Those Crazy Dani"isms" just keep coming...

Dad: "Good thing we didn't go camping last night, cause it got really cold."
Dani: "Camping is for waffles!"

Dani to Jeremy while he's making her lunch: "I have 3000 sharp teeth so I can chew oranges! And they're really sharp!" (Guess mom's let her watch the shark episode of "Diego" a few too many times. Although, I'm pretty sure Diego didn't mention any orange-eating sharks.)

Dani: "No Dad, we only pretend to eat mommy!" (Honest, we don't encourage cannibalism! Pretend or otherwise!)

"Look Mom, I'm Apartment-Girl-Man!!!" (She's a prop comedian too!)

Wednesday and Thursday cont'd

Okay, I had some time this morning to sort through our cruise pictures and I have them posted both here on the blog (see slideshow) and on my Facebook page. I put captions with them all so they make a bit more sense. Now for the rest of the cruise...
After our fun day in Progreso, we boarded the ship for the start of the trip home. I think that was the evening where we saw our cruise director do some amazing juggling (he juggles, he fiddles AND he cruise directs... quite a jack-of-all-trades) and then we saw a comedian. He was quite funny - he did this whole bit on being a cruise ship during Hurricane Bertha - HILARIOUS! Although, can't say as I want to cruise during hurricane season now!
Wednesday morning dawned gray and dreary. I was hoping the sun would peek out later in the day, but no such luck. It just got rainy and cold. So much for one last play in the pools. Actually, before lunch, Emma did brave the kids' pool at the back of the ship. She had it all to herself since it was drizzling. Natalie and I read under the awning and watched Emma get sloshed around in her own wave pool. Yeah, the seas were a bit stormy so the boat was rocking a bit more than usual, but it wasn't bad.
After Emma's swim we went inside for lunch. The place was PACKED!!! Nobody wanted to eat outside with the rain so it was long lines for food and a table. But as usual the food was GREAT! For dessert I had an ice cream puff shaped like a swan. FANCY! And that was just lunch!!
After lunch we wandered the stores and did a little more gift shopping. Then we played some card games while we watched the boat pitch to and fro from the windows. By the end of the card games we were getting a little stir crazy so Natalie, Becky and I did laps around the inside of the ship. We found a little cart and Natalie tried cruise ship surfing, until the housekeeping staff caught us - then we took off for another floor.
We also wandered outside at the front of the ship and WOW IT HAD GOTTEN COLD!!!! The wind was blowing so hard that Grandma Susan's prediction that Becky or Natalie would fall off the ship almost came true!! We have it on video - I'll post it later!
At 6pm we headed off to the dining room for one last feast. It was delicious, of course. Did anyone else have Baked Alaska for dessert on a Wednesday night? I did!!!
We finished off the day with our last show. This one was called "The Dream Cruise" (we think). Anyway, it was lots of singing, dancing and costume and set changes. A little all-over-the-place for my tastes, but not a bad way to finish off a wonderful vacation.
Thursday morning as we pulled into Galveston we immediately had a taste of what most of Texas had been feeling all week - COLD!!! We found out that Tuesday night brought ice storms to Austin. Dang, and we missed it for Sunny Cozumel! Anyway, we ate a quick (but filling) breakfast before braving the cold as we disemarked.
Overall this was a wonderful vacation!! I have to say though, one of the best moments was waking up Friday morning to a "Thank You" card left outside our bedroom door:
"Dear Mom and Dad, Thank you so much for taking us on the cruise! It was the best time of my life! It was the best Christmas present that I could ever ask for! I know that it was a stretch for money, so I will try extra hard to help out and be a better sister. Love, Nat XOXO PS I could never ask for better parents!
So there you have it folks - you can buy your children's love and have a great cruise vacation too!!! Seriously though, we're cruise addicts, now. Anyone thinking about cruising, call us and we'll go with you!!

Wednesday and Thursday

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

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….

Cruise update Monday Jan 26, 2009

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!!!!