So we're celebrating our 10th anniversary this year, and in April we both had our birthdays, and Kevin owed me a vacation for winning Summer of Seals last summer, we made a bet, and I won.:)
Because of all this, we finally nailed down a trip and booked a cruise of the eastern caribbean for the first week in May. Kevin was like a little kid, so super excited, I on the other had was a little more apprehensive about leaving all the kids behind.
It was fine, it always is, and it's always good to have a little time to spend with the hubby all by myself!
Unfortunately, when we flew into fort lauderdale, it was raining, and the rain followed us for the first four days of the cruise. Our first stop was in the bahamas, and what should have been tropical paradise, just wasn't. It was cold and windy and wet. Still beautiful and the water was gorgeous, we just couldn't really enjoy it!
We went on a royal caribbean cruise, and this happens to be the largest ship in the world!
We took an excursion that gave us a tour of the island, and then dropped us off at Atlantis to walk around a little bit. We didn't get to see hardly anything cause of all the rain.
I really just felt bad for all the poor people who were staying at the Atlantis. Can you imagine? They said it'd been raining like that for 3 days! At least we were leaving and had hope of better weather.
Not that we got it though!
I bet it's really gorgeous there when it's sunny!
Kevin's face pretty much says it...not a real exciting day there!
But I will say, the resort is amazing. I was in awe of all of the architectural work and details that went into EVERYTHING there!
We had a day at sea the next day and there was enough of a break in the rain for them to open up some of the outdoor activities. So, Kevin jumped on them and spent the day climbing and zip lining and playing ball!
This is the aqua arena, that blue stage there drops and becomes a 17 foot deep pool. This is where they have the diving show...that was pretty amazing to see!
Of course, we became very familiar with the basketball court on the ship! Kevin won a few medals playing in basketball, volleyball and dodgeball tournaments. I got to sit by and read and cheer him on!
He was excited to try the zip line, They're pretty strict about it being super dry to do this, so we weren't even sure they were going to open it up cause of all the rain!
There he goes!
This is what's below the hipline, that's the carousel down there, along with a few restaurants.
Next we made it to St. Thomas. We were really excited about this stop and had heard that we had to go to St. Johns, cause it was so beautiful there. Unfortunately, the weather was worse there!
We did make it to our ferry, this was the view, awesome, right?
Just to show how wet it was, Kevin was ringing out his shirt on the ferry cause he was so drenched. This was just from walking from the ship to the ferry, and it wasn't that far!
about 10 minutes into the ferry ride, they canceled the excursion and sent us back. We're pretty disappointed we didn't make it over there, but I suppose that just means we'll have to go again someday!:)
Our last stop was St, Maarten, if you're dutch, or St. Martin if your french. It was overcast, but finally warm, and dry! We also finally made it to the beach while we were here, yay!
The first beach we went to was right next to the airport, and we could see and hear all the jets taking off and landing just across the street. It was kinda cool!
Finally! This is what a vacation is supposed to be like!
This was one of the planes landing, they were super low, it was fun to watch!
Kevin was beyond excited to finally get in the ocean! Thank goodness our last stop finally was decent!
Back on the boat on the way home we had great weather the final two days. So we spent our time outside soaking up the sun while we could! Kevin got me to even try the rock climbing. I'll be honest, I wanted to anyway, but I'm in pretty bad shape and didn't want to embarrass myself by only climbing a couple feet off the ground!
It wasn't too bad though! I also didn't think I was showing hardly at all, but looking back at these pictures, I look either like I've got a big ol gut, or slightly pregnant!
Kevin made it to the top again, he loves a challenge!
I decided to try one more time. I made it farther, but then looked down and freaked myself out so I quit!
This is the boardwalk, a very fun part of the boat for kids of all ages. Kevin fit in well down there!:)
These last ones are just a bunch of pictures of the ship, and our cabin steward, Teisha, who was so super sweet! She was from Trinidad I think, and was always smiling and happy!
Some of the pools on the boat, finally being used after so many days of rain!
Kevin and I also got to meet Fiona, how lucky are we? They had tons of Pixar characters there that we saw, but she's the only one we got a picture with.
We made it to all the shows, some were amazing, some, not so much. This one wasn't our favorite, but it was still pretty cool.
I just really liked the earth floating there, kinda random, but there ya go!
This is the theater where most of the shows, and Bingo were held. We kinda like to play bingo!:)
Our awesome, tiny cabin, with the days latest towel creation!
Kevin spent more time here than I did, but I went a few times. It was nice to just go work out whenever we wanted to...then go gorge ourselves on food right when we were done!
Last day of the cruise, and almost home. I think I was more excited to come back and see the kids than I was to leave. Cruises are just hard cause it's just so hard to even get in touch with the kids back home. I missed them a bunch, and we may have to make our couples vacations a little bit shorter for the next little while...just till the kids are slightly older.
But all-in-all, we had a fantastic trip with no cooking, cleaning, or changing diapers. Even if we had more than our fair share of "liquid sunshine" ( I hated that term by day three!) , it was a nice little break from reality for a few days! Although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the day that we got to take our kids with us on one of these trips!
