Dolphins!

As promised, here are some of our Dolphin pictures! Here is Salvidor showing off his jumping skills!

Mark feeding Salvidor

Dancing with Salvidor and Sean

Salvidor giving me a big kiss! A little salty but very caring.

And the best part, giving us a hug! It was amazing.

Dry Land

We are back on dry land today. At .55 per minute for Internet access on the ship we figured we'd wait to post anything until our return. We are staying another couple of days in Orlando and have free Internet in the hotel room, yea! It has been an incredible 5 days and I'm not even sure where to begin. The above picture was when we first got on the ship. We are right outside our state room. Yes, people could walk right by our window. Needless to say, the curtains were closed most of the time.

When we arrived on the ship Pampered Chef had waiting for us in our rooms T-shirts, backpack and a bottle of champagne. We asked the PC desk if we could return the champagne and get sparkling apple cider instead. They said they would take care of it for us. But to our surprise they replaced it with an Alcohol Removed Chardonnay. I had never even heard of such things. When we popped the cork we thought for sure we would break something in the room. We poured our glasses and toasted. We both tasted it at the same time and had the same response, YUK! It was the grossest tasting liquid I have ever had. I guess it is an acquired taste I won't be trying again.

On the first day before dinner Pampered Chef hosted an appetizer gathering by the pool for us. Between achievers and their guests there were about 750 Pampered Chefers on the cruise. If you can't tell in the picture the ice carving is of the PC Chef Hat logo! They looked amazing.

When we returned to our rooms that night Pampered Chef had sent to everyone's rooms a plate of chocolate and strawberries. Boy were we feeling pampered!

We were looking forward to Day 2 on the cruise in CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island. We were just waking up at 8am to start getting ready when the Captain came over the intercom to let us know it was too windy and we could not stop at CocoCay. So we moved onto Nassau. We spent the day exploring the ship. On the top decks it was really windy, but we found a spot that was sheltered but we could still enjoy the sun. It kept hiding behind the clouds and would get cold, but we sat and read and slept for about an hour and half. Oops, the sun was strong than we thought and Mark and I both burned the top of our legs.

We pulled into Nassau around 4 pm. We passed this cute little lighthouse on the way in. This is when we started to realize the incredible turquoise colored water. It is so beautiful! And they huge buildings behind the lighthouse are part of the Atlantis resort. We had time to do a little shopping that night and get gifts for the kids. I hope you guys are being good so you get your gifts when we return!

On Wednesday morning we headed back into Nassau and over to Paradise Island where we took another boat to the Blue Lagoon Island and the Dolphin Encounters. We thought this would be something fun to do, but it far exceeded our expectations. We were able to get into waist deep water and play with the Dolphins. We experienced a heart-warming kiss, a hug, a dance and opportunities to rub down the dolphins. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. It was awesome!!! We took some pictures with our waterproof camera so we still need to get those developed. But the above picture is of the dolphins swimming around the bay. We were so glad we did this excursion.

We then went back to Paradise Island and got to see more than we planned when we took a wrong turn. Got an extra mile of walking in, but got to see the incredible yachts docked at the Atlantis Resort Pier. These yachts were HUGE and amazing! We finally made it to the public beach. Isn't that the prettiest entrance to a beach!

I was determined to get into the waters of the Caribbean. We were still not sure if we would be able to go to CocoCay the next day because of the weather. So we wandered into the water. I was only planning to go in to about my waist, but the current was stronger than I realized and oops, there I went, under the water. I managed to loose my sunglasses and flash a few people at the beach. Mark was on the shore enjoying the whole scene. Luckily for everyone, our camera doesn't take pictures that fast, so we don't have proof of me flashing the beach! Hopefully you can tell from these pictures how incredibly beautiful the water was. And the water was so much warmer than the California waters we played in as children. I loved it!

And of course, what would a cruise be without towel animals in our stateroom. My favorite was the monkey dangling from the ceiling!

Thursday morning dawned and the sea had calmed. The ship can't get close enough to dock at CocoCay, so they put down their anchor and ferry us to the Island. Mark and I signed up for snorkeling and we got our equipment first thing. Neither of us had snorkeled before. So we put on our equipment and started to head out. The bay is really shallow so we were able to walk out ways before we started swimming. We discovered that claustrophobia and snorkeling masks don't go together well. So Mark hung back and I kept going. Royal Caribbean has put a sunken ship and plane out in the bay. I loved swimming out and seeing all the fish. Hopefully our pictures from the waterproof camera will show how beautiful it was. I was starting to not feel so good. The gentle waves were rocking me a little too much and it was almost time to switch out my seasick patch. I guess I should have done it before coming on shore because the fishes ended up with a little of my breakfast to feed on, oops!

The rest of the day was spent laying in the sun, sipping virgin CocoLocos, enjoying the barbecue, collecting shells and just relaxing. It was a wonderful day.

Here is a picture of our ship (Sovereign of the Seas) from the shores of CocoCay. You can see from the clouds another storm was starting to come in. The ship took off around 4pm and we started to head back to Florida. What a wonderful couple of days it has been. The food on board was incredible. It was so much fun being with so many other Pampered Chefers on the ship. And I love having someone make my bed every morning! As we went to bed that last night the waves were really rocking the boat. By this point I had put on another seasick patch so I was able to be lulled to sleep. Mark said it got pretty rough after I fell asleep. But we woke up back in Cape Canaveral and we had to say goodbye to our beautiful ship!

Pampered Chef shuttled us back to Orlando where Mark and I picked up the rental car we had arranged for and headed into Orlando. We are spending a couple more days here just relaxing before heading home on Sunday night. We did some shopping for Mark this afternoon. Seven new shirts and two new pants will give him a brand new wardrobe! Had lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Their portions are so big we brought half of it back to the room and had it again for dinner later on. Lounged by the pool for about an hour. Tomorrow we go shopping for my new wardrobe, I can't wait! And do whatever else we feel like doing!

We'll see you soon kids! Be good for Grandma Pat! Love ya!

Day Two!

We have been relaxing this morning around the hotel. We have to wait until 12:30 to get on the bus to head to the ship. I'm sure once we are on the ship and our Internet is no longer free you will not be getting so many updates!

Here are the pictures of us from outside Fishlips last night. We didn't have our camera so we had to wait for Christy to e-mail them to us. It is scary how connected we are even at the same hotel!

We enjoyed made to order omelets for breakfast. I loved the fresh spinach in mine! Then we lounged by the pool while writing postcards to the kids. We sent them to Grandma Pat's, so check the mail when you get there, kids!

There is a 60% chance (depending on weather) that the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch a mobile communications satellite for ICO North America at 4:12 pm this

afternoon. We are hoping to be able to see it take off while we are on the ship!

Bon Voyage!

We've Arrived!

Day One of our Pampered Chef Trip

We've arrived in Florida, yea!!! The flight was smooth and we love traveling with Pampered Chef. It is so fun to come off the airplane and have someone standing there with a clipboard waiting for you. Then they whisked our luggage away and boarded us on a bus for the 45 minute trip to Cape Canaveral.

They have us staying at Raddisson Resort at the Port. And they have us in a beautiful suite. We walked in and it kept going and going. Three rooms for just the two of us. And Mark can't wait to try out the Sleep Number bed. He may be wanting to purchase after a good nights sleep. We may even have time in the morning before boarding the ship to enjoy this gorgeous pool!

By this point in the day it has now been 10 hours since our breakfast of oatmeal. We've had a few snacks along the way, but dinner was calling. One of our traveling companions had scouted out a restaurant for us. How can you go wrong with a place called Fishlips! With 18 of us in tow (some of whom we just met on the airplane), off we went to eat seafood by the shore. My Seafood Paella was incredible and Mark loved his Prime Rib Steak sandwich. But the real entertainment was our Crab Leg Cracking lessons from Christy! I never knew she was such an expert and I never knew anyone could get so much meat out of a crab leg. It truly is an art. You go girl!

We loved talking with the kids for a few minutes today amongst the craziness. Glad you are having fun with Aunt Carole and Grandma & Grandpa. Love ya!

Stay tuned for more fun to come!