Family Vacation

This year, we went on our third cruise adventure- the Carnival Conquest. We went with the Bivens' family (Karol's sister & family- Shelly, Judd, and Evan) and the Barrios' family (Lonny's sister & family- Gayle, Pedro, Brittany, Payton, and friends Sarah & Channing). Our vacation began on Friday, June 26 with a quick trip to Uncle Steven's in Richardson. We enjoyed spending some extra time with Steven, Kristine, Mary Margaret, and Kate and then headed to Galveston on Saturday, June 27. We arrived around 6:30 pm and had dinner at Casey's Seafood and ice cream at Marble Slab before settling in for the night.

Sunday morning, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel, made a last-minute stop at Academy, and headed to the cruise terminal. We boarded the ship around 11:45 am but couldn't go to our rooms yet, so we ate lunch on the Lido deck and hung out until our rooms were ready. We spent the afternoon exploring the ship, organizing our room (well---- I organized with much resistance from my family!), and awaited the much-dreaded muster drill. Dinner was one of the hi-lights of each evening and this evening was no exception. We sampled lots of good food (some more than others!) and settled on one of our favorite desserts (warm melting chocolate cake- yummy!) before heading to the nightly show.

Monday and Tuesday were "fun days at sea". We took advantage of the many onboard activities such as scavenger hunts, bingo, karaoke, and the pool. Mallory and Evan continued their tradition of seeing how many ice cream cones they could eat throughout the week.










We arrived at our first port of call on Wednesday. This was our first visit to Jamaica and we chose a tubing excursion. We weren't able to see much of Jamaica, but enjoyed some time tubing through the jungle and learning about the Jamaican culture.

On Thursday, we arrived at my all-time favorite stop- Grand Cayman. Everything was so beautiful and peaceful and we all wished that we could have stayed longer. Grand Cayman is famous for Stingray City, so we chose this excursion. We boarded a boat and traveled about 40 minutes to a sandbar where we saw HUGE stingrays. We learned that many years ago, fishermen fished near this sandbar and came to the sandbar to clean their fish. The stingrays began coming to the sandbar to feed and have learned that boats bring food. They swim freely among people and don't hesitate to be petted and held. After our stingray encounter, we headed to Rum Pointe Beach where we experienced more of Grand Cayman's beautiful blue water and white sand. We had a quick bite for lunch and then headed back to the ship.

On Friday, we made our final stop in Cozumel. The guys booked a deep-sea fishing excursion, so the girls (and Payton and Channing) headed to Playa Mia beach for a day of fun and sun. We played on the pedal boats, kayaks, water bikes, and rode on our first Hobie Cat. After the beach, we decided to do some souvenir shopping in Cozumel before boarding the ship.

Friday and Saturday were more "fun days at sea", but we were a little more low-key than earlier in the week. We took advantage of an opportunity for some R&R with trips to the spa, pool, and shows before our vacation came to an end.

We arrived back in Galveston Sunday morning, loaded cars, and made the drive home. Before we were home, talk of our "next" trip was already under way. We had so much fun and feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to make such special memories as a family.