Spring Break Part 2

Friday, March 29 we pulled into the Bahamas late morning. We started out the day eating breakfast in the dining room (you can choose to eat buffet style up in the lido deck, or more formal from a menu in the dining room). I couldn't get enough of the orange juice, I'm not usually a big oj person, so it made me chuckle when I was practically chugging the stuff from champagne glasses! We wandered around the boat a bit, the kids got to play in Camp Carnival again for a little while and we just enjoyed the sunshine :)

We ate lunch at the lido deck before going to shore. They had this deli that made fresh sandwiches to order and it was super yummy! The fresh fruit and salad bar was also fantastic. If I hadn't still felt queasy when eating, I would have eaten several plates full! The kids especially enjoyed the soft serve ice cream machines and learned quickly to operate them by themselves.

The disappointing thing about the Bahamas is that we really only had a half a day there. We couldn't go to shore until after 12:00, and left that night. Any excursions or sites to see just didn't seem worth spending money on for such a short time. We had looked at Atlantis, the water park especially looked fun, but it would have cost about $100 a person for a couple of hours and I would have much rather preferred to have spent that money at Disney.

We ended up walking to a nearby local beach, and that was perfect for our kids. They had live music, it wasn't too crowded even with 4-5 other cruise ships in port, and it was free! Being at the beach was my favorite part of the trip. It's my happy place. All the former drama just kind of washed away with the waves, the sun felt terrific, and I loved watching my kids enjoy the water and the sand. I couldn't stop laughing when Lexi experienced the salt water for the first time.

We stayed long enough to be content, and also get ourselves nice and sunburned even though we all had sunscreen on. We had just enough time to walk back to the ship, shower, and try to be beautified in our formal wear and wearing happy faces for the family portrait Bob wanted to take before dinner.

My sister-in-law, Robin, made the 4 little girls princess dresses and matching bow ties for the 4 boys. Lexi was thrilled with her dress and loved just twirling round and round. I still managed to zip into my purple formal, but just barely ;) I was definitely conscious of my baby bump but tried to just ignore it and enjoy the evening.
 

Dinner that evening was fun. Most of us picked strawberry bisque to start with and oh man, was it yummy!! Lexi even requested a bowl of her own after trying mine. Bryce and I decided to share a plate of the prime rib and a lobster tail. I think we had baked alaska that night for dessert. The best part of the meal was definitely the strawberry bisque, the rest was just so so, but it was fun to be together and the kids loved being around their cousins and grand parents.

After dinner, we quickly changed. I could not handle all the walking in my high heels! And after getting burned, jeans and a t-shirt felt way better than a formal organza dress that didn't fit so well anymore. The kids were eager to get to camp carnival and we were eager to drop them off there :) We met up with most of the other siblings to watch the ship's version of "minute to win it".

 Nick was selected to strap the box on his behind and shake a bunch of tennis balls out of it. We never knew he had such a hidden talent for it! Even Chris was picked to name as many state capitals as he could in 60 seconds and we were able to help him. I was completely wiped out after that, so we grabbed Lexi and went to bed.