Cruisin' Together

We've been home now for 3 weeks. It feels a bit like a dream now that we're back to work, back to school, back to Fall. In fact, I did dream the other night we were still on the ship, eating ice cream. Oh, the ice cream...

Day of Embarkation. We were oozing excitement and anticipation, can you see it?

 And we're on. First up...WATER SLIDES. We had a little heads-up to bring a bag with our suits to wear during the day while our bags arrived later on.

Oh, how lovely it was to have 6 extra sets of hands to hold the wee one. Drew and I were spoiled the entire trip with helpers left and right. (There's benefits to being the only sibling with kids. Not for long, though, with Daniel and Chalyse expecting the first Baby Boy Bird!)

Pulling away from Port Canaveral.

Important note: Dramamine works...especially on kids. (Kendall didn't have it directly, but it seems to have affected her.)

Worked on Makenna. Why don't I give this to them every night? Haha...just kidding, sort of.

Family favorite: Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, with a side of Creme Brule. Every night people. I'm not divulging how much weight was gained.

Day 2: SEA DAY

Our cabin had a king bed and then a pull-down bunk bed.Who says a family of 5 can't sleep somewhat comfortably in a 10 square-foot cabin? Yep, we rocked it.

Formal night. Everyone looked quite fancy, I must say.

 This is about .5 seconds too soon, as Uncle Daniel and I wanted to scare her by putting a lobster on top of her mac 'n cheese when her head was turned. Followed was shock, then terror. Then belly laughs, (not from her).

Day 3: Cozumel, Mexico

We talked a reluctant taxi driver into driving us to Playa Corona (we found out they got kick-backs from taking us to certain beaches, but Grandpa had done his research). Playa Corona or BUST. We had the whole beach to ourselves, with a covered eating area, our very own server/owner, pet eels, and crystal blue water as far as the eye could see. Heaven.

Makenna had been practicing snorkeling since we were in AZ in July (and then in the bathtub more recently. She turned out to be a natural. Addison on the other hand...our fearless, thrill-seeking adventurer (insert eye roll). 

 
Even Kendall tried snorkeling (well the mask at least). She was content just floating in her little floaty in the bath-warm water.
 

Look at that water! I mean, come on.
 

Grandpa found this amazing conch shell while snorkeling. We may have bent the rules in shoving it in our backpack to take home with us. Had we known there would be a dead-fish-smell (due to the giant crab who resided there) in our cabin for the remainder of our trip, we may have thought twice about our thievery. But a cool shell, nonetheless.

After a long, hot day in the sun, we enjoyed a little after-dinner entertainment.

Day 4: Isla Roatan, Honduras
ZIPLINING!!! Chalyse couldn't go because of aforementioned Baby Boy Bird and she most graciously offered to stay with Baby Kendall at the base.

Makenna contemplating what she's getting herself into.

 How cute is that little harness strapped on that little behind?  (Addison's)

 Ready or not!

How cool are these banana trees? I've never seen the flowering fruit that hangs below the bananas.

The view from our jumping-off point.

One of our three guides. These guys were insane, showing off with tricks and stunts that looked like they should have killed them.

,

Daniel:

Drew and Addison

There's pretty much no flattering shot to be had. But the fun outweighs that completely.

Grandpa was a maniac.

So was Makenna. SUCH A DAREDEVIL.

 

Grandma:

 Eric:

 Meagan:

Then we met this awesome monkey who, oddly enough, reminded me of Kendall. I didn't want to put him down.

He especially liked Meagan.

In the afternoon, we dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival on the ship so we could hit the beach and lounge in the water, adults only.

Mahogany Bay Beach:
 
 

Day 5: Belize City, Belize
We took a tender boat from the ship to shore in sweltering heat and then waited for our private tour to leave.

 

Off to the Lamanai Mayan Ruins. We took a car ride through Belize City, then hopped on a speed boat and sped down river 25 miles to Lamanai. The ruins were incredible, truly. It was an entire civilization that once lived there with over 100,000 Mayans at one time. Only 5% of the city had been unearthed, which was incredible considering how much we actually saw.

Below are a ton of monkeys hanging out in the trees above us as we walked. One decided to relieve himself on poor Daniel, which was ironic and hilarious.


This is Addison in 100 degree heat, after a couple of hours trekking up and down ruins. To say she'd had it would be an understatement. Of course I picked her up and carried her, but not before I snapped a picture.                                                          


The afternoon consisted of a delicious homemade Belizian lunch of fall-off-the-bone chicken, beans and rice, and fried plantains. Most delicious. The the boat ride back. My exhausted girls all fell asleep on the trip home.

Makenna found a little hiding spot next to one of the ruins, which we both thought was incredibly cool, and somewhat secretive.

Day 6: Mahahual Costa Maya, Mexico

This last port day (which was short, we had to be back on the ship by 2pm) we decided to leave the 2 girls on the ship so the adults could go shop. Sadly, it was raining (the only day it rained our whole trip!) but we had fun taking a taxi into town and sipping on coconuts by the beach. We ate a delicious lunch of street tacos with homemade salsa and chips and fresh tamarind juice. We even swam next to a stingray in the water!

The restaurant owner walked out to a coconut tree, wielding a hefty machete and cut coconuts down for us. He then hacked into them, stuck a straw in and handed them over. You'd be hard pressed to find anything fresher than that.

 

 

 

 The brave ones who ventured into the stingray-infested ocean.

 

 Tasting fresh tamarind juice. Tasted quite like prune juice.

 Day 7: Sea Day

We lounged around, eating, talking, basking in the Caribbean sun, and generally enjoying ourselves. The girls hung out at Camp Carnival.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Our last night with our beloved waiter, Denis. We loved this guy and are determined to visit his city of Split, Croatia someday. He told us to. I'm pretty positive this is not something he tells all his tables and that we were uniquely special. Positive.

Day 8: Debarkation: Port Canaveral, FL
We all debarked at different times because of flight times, etc. Our little family was the last group to exit the ship so we had a few hours to kill. Soda cards didn't work anymore. The buffets were closed, as well as the pools. Lucky for us, though, the 24/7 ice cream bar was OPEN FOR BUSINESS and we took full advantage of it. So was the mini golf.






This was the most incredible family vacation ever. We feel blessed to have been with our whole Bird family on it for an entire week, seeing so many beautiful places and making tons of wonderful memories. It's not hard to see why so many people become lifetime "Cruisers". I think we'd like to hop on the bandwagon.