Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Penguin Dance!

Our vacation wasn't just on shore excursion after another. There was plenty of time onboard as well. Camp Carnival was onboard! The girls just loved it. It was sort of like super crafty preschool, with the fun-o-meter turned up to the max.
They held a talent show on our last day at sea and all the kids from the different age groups got to do something. The 2-5 year olds performed the Penguin Dance as a group. Only a few of them showed up for the actual show. Aevyn was in it for about 26 seconds and then she took off. Luckily, I have photographic evidence that she was there:



Myah stole the show though. She's a natural born booty-shaker

Excursion 4

Honduras!
The stop I was most looking forward to. Amy and my dad went diving, leaving us Griffins with Brian, Kylie and Bobo. The "get off the boat and hire a taxi/tourguide" thing was working for us, so we decide to do that again.

The first stop, obviously a scenic one.
I don't know that child, but he sure is cute picking flowers, huh?

Meeting the monkeys at the Iguana Farm



Getting brave and touching the iguanas- on their spikes
In the backseat of the van, Kylie and Myah made up a song. They even choreographed it for a birthday performance for Kyle (it was his birthday)
Look outside at Honduras!
Study everything that you can see
Trees!
Monkeys!
Iguanas!
Iguanas!
Iguanas!
(The only monkeys and iguanas that they saw were at the iguana farm. Monkeys aren't even native to the area, I think)




Myah's new BFF, our tour guide

UnBelizable- Excursion 3

Belize- and I only get two pictures!

The view from the shuttle boat on the way back to the cruise ship

And the view on the shuttle boat

I'll just have to tell you what we did.
Bobo and Pop joined the Hellmichs and Griffins for our choose-your-own adventure.
I'll leave out the part about waiting forever and ever for our taxi to leave the port village area. The point is, we left the port area and ventured out through Belize City and on to the caves. Somewhere beyond the coast and away from any urban developments, we hiked into the jungle on crappy rental watershoes and floated on intertubes through pitch-black caves, ending back at the safety of our taxi van.
Carnival Cruise lines no longer offers this tour through their reservations department because of a freak accident that happened recently. They are currently reviewing the safety of it all. That sort of makes it sound like we were in for a real wild time, right?
We found it to be a very mild ride though; no drama beyond the frantic calls of "BUTTS UP! BUTTS UP!" whenever we drifted as a group over an exceptionally shallow part.
Myah sat on Kyle's lap, while Aevyn lounged (and subsequently fell asleep) on mine.
We didn't go through this company, but this is the same thing we did : http://www.cave-tubing.com/

Monday, December 8, 2008

Excursion 2- Cozumel

Another day, another exotic touristy adventure
Off the boat without a cruise-sanctioned booked excursion. We are prepared for anything.


The Hellmich are adventurous, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants kind of people too. We let them tag along with us.
Our big adventure consisted of getting a taxi/tourguide and circumnavigating the island

Punta Sur



Discovering the world of the Ancient Mayans. Cozumel was their fertility island (I sincerely pray that it's magical powers are no longer applicable to my modern lady parts. If there is any baby making magic left on that land, I choose to donate my portion to Amy)


Not only did our tourguide/taxi driver drive us and educate us, he fed us too! When it was time for lunch, the conversation went something like this: "Are you hungry? I can take you to my mom's house"
So we ate lunch in our tourguide/taxi driver's mom's living room. We enjoyed every morsel, and no one got sick from Mexican ice or anything crazy like that.

Back at the tourist village at the cruise port.
Suddenly everything is exceptionally clean and colorful. And conveniently Duty-Free

You say smoking does WHAT?!?!?!

Myah's Mexican Beauty Maker
I'm such a mean mom, I made Myah negotiate the deal herself (The lady wanted $20US, Myah offered $10...Myah got what she wanted!)
Cousin Kylie approves


A goodbye Mexico, silly-seat snuggle

Life on the Boat

Day 1- getting ready to sail. Two girls acting goofy


Days 2-7
Life on the boat is fun. Bobo is there


Cousin Kylie too. And wind- lots of wind

**Just a side not- Hmmmm, there's something freaky about this Kylie picture. It's like deja vu. I know I've seen that face somewhere...but where? Oh yeah- Freaky

Wildlife!

How many baby monkeys can you spot in this picture?

Exploring the ship
Last day, same as the first- girls being goofy

First Excursion, Part II

With the kids safely tucked away in the Camp Carnival, we grown-ups were free to do what we really wanted to do- get into a hot, over crowded taxi van and go to Hell



Back on the boat, the girls were tranformed into some sort of Blue's Clues creatures.
Myah obviously loved this a whole heck of a lot more then the pirate thing

Aevyn was feeling a little shy about it