Day 1 and 2 of our cruise...

So I'm behind... really, really behind on... pretty much my whole... LIFE... not to mention my blog!

10 days ago we arrived home from a most wonderful (but not necessarily "restful" :)) vacation... and I seem to have been in a fog ever since.  Pretty much enough energy to get through the day... but NOT enough energy to accomplish anything productive beyond the basics... possibly I feel like the rest of the world... because {gasp} I've been in bed by like 11:30 every night...

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!

Today I'm taking baby steps though and plan to post at least SOMETHING about our trip... it may be long... it may be boring... so skim if you need to...

It goes like this...

A 7-night Carribbean Cruise...

on the Carnival Glory...

with 20 of our friends...

PRICELESS!!

{The End}

Just kidding there's more...

My sweet sister-in-law Kimi and her almost year old boy Trey flew in from Pittsburgh to tend our 5 girls.  I'm sure it was an adjustment for her going from 1 to 6 kids... but she did amazing... and our kids had a blast.  I missed them... at random times... :)  But knowing that they were being well taken care of made it totally enjoyable for us.  I was worried about my little Lydia... and was sure that she NEEDED me to survive... but she too did just fine and only shunned me for a minute or two when we got home, then I got the chubby armed hug I had missed all week... and I sniffed and kissed her little bald head the rest of the night... o how I love her little bald baby head!!

We left on Sat. Feb 26th... with the Bushman's and the Heaps and flew to Miami.  There we met up with the Carlsen's and Astle's at our hotel.  The next morning we continued on together and went to the cruise ship terminal...

and then we were off!!

But it wasn't just the 10 of us... there were 10 more that boarded at other times. :)

Once on board we of course headed straight up to the "Lido Deck" for food.  (Shane sniffed that out for us the second we set foot on the boat.) 

I was quite impressed with the ship itself.  I had only been on Carnival once... years ago... for high school graduation.  Although we had a blast back then of course and really didn't have anthing to compare it to... that boat was nothing to write home about... and our room was disgusting... there were 4 girls in our room and about 10 sq ft to walk in, and that included the sink in the room... the 2'x4' bathroom had a toilet... and upon further inspection we realized that the shower head was on the wall... above the toilet... meaning you could potty AND shower... at the same time!!  It was nasty... so I was pleasantly surprised to find that our rooms were much nicer on this ship!!

We figured out where all 10 couples rooms were and placed signs like this...

On each door... complete with our cruise Theme... "Cruisin' wth my peeps".  (which seemed self-explanatory, but since people asked... "peeps" is like "people" or "friends" :)  Get it??)  AND cruise Motto... "Get your cruise on".  Each door was easily identifiable...  we decided that if we were drunk it would have been really helpful... but... we weren't and it was still pretty helpful! :) 

Admittedly some weren't real happy with the picture selections that I chose (even my own husband if you look closely)...  But...  if I round them all up and take forever to put them together etc. etc. etc. I get to pick the pictures... and I'm not going to pick bad ones of me... it's just how it is... DEAL WITH IT PEOPLE!!  Same goes for the "cruise video" I will be making for all of us...  I WILL NOT be putting embarrassing pictures of me on it... but... I will be putting them on of everyone else.  Unless of course you want to make the video... and no one seemed to volunteer so...  it's just how it is!! 

:) :) :) :) :)

There was the sail away party... which apparently only woman were invited to...  o wait I see one man forced out there by his wife!

After that "busy" afternoon it was time to eat again...  So off to dinner we went.  Our last cruise we didn't have that great of an experience with our waiters, so we were pleasantly surprised to meet our 3 awesome waiters.  They were fun and nice... and although I'm sure they thought we were a litle bit strange...  they acted like they loved us!!

And our other cruise friends...  Cox's, Robinson's, Cardon's, Jensen's and Hyer's.

Jaroslav... or "J" was our favorite.  Actually Deon and Lisa kept fighting about who was his favorite...  And this was pretty much where the Deon/Lisa issues started...  suggesting Lisa Karaoke to "Dancing Queen" was the final straw!

Although we loved our waiters, we weren't too impressed with our steward.  Joe & Lisa, us and Ron & Nancy had the same steward.  He wasn't real "friendly".  He was older and a little bit lazy... and tired...  later in the week we found out why... he has been working for carnival since 1976!!  If I had been cleaning peoples rooms for the last 34 years I wouldn't be real chipper anymore either!!  We affectionately referred to him as "Lumpy", and we tried to make conversation with him everyday.  It usually went like this...  Us... "how is your day going".  Him.... "fine."  End of conversation...  but he did belly laugh when Lisa and I sang him songs and he did have a real talent for making seriously awesome towel rabbits.  Each night we were excited to see what kind of an animal creation Lumpy would leave for us... our friends were getting all kinds of sweet animals from their stewards... elephants, seals, stingrays, frogs etc.  But Lumpy specialized...  rabbits were his thing... yep a rabbit EVERY night... although the "rabbits were disguised to look like other things.... a rabbit that was "hanging", a rabbit on his haunches, a sitting rabbit, one night it "might" have been a bunny or maybe a hare :0... but anyway you sliced it... a rabbit it was. :)

Our first "port of call" was Naussau.

All of these couples...

took an excursion together to "Blue Lagoon Island".

After a short boat ride we were on the island for too short of a time, no time for just sitting and relaxing...

There was volleyball...  And pictures with "Homey the Gnomey" who accompanied us on all of our Carribean adventures. :)

And fun on the blow-up water toys...

(notice the grumpy girl in the top right picture who didn't like Shane... AT ALL after he bounced her off that mat... she was MAD!!)

And we watched Deon (and Lisa) fulfill her dream and swim with a dolphin...

It was a gorgeous day... and I didn't miss the snow for one second that day (or the entire week actually!)

To be continued...