THE CRUISE!!!

SO...Did I mentioned that Ryan surprised me with a five day Western Carribean Cruise for our Anniversary and it was AWESOME! Being our first cruise we weren't sure what to expect but we had heard good things about them and we were not disappointed at all. ** I am not sure if it was because it was our first trip (minus house hunting) that we had been on (just the two of us) in seven years or of it was being on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Either way it was tons of fun! **

I was totally shocked when Ryan revealed his little secret but when it came right down to going I had several reservations. (I think he waited so long to tell me because he didn't want me to have time to go shopping :) )First I was nervous about leaving the kids for that long...five nights! Bryton was barely one and not sleeping through the night. I was worried about being stranded and so far from land. I was a little nervous about getting sick, not to mention the whole swine flu thing. I'm sure there were some others but those were the big ones. To my surprise the kids did awesome when we left Monday morning, Bryton was still asleep which was a good thing and Madison and Jackson were so excited to have Grandpa and Grandma here I don't think they realized what was going on. Madison just wanted us to bring her back a doll and Jackson just kept making sure it was just going to be five days (as he would count them on his hand). No tears from anyone but me, great start!

We drove about five hours to Galveston, Texas where we left from. I have seen pictures of Crusie ships but in real life that thing is MASSIVE!! To spare tons of details we had two stops one in Cozumel and the other in Progresso Mexico.

Here we are on the ship....







The first day was a sea day so we were able to just relax and enjoy some nice weather. Of course I didn't pack sunscreen and I wanted to come home with a great tan so as a result we got cooked our first day! I have never been a fan of running, I do it because I know I need to but for the first time I actually think I enjoyed exercise because I got to watch the ocean and talk to Ryan AND I didn't have a million interupptions or have to back track for loose shoes thrown from the stroller. We also utilized this day to find our way around the ship.

Cozumel...







Here we wanted to go on the Twister which is a speed boat excursion through the ocean endind in a trip to a private beach. Unfortunately, it sold out before we were able to book. Since I am a wimp and didn't dare try scuba or snuba (even though we hear that this is the place to do it) It's my fear of swimming with slithery, slippery things that gets me. I guess that is not entirely true because I really wanted to swim with the dolphins but it was very costly. (Maybe next time) Instead we decided on a visit to a beach and a little shopping in hopes to find some good things to bring back to the kids and I needed to get my vanilla. We took a taxi into town and then just walked and shopped. We ran out of cash so I decided we could just walk back to the port after all it couldn't be that far. WRONG....we walked forever! But we got to see a lot of Cozumel and found some great bargains on souveniors.

On the ship there was a formal night at the dinning room so it was fun to dress up and go to dinner and a show.



Two of our favorite things on the ship...



Mine was the chocolate melting cake....I ate at least one every night, sometimes two!



Ryan's was the water slide!

Progresso...



Here we went to ChiChen Itza. This is one of the reasons Ryan booked this cruise so we signed up for this excursion right away. It was amazing! It was a two hour bus ride to the ruins and of course two hours back so it did't leave us much time there. We were able to see a lot but left wishing we could have seen more. I am not that great with Book of Mormon history but Ryan knows a lot and so it was so incredible to see these temples and the actual land where we speculate a lot of this history took place. Pictures really can't do it justice, it was really an incredible experience.











We ended with another day at sea...PERFECT! It was our Anniversary...7 years! More sun and relaxation and here is a little proof of our sunburns...


This cannot be good for your skin.

Happy Anniversary Ryan and thanks again for the fun trip! It was so nice to get away and have some time with each other. Our lives for the past seven years have been crazy with school....undergrad, medical school, and now residency in addition to several moves and three little ones. Needless to say we don't have much alone time so it was so great to just be away and worry free for just a few days! Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma for wathching the kids they had a great time.