Spring Break

Our spring break has not been too smokey. Blaine and Judd have been sick for most of it. We had a good weekend last weekend, but since then things have gone down hill. The boys went to Memom's on Monday and Grandaddy picked them up because I had bunko and Neal was going to play cards. He said that Blaine was crying when he picked him up and didn't feel good. He went to sleep by 5:30 and slept until we woke him up around 7:00 Tuesday morning. He took a bath and then went back to sleep. Neal took them to the doctor and found out that Blaine had the flu and Judd had the beginnings of it. Brewer has had the flu also. He had just left the doctor when Neal got there with the boys. We got tami-flu for the whole family. Judd is much better and Blaine is still weak and coughing. I had thought they would be able to go back to Memom's' today, but we decided to keep them home another day. Neal has sacrificed three days this week to stay home with them. I think he' s about ready to send them back to Memom's!! I didn't feel well yesterday, but thank the Lord, I'm fine today.

So many have had the flu. Jamey had it last week while he was in Tennessee. He had to wait until he got back home on Friday to go to the doctor. Daniel, Lacey, Piper, and Nana have all had it, also. Piper had to go to the hospital when she had it. It is some bad stuff and all of my family will be getting our flu shots next year! We usually do, but somehow missed them this year.

I finally had time to scan the pictures we bought on the cruise. There were a whole lot more I could have bought, but since they are so expensive, I only bought 4 pictures and a couple photo albums.

This picture with the captain was included in our behind the fun tour. The captain is in the white pants.

Mimi's Birthday Lunch

We had Mimi's birthday lunch a couple of Sundays ago. I'm late posting the pictures, but better late than never I guess.
Jean Jean made her a BEAUTIFUL cake and it was so good! I could have eaten most of it, but settled for 2 pieces! Jean Jean also cooked a delicious meal.

Mimi loves her great grandbabies and they love her!

Singing Happy Birthday

After cake and ice cream we had a quick game of t-ball.

Grandaddy helped Judd go from base to base.

Jett's turn.

Joy's turn. She is going to play t-ball for the first time this spring.

This is probably the only time you will see Blaine using a pink bat and ball!!

The Boys

While Neal and I were away, Nana, Jean Jean and Grandaddy took care of the boys. Nana had them over the weekend and Jean Jean and Grandaddy took over Monday afternoon. From what I hear, they had a really good time. Blaine still tells me sometimes, "When ya'll were on the cruise......." We called to talk to them a few times while we were gone, and they could have cared less if we were gone or not. That made us feel better. We really, really missed them!! We were missing them before the ship pulled out! I don't know if we could have stayed away another night. Of course, one of Blaine's first questions was "What did you bring us?" We didn't go crazy buying stuff, but we did get them a few things.

Blaine LOVES the wrestler Rey Mysterio, and he is from Mexico. Everywhere we looked had Rey Mysterio masks. Blaine loved the one we got him. He also loved the shirt we got. He had to wear it to school the next day.

Judd loved his surprises, also. He plays with his boat in the bathtub every night!

He was constantly telling Blaine MINE.

They also got t-shirts from Cozumel, and a few other things.

Cruise

Well, it has taken me a few days, but I finally have a cruise post! I have been busy this week catching up and working on our taxes. I have never waited this late to do our taxes, but I don't think I have ever been as busy as I am now, either!

I will start off by showing you our stateroom. We were on the 7th deck, which was the main level. It was the level that we boarded the ship on. We were located toward the back of the middle section...right below our dining room. It was a great location.


We loved having a window.

The bathroom was across from where Neal is in the picture. As you can see, I had the clorox wipes out. I wiped everything down right after we got in the room...just in case!


This was the water Sunday morning. It had made quite a transformation!

The birthday boy on his birthday!

On Sunday, we had to wear jackets outside. Can you see the people in the background that are using their towels to cover up with?

The slide on the top deck. We didn't get to go down it...the day we were going to, it got too windy and we weren' t able to. We stayed on the top deck a lot of the time.

There was PLENTY to eat on the ship. One time we got hungry and just ate different deserts!! Pizza and ice cream were available 24 hours a day and there was usually a buffet open also.

I took this on the last sea day. This was on our TV in our room. It showed our location, the ship's speed, and sea depth. Notice the water was 10,870 feet deep!!A Behind the Fun tour was offered on the last sea day. Only 32 people are allowed to go on the tour. We scheduled it early in the cruise because it sounded really interesting. Taking pictures was not allowed, so I only have pictures of the plates that were in our room when we finished the tour.

We got to go in the crew area of the boat and see where they ate and hung out. We toured the galley (kitchen) and saw where all the food is prepared and the engine control room where the engineer talked to us. He was Italian, so I didn't understand much of what he said, but I think Neal enjoyed it. We also got to go in the bridge or where the Captain and crew navigate the ship. This was very interesting, also. We even got to get a group picture with the captain. We walked from one end of the ship to the other for 2 1/2 hours. We learned a lot of neat things and it was well worth what we paid for it!

This was in the piano bar. The piano went all the around. We listened to an entertainer or two in here. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the ship... we bought a book with pictures of the ship in it, so I didn't see the need.

Progreso

Our first stop was Progreso, Mexico.

This is the little shopping area at the port. There was a 5 mile ride to town. There were free shuttle buses running back and forth from town to port.
This is one of the anchors where the boat was tied off. The ropes are huge!

The 5 mile pier

This is the little market where we got off the shuttle bus. We were told that they set up on days that a ship comes in.

Here is a fresh market.

We went on a tour of the city. It was humbling to see the living conditions there. The hospital was really sad. Our guide said that a doctor's visit costs $1. This is the "cake house" as they call it because it resembles a wedding cake. It is usually a rented as a vacation home in the summer. It is by far the nicest house we saw.

A light house that we saw. We didn't really care for Progreso. We were back on the ship by lunch, so we spent the afternoon laying out on the top deck.

Cozumel

Cozumel was beautiful!

We spent part of the day at Paradise Beach and that is just what it was ...PARADISE!!!

This the taxi that took us to the beach. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it there or not with his driving!!

They had 2 parrots...which were actually mean!

The beach and water were beautiful!! The water here was a totally different color than Progreso. It was so blue!

The only "drink" I had the whole trip!!

Later in the day, we did some shopping. Neal was so nice and let me go in and out of each store without complaining!!

We ate at Fat Tuesday's. It was an outside restaurant right beside the beach.

They were even celebrating the Saints!! See the WHO DAT in the banner?

We loved Cozumel and could have stayed there much longer. All of the water excursions were cancelled here because the water was so rough. A storm and cold front had gone through a couple of days earlier. When we left Cozumel headed back to Mobile, the cruise director announced that we would start to feel the high waves. And she was right! It was bad the whole night and into the day Wednesday. They even put barf bags out around the ship. Luckily, we had patches, so we didn't get sick. There were many people that were sick! When we were on the tour and went in the bridge, Neal asked how tall the waves had been. We had been through 17 foot waves!! No wonder it was so rough!