Let me start with our crazy week before we left for the cruise. We have been talking about this trip for a year now! I have been working extra every month to save for it, and we had gotten all the plans situated months ago. I got a call from my cousin on Sunday afternoon with the news that my grandfather had passed away. It was very unexpected and my first death of a grandparent. I dropped off the food I was taking to our church ice cream party, and my mom and I headed to my grandmother’s. We were there on and off all week making arrangements and just being with family. It was a really wonderful week amidst our grief, but we were able to just be together a lot that week. The tricky part was that my dad and youngest brother were at the Northern Tier in Canada. It is the most extreme boy scout camping trip you can go on. They were camping and canoeing for 9 days. When they weren't in the canoe, they had to carry it. Sounds pretty miserable to me! Anyway, because it is the wilderness, there was no way to get in touch with them until they reached the end on Thursday. It sounds completely crazy, but we had Canada on the phone all week trying to work out a solution (and yes, we referred to them as Canada, as if they are one person). After they got out of the water, they were supposed to camp and then make the drive home which would take another two days. My mom had to get Jake’s BFF’s dad to fly up there, meet my dad, take the car of boy scouts back to Memphis, and then dad and Jake got on a plane to come home. I was sick at my stomach all week thinking about my dad and Jake and how they would react to the news when coming off the high of this huge accomplishment. It was rather terrible. We had to hold the visitation to Friday and the funeral to Saturday. This meant Luke and I would have to miss the funeral.
Oh yea, and Luke had THE BAR that Tuesday and Wednesday. Just the most stressful two days of law school. Just the accumulation of three years of hard work. Just a little bit stressful.
We still haven't figured out God’s timing in all of this.
We were finally able to sneak away for a few days. We went with two of our very favorite couples, and we had an absolutely wonderful time! We had planned on riding the train to NOLA on Friday before the boat left on Saturday, but Luke and I had to stay in town for an extra day. It worked out that The Neller’s could buy our train tickets, so we met everyone in NOLA about 3:15 am on Saturday. Here is the beautiful room that awaited us!
We were so excited to be getting on the boat. We have been talking about and planning this trip for close to a year! We were ready for a vacation!! Each couple that went has two kids…let me just say that mine are the oldest and farthest apart…we all needed a vacation!!
The Roberts
The Nellers
The Cantrells
Luke loved the melting chocolate cake. Two in one night! 
Full Bellies!
This dress is the perty one I won from Shabby Apple!
Yes, that would be me with a disco ball. Pure Awesome.
On formal night, Luke was getting ready and found this little teddy bear stashed away “for safe keeping” (thank you Kate for making us smile and miss you!)
We ate a ridiculous amount of food this night! 
And what’s a cruise post without a towel animal?
Our first port was Progreso. There is really not much in Progreso, but we all fell in love with the authenticity of the town. Only two cruise ships port there a week, so it is not very touristy at all. We went to the Mayan ruins this day.
We loved Cesar, the tour guide!
In this structure, the sun will shine through that middle hole perfectly a couple times a year. When it isnt lined up in the middle, it shines through the two windows either side. The Mayans were pretty impressive. We also learned that in December, the calendar will finish a cycle, and the end of the world is not imminent. Glad I found that out before I finished my bucket list this year!
The squiggle line on the wall is where the original wall stopped and the preservationists built it back up.
Spanish Catholic temple 
We got to swim in this cenote which was 175 ft deep at one end. It was created by a meteor.
Our three hot men!! We could spot them anywhere! 
Andy
Luke
Colin
After the ruins, we hopped back on our bus and they dropped us off in the middle of Progreso. We sat on the beach and ate a delicious lunch of fish tacos and margaritas! I think this was one of everyone’s favorite meals!
We also all bought gifts for the babies!
We got back on the boat and continued the fun with a hand stand contest in the kiddie pool. After I wrangled a mask from one of our judges, I think I was the winner (haha!)
This was my little buddy from the table behind us. He would come and sit in my lap every night. Loved getting to love on a little when I was missing mine!
The second port was Cozymel. We went to an all inclusive resort called Nocci Cachum, and it was awesome! 
Our last day at sea :(
Erika dubbed this the brain side of the table
So I guess that made us the beauty side
I was walking my little friend around the restaurant and my friends got aholt of my camera!
We enjoyed the shows every night and we also saw the comedian several times. 
We were all ready to see our littles, but we had a wonderful time! I think it was just what we needed, the perfect amount of time away ( 5.5 days), and the perfect size traveling group. I sure was ready to see these faces!
Grammy so graciously gave up her last week of summer to come wrangle our kiddos for the week! Can you tell I’ve never left my kids before?! Haha! Here were my instructions for the week. I promise I am not even OCD or anything. Thanks Grammy for our week off!
Several people have asked me what was my favorite part. I think my final answer would have to be dinner. It was so nice to not have to cook or prepare anything (or clean it up, for that matter!) It was also so nice to be able to dress cute and have conversations the whole meal without any interruptions! I realized how much I missed having community with my friends. As cheesy as that sounds! The past year, (heck-the past 3 years!) we haven't been able to hang out much with our small group as much as we would like. Luke has had 2-3 night classes a semester, and I have worked 2-3 nights a week. That schedule was not conducive to hanging out with anyone during the week! Anyway, I loved that part of the cruise and I feel like it revitalized me to make the extra effort to make time for our friends.
Life is good today, life is good today. –Zac Brown Band
1 comment:
fun trip!! Love your OCD ness :)
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