Still Cruising {More FUN & Farewells}

Yes we are still Cruising my friends. I have to tell you that it was so cool to look out the windows of the ship and see nothing but beautiful skies and ocean. 

OOO, and their Christmas decorations were amazing as well!

Ok on to more fun....

The babies of the fam sure made the trip a lot more amusing. Jaden and Porter are only 6 weeks apart and so fun and cute.  It's hard to believe that they are toddlers now.

I consider Treyson my big boy.  He did pretty well on the trip even though his behavior got a little out of hand since he was out of his element. I swear while your on vacation all the "rules" go out the window! 

He had some much fun on the Cruise though, maybe even the most fun.  He spent a lot of time with camp carnival which is a really fun daycare for the kids. He would  ask to go there everyday.  They had really fun activities for them to do and he just loved playing with other kids his age.

Did I tell you that Porter learned to climb a latter on the Cruise.  They had this little latter to get up to the bunk bed and he thought it was the coolest thing to climb it.  As far as going down well, not so much. 

Tayliann became the FUN favorite one to my boys.  Trey would ask for her daily or ask me where she went. She such a good Auntie! 

Ah, and Derek too.  He is really good with the kids as well.

While Mom C. was still with us she read us Christmas book the second night. She is a great reader and really makes the story come alive.  We tried to continue her tradition and read the other Christmas books she left behind but it still was not the same:(  We received the first book she read, the "Gingerbread Friends" as a traditional Christmas Present.  Thanks Mama C.

Now even MORE FUN....

Miniature Golf on the boat was awesome. It is on the very top of the boat so it gets a little windy up there...LOL! I could hardly see what I was doing because the wind kept blowing my hair in my face! Chris did great though, he is quite the golfer!

Trey LOVED playing Golf and he was actually rather good at getting the ball in the hole. Porter just like going from hole to hole climbing on everything.

The boys had so much fun playing that I think I might get them a golf set at home:)

We did a lot of just hanging out.

It was nice to just be there as a family. Usually Daddy is gone a lot so it was great to have some time with just us.

(This photo is hilarious, just the way my boys act all the time...CRAZY!)

We played Chess, well kinda. Human Chess maybe? LOL.

Oh yes and we must not forget how much time we spent going up and down the elevator.  Our rooms were at the bottom of the boat so we were in the elevator a lot. Fun times!

They had all different kind of shows you could go to.

Comedy Shows

Singing and dancing shows, which are my favorite:) Good clean entertainment.

When there was nothing going on we were usually playing games of course!

We did a little bit of hot tubbin!

We had some movie nights. The Cruise ships plays various movies through out the day on a TV that I swear is as big as a football Field.  Talk about sweet.  Chris says we are going to have one in our house one day..LOL!

I loved that Chris was my cuddle partner:)

There was a couple of romantic moments we had on the ship together. Chris took me for a walk along  the side dock where you could see and even feel some of the water splashing. We just sat and listened to the ocean a little bit. It was quiet and sweet. I love little moments like that with my Herc.  

OK I know this is kind of random the throw in here right now but I was amazed on how many things there were to do on the ship yet people were lining up to buy huge cartons of cigarettes and liquor for tons of money.  It was crazy.  They had bottles of alcohol that were as tall as me and selling ridiculous amounts of money. People had not problem buying it too. A cruise could be the cheapest vacation if you dont drink or gamble. I guess it will always be a cheap vacation for an LDS person then right? LOL. 

Of course we had fun snapping pictures of each other.

It was fun to be goofy and silly together or just to have Chris around more.  It was like I was not used to being around him since he is pretty much non existent while he is in school. Love this guy!

Oh yes and last but not least we can not forget about the fun little towels that housekeeping leaves you. They were so fun and creative. 

The coolest one that was made for us was the hanging monkey. They hung it from the ledge of the ceiling and put my sun glasses and Treys monkey back pack on it to look like a Cool Mommy and baby monkey. Treyson thought it was the coolest thing and would talk to it everyday....LOL!  

That is all for our Carnival Cruise FUN Adventures!

PS: If you are wondering where the kids were through some of our fun don't worry. We would put them to bed in our state rooms and then check on them various times in the night.  Majority of the time they were just fine:)

Now on the Farewells....

Getting off the boat is kind of a pain, you have to wait, wait, and wait some more for your number to be called.  The family helped with keeping the kids entertained while we waited. Casey and Kimber had Porter giggling. 

Treyson did not want to leave his "Tay Tay!"

It was sad to go and I was not looking forward to the 10 hour drive back to Milton. Tay was not feeling at all so she was not looking forward to her plane ride either.

We took a last group when we heard our number called.

Farewell to The Culter Cruiser Gang

We had a nice man help cart all of our luggage to wait for our taxi bus. He was funny and told Chris that our kids were cute so that he must have have good looking wife because they do not get it from him..LOL! Trey got to ride on the bag cart which made him happy.

We waited longer then we should have. The kids were getting tired of waiting and so were we but finally our little taxi bus came. Whew what a relief.

Randoms..

I would Bring a little bottle of cinnamon next time. Out of all the food they had they did not have any I was dying after a week with out it.

 I would Bring bottled water because the water on the ship taste like a pool..yuck!

Also having little sandwich bags is handy too.

I guess I look really young because I do not know how many people said to me, "you do not look old enough to have 2 children!"

Take your vitamins and don't get sick.  Being sick on the Cruise is no fun even if you did not get sick.

Even with kids a Cruise can be fun, we love our children to death but we will be leaving them behind on our next Cruise:)

Now the Cruise officially comes to an END.

Enjoy all the photos.

Cruising {FOOD & FUN}

Before I start with all the food and fun, let me tell you all about how we got together and met up in FL. Everyone but us had a red eye flight and camp out on the air port floor, talk about comfort...LOL! They then got a hotel and stayed in Ft. Lauderdale until it was time to go to Portal.

We on the other hand woke up at 2am to get on the road for our 10 hour trek to Ft. Lauderdale.  It was a bit rough and the kids cried the last 2 hours because they were so tried and just ready to be out of the car. When we got there we had to load and ride a little taxi bus to where we had to enter the ship.  Well when I got off I was caring 2 kids and Chris went to go ask for help with our bags from the family and the bus took off with most of bags still on it! It was very frustrating and we waited forever for it to return.  Did I mention that my kids about had it? They were literally exhausted and so was I. I watched and snuggled the boys while Chris watched for the bus to return.  It finally did which was a relief. 

We made our way to the ship for boarding.  We ended up having to give up our Boy's play wooden swords because they were considered a "weapon!" I guess they thought my kids were going to hold up the boat with their swords...LOL.  Kind frustrating too but I guess I understood:)

Our Carnival Freedom Ship was a HUGE beauty.  I had never seen a cruise ship so this was pretty cool to me.  Trey loved it and kept shouting "a boat, a boat!" Ft. Lauderdale was beautiful too and it was so HOT even though it was raining.

We were so excited to finally be on the Ship! Our first day on the Ship...YAY!

Chris got busy booking our excursions and fine tuning our ship stay, while I just trying to settle our boys.

When we got to our room both of our boys CRASHED immediately.  Poor boys were so tired and I was so glad they finally fell asleep.

Later that night we went to our sit down dinner. It was pretty good food and  Mama C. had fun playing with Treyson and Porter.

After dinner all of us went and toured the ship a little bit.

The boys were just in awe over the whole boat experience.  This was all of our first time on a Cruise Ship besides Chris, this was his 4th Cruise.  That pretty much sums up our first CRAZY day on the ship.

Now on to the FOOD...

This is one of the best things about the Cruise. For the most part the food was pretty good. They have every kind of food you can think of.  They have a buffet you can can eat at 3 times a day or you can sit down for breakfast and dinner. Sometimes all you feel like you are doing is eating! Their hot chocolate was the best and all my kids wanted was their all you can eat ice cream, sugar cereal, and chocolate cows milk..LOL! Trey did like their raw broccoli on the salad bar though and Porter ate anything I put in from on him. They do have some pretty healthy options on the cruise which I loved but we did splurge a ton since we were on vacation.

All you can eat SUSHI!!! They did not have any good specialty rolls which was a bummer but it was still pretty good. Trey was not a fan and Porter loved playing with the chopsticks.

Room Service! We ordered free room service everyday! This is the only place where you can order peanut butter and jelly which my boys love.  We also would order it for breakfast since the kids were usually starving when they first got up. We love room service!

2 of the nights on the ship were 'Elegant Nights." This is where you got to dress up all fancy and go to a sit down nice dinner.  I had fun gussying up my fellas in their suits and vests.  They looked adorable!

I loved dressing up as well since I am usually in pj's or work out clothes 5 days our the week. I actually got ready and dressed everyday while on the cruise.  This was an accomplishment for me:) 

The first elegant night Mom, Dad, and Karlee were still with us. Good food and Good times! Needless to say it always fun trying to keep the kids entertained during and elegant dinner.  

I think my family looked pretty darn snazzy that night.

One night when we went to dinner it was just Chris and I and Tayli. This night was very interesting and fun.  One of our waiters was very amusing and friendly. Meet Alejandro! When he told us his name Tay and I started singing at the same time "Alejandro, Alejandro" by Lady Gaga. It was hilarious! He had a thing for Tayliann for sure and he became her "Ship boyfriend." We would see him randomly on the ship and start singing to him from far away, "Alejandro, Alejandro!" Ha, what a night!

Again very good food.  This night the menu was the best I thought.

Christmas Eve happened to be another elegant dinner night. I borrowed a nicer dress from one of the YW since I did not have any. It worked perfect and I even felt like I was going to prom or something.  Chris looked very handsome in his get up as well.

Everyone went to dinner together...

Tayliann, Derek, Casey and Kimber, Us, and Cody and Camille.

We were sure missing the rest of the family this night!

We had fun taking pictures in front of the Christmas trees and on the lighted stairs.

Again, dinner was yummy. Some people chose not to eat since the stomach bug was going around which I am still so thankful that my family did not get it!

Did I mention that I love my Girls? We also had fun posing for the camera. We we were being sassy!!

I especially love this girl.  My sweet little but bigger then me sister Tayli!! It's actually her bday today. Sweet 16 and I can not believe it.  Makes me want to cry when I think how much she has grown up...sniff sniff!

Chris was being funny that night.  He kept calling me a MILF and squeezing my behind. So flirtatious.  Maybe I need to dress more elegant more often? He was looking rather hunk-ish himself:) Love him.

After dinner we wanted to do a little dancing. Casey, Kimber, Chris and I had fun shaking it on the dance floor.

It was like old times when we used to go dancing every weekend. Chris noticed my feet hurting so I took off my shoes and Chris let me stand on his feet. 3 inch heals will this to you! So I danced on his feet and wherever he swayed to I would too. Isn't he the sweetest? I think so. 

Christmas Eve turned out to be a wonderful night! 

Now on to the FUN....

I would say the majority of our fun was spent at the Pool Deck (Lido Deck). This was the boys favorite deck and we wanted to soak up as much sun on our pasty white "Iowa winter" skin.

Trey loved the pool.

He also loved looking out into the ocean.  He would get up on his little tippy toes to try and see the ocean water.  He would say, "look- water, fishes, alligators, nemo, sharks!"  All this in one breath.

They had a pretty cool slide but they would not let Trey go on it because he was too young and they would not let me go with him..LAME! I am glad Karlee got to go on it before she got sick. She loved it.

Tayliann became Treyson's pool buddy. They had so much fun together.

Tayliann also became my layout buddy. It was nice just to relax and get some warm rays from the Caribbean sun.

Both boys loved the hot tub. One thing Chris said was the best thing about the Cruise is that he got to hang out with his boys and spend more time with them.

I loved hanging out as a family as well and not having to worry about one single thing.

Pretty much the Pool deck was where all the fun ship action happened.

They had entertainment, music, TV, and a couple different pools and hot tubs to choose from. Very relaxing atmosphere.  YAY for the Pool deck, our favorite FUN spot on the ship!

That's all for now, there is still just a little bit more to come from our Cruise to come!