Western Caribbean Baby!

After a red eye flight and 3 hours of sitting in this large room...

 We finally got to board the Carnival Liberty!

 This is our first night of many at dinner.

Day 1: Day At Sea

I don't know why, but I only took pictures of our formal night this day.  So enjoy a couple of Bryce and I in our fancy clothes.  :)

 Dinner again... I love this man!!

Day 2: Cozumel, Mexico

What a fun day this was!  We got off the ship and rented a car.  Waay better than taking a taxi.  Tess and I were a little nervous to be all on our own without a guide, but thanks to our husbands we didn't even get lost once.  We spent the morning in downtown Cozumel shopping and then the afternoon snorkeling at 2 different beaches!  What a blast!

  This is cool square tree.  Too bad I'm pulling a face.  :\

 Yes, we were driving while I took this picture.  Don't worry, we didn't crash.

We saw this sign and of course Bryce needed his picture by it.

 Palancar-the second beach we snorkeled at.  It was perfect weather, even if we did have a flash rainstorm!  It came down hard and fast, but also left pretty fast as well.

 Itty bitty crab.

On our way back we saw a sign for fresh coconuts, so we had to stop and have one.  Bryce used to eat them all the time while on his mission in Tonga.  (In fact he lived on only coconuts for about 2 1/2 weeks on a little island after a hurricane wiped out all their food.)

Here is the guy with his huge knife cutting them for us.

 Look at that face!

I was starving so to hold me over before going on the ship I got an ice cream cone.  It was DELICIOUS!  Best ice cream I've had since I got back from Germany 8 years ago!

Day 3: Belize

At Belize we got to go cave tubing.  Probably my favorite excursion on the whole trip.  We rode in a huge 14 passenger van for an hour each way, hiked through the jungle, and got to tube down the river through 2 different caves.  It was awesome!  All the pictures from the hike are on our underwater camera.  I am so excited to get those developed and see our other pictures.  It has been a long time since I've had to wait to develop film, it's almost too much to bare!  :)

During our drive we got to see a lot of the country.  It was really interesting to learn about their culture.  We stopped at a little supermarket on our way and Bryce got a few pictures of around Belize.  Here is the police station.  And yes, Belize's official language is English.

Kids have to wear uniforms to school, and we were told they still allow whipping in their schools.  :(  Here are a group of boys on their way to school.

Dogs roam all over in Belize.  None of them are on leashes.  In fact we saw 3 just taking a nap in one of the busy round abouts we were driving through!

Yeah, I thought I would get away from being sea-sick by being on land for a day.  Little did I know I would be sitting in the back of a 14 passenger van bouncing around as we swerved around pot holes and bounced over the ones we couldn't avoid!  What a fun trip.  Haha.

Belize was the only port we had to dock out and have a ferry bring us in.  (Grand Cayman was supposed to do that, but I'll get to that in a minute.)  Here is Tess and Brady on the ferry with our ship in the background.

The ocean was so smooth that day.  It was sure nice after the huge rolling waves we'd gone over earlier.  :)

Bryce had a very sore throat the first half of our cruise, so when he could finally eat again without grimacing from pain I had to take a picture.  It is one of his favorite things about a cruise.

Day 4: Roatan (Honduras)

Mahogany Bay was beautiful.  We rented another car there. (Not quite as fun as the first car we rented, but it did have AC which was nice.)  We found a beach with some awesome snorkeling in spite of the plants that could sting you and the little gnats that got all of us except Bryce.

We drove around quite a bit to get the beach we wanted to snorkel at.  It was so green and just beautiful!

This was the public beach access.  It was a little shady, but it was worth it on the other end.  :)

This beach reminded me of a lake, cuz there wasn't a lot of waves, there was mud in the lake instead of sand, and there was a bunch of seaweed.  But if you walk to the end of the dock to get in, instead of getting in at shore there were some AWESOME schools of yellow fish, some zebra fish (black and yellow instead of white) and great big fish all over.  Once you swim way out there was a lot of huge coral!

We tried to get a picture of the 4 of us, but it was windy.  So this is the best we got.

Day 5: Grand Cayman.... Just Kidding!  How about a Day at Sea!

So we were supposed to stop at the Cayman Islands, but the water was way to rough for our boat to anchor so the captain got on the intercom and told us we'd be leaving for our safety.  We were way bummed cuz we were supposed to go snorkeling with sting rays and see a bunch of cool things, but it ended up being a great day after all.  How could it not be?  It was my birthday and I was on the Caribbean!!!!!

Don't I look older?

 Golfing on the ship.

Free throw shooting contest.

  

Day 6: Key West, Florida

Since we didn't get to stop at Grand Cayman we were lucky to be able to stop at Key West instead of having two days at sea.  We docked at the navy port and road trolley's into downtown.  We got off early and went to the beach for some snorkeling on our way to town.  It was really sunny and super HOT.  It made me even more thankful for the clouds and bits of rain we'd had the rest of the trip.

We didn't get to Key West until noon, so we got to spend the morning on the ship.  I love cruises.  Free watermelon all day long.  What could be better?

 Enjoying some sun before getting off the ship.

Beach at Key west.  While Bryce and Brady scoped out the snorkeling Tess and I saw a blue iguana running on it's back two feet across the beach.  Pretty fun!  When the boys got back they said the water wasn't very clear, plus Bryce's goggles started leaking, so the two of us stayed and swam by shore while Brady and Tess did some snorkeling. 

Enjoying Key West.

 Bryce eating frog legs...  Yikes.

 I have no idea how he eats his steaks so red.  Yikes again.

Our last night at dinner.  This is one of my favorite waiters.

Day 7: Flying Home

From the Miami airport Bryce and I went separate ways.  While he got to fly home to Utah, I got to fly to California to spend a few days with my sister Amber and her family.  I flew up to Minneapolis (First time I've been to Minnesota.) and then on to California.  This is a picture of the clouds from above.  From below they were grey and drizzly and from above they were beautiful white and fluffy.  Made for a bumpy ride.  :)

It was a great trip, but I am glad to be home with my boys again.  :)  Thanks Husband for the wonderful vacation!  Sure do love you lots 'o lots!