Okay - so here is our weeklong, wonderful vacation condensed into 10 pictures and a few words. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The ship was great - it had a flowrider that you could surf or boogie board on, a climbing wall, an ice skating rink, a boxing ring, a theater that rivals the CSI auditorium, complete with an orchestra pit and trap doors, it had 3 dining rooms, 2 buffet rooms, about 20 bars, 6 separate restaraunts and a royal promenade where they had parades and dance parties. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep. Every night there was a big production show - comedians, broadway type plays, musicians, magic acts, ballet dancers, and flyers (where they latch them selves onto rope and fly around on stage) pretty cool stuff. They also had a love and marriage game show (which is where they have 3 couples, one newlywed, one middle, and one married a long time - then they take away the men and ask the women questions, then they bring the men back and ask them the same questions to see who gets them right - then vice versa, the women leave..... - it was really funny!!) They also had a game show type thing called the quest. the divided up the audience into 10 teams and then had 4 captains per team (derek and i were captains for one of the teams) then they would ask for certain things from the audience (ie. a business card, a ladies purse - empty, a guy wearing a ladies bra, two guys holding hands - skipping around the floor, etc.) for one of them, they needed someone to do the worm so i volunteered (it was my first time and i bruised my chin up pretty bad...) but our team won and we got some free tee shirts :) very funny though! our cruise director - kinda the MC of the ship - was very funny! he was from the UK and just absolutely hilarious - derek wants his job now. Our three ports were 1. San Juan - where we did a walking tour of a castle. this was our least favorite port as it was kinda dirty and expensive. 2. St. Thomas - we did a sail and snorkel tour here and our sail boat was made to look like a pirate ship and we all got pirate tatoos and our guide were very funny too! we saw sea turtles, barracudas, and lots of other tropical fish - i also saw a hermit crab walking along the bottom of the ocean - pretty cool. we had an underwater camera so hopefully some pictures turn out well. 3. St. Maarten - on this island, we did a tree top adventure where they had 32 different tasks that you had to complete, rope swings, tightrope walks, wooden bridges, 9 zip lines, and other lofty things. this was really neat but they did not allow cameras on this excursion so we do not have any pictures of us zip lining or on st. maarten. this island is half owned by the dutch and half owned by the french. kinda interesting. this is where we bought most of our stuff, they had better touristy shops there and also some dutch stuff. i got my stroepwafels - don't worry! the alcohol there was also very cheap - derek bought a bottle of crown royal - normally 50 in the states for 15 there. a pretty good dea! he also got 4 cuban cigars. i thought we would have a problem with those through customs, but they did not even x-ray our bags when we got off the ship! i could not believe that! kinda scary! we got a few videos but i can't figure out how to post them. i may just put them onthe my space page and then post a link. unless someone knows how to post videos??

we missed you all especially on mothers day! shannon - congrats on your first mothers day! i know you are henry's favorite mommy! i have a card to send but did not get your address before we left :( it will be late.... hopefully i'll get it out soon!

julia - i can't believe you are done with school! enjoy this time :)

love to all!

sharon and derek