CRUISE!

Here are the pics from our cruise!  Prepare yourself.

This was from our hotel room in Baton Rouge.  We drove down there the day before the cruise. 

In the parking garage at the dock. 

 We had just gotten on the boat.

Morgan's, Jacob's and my room. That bed folded down from the wall. The original plan was for them to take turns on it each night while the other slept with me in the bed. But Morgan decided she wasn't real keen on sleeping on it so she slept with me the whole trip. Which actually worked out great for me because I don't get ANY sleep when Jacob sleeps with me.  Morgan stayed on her side of the bed.

 They found the life jackets.

 They LOVED sitting on the windowsill. Thank goodness we paid extra for the rooms with views.

 Can you see the feet poking through in the pic above?

 Melissa, this story is for you. So we broke down and brought the big towels on the deck once (for my future memory: if the big towels were lost or stolen, we had to pay to replace them).  In our defense, there were signs all over our rooms that said not to take the white towels to the pool, we were scared. Anyway, this day, it randomly started to rain so everyone started packing up in a panic. I stood up, grabbed my towel, reached over and grabbed the one to my right, then turned to grab the one to my left (we brought 3) and it was gone. I looked up and a lady was holding 2.  I said, "Excuse me, I think you grabbed one of our towels." She denied it.  I said, "Well, I brought 3, but now only have 2."  She said, "Well, I think I had 2 (THINK?!)  Besides, it doesn't matter." I said, through gritted teeth, "Yes, it most certainly DOES matter, and I KNOW I had 3. Do I need to find an employee?"  At that point, she handed it over. I was ready to throw down. No more big towels on deck after that.

 Mike and Morgan in the line for the slide.  You can sort of see Keith at the end of the line.

 Thank goodness for french fries and chicken.

 Just chilling in the hot tub, because you know how stressful their lives are...

 At one point, boys had taken over the hot tub and were shooting each other with water guns filled with water from the hot tub. Classic.  Jacob is far left, in the blue swimsuit.

Morgan made sure the appropriate sign was on our door at all times.

Oh room service, how do we love thee?  They both LOVED ordering room service. So much so that even though they were going to be eating it in the same room, they each ordered their own stuff from different room phones. Here are the faves: chocolate cake and a grilled cheese-specifically ordered with NO mayo-who does that??

 Enjoying the pickle.

 I bought Jacob a "Do it yourself Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book and there is a girl series now called "Dork Diaries."  Both books had prompts for scenarios for them to fill stuff in themselves.

Morgie's feet sticking out.

The ship's gift shop had lots of, ahem, jewelry.  They even had a $10 watch sale. Jacob bought one with his souvenir money from Grandfather.  He loves it. He never took it off. It was waterproof and everything. We  all loved it also because we never knew the time.

 Our main waiter, Illya.  The kids LOVED him. He was really great. The first night, he asked what their names were.  Jacob was being shy and wouldn't tell him, so Illya said, "I will give you a name then...James Bond." And from then on, he called Jacob James Bond.  Jacob loved it. We would see him in other areas and he would say, "James Bond! What are you doing today? I will see you tonight!"

 The first night, Jacob and Morgan ordered something from the kids' menu. Then we remembered Melissa's sage words:  order everything. So every night after that, both Morgan and Jacob had steak, new potatoes (that is what Jacob is eating like an apple in the pic) and a side of fries.

 When I booked the cruise, I picked 8:15 for our dining time because I thought everyone would be so scattered during the day.  Well, it turns out, that was a little late for the kids.  Both of them were passing out towards the end of the meal every night.

 Getting carried to the room by Uncle Keith.

 The towel animals were definitely one of the kids' fave things.  Every night at dinner they couldn't wait to get back to see what the animal was going to be.

 The first stop in Progreso.

 Jacob bought a wrestling mask...

 Both kids bought a bracelet made of yarn with their names in them.  They also each picked out one for their teachers.

 Jacob's first pair of sunglasses he bought.  When he saw them (they are fake Oakley's) he exclaimed, "these are what I have always wanted!!"

 Morgan's dress she bought.

 View from our room.

Working on their "diaries."

 In Cozemel.

 Giant table. Very frustrating because I couldn't get a good shot with the glare from the sun.

 They both loved this random statue.  All the pics that follow are their requests.

That's Michael in the middle.  Only Morgan could get him to do that ;)

 Mom and Keith. He did have his arm around her, but he moved it just as I was pushing the button. Dang it.

 Random cake thing that you could climb in...I think maybe it was supposed to be a dirty/sexual thing, but the kids thought it was great...

 Mom and I stayed to shop some more while the rest went back to the ship.  When we started back, we saw rickshaws. Rickshaws. I couldn't believe it. Mom paid for a ride back in one. I was a mix of happy & horrified.

 Morgan showing off her new backpack she bought in Cozumel.

 The towel animal wearing Jacob's 2nd pair of sunglasses.  That's right.  He was totally stoked about these because they were priced at $38 but I inadvertently got the guy to sell them to us for $15.  I wasn't even trying to haggle with him. We were just trying to leave the shop and with every step we took, he came down more. It was funny. Oh, he also bought another wrestling mask because, "Of course I need 2 Mom, duh.  How can I wrestle by myself??"

 We found this show room and they played in it/ ran up and down the stairs for about 45 minutes.

 During a down time...

 This was the last day. At this point, we had swam so much Jacob developed swimmer's ear (we cleared it up with drops bought at the bargain price of $25), many a UNO game had been played, all the activity books were completed...So Michael and I broke down and bought them $10 worth of tokens in the arcade. 

 The game Jacob spent almost all of his tokes on while Morgan played a game where she tried to win prizes like a Kinnect system for the XBox or a DS....Typical Jacob playing a game that involves death and destruction, typical Morgan trying to be productive with her money...

 We did not buy a coke card, so all week the kids drank water, lemonade, or tea.  Grammy brought some diet coke cans, but we didn't have a key to her room.  So, on the last day, I let them split a $2 coke from our room. Glorious. 

 Uno in our room...

Uno on one of the decks...

 Uno on the same deck, but in a diff spot after we figured out a way for the seat cushions to hold the cards...

 Back in the cool show room we found for more Uno...

 Uno in Keith and Michael's room.

Jacob won't be getting hired at Baskin Robbin's any time soon...

 Our other waiter-we could never figure out how to pronounce his name. But he made awesome stuff out of paper and napkins.  He was walking through the buffet/lunch section one day, spotted us, and pulled out a napkin to make Morgan a duck.  You can't tell here, but it looks just like a duck.

 A couple of the pics taken by the crew.  They were $10 each.  I wouldn't buy them.  Morgan and Jacob really wanted me to.  So I took a picture of them.  Tadaaa.  (Notice the Uno cards making their way into the pic...)

 The waiter guy whose name we couldn't pronounce.  The first night he had made Jacob a paper frog that really hopped when you pushed on the back, and Morgan a pterodactyl-looking bird that flapped its wings when you pulled the tail and beak.  So of course they argued all week over them.  So this last day they (WE) begged him to make Morgan a frog and Jacob a bird. We tipped him and our main waiter extra money  :)

 Our towel the last day.

 Gift shop clown noses.

As usual, my order placement is spot on. These are pics I took with a disposable water camera:

First day at the pool.

 Beach in Progreso, Morgan in a hammock.

 Keith asleep.

 Morgan jumping off of the water trampoline.

 Mini golf on the boat.

 Water trampoline with Uncle Keith in Progreso (again with the chronological order).

I literally paddled up to a random teenager in the ocean and asked him to take our pic.

 Michael rented this and took them out.

 It is difficult to see but that tiny white speck in the middle of the pic on the water's horizon is Michael and the kids on the jet ski.  Dad was freaking out.

 Trying to relieve that stress again...

 My toes!

I will post our "dressy" (I am inwardly laughing) pics soon.  We didn't pay for those either.  Michael has a really good camera and we just used it.