Riding in a big white van was normal for me, but the Hafens thought it was the funniest/coolest thing ever, so they had to get a picture. Jeremy is a 'retarted' person with a helmet on in the front seat. Total dork...but you gotta love him. :)
Here's a picture of us waiting to get on the ship.
Us finally on the ship!!! Eating (of course).
I have to say I love cruises because it is such a nice way to take a relaxing and stress-free vacation break.
The first day out at sea was warm and beautiful. Dusty and I sat in the sun for hours and just soaked it up. I love the sun!
I'm pretty sure even baby Zac enjoyed the sun with his stylish hat.
The second day at sea was also incredibly nice. We hung out with the family, watched the boys play some soccer,
sat in the sun, ate tons of delicious vanilla and strawberry soft serve, and then went to the formal dinner that night. I know most guys [Dusty] don't quite understand this, but for us girls, it is so fun to get dressed up...Love it.
Wednesday was our first stop: Roatan, Honduras. Again, the weather was absolutely beautiful. We, the family, decided to take it easy that day. We took a taxi ride to the beach and rented a nice little area just for us.
I sat at the water's edge and let the ocean waves touch just my legs- not too much to get super wet, but enough to keep me nice and cool. I didn't realize that after sitting there for that amount of time that I would get so much sand down my pants. :) Thankfully, there were showers in the bathrooms, so I was able to rinse all of that sand out. We spent the day relaxing and walking up and down the beach barefoot. I feel completely exfoliated now.
Thursday we made it to Belize. It was stinkin' cold and rainy that day, but we weren't going to let that get in our way. We booked an off-shore excursion to go snorkeling. The waves were huge that day, and the wind was blowing, and though I had never snorkled before, I was going to be brave and give it a try. The first area we tried to snorkel at had a huge living reef. I tried to get a good look at it, but with my inexperience and the massive waves, I didn't see anything.
When the tour guides realized that area was not going to work, they took us to another spot to see Sting Rays. One of the tour guides picked one out of the water so that we could all touch it. It was so gross and slimy, but kind of cool. Ya- I totally touched it...I'm so brave. There were so many sting rays at that spot. They would swim around our feet and all around us- they were not bugged at all. We even saw a shark- we were informed it was not dangerous, but I'm not sure I believe that; he looked pretty lethal to me.
After snorkeling, the tour guides took us to one of the little islands there. We ate some lunch and then walked around the little town for a bit. Let's just say that I am glad to live in America.
The craziest thing- some rich person made his own little island miles off shore and built his house on it. I hope he has flood insurance.
All of that hard work made some of us a bit sleepy.
This is a picture of us after we got done with our fantastic excursion.
Friday we were in Cozumel. Here's a picture of our ship (Voyager of the seas) next to another Royal Caribbean ship.
We didn't have any major off shore plans here, so we all did our own thing. Dusty and I figured we could use the exercise, so we walked the 3 miles to town to do some shopping. It was super fun at first, but then every shop started looking the same. We did buy some authentic Mexican vanilla, a diet coke, and some candy bars, but that was it.
We were back on the ship by 4pm.
Saturday, our last day at sea, was soooooo cold!!! I wore my sweats and sweater all day long. It was pretty relaxing though. I read for hours, and loved it.
All in all I had a blast on the cruise. I ate delicious food (thankfully only gained 2 pounds), saw some pretty good entertainment, and got to hang out with my Hafen family. Thanks Brad and Judy for the awesome vacation!!!
