day at sea

Our last day of the cruise was spent at sea. The pool gets crowded on the sea day so we went down early and staked out our spot. We spent a lot of time in the sun and I'm happy to report there was no major sunburn. I'm not ashamed to lather my face in white sunscreen. I just wish I would have rubbed it in a little better.

This float cost us $8 on one of the island's. The pool water is salted and chlorinated so Morgan wouldn't get in without it. We had a miserable time when the water did get in her eyes.

We opted for lunch in the dining room instead of dinner that night. We knew we wanted to go to the "show" that evening and we had free drink coupons we could only use at lunch. I'm all about saving seven bucks. Addison picked up this crown kit in the gift shop at Atlantis. She wore it any chance she could on Wednesday. Morgan perfected her coloring skills on this trip. She even colored on the table cloth a couple of times.

A decent picture of me and my dad, even though he hated every second of it.

That night we made it to the early show in the theater. Much to my delight it was an 80's themed show. Me and the girls jammed through the whole thing.

No pictures please.

The last towel creation was an elephant.

We had such a great time. I wish the girls would have went to the kids camp they offer, but they wouldn't let parents past the gate and my kids do not go to strangers that easily. If I would have had five minutes to introduce them it might have been different. They did go to Camp Grandpa one night which allowed Michael and I to go out on the ship and be adults for the evening. We even got to sleep without interruptions. The girls had a blast doing crafts and playing games in Grandpa's room. They schooled my dad in Go Fish. We'll definitely be doing the cruise again, but I want to give it a couple of years. By then the girls will be older and things might not be as hectic. Who knows what we'll do next year.

ice cream

The girls pretty much lived on ice cream while on the cruise. I didn't mind. When it came time for meals they ate like usual. Meaning, they ate like birds. I threw some fruit in there. I think that's a strawberry and some pineapple on Morgan's plate.

By the end of the day 2 they knew exactly how to get to the ice cream machine. Addison was almost tall enough to do it herself.

This was the view while they enjoyed their ice cream.

Addison took this picture of us.

Nightly towel creation. They really liked the frog. I should have used the towel to wipe the ice cream off of Morgan's face.

nassau, bahamas

We didn't want to pay money to do an official beach excursion, so we asked around on the ship and were told it was only a 10 minute walk to the beach. With two little ones in tow that turns into at least 15 and then add about 10 more for the walk home. We made it there and the kids enjoyed the water. Morgan and more of her fabulous poses.

After the girls had naps we took a cab over to the Atlantis Resort to check out the aquarium. The girls thought they were big stuff in the cab.

The aquarium is pretty amazing. There were sharks and fish bigger than Morgan.

The manta ray was our favorite. It was probably bigger than me.

Just us with the fishes.

One last picture before getting back on the ship. This is definitely one of my favorites. My dad doesn't like to be in pictures, but it was nice to have him there to take a couple of family shots for us.

formal dinner

We don't get dolled up much, so I was excited to put on a dress and heels for the formal dinner. Of course we had to get a family photo. Morgan's doing some kind of weird pose again, but it's cute.

The girls ate about 4 pounds of butter and 20 pounds of ice cream on this vacation.

Dressing up put them in a good mood for pictures.

I love these girls more than anything.

Each night in the dining room they would sing Happy Birthday or Happy whatever to someone. Addison asked me what was going on and then started joking that it was her birthday. Our waiter Oscar overheard our conversation and five minutes later he came out with cake, a candle and a group of people singing Happy Birthday to her. Addison was so embarrassed, but it was the sweetest thing. After that Oscar spent 10 minutes at our table constructing a jumping paper frog out of the kids menu. He was super sweet and always referred to the girls as 'princesses'. There are some special people in the world.

The towel creation that night. I have no clue what this is so if anyone can tell me they might get a prize. Not really, but it would be nice to know.

freeport, bahamas

We woke up Monday morning and had breakfast outside. It was fun to watched everything as we were pulling into the dock at Freeport.

While most people were disembarking and off on the island, we decided to stay back for awhile and enjoy the pool. There was no crowd and so the kids could actually swim. For some reason they wanted to play with ice. I had to refill often, but since it was readily available I let them play until their hearts were content.

The ship also had some water slides. Morgan was about 2 inches too short to go down them and they wouldn't budge on the height requirement. We would take turns sneaking away with Addison. This was the first time she's ever rode big slides like this and she had a blast.

After a quick lunch we went to the island for some shopping. The girls got these little totes and the ladies were nice enough to put there names on the back of them.

It was cheaper to buy soda and alcohol on the island so, we did. Coke for the girls, pina coladas for us.

Then we all took naps before the formal dinner. They were much needed.