Caribbean Cruise March/ April 2012

In attempts to catch up on this family blog, I needed to add a post about our amazing Caribbean cruise that we took with my parents last spring.  We took Lexi & Tyler and boarded the Norwegian Spirit for a Western Caribbean adventure.  The kids were mostly excited about the endless food (who am I kidding, we all were)- so throughout the week, there was a lot of this...

and tons of this!!

We got to put on some of our spiffiest duds

and have a grand time.

This is out of order, but it's actually when we first boarded the ship after a full day of traveling.

We quickly found the pool...

AND the chocolate buffett!

BUSTED!

Funny thing is that people around us thought we were totally serious and just absolute pigs with no control or manners (maybe sometimes).  Where's your sense of humor, people?

Mis Padres

(obviously a BEFORE shot)

This is priceless (check out the chocolate on his eyelid-ha!)

Anyway, moving ahead.... here we are at our first port - Cozumel, getting ready to swim with the sting rays.

a new friend

We also got attached to this little guy, you can see he only has a nub on one leg.

I really love this shot of Ty!

Lexi got her hair braided, beaded and wrapped.  So much fun :)

another close friend

One of the big rays

Next stop...Belize.  Here we are at Altun Ha, a massive site of Mayan ruins.

You can't quite tell, but there's a Mayan calendar inscribed on the rock (a popular topic of conversation recently).

The view from the top of the tallest temple

Here's Ty holding a baby alligator, he likes him some reptiles

This little toy sling shot we picked up as a souvenir for Tyler in Belize was quickly confiscated once we boarded again.  Watch out....a 7 yr. old with a rubber band!  Hey, at least they're thorough.  It sure was a booger to get back after the trip though!

Now we've arrived in Roatan, Honduras.  I had no expectations before getting there.  And now I have to say it was one of my favorite places on earth.  SOOO beautiful!

Here we got to go to a secluded island and meet Kenny the dolphin.

This was so neat.  I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding dolphins in captivity, but this spot was really wonderful.  Very open and all those working with the dolphins have devoted so much of their lives to the well being and safety of the animals.  We were very impressed (unlike the dolphin encounter area in Costa Maya).

He seems happy :)

Hello gorgeous!

Definitely an experience we all will never forget!

Every night when we got back to our cabin there was always a fun surprise for us in the form of a towel animal.  Here's our favorite :)

After we got back to port in New Orleans we were able to stay an extra day to tour around this fascinating city!  It was crazy packed because of NCAA March Madness.  I loved walking around and seeing the beautiful architecture and culture and to see how they're still rebuilding after Katrina.

Eating a famous beignet from Cafe Beignet.  Mmmmmmmm, so divine!

The highlight for me....hanging out with these street jazz musicians!  They were so awesome.  I could listen to them all day.

Jackson square

Every time we turned around, our kids had made another friend ;)

Fun statues at the park

Tyler's agreeing that the whole trip was AMAZING!!  We loved being able to experience all these new things and places with our kids and my parents.  Thanks mom and dad!  We'll treasure this time always.

Coincidentally we ported in New Orleans the day before the NCAA championship basketball game was to be played there.  This is like Nathan's dream!!  So we stayed in New Orleans an extra day so Nate could go to the game and we met a friend at the airport that is an equally huge fan (he just returning from a cruise as well).  It worked out amazingly well because as our friend arrived at the airport, Nate dropped the kids and I off at the same time so we could fly home.  Unfortunately, right after we were dropped off,  there ended up being a huge lightning storm, so our flight was delayed by about 4 or 5 hours.  I always have THE worst luck when I'm flying with kids by myself.  Anyway, the kids were very patient (considering) and eventually we did make it back to Colorado in the wee hours of the morning.

The boys had an awesome time at the game though, and I'm so glad it worked out of them to go.