Long Story LONG

Wow, there has been a LOT of things happening all at once. I just have to start by saying how blessed I feel that in the midst of this economy, with families loosing jobs, we are still able to have so many great experiences. Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone that is struggling right now.

We somehow had a daughter that turned 12 May 7th. What? How did that happen? She's off to YW, camp, and all the fun things that happen when you turn 12.

At our house, birthdays seem to last for days or even weeks! Lauren's was no different. We went out to dinner on her actual birthday. The next day, we got a great surprise that Lauren's Aunt Diana was coming with Grampy from AZ. She took Lauren, Sydney and Matthew to Legoland for us on Friday. Kaycee and I went on the 1st grade field trip to the Wild Animal Park, then we rushed and picked up Gary and joined everyone else at Legoland. Did you know you can go free the last hour?

The next day we loaded up both our cars with our kayaks, paddles boards, a little bit of food, oh yeah and 10 pre-teen girls and had a GREAT day at Mission Bay! Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures. We had lots of family come so it ended up being a big, fun party!

Opening presents

A couple of friends kayaking

Go Aubrey! Sorry I didn't go a good job of getting the rest of Lauren's friends paddle boarding! They all seemed to like it!

Remember way back last November when Gary and I were supposed to go to London so that he could do a training session for his company? Well the trip got canceled last minute--after I had bought my plane ticket. We were rescheduled to go to Germany in February, but when it shaped up to be a VERY expensive THREE day weekend in 24 degree weather, we decided to use my plane ticket to do something REALLY fun. I've ALWAYS wanted to go on a cruise, and Gary made my wish come true! We booked a cruise to the Bahamas! We picked Memorial Day weekend--figuring the kids would have a day off, and Gary would be able to use one less vacation day. AFTER we booked the cruise, things kept coming up that were also going on the days we'd be gone. Here's what we missed:

Lauren and Kaycee's dance recital
Lauren's Greek day at school
Sydney and Kaycee's open house at school
Sydney's class singing a song in sing language in front of the whole school
Sydney and Kaycee's parents day at school (where parents can come and eat lunch with the kids)

Then, two days before our cruise my Grandma Cox passed away. We also had to miss her funeral. We loved Grandma and Gary and I were so sad to miss being there. You can read about her here:
http://moremainstreet.blogspot.com/2009/05/farewell-to-frances.html

Although its always sad to loose a loved one, I know that Grandma is happier now. She's had a rough few years, and especially the last few months have been awful for her. We love you Grandma Cox!

We left on a red eye flight Wednesday night to Florida. We flew what seemed like all night. With the time change it was. We got to the airport around 11 and headed straight to the boat.

We spent one day at sea, then one day in Nassau Bahamas, the next day in Freeport and then arrived back to Florida Monday morning.

The ship was so huge. It's hard to realize how big the boats are until your standing next to it!

About the ship:
I've never seen people drink so much
The shows were really pretty good. The band was great, the costumes and sets were really cool.
One comedian was really funny--the other was OK.
They had a juggler that was really funny and did a really good show.
The food was OK. Some of it was like cafeteria food, the dining room food was better.
You eat WAY too much on a cruise!
The games were very funny to watch--but I don't think I'd have to guts to be in one. They had Jeopardy, and the Newlywed game, etc.
Karaoke was SO fun to watch!
The pools are smaller than I thought they would be.
I'm amazed how many people will cram in a small hot tub. Do they all know each other?
There is always something going on.
Our room was surprisingly very comfortable.
We met a LOT of really nice people.
We had a boat full of Southerners.
The boat swayed a lot more than I expected. I still feel like I'm rocking back and forth today!
Despite claims of ships being dirty, I felt it was kept very clean, and they had hand sanitizers every few feet.

Our boat!

The Lido deck

Our first stop was Nassau. We went to the Blue Lagoon Island. It was HEAVEN! We didn't get the best weather this trip, it rained off and on the whole trip. BUT it was still in the upper 70's and the water temp was also the upper 70's! Can't beat that! Blue Lagoon Island was amazing. Very quiet, very secluded. It was so nice to get away from the crowds for a while. We did a Dolphin Encounter on Blue Lagoon. I actually petted, hugged and kissed a dolphin! We didn't get any pictures! (Didn't want to get the camera wet!--Didn't feel like paying $16 a pop for the ones they took!) The trainer had the dolphin keep spitting water on Gary. It was pretty funny! After our encounter, we strolled over to the beach and lazed around in the many hammocks they had swinging from the trees.

My view from my hammock.

Ahhh, this is the LIFE!

On our boat ride back from Blue Lagoon, we saw all these amazing homes right on the water. One staff member told us that Micheal Jordan has a home there, as well as Oprah. They start at a mere 7 million each. She said Oprah's house was the green one. I'm guessing this may be it??
We then headed to the Atlantis Resort. It was HUGE and GORGEOUS and CROWDED! There were 5 cruise ships in port that day, plus anyone else visiting. It was nice, but not really our style. If you want to see pictures of it, click here

http://www.atlantis.com/photogallery.aspx

The day after Nassau we docked in Freeport Bahamas. Gary and I did a kayaking tour down a creek that led to Gold Rock Beach. The kayaking was so nice, especially since our guide didn't bring enough paddles, so Gary had to paddle the whole time! Sorry babe, thanks for the ride! It was gorgeous, we went through the mangrove trees, and right out to the ocean. At one point, it started pouring rain on us. We felt like we were in a rain forest.


Gold Rock beach--this is the beach where Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed. Our guide said they were there for about 10 months, and during that time his tours would wave to Johnny Depps camp every day! That would be cool!!!!

The next day we got back to Florida, and got on a plane to head home. The Bahamas was so beautiful, the water so amazing, the people so nice! It was a GREAT trip!