One word that would describe this trip is “international.” wow. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many different people, nations, and tongues. We heard at least 5 different languages on the deck on our first day from passengers and the crew was even more so diverse. Loved it.

Sunday was finally my day to sleep! I slept until 11 that morning and Dale went and worked out for a few hours. We had a nice brunch in the Windjammer cafe again.

The ship hosted a belly flop contest and an ice sculpture demonstration. The ice was melting FAST so it was quick because it was outdoors and 80 degrees.

In the middle of our afternoon, we went on a backstage tour -a highlight for both Dale and I to see the backstage and ask as many questions as we wanted to. Took ANOTHER nap in the afternoon and then lounged by the pool again all afternoon. We wanted to soak up as much sun as possible.

When we booked the trip, we had the option to have dinner just ourselves or a table of 10. We chose table of 10 of course -how fun! We had a GREAT group and truly enjoyed our conversations. You never quite know what kind of people you’ll get but we looked forward to dinner every night because of them. Dale of course had to be the entertainer. I had to rein him in a few times but only because I was the only one who understood his humor the first night. The dining room was huge -in the picture below, you can see ours was 3 stories.

After dinner, we hunted down one of the bands to see if they were playing swing and to our sadness they were not. We went star gazing again and saw more than 20 shooting stars, we packed our bags and headed to bed.

Check back later this week for the adventures of our last day which included a rooftop pool, a drink that cost $7 and the flights home that took forever.

Did you guess where the above days of the week are located on the ship? The ELEVATORS!

Saturday was a BIG day. We woke up in Cozumel! We grabbed some breakfast and then headed down the dock to the meeting point for our excursion. Excursions are offered through the boat, or things to do when you get to the island. They are not a part of the cost, so anything you book through the ship is additional. My excursion was to swim with dolphins! Other options were parasailling, snorkeling, atv-ing. things like that. Dale didn’t want to swim with dolphins so he just paid to “observe.”

Swimming with the dolphins was exhilarating. If you haven’t noticed by now, I LOVE animals. We were given a 15 minute training on hand signals to use with the dolphins and then taken into the water. I was the first to swim out about 50 yards in the middle of the water with a boogie board, do the foot signal and anxiously wait for the dolphin to come up behind me under water and push me to shore. It was so scarey. In your head, sing the “du-du-du-du” song from Jaws. I had to have my legs perfectly straight and very tight, my dolphin, Titan came up and put his nose on my foot. The split second he did that, my legs weren’t straight, so he started to push and I didn’t go anywhere. He stopped and waited for me to straighten my legs and then tried again. SMART ANIMAL. He gave us kisses, I got to “hold” him, hear him talk underwater, and hold onto his fins while we swam around. It was totally worth it.

Did I mention I like animals? Totally worth the $5.

After our excursion, we were shuttled back to the port. We jumped onto the ship and had a quick lunch. After lunch our real adventure started. We rented a scooter and our destination was a bar on the other side of the island where my sister and her husband visited 2 years prior.

Love to scooter and Dale is really good at driving. Albeit, I hung on so tight for the first few miles, I lost feeling in my knuckles. ha. The ride home was a little more relaxed on my part.

We were to find their names written on the bamboo. After 45 minutes of searching…we were stumped. I think they painted over them. sorry liz…and sorry Kavan…I didn’t have a picture with you in a shirt.

As you can tell below, it was cloudy out that day but nothing could dampen our adventure to the other side of the island. We ended up on the “locals” beach. The best beach on the island. We had to drive 30 miles from the other side of the island to get away from the rocky beaches and the rest of the beaches where 4 cruise boats dumped their tourists.

We started back to the ship about 1 1/2 hours prior to it leaving. As we started the scooter up…it kept DYING. We started to wonder how we were going to get back to the ship. Did you know that the ship won’t wait?! If you’re not there, they LEAVE you. Anyhoo, after a few attempts, Dale got it started and we headed back. We only got a little lost driving through the streets of Cozumel. As we started to sweat again thinking the boat was leaving soon, we started to look down every side street for the ships in the distance. Finally, saw them and made our way over there and even had enough time to buy a souvenir.

You’d think the day would be over by now hugh? Well, it was only 5:00 at this point and we boarded the boat. We headed down to the ice skating rink for an open skate time. I let Dale enjoy that excursion. From there it was dinner time and then a highly anticipated game show called “love and marriage.” We were going to audition for it. We didn’t realize that the audition was determined by the audience. All the couples that wanted to participate had to stand up in the audience and say creatively, “oo, baby, oo baby, I really want to play, baby.” Ha. Dale kissed my hand and proceeded to kiss me up the arm while I ooed and awed. It was hysterical. People loved it. It came down to another couple and us….we lost. It was a fun show to watch, but we all know that Dale would have been MUCH more fun than anyone else. AND we got all but one answer right. You can ask me what question we got wrong -in private.

And what better way to end the night to go look at the community bulletin board and find that someone wanted to play Settlers with us that night! We headed up to the board game room and coincidentally found 2 of our dinner table friends. They played with us for and hour and a half. Notice what I’m drinking at the table? That buzz lasted about 15 minutes and then I crashed. I was practically asleep when 12:30 rolled around. wow.

I don’t think we could have packed ANY MORE into our time that day.

So…vacation to me (Hannah) is SLEEP. Vacation to Dale includes ADHD and things of those sort. So, first thing Friday morning, Dale drags me out of bed to see the sun rise from the bow of the ship. I got outside and closed my eyes. I think I missed the sun rise.

If you ever wondered what it would be like to be on a ship in a storm -well, on Friday morning it rained quite a bit after the sun came up. We ate breakfast during a rainstorm. I think we went back to bed until 11.

This was our first afternoon out in the sun on deck 11. Can you guess what game we took out with us? Couldn’t leave the game behind in Pittsburgh. We brought Settlers of Catan!! We set up on deck 11 near the 4 hot tubs and 2 pools and enjoyed soaking in the sun and waiting for someone to walk by and recognize the game. To our sadness, no one did. We got lots of questions and wondering looks but nobody played with us on that day. We weren’t too disappointed, we posted an “ad” on the community board. More on that later.

It was a little awkward to hand out in our swimsuits on the deck. I know that sounds corny, but where else besides the pool does one hang out in their suit? and I LITERALLY was the only person under 30 in a full piece suit. ha. Some other people should have been.

You know you are on a cruise boat if you change your clothing 3-4 times a day. Seriously. You have your morning outfit, your swimming outfit, your mid-afternoon attire and then your evening attire. Included in that is 2-3 showers a day.

We joined the merengue dance workout on the deck. 15 minutes of hardcore dancing. It was really fun and very hard work on your hips. You can see me moving my hips…I don’t know what Dale was doing. ha.

After lunch on the deck, we decided to take advantage of all the outdoor activities while it was still light out. Dale joined a group of guys playing soccer. There had to have been 6 teams of 4. Lots of guys. They happened to kick 2 balls over the side of the boat. They were LONG gone. They were not allowed anymore soccer balls that day. ha. I’m sure Royal Caribbean had to buy a few more soccer balls when we docked in Cozumel. I wonder where those balls wash up?

We also attempted the rock climbing wall. Actually I attempted, Dale completed it. I was almost to the top and my arms gave out. It was fun though for both of us.

The above picture was taken in the Royal Promenade (deck 5)in the middle of the ship -you cannot tell what time it is let alone remember what day it is.

On our to do list was “Pets at Sea” on this deck 5, something I saw on the daily activities list. I had been looking forward to it ALL DAY. I thought that the families that brought pets on board could take their pets out on the deck for some sunshine. ha. much to my surprise, it was a little table set up in the promenade for “build a bear” animals for kids. After a few tears, Dale and I had a good laugh.

The random “day of the week” photos you’ve seen such as above are actually found where on the ship? Do you know? They get switched out at midnight for the next day.

At 5:00, we did a costume change and went to the Ice Dancing show in the ice rink. It was PACKED. Standing room only. The show was very well done and even included a hockey sequence which Dale especially enjoyed. Afterwards, we did another costume change to go meet the captain. We were the first in line and were promptly told that we cannot touch the captain (?) because of germs. So, we just stood beside him, didn’t shake hands or anything. Then, there was a big band swing band playing in the promenade, so we did some dancing in a spot about 4 x 4 feet. There was NOT a lot of room.

We chose to have a late dinner, so our seating time was 8:30 and we chose to sit with 10 people. We joined our table -which included a newer couple since the night before, the 6 of us had a nice dinner. The menu changed every night but I (Hannah) ate steak EVERY single night for dinner. ha. I can’t even think what would be better than that? Dale enjoyed lamb, duck, steak, and shrimp. Our wait staff was INCREDIBLE. I will give Royal Caribbean the best continuous customer service I’ve ever received. It was more than just doing what I asked. They actually did it all with amazing attitudes and by the 2nd night, we didn’t have to order our drinks -he automatically brought them.

After dinner, there was STILL MORE to do. We headed down to the theatre and watched their Broadway show, Now and Forever. GREAT production quality and band. AWFUL Broadway music. Now, Dale and I both know musical theatre and we recognized maybe 3 songs out of the 15. We were expecting Phantom or Les Miserables or Oklahoma ya know? We were very disappointed with that aspect but the production was very entertaining. Costumes and dancers were amazing.

From there, it was bedtime. We were tired. Tomorrow we’d be docking in Cozumel! We had a big day ahead of us.

Royal Caribbean is not paying us to advertise for them, but I wanted to review our cruise for those of you who have never been on one and are possibly interested. One year ago, I would have had NO DESIRE to go on a cruise. I’m more of a travel the mainland, explore the people and museums and experience the culture -not hang out on a boat BUT I have decided that I would definitely go on another cruise in the future. We hadn’t been on our cruise for more than 2 hours before we were already talking about our next cruise. We liked it THAT much.

Last Wednesday, I tried to soak up as much Lindy as I could all the while trying to clean house and pack. Got all the laundry put away but hadn’t packed or cleaned the house by the time we dropped off Lindy at our friend Karen’s house at bedtime. With no family in town, where to send Lindy was our top concern but a very easy decision. Karen and a few other ladies are top of the list to watch Lindy. They know her so well and Lindy LOVES them. When I asked Lindy where she wanted to stay while mommy and daddy went on their trip -she said Karen.

After dropping her off and probably staying a little too long, (lingering was not a good idea) she started to realize that we were LEAVING her there for bedtime and she tends to be clinging at night and in the morning. We were able to get out the door with only a few tears. Our other friend, Mark graciously took our dog Indiana. I’m sure if Indiana spoke, he’d ask to go to Mark’s house. Then, at 10pm, we started to clean house and pack.

We left the house in the early morning hours -the christmas candles still glowing in the window. Hilary was gracious enough to drive us to the airport at 6:30am. Our flight left Pittsburgh at 8am, a connection and then flight to Miami. Arrived at 2pm, grabbed a taxi to the port. Now, growing up in Kansas, palm trees are a HUGE novelty to me. I am fascinated by their beauty, so I had to get a few pictures from the cab.

All Aboard!! We boarded our Royal Caribbean, Navigator of the Seas ship -a beautiful 15 deck ship. Made in Finland, 1,020 Feet long, approaching its 7th birthday, top speed 22 knots, carries 3,835 people. HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL. 5 restaurants, 3 pools, climbing wall, mini golf, inline skating, casino, promenade of shops, spa, gym, 7 hot tubs. It was amazing. The most amazing part was how efficient the crew was. They moved 3,000 people on to the boat in about 3 hours – with bags and kids and ALL that stuff. Very impressive.

Upon boarding, we received a “seapass” card which was our identification and money for the cruise. No cash was needed at any point. We could just swipe our card for anything additional that we wanted. Now, obviously, the card was tied to our credit card, so any swipe we made, we will pay for on our American Express bill next month.

Our room was definitely cozy and I was a little turned off by the round mirror. Seems a little old school for me. Finally realized why the mirror was a circle….the design is trying to make it look like we have one of those round windows overlooking the ocean. ha.

Our first evening included exploring every deck, getting lost a few times, grabbing some dinner in the Windjammer cafe that overlooks the sea. The food was AMAZING and dangerous. All you can eat 24/7. There was a comedian on board, so we went to his show and then headed to the sports bar to watch the Steelers game. I ended up going back to our room while Dale watched the game and I fell asleep on our bed. oops. After he came back to the room and realized I was a party pooper, Dale ended up having an adventure that night with a few other people -he can tell you that story someday.

Check back tomorrow for Friday’s events!

I tend to be intentional about saying Merry Christmas. I wait anxiously until the day AFTER Thanksgiving and then don’t hold anything back. Everyone I see gets the Merry Christmas hug. It is the Christmas season! Whether or not you celebrate “Christmas,” I’m going to say it. Don’t be offended, it is just how I express my feelings.

We found the time to get a tree, decorate, drink hot chocolate, and listen to those holiday tunes. Being almost three years old, Lindy will remember a lot more of her childhood at this age, so I don’t want to skip over the traditions that our family has established. Yes, it hurt quite a bit just thinking about the void in our lives, but we wanted to celebrate the season.

The other night, I was at the grocery store at 10pm and found a little toy train that would be fun to put under the tree. $10 -couldn’t hurt. We got it all set up, went and got Lindy out of bed (we have such a bad habit of that!) and captured Lindy enjoying the train. She LOVED it. Needless to say, I’m about to put the train into the trash now. SO CHEAP. The tracks don’t stay together, the train goes about 35 mph, so you can’t even enjoy it going around the tracks and the trains don’t stay attached. Better invest in a nicer train.

As we were decorating the tree, it was hard not to think of what we were doing this time last year and that was driving to North Carolina to be with my family at my sister’s house. Can’t believe I was pregnant and my sister was pregnant and there was so much joy and anticipation for the following year. I can’t imagine ever getting to that place again of such joy and anticipation and I know that it’ll take a lot of talking with God to get that peace again.

As many of you are discretely asking, some not so much, and some of you are just wondering, we did get the go ahead from our doctor to try and get pregnant again -4 months ago, so we are very frustrated and deflated that apparently, it is not yet God’s timing. Yes, yes, I know 4 months sounds like nothing to some of you who have waited years and what not, but as my therapist would say, “don’t minimize your pain.” I have been waiting for almost two years now. I wanted to hold my baby in my arms; and to not hear Everett cry or feel him nuzzle or feel the warmth of his skin hurts so much. I can’t describe that pain. It’s almost like my physical body is screaming to hold my baby. Now, those of you who have babies that I hold, no I’m not going to steal your baby, ha. I’m not some crazy woman. It’s different when it is YOUR child and when it is mine. I’ll be totally honest with you, we just want to get pregnant, get it over with, and hold our living, breathing, 3rd child. I know having another child will not make everything better but I know it’ll be a salve to my soul.

In my heart I hear “Joy will come in the morning” and I know it will but sometimes I wish I could control the timing. Sometimes I feel that I can help God a little by being obsessive with my ovulation calendars and tracking every physcial change in my body so that this month will be “the morning” but I must realize that God knew the days of our lives before we were even born -they are written in His book. He knows the days of the lives of any future children that we have and I’m not going to lengthen or shorten those days. He doesn’t need my help. Don’t know if you ever feel the need to help God but I’m trying to stop holding on so tightly to things I can’t control.