As many of you know, we recently went on a long awaited and needed vacation.  We took a cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse with my parents (aka Grandpa Buzz and Grandma Stephi).  We went to a few ports of call and had a wonderful time.

We started out on April 5 with a drive to Delray Beach, Florida to spend a couple of days with Great Grampa Milt.  The drive was suppposed to take about 11 hours and everything was going along as planned until we got south of Daytona Beach when my stomach acted up and we all got to spend a couple of hours hanging out at the local Walmart (which by the way was the biggest and nicest Walmart we have ever seen).  If you are going ot get a stomach ache on Highway 95, we highly recommend this as your stop.  As public restrooms go, they were top notch.  Both the boys and Jeff were very patient with me until I felt better.

Waiting at Walmart

Once we were back on the road we headed to Boca where we spent the first night of our vacation in the Residence Inn.  It was a very nice room however we were so tired we pretty much all crashed.  In the morning we ran to the lobby for free breakfast, showered and headed to Great-Grandpa Milt's house.  We spent the day with him, Stephi and Buzz and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Neil.  Did some swimming at the clubhouse pool and went to the Hamlet Country Club for a very nice Seder.  I slept with Josh and Jeff slept with Ryan but ended up on the floor because he was getting kicked too much.

Saturday morning we packed up and headed for Miami to get on the ship.  Once we got on the ship we found our cabin and headed up to the Cafe for lunch.  After lunch was the lifeboat drill then at 5pm we set sail for San Juan Puerto Rico.  The seas were rocky that night and Ryan and Jeff were not too happy (Ryan was dizzy) so I went to the gift shop and bought pressure bracelets.  They worked and we were back in business.

Rather than bore you with the blow by blow of every day I will now hit the highlights.  We went to San Juan, St, Maarten and St. Kitts.  Did not get off the ship anywhere (well, Jeff and Ryan got off for 15 minutes in St. Maarten and decided it wasn't worth it).  Spent our days playing in the pool, playing Bocce in the lawn club (yes a real lawn), and eating tons of ice cream which I think was the boys favorite part.  We saw a couple of really good shows with the boys which they enjoyed and met a very nice family from Davidson (where Jeff works) who we hope to see now that we are home.  The only disappointment about the actual cruise was the food.  It was a little too fancy even for me and when Josh ordered Grilled Cheese and tomato soup from the kids menu we were shocked to find that the grilled cheese was actually a crouton with a little piece of cheese on it in the soup.

Once we disembarked, we jumped in Jeff's car, hit the local Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and headed for home.  This time the delay was not Tracy's stomach but Ryan's and then 2.5 hours of non-moving traffic in Georgia and South Carolina.  14.5 hours later we were exhausted but home.  Had a great vacation but will try to NEVER drive highway 95 again.

Oh, lastly, Maggie and Jaxx had a great vacation too.  They got to spend 12 days at Camp Bark.  It is a camp for dogs with a camp like schedule and everything and anyone who knows me knows I think that is awesome.Jaxx had a rough start but then it was smooth sailing.  They did arts and crafts and made us all a picture of their paw prints as a gift.  They can't wait to go back.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.  I will be updating the main page too.