Okay, We just got home a few hours ago so I'm still in the middle of re-grouping. I'll post details and pics of yesterday and today when I can sort through my pics later. Just a quick Thanks to Hilary for posting the other days and pics for me. It would have cost a boatload (hee, hee) if I had had to upload the post and pics from the ship.
Later
Tuesday:
Well, we’re continuing to have more fun than ever! Today we docked at Progreso, Mexico. The pier from the ship to the shore was about five miles out into the ocean. So once we disembarked we had to take a bus to the actual city. Progreso is like most Mexican tourist towns – lots of vendors wanting us to buy their wares. We spent some time in the flea market area. I had a good laugh watching Jeremy barter with an older Senor over hammocks. The Senor had Jeremy lying in a bunch of different hammocks and then he started to show him a book called the Hamma Sutra. Just use your imagination what the drawings showed – all in a hammock!!! We already have a couple hammocks at home so Jeremy wasn’t too serious about buying some more, but by the time we left the Senor had lowered his price from $140 for two hammocks to $10 for one! And yet we still walked away. We really didn’t need one and we didn’t want to tote it around with us the rest of the day anyway.
From there we talked to Pedro who set us up on a 2-hour tour that included a drive through Progreso, a stop at the salt flats outside of town, viewing some Mayan ruins called Xcampo (I think), and some time to play at a private beach. It was really fun! The girls especially enjoyed the ruins. These ones weren’t very large or popular, so we were able to walk around on them and climb to the tops. There were two pyramids – one was for the sun and one was for the moon. Of course, Natalie took a little tumble off one. I told her to be more careful or she was going to end up as an accidental Mayan sacrifice.
At the beach they all looked for seashells and now have quite a collection. In fact, Emma just now dumped hers out on my nice clean sheets to view! Nothing like sandy sheets for a good night’s rest!
When we returned to Progreso we did a bit more souvenir shopping and then boarded the bus for the ride back. We didn’t eat much since breakfast, so we made a beeline for the pizza and sandwiches when we got back. Then two hours later (and a few card games of Hearts) we bellied up for dinner in the dining room!! We just rolled our full tummies back to our cabin and are resting a bit before we head off to watch the comedy and juggling show in an hour. We plan to finish off the night splitting a big piece of chocolate cake we’ve been eyeing in one of the cafes.
Tomorrow we’ll spend the day on the ship having one last day of FUN, FUN, FUN!!!
Until tomorrow….
Monday:
Hello from Cozumel!!! Wow, we are having the BEST VACATION EVER!!!! Just to bring you up to date: Yesterday, after my first post, we spent time sunning ourselves at the pool and waterslide; had a delish lunch and then all five of us (Kellie, Jeremy, Natalie, Emma and Becky) played a couple WINDY rounds of mini-golf on the top of the ship. Kellie and Jeremy both got holes-in-one! Emma then left us to go build a volcano with her Camp Carnival (CC) buddies, and the rest of us relaxed until it was time to dress up and go to the Captain’s Welcome Aboard party and dinner. Dinner was wonderful – we had steak, lobster, salmon and Kellie’s favorite dessert the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake – mmm, mmm, mmm!!!!!
After dinner Emma passed out from all the fun. But the rest of us caught the revue show “X-Treme County” in the theater. Lots of country singin’, dancin’ and fiddlin’! Then Natalie headed off to a CC PJ Party and the rest of us crashed with Emma.
This morning we pulled into Cozumel around 8am. There was another Carnival ship right next to us, the Glory. It was much bigger than our ship and looked similar to the ship Jeremy and I cruised on last year, the Conquest.
We disembarked around 9am, window shopped a bit before getting on the bus to our excursion site. We decided to do the Playa Mia Deluxe Beach trip. WHAT A BLAST!!! We snorkeled, paddle-boated, kayaked, played on the water trampoline, had all-you-can –eat Mexican buffet and then finished it off with get this – wave running and parasailing!!!!! Actually, Becky and Kellie decided to parasail at the same time Jeremy and the girls were out on the wave-runner. It was sooooo cool! While we were flying about 300 feet in the air checking out a gorgeous view of the ocean and island, the three on the wave-runner were speeding around below us doing doughnuts and flying through the super-blue water. Parasailing wasn’t something I ever really wanted to do, but I went on the boat to take pictures of Becky and it looked so easy and peaceful that when the guys offered to send me up I said sure before my nerves could get the better of me. All I can say is, if you ever get the chance to parasail, do it!!! It’s so beautiful and peaceful and not scary AT ALL!!!
After all that excitement we boarded the bus back to the port. Just about everyone on the bus was DRUNK and LOUD. I think it gave the girls a good lesson about how stupid people are when they drink. Anyway before we got back on the ship, the girls did a little souvenir shopping and we took a few fun pics at The Three Amigos restaurant. Well, we’re getting ready to head back out to sea. But there are parties and buffets scheduled all night, so we’ll see what other fun we can pack into this great day before we pull into Progreso, Mexico tomorrow.
Hasta Manana!!!!
Hey All,
Just a quick post to let you know we’re on board and havin’ sooooo much fun! Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, we spent exploring the ship. The ship is HUGE!!! But, our cabin is quite cozy for five people. With all the beds out it’s like a 3D maze to get from one side of the room to the other, but we’re spending most of our time in other places. We’ve already eaten waaaaay too much yummy food. Emma was thrilled to see the 24 hour pizza bar and self-serve ice cream! She’s also enjoying the Camp Carnival activities. Right now she’s coloring her own Carnival t-shirt and I think Natalie’s on a scavenger hunt with other kids her age.
Last night we went to the Welcome Aboard show and saw singers, dancers, the live band, and a comedian. Oh yeah, and we’ve confirmed that Elvis didn’t die – he multiplied!!! We saw three of him yesterday in one of the lounges. Funny though, one of the Elvis’s looked suspiciously like Bro. Hensen from the Cedar Park Ward!!!
This morning we all got our exercise running around the track on the top deck of the ship. Natalie and I did just over a mile run! COOL! Then we proceeded to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet! So much for burning calories!!!!
Right now, Jeremy and I are trying to decide what excursion to sign up for in Cozumel tomorrow – looks like we’re gonna take the girls on the Deluxe Sail Snorkel Beach Party. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!
Here are a few pics so far. Actually, we have more interesting ones than these, but they’re on Natalie’s camera and it appears that our USB cable doesn’t fit her camera. (Even though it looked like it would at home. Arghh!)
Hey all, just wanted to tell you that you can check our blog while we're on our cruise to get the latest on the day's events! Our plan is to post at least once a day - we'll see!!
We're sooo excited!!!!
Today: Randomly yelling down the stairs to Dad: "Dad, don't touch my rosemary!!" Picture us scratching our heads.
Responding to our comment that her two black-eyes (she fell out of the swing Christmas day) made her look like a Ghoul: "No!!! I look like a Goosebump!!!" You decide...
"Mom, I want to wear my COLKA-dot socks today!" We can't convince her that the correct pronounciation is POLKA-dot.
Speaking of pronounciation, has your child ever asked you for "Marshmallow Ladies" for breakfast? I believe she wants the Marshmallow Mateys (fake Lucky Charms), but Marshmallow Ladies would be a fun way to break up the breakfast monotony.
Okay, so I know the holidays were like a month ago, but I think I've finally recovered from the self-inflicted torture of putting the "Brysons 2008" photo/video slideshow together, so I'm ready to take on my blog and upload some holiday memories. (If this sentence made no sense to you, you are one of the lucky ones who hasn't been privy to one of my photo montage deadline meltdowns! It really is a sick hobby!)
Anyway, Christmas and New Years were great!!! We had my sister, Jen, and her dog, Sophie, here for Christmas and my brother, Rob, came out for New Years. During this time, Dani also celebrated her 3rd birthday and Jeremy and I spent our 14th wedding anniversary, shopping, watching the new James Bond flick and sharing dinner at Chili's.
On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening at Jeremy's parents home enjoying their annual party filled with Santa, food, presents, food, a pinata, food, and dessert! Thankfully, this year no one awoke us to vomit-filled upper bunks (that's a story from 2005! Can anyone say, Mommy just had a c-section! Cleaning up puke is definitely not on the doctor's "okay to do" list!)
Oh yeah, back to 2008, our girls kindly let us sleep in until 8am - yeah, no kidding 8AM! And then we headed downstairs to the presents. Actually, this year there wasn't much under the tree. Back in August we decided to pull a "Christmas with the Kranks" and forgo the many gifts for one big cruise vacation. So in 3 days, Jer, me, Nat and Em will be hoisting anchor and heading to Mexico for 5-days of FUN, FUN, FUN! Dani is going to stay home this time and have 5-days of FUN, FUN, FUN with Hilary!!
What was under the tree from Santa were supplies to make "school kits" to donate to LDS Humanitarian Services. The girls had an enjoyable time assembling the supplies into 20 school bags. The bags will eventually be sent around the world to places like orphanages where there is a need for children to have basic school supplies. Here's the link to the Humanitarian Services page where we learned what to do: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,4598-1-3263-1,00.html
This was a great way for the girls to give a little more and feel the real Spirit of Christmas as we served those we don't even know.
We spent the rest of Christmas day at home enjoying Jer's family as they came by to exchange gifts, and of course we ate most of the leftovers from the night before. Jen flew home that evening and we finished the rest of Christmas doing none other than - EATING!!! We had a delicious prime-rib dinner with the Checketts. I guess you could say we had a very Full-Filling Christmas.
New Years came with food too - but it was more exciting to have Rob visiting! We spend Dec. 31st getting Rob some contact lenses (his first time with contacts - little painful); fighting the crowds at Costco to get pizza for lunch (Costco must have broken some sort of fire code there were so many people inside!!!); and going to downtown Austin's First Night to check out all things Austin - including the ecclectic, but always entertaining, Grand Procession Parade!
We finished off the year with - you guessed it - more food at the Checketts. Happy 2009 - they're now sending me to the FAT FARM!!! But, of course, not before we spend Jan 1st at the Ferguson's strapping on the old barbeque feedbag! It was an absolutely fabulous day spent on their ranch enjoying lots of great friends and dutch oven chocolate cake and cobbler!
So now that your full just from reading our holiday menu, uh, I mean activities, enjoy the above slideshow to go with the story.
