Cruise–Day 3

Destination – Progresso, Mexico.

Not much to do here, folks.  I think this is a relatively new port of call for the cruise industry.  This place has really not been well developed for tourists.  The Tool Man and I took a beach break excursion in Progresso, but we were none too impressed.  After visiting beaches in places like Grand Cayman and St. Thomas, the sand and sea just didn’t measure up.

After docking in Progresso, a sister ship, the Ecstasy, pulled up beside us.  It is incredible to see how well the ship captains can maneuver these vessels.  They can turn these huge ships on a dime, pulling them up to a dock as easily as one would park a car.

On our honeymoon ten years ago, the Tool Man and I sailed on the Carnival Inspiration.  We didn’t know it at the time, but the Inspiration is one of Carnival’s smaller ships, like the Ecstasy here on the left.  Since then we’ve sailed on the Conquest, the Valor (twice), and now the Triumph.  These ships are beasts!  Almost like floating cities.  So far we’ve only sailed with Carnival, but we’ve been talking about trying other lines in the future.

Here’s a picture of our balcony.  It’s the top one there under the row of dark windows.  Awesome!!!

Here’s where our excursion took us.  This is actually walking up to the beach from the bus.  Once we got here we packed the camera away in our bag, and, unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures of the actual beach.

Elvis was everywhere on this cruise.  There was actually a group of Elvis impersonators on our ship.  They had performances throughout the whole week.  We could sit out on our balcony at night and hear the Elvis’ singing and the ladies swooning.  I swear, some of those ladies acted like 12-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.

That’s my Tool Man.  He’s allergic to the law!

Bye-bye Ecstasy!  See you in Cozumel.

Because the sea is so shallow here, the docks at Progresso are built waaaay out from the mainland.  I was quite nervous on the bus ride to the beach.  The road built to the land was a little too narrow for my comfort.  One strong gust of wind and, whoosh, I’m shark bait.  If you look really closely, you can just make out the land in the background of this picture, right where the water meets the sky.

Sunsets are AMAZING on the sea!  I’m sure sunrises are too, but they’re kinda hard to see through my eyelids. Ha!

The sun seems to go down so fast.  In a matter of seconds it’s all over.

If you scroll through these pictures really quickly it’ll look like a movie.

Meet my next boyfriend…Senor Frog.

The Princess and the Frog.  By the way, have y’all seen that movie?  It’s really good!

I love this picture.  It looks just like this frog is staring at you.

I picked up these two green pigs in Progresso for my Angry Bird fanatic back home.

Tomorrow…Cozumel.  I’ve got something really cool to show you, so be sure to check back.

Cruise–Day 2

Our second day on the ship was a sea day.  Nothing but water for miles and miles.  After looking through our pictures when we got home, I realized we didn’t take many photos that day.  I just got a few from our formal dinner that night.

Of all activities aboard the ship, dinner has to be our favorite.  The service is exceptional and the food…….delicious!  We I love getting all decked out for formal night.  As a stay-at-home-mom I don’t get many opportunities to get all dressed up, so this is always fun for me.  I actually bought my “fancy” dress over a year ago to wear on the “cruise that wasn’t.”  Remember, the one that someone ruined by having a kidney stone?  Yeah, that was me.

Anyway, here’s what we looked like with our hair slicked down.

Let me start off by revealing the Tool Man’s fashion faux pas.  You see, he sort of forgot to pack his black dress shoes.  So he had to wear brown shoes with his black suit.  Eeeek!  “Uncle Peter, my smelling salts!” (That’s another Gone with the Wind line in case you didn’t know.)

In the dining room.  Don’t you just love self-portraits taken at arms length?  Thank goodness for those Go-Go-Gadget arms of mine!

The Tool Man’s lobster…or what was left of it.  I can’t believe we forgot to take before pictures.  Sorry!

Another boyfriend for me!  Again, not 100% sure of his species.  Maybe a dog?

I had intended on wearing my hair up for dinner, but I got this crazy “strappy” sunburn that day, and I tried to cover it up as much as possible with my hair.  I was looking like a candy cane.

O.K.  For all you iPhone people out there, have you tried Facetime?  Super cool and FREE!  It’s basically video phone.  I got to see and talk to my monkeys while we were gone.  Lucy was a little confused by this, but Ty really enjoyed using it.  I think mom enjoyed it the most though.

Yesterday I told you we always take an S.O.S. picture on the ship.  Well, here’s another one I always take - a pull on the slots.  I think I started this just to mess with my grandmother.  I’m terrible, aren’t I?  And just so no one starts gossiping, I didn’t really play it.

Stuck on a ship for five whole days with…this!  You feel sorry for me, don’t you?

Indulge me while I share our goofy photos with you.  These remind me of the kind of pictures you’d take in a photo booth at the mall.

To be continued…. with pictures of actual cruise things like sand and sea and ships…I promise.

I’m Back!!!

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t posted in a while.  Well, I have a really good excuse.  I’ve been cruising the Caribbean!  The Tool Man and I took a much needed, long overdue vacation to celebrate our upcoming 10th anniversary.  Five days of fun and sun.  Snoozin’ and cruisin’.  Rest and relaxation.  Aaahhhh!

We probably took close to 300 pictures this week, so instead of trying to unload them on you all at once, I’ve decided to take things one day at a time.

We left for New Orleans last Monday morning before sunrise.  The Tool Man and I love to sail from New Orleans.  Going down the river is so much fun.  I don’t know what the attraction is, but I find the Mississippi River and all its associated activity particularly fascinating.  (I’m a dork, I know.) I’ve decided that when I grown up I want to be a riverboat pilot, chauffeuring ships up and down the mighty Mississippi.

The Tool Man got us the coolest room on the ship.  It was on the top floor of balconies on the very back corner of the ship.  We had nearly a 300 degree view. Wow! And because we had a corner room we had a super HUGE balcony.  I’m talking large and in charge!  This picture only shows about 2/3 of it.

Before we left port, some seagulls started circling the back of the ship.  We had been eating (surprise, surprise) out on our balcony, so I started tossing some leftover bread crumbs to them.  The seagulls started coming in really close.  The Tool Man was able to get some good pictures of them.

Ever since our very first cruise – our honeymoon – the Tool Man and I have always taken an “S.O.S.” picture.  This was the 5th cruise for us.  What can I say?  We to cruise.  It’s the ultimate lazy person’s vacation!  You don’t have to do anything but eat and sleep and eat.

Did I mention eat?  We to eat, too!

Here’s the cruise terminal after we pulled away from the dock.  This building was not even here when we cruised 10 years ago.  It really was a nice facility.  Embarkation and debarkation went so smoothly.

And we’re off!  Finally!  Cruisin’ down the river.  I love it!!!

New Orleans at sunset. 

One lump or two?  It’s the Domino Sugar factory.

There’s just so much traffic on the river down here.  Again, I’m quite intrigued by it all.  I could have sat out on the balcony for hours watching it all go by.  Actually, that’s exactly what I did.  ‘Til the wee hours of the morning, by the light of the waxing moon, straining my eyes to see what was around the next bend.

My new boyfriend…not sure what species he is.  Actually, I made quite a few new “boyfriends” this week.  I’ll show you more pictures throughout the week.

You may have noticed that there are a couple of people missing from these photos…the Monkeys!  No, they were not invited on this trip.

The Tool Man and I really enjoyed our week alone, but we missed them something fierce!  Everything that we did or saw, we were thinking how much the monkeys would have enjoyed it.  So our goal is to start saving our money and take another cruise with them as soon as possible.  I can’t wait!

Lazy River

Sunday afternoon was so warm and sunny. After lunch the Monkeys, the Tool Man, and I decided to go for a boat ride. We are so blessed to live right on the bank of a river, or a creek as we call it. At any time we can just walk down to the pier, hop in our boat, and zoom off down the creek.

Safety first! Daddy helped Lucy with her lifejacket. This is the first time she’s worn one in about a year, and, luckily, she didn’t seem to mind it.

Ty and Daddy had set out a few yoyo’s the day before, so Ty had to show me some of the bait they had left over. He was beginning to get a little too close for my comfort, which he found to be extremely funny.

Little Lu Lu helped Daddy out with the controls.

Look! Front row seats for fishing. Can you say, “Redneck?” And, no, this is not on our property, thank you very much.

How come whenever kids find a cubby hole they’ve just got to climb in? I’m amazed that these two were able to get so close to each other without someone getting pushed overboard.

First class seats. (No, the boat was not actually moving while they were sitting up there.)

We “chased” several cranes while riding down the creek. There’s always a crane fishing in the waters edge behind our house. Ty loves to watch them and then try to scare them away. He’s such a boy!

Speaking of the devil… He was in another one of his picture taking moods again. Here he is posing all prim and proper like.

Under the bridge…

No wonder I get nervous when I have to drive over this thing.

Ty was just dying to jump in for a swim. Yuck! I’ve seen some of the creatures that live in the creek, and I don’t want to be in there with them. Eighty pound catfish, snakes, snapping turtles, snakes, jumping fish. Did I mention snakes?

Does This Make My Butt Look Big?

There’s never a dull moment around this house. Ty had me in tears yesterday. This child is a NUT! (I’m sure he gets this from his Dad. “Hey, Big Booty.”)

So when I called him to come sit down for some schoolwork yesterday, this is how he showed up.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Which just encouraged him to ham it up some more.

It gets better…

Oh brother! I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it is to get him to sit still for school each day. But who could blame him? This was definitely more fun than copying spelling words!

iPhone Demonstration

Watch as Lucy demonstrates the functionality of the iPhone 4.

First, it goes without saying, that the iPhone can be used as a - phone!

Secondly, the iPhone also doubles as an HD camera and video recorder.

Here’s a close-up of Lucy taking a close-up.

And here’s something you may not have known about the iPhone. It is also a TV remote control. (Not really, but you might be on to something here, Lucy!)

Thank you, Lucy, for these informative instructions. At 20 months old, you obviously know more about this stuff than your mom!