Spring Break - CRUISE!

Getting some old posts - though unfinished - posted regardless of how LATE they are!!!

For quite some time Scott and I have been trying to come up with a family vacation that celebrates the family's dedication and sacrifice for my PhD! The end of last year we had an opportunity through a church friend to go on a cruise for Spring Break. It was not our favorite thought....but as it sat with us, we decided the all inclusiveness of the vacation AND going with the other family would be a good decision. We weren't sure if the kids would be excited or not....at one time they weren't too excited for the possibility of a cruise. So we decided to let them in our little plan early. Each one of them were SUPER excited...almost upset that we told them soooo early and now they would have to wait.

And now the waiting is OVER....and so is the cruise!

The days leading up to Spring Break were fun as we all began looking at what exactly we wanted to do. Packing was a last minute ditch effort - except for Scott, who always packs a month in advance ;) Actually, this time I was pretty impressed with him (after giggling that he does this every time) because his dad ended up in the hospital and he had to go to TN for 10 days....thankfully he was packed already (and THANKFULLY his dad is A OK-it was touch and go for awhile ... but after a long stay in the hospital and brain surgery, he is recovering well).

The Friday before we left, Spencer went with our friends, The Strickland's, to Dallas to hang out for the weekend. Their son, Austin, is close to Spencer's age and is an only child. Having a friend a long was fun for them.

Sunday morning the rest of us took off. We packed up everything on Saturday night so we could leave straight away in the morning. Galveston was about a 9 hour drive, but it really went by pretty quickly-considering! We got there in time to see the sun set over the watery horizon. While I checked into our room, the kids went across the street with the Strickland's and took pics on the beach.

Our dinner at Salsa's was AWESOME! I'm not sure what we liked better, the REAL food (travel food gets old after awhile), the live Mariachi band, or the guacamole salsa! It was a blast!

No, Scott is NOT sleeping....

I can't speak for everyone, but I think we were all a little excited for the next day....a little more excited than was conducive to sleep!

But....we all woke up with plenty of time ... still excited I suppose! After waiting in the whole line deal, we made it onto the ship....what a beautiful day! We met for lunch

and then pretty much went our separate ways and met up again for dinner. The kids swam and played some mini golf and generally explored the ship.

Cody LOVED just looking at the water!