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Saturday, November 7, 2015

Did you miss me? And our Caribbean cruise recap!

I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last posted!  This year has been unbelievably stressful and time has flown by.  In my last post we had moved into a rental after selling our house.  Well we were there 2 weeks and our landlord told us that he had someone who wanted to buy that house.  Long story short, we didn't know when the purchase would take place so we started looking for a house to buy with intensity!  We found a place about 15 min from our old community and 4 minutes from our son and daughter's school, which was amazing considering the fact that football was starting and we had been driving to the school at least once a day.  We bought the house without a hitch.  We refinished the floors in the living room before moving in which consisted of a week of very late nights.  We moved in the following weekend.  Thinking back to it makes me feel so tired!  Through it all I have learned that we are adaptable as humans.  We have all adjusted well.  I also have recognized the effect that stress can have on our bodies.  My husband ended up getting sick after the moving was done.  In the past year I have gained 20 lbs and started experiencing dizziness and extreme fatigue.  My doctor ran tests that all came back normal and concluded that I may have Meniere's Disease.  And for the first time in my life (aside from being pregnant), my blood pressure was elevated.  So I'm currently taking a water pill to see if that will help my bp and the dizziness.  In the meantime I need to focus on keeping my stress levels down (as much as possible with 3 kids!) and taking better care of my body by eating better and exercising. 

Luckily we had booked a cruise with our friends literally a week before we signed the contract for our new house (we probably never would have booked it knowing we would be moving again so soon!) and we just got back a couple of days ago.  It was amazing and just what we needed...5 days of total relaxation.  We were so relaxed when we got home that we couldn't remember where everyday items were located in our house anymore!  And I'm still having problems getting back into cooking, cleaning, etc since it was all done for me for the past week!  Here are some pictures from our trip:

Here is a picture of our ship.  We cruised on the Carnival Paradise.  I have read it's one of their older ships, but we enjoyed it and didn't get a feel that it was old at all.


Here's our white skin, that hasn't seen strong sunshine in months, soaking up some rays...

On our cruise, there was one Cruise Elegant Dinner so we dressed up a bit.  It was nice to dress up and enjoy a fancy dinner!  The evening dinners were chef-prepared and AMAZING.  We all looked forward to the seeing what was on the menu each night.


Here are our friends that cruised with us, Heath and Jenny.


While at Grand Cayman, we did an excursion.  A boat took us to Stingray City and then on to Rum Point Beach.  Here, we are on our way to Stingray City.


This is Stingray City.  It's out in the ocean on a sandbar where the water is probably 3-4 feet deep.  There are huge stingrays swimming everywhere.  It was awesome and definitely money well spent!

 
Our tour guides, Sedrick and CJ were awesome.  Sedrick made sure that we all had plenty of opportunities for pictures with the rays.  Here he is holding one over his head in order for us to get this shot!
 


Our next step was Rum Point Beach.  The water was such a beautiful blue green! 



Rum Point Beach Club was a great place to hang out and grab some lunch.  We enjoyed Rum Runners, Mango Smoothies, and tried Conch Fritters for the first time.

 
The hammocks were our favorite place!  We have an amazing hammock that we bought from Key West but have never hung up.  After enjoying this one we will definitely be hanging ours up next spring!


I love these signs!!



While riding back to the ship, our tour guides played Soca music.  One song sounded like it said "I Farted"...and apparently most people noticed it but didn't say anything until the very end of the boat ride.  It became our signature song.  We now know it's called "Fallin" by KES.  But it will forever be the I Farted Song.

 
A little towel animal greeted us each night after dinner.  I loved them!


 
The next day we docked at Cozumel, Mexico at Puerto Maya.  We risked our lives trying to get this picture because taxis were constantly driving through here!
 

We got a cab to take us to Sky Reef where we would be spending the day.  This guy was not very friendly, drove VERY fast, and had 2 skeletons dangling from his mirror.  It was a bit scary!


At Sky Reef we paid $15 to get in which included 1 drink, a 5 minute massage, snorkeling gear, tequila tasting, and beach chair and umbrella!  It was a great deal!  Here, the guys were returning from a long snorkeling trip.


We enjoyed some yummy authentic Mexican nachos.


Our men are so sexy....lol



Jenny enjoying her massage.  I kept trying to talk to this lady, but she would only wink and smile....I finally realized she couldn't speak English!

 
Then we headed over for tequila tasting and an overview of tequila.  It was very informative and I learned that I actually like tequila (well not the straight stuff...the heavily flavored stuff!)



Here is Manuel (the guy in front).  He told us all about tequila.  He said it was his birthday...I think he tells everyone that.  lol

We got a cab ride back to Puerto Maya and saw a Mariachi band playing.  I loved it!



Heading back to our boat, this was our view...these boats are HUGE!

 
 Well, that pretty much concludes our trip!  We had a great time and just relaxed the week away.  It was just what the doctor ordered!