Family Cruisin' 2015

WHAT AN AMAZING VACATION!!!!

We went to New Orleans for 2 days and then took a cruise on the Carnival Dream with Nana and Papa. Kristy, Caleb, and Emily, and Brian, Mel, Parker, Tobey, and Zoey to Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel.  

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!

Here are some of the highlights and things we did.  

(They may not be in complete order)

Sahara, Canyon, and mom left on Friday to head to New Orleans.

We stayed at the Le Pavillon Hotel near the French Quarter.  

It was old and beautiful with chandeliers galore.

There was a pool and hot tub on the roof.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were served at 10 pm every night.  YUM!

Kristy, Caleb, and Emily beat us to the hotel and waited for us to have dinner with them.  Then up to the roof for a swim.  The next morning we headed out to sightsee in the French Quarter.  It was so hot and humid, but we made it to the Mississippi River to see where we would get on the ship.  The Elation was currently docked there.

Much smaller than the Dream as this one holds approximately 1600 less passengers.

We had lunch in the French Quarter at Oceana.

Later that day, Nana, Papa, Brian, Mel, Parker, Tobey, and Zoey arrived at the hotel.  Then we all headed out to the French Quarter again for dinner.  On Bourbon Street, we ate at Felix's.  That's when Bourbon Street came alive!  

There were all kinds of interesting people out and about.  We made it to the St. Louis Cathedral.

Back at the hotel for our last pb & j.

Breakfast the next morning was right on the corner at Dee's Coffee Shop.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and taxied to the river.  Through long twisty lines and paperwork, we arrived on board.  

Several of the elevators here were glass and glowing.  5 stories up was a glass ceiling. 

We were told our rooms would not be ready until 1:30 so we headed to the buffet for lunch.  Food. Food. Food. All you can eat, at basically any time you wanted to eat it. 

First drinks!!

Kristy enjoying the view.

Sahara and Aunt Kristy getting their groove on.

In our cabin.  No luggage yet.

Canyon and mom check out the Aft pool.

We finally get luggage and decorate our cabin doors.

And receive our excursion tickets.

Then things must have gotten really silly.... 

We didn't go to the dining room tonight, still waiting on luggage.  And we missed the first show "Welcome Aboard Show".  Still learning what there is to do and when.

We did go to the Ocean Plaza Lounge to listen to a band for a little sideline dancing.

   

The next day was a fun day at sea.  We swam, went to Harry Potter Trivia, ate a ton of food, napped, and had elegant dinner night.

Here are some dinner pictures in the Scarlet Dining Room on the 2nd night.

After dinner we headed to the show "Get Ready".  It was great!  

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, Sahara enjoys the breeze.

It was really windy at the front of the boat, and quiet.  No one was up there.

Tonight's show was "Viva Variety" - the fastest juggler in the world.

Party on the Lido Deck.  It was the Redfrog's Caribbean Beach Party.

First port is Mahogany Bay on Roatan.

Here we went kayaking, snorkeling, and took a tour of Gumbalimba Park.  

(no pictures in the water)

Canyon couldn't do the snorkeling so Warren, our guide, pulled him along in a tube as the rest of us snorkeled.  Then he found a large starfish and let Canyon hold it and show it to everyone.

This crazy bridge only held 5 people at a time, so Warren, our guide, let 7 of us travel across at a time. It was long and wiggly and our guide would not cross over it himself!

Canyon was nervous and walked very slowly.

Friendly parrot.

And these monkeys would just jump on anyone walking by.

At the port, Canyon found a great hat, but got a tee-shirt instead.

Back on board was dinner in the Scarlet Dining Room and the show was "Dancing in the Streets".

Zoey turned 8 and had a special treat at dinner thanks to Francis our waiter :)

Sahara and Emily with Joel and Francis.

Zoey had her gift opening in the elevator lobby.  Why not? :)

Not exactly sure which night this was, but there was a dive-in movie at least several of the nights.  Sahara went to some of them with Emily and Caleb.

The next day our port was Belize.

We took an hour bus ride through the city to the Altun Ha Ruins.

That's Caleb and Emily on the top!

Nana found a path to a pond, but we didn't go down it.  The rain forest was so thick!

Nana and Papa heading back to the ship.

We had a great little room stewart named "K".  Every night we had a little towel animal on our bed. :)  He took good care of us.

These were some of the amazing dinners to be had at the Scarlet Dining Room.

We didn't stay awake for the Mexican Buffet, but it sure looked great!

Kristy was smart to get some nice photos done with matching outfits no less.

We dock next to Royal Caribbean

Welcome to Passion Island at Cozumel!

It was so pretty here!  All you can eat buffet, open bar, (Blue Lagoon was my favorite!), kayaking, swimming, hammocking, water trampolines, shopping, and white sandy beaches.  The water was turquoise.  

It was paradise.

As warm as it was, the sand was not hot to walk on.

Two 'take with me' drinks to go!

We took a catamaran to get to that island and back to the ship.  

Sahara and Emily went on their own adventure at Cozumel.  

They swam with dolphins! 

It was so beautiful there.  I hope we go back some time.  Sahara and Emily had plenty of shopping time after their dolphin swim and met up with Kristy.  

Sahara had her first 'legal' drink too!  A margarita!

Back on board for dinner and the show '8 More Seconds'.  

Then it was a game of sticks.

 Some hot tub time!

(a couple of pictures from other times earlier in the cruise)

The next day was another fun day at sea.  We had a lot of pool time and got a little burned.  They gave us a chocolate extreme fest at noon so that is what we had for lunch!  

Later we ordered a room service salad to balance out our sugar. Much needed! 

We went to a short comedy show.  Canyon started feeling sick today.  Too much sun and sinuses.

Cruising into port back in New Orleans at dawn.

I looked over and there is Papa watching the sunrise too!

Everyone had to get off the ship early.  We shared a taxi van to the airport with a few other people and had plenty of time to wait for our flight.

This is how we feel about vacation being over.

The cruise was a hit!  Sahara said she has found a true reason to stay in school: to get a degree making enough money to cruise as much as possible!

Thank you Nana and Papa for making this possible for us!  You guys are the greatest :)

Update on Malaki

I don't know what to think about this little stinker. The vet gave him antibiotics at the clinic. When we got home Malaki started acting really weird, walking in circles, walking sideways, looking at things cross eyed, and running into furniture. We decided it's probably not a good idea to continue on the antibiotics and Sahara consulted with another vet at a birthday party who also suggested that we stop all meds. Then I realized something, he had a flea collar on for the first time in his life. I looked at the flea collar on the Internet. It had all kinds of side effects that he was displaying such as confusion, closing of the pupil, muscle weakness, and diarrhea. It just seemed to me that maybe he was having all these side effects so we took the collar off of him. For the rest of the evening he was on and off acting weird and acting normal but didn't want to eat. This morning he wouldn't eat as well. I didn't know if I should give him antibiotics or not. All he wants to do is hide under my bed be completely antisocial and sleep all day. So today he's doing better, but since he wouldn't eat, I made him chicken and rice and he finally ate it. I locked him out of my room so he wouldn't go in there anymore and hide. Then I started to think that maybe he's been acting kind of like this for the last month or so, maybe it's not JUST the flea collar. Then I had another thought. He hasn't had Jamocha to worry about who's going to eat first, to steal toys from, to fight for attention for. Maybe he's just sad and lonely. Maybe he's a big fat faker. He's driving me crazy that's for sure. But when we're on vacation I'm thinking it'll be good for him to be at Jared's house with other dogs. Max came over to visit. Malaki seemed just fine when he was over.



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Oh Wow!!

Messing around on my phone and tried out this 'what if we were symmetrical' look on both sides of our faces.

Sahara looks pretty good. Canyon on the other hand....I had no idea. Hahaha.

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Pre - vacation drama

Our crazy luck before the vacation. Sahara has a UTI. Since her Obamacare application has still not been processed, she doesn't have insurance (on month 11 now), so we were private pay.  Good thing I have a decent amount of money in my HSA. Her doctor said it was a pretty heavy infection including blood in her urine but she had been on cranberry juice for the past four days trying to knock it out herself and that helped some with keeping her urine (bladder and kidneys) hydrated. She had to get a shot in her booty and she has to take pretty strong antibiotics for the next 10 days. She was told she has to stay out of the sun which is going to be interesting being on the cruise. Maybe I need to get a higher SPF sunscreen. Then Maliki decided he needed to have bloody diarrhea again. He had it back in the beginning of June also. This time the vet said he couldn't detect a parasite or an infection, maybe he just ate something strange. We don't know what that could be because he's in the house all day long and only goes outside to pee and he's back in again. But the vet said even eating on grass could cause that. So he's on antibiotics too (for a troubled tummy because we don't know why this is happening). Hopefully we don't have to go to the doctors anymore next week and both of them will be feeling much better.

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Aquatic Center

Took the troops to Clarksville about 30 minutes away to check out their pool. Completely forgot they had this there. It opened last summer.

I didn't get many photos. None of the lazy river, the whirl pool or the big slides. Here Canyon is chillaxin' on the turtle.

Sahara and Jared chattin' by the big pool. It was a good time. Cheap concessions and fair entry price. Our town is supposed to get one but they have been talking about it with no progress for 2 years :(

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