Caribbean Cruise - Day 2 - At Sea

Today was a day at sea.

In every direction, all we could see was water.

So we took advantage of this spectacular waterslide.  David went first while I took pictures and listened to Jamacian drums play Amazing Grace - it was Sunday, afterall. 

It goes so fast!

David was the first adult to go down the slide.

Surprise!  It's salt water.  Ocean water maybe?  It definitely burns your eyes.

Up David went again.  Notice the lady at the top?  She was encouraged to attempt the slide after watching David. 

After playing in the pool for a bit, we decided to take a walk on the upper deck.  There we found a stowaway!

This poor guy is being deported to Mexico since he's already hundreds of miles from home.  That's what happens when you stow away on cruise ship.  You get deported.  Or you end up working in the dining hall...

Speaking of the dining hall, here's a picture of the two lovebirds getting ready to go eat dinner.

After dinner, we found this guy in our bed.  ahh.  Just another relaxed day on our cruise.

Caribbean Cruise - Day 1 - Leaving Mobile

Today we left to cruise the Caribbean.  David and I slept in and then packed our bags.

We shared 1 suitcase and packed 1 backpack with our snorkel and fins to use on the islands. Pretty impressive.

Then we hopped in our car and headed to the cruise terminal.

Roughly 20 minutes later, we were pulling up to the cruise terminal.  Sigh.  It's so nice to live so close to vacation.

After a quick stop for boarding information (where no pictures are allowed) we headed to the ship.

The Holiday was our home for the next five days of our holiday.

First things first, we checked everything out. Sweet pool with a great slide.  We could barely wait to try it out.

There's even a put-put golf course.  Awesome!

Watch out - it's a huge game of chess!

Next up, our room. I must say it was much larger than this picture portrays.

Do you see this face?  It's full of excitement!

Here's my honey with downtown behind him.  We're ready to sail away!

This tiny little tug boat pulled us away from the dock.

And we waved bye-bye to Mobile for the next 5 days.

It's very hard to make out, but we could see our condo as we sailed away.  It's the tiny white dots directly across the bay.

We passed an interesting lighthouse shortly thereafter.

And the sun set beautifully on our first day of a vacation.

Bon Voyage!

Good morning all!   Grace and Chloe are at Queenie's house so David and I are able to sleep in this morning.  Actually,  David is sleeping next to me, so I'm trying to be quiet as possible while I click and type away.  I, however, am too used to waking up with Grace around 7:30 to sleep in any longer.  That, and I'm so excited!

At 12:30 this afternoon, David and I will be boarding the Carnival Holiday for a 5 day romantic getaway! 

After we finish sleeping in, we'll get up and eat some breakfast, shower, and pack!  Can you imagine?  We will start boarding in less than 4 hours from now and we haven't even packed our clothes yet!  Of course, we only live 10 minutes from the cruise terminal so there's really no rush.  No flights to catch.  No worries about where to go or getting lost.  Just hop in the car and drive across the bay and climb aboard the cruise ship! 

So for the next five glorious days we will be lounging by the pool, soaking up the sun rays,  and eating fabulous meals that didn't require me slaving over a hot stove for hours on end.  I like to pretend that I really slave over a hot stove for hours.  I do spend hours chasing a two year old, though.  We can sleep in until noon everyday, order room service, and have someone else pick up our wet towels.  David really does a great job of picking up his own towel, but again, I can pretend, right?  Our afternoons will consist of us snorkeling and exploring foreign ports of call.  I can work on the little Spanish I know "Hola, mi nombre es  Charity.  Donde está el cuarto de baño."    That means "Hello, my name is Charity.  Where is the bathroom."

Most of all I am looking forward to the utter and complete lack of schedule.  We can do whatever we want whenever we want.  Ice cream for dinner?  No problem.  Pilates at 8am.  Sure, go ahead.  We can live on the wild side and go swimming after 9pm.  Our pool closes at 9pm.  There's armed guards who perform nightly surveillance.  They forcefully remove you from the pool area promptly at 9:01.  Just kidding.  They really do lock the pool at 9:00 on the dot with big heavy locks and move all the pool furniture away from the gates removing any chance of anyone climbing over the fence.   

I'm looking forward to our relaxing Holiday (pun intended).  So Bon Voyage, y'all.  I'll catch everyone up on our fabulous trip next week!

The kindness of strangers

Today Grace and I went to Wal-Mart.  While we were there, Grace managed to have a huge meltdown.  She kept screaming an ugly four-lettered word at the top of her lungs over and over.  I was horribly embarrassed and frustrated. I wanted to beat my child in public, regardless of where we were or who was watching.  I refrained, though.  My child, however, did not.  She screamed like a banshee all over the store and kept yelling this four lettered word that grated upon my last surviving nerve....  "MINE!  MINE!  MINE!" Regardless of what I said or did, Grace continued to act like a heathen.  I was forced to cut our excursion rather short and told her that she could scream as loud as she wanted but she most certainly was not getting any candy or toys or anything else she thought was "hers."  After a few minutes that seemed like hours, she finally calmed down.  We arrived at the register and she saw this

By this time, Grace had finally figured out that screaming wasn't going to work.  So she changed her modus operandi.  She turned into a sweet angelic child.  With crocodile tears slowly rolling down her face, she meekly says "Fishies, Momma.  I want fishies.  Peas!"  I simply replied with a resounding, "No."  She continued to plead with me in a very soft voice "Peas, Momma.  I want fishies.  Peas."  She was the picture of complete innocence. 

And a kind lady standing in line behind me, who did not see Grace play the part of a terror by the way, picked up a box of the goldfish crackers and asked me if she could purchase some for Grace.  It took me completely by surprise.  I thanked her but told her that Grace had thrown a utter fit in the store and I had already explained to Grace that she couldn't have any because of her actions.  The lady smiled and said she understood.  We left Wal-Mart and headed home, but that lady's small act of generosity has stayed with me.  Thanks to one lady whom I will never know, one uncomplicated and innocent act of good will brightened up what seemed to be a bleak and stressful outing and left me with a smile.

Grace in charge

We took a family walk around the yacht club about a month or so ago.

The sunset was just beautiful.

Grace, however, was more interested in her bike than in watching the sun set.

She was more interested in pushing her bike herself, to be precise.

She is growing into such an independent little girl.

She is already so confident in herself.

I just love that about her.

Grace likes to jump

Some kids pick their noses

And some kids bite their fingernails.

My kid, however,

bites her toenails!