sand....
Played in the MASSIVE waves!
Found some .....interesting signs :)
Held an IGUANA! (this thing was huge! ) Gross. I did not wanna touch it.
But I totally did. Woot! Woot!
Then ....we found something we didn't find before!
a "MEGA" store.
It's a famous supermarket all over in Mexico that Rex used to visit while serving his mission! He was IN HEAVEN to see this! He was truly a little kid in candy store, checking everything out! He was so excited for all the different SWEET BREADS! We had to try a little of everything!
Delicious.
Devouring every last bite. He loved this.
Visiting this island was worth seeing him so excited!
I think it was my favorite part of the whole day!
This was definitely a hot spot for cruise ships! There was tons of them!
I have no idea what the crap Rex is doing in that picture. But it cracks me up.
And the other pic...well, that would be the line to board back on our ship!! CRAZY!
Now, this pic is crazy. We are drinking HOT CHOCOLATE. Rexy ordered this EVERY night after dinner. But after I finally tried it....I knew why!
So yummy~
After all the eating, we continually keep doing....we need lots and lots of rest! So we loved heading up to the "Serenity Lounge" and sleeping on these chairs. Oh it was awesome.
I want one for my back patio!
(I really am looking!)
Anyone know where to buy them!
Then, since we hadn't eaten enough, we decided to hit the Midnight buffet, but lets be honest, it just wasn't hittin' the spot, so we went to plan B.
Like our favorite plan.
oh deliciousness.
How much food can we possibly consume in one day??
(day 7).....A day at sea!
No, not eat. Geez, what do you take us for??
Sleep!!! :)
And Relax.
And we did this, all day long.
We needed this after our busy week!
THEN we ate.
This actually happened to be my meal. I got brave on the last night. I ordered Halibut and shrimp. It was actually super yummy!
Then we walked around the ship, and browsed the souvenir shops, bought some gifts....
Hit the comedy club one last time to watch a little karaoke.
Then we did the dreaded procedure. We packed our bags.
What melts our sorrows away??....Eating of course! Ice cream!
Then we messed around on the deck and probably played with important life saving devices that we weren't supposed to. :)
And then.....one more time....we ordered room service! (well mostly just for the yummy strawberry cheesecake!) We needed it one more time. :)
(day 8).....heading home!
Our bags were packed, and ready to go....we were standing here outside the door......
They had to pick us up to say goodbye...
So we are leaving on a jet plane....
(anyone humming the song?)
In the lovely taxi, heading to the dreaded airport to wait for our flights.....
Then we shared in one last divine treat while reminiscing the trip.
Oh how I love traveling.
with him.
Can life get any better than this?
I submit, It cannot. :)
After digging into their treasures and seeing their priceless little faces after a week of missing them...
Not even a cruise beats being smothered with hugs and kisses from the CUTEST boys in the entire world!!!!!!
