Monday - Key West, Florida

We absolutely loved Key West! The architecture of the buildings was so cool and caribbean-ish. We got off the boat and walked around the shops and stuff and looked in an old pirate museum. Then we walked to a beach called Fort Zachery Taylor. The walk was so pretty! You walk through a place called Truman Annex which is where President Truman and a lot of other Presidents had what they call a "little white house" where they spent part of the year. Here is a picture of the streets and the houses:

The beach was great. The water was warm, the sand was kind of rocky but where it wasn't rocky it was really soft. There were rocks to jump off or swim around. It was just a really fun beach.




After the beach we went to the Blonde Giraffe and got some frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. Oh my gosh! Get this if you ever go there! It was so yummy and refreshing and chocolaty all in one. Amazing!

Then we got back on the boat for lunch, naps and a short workout (we counted the walk) and some hot tubbing.

After dinner that night we went to karaoke. I don't know if you can tell from the back ground in the picture but we were the only white people there!

We went to the show tonight. It was a comedian and a juggler. It was pretty fun.

Then we went to bed!

Tuesday-Day at Sea

We love relaxing on the days at sea. We slept in as late as we could which was only 7:45... eastern time... weird. I don't know why we couldn't sleep longer. Probably because of the naps. Anyway, we got up and worked out. Today I went to an aerobics class for 30 min and then ran on the track. We love running on the tracks on ships over the water with the wind... It's fun. Then we had breakfast and parked our bums on the lawn chairs for a nice long day in the sun. We stayed out from about 9:30am until about 2:00pm. (With lunch thrown in there... sandwiches and dessert!)

Carnival did a mens hairy chest contest which was fun to watch. They also had an ice carver come out and do a demo. Most of the ice carver's on cruise ships are from an area in Brandon's mission where they do wood and ice carving. This guy actually knew someone that Brandon taught.

There were a ton of Filipinos on this cruise. Brandon likes to mumble some Tagalog under his breath as he passes them and they look at him in amazement. Then he makes friends with them and talks about where he lived and where they are from and stuff.

Tonight was the first formal night. We got all dressed up and paraded around before dinner. After dinner, which was great, as always, we went to karaoke and had a good laugh before we went to bed!

Wednesday - Grand Caymen

Wednesday was spent in Grand Cayman. We got off the boat first thing in the morning and got on the first Sting Ray tour with Captain Marvin. Captain Marvin's Water Sports were great tour guides and i would definitely recommend them. We got on their 8:30am tour. The first took us to Coral Gardens were we spent a half an hour snorkeling. Then they took us to the sting ray sand bar. Let me just say, that was amazing. I did it about 12 years ago but I didn't remember much. You get in the waist deep water and at least 10-15 sting rays swim over and rub up against your belly and legs. It is the creepiest and coolest thing ever. Their wings are so thick and smooth. It is crazy. Then everyone gets a chance to hold one and kiss it. You can even turn around and the guide has it give you a massage, where he rubs the wing up on your shoulders. It was awesome.





After the sandbar they take you back to shore. The driver dropped us off at 7 mile beach. We LOVE 7 mile beach! We were planning on walked back as part of our exercise for the day. It turns out he dropped us off at the far end of the beach and we ended up walking for an hour and a half. It was nice though because it was kind of cloudy and we walked along the beach for a lot of it.

We got back on the boat and... you guessed it... took naps and sat in the hot tub. After eating lunch of course.

Tonight there was a newly wed game show before dinner. Those are always fun. Here is a picture of the stage. It was really cool:


Dinner was great tonight too. Love our waiter, Robert. We talked with him (ok, I talked to him) for a while tonight about his home and his family and stuff. He is very sweet. He is from Jamaica and gets to have lunch with his wife tomorrow. Cute.

Tonight we just went to bed early. We're not big party animals. But that's our idea of a vacation, reading, sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, relaxing, etc.

Thursday - Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Thursday we stopped in Jamaica. We loved Jamaica! I really think it was because we had the best tour guide ever. His name was Javia Shaw and he is with www.knowjamaica.com so if you ever go there use him and his mom Marva. They were awesome! We got right off the boat at 8am this day and met Javia. He took us straight to Dunn's River falls. We beat the crowds because a lot of people were getting there as we were leaving. The falls were a lot of fun. It was pretty crowded but we still had a great time. For those of you who don't know, at Dunn's River Falls you hike from the beach up some cascading waterfalls. You hike about 1000 feet in total. It's not a hard hike at all but it is really fun. Here are some pictures of it:





After the falls, Javia took us to a store to get some souvenirs and then off to the beach. We went to Mahogany beach for a couple hours. The water was SO warm! I even met a crazy Jamaican man! Of course they want money for pictures!


Ladies were beggin to braid my hair. I just told them i had no money and they left us alone!

After the beach Javia took us back to the ship. He was great and kept us away from all the people offering marijuana, which is what happened to other people we talked to.


We got on the boat and had more sandwiches and of course dessert! Did our usual afternoon routine of napping and sitting in the hot tub. Oh I also had to do my cardio this afternoon. I only did 45 min today just in the gym. Dinner of course was great. It was formal night. Here is us all dressed up:


We were going to go to the show but I fell asleep. We like to sleep on vacation. That is all for Thursday!

(read the sign in this picture)

Friday and Saturday

Friday morning we woke up around 7:30 and hit the gym for my hour of cardio! Today I ran a mile on the track outside, then went into the gym and did 10 min on a machine, repeat for 60 min. After the workout we had breakfast. We hit the omelet station today. Yummy. And cheesy. MMMMMM.... Then we changed into our bathing suits for another day on the deck. The sun felt a lot hotter today than it did on Tuesday so we didn't last near as long. It wasn't as windy either. We laid out for about an hour and a half or so then sat in the hot tub and read in the shade for a while.

Lunch was a chocolate buffet!!! I remembered from last time that this wasn't as great as you would expect and it was the same this time. There was one cake that was to die for but everything else was just ok. The afternoon consisted of a long nap and more reading in the shade looking out over the water. We were kind of done with the sun by today. We ate ice cream cones and had our last sandwich at sea this afternoon too. Dinner was great as usual. Oh, they had this chilled mango soup that was amazing. Carnival's mango stuff is SO authentically mango tasting. We loved it! We said goodbye to Robert and Rico tonight. Sad. I love them. After dinner we headed back to the room to pack and then we saw the show. It was a sword swallower (weird) and a comedian that was pretty funny. Then we went to bed!

Saturday

This day was annoying and involved lots of waiting. Had breakfast. Waited for 3 hours to be allowed off the boat. (They were running late). Waited for 2 hours for our flight. Flew for 3 hours. Waited for 2 hours for a flight. Flew for 3 more hours. Waited for luggage and drove home. We hated Saturday.

Sunday

It was SO fun to see the kids today! They love the presents we brought them from key west (a pirate flag and eye patches and pirate rubber duckies) and Jamaica (a "spider mon" shirt and Rastafarian hat with dreads for Caleb and a Jamaican doll for Bryn). We had a great time. We're hoping for a Hawaiian cruise in late summer of 2009 if all works out as planned!

Back from our cruise!

Hey guys! We are back from our cruise! We had such an amazing time! And to make our trip even better, we come home and Caleb is now reading, Brynley's not addicted to TV and she knows her shapes and colors! All thanks to Grandma Mathews! Seriously, Caleb's reading. Before we left he could read words like off, on, no, map, and most three letters words. Now he's reading full on word books with up to 4 and 5 letter words like jump, start, stomp etc. And Brynley didn't watch ANY movies or shows for an entire week! Grandma is amazing! Love her! This is a funny thing Caleb said while we were gone, regarding corn dogs: "You better believe it Bryn, you can definitely eat these with your hands!" We thought that was too funny.

Ok, so we have a lot of pictures we want to put on here so I'm going to make a different post for every day of the trip. I will start with the last day and work backwards so the posts end up in order. If you read this on Sunday afternoon/evening it may look confusing... Here we go! You ready to go on a cruise with us?!?!

Happy Halloween!

Oh no she didn't.... um, yeah, actually I did. I dressed up as an 80's jazzercise dancer for halloween. It wasn't that great of a costume because it was very last minute. Caleb was getting into his costume and I was thinking that I wished I had something to throw together... hmmmm... what do i have...oh, i have a Shade Cap Sleeve body suit... too bad it's a thong... I have some leggings... I have a wide belt...! I've got it! This is what I threw together:



Brynley ended up wearing her chicken costume. She wouldn't go to the doors by herself though and I was pretty embarassed every time I had to turn around and walk away from the doors while the people were still standing there!


The kids LOVED trick or treating! Brynley got brave and started actually saying "trick or treat" and "tank" (thanks) about half way through. She was pretty slow and Caleb and his friend Jackson where up at a house and I told Brandon and Saundra that Brynley and I would skip that house and catch up. Brynley heard me and goes "No, No! Wait! Wait!" It was funny. My mom came down and went trick or treating with us and that was a lot of fun. She dressed up as an old lady and fit in perfectly in our neighborhood!