Day 7 Princes Cay Bahamas

Here is a photo of our whole group 5 adults and 7 children. That sounds crazy and has been in the past at places like Disneyland, but on a cruise it worked out great and was actually pretty relaxing.


Can you see the love! These two just love being together. When we left each other at the end of the trip, Ruby cried and cried about leaving Jacob.



We took little boats from the ship to the island. Look at the water!
I seriously could not stop smiling. I couldn't help but feel completely blessed to be there!



We all snorkled a lot and the kids played in the sand.

A ton of the servers from the ship came on the island and they set up a big BBQ buffet for lunch. We frequented the fruit table often. They had the best pineapple I have ever eaten and of course my girls wanted more kiwi!





After we came back from the island it was dinner, packing and basically the cruise was over. We disembarked early in the morning in rainy cold Ft. Lauderdale Florida. It was really yucky weather, but we were still high from the unbelievable week in paradise!

We drove down to Miami Beach and had lunch in South beach. It was so fun to see South Beach in person, I know it totally lights up at night, but it was still pretty cool.


As our plane took off to leave Florida it was 20 min after the Grand Princess had left for their next cruise. When I looked out the window and saw our ship leaving port I was sad, but also excited for all the people that were about to have the greatest week ever!

Day 6 At sea- Thanksgiving

I did not realize what a HUGE part food plays on a cruise. It felt like thanksgiving every single day. We hardly ever eat out so the fact that I did not cook or clean up dishes for 7 days was a great vacation in itself.

The food was really amazing. I stretched my stomach so much that towards the end of the cruise I was eating 3 rolls before dinner, an appetizer, a salad, my dinner and sometimes two desserts. I fully expected to pack on some pounds but I didn't care. For thanksgiving dinner I ordered Lobster instead of turkey just because I can eat turkey anytime, but lobster is normally not an option. I ate every bite and loved it. Our waiter Sergi brought out a whole new plate of lobster for me....and I ate all that too! Really, I ate more on that ship in a week then I normally eat in a month.

Sergi got our kids to try all differnt kinds of foods that they had never tried and they loved all of them. They all expecially loved Kiwi and ate about 7 kiwi fruits each per day. This was Haley trying a cold coconut soup that she loved!



We had some cousin time in our cabin. Ali and Jacob came over to watch Even almighty and of course sit in the window.



They danced and played and had a great time. It was all good until Lucy used a little stamper to stamp Ali's face and body...I was less then 6 feet away and totally oblivious. I guess I was just really into the movie. The stamps washed off...eventually.



Every night when the kids were at the kids club we went out to the shows. They had great comedians, magicians a hypnotist (that tried to hypnotize Eric on stage), there was always some entertainment or class going on.

My Sister Tiffany and her husband Dave


Me and the cute guy I met scuba diving
My Mom Bonnie

Day 5 Cozumel Mexico

We took a taxi out to Paradise beach. This beach was amazingly great for kids. There were live parrots...



two water trampolenes connected with a bridge, a floating rock climbing wall, kayaks...


and of course snorkeling. My kids have always loved to snorkel (even in the bath tub), so this was the day we converted all the cousins to snorkeling. You could hear the kids scream through their snorkel every time they saw a fish!




All the girls had their hair braided in a little tent right on the beach.




We left the beach around 1:00 and headed to Dolphin discoveries. My girl have always loved dolphins. This was such a dream come true to be able to swim with, hug and kiss a dolphin. I'm not sure who had more fun, the girls with the dolphins or Eric and I getting to watch them.

Day 4 Grand Caymen

Dave, Eric and I woke up early and went scuba diving. I have not gone scuba diving in 7 years so I was really nervous. Our 1st dive was 80 feet and our second was 30 feet. The water was so clear it was deceiving how deep we really were. On our 2nd dive I was stung by a jellyfish on my leg. It was really weird to feel it sting and look and see nothing, but it didn't hurt that bad. Several other people on the boat also were stung I guess it's kinda common.

Here's Dave (my Sister's husband)


Me


Eric




After diving we met up with my Mom, Sister and all the kids and took a taxi to the Royal palms beach club on the 7 mile beach.



Yes, this was totally posed, but look at all these beautiful cousins!



Grandma Bonnie enjoyed the sights, then took a nap

Day 3 At sea

Lots of swimming, eating, eating and eating.




Haley had a cooking class with one of the pastry chefs.


She wanted to eat all of the cake herself but ended up sharing with Weston...thank heavens.


We had a tour of the largest galley on the ship.


Jacob, LOVES to cook and wants to be a chef when he grows up, so he was thrilled when we met the head Chef.

Some random things on the ship that made us happy:

The girls LOVED that they had their own "credit cards" that got them on and off the ship and opened our cabin door.



Our room stuart was the best. He would tuck in Lucy's baby and leave the baby a chocolate too.

Every time we came on the room he would have made a new animal towel sculpture like this cobra...



and the Mama and baby monkeys hanging from hangers! He also made a sea turtle, elephant (wearing Ruby's sunglasses), a puppy dog and a bunny. Every time we would walk in the room our girls would scream, then run out to the hall to tell James Thank you! He loved the attention.

Day 2 Ocho Rios Jamaca

As soon as we arrived on Jamaica, we took a van to some remote location to go river tubing. It was a long (like 40min) drive up a VERY bumpy dirt road. There were times that I thought there was no way we would make it and we were going to get stuck. Our tour guide said that they get a lot of flat tires because the road is so bad. I just prayed that we would not get one and we didn't. While on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere, we passed this little food shack.

Luckily we were not hungry. Check out what he was selling-



We finally made it to the top and got into the river.


I cant believe we got my Mom to do this. She complained the whole time, but I think she really enjoyed it.



The kids all had a blast. For the most part it was a lazy river ride, but there were a few rapids. While floating down the river at one point we saw a couple of horses grazing on the side.





After we recovered from the ride down the scary dirt road, David and Eric took the kids to Duns Falls. Once they got there they quickly realized that there was no way two adults could help 7 children climb up several hundred feet of water falls

...so they hired a guide to help them.


The kids came back super animated and excited to tell us all about how fun the falls were.

While the boys had all the kids at Dunns falls My Mom, my Sister and I went shopping. There was really nothing to buy other then strange wood carvings, or really nice jewelry ...can you guess where we spent our time?