Cruising Mexico

Super quick recap:

Friday (two weeks ago) Ian and I went to Jeff City and watched the BHS kids run at the State Track meet. Jake was an alternate as he still couldn't run with his pleurisy and the boys 4 x 800 finished 14th. Ian and I had a fun trip together and took in the capital building after the meet.

Saturday was a pack and prep the house day for the week long vacation. Got in a light 2hr ride.

Early Sunday morning departure and a drive straight thru to Mobile, AL (12hrs). The boys always travel great so it was a fun trip. Spent the night at a hotel then boarded the Carnival Elation the next morning; pretty seamless and before you know it we were on the water... let the relaxation begin. We did watch for signs of oil spots as we headed south through the Gulf, but wasn't able to notice anything. The picture to the right is by far my favorite of the trip as I had no idea of the sign posted on the left...

The below is a shot of Ian's kids club which he loved (notice the 10+ PS3's with every sports game available). He ended up hardly playing any of the video games as they had so many activities for him throughout the boat that video games were far down on his priority.

The boat had tons of activities for all of us and we took advantage of each.

If you ever watched Bill Engvall (comedian) then the below will make sense, if not then don't sweat it...

First stop was Cozumel and we headed off to Paradise Beach for the day. Pretty cool place as it had tons of water toys/inflatables, snorkeling, kayaks, trampoline with acrobatic attachment. We played hard pretty much all day.

Below is a dump of various group shots from the week.

Our second stop was Playa Del Carmen and that pretty much had us hitting some shops for our favorite wrestling headgear and then to the beach for some fun in the surf. Ian and I spent most of the time perfecting (or at least trying) our body surfing.

Jake wasn't much a fan of the surf as a little motion sickness was hitting him so he and Deb spent a fun day wandering the beaches and streets of Playa.

Below pic is of Ian and I waiting for the results of the family scavenger hunt on the boat the last day. Deb, Ian, and I took home the gold (literally a gold plastic boat trophy). Jake's pic showed what he did best - Rest n Relaxation; of course he was the only one out until 2am every night...

The rest of these are misc. pictures from the entire week.

The last evening Deb and I spent a large portion of it on the upper deck simply watching the water go by and the sun settting. It was a great week with my gal.

Left Mobile around noon on Saturday and made our way to Memphis for a quick stop before calling it a night in Jonesboro, AR. We had been to Memphis a handful of times, but never with both of the boys so we took them by Graceland (passed on the $30 per entrance fee, go figure), down to Beal Street (while it was still light and decently calm), and ate at the Kooky Canuck and witnessed the 7lbs burger (we didn't have the 1hr wait for it to be cooked so we opted for 1/2lbs burgers). He dropped by the Peabody Hotel, but missed the duck parade. Went up on the roof and took in the city from above. Ian was stoked to see where the Memphis Cardinals play and most of all the FedEx Forum where the Memphis Tigers and Grizzlies play.

After a late morning wakeup we were back on the road and heading home (4 1/2hr drive). Took a quick break at Mamoth Springs, AR to see what 9 million gallons of water per hour was all about; let me tell you THATS A LOT OF FLOW!

Finally made it home mid-afternoon; everyone was happy to be back, but at the same time bummed to have our trip completed. It is great to have everyone together for an extended period of time and always fun to have Jake (being a teen) still like to hang out with us; his time with us (as a kid) is quickly flowing by.

Kind of creeped me out to see the lawn and shrubs out of order (yes, it had only been a week) so the rest of the evening was spent tidying up and of course playing ball with Ian.

***Videos will post as time permits***