10 Year Anniversary Cruise

WARNING: This is AN EXTREMELY LONG POST OF PICTURES!!!!
Our flight to San Juan, PR....we were so READY to go!!

About to walk onto the ship...can you tell we were a bit TO excited??

We were leaving port here. Bye Bye San Juan...see you later.

We paid for rooms that didn't have a window and were on the bottom of the ship. However we gladly accepted the upgrade they gave us with no extra charge. We were on the top deck with a balcony. Can't get much better than this...what a way to travel. We were for sure spoiled with these types of rooms.

Our first stop was St. Thomas. Nick was up early to catch the sunrise. What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Not a single cloud in the sky and we got to soak up the sun on a small private beach called Magen's Bay.

It was hot!! We spent plenty of time in the ocean. This was the best weather day we had on the entire cruise.

Monday night was our first formal night. Here we are getting ready to head to dinner.

On Tuesday we arrived at Dominica. We took an excursion this day and had a tour of the island. We went to Emerald Pool and Waterfall and then onto a Volcanic Black Sand Beach. Nick enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool.

This day was rainy and cool. So I didn't get into the pool...way to cold for me.

The black beach was neat to see and the sand was SO SOFT!! I was surprised by that. Of course with it raining we didn't get to enjoy the beach quite like we had hoped.

We sat under these umbrella's the entire time. I was pretty cold and miserable with the rain blowing under the umbrella:(.

Wednesday we arrived in Grenada. It was a cloudy and rainy day for our excursion which was to go snorkling. We had to walk thru this TIGHT tunnel to get to our boat that took us snorkling.

The snorkling boat in background. No pictures of snorkling because it was terrible. The ocean was "unsafe" to snorkle in at their normal spot, so they took us to another spot. However it as filled with Jellyfish so needless to say I was in the water for a meer 3 minutes before I was done. Saw one fish and quite frankly wish we could have our money back from that excursion. They did take us to the beach here for an hour which as you can see was busy and cloudy. I took a nap on this beach:).

This is where we would lay out on the ship. It was top deck, facing the big screen tv so if there was a show playing we could watch it while laying out. Gave us something to do while tanning:).

One night was the Ultimate Deck party. We went out for awhile, but the party didn't stop...and it was getting to be to much....so we left and went to a quieter place on the ship.

On Thursday we arrived in Bonaire. This island is small with nothing on it. So if you ever visit here we recommend you doing a snorkling or scuba excursion. We heard(once we were here) that this is the island for those types of activities. Since it was so small and it was raining again, we went and sat at this place(see below) for an hour then went back onto the ship.

This night at dinner was the captains dinner. Not a formal night, but a 5 course meal. Here is Jason and Joy with their palate cleanser. :)

On Friday we arrived at Aruba. We were thankful to see the sun shinning when we woke up:). This was our view from our balcony that morning.

We went straight to the beach and stayed there for nearly 5 hours!!

Our last formal night on Friday. Here we are with our waiters. They were wonderful and brought lots of laughter to our table. They would bring us extra food dishes to try even when we didn't order them. Needless to say we ate more than we needed to.

Saturday was Sea Day. We spent the day laying out on the deck by the pool. It was enjoyable. Nick and I decided to get some sunset pictures as well this night. (not sure why he is holding my stomach???...makes me look pregnant and I am NOT:))

Joy had something in her teeth:)...she found that the knife really worked well as a mirror and a toothpick. To funny!

You ask what am I doing??? Well, I had a very sun burned lip and so I was soaking it in my nice ice cold water. It felt good:). We were having to much fun this night I think.

On Sunday, our last day, we spent touring San Juan, PR. We did a walking tour (our tour guide was great...it was nick:)). We saw Old San Juan and many local streets and buildings.

This is a picture of Old San Juan's city walls. They protected the city at one time and had only a few gates in which allowed entrance and exits from the city. In the evenings the gates were locked and noone was allowed to leave in the evenings.

We ate at a local restaurant called Waikiki that had a patio opened out back to the ocean. Beautiful scenery for sure.

The night before we left San Juan....what a beautiful sky and city line.

*For those of you who enjoy a cruise and are thinking about taking one....we will gladly let you know that this cruise line caters towards GLBT's. We wish we would have known this information and now realize its a cruise line we will not ever use again.*

*We did enjoy our time with Jason and Joy and hope to cruise again sometime*

I'm Thankful.......

for the little drain at the top of sinks!!!! You ask why?? Well, last night I was busy making dinner. Elijah and Caden were in the basement, and quite frankly I figured Liam was too. Dinner was nearly finished and I was putting things on the table so we could eat. I heard Liam jabbering from upstairs so I told him to come on down for dinner. He came down, I picked him up and he was WET from HEAD to TOE!! Literally. His hair, his front of his shirt, both front and back of his pants were drenched and his feet had water droplets on them. I instantly thought...oh dear...the toilet. There better not be pee in that toilet. I smelled Liam and he smelled fine. So I dashed upstairs to see the damage. This is what I saw..... Water all over the floor and ontop of the step stool was a puddle. The side wall(you can sort of see in this picture) was dripping with water. The back wall (which you can't see) had water running down it and the baseboards were all wet. I opened the cupboard and there was water all pooled in there. The dark spots on the carpet means it's wet:). Then you look up to the counter and this is what I saw.....

Toothbrushes, toothpaste, and the hand towel were all getting baths. The water was still running too when I got up there so it was all going out of the tiny little drain at the top of the sink cause he had plugged the main drain too!! If you look closely near the children's tooth paste you will see a cap floating...yep thats the cap to the other toothpaste and so that toothpaste was filled with water. Our entire counters had water on them. It took me 2 towels to soak up all the water that was laying around. What a mess!! Our dinner was COLD this night!!!

It's Party Time!

We had the honor of going to Bloomington to visit Michael and Mindy this weekend. It was in celebration of his 30th birthday and it was a KID FREE party:). We truly thank you two for a wonderful, fun filled weekend and for allowing us to stay an extra day as well:). Since it was Michael's weekend he chose all that we would eat:). Here we are on Friday night downtown Bloomington at a restaurant called Medici. Yummy food for sure.

We played several games on saturday. Us ladies played Ticket to Ride, while the men played Risk, and Settlers.

Our boys stayed with my parents on friday night, saturday all day and then on sunday they brought them to IL as my family all had a wedding to attend in Fairbury, IL. On saturday afternoon, my sweet Caden was out riding a three wheeled bike when he took a spill. He landed face first onto the blacktop drive. I think this will take a bit of time to heal...don't you?? I actually got tears in my eyes when I saw him on sunday morning at church. I felt so bad for him.

Thanks again Michael and Mindy!!