Cruisin'

Mike and I just returned from an 8 day cruise to the Caribbean with a 2 day stop over in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It. Was. Awesome. We left the 2 kiddos with grandma and grandpa, which was a win win situation all around, and left for a much needed couples only vacation. Yes, it was a vacation - not a trip this time :) Our good friends Brad and Nicole Christensen joined us along with some new friends from their ward, Ben and Lindsay Smart. I cannot begin to describe how great the vacation was. Hopefully the pictures will be able to recreate some of it.

We started off our cruise on Superbowl Sunday where we watched the game in style on a giant screen TV on the pool deck. We also gorged ourselves on the first day of all you can eat food. As Mike likes to say, on a cruise you don't eat when you're hungry you eat when you're not completely full anymore.

Our time on the cruise ship was full of shows, eating, entertainment, eating, hot-tubbing, eating, games, eating, casino, eating, water sliding, eating and just plain FUN.

Here we are at dinner with our favorite ship painting behind the boys.

Brad "volunteered" to play in the game show. Per request, I'll kindly omit the Marilyn Monroe pictures :)

Mike also "volunteered" to participate in the dance contest. He went all out using every one of his sweet moves and he ended up winning! It was awesome.

I did not participate in the dance contest but did get stomped on by a lady wearing 6 inch stilettos. Lucky me!

Here we are all dressed up for the formal night. We had so much fun that night. We went from eating ice cream cones in the hot tub to running to our rooms to shower, dress and apply makeup before our show and dinner started. The boys were going to pick us up in our room after all the girls got ready together but we ended up taking too long so we had to meet up at the theater. It was worth it being a little late though because Nicole did a great job with all our makeup.

The food, as you guessed, was AWESOME. Check it out... mmmmm. Wish I was eating me some lobster right now! Dinner was always a blast. We loved just chilling, eating and talking. There was always a plethora of great conversation and laughter with Ben, Lindsay, Brad and Nicole (or should I say Brad y NicolE?).

Some of the best nights were spent in the karaoke lounge. It was a BLAST! The first night the girls chose the boy's song and the boys chose the girl's song. Our song choice was perfect. The boys sang, "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet boys. I gotta say, our guys totally blew away the original! They were H.O.T!!! It was the perfect song choice for them and a great karaoke song.

Our song choice was... not quite as good. We sang "Dontcha" by the Pussy Cat Dolls. I'll let the boys decide how we did, but it was pretty embarrassing :) It was also a lot of fun! Although I think we scared Lindsay away from karaoke for the rest of her life. My favorite part was when the (cute) cruise director saw us "practicing" our sexy dance moves in the hallway before our turn. Our backs were to him and all we heard was, "Are you right ladies?" in his English accent. Of course all we could do was giggle like school girls and run away. I don't think any of us actually gave him an answer! Up on stage we quickly realized how awkward our song was as we looked out onto a mostly 40 and older crowd. We were trying to make it funny, but it ended up sounding kind of like we were full of ourselves. Good times!

 

What a great cruise! There were some amazing moments and I had the opportunity to fall in love with my husband all over again. He is my perfect match and I loved every minute with him! I definitely promote the couples only vacation. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my babies, but it was so nice to have some one on one time with my man :) More to come on the cruise ports soon...

I love cruising!