What a Wonderful Trip!

Our family just spent the last 10 days on a cruise ship and it was fabulous! We went with my parents and really enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong though. There were tantrums, puke and fighting, but add a beautiful cruise ship and sunny beaches in and those things get over looked. 

It started off in the early evening on a cold Friday night. JD got home, we threw the kids in the car and off we set out on our trip to MD at 5pm. JD quickly graded his finals while there was still day light while I drove. He had to get those grades submitted before we got on the boat the next day. We made it to my sisters house with only 1 stop on our 10 hour trip. Did I mention how thankful I am for my children's amazing bladders and ability to sleep in the car? Well, if not, I am! 2:30am and we rolled into my sisters house and crashed on her couches. We were exhausted!

The next morning my parents met us there and we headed off to the ship. Shew! That is a lot of luggage for 7 people and 11 days without washing. Winter clothes for before and after the cruise, summer clothes for while we're there, dress cloths for the dining room and must look extra fancy, snorkel gear because we have it and we're too cheap to rent something we own and of course shoes for all occasions and toys. Yeah. That's a lot of stuff!

We finally made it to the ship and got on board. I'm pretty sure I could hear a choir singing "Ahhh..." as we walked up the last ramp and crossed over the threshold. Vacation had begun and we were ready! Now, I'm sure you're thinking that's a really long intro and how long is this post going to actually be, but you see I HAD to tell you the before stuff so that you could get a clear picture of how we were feeling when we started out. We were tired, stressed, frazzled and every other exhaustion word. We were ready for this trip to begin.

To be continued...