Family Photos from Vacation

We have so many great photos from our vacation. You know it's going well when the kids (and I) cooperate for this many pictures!

With our ship 

All in red 

Walking around the ship 

Our dining room 

Love the couch inside the frame!

Other Cruise Photos

These pictures didn't really fit in any other posts, but they were too interesting to ignore.

They made masks in the kids club 

The boat looks like it is on top of the port 

Sweet! 

So silly 

Awww

Family around the Ship

Here are some of our family photos from around the ship. We enjoyed every minute of family time.

Dinner always ends with dessert! 

Grand Promenade as we leave Texas 

Grand Promenade another day 

Family rock climbing 

Ice Skating on board

Cruise Ship Table Tennis

When someone likes ping pong, you can't resist playing on the ship. They had a tournament to find the best player on board. There were some serious players who brought their own paddles (they weren't allowed to use them).

He won this game 

And this game 

In fact, he won all of the games! 

The Champion!

Vacation Running

Marathon training doesn't pause for vacation. I managed three runs on board. One on a treadmill overlooking the ocean. The other two on deck running around and around and around (it's a tiny track).

After a run 

In port, in the rain, still running 

The after run smile

Swimming with Stingrays

We wanted to swim with dolphins, but that was booked so we chose stingrays instead.

On the boat out 

Touching one 

Kissing one 

It's on my back. I'm not so sure about this 

No fair! He has a shirt on 

The ride back. Happy boys 

This photo shows her personality - always independent

Overall this wasn't the best excursion for us. Two of us get motion sick - not an issue on a large boat, but a huge issue on a small boat to and from the excursion. Then when we got to the sandbar, I could only reach the bottom if I was standing on tip toe while holding a kid who was afraid of the stingrays. The stingrays don't move around people, so when a 6 foot wide stingray would come by it would knock me over. This didn't help the anxious child. So we switched which child we were holding. I held the happy one who wanted to be close up for the meeting with a stingray. Then the anxious child and I went back to the boat until it was time to go.

Private Beach on Jamaica

We paid to go to a private beach owned by the cruise company while in Jamaica. The water was beautiful and the kids wanted to swim all the way to the ropes.

The nice water

Only, Sweet Daughter somehow let the rope touch her back and was bitten by some awful thing.

She spent an hour screaming in pain. After tracking down the lifeguard (asleep behind the lifeguard tower), he gave us some cream to put on it. That didn't help. I took her back to the boat and gave her some anti-inflammatories and a shower. She calmed down about 30 minutes after that. 

While I was taking care of Sweet Daughter, The boys continued to play at the beach. 

Look what I found! 

It's the perfect hat! 

This is happy guy.

Playa Mia boats and beach

Last post about Playa Mia, until we go back next time that is! We really enjoyed this place.

They had many different types of boats to try 

Just peddling around 

She loved being able to steer 

All of us on the beach 

They work hard in the sand while I relax

Playa Mia pools

There were multiple pools at Playa Mia in addition to the other features I have shown in the last two posts.

Water Slides

This is the first time they were tall enough to do a big water slide by themselves. 

Enjoying the pool 

Trying stunts 

All smiles! 

She loves being thrown in the air

More Playa Mia

There is an awesome ocean playground at Playa Mia. We swam out to it and then enjoyed some awesome experiences on the obstacle course.

Ready to swim toward it 

Some teens were helping people cross this particular obstacle.

Here they are helping Sweet Daughter get the trapeze 

Here they are catching Sweet Son and getting him back onto the course 

Another obstacle 

I helped both kids up the egg, then I swam around it because I couldn't get up 

Almost done, seeing how far out we can go before we are dumped into the ocean

There were other obstacles we don't have photos of. It was a circular path with an island in the middle. I fell off more than anyone else. It was fun and challenging. I highly recommend it.