Cruisin'

Our cruise left port on a Monday, but since it was about a 6 hour drive from my parent's place to Mobile, we left Sunday afternoon. We couldn't embark until 12:30, so we decided in the morning to tour the USS Alabama (museum) that was docked nearby. In fact, we could see our cruise ship from aboard the battleship!

Here is Ben standing in front of the battleship before we began our self-guided tour.

Ben standing with very large missle shells.

This seems like a good seat!

On deck. At the front of the boat (where the little flag is), we could see an alligator in the water.

Ben, standing in front of the largest guns. I have to admit, I had more fun touring this ship than I thought I would. I don't think I would ever want to be on one out at sea though. It made me wonder how a battleship that is still being used might compare. We also toured an old submarine that was part of the museum, too. Then we were on to our cruise ship!

Here is a picture of our room. When we were standing in line to board the ship, I said to Ben that now I kind of wished we had gotten a room with a window. I remember when we booked our cruise we debated paying a little extra for an outside room vs. an inside room. So I was pretty happy when we got to our room and it had a window!! (I had not remembered correctly what we decided!) We enjoyed being able to see out and have natural daylight.

The ship had an 8 hole mini golf course on the top deck. It was a little breezy up there which added a challenge to our play!

Every night after we came back from dinner, our bed had been turned down, and a little towel animal rested on top. We got a different animal each night. We also got a new "FunTimes" which had the next day's activities listed.

Here is a picture of our boat docked at Cozumel. It's kind of hard to see, but I circled our room's window in yellow. What looks like a little row of black boxes toward the middle front half of the ship are the few rooms that had balconies. Our room was the 6th window to the left of the balconies, under the red line. We thought we had a good location: it was quiet and we didn't feel a whole lot of the motion from the sea.

In Cozumel, we went snorkeling. It was my first time and lots of fun. Sorry, I don't have any pictures to share of that... we did use an underwater camera but I haven't developed it yet. We also shopped a little bit, but then came back to the boat to eat lunch. Since we were in our swimsuits and there was hardly anyone on the ship, we decided to try out the waterslide a few times (Ben is at the top). I guess the curvy waterslide is something unique to Carnival Cruises. On days that we were at sea, there was always a long line to use the slide (usually kids).

Also, when we came back from snorkeling, there was another Carnival cruise ship docked right next to us - the same size/model of boat as ours. There was also a Royal Carribean cruise liner nearby that seemed huge in comparison... but no fun waterslide that I could see! :)

Another towel creature... a sea turtle.

A picture of the boat docked at Calica, Mexico. We got off the boat early to go have a Dolphin "encounter" - where we were in the water with dolphins and got to touch them and give them a kiss (at which point an employee would snap our picture and then try to sell it to us for $25). Um, no thanks, amigo.

Here we are standing in front of the Mexican shoreline at Calica. As you can see, there is nothing there. It was a gravel pit on the other side of the ship. Playa del Carmen was about a 10 minute taxi ride away and Cancun was another 45 min after that.

An elephant wearing Ben's sunglasses (the steward did that, not us!).

This was our last night onboard, sitting in the dining room. I would say that this was one of the things I most enjoyed about the ship - the really good food and getting to know people at our table. (Another thing was having somebody else clean our room twice a day!!) We sat at a table with four other couples (one of whom we had met while standing in line the first day... how random is that??). Besides the dining room, you could also eat on the top deck at their buffet for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Plus they had a grill (burgers), deli and mongolian wok. And a pizzeria that was open 24 hours.

We both really enjoyed our vacation. The weather was great. The food was great. The room was great. We hope to do it again someday... maybe next time with friends- for anyone who might be interested! :)

Our Alabama Adventure Begins...

What adventure you might be wondering? Two weeks ago, we drove to my parent's house in Alabama, stayed a couple of days, then left the kids with my parents and took a cruise out of Mobile for 5 days. It was the first time the kids have been away from both of us for that long. Here are a few pictures I took the first couple of days before we left for our cruise.

I took this picture looking down on Wyatt from my parent's deck. He was having a blast digging in the dirt.

Lila was having fun too.

No personality to be found here! :) Seriously, I was curious how the week would go... this little guy just might wear Grandma and Grandpa out!

Dirt... we just dig right in!

Apparently they were trying to plant a basketball.

He has his sweet side too... so maybe they will be ok :)

After playing in the dirt for awhile, Wyatt decided to check out the construction project that was ongoing. My dad had found a slide on sale, so he and Ben worked to put it together.

Helping Grandpa with the hammer.

This picture makes me smile (ok, it makes me chuckle).

Just have to attach the slide and ladder!

Grandma and Wyatt

Grandpa also found a little water table on the same sale as the slide. The kids had fun playing with the box, of course!

Getting to play in water = wonderful fun!

Wyatt loved using the little cups to dump water everywhere.

He also mastered the little hand pump to make the water come out of the faucet.

On Saturday, Ben participated in a Sprint Triathlon in Scottsboro, AL, about an hour from my parent's house. We came to watch (as much as you can) but while we were waiting on him, the kids enjoyed the playground that was nearby. This was a big bowl that you could spin.

Here Ben (center) is parking his bike, about to start the swim portion. This race was done in reverse order (run, bike, swim). Usually it starts with the swim.

Here he is swimming! He was pleased with his time... it was a little smaller event than previous ones he's raced... they just used a stopwatch - no anklet or anything.

Waiting with Grandpa for Daddy to finish his swim.

While Ben showered and changed, we headed back to the playground.

Wyatt had fun in the slide.

Lila learned how to slide down a pole.

Having a little snack while we wait for Daddy to finish up.

Lila with Grandpa

It's always so cute when little kids try so hard to get big shoes on... and then they are so proud of their accomplishment! One day he will probably fit in these shoes!

This is the last picture I took. I left this camera so my parents could take some pictures for me (we took our other camera on the cruise). I will post some pictures soon of our cruise, also some that my Mom took while we were gone. They had lots of fun... so did we! :)

Easter Weekend

Over Easter weekend, we drove up to Wichita to visit Ben's family, who we hadn't seen since Thanksgiving... far too long! Ben and his parents had Good Friday off work, so we went up on Thursday night. The weather on Friday was beautiful.

Lila helped Grandma plant some flowers in her front planters.

Then she got to water them.

This is a picture I took of Lila, standing on the front porch. This is a lucky shot because it's hard for me to catch a natural smile on my three year old - usually I get the full blown cheesy grin.

I really like this picture, so I tried it in black and white too.

Saturday morning we went to an Easter Egg hunt at church.

Some of the older kids got to the eggs before we did, so Lila didn't get very many. Not a big deal except she heard one of the organizers say there were about 15 eggs for each child. So when I told her all the eggs were gone, she turns to me with big eyes and says, "But Mommy, I don't have 15 eggs!" (There were a few very kind kids who gave Lila an egg when they saw her basket wasn't very full.)

Fortunately, they had lots of cookies inside!

Wyatt and David enjoy eating the yummy treats.

When we got home, the kids played outside while we put together a few more eggs for them to hunt since they didn't get that many at church.

All the kids lined up with their baskets, waiting for Uncle Brian to tell them to go.

Rachel and Lila run for an egg.

Lila and Wyatt spy an egg at the same time. Wyatt was really into picking up the eggs!

After the egg hunt, they had fun playing on Grandpa's riding lawn mower.

Lila and Wyatt on the mower.

Rachel and David on the mower.

Rachel playing in the leaves.

Lila helping Wyatt up a little hill in the front yard. They were having fun running up and down the hill.

David was happy to get the tractor all to himself!

Meanwhile, Ben decided to climb a tree in the backyard and knock down some dead branches.

Playing on the piano. Wyatt knows the word "bang" which is what he uses to talk about playing the piano (accurate in his case!)

Piling into the chair with Grandpa (I think Wyatt was taking a nap.)

Ben and Wyatt on Easter Sunday.

Sunday night we went out to Uncle Bill's farm. I forgot to take my camera! Bill took this picture of the group that was there. Not the whole clan, but a good portion. We had a fun time eating dinner and then playing Bocce ball in the driveway. The kids enjoyed playing with the cats and playing with the dirt :) We came back home on Monday. It was a great trip; the kids did pretty good in the car too.