Caribbean Cruise

WARNING - This post is WAY TOO LONG but I couldn't cut anything else out - SORRY
We didn't plan on going on a cruise this year but our good friends said "hey, let's go on a cruise together" and, of course, we jumped at the chance! Here's pictures of us, the Andersons and the Adairs at dinner one night.

Raith is on the left, Kent in the middle and, of course, my handsome hubby!

Julie is on the left (married to Kent), I'm not sure who the cheeser is in the middle and Tori is on the right (she's married to Raith).

It was so fun to be with two awesome couples. We all got along so well and I have not laughed so much in a long time. I almost wet myself watching Raith (the guy who never shows public affection) get hypnotized and hug a total stranger among other things. We ate, laughed, worked out, ate some more, laughed and watched some really good shows. We are already looking forward to another vacation together when the kids get a little older. (Cerise and the Judd's, this is your 3 year notice for watching the kids - just kidding!!)

We went on a 7 day Western Caribbean out of Miami. The weather was so nice and the scenery - wow!! It only rained on us once while we were on Roatan Island, Honduras, but the temperature didn't drop and it actually felt good. We left from Miami on a Sunday, spent Monday at sea and got to the Cayman Islands on Tuesday morning. Dana and I decided to do an exploratory dive on Grand Cayman. An exploratory dive is where you can scuba, but don't have to be certified - you just don't go down very far and have a guide right with you. I have to tell you that when we had to sign the waivers and fill in an emergency contact, I got a little nervous. But, we stuck with it and it was AWESOME!! I wish we lived closer to some sort of scuba diving - I would definitely get certified. Here's a pic of us getting our scuba gear on.

We went down to about 30 feet (which was just right for me) and got to explore a ship wreck off the coast of Grand Cayman. The visibility was about 98% - almost like being in a swimming pool. This is what the water looked like...

The only thing I decided that was bad about the cruise was that we didn't have enough time at the places we visited. There are so many things to see and do and we just had to pick what we wanted to do most. Anyway, on Wednesday we were on the island of Roatan, Honduras. It was a gorgeous island - completely lush with some great beaches. It didn't seem like there was a middle class on the island - people were either extremely impoverished or really wealthy. We rented scooters that day and hung out at a beach club for a while (see picture below) and then went snorkeling at Half Moom Bay and saw some awesome fish and coral. The scooters were so much fun - we looked hilarious in the "Beetle Bailey" helmets! Note, I didn't attach THAT picture!

Okay, moving on, we went to Belize on Thursday and it was another completely gorgeous place. We decided to take a tour of the Mayan ruins that day. Our tour guide was really nice and told us a lot about the Mayan people. The pictures of the Mayan Ruins DO NOT do them justice. The temples were so huge and we didn't even get to see the best ones - they are too far away and harder to get to.


Now moving on to Friday...Our last port was Cozumel, Mexico. There were so many things to do on Cozumel and the water and beaches were so amazing. We ended up going snorkeling in the morning and had a great guide. He even found an octopus for us - it "inked" when he picked it up.

After snorkeling, we took a taxi to a beach club and we were just going to lounge and read all day. When we got to the club we found out that they had a parasail boat so we all (except for Julie - she got to relax) went parasailing. I'd been once before and had a blast so I wasn't prepared for the windy conditions and I got a little motion sickness. It was still really fun and the view was amazing from about 400 feet in the air!! Here's all of us parasailing - sorry the pictures aren't that great!

This is me coming in - I think I look a little green =(

Here's Dana - he didn't get motion sickness but he also didn't bounce around quite as much as I did.

Here's our friend, Tori. She was so much fun to cruise with. She'd never been on a cruise before and had this same HUGE smile on her face the entire week!

Here's Tori's husband, Raith. He was so funny before he went up. He was checking and double checking all the harnesses to make sure he'd know how to bail out just in case something went wrong. Unfortunately, Tori and Raith also got a little motion sickness.

Here's our friend, Kent. He's the adventurous one of our group and it seems like he's been everywhere and done everything at least once. He's a certified scuba diver and we relied on him a lot to hook us up with fun things to do - thanks, Kent!!

Well, here we are at the beach club on Cozumel just before getting back in a taxi to get back on the boat. I swear, the scenery looked like a fake backdrop!

Raith & Tori - they got married just a few months before we did. They also have a son that was born on the same day as Alli!!

Kent & Julie - Dana grew up with Kent and has know him for about 30 years. The first time I met them was at their son's baby blessing. That son just turned 16!! Wow, I feel old.

Okay, here were are. I had just gotten up from a little nap and I don't think my face was awake yet.

So much fun in 7 days!! We were at sea again on Saturday and it was nice to have a relaxing day and not get off the boat. The food was so good on the boat and most nights I ate more than one dessert. If I ever get a hold of their recipe for "chocolate melting cake" I will invite everyone over to my house for dessert!! I also have to say a huge THANKS to my sister, Cerise, who watched Alli for me and had Connor and Emma for the weekend. Also, a huge THANKS to the Judd family, who watched Connor & Emma and then had all 3 of our kids for the last 2 days. We love you guys so much and we wouldn't have enjoyed one minute of our cruise if we didn't know our kiddos were having so much fun and getting loved on by you guys - THANK YOU!!!

Swimming in April??

I don't know where the month of April went - things were certainly busy at the Shumway house. Connor is playing coach pitch, Emma and Alli are both in dance getting ready for their June rehearsal and - OH YEAH - we went on a Caribbean cruise the end of April!! I'll do a separate post with some fun pics of the cruise but wanted to share these cute pics of the kids and our first time swimming this season. All of the kids LOVE the water and maybe next year we'll put a pool in. For now, we have lots of friends and family that let us use their pool. The water was only about 73 degrees that day. I knew Connor wouldn't care, he's a fish and the temperature doesn't seem to bother him. I was on the steps with Alli talking about how cold the water was and the next thing I knew she jumped off the steps and went in. The look of utter shock on her face was hilarious. She was freaking out about how cold it was and was looking at me like I'd pushed her in. I probably shouldn't have laughed so hard, but I couldn't help it. Anyway, after thrashing around a little bit, both her and Emma decided it was warm enough and they were off. Here's some cute pics of the kids before they start to get their Arizona summer tan!

Connor is such a stud and he LOVES his scuba goggles even if they do look a little(?) goofy!

Emma is still my most timid in the water and hopefully she'll get over that this year. She is finally swimming pretty good on her own, she just needs some major work on her form (or lack thereof =)

Alli loves to swim and can actually swim about half the length of the pool without floaties. However, I was not willing to follow her into the deep end (too cold for me) so I made her wear floaties. I can't wait to see her take off this year and gain some more confidence in the water!