New Years Cruisin'

Can you believe it's APRIL?! (AND STILL SNOWING??!!)  Ahhhhh! There is so much Howard Family news to catch up on!

Our winter is filled with musical season and I'm happy to report that both the high school and middle school shows were successful. But that news is for another day...:)  Now-let's go WAAAAY back to my last post right before Christmas...

This year as our Christmas gift for all five of us was a CRUISE! It's been a few years since all five of us vacationed together. Every winter we dream of sunshine and getting away from the snow and cold in upstate NY. So Dad booked us a cruise! Mom and I knew in advance because we needed to request time off from work, but for Olivia and Grant the Cruise News was a surprise. We had a really great and relaxing trip-which started with a middle of the night limo ride...

We left the Monday after Christmas. Our flight down to Florida left early Monday morning so we needed to leave our house around 5:00AM to make it to the airport in time. Our limo picked up the five of us (and our one suitcase a person) and we headed off. We landed in Florida and were on the ship by lunch time. We stayed in two rooms-boys in one and girls in the other.

Girls room-Olivia on the loft

Boys room!

 Olivia and Grant immediately signed up for kids activities and were off and running by the first night-making friends, going on scavenger hunts and playing video games in their "clubs". We spent two days at sea traveling down to the Cayman Islands. Mom and I mostly read which is what we love to do! I managed to get through 2 1/2 books and was happy to just spend time relaxing. Dad played his favorite game-->poker. We ate, we slept, we played some cheesy trivia games.

Grant, Olivia and Emily at dinner

Mostly we just took in the view of the ocean:

Here's a picture of Mom and Dad-and Cuba waaaaay in the background (left):

The ship was smaller than the one that Mom, Dad, Grant and Olivia were on a few years ago but it still had a water slide and some other fun activities. 

Olivia and Grant usually had so much to do that the only time we were all together was at dinner. 

Grant enjoying the bread in the Dining Room

Sisters!

We landed in Cayman Islands and had a planned excursion that all of us went on to the beach. Olivia had to read "Lord Jim" for English over the break...so he came along too:

Olivia on the beach-thrilled to be reading "Lord Jim"

It was actually pretty cold and not very sunny the day we were in the Cayman Islands. The beach was rocky and not as pretty as other Caribbean islands we had been to before. We made the most of it though, checking out the many sea urchins:

 slathering on our SPF 100 and of course playing photographer for Olivia's infamous jumping photos:

Ballet training at work on the beach

Grand Cayman is a tender port which meant we had to ride a small boat to the shore instead of docking directly.

The tender boat and then our Cruise Ship in the background

We made one other stop on this cruise and I was especially excited it...Cozumel, Mexico. There is much speculation about the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 and we arrived just as 2010 was ending! I knew I wanted to see some of the Mayan ruins on an excursion. Due to the short time we were there, it wasn't possible to go all the way to see the Chichen Itza ruins but Mom and I did travel to see the ruins of Tulum. Dad, Olivia and Grant decided to go on a cavern diving excursion that included driving around the city in a Jeep:

driving in style around Mexico

They went swimming in a cavern-which was a very cool experience but not great for photographs.

a sort of double exposed Olivia and Grant swimming in the cavern

After the caves, they headed out to the beach where there was plenty of time for more jumping photos:

Meanwhile-back at the ruins, Mom and I explored the village of Tulum. It was a Mayan village constructed between the 13th and 15th centuries. Set on a cliff, Tulum had a natural line of defense against invasion. There are several structures that are in good condition. Due to vandalism you may no longer get very near the structures...or see some of the fresco art work inside...this made me appreciate seeing and standing in the Colosseum even more! We had a great tour guide who told us all kinds of interesting things about the Mayan culture.

Mayan people were short of stature...but Mom and I didn't have any problems fitting beneath the short door frames into the village!

By the time we got back to the ship it was night. We had a great time exploring the Mexican Riveria and would recommend it to anyone wanting to travel to a warm spot! When we got back on board we had another day spent at sea. Grant and Olivia had a great time meeting new friends in their "kids clubs". Mom, Dad and I met up for "tea time" in the piano bar-->how fancy. That night we celebrated New Years Eve on board. Here are some photos of us in our party hats:

We all had a great trip relaxing and spending time together. It was tough to come back to the cold reality of Upstate N.Y.---and school work:

Lord Jim making another appearance at the end of the trip

 But the Howard Family doesn't rest for long--so I'll post soon of our January activities and hopefully one of these days actually keep this blog up to date! Happy (belated) New Year!

The Happy Howards