Cruise to Caribbean!

Well, we had been talking about it for months, and we finally decided to go ahead and go on a cruise since our 15th anniversary is coming up in December. Also, at the beginning of the year, Joel and I started serious dieting and exercising. He promised me that if we both reached our goal weights, he would take me on a cruise. Well, he lost 35 pounds, and I lost 23. I think we both gained it all back in one week with all the amazing food on that ship! Not really, but we did do some serious buffet eating. :) It was a lot of fun. Our first stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. Wasn't too impressed with this place, but we snorkeled and laid on the beach for a while so it was okay, but it had been pretty beat up by a hurricane a couple years ago and they are still trying to re-build everything. The next stop was Belize. We were told not to venture too far away from the main tourist shops here because it is such a poor country and the people might be aggressive toward tourists so we just did some shopping and eating there and went back to the ship. The next day we went to Cozumel and headed to a state park there to snorkel and relax. Well, as soon as we got our snorkel gear on and were ready to get in the water, we looked up at the sky and these huge black clouds were rolling in along with some lightning. We decided not to get in the water right then, and I'm glad we didn't because it started pouring rain and thunder and lightning. We waited it out at a little outdoor (covered) restaurant, but then started to realize it was not going to blow over any time soon, so we decided to go back to the village shops and look around for a while, then headed back to the boat. Didn't want to be away from the food too long! The last stop was Grand Cayman which was really nice. We had signed up for an excursion to go see the stingrays and snorkel around some cool reefs, but the tropical storm in the area made it so that side of the beach was way too rough and they said there were swells of 6 to 8 feet so they cancelled it. We were able to stay on the other side of the beach though and went snorkeling around some really good reefs and a shipwreck too. We saw some BIG fish there and had a good time. It was very relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves, but all in all we were glad to get home to the kids. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Pilling for watching our kids all week! We missed them a lot and were thankful to get home. We had a connecting flight in Dalls coming home and on that flight a lady got sick halfway through and we had to turn around and fly all the way back to Dallas to let her get off with her "medical emergency". We were pretty mad, but finally we made it home a couple hours later than originally planned. We celebrated Katy's birthday when we got home because we were on the cruise during her birthday. Grandma had a cake and everything ready for when we got home.
Anyway, here are some pictures from the cruise... they are all in random order. :)Here is Joel as we are heading into Grand Cayman from the ship. They had to anchor the boat a ways out and take us to shore in smaller tinder boats...
I think this was in Belize... this guy was just letting everyone pose for a picture with him...

This was in Belize too...

Here is our ship and another one next to it... ours was called the Carnival Valor....

Here we are on one of the tinder boats that took us to shore...

Me...

This is heading into Belize...

Waiting for an excursion to go snorkeling...

Cayman Islands...

The cabin steward always made towel animals and put them on our bed each night... this one was wearing my sunglasses! It was funny...

A stingray...

Anyway, we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves way too much... when we got home we got on the scale and had a heart attack, and then wondered where the buffet was and the mints on our pillows? I felt like I was swaying a little for a few days after too. Can't wait to go again!