The Cruise!

So as many of you know we just came back from a fantastic 7 night Caribbean cruise...*sigh* It was so nice to be in the sun and heat, especially since I live in Williams Lake where it has been snowing ever since we got back!

We went as a family to celebrate my parent's 30th wedding anniversary! Woohoo! But of course who really needs an excuse to go on a cruise! There were 12 of us that went: My Mom & Dad, Jordan, Justin & I, My Uncle Gary, Aunt Karen, Cousins Mark & Greg, and Mike & Katie with Estelle! We were really looking forward to cruising with other people as last time we went was our honeymoon and we were alone...obviously. But we just thought cruising with people would make it so much better!

For those of you who don't know the Bonderud's this story might not be as entertaining to you, but that is just too bad! :) So at the time of booking the cruise my cousin Greg didn't think he would be able to come. He was in between work and had an other trip planned for later this year and just couldn't see it happening. So we were all sad but planned our cruise anyways. A couple months later in September of 2012 Greg changed his mind and decided that he pretty much just didn't want to miss out on the cruise and booked his tickets to stay with Mark and Jordan. The plan was to keep it a surprise from everyone until the cruise came, but slowly the cousins found out. Our main goal was to keep it from Karen & Gary which we were highly successful in doing!! Greg works as a paramedic out of town so he told his parents that he would be gone the week we were on the cruise as he had to go to Oliver to work so he couldn't watch the house. This was completely normal as he goes up for work quite often. So they found someone else to watch the house while they were gone. The morning we all flew out for Miami Greg offered to cook everyone breakfast, but we had to be at the airport at 6 so breakfast was at 4:15...what a trooper. So we went over and had pancakes, fruit salad and bacon...it was so awesome. And we all talked about how we would send Greg postcards and flash his picture around and find him a bride! We all headed off to the airport, or at least that's what Gary & Karen thought! Our car drove around the block until the other Bonderud's were long gone and picked Greg up and went to the airport! We all got through customs and walked around a bit and then found Gary & Karen and had Greg turn the corner last. My Aunt Karen's response was so epic, if you know her you can only imagine how loud it was! It took her a while to process that Greg had gotten through customs, she just thought he came to say goodbye, but when she figured it out she freaked out! It was so awesome!!

Justin and I got to Miami and went to our hotel, lucky for us we were in time to catch the free shuttle from the airport back to the hotel and went up to our room. By this time we were exhausted and really hungry so we searched through our tacky pizza flyers thrown under our door and ordered some pizza. We figured since my parent's plane came in only an hour after ours that they would be at the hotel soon and would probably be hungry! So we called the front desk and told them to pass on the message for my parents to come to our room. We called around 11:30, and by 1:30 we had heard nothing from them. We figured that they had probably waiting for Karen & Gary and then for Mike, Katie & Estelle who came in at 12:30 so that they should be there soon. By the time 2 am rolled around I was too exhausted to stay awake any longer and we went to sleep. Turns out it was a good thing because they had a heck of a time with their shuttle and it took them a long time and a decent amount of money to get to our hotel.

The cruise itself was fantastic! We had brought walkie talkies so we could all communicate which worked sometimes, but not that often...or people didn't have them on! We got to eat dinner most of the time together, which was really fun and we had fantastic waiters as well! For my Mom's birthday they even got her up dancing Gangnam Style at dinner with all the staff, I wish I had recorded it with my phone instead of hers because it was hilarious. Especially since the poor lady had broken her toe earlier that day snorkelling! I ate tons of food, especially from the Guy Fieri burger bar and the taco and burrito bar! Yum yum! Oh, plus I definitely visited the candy store almost every day. It definitely is expensive Carolyn, but I got little bits and figured since I was only drinking water I could splurge on candy!

I think everyone should go on a cruise at some point in their life. There is just so much to do, and so many food options! It was definitely way better going with family then just going as a couple. But at the same time it was really nice to just come home and be alone as well! We went to Cozumel, Mexico; Costa Maya, Mexico; Isla Roatan, Mahogany Bay, Honduras; and the Grand Cayman Islands.

We did this super sweet excursion where we rode on a 1000 horsepower speed boat to a private island for the day. But the boat would do 180's and soak us all! It was so awesome! And then we got to lay on the beach all day and Greg and Jordan did a water balloon toss which turned out to be hilarious!!

We were lucky too in sailing with Carnival that our ship didn't have any issues. They have had a couple issues with their ships lately and ours seemed to be perfectly fine, so thanks God!!! :)

It was a nice much needed warm break and now I can't wait for summer!