our week at sea!

It honestly started off a little bumpy, I woke up the morning of the cruise with a stomach bug, which continued through the day, and then when we arrived to board the ship, I took the car to the parking garage to park it and had trouble locating my other half in a sea of fellow cruisers (all while he was juggling our carry-ons and 2 cases of diet sprites, and when I finally found him, he was a bit grumpy, and literally pouring in sweat, so sweaty in fact that he looked like he jumped into a bathtub with his clothes on!), not to mention 100 degree heat and insane humidity, and then the third day at sea was huge waves, and I had motion sickness!
But, I will say, after all that passed, we had a VERY good trip!  :)

Day before our trip in the big easy, at Pat O'Brien's!:

Day 1: Fun Day at Sea, it was formal night and the Love's and Smith's got all dressed up for dinner!

Joe and Liz

 my love

 love my sis-in-law!

 my bro!

 the whole gang up top at sunset!

Day 2: another not so fun day at sea, complete with swaying and big waves

(we'll just have to use our imagination, I took NO pictures this day)

Picture waves, and me looking sick.

Day 3: Belize!  Elizabeth and I did a snorkel excursion, Belize has the second biggest barrier reef in the world, besides the great barrier reef (so, we read) it was beautiful!  I have only snorkeled a couple of times before, and neither time was this pretty!  We saw tons of colorful fish, coral and even a manatee swam right underneath us (during which I smiled really big, broke the seal on my mask and took in water...just my style!) and while we snorkeling I kept thinking about how amazing God is, the creator of every living thing!  He made lots of pretty stuff, especially in the ocean!

Heading out!

 very glad to be off that boat after the swaying day before

 ready to roll!

 :)

 after snorkeling was a couple of hours at private island

 you better belize it! :)

 loving our island, the boys missed out! 

 bye-bye island!

Day 4 Roatan, Honduras!  We booked a zip lining adventure and beach break, I thought I would be super scared about zip lining, and considered not going, but everyone else in our gang was going so I decided to quit being a chicken and just do it!  The van ride to the zip lining was a lot scarier than the actual adventure!

The port!

Everyone in the beautiful yellow helmets!

All ready! 

 i kept a good eye on them while they strapped me in, making sure they were paying good attention! :)

 those are tops of the tree's below the platform! :)

 all of the men who worked there went down first, and there was one at each of the 11 platforms to swap you from one cable to the next!  if you didn't pull yourself up enough, they would just use their knee to give you a boost!  a little surprising the first time! :)

 ready to zip, 18-30 feet above the ground! 

 tabyana beach break!

my favorite time of day, dinner!

 my special drink i found, a tiramisu martini!  

 hilarious, the things you can do on a cruise..wear matching sequined tanks to dance in...we might or might not have led a conga line on the top deck at the dance party!  

Day 5: Cozumel! We did a beach break, and a little shopping. 

 It also rained off and on several times while we were at the beach, and I stayed huddled under an umbrella with our stuff much of the time! :)  

our second formal night on the cruise, the boys were way over pictures by this point in the game.

Day 6 day at sea relaxing, the ride home was very smooth (thank goodness!) and we just laid out and read, and relaxed!

 last night on the ship!  

 windy!

 drink server from dinner, he was hilarious!  

when we told him about seeing the manatee while snorkeling in his accent he said

"Uh what is this?  It is an ugly animal, no?"  

we laughed all week about the way he said it!  

 "A vacation is anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.  ~Author Unknown"

And here is Hadleigh having some fun at her aunt deb's house, while getting to hang out with mamaw while we were vacationing!  she loved it when her momma and daddy got home, and she got to hear about the big boat her mom went on! :)

a bruised head board, and other summer fun!

1.  We went on vacation, it was so fun!  More pictures coming later from our adventure at sea!

 2.  I got to see my sweet friend Jeane (I had major dress envy, she always dresses SO cute!) at our friend's wedding!

 3.  S. Clinton  Stanton, Jeane and myself at Leslie's wedding, so fun to catch up with these girls!

 4.  Leslie and her hubby dancing at the reception, beautiful!  

 5.  Upside down picture of the girl who calls her forehead her headboard, more on that later.  

 6.  Hide and seek is a fun game, especially when the hider yells out where she is when you ask! :)

 7.  Picture of Joe and Grandad taken by Hadleigh, her new hobby is photography.  

 8.  Our matching hats, oh how I love this girl.  

 9.  Haddie takes a picture of Ahmi, and it turned out very centered, and once again I am impressed with her 2 1/2 year old photography skills.  

10.  A bonus with no picture (thank goodness!).  Hadleigh and I got to spend a lot of time together this week, and we went to the school playground Thursday evening.  I was walking on the jungle gym and talking to her about being careful, when I walked right into an over hang, and almost knocked myself out.  My injury was right across my forehead, and Hadleigh said and I quote:

 "Ahmi!  Did you hit your headboard?!?" 

Umm, yes I did, and then instead of crying, I was laughing because she says headboard.  So she kissed my headboard, and told me it would be all better, and it was!