Home again, home again...jiggity jig

We made it home from our cruise....exhausted!  Why are vacations so exhausting?  In this case, I think it's because we tried to cram so much fun and entertainment into such a short amount of time.  Our first day didn't get off to a rolling start.  (pun intended)  Our ship was about 4 hours late pulling away from the dock.  Add to that, we stood by our life boats waiting for instructions for about an hour (til we gave up and walked away with the rest of the crowd).  And no one told us to pack the kids' swimsuits on our carry-on luggage because it would be hours before we got our stowed luggage.  So...none of us were too blown away by the first day.

Finally pulling away from port!  We were all pretty excited.  And the sunset was beautiful from the top deck.

Ryan, the sailor man!

David & Lindsey in the sunset as we sail away--from a very ugly port.

Galveston port is nothing like Miami!

But then we had our first dining room experience and all was right with our world.  This, in fact, became my favorite time of the day on the cruise.   Knowing that Lindsey was taking some dressier clothes for the evening convinced me to do the same.  So we dressed up and enjoyed a leisurely meal each evening--eating everything we wanted.  And especially enjoying the warm chocolate melting cake each evening.  Wow!  That stuff was GOOD!

We only came home with our own photos.  I was sorely disappointed in the ship's photographers and the photographers at the dolphin experience.  I guess I've become critical after seeing the photography of all my photographer family and friends!  But we opted to spend our money other ways than on their grainy photographs.  (All of these photos are from my iPhone!  ha!)

We loved spending time with this family.  It was so special watching the kids do some of their firsts.  

• Riding a bus
• Riding a boat
• Seeing and touching a dolphin (and watching Guh swim with said dolphin and almost losing swim trunks!)
• Swimming in a pool on the boat (that was a little scary at first--the water was moving!)
• Swimming in the ocean

It was a great trip with some great highlights and we made some very special memories.