Cruise...

As most of you know Nick and I decided to take a cruise because one of our friends was getting married at one of the ports. Since Nick and I have never really been able to do anything without kids before we thought we would give it a try. The night before we left when I said good bye to the girls was one of the hardest things I have done. When they were gone I couldn't stop crying and I was ready to call off the whole trip. But I stuck it out and I am glad I did. I never stopped missing the girls, but I did end up have a lot of fun.
Our journey started in Florida. We flew into Orlando the day before the ship left. We met up with three of our other friends there and stayed in a hotel there for the night. They next morning we took a shuttle to Tampa to meet the ship. It was a lot cheaper for us to fly into Orlando, stay the night there, and take a shuttle down than it was for us to fly into Tampa because of the Super Bowl.
When we got to Tampa it was pretty cold. We had to wait outside for a couple of hours before we could get on the ship. Once on the ship we met up with all of our other friends and made some new friends. It was a completely different experience being on the ship. There is really no sense of time on there. They are always serving you food and having entertainment so it is hard to judge off of that. There also aren't any clocks (I only saw one the whole time I was there) so it is hard to judge what time it is. But since we didn't have the kids with us it didn't really matter. We didn't have any schedules to follow.
The first port we pulled into was the Grand Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. It was really nice there, but things were pretty expensive. It was a lot more expensive than the US. But it was also very beautiful. While we were there we decided to take a boat (we just couldn't get enough of boats I guess) to the reef to go snorkeling. when we were done snorkeling we took the boat over to a place they call the Sand Bar. This a place where all the sting rays hang out. The boat dropped us off so we could swim with the rays. This is something I have never done before. They would swim right up to you and they were very big. It was a little scary at first, but you got used to it. Some of them let you pick them up and hold them, I never did that but Nick did. The boat then took us back to shore so we could get back on the ship.
Our next port was Cozumel Mexico. This is where our friends got married. It was the perfect location for a wedding. They got married on a beach and the water behind them was so clear and beautiful. After the wedding we all went back to the ship to change and then went back out to explore Cozumel. We went to a different beach to play around there for a while. They had this big inflatable rock thing in the water that the guys all had a great time climbing all over. After they were done playing in the water we headed down town to do a little shopping and have some dinner. Things were much cheaper in Cozumel and the food was really good. Then it was time to get back on the ship.
The rest of the time on the ship was spent eating, hanging out with our friends, playing some of the cruise games and watching shows. We also managed to get a little sleep in there too. But not much. In my attempts to not gain too much weight on the cruise with all the yummy food they were constantly feeding us, I managed to make it to the gym every day except for one and took two aerobics classes. Although I still ended up gaining 2.6 lbs, but I guess it could have been worse.
It was a really fun trip but by the end we were ready to come home and see the girls. I am going to put a few pictures of our trip on here, but I can't put them all on here. I did put them all on my face book page so if you have face book you can go check them out there.


Just waiting to get on the ship...
Finally on board and getting ready to pull out of Florida

Nick thought he didn't need any sun screen, he payed for that decision later

Taking a break from the sun by resting in our cabin

Room service

This is our waiter Nino doing the conga. He was a really nice man and took good care of us while we were on the ship

The ladies on the grand staircase

Formal night

Cozumel Mexico

The wedding

Aren't we cute...

The girls waiting on the beach while the boys play in the water

Here is Nick jumping off the big inflatable rock

Nick dancing in the taxi

Our group at a restaurant in Cozumel

This was a hula hoop game we played on the ship. It was really fun to play, but even more fun to watch.

It got a little bit windy on the boat

Nick and Willey playing on the water slide

Nick relaxing in the pool

Mary and I