Cruise time!

We took a family vacation/cruse and had a great time. We took so many pictures, that I just created a bunch of collages. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to create a collage? I really don't like using Picasa. I feel like it takes over my whole computer!

The night before the cruse, we all stayed at a Ron Jon resort. This is the beach right by the hotel. All my siblings, the Faber side brother-in-laws and cousins, my parents and grandparents went. It was an awesome family reunion!

Our ship was the Carnival Glory. The kids had a variety of activities just for them. The biggest was Camp Carnival. This is the place we could drop the kids off and they were taken care of by camp counselors. They did fun activities, crafts and games. We also took the kids golfing and did build-a-bear on the ship.

We had three ports-of-call. The first, Grand Turk, which is geographically (not politically) in the Bahamas was wonderful--a great beach and a clear swimming pool within walking distance. Second was Ocho Rio, Jamaica, and third, the Grand Cayman islands. My favorite was Grand Cayman. I'm happy to have seen Jamaica and Taylor got to hike up a waterfall, but I'll be OK if I don't go back.

Of course, the best part was the food, food, food! It was excellent--I loved lobster and shrimp night and Taylor loved rib night-- Kylee ate Cheese pizza and fruit every night! Brayden added some variety--sometimes he would order a hot dog :) We had 24 hour access to hot chocolate, icrecream, and room service. They even had an on-board allergist so my niece Ellie could dine in style with the rest of us. Ahh, that is the life.

Although the destination part was wonderful, the best part was hanging out with the family. We played a lot of games, did trivia, and even won the Carnival Ship Murder Mystery game.

My mom's birthday was the same week. We celebrated with balloons, chocolate cake, and chocolate covered strawberries. Happy birthday mom, thanks for organizing all of this.

There were two formal nights. I really like dressing up and going to dinner. The kids loved the unbrellas that came in the speicalty drinks.

These pictures are just for fun. The one in the center is the dinner-time entertainment.

Some pictures borrowed from my sister.

Three memorable quotes from the trip:

"I want to ride the alligators!" (Kylee wants to ride the elevators.)

"Ask Dr. Simmons." (The response given to every problem from not being able to find the icecream machine to "my elbow hurts.")

"Would you like chocolate syrup on that?" (Our server on the last night when I ordered a shrimp cocktail for dessert.)

The last picture: What a famly vacation can do to mom and dad! (Yes, my mom is in a wheelchair due to a painful sunburn.)

On the day we arrived back in Florida, we took a visit to the Kennedy Space Center before heading home.

I'm already looking foward to the day that we can do something like this again.