Bryce and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary. The morning of our anniversary, I wasn't feeling well, so I went into the doctor and found out that I had strep throat...fun! I started my medicine that night before we went to dinner and it really upset my stomach.
We went to dinner at Chili's and then came home and watched Grown Ups. During dinner, we reminisced about the day we got married and the fun little events that happened during our honeymoon!
*it was 14 degrees outside the day we got married
*we had a lunch at the church in smithfield
*Shayne, Neal, and Kami destroyed our little CRX with KY Jelly
*we spent "our first night" in the Lake Powell room at the Anniversary Inn....there were stars on the ceiling and the tub was set inside a little rock cavern with a little water fall running off the rocks
*The second night was spent at the Old Rock Church
*we went skiing with the family that day (Neal skiied on small skis)
*we drove to College Station and I showed Bryce around A&M campus and took him to all the good restaurants
Overall, its been a good 10 years. Of course we have had our ups and downs but we have grown closer to each other over these years and I am thankful that I have a loving and kind husband, who treats me good. I look forward to the next ten years!
Carnival was able to pull right up to the dock, so that was alot better than being tendered into the port. We always had to have our Carnival "fun passes" and ID's to get on and off the ship.
We got off the ship around 10 am and the women went shopping for most of the day. Each store had pretty much the same things. They were full of T-shirts, mexican vanilla, hats, rattles, and lots of little toys for children. I collect nativity scenes, so I was able to find a mexican one!
I was able to bring Cooper back a bracelet with his name on it. I also got him some sea shells, a dragon, turtle, and a whistle. Most of it was junk, but Cooper treasures it all. It's kind of fun to try and talk them down on prices. Holly was the best at it. In fact, Kristyn always asked Holly to help her barter for an item; "one dolla"!
While we were shopping, the men grabbed a taxi and headed to the scuba place. They were certified in a few minutes and then went on a 20 foot dive. They had a great time. Bryce was taking a picture of a poisonous stone fish, when it swam at lightning speed and bit his finger. He ended being fine, but it kind of scared him at first because it happened so quickly.
I think most of the men thought that scuba diving was one of their highlights of the cruise. For the most part, they all picked it up pretty easily and they said the water was so clear. In order from left to right: Bryce, Aaron, Adam, and Jason.
After the men made it back from scuba diving, we went to lunch at a local mexican restaurante. The food was great but kind of pricy. We took a few pictures under the palm trees and then started back to the ship.
We had dinner again at 6 pm that night. We were blessed to have a great head waitress, Catherine, and waiter Reynold. Catherine is from the Philipines and was heading back to see her 6 year old son. Reynold was from Haiti and was retiring the next week. We sang him a retirement song and got him a peice of cake with a candle in it. We grew to know both of them really well.
We got up early, ate breakfast and headed to get in line so we could be tendered over the islands. We spent the first part of the day shopping along the main street there in the Caymans. We visited the Hard Rock Cafe, Diamonds International, and the Cheeky Monkey. We bought a few souvenirs for our kids.
The next part of the day was spent out on the beautiful blue ocean. We took a small platoon looking boat out to the middle of some sand bar and got to swim or stand near the sting rays as they swam in and out of the area.
They don't have it roped off but the sting rays come into the area because they know they will get food. We got to feed them squid. Their mouths are on the bottom of their bodies, so they would just suck the squid right out of our hands.
Then we got to kiss them for a picture. They were kind of slimy to the touch. We were told to "shuffle" our feet instead of pick them up so that we wouldn't step on them and get stung. The males are small and more irritable than the females.
We also got to go snorkeling for 30 minutes out near some reefs. This was a first for many of our group, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. It always takes some getting used to at first because I tend to hyperventilate when I go under the water.
It was just fun to be able to swim out in the ocean, especially in water that is crytal clear!
We had to be back to our ship by four so we wouldn't get left behind. We got back to our rooms, showered off all the salty water, and headed up to dinner for our 1st Formal night. We ate lobster and shrimp for dinner and it was so great.
We were really blessed to have good weather all but one day. The motion sickness didn't seem to affect us too much until the last day. 
Bryce and Aaron sang "Endless Love" to one another during kareoke time. Although they didn't know the song that well, it was still funny to watch them sing to each other. Made us all laugh!
Finally, the bus came and picked us up. He drove us up to our Cruise Line, Carnival. We unloaded all our lugguge and headed inside to set up our "Fun Pass Cards" (ship credit card) and get ready to board the ship.
We ended up being on Deck 1, which was at the bottom of the ship. I was actually presently surprised at how nice the rooms were. We unloaded our stuff and headed up to find some food and to explore the ship. There were 10 floors and we decided to take the stairs while we were on the cruise. WE didn't want to gain the average 2 pounds a day while on the ship!
Our boat left Miami at 4 pm that day. It's so crazy to watch these gigantic boats manuever in the water. We ate ice cream as our ship sailed on pass some other ships.
Every night they would have a show of some sort in the Ivanhoe Theater. Its amazing they can have a room this size on a boat. We spent lots of time in the Theater watching the "Carnival hookers, I mean, dancers", the marriage game with Roger and Luann, Marcus Anthony, and the Battle of the Sexes Game.
Our ship also had a big screen on it. They played movies twice a night up on the balcony. One night, we went out and watched part of "Leap Year." The weather was perfect and it was nice to just kick back and relax on the beach chairs.
We played the card game, "Five Crowns" and then went downstairs to play "Around the World" on the ping pong table. After a few rounds of that, we headed back upstairs to finish the night off with the CBS countdown on TV, sparkling cider and confetti that the Walkers brought for everyone and lots of yelling and hugging and cheers!
It was alot of fun and the company was great. Its nice to be able to get together with a big group of friends like that, and know that everyone gets along. The kids even stayed up till midnight!
....MAKE perfect german pancakes for dinner (this is one recipe I dont want to learn because you are the only one who makes them for us) 
.....STEAL the comforter on our bed every night (and I end up with all the sheets)
.....OPEN the car door for me when we go out on dates (I still like this even though we have been married ten years now)
.....ENJOY the outdoors with me and the boys (whether we are camping or 4-wheeling)
