Adventures on a cruise

Warning: long post, and lots of pictures. Grab a snack.

Well, the Graves family took their first ever cruise this week. It was a quick and spontaneous decision to go, we are more than likely not travelling this summer because of having a newborn so this was our time to get in some sunshine.

Over all it was an awesome trip, coming home to 13 inches of snow was a shock, but at least I was tan :) However, by Monday afternoon I had memorized the Serenity prayer because of all the things that went wrong....

We left the house at 4:30 Monday morning and arrived at our gate to get a call that our connecting flight was going to be 3 hours late, making us miss the cruise. Panic. No problem, nice Delta man switched our flight and our luggage and we were off to Atlanta and then Tampa. In Atlanta I asked the nice Delta lady to make sure our luggage was on our flight "oh yes, I see it right here, no problem".

We arrived in Tampa to not see our luggage get off the belt. Panic. Delta never transferred our luggage and therefore it would not arrive in Tampa until 2 hours after the ship sailed. At this point, I was tired, pregnant, hungry and on the verge of a meltdown. Since our luggage would not get to us before we got to Grand Cayman, Delta had a reimbursement of $250 and so we made the best of it and decided to buy what we could on the ship.

We were able to get the toiletries we needed to make due, a pair of shorts and a tank top, and a men's swimsuit...but they didn't carry women's swimsuits. At this point I was done, I lost it. A sweet Carnival lady saw what had happened to us and found me later....sweet sweet Janine from South Africa brought me her swimsuit so that I could at least go to the pool and do our excursions. What a blessing. I wouldn't have picked out this suit, but I was thankful for what I could get.

The top of the boat as we arrived.

Part two of the story. We found at Monday night's dinner that the formal night would be Tuesday. Panic. Well, we said our Serenity prayer again and went to the gift shop to see what we could put together. I found this lovely beach coverup for my formal attire and Josh got some linen pants and a blue shirt.
We successfully snuck into dinner with our attire and flip-flops without getting kicked out. As soon as we sat down, one of our waiters laughed and brought his buddies over, and as he was pointing to Josh's shirt he said, "look, this looks like the shirt we wear when we work on the pool deck"! Thank you.

Grand Cayman Island

We went to the 7 Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, it was gorgeous.

Yea! We got our luggage. (I hugged it) This is the dress that Megan Martin wore when she was pregnant and then Julie Mize when she went to Mexico for her trip before baby.

My favorite little towel buddy.

Cozumel, Mexico

Pancho's Backyard--the best guacamole and salsa I have ever had. ever.

Josh went on a scuba dive and I went snorkeling.

Sunset in Cozumel.

Beautiful sunny days. And no, my belly is not that big, it was just windy.

For those of you in Michigan, this is the sun..I know, crazy right?

Last night of dinner with our amazing waiter Torcado. Torcado always knew that Josh wanted double portions of the bread and I wanted an iced tea with my dinner and the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert.

So that about sums it up. We had a great time, read books, ate well, and soaked in the sun. I can go on any trip with Josh though and have a blast.

Merry Christmas friends!