Vacation Is Over...Back To Reality

Oh goodness time flies when you are having fun but...have I missed blogging lately. Its almost like I am having withdrawals or something. So allow me to fill you in on the Ward Family vacation aboard the Carnival Conquest. First of all I will say...I think I need more of a vacation now, then before we actually left. For those of you who thought I was CRAZY for taking a toddler on a cruise...you were RIGHT. Jolea is only 19 months old so she falls just short of the 2 year minimum age limit to be enrolled in the Camp Carnival program. This program would have been AMAZING if we would have been able to take advantage of it. They have activities, and crafts planned all day long on all "at sea" days and they offer late night "babysitting!" at night. Well, as I stated earlier, we fell just short of 2 years old, so the only time Jolea could go to camp was between the hours of 12p and 2p...which translates into...not enough time for Mommy and Daddy to have adult time. She cried nearly every single time we dropped her off, but by the time we went back to get her, she was having a ball. The camp workers were really great, and they just thought Jolea hung the moon :) Too bad we missed out and the next time we go on another cruise she WILL be old enough. Overall we had a good time, but I do think she was just too young for such a big adventure. When I think about it, I am glad she was with me, because if she wasn't I would have worried about and missed her way too much to actually have a good time. One of her favorite things about the whole cruise was climbing all the stairs. Grammy and Poppy literally climbed the stairs with her for a solid hour one night while Andy and I were eating...needless to say she slept really good that night. We had a nice little system worked out so that Grammy and Poppy ate at the "early"dining room sitting and Andy and I were on the "anytime" dining, so we took turns having baby duty which worked out really well. The food on the boat was my favorite thing...there was always something to munch on...and we ordered room service almost everyday, just because we could...and it was FREE. Jolea lives on corn dogs and green beans, so she was practically starving by the time we got home, because we couldn't find either of those things on the boat. The waiters around the pool were great...they always had your favorite fruity drink ready and they waited on us hand and foot. I love how they knew all of us on a first name basis by about the second day. Our stateroom was FABULOUS with a big ocean view window and alot bigger than I had expected. We were joined with Grammy and Poppy so that was even better. Jolea had free roam of two rooms instead of only 1 so that was an added bonus. Every inch of this boat was super clean. The crew worked round the clock and you could practically eat off the floor if you needed to. It was great. Our beds were turned down for us every night and sweet Jolea always had an m&m cookie on her pillow in the crib. We were supposed to make stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but because of the Swine Flu we had to postpone the stop in Cozumel. I was really disappointed in this because the boys missed out on some of the best diving in the world...from what we hear. Jamaica is not one of my favorite places at all, but we did find a beautiful beach called Doctor's Cave Beach that was perfect for us. It wasn't too busy, it provided lots of shade for Jolea, the sand was beautiful and the waters were blue. Jolea even took a nap on the beach...if you can believe that! She is fearless about the water...she got away from me once on our way out to the water and she took off running right in on her own. It was very shallow of course, but she showed no hesitation at all...which is a good thing and a bad thing I guess. We did a little shopping after the beach and lunch and then headed back to the boat. A huge storm hit right as we were loading the boat, but thankfully we got on just in time. It was really nice to see and hear the rain. There is only 1 word for Grand-Cayman...GORGEOUS. Its a very wealthy island and although it has its slummy parts, the places that we saw were so quaint and beautiful. The water is crystal clear...I mean you can see all the way to the bottom when you aren't too far out of course. Its aqua water...and its beautiful. The boys did a 2-tank dive in Cayman and they weren't thrilled with anything they saw. I think they had really high expectations of this dive and they were a little disappointed. We hit Senor Frogs and did some shopping in Cayman as well. We made out with some AWESOME Coach purses, wallets and sunglasses. Pure Bliss :) Of course we are such typical tourists and we came away with some great t-shirts and other things. After Cayman it was back to Galveston and we had a few more days at sea to enjoy. Being on the boat was so much fun. Its unreal how big it was and how intricate the details were and how beautiful it was on the inside. Some of the things we enjoyed the most on the boat were the casino, the shops, the piano bar, the disco, the wine and martini bar, 24-hour pizzeria, room-service and of course the POOL. So without further jibber-jabber, please allow me to show you some of my favorite pictures from this vacation. I have no idea when the Ward Family we be able to go on another vacation...but I know that we cant wait!!!

(As always to enlarge each collage just click on it)

There will be even more pictures to come if you can believe that because I really want to share with you all the professional photos that were taken on the boat. There are some really cute ones. I also wanted to share that Andy and I are thrilled to have our house officially "under contract!" We are waiting to set a closing date...and then we are back to Abilene. Andy is also the new Defensive Coordinator at Hawley...so the Lord has richly blessed us and answered our prayers. More to come...