What a Week

We got home Saturday evening, but I'm still trying to come down from the wonderful vacation we had last week.

Where were we?

For a whole week we called this place home:

Last October we received an email from my dad saying that he and my mom wanted to take us four kids and spouses on a cruise in March to celebrate their 60th anniversary. I read the email to Hubby, we looked at each other and quickly decided we had nothing planned for the third week a March and I hit "reply" (four minutes after the email was received) and said "We're in!"

We had such a fun week. We all were so happy to get away from the Midwest yucky weather and be in the warm sunshine.

Friday, the 15th we all flew from our homes and met in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Here's the view from our airplane window as we waited to pull away from the gate:

The plane then needed to be de-iced:

 I've never seen that done, so it was kind of interesting. Even if it did make the flight late and made our connection in Dallas quite close. But we made it and so did our luggage. We had no time for lunch, but thanks to Hubby enouraging us to buy some snacks beforehand, we didn't starve too bad. We did get something to eat at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale before we waited 45 minutes for the hotel shuttle.

(Is it any wonder that I am not a fan of flying? Too many details, too much stress.)

As Hubby and I were waiting for the shuttle, my sister and brother-in-law walked up! (They were coming from central Illinois.)

We all met up at the hotel, hugged, talked for a while, watched a little Iowa State basketball, then headed to bed.

On Saturday we all piled into another shuttle to take us to the cruise ship. I took this photo with my phone over my shoulder of my dad, brother-in-law and sisters and sister-in-law behind me.

It's a pretty bad quality picture, but it's still fun!

Getting on the ship went pretty smoothly and quickly. Our staterooms were all in a row. Here's a shot of us all watching from our balconies as the ship pulled away from the dock.

 I cannot even express how beautiful it was to look at the blue ocean and the beach. Such a treat after a long dreary winter!

I stayed out on my balcony a little longer than everyone else. And I was treated to seeing dolphins jumping out of the water! It was a fun couple of minutes!

Our stateroom was comfy and cozy.

We were on our way to a wonderful week!!!

More to come....