Virginia Beach Housewife: So Guess What...

Last week while you all were busy reading my posts, I actually sitting on this beauty:

Yep, my family and my extended family (mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, sister, and niece) were lucky enough to spend the week on the Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas touring the Eastern Caribbean.

As for those posts, well, I typed them up before we went because Josh gets super paranoid and doesn't want me alerting the entire Internet that we are gone for a week.

But more importantly, let's get back to the vacation. All told, I took about 365 photos over the week, and while I hardly plan to bombard you with all of them, I do have a lot to share obviously!

So let's start with the boat. We spent about 4 days "at sea," meaning we were stuck exploring all the ship had to offer. The biggest attraction, at least to the boys, were the pools, hot tubs, and splash park.

Of course, hanging out on the pool deck meant eating ice cream...lots and lots of ice cream! I had been on one cruise when I was 18 and remembered a real highlight being the round-the-clock, free access to soft serve. Well, turns out my boys (and by that I mean all three of them, Josh included!) were just as excited by that this time around!

Speaking of eating, my G-d did we eat...and drink...and take lots of pictures doing it! Seriously, y'all I refuse to get on the scale to confirm it but I must have gained at least 10 pounds.

Of course, we also made sure to take advantage of some other things on board. Colton LOVED the arcade (in fact, we used it as his bribery to take a nap...which worked once!).

We also made sure to try out the putt putt course (and for some reason my camera was really funky while we were up there, so sorry for the awful pictures!).

And Josh and Colton even hit the movie theater one day to take in Iron Man. Colton fell asleep about 10 minutes in (have I mentioned he officially boycotted napping for the week), but he thinks he saw it, so that's all that counts, right? And then on our last night on the ship, Josh and I took the boys poolside where they were showing Cars 2. Swimming + a movie...does life get any better?!?

And luckily the Kids Clubs were pretty awesome so Josh and I even got some time out by ourselves (a huge improvement over last year's trip to the Bahamas where babysitting was $40/hour!). And Colton loved that they painted his face each night: super hero one day, pirate the next (although he got himself kicked out before the pirate parade because he wanted it to be a "monster parade" instead and wouldn't stop crying...again did I mention he took one nap all week?!?).

Overall it was just really nice to wake up each day on the water. We spent a lot of time on our balcony. I even got through 3 (!!!) books on this trip, reading the vast majority of the pages overlooking the water as I crossed my fingers the boys would actually nap...

And, by far, the greatest highlight was just spending time and making memories with our wonderful family...both our unit of 4 and the extended unit. We are beyond blessed to be able to take a trip like this each year, and I love that the boys will grow up with these memories.