For our 10th anniversary Baylen and I decided to take a trip. We spent hours and hours researching what kind of trip we wanted to do. We had problem after problem with passports and Canadian citizen stuff. I'll have to admit, on several occasions, that I told Baylen it just wasn't worth all the headaches we were having with it. However, I was 100 percent wrong. It was totally worth it all... and then some! It was something I will NEVER forget. It was awesome to be alone with Baylen and realize that we still do have fun together and love being together (even without the kids)!
My mom was sooooo kind to watch the kids for the entire nine days. I can't thank her enough for what a sacrifice that was! It was so nice not to have to worry about them!
We flew out on Saturday the 21st. With all the layovers and late flights that we had, it took us the ENTIRE DAY to get to Houston. We finally got to our hotel at 8:30 that night. But, it was fun to fly again. It's been lots of years since I've been in a plane!
On Sunday morning we took a shuttle to Galveston. When we got there we found out that our ship still hadn't made it back from the last cruise because of dense fog. They told us to come back at 4:00. We walked around Galveston for a few hours and ate lunch.
Yeah! Our ship made it to port (you can see the ship in the background)! We had never seen a cruise ship before and couldn't believe how huge it was!We didn't realize how long it would take for the disembarkation of the other passengers. We went back to the terminal and ended up sitting there for four hours! Needless to say, we were excited when we finally got to get on the ship!
This is what we found when we got to our room.
Yes, I am one of those crazy people that the cruise directors make fun of! I made sure we had a picture with our animals each night! If fact, here they all are...
Because of the fog, we weren't able to leave until 2:00 in the morning. It wasn't too bad, though, because everything was still going on the ship. As soon as we got on, we went straight to dinner. We were excited to try the delicious cruise food that everyone always talks about. It was so good. We were way excited to see creme brulee on the menu that night. And wow- the french baggettes were incredible. In fact, Baylen said they were even better than lots of the ones he would get in France!
Because the ship left in the night while we were sleeping, it was so neat to wake up in the morning and see nothing but ocean around us.
We were so lucky to get a special deal where we were given the best balcony available for only $45 more than an inside room. Man, I don't think I'll ever be able to go back! It was heaven being able to open our bedroom door and have a private balcony. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time out there!
This is Baylen checking out the view from our balcony...
Our cruise started with two amazing days at sea. The thing that I love about cruising is that those sea days are so relaxing! There's absolutely no pressure to be out sight seeing because we can't. We spent a lot of time reading, talking, exploring the huge ship, and EATING!!!Monday night was our first formal night. It was fun to get dressed up and have a very fancy dinner!
I LOVED Tuesday! We woke up and went straight out to our balcony to be met by heat. Tuesday was sooooo warm! Baylen spent a few hours playing volleyball while I walked the track and read.
This was the view from the track. There is a huge outdoor movie screen on the side that I was taking the picture from.
Enjoying the view after the volleyball tournament...
We spent several hours on our own balcony that day. Total relaxation!
Here's the sunset from our room...
On Wednesday we were able to sail into Jamaica. It was everything I imagined paradise to look like as we got to the port.
We were warned by several people to stay with a ship excursion while in Jamaica because it can be a very scary place. We decided to do the Dunn's River Falls/Plantation excursion. We were really lucky to only have 6 people in our group. It was so much fun. Here we are in the van as we leave Montego Bay...
We had a two hour drive from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios. It was so neat to see so much of Jamaica. It is absolutely beautiful there. It is VERY POOR though. I was absolutely amazed at how small and run down most of the houses were. Several of them were literally the size of my walk in closet. It made me very grateful for what I have.This is the famous bobsled that was used in the movie Cool Runnings...
This is one of the many beautiful all inclusive resorts that we passed...
Dunn's River Falls is a 600 ft. waterfall that we were able to hike up. We were in a group of around 20 people. We all held hands (boy, girl, boy, girl) and went up together. I ended up being the first person so I held the guide's hand. It was cool to be in the front but I also tried things out before anyone else and had no idea what was next. For example, at one point the guide asked me if I can swim. He then told me to sit down, lay back and put my hands behind my head. He proceeded to push me down a little "waterslide". It was a lot of fun! We took a ton of pictures there... 
After the waterslide...
These flowers were everywhere. They were so pretty...
We made it!!!
This is a picture with our guide...
After the waterfall, we went straight to a Jamaican plantation. There we were able to have an authentic Jamaican lunch. It was very interesting, but I liked it. We then got in a little trailer behind a tractor and went on a little tour of the plantation. We ended at the camels (native Jamaican camels :) )! The other people in our group rode the camels but Baylen and I didn't want to pay the extra $30 a person, so we just pet the camels and fed them.
The Jamaican man in these pictures was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He had like 3 teeth in his mouth and his accent was so strong that I could only understand about 1 in every 200 words that he spoke, but I will NEVER forget him!Baylen and I wanted to ride bikes back through the plantation to our van. He stayed with us the entire time.
We also realized how dangerous it must really be there when we had to have a private body guard with us everywhere we went. It kind of made me feel important!
Thursday was our day in Grand Cayman. We woke up in the morning to an announcement that all the water excursions had been canceled because of high winds. We were kind of bummed because we had booked a sting ray city/snokeling excursion. We had to tender into the island and didn't realize how strong the winds were until we went to get on the tender. It was insane!
I will always remember Grand Cayman for the color of the water. I've never seen anything like it. It was beautiful!
Here we are on the tender...
Here's a picture of our ship and the tender...
Because we didn't have an excursion, we took a taxi into town and walked around. We had heard that Grand Cayman is really expensive, so we didn't buy anything, but it was fun to walk around. We also tried some famous jerk chicken. It was tasty!
I tried to get a picture of how huge the waves were that were crashing into the cement wall. It was crazy. There were several unsuspecting tourists that got drenched!
After a few hours in town, we decided to go back to the port. There was a little rocky beach there that we ended up having a lot of fun at. There were several tide pools that we found tons of crabs, hermit crabs, snails and fish. Baylen was in heaven!Here's a closeup of the tenders that took us back and forth.
A cool pirate looking ship...
Another look at the gorgeous water...
Back to our ship!
Thursday night was our 2nd formal night. We got all dressed up and realized that we were so full that there was no way we could eat another meal. We went and had the photographers take a few pictures and then changed back into comfy clothes. Here's a quick picture we took of ourselves...
On Friday we were able to go to Cozumel, Mexico. We LOVED Cozumel and definitely want to go back. We spent a few hours looking for and bartering for souveniers for the kiddos. The whole bartering thing was kind of fun!
After shopping, we went on an excursion to Sunset Beach to snorkel. I had never snorkeled before. Wow was it fun! I could not believe how many fish would swarm around us. At first it made me nervous until I realized that they weren't going to nibble on me. Then it was just awesome! The tour guide took us around the ocean for about an hour and then let us snorkel for as long as we'd like after that. Baylen and I were the last ones to leave. I don't have any pictures because they are all on our waterproof camera. I will have to scan them when we get them developed.These last pictures are just before we got back on the ship.
We were very lucky to see the sunset in Cozumel. The camera just didn't capture how beautiful it was. This first picture is of another cruise ship sailing into the sunset...
The sunset from our balcony...
Saturday was another fun day at sea. The seas were very rough and all the outside decks were closed. We enjoyed having our own balcony at the back of the ship where we were protected from the wind!
On Sunday we sailed back into Galveston. The Galveston port is very industrial. I'm not going to lie when I say it was hard docking there after all the gorgeous places we've been!
Here are a few pictures of our room. It's kind of messy because I took the pics in the morning that we were leaving.Bathrooms on cruise ships are TINY
I'm not sure how anyone bigger than me could possibly fit in the shower. I tried to shave in there and was falling out.
This picture is looking out to our balcony.
Several people have asked me what my favorite part of the cruise was. My very most favorite part was being alone with Baylen! We had so much fun together. This trip definitely strengthened our marriage.My next favorite part was all the different people I met. There were 1100 crew members on the ship and I only saw three that were from the US. The crew was soooooo friendly. Our steward Hanafi was one of the happiest people I've met and our waiter Donovan was a close second. It was so neat to talk to our waiter about his culture (he's from Jamaica). Because one of the ship's ports is Jamaica, Donovan's wife and three year old daughter were able to join him on the ship on the cruise before ours and then they stayed until Wednesday when we went to Jamaica. He was so cute with his little girl. It was so cool to see him interacting with her during dinner. He would make her all sorts of napkin animals and shapes.
After his wife and daughter went home, I asked him when he would see them again. He said that he works 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week for six to eight months straight. I wanted to cry when it dawned on me that he wouldn't see his family for another six months. This trip really helped me realize how blessed I am. I've quit complaining about the fact that we only have two bedrooms for four kids. I've quit complaining about Baylen's work hours. I've quit complaining about making dinner because I'm so grateful that I have food to cook.
The people that I met were such happy people and I will never forget them. I'm so grateful for how they've changed my life!
This last picture is of us flying into Utah! It's not sunny and 90 degrees, but it was breathtaking! Home sweet home!
