Cruuuuuuise!

Our cruise was amaaazing!! I've never been dying to go on a cruise because I don't drink and I don't gamble and I don't like laying out at the pool for an entire day so it just wasn't high up on my priority list. But everyone has talked them up to us and we felt like it would be a real shame if we never did one when we have lived at a cruise port for 4 years and have watched hundreds of cruises come and go over the year. Also we had the perfect excuse with Tyler's graduation and our 5th (!!) Anniversary! So we decided to go! My mom came down from Colorado and stayed with our girls so we could enjoy a vacation sans kids.

Here we are, ready to head over to the cruise terminal!

The picture I sent to my mom when we got to our stateroom.

The first day was really hard for me leaving the girls. I was so worried about them being good for my mom and Kendall is still so little and she is such a mama's girl, I was worried she would be bad for my mom. Plus she wasn't sleeping well at night. Plus, two little babies is a lot of work and I was stressing that my mom would be overwhelmed. Plus Kendall is still breastfeeding and I was worried they would run our of my saved breast milk and she hates formula and I didn't want her to not take a bottle for my mom. And so on! All this was running through my head the whole time and I was feeling pretty anxious leaving, but once we got going and there was no going back I figured there was nothing I could do about it anymore so why worry.

When we came back my mom reported that everything went just fine and that they had a great time and she didn't seem frazzled or tired at all. My mom is a champ! I don't know why I worried! I think sometimes I forget that she raised 4 kids. Watching two little babies is still a really big job though and we really appreciated it. My mom is just so amazing she made it seem easy!

THANKS MOM!!!

We got to try some crazy food. This is Tyler with the escargot (snails).

We also had alligator and frog legs. Also on the Didya menu (as in didya ever think you would try this?) was sushi and smoked salmon with candied tomatoes. We didn't think those were worthy of the Didya menu. The salmon ended up being our favorite appetizer.

Lounging by the pool.

We actually did this a lot less than I thought we would.

Our days at port we were at port the whole day and our days at sea we were doing other things and it almost felt like we had to squeeze in our lounging. I barely got any of my book read!

Up on the deck with the wide open ocean behind us.

Dinner was really fun. This night we each got two entrees because we both felt that it would be a real shame to pass up on the lobster tail, but we also wanted to try something else. And I'm glad that I got two because the lobster tail ended up not being that great. It was Tyler's first time having lobster so that was kind of disappointing.

But dinner was one of my favorite parts of the cruise. It was really fun to try the different foods and of course it's always plated all fancy which is really fun.

I think this is Tyler with his lobster tail.

One other great thing about dinner is that we were assigned to a four person table, but our seat partners never showed up so we got the table to ourselves.

Not that we are anti-social, but I would much rather just talk to Tyler than make small talk with strangers I will never see again and don't really care about.

In Cozumel we went snorkeling!! The water was amazing and we saw so many fish! Also, we found a local to take us rather than booking an excursion with the cruise and I'm so glad we did. We saw the cruise excursion and they were making them all wear life jackets and they just were in one spot and there were like 100 people in the group.

Our guy just took us out on a small boat with a handful of other people and they didn't make us wear life jackets and we got to go to 5 different locations. (Also, it was like half the cost).

Snorkeling was definitely our favorite part of the cruise.

Our guide took a bunch of pictures of us underwater with all the fish and they turned out so cool that I went along with their up selling and was totally willing to purchase them, but when we got off the boat we forgot to grab the disc with our pictures! So sad :( But they all looked pretty much like this one. Pretty cool, right?!

On the snorkel boat. Check out that blue water!

After snorkeling we had them drop us off at a hotel so we could hang out a little.

That's our ship in the background.

We swam in the ocean a little here too. The water is so clear!

Two ships at the cruise port in Cozumel. Ours is the one on the left.

The second stop was Progreso. Tyler is looking for sea shells.

This pretty much sums up our day in Progreso. 

We got hour long massages for $15 on the beach and then we just relaxed and looked for seashells and swam in the water a little.

Tyler with the frog legs. I did not like these. Ew.

Taking a stroll on the ship.

We played a lot of cribbage while we ate lunch and relaxed during the day.

And ate lots and lots of ice cream cones.

These pictures are actually from the first day right when we got on the ship, but I'm too lazy to move them to the beginning.

We are home! Coming home was really fun. Avery was SO excited to see us!

She hugged me so tight and didn't let go for 5 minutes.

Then she wanted me and Tyler to come lay next to her on the ground and she wanted to be touching us at all times. It was so sweet.

Kendall was also happy to see mommy when she woke up from her nap.

We had such a good time!