Cruise

We are back from our cruise and I'll have to say it wasn't the best I've ever been on. The weather didn't cooperate very much. :-(

We left Sunday - no issues. Monday we were at sea and it was cool and cloudy. Tuesday we were in Cozumel. It was somewhere between 73 and 77, cloudy and some rain. We went on an excursion that had us driving some ATV's (fun except for when we got rained on) and then we were supposed to go snorkeling. We decided it was too darn cold to go in the ocean so we hung out in some hammocks on the beach. Based on what the people said who did go, we made the right choice. It sprinkled on us a little bit while on the beach and then rained pretty good on the way back to the parking lot for the ATV's. Wednesday we were in Roatan, Honduras. It was pouring when we got there. It let up a little bit and we went out to meet our planned excursion guide. He gave us the option of backing out because the rain had made the water a little murky and we were going snorkeling. We opted to continue and then it poured on us during the walk to the bus. However, we decided to continue and it actually got sunny and nice. We went snorkeling and kayaking. The snorkeling wasn't as good as it should have been due to the murky water, but it was still cool. Roatan has the second longest reef in the world (second to the great barrier reef off Australia). As we boarded the bus to go back to the ship it started pouring again... so we had just enough nice weather for our excursion. Works for me. Thursday we were in Costa Maya. It rained again. We got off the ship briefly at one point when it let up and wandered around a little bit. We got sprinkled on a little bit, but not too bad. Friday and Saturday we were at sea. Friday was cool and cloudy. Saturday was pretty nice, but still not pool weather for me. We found other things for entertainment on the ship - played cards, watched a cooking demo, watched a couple movies, worked out (yay for us), played mini golf, various other things and of course ate a lot. :-)

It was nice to have a vacation (although maybe in hindsight a little too close to Christmas vacation). We missed the baby of course and we were so excited to see him. As luck would have it he was napping when we got home on Sunday afternoon and then he woke up in a bad mood, so crying. Darn it... didn't get that... "I'm so happy to see you" smile. LOL.

Trip to the Zoo

We made another trip to the zoo while we were on vacation. Perryn seemed to actually notice some of the animals this time - mainly the ones that moved around a lot. Here's a couple photos:

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

And baby falls asleep...

From Perryn - December 2008

Another New Toy

Grandma gave Perryn this "ride and stride" lion. It can be configured as something to hang on to and walk with or to ride on. Here he's checking out the lion's face with Grandma. It makes noise when you push it's nose. (I'm not sure why we want to teach the baby to hit a lion on it's nose, but whatever - lol).

From Perryn - December 2008

A picture of him riding it with Uncle Mike's help:

From Perryn - December 2008

Playing in the Exersaucer

Here's a photo of Perryn playing in his exersaucer, which he still enjoys, but is quickly outgrowing.

From Perryn - December 2008

Picture of the Day

From Perryn - December 2008

Perryn and Grandma C

Grandma C and Uncle Mike were visiting from Christmas to New Year's. Here's a pic of Grandma and Perryn.

From Perryn - December 2008

New Toys

As you might guess Perryn had just a few gifts under the tree this year. This is a picture of him playing with one of the new toys that is keeping him entertained these days. It's an activity table that he can stand up at and play with various buttons and things on top of it.

From Perryn - December 2008

January - wow

Well, made it through the holidays and can't believe it's January already. I managed to get quite a few things knocked off my to do list while I was on vacation. I'm back to work today since it's now January and I didn't want to use any 2009 vacation quite yet. It's a little bit of a slow day though since there are lots of people on vacation. So, I've found myself surfing the web for information on our upcoming cruise. We leave next Sunday (1/11) and I'm getting so excited. I've been looking up information on the ports of call today - we're going to Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; and Costa Maya, Mexico.

The good news is the weather forecasts are looking good so far. It should be around 60 when we depart Galveston on Sunday and although the forecasts aren't far enough out to look at the details for the ports, it appears that they are hovering around 80 degrees most days.

Costa Maya was hit by hurricane Dean in 2007 and just recently opened back up to cruise passengers (November I think), so I'm not sure what to expect there. I've seen some mixed information on the boards I've been combing through. They seem to have been hit very hard and since they were 13-14 months without tourism revenue, things are not ideal. This is a port that was specifically built for cruise passengers, so this has been quite devastating. The good news for them is the cruise lines are forking over a lot of money to rebuild. However, I've read prices have gone up considerably in the closest town to the pier and the locals are so desperate to start making money again they are relentless with their selling tactics. Gary and I are not ones to just walk around and "shop" though so I don't think that will be a problem for us. We have an excursion booked in the morning to "discover scuba diving". We'll have the afternoon to explore if we want, but it could be just as nice to stay on the ship when everyone else is off exploring. We'll see.

I'm also excited to finally get to go on the Voyager of the Seas. I've wanted to cruise on it since I took my first cruise. At that time it was sailing out of Florida and has just recently relocated to Galveston (for part of the year). So, I'm excited about that as well. There are certainly bigger ships these days, but she's pretty big and has some things that older ships don't have. It should be fun.

9 Month Photos

This seems to be one of the favorite photos from the 9 month session (of the people who have seen them). Perryn wasn't very smiley again this time, but he managed a small one in this photo. This was taken on 12/22. I had a heck of a time getting those shoes on his feet. They didn't seem like they were too small, but just really hard to get on with a baby that doesn't know what a shoe even is. I almost gave up, but got them on just in the knick of time. Suffice it to say, they will only be worn this one time.

From Perryn Studio Photos

Picture of the Day

From Perryn - December 2008