Harens Head to the Bahamas!

The last 2 years, Michael and I have taken advantage of my Mother-in-Law's offer to keep the kids over spring break, and gone on 2 cruises. We had so much fun and after the first year promised the kids we would take them the next time. When we didn't take them the second year, they about revolted (though they had tons of fun at Grandma's house!) so we double promised that we'd take them and booked a room for 5 people right after we got home. We started the countdown, and for the next 300-some days talked about all the fun things we would do and watched videos exploring the ship and the ports we'd be visiting. We explained to the kids that our room would be exceedingly tiny (which is was) and that the ship would be massive (which it was) and that we would have tons of fun (which we did).

We left before sunrise the day before our ship left and drove most of the way to Jacksonville. After spending the night in a hotel room with three VERY excited children, we got up and drove the rest of the way to the ship. One of the kids took charge right away and owned that ship like it was their own, exploring away from us right away. One apprehensively stayed close to Michael and I for the first day and then joined the first in exploring and taking advantage of all the activities on-board. One, we discovered too late, gets a bit seasick (oops!) but with a steady regimen of dramamine was good to go. All the kids enjoyed the comedy shows, trivia, scavenger hunt, putt-putt, unlimited (mostly ;)) ice cream and hot chocolate, the tiny pool, the beaches, the FOOD...so much food..., and generally just hanging out together. Michael and I enjoyed watching the kids have fun, spending some much needed time away from everything except our family, and getting in lots of reading and downtime in one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. Michael also liked the unlimited ice cream and hot chocolate!

(all pictures posted with permission)

still not sure about this whole giant boat thing

i'll give you one chance to guess what's in that cup

one of many times we ate at pizza pirate, the 24-hour made-to-order pizza shop

leaving jacksonville

milo is perfectly demonstrating why he was the only one of us to not get a sunburn

michael has a thing for bridges, so this picture is for him

lots of time spent on the putt-putt course

sweet girl just taking it all in

recovering after getting sick, poor kid

first beach day ~ half moon cay

beautiful blue, clear water

this sand was "too soft", which apparently to the kids was a negative

the boat just drops anchor and we took a smaller boat to shore

back on the boat, all sunburnt and worn out from a day of doing nothing

my beautiful girl

my other beautiful girl

i didn't even realize there was a rainbow until i uploaded my pictures after the trip

our second beach day, in nassau

everyone is wearing a rash guard today...no more sunburn! 

this sand was much better for building 

we tied for first in game of thrones trivia, and the game was settled with rock-paper-scissors...as you can see, we lost

enjoying some chess while their nerd parents played trivia