Vacation....Final Day

It was cold. And windy. And the boat was rocking. I'm not talking a little wave here and there. I'm talking full blown HUGE waves to the point when we were learning the Thriller dance steps everybody on stage would lose their balance and we'd all tumble to the side. At this point in time, the rocking didn't bother me. I actually found it quite funny watching everybody trying to walk a straight line. After some bingo and trivia, a few of us made our way to the farewell party really having no clue what it would be like. They caught our attention with their advertising of free drinks. Let me tell you, the boys took full advantage of this event!

We hung out, gambled and then were sitting around waiting for dinner at 8:15. At this point, the sun had set and the boat was still rocking. Now that I couldn't see outside, I was starting to feel a little "off." I kept not trying to think about it. Figured mind over matter and I'd be fine. Then I started noticing that they were putting puke bags by all the elevators. Ugh. About 5 minutes before dinner I stood up, looked at everybody and said, "I've got to go, see you later." I couldn't take it anymore. I never got sick, but let me tell you that laying down felt like heaven. I didn't move the rest of the night ~ I was out cold.

Other than the last night, we had such an awesome time. I would go on a cruise again in a heartbeat!

Vacation Day 4....

My favorite day of the whole trip. Mexico! Our ship landed in Cozumel at about 8am and we off for fun in the sun shortly thereafter. The weather was perfect! We ended up paying one of the hotels $13 each to use their beach and pool. $10 of the $13 was eligible for food and drink credits which was right up our alley.

We spent the day lounging...

and snorkeling.

A few of us hit up Fat Tuesday's for lunch, cerveza's and frozen drinks.

By 4:30 we were back on the ship. What a fun day! Little did I know that I was stung by a jellyfish. I don't remember it hurting and nothing really showed up for two days. However when we were zipping through the Dallas airport, I remember my carry on hitting my bu-thigh area (you know the area where your butt and your thigh meet) and thought, whoa, that hurt. But I thought it was perhaps my book corner. Nope. Once we got home that night I checked things out. Two huge welts. On to google I went to search for pictures of jelly fish stings. Question answered. I'll spare you a picture of it and instead will close this post with a picture of the beautiful sunset leaving Mexico.

Vacation Day 3....

I think I took only 5 pictures this day. Three of them were waterslide pictures of Mike, Nathan and Madison. The temperatures were in the high 60s and the wind was a bit breezy. I must have sat in about 20 different lounge chairs trying to find the warmest spot to sit. We hit up the hot tub, the track, the steam room and the gym. There was always plenty to do!

Apparently, I found some sun as proven by my little bit of a sunburn ~ oops.
We had the best waiter at our table. Zubin was from India. He was hilarious and kept us laughing all through dinner. Zubin wasn't afraid to tell you if you dinner selection was something you shouldn't try. He'd just say, oh, no, you do not want that. Loved it.

Vacation Day 2....

The start of the day was quite comical. Mike and I were itchin' to get on the boat and decided we were just going to get a move on it and everybody else could catch up to us later. We were standing outside the hotel waiting for the shuttle 20 minutes before it was suppose to get there. My dad, and the other 6 were still driving to Alabama by the time Mike and I had a celebratory cocktail poolside.
Anyhow, back to the comical part. I got out of the shower and was walking towards my suitcase. I noticed something white behind the chair in the room and asked Mike if his T-shirt fell back there. Nope, wasn't his T-shirt. It was a nice big old pair of granny panties. AHHHH!! What the hell? The best part of the story? There were 2 Busch Lights left in the fridge too. I don't even want to know what happened the night before. Disgusting. I have to laugh or I'd probably puke.
The weather wasn't quite as warm as I was hoping for. The first evening we hung out indoors playing trivia and exploring the ship.
Mike and Rachel did karaoke but a couple old drunk ladies stole the show and all eyes were on them until their young little boy toy was escorted out by security.
Next thing we know we hear the captain telling us that we have a passenger that is needing to leave the ship (no it wasn't the boy toy). We had to wait for the coast guard to come right outside our room and take somebody away. Really, the dude didn't even make it 2 hours from departure.

Vacation Day 1......

My dad and step-mom gave a wonderful gift to us this year. They purchased tickets for all of us to go on a 4 night cruise together. We went on the Carnival Elation which left out of Mobile, Alabama. Mike and I got into town on the afternoon of January 5th. By the time we got to our hotel we were ready to go find ourselves some dinner. We enjoyed some crawfish tails and oysters. A first for me!!
Unknown to us, the big daddy football bowl was in town and they were having a parade right where we were eating dinner. It's what I imagine Mardi Gras looks like, but about 50 times more calm. There were beads and moon pies everywhere!

A great start to our vacation!

Christmas 2010....

I am finally getting around to posting a few Christmas pictures. It's been a very busy past 30 days, but looking forward to things slowing down a bit now that the holidays are over and we are back from vacation.
One of my 101 in 1001 days was to make a gingerbread house. I can cross that off the list. Actually I helped make two of them. One was foam and the other was a true gingerbread house. Here's the proof which includes my little elf helpers. We were up north with my mom and step-dad this year for the actual holiday. We spent lots of time outdoors building forts, looking for deer and riding the snowmobile.

I love the my nieces can beat up on my boys. It's good for them.

After about 314 attempts at getting a group of all the grand kids for my mom, I let them all strike a pose. Loving it.

Christmas morning with the boys wrapped up in their snuggies.

Checking out all their loot from the red suit guy.

The guys spent countless hours trying to master the new hunting game. The "older" boys stayed up until 2am trying to find some creature and were totally unsuccessful.

I'm pretty sure that I have a picture of at least one of my boys in this pose on the way home from a weekend of late nights, good food and great company.