A Cruise for 2

The pictures below are just a small sample of the hundreds that we took on our 3 day cruise. For those of you that know us well you know we take WAY too many pictures. I posted as many as I could.....

Hangin' out on the top deck
Woo Hoo! We're on board and on our way!
Our room.....small but big enough for 2

The beautiful water of the Bahamas

Pulling into port in Nassau

On a ferry on the way to Paradise Island to spend a day at Atlantis

The beautiful waters of Atlantis

The Atlantis hotel

One of the beaches at Atlantis. I just love the turquoise water!

The Michael Jackson suite at Atlantis. Named after him because he was one of the first ones to stay in it. It goes for $25,000 a night. Maybe we'll book that one for next time ;-)

One of the many pools at Atlantis

A huge manta ray at the Atlantis aquarium. It was so graceful and gentle gliding through the water.

One of the many sharks at the Atlantis aquarium

John and I in front of the boat we found and decided we liked. It was named Black Hawk. It was really lovely. I'm sure the inside was just as lovely....I guess I'll never know....

Getting back on the boat after a long tiring day at the water park at the Atlantis.....fun but tiring.

Royal Caribbean's private island of Coco Cay. It was a nice relaxing place. We rode jet skis for an hour there and went way out to where it was shallow and saw starfish all over the bottom. Our guide let us jump off the jet skis and pick up the starfish. So cool!

Parasailing. Something I so wish I could do but am too scared to try.

The parasail boat. Such a cool color boat against the pretty blue water.

Coco Cay.......I could have stayed on this beach ALL day long!
Coco Cay -- lovely!

Coco Cay

Shopping in Coco Cay - I didn't buy anything but it was fun to look.

People watching at the pool. You see all kinds of interesting things :-)

Little did I know that John was above me people watching too.....watching me that is!

For our 17th anniversary this year (and for Father's and Mother's Day) we decided to give ourselves a trip away.....just the 2 of us. We haven't really done that since Ansley was born. I hate to fly but told John I would be willing to take a cruise. So, we found a 3 night cruise that was at the right time and the right price and the rest is history. We left Port Canaveral last Friday afternoon and returned on Monday morning. On Saturday we were in Nassau all day and then on Sunday we were on Royal Caribbean's island of Coco Cay all day. The weather was great....a little cloudy but we never got any rain. We could see it raining in the distance but it managed to avoid us. The whole trip was very relaxing but we missed not being able to talk to our kids on the phone each evening before they went to bed. I was ready to see them when we picked them up in Savannah on Monday afternoon. They were ready to see us too -- or so they say :-)

If you've never taken a cruise I highly recommend it. Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas was pretty good but we were on one of their smaller ships so I'm sure some of the bigger ones are even better. I probably wouldn't take the girls on the one we were on. The Disney Cruise line is definitely on the top of my list so far. They are excellent and everything is family oriented so you really don't have to worry much about what your kids are seeing or hearing. However, I would like to try Royal Caribbean's newest vessel, The Oasis of the Seas. Looks awesome. And Disney is coming out with 2 new ships in the next few years also. Those will be spectacular too I can assure you. This definitely won't be the last cruise for us!

Elisabeth's 4th Birthday Party

Enjoying the buttercream frosting
Elisabeth's birthday cake (I baked the cake but mom decorated it for me)

Finally sitting down and eating a hotdog and some mac and cheese

Elisabeth, Katherine, Emily and Caroline

Carrying out the cake -- I was so afraid I was going to drop it!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle

Licking the icing off the candle and keeping a tight grip on the Sprite. She doesn't normally get a soft drinks so to have a whole can was a big deal. She didn't let that Sprite out of her sight!!

Caroline enjoying some panda cake

Sisters......Emily and Katherine

Little Annabelle

It's present time!

Sweet little Olivia

All the kids (May wouldn't get in the picture). Should have taken this at the beginning of the party when they were fresh and not so sweaty. The sun is in their eyes so we couldn't get them to look at the camera. Oh well......it is what it is.

We had a birthday party/cookout on Saturday evening for Elisabeth's 4th birthday. We rented a moonbounce, cooked hotdogs, sweated alot because of the extreme humidity and just hung out with friends for the evening. We prayed all week that it wouldn't rain and it ended up being a nice day even though it was raining on the other side of Fort Mill! I guess I can't complain too much about the humidity.......at least it didn't rain on us.

Elisabeth was so excited all day long and had fun playing with her friends in the moonbounce. She was very sad when the guy came later that evening to take the moonbounce away. She wanted to know why she couldn't keep it! We are glad May got to be here for the party and I think she had a good time playing with all the kids......but was very hot and worn out at the end of the day!

Happy 4th Birthday Elisabeth!!!

Beach & Aircraft carrier pictures

Playing putt putt in Myrtle Beach, SC

Elisabeth pouting because she feels like nobody is letting her play putt putt (not the case but she had a bit of an attitude at this point)

May playing putt putt for the first time

Ansleyhad to go into this store because you got to walk through the sharks mouth to get to the entrance........so cool to an 8 and a 4 year old!

On the pier after dinner

After dinner at Drunken Jacks in Murrells Inlet, SC. The waitress was kind enough to give all of us pirate hats!

Elisabeth did not want her picture taken with this pirate.....too scary. We finally talked her into it.

Ansley being silly as usual and pretending the pirate's hook is going through her chest.

The view from Drunken Jack's (there were goats, a cow and a peacock on the little island on the right of the picture. Strange combination I know.)

View from our hotel room (Springmaid pier in the background)

May and Ansley swimming in the lazy river

May having fun in the ocean

Elisabeth spent just about the whole time digging and sitting in the sand

Waiting for some good waves

"Sophie" from the TV show Cory in the House

Cameron - John's cousin (thanks Cam for getting John on the Tiger Cruise!)

Last weekend we took May to the beach.....Myrtle Beach. Definitely not my favorite beach but it was fine because we had free hotel rooms. Free is good. May thought she had been to the beach once when she was little but doesn't have any memories of it. She really enjoyed playing in the waves and then swimming in the pool and the lazy river. She had never played miniature golf either so we did that and had a good time......even though it was so HOT that day. We thought we were going to melt by the time we got to the 18th hole. Whew! May leaves on Monday (August 3rd) and we are going to miss her. She has been fun and is very sweet. The girls really enjoy her. I hope she has had a good time staying with us for the past 3 weeks.

The other pictures are from John's trip to Norfolk with his dad, 2 uncles and cousin to take a Tiger Cruise on the USS Harry S. Truman. He had a great time! He even got to meet Sophie "America's Angel" from the TV show "Cory in the House". Ansley was a little jealous but glad he brought back a picture and an autograph. She and Elisabeth have her autograph taped to their bedroom doors for all to see.