Spring Break 2013...

This year my fabulous parents took all of us on another cruise.  It was awesome, amazing, beautiful, relaxing, and just downright fun!  The cousins absolutely love traveling together and always have such a good time.  As the kids are getting older, they seem to really take it all in and enjoy themselves.  We first caught a plane to Houston, Texas, and stayed the night.

From there we traveled in style to Galveston where our ship was waiting.  When I say "in style," I really mean in style.  We totally scored big and got the PART-AY BUS!!  The kids couldn't believe their eyes.  That was the quickest hour in a car (or bus) EVER.

Once we arrived in Galveston, we had a few hours to kill so a few of us decided to walk around the town.  The architecture of the old homes was so beautiful!  I could've spent much longer just exploring and touring.

Wow!!!  Seriously Wow!!  I was so sad because we actually could've toured this gorgeous castle but we didn't have time!  So Sad! But soon we were off to board the ship!  We got a little lost from each other and ended up not boarding at the same time as Tam and Jar's family so we are missing their cute faces in this pic.

Our first couple of days on the ship were "at sea."  These days are usually the kids favorites.  They get to do lots of exploring, swimming, eating, basically anything goes.

Grandpa with his "angels."

This was on Easter Sunday and amazingly enough the Easter Bunny still found us and we were still able to keep in tradition with Grandma and Grandpa's annual Easter Egg Hunt.  The neighbors below our deck did not like it one bit though and we soon got a call from the steward telling us that!  Grump heads!  Cmon it's the middle of the day, you can't expect us all to be silent....can you?

 Josh was WAY TOO COOL for any type of egg hunting!

The ship had the best Easter Fair and the kids were able to do egg hunts, make crafts, have faces painted, eat treats, and of course get a cheesy picture with the easter bunny?  Brooklyn's face just about sums it up.

 They also had a gorgeous display of hand-crafted Easter Eggs done by the ship staff.  Pretty sweet!

The first stop off the ship was the Island of Roatan (Honduras).  We decided to hit the West End of the island known for their beautiful beaches and shopping.  Yes the beach was beautiful.....shopping was lame-o!  And you know me, I like good shopping.  But it was all good, we were very well occupied at the beach.

I mean seriously...look at that water!  It was AMAZING!

Our next stop was Belize.  I think Nick was the most excited out of anyone about this stop.  In his 5th grade class this year, they have been studying about Mayan ruins.  When he found out we could visit the Mayan ruins in Belize, he was super stoked!  How is that for an educational field trip?  These ruins were amazing and pretty scary at the top.  My sister was having a full blown panic attack that someone might fall off.  The walkway was super narrow.  Our guide told us he only knows of one woman who fell off.  She had a big skirt on and wind kicked up and blew her right off.  But he said "it's okay, she didn't die, just broke some bones."  Well, at least she didn't DIE.  The views from the top were gorgeous and Guatemala could easily be seen about 2 miles away.  Really really cool stuff....oh and there is definitely some rich Book of  Mormon heritage that can be linked to these sites.  It was awesome to think that the Jaredites could have been at this site or in the vicinity.  There were 15-16 main sites in Belize....and there are many more they have left unearthed.  

The last stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  We have never gone swimming with the dolphins and this year the kids were all really excited to try it and it was awesome.  A few of the kids were a little nervous (including me), but once the nerves settled, we all had a blast.  I still don't know how I feel about having to actually KISS a dolphin but it was a lot of fun.  The older kids got to actually swim with them while Gina and I took the little kids and just did a dolphin "encounter," which, by the way, was TOTALLY enough for me.  

This army guy statue was the coolest thing!  We thought he was a statute until he started moving and scared us to death!  We were pretty enamored with him and he kept the kids entertained until we dragged them away.  

The cruise was a perfect time with family.  The cousins had so much fun and the little boys even had some teenage girls thinking they were pretty cute!  

I also realized that I was so right in my first impression of Josh 16 years ago.  When that kid was born (if I didn't know any better), I would've said I had just given birth to my brother's clone with his massive amounts of blonde hair and blue eyes.  I remember just thinking "holy cow, that's my brother."  Well, not only did he look like him, I definitely think he has the "Uncle Jared" gene.  He even has mannerisms that remind me of my brother.  Anyway, Josh had a great time hanging out with Uncle Jared.  They are so much alike and Jared was so sweet and was always inviting him to hang out with him and go to movies, etc.  It was great because there was time we spent doing little kid stuff and Josh just had so much more fun hanging with his Uncle.  

Love you Grandma and Grandpa!

And as is tradition, Grandma always gets the kids matching jackets.....which makes it really easy to spot them.   JD conveniently lost his....which we promptly found after the picture was taken.

Thanks everyone for a fabulous trip and all the memories we have made.  Thank you once again for spoiling us rotten Grandma and Grandpa!   It's crazy to think this might be the last with everyone together.  Love you all!

Oh and remember the party bus on the way to the ship?  Here's the party bus on the way back....

Not so much the party anymore.....i guess we know a good way to tire the grandkids right out....and maybe the adults as well.  

After getting back to Houston, we made a stop at the Kennedy Space Center before catching our plane later that night.  It was honestly one of the coolest things I have seen.  What an awesome and interesting place.  We could've spent many more hours there.