Christmas Cruise

Almost a year ago my parents booked a cruise for the coming December.  They wanted to do this as our Christmas and none of us complained about that.  A vacation is way better than any gift you can open.  And it is a memory that lasts forever. Even though they have had it booked for so long, it actually came pretty quickly.  I was a little stressed about leaving the kids home and went back and forth on the idea of leaving them home or taking them with us and we decided to leave them home.  Really they had more fun at home than they would have on the cruise and we had fun relaxing and spending the time together.  The kids did great with out us and had a great week. And all that we did on our trip wouldn't have been able to be done if the kids were with us.  So we will save Disneyland for the vacation when the kids can come.  We left on a Saturday evening and drove to the airport where we got on a flight to Houston. When we got to the airport and were waiting to board our plane my dad handed me his boarding pass and asked me to give him his.  He had been bumped up to first class and was letting me have it! I was so excited!! I had never flown first class before and have always wanted to see what it was like. It was heavenly and definitely something I could get used to:)  It was so much more comfortable and I ate some good snacks.  

I didn't want to take a selfie so this is the only picture I got.  So on our honeymoon when we got on the plane to go to Hawaii, I had already sat in my seat on the plane and Josh was standing up putting our bags in the overhead compartments.  Before he sat down he shook my hand and said "What is your name?"  We laughed.  Josh has been doing that every since.  It has become very funny and also very endearing.  It is something that makes me smile and is a great inside joke for the two of us.  Well..... when I was sitting in first class, the flight attendant came up to me with a little box and said this guy in the isle back there wanted me to give you this and tell you that he thinks you are very cute and would love to meet you after the flight.  I laughed and was amazed at Josh's cleverness.  I looked back and gave him a huge smile.  He had made my day.  In the box was a necklace that I have been wanting.  He is so sweet and so thoughtful and couldn't have given it to me any better way than that!

My mom loves this popcorn and hauled these two bags all around the airport and on to the ship! It was slightly embarrassing.

Waiting for the shuttle to take us to the hotel.  We got to the hotel and were all starving so the sweet girl at the front desk got some cold cereal for us.  It tasted really good!  We went to bed and woke up the next day ready to board the ship.

All of us except James and Lexi had been on a cruise before.  We were all so excited just to see the looks on their faces when they stepped onto the ship.  They were shocked.  We looked around the ship for a while and then reported to our muster station.

After we learned what to do in case of an emergency we went on the top deck of the ship and watched as we took off. We then got ourselves a little cleaned up and unpacked our bags in our room and went to dinner in the dining room.

The next two days were days at sea. It was so nice!!  We slept in, ate lots of yummy food, read a lot and hung out by the pool.  It was so nice to just relax! Tuesday night we had our first formal night. We got all dressed up and went to dinner.

Ha ha ha! James couldn't believe that you could just eat whatever you wanted and order as many as you wanted without having to pay for it.  He had a little bit of fun once the dessert menu came!

I drank A LOT of these!

So Josh decided on the cruise that even though he had never done karaoke before that he was going to try it and he did it a couple of times while we were there.  Ha ha ha!  He actually told my mom he would do it as payment for watching our kids one time. It was awesome and he actually did pretty good.  The first time he sang the song "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid and the second time he sang a Killers song.  It was a great song, but was a lot higher than he remembered.  It was pretty funny and the people loved him. I was proud to call him mine!

Wednesday morning we woke up and were in Roatan, Honduras.  My mom had made reservations for us to go to a place called "The Little French Key".  It is a small private island.  We got in some taxi's and then from there got on a small boat and went over to the island.  It was so beautiful!

Once we got there we were free to do whatever we wanted. They had paddle boards, snorkeling stuff, kayaks, lounge chairs, food and drink, lots of animals to see and hold, and a huge platform to jump off of. It was amazing and the people that worked there were so nice!

We all loved the paddle boards.  The water was so clear so it was fun to ride out on them because we could see the bottom of the ocean. It was breathtaking.

There were so many animals all over to see. Some of them were locked up but others were just hanging out and we were able to hold them, touch them and play with them.  The monkeys (especially the baby monkey) were my favorite. They cuddled right up to us and were the sweetest little things.  It kind of made me want one! Drake and Stella would love that:)  

The mommy monkey LOVED James.  She would not let him go and would get mad when the worker would try and take her away from James. She swatted at him and wouldn't let him take her. It was really cute.

This lion was one of the animals that was locked up!

After we had been there a couple of hours we looked over in the water and one of the workers was swimming with a big jaguar and was bringing it over by us.  Even though it was on a chain and in water it still scared me!  I don't care how trained that thing is, it is still a wild animal!  They kept it in the water so that it couldn't take off and run and let people come and hold it and take pictures with it.  It cost a lot of money to do that, and there is no way I was going near that creepy thing.  It was so pretty to look at from far away, but I didn't want to get in its business.

We had rain and sun that day and so we just walked around and looked at everything.  The lunch they gave us was soooo good.  We had good rice and beans and awesome seafood.  Some of the best seafood I have ever had!

The best part of the whole day was when it started to rain because it was too cold to lay out and it was much warmer in the water. So we went and jumped off of the platform.  It was a lot of fun!

I mentioned that there were lots of nice people there.... well this is Miguel.  He was very nice and just loved Mine and Lexi's blonde hair.  He and another kid just kept coming up to us and touching our hair.

We are models.

This has got to be the best picture of my mom ever! So much happiness on that face. I love that woman so much!

We had a great day in Honduras and all hope to make it back there again one day.  We met some good people, had great food, enjoyed being with each other and just had an all over great day! 

The next day we were in Belize.  The night before Josh kept saying phrases with the word "Believe" in it and replacing it with "Belize".  He thought he was pretty funny and clever. Well when we got there the next day there were stickers and t shirts all over saying the same things.

Our excursion in Belize was a blast.  We took a bus through the city and up into the mountains to go zip lining. We saw beautiful scenery.  We also met some awesome people.  I have said this before but it definitely is the best part of traveling. 

We got all of our gear on and had a blast on the zip lines.

After we were done on the zip line we got some lunch.  It was so delicious!  The best rice and beans I have ever had.

Then we got back on the bus and some of us fell asleep.... ha ha ha. 

You can't tell in this picture, but there is a mom and four kids on that little scooter.  And to make it even better, one of the little kids was asleep. It was crazy! 

Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico.  It too was a great stop with a great excursion.  My mom planned so many fun things for us to do.  She did a great job with all of her research and we had a blast with everything we did. In Cozumel we rented jeeps and followed a tour guide and made lots of stops.

Our first stop was at a swamp by the ocean with crocodiles.  It was pretty dang cool and pretty dang creepy. They are ugly animals.

We also stopped at some Mayan Ruins.

We stopped at this lighthouse where they had some little shops with local people selling stuff. We did some shopping and went to the top of the lighthouse. The views were so pretty.

Then we had some beach time.  The guys went out and did some more snorkeling and us girls relaxed on the beach with diet cokes.

We got back in the jeeps and drove along the coast until we reached the place where we were being served lunch. It too was an amazing meal!!

After lunch we drove back to the cruise port.  It started to rain pretty hard so we were happy we had the covers on the jeep. I loved this part because we drove back through the city instead of on the coast line.  So we saw where people lived and how they live.

I really loved being in Mexico. Out of all of the countries it seemed to be thee country celebrating Christmas the most. And it was all centered around Christ.

Now while the stops were all so much fun, we also had a great time being on the ship.

So there is this guy that sang every time at karaoke.  His name was Ray and he looked and acted EXACTLY like Michael Scott from "The Office".  He did not do good and just kept trying every night. It was hilarious.  It was even better because he acted just like Michael Scott. We saw him on the ship all over the place!

We had another dressy night. It is always fun to get dressed up and have a fancy dinner, but it also was nice to get the dressy clothes off and just get comfortable.

Josh was in heaven with all of the yummy seafood. And even better because he didn't have to work for it at all.

So James did this face the whole trip and with this face came a voice that sounded like a snobby Englishmen. It was pretty hilarious!

This cruise was extra fun because of all of the Christmas decorations everywhere. It was really pretty!

While we were in Roatan, Lexi and I found these funny shirts. We waited until the last night to put them on. Although they are inappropriate they gave everyone a good laugh, and we thought we were pretty funny!

  

James celebrated his Birthday while we were on the ship. It was the last day so we were able to just hung out and enjoy the last day of relaxation.  They decorated his door and sang to him at dinner time. Lexi gave him that awesome sweatshirt!

This was such a fun trip where we all had so much fun!  Thank you Mom and Dad for such a great trip and for such a great Christmas!! Thanks for the fun memories, We love you!