Our week on the Caribbean Princess...

Valentine's Day...

Shane and I left our cute girls at home while we ran off to play with our friends the Carlsens and Astles for a week. :)

We flew to Houston.

Shared a hotel room with our friends.

(Every husbands dream Valentine date. haha)

Woke up super excited the next day.

Took our "Limo" to the cruise terminal.

(with a driver who had no idea where that was.  If we were on the amazing race we would definitely have lost, she stopped for directions once and finally with the guys navigating on their phones we got there!)

In no time we were aboard.

and eating...

and eating...

Far more than our share!

The first day was a sea-day.

There was golf for the guys...

and sun for the girls!

Gosh it's been a long winter and we sure enjoyed that sun!

And especially enjoyed being together with good friends.

Cozumel was our first stop

 

 We've been to Cozumel several times...

But never seen the island this way.

A super fun tour.

We made stops along the way.

And spent time at the beach.

A great day with more fun on the ship.

Most nights were capped off the with the nightly shows, definitely more food, a round of cards, dancing, and a large amount of laughter.

Our second stop was Roatan, Honduras.

Probably our most memorable day.

Lisa did great organizing our excursion.

It started with meeting our driver in a somewhat sketchy area.

Which we soon learned wasn't sketchy at all.

Such poverty on this island... so sad.

We had our driver for the whole day so he gave us a tour and took us where ever we wanted to go.

We decided to head to see the Monkeys and Parrots.

For a girl who doesn't like animals.

I have more pictures with animals than anyone I know.

I could do a whole post about animals and birds.

And my face will look pretty close to this in all of them.

Trapped in a cage with two monkeys pouncing all over was cool yes,

but gosh at the time I thought I might pee my pants!

My mom will ask where the hilarious videos of me are... 

this is enough, I think people get the idea of my comfort level!

No I did NOT let them down my shirt like the guys!!

 

I was feeling more comfortable by the end.

Then we went to the parrot cage.

Honestly, I don't know many people that would feel super comfortable in a cage with 5 ginormous parrots flying around!

I was doing OK.

Then this stupid bird dug his huge beak into my shoulder.

Left a big hole in my shirt.

Luckily just the shirt not my skin but it was far too close for my comfort!

After the "animal experience"...

We headed to a local grocery store, picked up a bunch of stuff on a list that Lisa had found on-line of things that were needed at an orphanage.

Our driver took us there to drop it off.

It was sad.

Sad to hear about their situations.

But good people who are trying to help these kids have a better life.

Humbling...

A little awkward at first.

But some of the younger ones were happy to come play soccer with the guys.

And we made some adorable new friends.

They wanted to play games on our phones. :)

An unforgettable experience.

 We left wishing we had brought more.

That we could do more...

We then went to a beach.

A public beach called...

Half Moon Bay... and the 6 of us will NEVER forget Half Moon Bay!!

It was fine at first.

The guys were out snorkeling.

And they came back to this.

Lisa and I receiving an unsolicited foot and leg massage.

Followed by a group of people selling other products.

And other "massage" businesses trying to get in on the action too.

We protested and protested and this lady just plopped right down and started on Lisa with a "guaranteed to be free" massage. haha

The whole time our "masseuse" is yelling at the other ladies "wanting to steal her clients".

It was more like a "sand exfoliation treatment" actually!

So Shane comes out of the water and immediately this woman starts giving him a massage.

Can you tell that...

he did not want a massage from this woman?

Obviously neither of these woman were doing this for free...

and we already were going to have to pay the one who had started on us.

So I told her that my husband would like a massage now.

 I don't think he has ever been less comfortable or less "relaxed."

As she kept spanking his butt saying "relax, relax".

(thanks to the prodding in Spanish of Joe saying, "Spank him, spank him".)

Every time Shane lifted his head she would shove it back down.

He LOVED that massage! hahahahaha.

O gosh... that was FUNNY!

We were laughing so hard!

He kept saying, "Why did you tell her I wanted a massage???"

Shane was totally willing to pay her just to get her to leave.  hahaha

What a memorable day in Honduras!!

 

The next stop was Belize.

Where we went "Cave Tubing".

It was fun.

Reminded me of the good-old days of floating down the canal behind my house.

Except for not in a cave + no life jacket + no helmet.

:)

But the same idea.

It was fun!

We changed for the long bus ride back to the dock.

It took me a minute but then I realized that Shane had changed into his t-shirt that he had worn the day before to wear back on the bus.

The super disgustingly dirty shirt that had been worn for the monkeys + the parrots + the one he sweated in profusely playing soccer at the orphanage + the one he had to put back on after that nasty rancid oil massage.

I think it was definitely dirty "enough".

That shirt will always be dubbed as the "monkey shirt" and I was not pleased with his choice.

Mainly since he had another 5 clean shirts and only 3 days to wear them.

I did NOT snuggle on his shoulder on the 1.5 hour bus ride back!!

The last two days were sea days.

Totally relaxing sea days.

With lots of time in the hot hot sun!

It was super hot.

My girls just looked at me real ticked off like when I told them it was too hot.

That was kind of a mean thing to say since we had left them back in Utah.

Where it was NOT hot.

Sorry. 

Lisa directed us throughout the cruise in a fantastically fun video.

Maybe I'll post it.  Maybe I won't.

It includes the "spankings" from the beach... so we'll see. :) 

Our girls think we are weird when we do stuff like this with our friends.

But I let my girls know that a big group of teenagers took these pictures for us...

and they thought we were cool.

They said they wished "their parents were like us."

AND they were super excited when they saw the "fun group" the rest of the cruise.

So there Tayler and Saige!!

We loved getting to know our waiters.

And other crew members.

Such a fantastic week together filled with amazing memories!

(wished you could have come Heaps :( )

I was SO excited to get home to our girls!

We left Tayler and Saige in charge for the most part.

With help from Kimi and my momma.

They did awesome, so proud of them!

We walked into a spotless house.

Cleaner than I keep it.

So I think they'll be fine if we go again soon!

;)