Monday, January 14, 2008

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . Part One

So, this is what happens when you have things happening and you keep saying to yourself that you will blog that post tomorrow. Before you know it, you have three or four bloggable life events take place and you haven't revealed the first in the blogosphere. Some I guess would say that would be procrastination, (I would be in that number too!), and the result of that - Segmentation! Here goes part one of a innumerable segments. Thanks for your patients. Tune back later for later installments of the same theme, just different things that have happened with the Hines!

. . . Since Thanksgiving . . . We Went on a Cruise!!!

The Hines side of the family decided that we would try to do a family cruise this year in celebration of Don's great uncle & aunt's anniversary. We were offered this instead of our normal Christmas gifts. So, we opted for signing up! There were 38 others of Don's extended and immediate family that came along. This was the first cruise we had been on and hopefully it won't be the last! We loved it! We went to the Bahamas. We had two ports of call - Coco Cay (the Island that Royal Caribbean owns) and Nassau. We also had a day out to sea to finish off our five day cruise.

Some of our favorite things included: snorkeling, buffets, soaking up some sun in December, buffets, corny cruise ship shows, CHOCOLATE buffet at midnight, our waiter, buffets, towel animals, chocolate on our pillows, men's belly-flop competition (which we can proudly claim was won by Don's very own cousin) and of course lots and lots of food!



Grandma at the first meal - she was quite thrilled!



Grandma on the last night! Whew! What a hum-dinger! Just kidding! She just allowed us to mess with her a bit!



Safety First! Don is ready for the mandatory evacuation drill before we shove off!



Upon entering Coco Cay



The ship and us . . . This is December?



The guys.



The gals.



Captain's Dinner - Don, Katrina, Grandma (a little more presentable), and Dad



The Towel Monkey!



The Atlantis Resort - Nassau, Bahamas



The immediate family.



I'm relaxing on the beach, doodling, while the guys were playing in the water.



The one, the only, Jordan - Bellyflop winner for our cruise! He was up against about 10 other guys all out-weighing him by at least 100 lbs. Jordan sealed the victory with a moved called the "flying squirrel". Hilarious!



Mountain climbing? Yup! On the ship!



The best waiter on the ship - Glendon from Jamaica! He was amazing! By the first night, he had our names memorized! It somehow got out that Don was in seminary and preparing to be a pastor. From that time on he was known as "Reverend" by Glendon! It was so cute and funny (since that is Don's least favorite term of endearment for that position!)



Uncle Tim & Aunt Carol



Tabitha & I - The minor & the pregnant lady - yup - alcohol free! =)



The final food farewell - our last breakfast together on the ship!



Tourists!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm officially mad at you purely out of jealousy.

However, I do feel comforted that you admitted openly to procrastination... this makes me feel better about the 5-foot high laundry pile staring me in the face as I doodle around on the internet. :)

Kristin said...

Cruises are so much fun!! I'm glad you made it to your ports of call. When Russell and I went this Oct/Nov we went to Key West, but thanks to Hurricane Noel we did not go to Coco Cay and Nassau, but ended up in Cozumel Mexico instead! We still had a great time with friends and got pure vanilla. :)

Did you go into the Atlantis Resort? Arbonne International goes there often and pays for the consultants to go.

I'm still waiting to see a picture where you look pregnant.

S said...

cool pictures! I'm so glad you guys got to go before the baby comes and since Don's so close to being done! I will say I was a little envious thinking about Stephen going with the Sr trip to the Bahammas and I will be home...waahhh. But from what I hear next year's senior trip that we'll be accompanying is going to be even better than this year. So I just have to hold my horses. :)

Tim, Kristen , Megan, Emily, and Anna said...

Well, two things...One I am glad that one blogger is a procrastinator just like me. I am still trying to catch up from Christmas and such as well!! Second, I am glad you had a wonderful time on the cruise. Tim and I would love to go on a cruise sometime. We will have to see though. Those were great pictures and I am with Kristin... I would love to see a picture of you when you can see your cute little pregnant belly!!!!!

T.J. and Shannon said...

I enjoyed the pics (again, j/k). Glad you had such a fabulous time! Maybe someday T.J. and I will go on a cruise.

jeileenbaylor said...

Yahoo! It looks like you had such a blast ! I'm so glad that you get to do that before the little one came :o)
You look gorgeous in that black dress! oohh la laa!

cranny + b said...

yay! Thanks for those pictures!! What a great time!!

Andy and Davina said...

Sounds like fun! Cute pic of you doodling on the beach :)
Davina

Karis said...

I too am so behind on blogging. I haven't posted our Thanksgiving pictures yet so that's about how far behind I am too.

How wonderful that you got to go on that cruise. It looked like a blast. Those are the things to do before children!

Katie Barker said...

Wow - i'm with everyone else - GREAT pictures. What a super fun trip. You and Don look so cute together in all your pictures. Glad you could go.