Thursday-Tortola 3/19/09

We arrived in Tortola on Thursday. Tortola is a very small island but VERY hilly. I saw my life flashing before me a few times while riding the bus on the way to the beach. Tortola is a BEAUTIFUL island. Here is a view of the beach we spent the day at. Notice the house up on the hill on the left side of the picture-I think that they said someone famous owned that house.

Elliott and I napping on the beach. The Moby wrap came in very handy when we couldn't bring the stroller with us.

Just chillin' in his life jacket on his floating mat.

One happy family
BINGO was a daily activity for our group. We were such regulars that the cruise staff, saved our place for us and knew us by name. Elliott was the youngest cruiser on the ship, so he was well known. Elliott made a lot of friends and would go exploring with crew members while we played Bingo. Don't worry-they couldn't take him far.

Elliott and crew member Ian.
Playing with the used Bingo cards.

Wednesday St Marten 3/18/09

Today was a very busy day. Joe left early in the morning for deep sea fishing with some of the Ribar guys. It wasn't a very productive excursion-they didn't even get a bite-either on their line or to eat. The boat charter, wouldn't feed them lunch because they didn't catch anything. They weren't very happy.Elliott and I hung out on the ship and he went into the pool for the first time. He met another baby on the ship-10 month old William. His mom didn't bring a stroller with on the cruise (I thought that was kind of silly, I bet she had strong arms by the end of the week.)

We went on a shore excursion to Orient Bay in the afternoon. Elliott is wrapped in the Moby, while we are waiting for the bus to go to the beach.

Elliott got a really bad heat rash while wearing his "sun shirt" on Monday. You can see the outline of the shirt here. He was such a trooper though. He was pretty happy as long as we kept him cool.
Hanging out with Aunt Katie.Uncle Kyle is showing off some crack he found on the beach.

Orient Bay is a topless beach, connected to a nude beach. While taking a walk down the beach, we saw the eighth wonder of the world and boy was it big. I am not exaggerating either-almost down to his knees and it was tanned.

Joe ended up joining us at the beach after his crappy morning of fishing. We had a good time on the beach with all the rum punch we could drink.

All I have to say is that Wednesday nights dinner was VERY interesting and not a lot of people made it all the way through dinner.

Tuesday- San Juan 3/17/09

Happy St. Patrick's Day!Today we spent half the day at sea and the other half in San Juan. We all went on a tour of El Moro fort in San Juan. It was a HUGE fort with a lot of steps and a LOT of walking.

The Boys-minus Grandpa Phil. Kyle, Elliott, Joe & Robbie

We walked down all of these stairs and then had to walk back up them to get out.
The streets of San Juan.This is our ship in port at San Juan.

Joe's appetizer at dinner.

First Day at Sea 3/16/09

Day two was spent at Sea. It was such a nice way to start the cruise. We started out the day getting a couples massage, we then explored the ship a little, enjoyed the sunshine on the deck, checked out all the food and spent more time in the sun.

The top deck of the ship had a Lawn Club. Elliott had never felt grass before. It's kind of crazy that the first place he felt grass was in the middle of the ocean.

Elliott had a very busy day. He napped for a few hours on the deck while we all got some sun.

The first formal night was Monday. Elliott was so handsome in his suit. His bowtie even matched my dress.

The LADIES... Katie, Joan, Heather & Marky
The Wait staff in the dining room was AWESOME. They prepared fresh pureed food for Elliott each night. The first solid food he had was sweet potatoes, he loved them!

Sailing Away-March 15

We left for our cruise on March 15th. We sailed on the Celebrity Solstice leaving from Ft. Lauderdale, the first day was at sea, second day San Juan, third day St. Marten, fourth day Tortola, fifth day Labadee, sixth day at sea, seventh day Ft. Lauderdale.

It was eventful before we even left. We stayed at G&G Fisher's house the night before we left because we needed to leave for the airport at 4:30am. We didn't get to their house until 11:30 the night before and G&G were wide awake because their fridge wasn't working and they were trying to fix it so all the food didn't spoil. No one ended up getting to bed before 2am-except for Elliott so we were all very tired on an hour of sleep, but the fridge was cooling again when we left!

Grandpa Phil loves to read the newspaper before important events and he is teaching Elliott to follow in his footsteps early.


Elliott was a GREAT flyer! He only took a short 20 minute nap at take off but was a happy boy throughout the flight.



Elliott liked riding around in his new backpack. Joe and Elliott were checking out the new surroundings.



Uncle Kyle and Aunt Katie before dinner on the first night.

Grandma Joan and Grandpa Phil before dinner.