Thanksgiving Cruise

My parents took my siblings and our spouses on a cruise for Thanksgiving.  We left the kids with Tagg's cousin and his wife and took off for a week of fun, relaxing, and good food.  It was hard to leave the kiddos but we had SO much fun. We are so thankful for all of Tagg's family that was around to help take care of them and make sure they had a fun Thanksgiving even though we weren't there.

Friday night (the 21st) all the girls did Jamberry nails and on Saturday we all got pedicures.  Our nails got a lot of attention on the cruise.  I was in the bathroom one day and this lady said, "Oh you're part of that group of sisters that all has matching nails!"

On our way to get pedicures.  My mom sat in the front seat and all us girls crammed in the back.  It was a tight squeeze. 

While the girls got pedicures, the boys went gator hunting. 

 Look how close Tagg was to that gator!

We got on the cruise ship Saturday (the 22nd) afternoon!

Our rooms were all next door to each other so we tried to get a picture of all of us on our balconies.  I think this is the best one we got.

Sunday was a day at sea.  We did a family devotional that morning for our church service and then spent the day exploring the boat and relaxing.  That night was a formal night so we all got dressed up for pictures.

Monday we made our first stop in Grand Cayman.  Tagg and I did a bike ride around the island with my sister-in-law Julie.  It wasn't too intense of a bike ride which was good for this pregnant lady. 

 We stopped at a turtle farm and learned about sea turtles and even got to hold them.

One of the places we stopped was Hell.  It really wasn't that exciting of a stop but the tour guide pointed out that there are no churches allowed in Hell.  You can tell when you're out of Hell because there is a big church on the corner.

It started pouring on way back to the bus.  By the time we got back, we were all drenched!

After the bike ride we got to go snorkeling before we headed back to the ship.

On Tuesday we stopped in Roatan, Honduras. I was a little limited in what I could as far as excursions go because I was pregnant so Tagg went with my mom to do these underwater BOSS machines.  I love how little their heads look in these helmets. 

You basically ride around the bottom of the ocean on this bike but you can just breathe normally. They both had a good time and saw some fun stuff.

Megan and I were the pregnant ones so we stuck together this day.  We did a nature walk through this animal park and saw all kinds of cool animals.  Then we spent the afternoon on the beach. Roatan was absolutely beautiful. Very jungle like.

These monkeys would climb all over you and jump from person to person.  It was a little freaky at first but once you got used to it, it was pretty cool.

We spent most of our nights doing the Princess Pop Star competition which is like a step above karaoke. We went to a few shows and did a lot of the trivia games also. 

On Wednesday we stopped in Cozumel.  The winds were pretty strong so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to dock and a lot of the tours got cancelled.  After a few attempts at docking, we were finally given the all clear to get off the boat. Brock and Jessica were supposed to go to Tulum to see the ruins, but that got cancelled so they did the Amazing Race with Megan, Andrew, Tagg and me. Megan and I decided to be on a team because we didn't want to cause marital strife by our pregnant bodies not being able to run as fast as our husbands. It was such a fun excursion and I'm so glad we did it.  It was a lot like the TV show.  We ran around the city looking for clues that would tell you where to go next.  Many of the local shops are in on it and give you clues.  Other locals are used to seeing everyone run through the streets and would tell us if we were going the right way or not as we were looking for other clues. 

Brock and Jessica came in 1st place!  I don't have any pictures of them though.  Tagg and Andrew came in 3rd place.  Way to go boys!

Megan and I came in 5th place I think out of 15 teams.  Not too bad for a couple of pregnant girls that couldn't really run.

 Our whole group.

That night we went to a show on the boat done by an illusionist.  It was awesome!  He did an act where he needed sisters to participate so Jessica and I got called up on stage for it.  We were able to figure out part of his act, but he really is a very talented illusionist.

Thursday was another day at sea.  It was also Thanksgiving and formal night. The boys did a golf and basketball competition and the girls tried to lay out and get some sun.  It didn't work out too well because it was super windy and a little chilly that day. We had yummy lobster for Thanksgiving dinner instead of a traditional turkey dinner. 

Friday we made our last stop at Princess Cays in the Bahamas.  It was a perfect sunny day. Tagg did some surf fishing in the morning and I relaxed on the beach and soaked up the sun.

Tagg and I rented this aqua bike.  It looked fun but ended up being tons of work.  We would pedal SUPER hard and go just a few feet.  Then we'd be carried back to where we were by the waves.  We passed another couple also on the bike and he yelled to us, "It sounded like a good idea, didn't it!" The rental was for 30 mins and I think we were on it for about 15 minutes before we decided we were ready to be done. 

 It was seriously such a beautiful day and the perfect way to end the cruise.

That night we had our last dinner together with our awesome waitress Catalina.  It was so fun to eat together every night and hear about the fun adventures everyone had that day.  

Friday night was the final heat of Princess Pop Star.  Megan, Derek and my mom were all in the finals. They all did awesome but my mom took the crown and won the whole competition. Here is a picture with one of the Cruise Entertainment employees, Dave.  We went to most of the stuff he was in charge of along with another guy named James.  They got to know us pretty well through the week.  Before the competition that night, Dave was backstage with all the finalists. He opened a bottle of champagne and my brother told him that he, my mom and sister didn't drink.  Dave looked at them and said, "Your lot is the most suspicious on this boat."

Friday night we all went up to the buffet to enjoy a midnight snack together before we all went home the next morning.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then waited for our turn to get off the boat. Our flight didn't leave until later that afternoon so we went to see The Hunger Games with Brock and Jessica since we had a few hours to kill. 

By the time the cruise was over, I was so ready to go home and see my babies.  I sure missed them! It was such a great week though and we made so many fun, great memories.  Thanks for an amazing time mom and dad.  If you ever want to take us on another cruise, we are totally okay with that!