Ok, so as I’m sure anyone who has been reading my blog would attest to, this vacation post has gone on long enough! Sorry for the slow updates, but I’m just suspensful that way.

Anywho, so there isn’t really much to say about the voyage home – it was pretty much like the voyage there…lots of water and boat things to do! So…on to the pics!

So, that Thursday morning, Brad woke up feeling a bit under the weather…which we’ll get to later…so he ordered some hot chocolate to the room!

Morning Cocoa...

Here are a few pics from us hanging out after breakfast that morning:

The Mens

More Mens

Jeff, Me, Dad

Me and the Huz

A view of my goofy dad, Brad and Jeff from the bottom floor of the atrium area.

Helloooo!

So…that day’s activity for the boys consisted of participating in a 3-card poker tournament…my aunt was just gonna relax, so me and mom went exploring. I wanted to take her to all the parts of the ship that she hadn’t seen yet.

I'm on the Sun Deck!

The bow of the ship - interestingly enough no one is allowed on that little deck...I guess there's been too many "king of the world" incidents

So, after walking around a bit, we wanted to go find the guys…we made our way to the casino, but they weren’t there. I ended up asking a guy about the tournament, and he told me that they were about to start the final round in about 30 minutes. Then he pointed to a sign that showed who the finalists were…imagine my surprise!

Is that MY BRAD at the top??

We spent the next 30 minutes looking for the guys, but it turns out they were looking for us at that same time. Then we got distracted by shopping for a few minutes.

When we made our way back to the casino, Brad was up at the table playing, with Jeff, Dad and my Uncle Jesse all behind him cheering him on. Mom and I stayed back behind, I didn’t want to jinx Brad! So, Jeff kind of gave me a few play by plays to keep me updated…then, suddenly, Brad WON!!! Yay!

I get $500 and this little trophy!

Lol, can you tell he was proud of himself!?

Of course we had to go have a celebratory cigar (Remember I said he woke up feeling kinda sickly? Yeah, cigars and sore throats aren’t friends, kids, remember that!)

I'm a player, Baby!

That night there turned out to be a 2nd Captain’s dinner – I guess they had to think of SOMETHING extra to do on those two additional nights!

Handsome Moss-Men

My man looks good in a suit!

Jeff and Mom

Of course there was much merriment at dinner:

Let the dancing commence!

Mohammed...a little scary!

After dinner we all hung around to play one last round of bingo…which we had been having NO luck with….and we still had no luck! But as you can see, we went to bed shortly after that:

Is it time for bed yet?

And Thursday night’s towel monster…

Dinosaur!

You know, I’ll be honest at this point and say that I don’t really remember too much from that Friday. At this point everyone is starting to be ready to be home. Brad is feeling sicker, everyone’s packing, etc. We did go to the disembarking speech, where they tell you what procedures they’ll use to get everyone off the boat in an orderly manner. Then they brought some employees up to thank them for their great service!

Thank you, Carnival Peeps!

So, after much packing that afternoon, we got ready for our last fancy meal (we weren’t disembarking until 9am that Saturday morning). Some really nice people at a table near ours gave us a free bottle of campaign. Oh, and that was on Friday, May 8th, which was my parents’ actual anniversary!

Mohammed bringing us champaign...he looks like he's had some already!

Anniversary Cake!

Plus, Jeff, Brad and I had a surprise waiting for them in their room.

Where did THAT come from!?

Happy Anniversary!

From the Kids!

So, on to bed, and one last towel creation:

We Loved our Cruise!

Hehe, here is the LAST picture taken on the boat, while we all waiting in Mom and Dad’s room for our turn to disembark…don’t we look ready for it!?
(My aunt and uncle were in a disembarking group apart from us)

Ahh...tired but fullfilled!

The disembarking process was really easy! We were soon on the road to head home, which is probably the only un-enjoyable part of the trip. Brad at that point was feeling really bad, that morning my dad had woken up feeling kinda crummy too, and after about 30 minutes on the road I started feeling a tickle in my throat! So…the trip just seemed really LONG and we made a lot of stops. Luckily my mom and Jeff felt fine, so he drove us most of the way.

It was great to be home – especially the next day when we made it back to Abilene, but it was truly the best vacation I’ve ever been on, and I would go back in a heartbeat! I hope that we get to do another family trip like this one soon.

Thanks for bearing with me as I relieved my trip in an agonizingly slow way! I promise to have a “real life” update soon.

Bon Voyage!