Finally....THE CRUISE!!!

On Friday, October 30th, Mitch and I left cold andsnowy Rexburg to drive to Boise where we would leave Eric with his Grandparents and we would fly to Texas to leave with the Sedrick family for a Caribbean Cruise. Our flight left Boise at 6:30 a.m. on Halloween and we flew to Houston, Texas. My brother Jody and his wife Judie were flying with us the whole way. We "picked" up Jeremy and Olivia in Salt Lake and they joined us to Houston. When we arrived in Houston, Mom and Dad and Becky and Derek met us at the airport. We grabbed some grub and checked into our hotel. We decided to take a shuttle to the mall and hung out there for awhile that evening. It was an interesting experience as a lot of people Trick-or-treat at the mall and we weren't in Eastern Idaho (very interesting/slutty costumes). We got a good laugh out of some people thinking they actually looked good.
Sunday morning we found out the my brother Andy and his wife Rachel ended up coming also. We all waited in the hotel lobby for our bus that would take us to the port at Galveston. We finally got there around 3. The ship had been delayed getting in so we were an hour late getting out. Check in and security took forever but finally we were on our ship heading for a fantastic week.
This is what Rexburg looked like as we left. Miserable:

Eric was trying to sneak on the plane and ship with us:

Our ship at port in Grand Caymen:


Of course the first thing we did when getting on the ship was grab some food. After that we explored the ship until dinner time. Mitch had dad, the old navy sailer, explain different aspects of the ship. After a 3 course amazing dinner, we went to a game show that Jeremy, Shaun, and Derek got to be a part of. I think they all got medals or ships on sticks. I can't remember. Some people went to the show later but Mitch and I crashed. When we came back from dinner this is what we found:

The room crews would leave a different one every night. It was a fun welcoming thing. We took more pictures but didn't want to bore you. We were also spoiled to get balcony rooms and this is what we could walk out and see every night:

I have never seen such blue water as in the Caribbean. On Monday, we were busy eating and doing random activities the ship has planned out. One we all did was the Bean Bag toss competition. We all teamed up and had funny team names but Shaun and Jeremy took the competion over these amazing older ladies. Here they are winning they're ship on a stick:

Monday was Mom and Dad's 46th wedding anniversary (the reason we came on the cruise). Jody had made a cool slide show with pictures from when they first got married to now. It was really nice. We were able to get a private room to spend time just us. That evening for dinner was elegant night. Basically everyone wears nice clothes. Some people go way out bringing tuxedo's and formal dressed. We just did nice church clothes. After dinner, they brought out a Happy Anniversary cake for Mom and Dad and we all sang to them. It was really special to them to have all their kids there. Here Mitch and I are on elegant evening:

And the reason for the trip:

Tuesday was deck games day. On the ship they have different competitions and you are trying to win your floor points. We were the white team and so we joined up with other white team members to take on the blue and red team in deck games. We had to search out all these items and then put them on a boy. Derek got assigned. Here he is all decked out like a sun tanning woman:

Later on, they had a syncronized swimming competition, which of course, our family did. The boys put together an actual routine and won metals.

Here are two of the cruise people, Nate and Stitch. We become pretty good friends with Nate (on the bottom). He was almost another member of our family. This was taken at the Deck party that night. There was dancing and games. It was a blast.

Wednesday, we arrived in beautiful Jamaica. Here is the coast line as we came in:

In Jamaica, we had a Zip Line canopy tour shore excursion. All but my parents and Shaun and Holly came along. We would hike up and around to zip lines and soar the the jungle. It was so pretty. We saw a camelion actually change colors. That was neat. Here Mitch and I are in our gear to go out:

The last zip line of day is over a large valley. It is absolutely beautiful. Here is someone going down:

Jamaica is a very beautiful country. Of course they have their problems. It was very humbling to me to see how little some people had. I'm sure I didn't even see the worst of it. And, they have a drug problem (Mitch got offered weed 4 or 5 times!)

On Thursday, we took port in Grand Cayman. The most famous part of Grand Cayman is Tortuga. They have tons of signs for Tortuga Rum Cake. We ran into some pirates while we were there too:


For our shore excursion here, the whole family, besides Jody and Judie, went snorkeling over a reef and a shipwreck. The reef was my favorite. There was a lot of cool fish. You could get really close and almost touch them but at the last minute they would swim away. We would've gotten pictures if we would've had an underwater camera.
Friday was Cozumel, Mexico. We got to see the Ruins of Tulum which took our whole time in Cozumel. A tropical storm was heading in so it rained on us most of the trip. We were all sopping wet. The ferry to the mainland was a little bumpy and I almost got sea sick. (Later that night I had to stay laying down or I would get sick). The Ruins are amazing. The Mayan history is amazing. Especially how it relates to the Book of Mormon. There are ingravings on the ruins symbolic of the God head and other things. It was very neat. Here are some pictures:


If we would've seen these Luchadores masks we totally would have got one. This is Jody and Jeremy dressed in ones for Jody's kids:

Saturday was another day at sea. It was rough because of the storm moving in, and because we were booking it. I was sick in the morning, but as the medicine kicked in, I was ok. I was actually part of the Karaoke show that night at Brittney Spears which I did awful at but it was fun. Sunday morning, we were back in texas. We got packed up and got shipped back to the airport where we all parted and flew home. It was such an amazing trip. One we will never forget. Thanks so much Mom and Dad. We love you! Thanks for keeping a strong marriage for the last 46 years.