Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dental Grads go to the Caribbean 2012

  We were so lucky that my parents came to Ohio to watch our kids while we went on our cruise. We had a couple of days with them before we took off. This is at the Climbing park in downtown Coloumbus

I love this photo of Beckham and his Grandpa Skip and Grand Barbie




Looking for turtles and fish


I could not believe that my parents were able to come to Columbus twice before we moved. We took advantage of every second that we had with them and they took our kids on so many adventures while we were gone. I think our kids really had to adjust when they left because they had so much fun with them. Such a special opportunity for them to get to know their grandparents even more and have these wonderful memories.

CARIBBEAN CRUISE!!
Some of our Dental friends decided to celebrate Dental School Graduation with a trip to the Caribbean Islands. It was worth every penny and we can't wait to plan our next one. Also, we couldn't have gone with a better group of people!


I loved the blue brick streets of Old San Juan. We got to explore the city before we departed on our ship that evening. I'm glad we decided to fly to Puerto Rico and then take our cruise. It added so much to our trip.

                                                      
                                                      








Our Ship. The Carnival Victory. She was good to us!


Setting Sail our first night


First stop was St. Thomas. This was mine and Jay's favorite day of snorkeling

A little scare of rain but it passed right by us








Just about 4 1/2 months along with Nelli. Perfect time to be prego and go on a cruise






                                      

Muscle Man!

First Night of dinner. We got to watch the sun set right out our window. We could not have gotten a better table

They sang "Happy Graduation" to us. Yes, with their accents and all. It was awesome

We loved going out on to the balcony at night. It was so peacful

                                      

Everywhere we went they wanted to take our picture so we gave in and did a photo shoot
                                                       

One of my favorite things we did on the cruise was play games at night. Jay would usually explain the game in a different accent each night and we would laugh the whole time eat lots of ice cream and stay up way too late

Elegant Night

Jordan and Heather


Nate and Britini

Ryan and Taryn

I can't believe I don't have a couple pic of Nelson and Amy but they are sitting right next to me

This was by far the best meal we had on the ship. Mmmmm

This was the group favorite desert

Our whole clan on Elegant Night







Yummy fresh Pinapple juice on a catameran. Could it get any better?





I can't believe that I put sunscreen everywhere on Jay except for his chest. Good thing it went away within the next two days


Walking the streets of Barbados

Tasting my first tamarin




Jay was hilarious during the trip. I think we all got a kick out of all of his accents while he showed us card tricks and played games.


Touring the island of St. Lucia



We loved our guide Big Dave

Our first time Kayaking. Why did it take me so long to do this!!

                                       

Jay surprised me by swooping me down and giving me a really good smooch! No complaints.

Found a jelly fish
                                               
Nelson and Amy

We kayaked down about three different bays and decided to park our kayaks and explore the beach. It was really fun to have it all to ourselves

We ate at a fun restaurant on the beach for lunch


Some of the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed here in this bay

We had so many different options on our menu so we tried so many different foods. for the most part everything was mm mm good. Jay loved the escargot but I thought it had a good taste just the sliminess was not the best. 

Almost each night we would go to the comedy show. Of course we would go to the kid friendly comedian. We were a little bit nervous about what we might get if we went to the other :)   

St. Kitts
This was such a fun day of exploring the city. We headed out with Nelson and Amy and spent hours walking around finding awesome churches and little shops

We got to climb to the top of this clock tower by a small door we found



On our way up the clock tower

Our view from the top of the tower

Those were some steep stairs. We climbed about 5 of these to get to the top


On our way back to the ship we found a dental office and had to check it out

Some of the crown options they offered in the office. It made us laugh

I don't know what is worse. . . prosecuted or persecuted!



A little friendly competition is alway good for the guys. Jordan wasn't too happy when he saw jays masterpiece but we all got a good laugh

Our last stop... St Maarten!!
We walked around the city in the morning and decided to come back to the boat for lunch. Right when we were done it started to rain so all of us decided to go back upstairs and have desert and then go to the beach. I couldn't have been timed better. The clouds parted and it was a beautiful last day at the beach. Everything just seemed to go perfectly for us this entire trip!


Our Beach

Catching a crab





The snorkeling queens!

Our home for a week :)

Our last dinner on the ship. We loved our waiter. He was so great

We were so sad that our cruise was over but we were all starting to miss our kids and we did have one more day to explore Puerto Rico before our flights took off the next day. 
We woke up and decided to rent some cars and drive to the rainforest. It was raining so hard that i was very glad that Jay was driving. It was quite an adventure just getting there.

It was so beautiful and well worth the money to drive over an hour to the forest


Our view from the tower

It actually ended up being perfect that it was just raining a bit. It made for a really nice, cool day for hiking



This was our last night in Puerto Rico before getting on our flight in the morning. Our hotel was right by the beach so the guys had to do some night body surfing

My first taste of Mufungo. Mmmm it was sooo good. We decided to go out to eat at a restaurant that many suggested. We were glad we did. Right after that we headed over to the airport to catch our flight home.

Until our next cruise.... 

1 comments:

Tiffini Blake said...

Oh, I just love your photos! I just found more to add to your slideshow....I love that it is so hard to choose between all the fabulous moments captured :)