Our first cruise!

In April we experienced our first cruise! For Kayla's Spring Break, Steve and I took her and went on a cruise with Jordon's (her boyfriend's) family, including his grandparents. We had a great time!


We enjoyed the people we were with, feel a great friendship with them, and loved experiencing life on board a ship and especially enjoyed the beautiful Caribbean! It was beautiful! We loved being with people that had already been there and could show us around to the best places.



The first day of our trip we flew to Ft. Lauderdale, FL and stayed overnight there. Jordon's grandparents took everyone to a fun place to eat that specialized in crab (Kayla's favorite). We ate out on the deck overlooking a water channel and watched the boats go up and down, waving back and forth to each other. To eat the crab, they sat you at a table covered in paper and gave us mallets to crack open the crab with - they even offer you a bib! (Kayla accepted) :) It was a lot of fun. Jordon's grandpa bought himself and all of his grandkids (including Kayla) a t-shirt. This is a picture of us eating together and Phil (grandpa) with the kids in their t-shirts!



On the first day, there was a 'sail-away- party on board the ship. Everyone went on to the top deck by the pool, listened to live music, danced, or just enjoyed the fun, festive environment or watched the water and the city skyline as we left Ft. Lauderdale.




The highlight of the trip was probably the snorkeling. We absolutely loved it! It was a little eerie for me at first, to feel like I could breath under water, but once I saw the fish and the plant life it was spectacular! We saw all sorts of colorful fish and plants, and even saw some great big turtles! It was so much fun and the water, even in April was warm! We loved it! Here are some of the places we snorkeled at - St. Maarten - going out on Rhino Riders (kind of like a jet ski on an inner tube), St. Thomas - we rented two boats and went out around lots of beaches around the islands and found a couple of fun places, and then the final place was Princess Cayes (our favorite) where we took what they call a water taxi from the ship to the island, and then snorkeled around the cove at the beach. It was beautiful there! One of these pictures shows Kayla and Jordon snorkeling side-by-side. They were actually making a long swim to the reef where all the fish were because the boats couldn't get any closer to the rocks.









The next favorite highlight of the trip was all of the fun entertainment on board the ship and the unbelievable food! We definitely took advantage of the food (everything free - comes with the cost of the cruise) and sometimes had two full dinners, several desserts and unlimited beverages. We exercised enough that we didn't even come home heavier than when we left and we never stopped eating! We loved the food so much we even took some pictures of it. Jordon's grandpa enjoyed teasing Kayla about how much food she was eating :) We definitely enjoyed trying all the new things they had to offer. Shrimp cocktail every night, lobster, steak, anything you could dream up! And desserts galore!



I particularly enjoyed seeing new cultures, and enjoyed the shopping so we could walk around the island instead of just playing in the water, although the water and sun were definitely my favorite things to do.



After our adventures on the islands and in the sun, we went back to the ship exhausted, but so excited at all of the new things we had seen and done! We boarded the ship, comparing tans, and talking about our next adventure! We were tired, but it was a great day!






I think Kayla and Jordon probably enjoyed the comedy shows and watching movies under the stars overlooking the pool the most. There were movies under the stars each night.They provided blankets on the lounge chairs, drinks, and pizza, burgers, fries, or anything you wanted while enjoying the movie.




This is one of the comedy nights - the magician night.



Kayla and Jordon trying out the lighted dance floor !



We really enjoyed (at least the girls did), the formal nights when we dressed up for dinner. There was always someone coming around to take pictures of everyone - especially anyone that looked like a couple. It was great fun!



Steve and I even got to go dancing and enjoyed some really fun jazz music and dropped in to the 'disco' dance to watch everyone do that as well. They had dancing and music in any kind of genre you wanted - Big Band, Jazz, Country, Disco, 50's and 60's era, rock, and just good plain music! Steve and I watched and listened to a very talented pianist and vocalist. He could sing and play just about anything you requested. Just some fun nights!

This is a picture of our Steward, who helped take care of us the whole week - cleaning our room, bringing us anything we needed, turning down our beds with mints on our pillows, and just being there at our beck and call. He was great and became a great friend. He made it a really fun experience! This is us with Gabrielle.


It seems that the greatest part of vacations are the bonding moments - times when you can just leave the rest of the world behind and enjoy the moment. Those times are rare in life when all of the responsibilities of day-to-day living that keep us full of stress or worry disappear for just a little while. So, these pictures are just a few of the bonding times that we all enjoyed. Definitely the nicest things to remember. . . . priceless! I asked Kayla what her favorite part of the cruise was . . . she said 'Jordon'. Surprise! :)




We can't wait for the chance to repeat this experience when all of our family can be with us! It was definitely something we would like to do again and we feel very blessed for all of the new friendships and priceless moments that came with this amazing opportunity.