WOW, almost a year since I blogged last. That is crazy. Are you still here? I understand if you have moved on. I have redone my website, moved into my office, and am FINALLY ready to go. Blog posts are coming. Regularily. Starting right now. 

We took a spring break vacation. After all the RV living and house building, we were ready for some R and R. We took a family cruise and got to stop at 3 port cities. I will do a short post on each port city and tell you a little about what we did. I know the grandparents and family are chomping at the bit to see the photos. 

If you are looking for beautiful travel photos, look elsewhere. For me to really relax, I left my big girl cameras and lenses at home. I only brought my phone camera and a point and shoot camera. None of these images will WOW you, but they will be enough to jog my memory and remember the awesome vacation. My kids love the photos no matter how grainy and poorly lit they are. That is what matters. 

We flew to Texas. My first time there. It was nothing like I had expected. It seemed just like home, only warmer and flat. We drove from DFW to a city called Pasadena (outside Houston). It was pretty and green. I had imagined desert and tumbleweeds and cowboys. I didn't see any of that. 

The boat was smaller than our last cruise ship, which was perfect for the kids. They could find their way around easily and felt confident without us glued to their sides. I was not as confident as they were. But, they proved to always stick togther and be on time. I guess they are growing up. The kids club on the ship was amazing. Think summer camp. They had counselors and theme nights and the kids never wanted to leave. Hubby and I had not expected that and were taken a little off guard. The kids did go to all the port cities with us, but when on the ship, they much preffered their new "best friends" they had made only days before. Its beautiful to watch kids make friends in 10 minutes and not think twice about it. 

Eden had little girls calling our room looking for her. Quite the social butterfly. Her favorite part of the cruise was all the fun kids acitivties and the friends she made. 

Elijah played a lot of basketball. His team even took first place in the 3 on 3 tournament. It did take awhile to get used to the fenced ceiling. He had to adjust his shot a bit. He also loved all the food. I don't think the cruise ship made any money on him. He consumed more bacon and sausage and burgers than I care to share. 

We had a basic room but did uprade to the balcony. I need to have air and windows. It was very small, but after RV living, we were not bothered by it. Actually, we laughed that our cruise ship bathroom was much bigger than our RV bathroom. I am sure were were the only family on the boat to think our bathroom was big. 

A small bed came down from the ceiling by lock and key for little miss and Elijah slept on the fold out chair. We had the double bed. It was really two small beds pushed together. As long as you didn't get close to the crack in the middle, it was great. The sky bed was put up every morning by our awesome room steward. Speaking of, he was quite a hit in our room with all his awesome towel animals. 

Can you figure out what they all are? top: cat and frog. left: monkey. center: dinosaur. right: bull dog. The elephant and mouse were awesome, but I didn't get a photo of them. 

Just to prove I was acutally on the trip

and the strangest food I saw on the boat:

Gross. None of us sampled that. 

Here is our boat. The Norwegian Jewel. 

Stay tuned to hear about all the fun we had in Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras. I promise to even tell you about the time I had to use the restroom REAL bad, on a bus, filled with people, in the middle of no where......