Southern Caribbean Cruise

The last week of April, Tyler and I went on an amazing trip to the South Caribbean. I guess you could call it a babymoon, aka the last time we'll go on a trip for at least a year or more without baby girl :) This was by far the longest and farthest I'd ever been away from my babies but it all went great. Jackson and Abbie spent 7 days with Grandma and 3 of the days with Grandpa too. They were so excited they hardly noticed we were gone. OK I think Abbie noticed a little bit, but Jackson had the week of his life it sounds like. We were able to get text and picture messages every day except our one at sea day (Tuesday) and even face-timed with them a few times. Vicki was so great to come out and take the week of work to be with our kids! 

We went to the first bit of church on Sunday morning, then left early while Abbie was in nursery and Jackson was in primary. This made the goodbye far less dramatic than it could have been at home which was probably best for all involved, especially me.

We got a direct flight on Jet Blue so made it down to Puerto Rico late that afternoon and boarded our ship, the Carnival Valor, an hour later. Probably one of the strangest feelings was flying without kids for the first time in over 4 years. I have been on probably 50 or so flights since Jackson was born ... all which included Jackson. And then Abbie too. So flying without extra bags, strollers, diaper bags oh ya and kids was pretty nice. I read, did Sudoku, watched a movie, closed my eyes - what is that?

Where is all our stuff?

Ready to go to Puerto Rico!

In the harbor - Old San Juan!

The ship didn't even leave the harbor until 10 pm so a little different schedule than the typical Florida cruise. It was a 7 day cruise with 5 different stops, the first was St. Thomas the next morning. I really didn't take any pictures on the boat. It was nice enough, but seriously we weren't there because of the boat - we went for the islands! We had a late dinner, watched the boat start to leave the harbor and waved goodbye to a dark San Juan. Then we headed downstairs, went to bed and woke up in St. Thomas :)