Cruise

We went on a cruise to Mexico for Su's 60th b-day. We went April 4-9. It was fun, funny, relaxing, memorable, and even a bit annoying at times! Sound like a normal family reunion right?
A big thanks to Bob for taking us on all this great experience! Rob's dad is such a great father and a loving husband to his wife and 8 kids. I am blessed to be part of the family.
We did miss Eric, Angela, and Jarom. Sorry guys maybe next time.

We had to do the life boat drill when we got on the ship. It is one of the necessary evils about cruise ships. We had to stand during the drill because all of the seats were taken. We were ready to head out of Galveston's murky waters and into the beautiful bluish-green waters.

The first night we took on karaoke! It was a blast! Dorias, Karen, Su and I sang and danced to Abba's "Dancing Queen" It was a lot of fun.

Mark was a commoner with this. He is very talented, especially with Madonna's "Like a Virgin." A couple of night later "the girls" got the courage to perform once again. This time Bonnie and Stephenie joined us singing, "Respect." Su had her tiara on with her pink boa for her b-day. We sang and danced while the ship rocked us back and forth. We almost crashed up on the stage. Everyone remembered Su from this night!

Michael was very brave and funny with his rendition of a rap song. We have it on tape! Stephenie was very brave as well and performed "God Bless Texas" A true Texas girl. We never got the rest of the boys up there- I am hoping next cruise!

Rob and I took some time to just enjoy the warm sun and relax on the ship's deck. The rest of the "Bell" clan played mini golf or just explored the ship. We got strawberry daiquiri's (virgin of course). It was a really nice afternoon.

Our second stop was to Cozumel. We went to a beautiful beach and snorkeled for about an hour and a half. It was beautiful and fun, but also very crowded. We saw some very colorful fish, and lots of other sea life. Rob was able to get a beautiful shell for us to take home.

We only had about ten minutes to dry off and get ready to go back to town for a little shopping.

Rob was thrilled to see they were selling fresh coconuts at one of the beaches. He loves the fresh milk which he acquired a taste for on his mission in Brazil. I tried some and was not so impressed, but he said it took him a while to like it as well.

On the ship they had an ice carving demonstration. it was a chef from the Philippines who used to carve wood and took up the art of carving ice. It was interesting to watch him transform a big block of ice weighing around 300 pounds to an Indian chief that weighed around 150 pounds. As you can see Stephenie and Karen had fun talking very seriously during the display. (What you talk'in about girls?)

It was fun to spend time with everyone and just hang out, or enjoy the shows, food, food ,and more food that the ship had to offer!

We had fun on formal night getting all dressed up and feeling elegant, or at least I think us girls did. Everyone looked very beautiful and all the guys were handsome. Rob and I had fun getting a lot of pictures taken by the photographers on the ship. They were great and very interesting to talk to. The staff on both cruises we have been on have made our experiences so special!

Lauren and I had a lot of fun before the cruise picking out a formal for me to wear on the formal night.

We finally ended up at David's Bridal in Fort Worth and found they had a pretty good selection of dresses. It wasn't easy finding a dress that was modest and didn't look too grandmotherly. Is that a word? Anyway, Lauren spotted this one on a rack and I thought I would try it on for fun. I put the black jacket with it and the sales lady of course made a pretty big fuss over how nice it looked together. I fell for it and she probably made a pretty good commission on the sale. I am glad I bought it though because it was fun to wear and Rob loved it which is the most important thing!!!