Final Day - At Sea

All good things must come to an end, right?

I suppose. Although I was quite excited about celebrating Christmas with our families the following week, I was very sad to leave this paradise! We soaked up every lazy second of our last day on the cruise. Russ and I laid in bed all morning watching a movie with our balcony door open with the sound of the waves. You may think this is a waste of a tropical day, but I disagree. You know that when you are at home, there is rarely - if ever - a day that we can just lay in bed and watch movies. In my case, Russ would be wanting to go work out or run or something else productive. So, I've come to cherish those times when we are able to not feel guilty or pressured to do something. Then, around lunch time, we emerged to the top of the ship to lay around some more in the sunny blue skies with the rest of the family!

Russ is really not into "laying out"! Ha!

But, I love it!

Our fabulous balcony - Russ and Lee rigged all our balconies so that they would adjoin. All I can say is...make sure you close those curtains if you don't want your siblings or their "significant others" to see you unclothed! Ha!

Our last night, we ate dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse, and it was fabulous! Yummy food and a nice atmosphere. This is the night we went around the table telling our favorite part of the cruise. The two highest votes were the first night and the ATV ride, I think.

Party of Two

After dinner, we meandered around the ship making last minute purchases and playing all we wanted to play before disembarking for the final time the next morning. We also enjoyed a comedy show by Second City before heading our own directions, purchasing our pictures from the cruise, and heading to bed.

Russ and me

Mary and Dustin

Lee and Kristin

Mama and Daddy

Before Russ and I went to our room, we stopped to get some cheese sticks for a good night snack.

Yummy!

We didn't sleep much at all that night because Russ was up every hour or so looking at the lights of the USA and trying to take pictures as we got closer. He had also gotten up around 2 that morning to visit Kristin and Lee. So between all that, I was not ready to wake up quite yet.


But we did.

We woke up, ate breakfast, gathered all our belongings, left our stateroom for the last time, and...

...headed for the elevator.

The Smith family...piled in like sardines!

What a wonderful week! I cannot thank my parents enough for treating us to such a fabulously fun vacation! I know the word is that there won't be another for five more years, but maybe you'll recover before then!