The Cruise!!

WOW!!! What an amazing vacation! My parents, our family, and my sister's family all went on a 7 night cruise on Royal Caribbean to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and the Bahamas... thanks to my parents' wonderful treat to us all! This was the first vacation that we have all taken together and I can say that it has provided us all with TONS of wonderful memories! We had some really fun excursions... a bike ride in St. Thomas, snorkeling tour on an awesome catamaran boat in St. Maarten, parasailing in the Bahamas... and 3 wonderful and relaxing days at sea to explore our great ship! We all gathered each night for dinner and most of us attended the great shows that followed. Mitchell and Amelia discovered just how great room service is... Mitchell and Brandon had room service about 2 times a day for breakfast and a midnight snack of pizza and cookies! Mitchell loved his independence on the ship... we hardly saw him when we were at sea until dinner... he shared a cabin with Blake and Brandon and they had full run of the ship. We also got to celebrate Blake's 18th birthday on the cruise... a special time!

Not all vacations are perfect, though... Amelia's UTI came back and she started running a fever at the end of the week (we just kept her dosed up on Advil and Tylenol and she felt fine) and she also got to experience a very small jellyfish sting... and Mitchell decided to see if the lifeguards were paying close enough attention at the Flow Rider when he got caught underwater in the roughest part of the water flow--he was stuck under the dividing net-- (the lifeguards WERE, in fact, on their toes and responded more quickly then we could have hoped for... Mitchell was fine, but a little shaken up). The good news is that Mitchell got right back on the Flow Rider that same day!

We had a blast every day... and we are ready to go back!!