Jeff, Tiffany, and Their 3 Little Baers: Cruise--Honduras, Belize, and Mexico

We had the best time on our cruise! I had fasted many times that the kids would do well on the flight, at my parents, and that it would be a wonderful trip, and it all happened, prayers were answered!

The kids did absolutely wonderfully on the flight. Everyone kept saying how great they were and calling me a hero, but I said I had prayed a lot. I was going to drive and park the car at the airport, but at the last minute we asked Michael if he could drive and I am so thankful he did! It started out with rain but then turned to snow and I was very happy not to have to park and walk with the kids in that. Thank you to google maps we avoided a lot of traffic (we had no idea where we were going and that's when you really hope your GPS knows what it's doing), but got to the airport right on time. We breezed through curbside check in, security, the train, and had just a little time to spare before boarding. Max slept in the ergo on the plane for a bit then was a little wild, but still manageable. Ryan watched some DVD's and Lily colored.

My mom was right there at the airport waiting for us and we all fit in my Dad's car, hooray! I spent some time shopping for a few last minute things and I can't even remember what else, but it was a nice little visit. My mom even let me borrow several of her outfits and jewelry, which was awesome.

My mom and Lily took me to the airport while the boys napped. I admit I was sad to say goodbye to my kids and just prayed for them and for me that we would all be safe in the next week. Traveling by myself was a lot of fun and I got to read, relax, and just enjoy the solitude.

I met everyone else in Houston, Texas and the next day we went to church before heading to the ship. It was nice to go to sacrament meeting since we would be missing the next week, but unfortunately we couldn't get a ride back from church. No taxis were available but Sarah came to the rescue and found some people at church to make the 10 minute drive to our hotel. That was such a blessing and we made it back with a little time to spare before our shuttle.

The first 5 minutes on the ship Jeff ran into a college friend, Ryan Hulme and his wife Ruth. Jeff had actually visited Ryan at his parent's home in Houston so it was pretty funny to see them first thing.

We did a tour of the ship and at the spa Michael won $100 gift card for a treatment, which he gave to Sandy so that was nice. Sandy became a big fan of the spa and at dinner she was late and we got a little worried so Jeff checked on her. They gave her a little longer massage and she came out so relaxed we kept laughing. She even had her watch on upside down, which made sense as to why she couldn't tell the time. At dinner Jeff was eager to show that you can order as much food as you want. Slowly everyone got on board that ordering more than one appetizer and dessert is really exciting and our server Auren caught on quick that we liked to eat. We like to say the quote of the trip is when Jeff said one night, "none of these appetizers look that good, so I'm just going to get three tonight." And while everyone at our table was used to Jeff, one day we had lunch with Ryan and Ruth and Jeff ordered three desserts. Ruth looked really surprised and laughed and I chuckled that I was so used to it.

Jeff loved his desserts.

Surfing, neither Jeff nor I dared try.

Look at us, we're still in love.

Some cool art from the ceiling.

The dining hall.

Overall we loved the food, I loved the gym and going to my spin classes, Jeff loved competing in any competition the ship had: basketball, volleyball, water volleyball, rock climbing, shootout...and came home with five trophies. The cruise staff knew him by name and said he was just trying to get more trophies. Jeff and Lisa did karaoke, we went to the shows at night, did late night 70's dancing, a ballroom class, read some books, but I must say that Jeff has never been so active in his life. He was changing clothes all the time for different activities, taking multiple showers, and burning a lot of energy, so at least he merited eating as much as he did.

Ron rock climbing.

Medals for just one of their volleyball games.

Michael rock climbing.

Jeff getting the ball.

Jeff rock climbing.

Ron and Michael waiting to climb.

Jeff is happy how he came out.

Jeff on the basketball court.

All of our rooms were right next to each other and we had inside cabins, which was fine. I must say though that you have absolutely no idea what time of day it is and it is very easy to sleep in. Everyone loved their towel animals that Leslie, our steward made. We found out they only make them every other night rather than every night because people don't use the towels and like to keep the animals together. So that means the ship has a towel outage on day 4 of the cruise.

We met lots of fun people and a lot of LDS couples. The ship wasn't so big so it was easy to come across people we met.

Our first excursion day was in Roatan, Honduras. We were the only ship in port and it was a cute little shopping area where we landed. We swam with dolphins and it was so much fun! We took a drive to a resort and driving around reminded Jeff and me of our missions. There were some really nice homes, but most of what we saw was poverty stricken. The resort we went to is called Anthony's Key and Resort. There were rooms in little huts out on the water and it looked like a nice place to stay. We took a little motorboat to an island and it was absolutely picturesque. It's so strange being in places like that and thinking that it looks so small on a map and yet people live there and have jobs there and it's beautiful there. At first we got to touch the dolphin as she swam past and then we got to take pictures and have her kiss us. After everyone had a turn we got our snorkel gear on and we just got to swim around with the dolphins swimming right by us. There was also some cool fish and corral and it reminded me how much I like to swim. Jeff actually got a little scared at some points because one dolphin kept coming near him with his mouth open. But it was very neat to just have four of five dolphins gliding right by you or under you or just touching you.

Our ship from Roatan port.

Little rooms on the water.

About to get our snorkel gear on. It felt like a dream to walk along the pier looking at that perfect water.

Everyone else went to Tabyana Beach and loved it. They snorkeled and enjoyed the water and beach and said it was just heaven and the girls all got their hair braided, which looked so cute!