A Dream Vacation ~ The FINAL Chapter

I keep meaning to wrap up our vacation posts, but it takes so long to upload pictures, I keep putting it off.  But, today's the day.

Part one.
Part two.

After spending the day in St. Thomas, we pulled out of port to finally have calm seas. 

We spent the next day in St. Maarten / St. Martin.

We decided to rent Jeeps so we could find our own beach and explore the island.

The men negotiating the price of the Jeeps and who to rent from .... (stressful)

We had to put gas in both Jeeps just as soon as we got them.  Gas was over $10 a gallon! I couldn't believe it.  Then, I saw the name of the gas station ....

Yep.  Seems about right.

We found a really nice beach at a West*n Resort.  The Resort was so nice with a pool, snack bar and restrooms.  The people were so nice to let us stay there.

My only concern was how rough the water was! Here we're all trying to decide if we should stay and if the girls could swim in the ocean.  Once we found the pool and jacuzzi, they were happy to use those instead :)

After staying at the beach for awhile, we decided to explore the island ....

Then it was time to board the ship again :)

The rest of the pictures are from the rest of our days at sea ....

These ladies went with us.  Each one is very special to our family.  We flew with them to and from the port.  On this particular night on the ship (a formal night), we sat down for dinner and Olivia whispered to me, "Mom! Have you seen Joan? She is BEAUTIFUL!" (Joan is the one on the left.)  Olivia just couldn't stop talking about how beautiful they all looked dressed up.  She LOVES all of these ladies.  We all do :)

Eric and Emma danced every single night in the Atrium.  Emma LOVED this!

The girls had bunk beds and would take turns sleeping on the bottom.  They both loved this little 'reading nook' as Olivia called it.

See how calm the seas are? Peaceful :)

On these days, I was especially thankful to be away from cell phones, schedules, computers, etc.  That's the very best part of a cruise!

The girls spent two full days doing nothing but going up and down water slides.  They were exhausted but had so much fun!

 The second day, Olivia would take a lot of breaks :)

 Some of our crew trying the slide ...

 Rita ... screaming all the way down.

I was pressured into trying it.  Not bad ... I actually did a few times, as well as race Rita on the middle slides.  I won. :)

 Emma spent some of her time during the week at Camp C*rnival.  There was a breakdance group there called The Fun Force that taught the kids dances all week.  On the final day, they put on a show for us with all the kids.  Ofcourse, Emma loved this part.  She had a great time with them!

 So, that's it. A DREAM Vacation. 

Peace out ....