Our "Babymoon" Cruise

Babymoon: (noun) a vacation taken by a couple that is expecting a baby in order to allow the couple to enjoy a final trip together before the many sleepless nights that usually accompany a newborn baby.

For our babymoon, Jordan spoiled me with a wonderful 5-day cruise! A cruise is every pregnant woman's dream--all the food you can eat, 24 hours a day! I definitely think I finally gained a few pounds. Ha ha!

We left early Saturday morning from Leesburg to drive down to Tampa. It was only a 5 hour drive, so not bad at all! Here we are on the ship, the Carnival Paradise, leaving Tampa Bay!

Once we had eaten some food (because you have to eat a TON of food on a cruise; it's the rule!), we decided to play giant chess! I totally want to get one of these chess sets. They are so fun! I won, by the way. 

I was pretty lame that night, though. We were both tired so we went to bed early. After we had eaten a bunch more food, of course.

Day 2 was just a day at sea. I don't really remember what we did. We ate. We hung out by the pool and read books. I probably took a nap. We ate more. 

That night was the formal night, so we got to dress up. Also they served lobster and shrimp for dinner, which I loved. Dinners were kind of awkward, though, because we had to sit with this other young couple who were...not so friendly. They weren't mean or anything but Jordan would ask them questions and they would just give really short answers. So we all just ended up pretending the other people weren't there. It was weird.

Anyway, here's me and Jordan all dressed up!

When we got back to our room, we had a cute little elephant waiting for us! 

We went to sleep early because we could get off the boat at 8 am at the Grand Cayman Islands!

We were some of the first people off the ship, and we went over to a local dive shop where we rented a locker for our snorkel stuff (we have our own snorkel stuff! How cool are we?) and then swam around to see all the fishies! We saw a ton of fish. It was really cool!

After we snorkeled for a couple of hours, we caught a bus (which means white van driven very scarily) down to the seven mile beach. We had lunch at a little restaurant on the beach. We got conch fritters for an appetizers and they were oh-so-good!

The sand was so pretty and the water was really warm!

I love Jordan's hair in this picture!

Gorgeous! I want to move there. And we actually saw a guy walking his two Australian Shepherds down the beach, and I'm sure Lexi would be happy to move there as well.

The next day, the ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico. And apparently I stopped taking pictures, which is a bummer. But we'll have to make do with what I have. 

I had really wanted to swim with dolphins during this cruise, and I was really sad when I found out that NOBODY will let pregnant women swim with dolphins. Apparently the dolphins know you are pregnant because they can hear the baby's heartbeat with their super sonar or whatever and then they want to come be your friend...which I guess puts you at risk because then they can bump you or something. Anyway, basically nobody wants to get sued.

So I decided that I wanted to swim with sea turtles instead. Instead of paying to go on the excursion like normal people, Jordan decided that he would just figure out how to get us to where the sea turtles were. So when we got off the ship, we took a taxi to a ferry, took the ferry to Playa del Carmen, and then got on a really sketchy bus which took us thirty miles away to Akumal, where the turtles were. There is no way I would have allowed all this if Jordan weren't fluent in Spanish, but it all worked out in the end.

Anyway. When we got to Akumal, I was starving, so we had lunch on the beach. Jordan got these taco things that he's been talking about forever. I can't ask him what they were called because he's not here right now, but boy, was he excited about them!

I got chicken flautas, and they were soooo super yummy. Mmmm.

After we ate, we put on our snorkel gear and headed out to find a sea turtle! But first I got bit by an angel fish.

Me: Jordan! Look! Fishies!

J: Yep. I think they are angel fish!

Me: They keep bumping me!

J: I'm sure it's fine.

Me: Look! They are following me! I'm like their fearless leader!

*pause to put on swim fins*

*scream* Ahhhhh! One bit me!

J: No way!

Me: Yes it did! GO AWAY! *splash splash splash*

And seriously, it did. I have a little mark on my knee.

So we got away from the mean angel/demon fish and snorkeled out to the coral reef. We saw a ton of cool fish, then finally we saw a big sea turtle! He swam right by Jordan and then we chased him. He was pretty fast, though.

After we were done snorkeling we decided to shop. I really wanted to get something for the baby, but hardly any of the little shops had things for little boys! They had the cutest little dresses, but Jordan would ask them in Spanish if they had anything for little boys and they were always like, No, sorry!

Finally we were heading back to the ferry and I saw a little Mexican shirt! I grabbed Jordan and I was like, "Look!" Which of course is the wrong thing to do because those Mexican shopkeepers will attack you like sharks. Anyway, we probably didn't get a very good deal on it, but I think it's a cute little shirt.

Here we are on the ferry back to the Cozumel. We're smiling but oh-so-tired!

There was a cute little towel stingray waiting for us when we got back to the ship! I'm glad we didn't see a stingray in the ocean, though. I would have been scared.

Here we are being all tired n' stuff. We got back to the boat around 8 pm and I was wayyyy too tired to do anything, so we took showers and watched TV. Yep. We live a wild life.

The next day was our last cruise day, and it was just at sea. They had a towel folding class in the morning which you know I had to go to! Please ignore the fact that I'm not wearing make up in these pictures.

Jordan learning the art of towel-folding.

Jordan's cute elephant.

Our love swans! Awwwww.

On our last day, the ship was rocking like crazy. I didn't feel super well, so we just took it easy. We laid by the pool and read, and played another round of giant chess, and mini golf (Jordan beat me at both). It was pretty uneventful, but very relaxing.

That evening we went to a comedy show, which was pretty funny, and then we sang karaoke!  I was going to make a video of us but Jordan forgot the camera. Whoopsies. I sang "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood and Jordan sang Give it Away by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also got a fancy little (virgin) drink, which I'd been wanting for the whole cruise, so yay!

The next morning we got off the ship and then drove home. Lexi was ridiculously happy to see us, like always! 

It was so fun and relaxing and nice to get away. It was just wonderful to not have to cook my own food and take care of everything! Who knows when we will be able to have a getaway for just the two of us again? We are super excited to be parents but it's so nice to be with my Jordan!