Spring Break 2025 was FANTASTIC! Oh, we had such a great time. We cruised with our friends from the stake, The Pools. They have one daughter left and home and she's Caroline's age. Even though we're in different wards, they go to the same school and have gotten close over the last year or so. We thought it would be perfect to spend the break together. And it was! They had never cruised before and I think they enjoyed it.
We cruised on the Celebrity Reflection--another new cruise line for us. It was for six nights and departed out of Ft. Lauderdale, way down by Miami. Andrew flew down. Caroline and I took a leisurely road trip.
First stop: Savannah
Stopped by SCADstory again.
It made me want to go art school again.
We LOVE walking around the cute streets of Savannah.
And visiting Forsyth Park.
Then made a quick stop in Richmond Hill, GA
at Sterling Creek Park for some birding.
No good birds, but this blue pond was pretty.
We got a hotel in Jacksonville.
We had time for a workout before bed.
Next stop: St. Augustine!
Bear had never been.
She fell in love with it just like I did.
It's so cute!
And historic
And beautiful
And European-feeling.
Loved taking her to some of the fun spots
Marianne and I found last time we came.
Made our first Buc-ee's stop of the trip. Yay!
Stopped at Plantation Preserve to do some birding.
Got to see this awesome Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
And a cool lizard.
And some ibis and gallinules.
Then we picked up Andrew at the airport and
stayed the night in Ft. Lauderdale.
The following morning was Sunday and we had time to
go to sacrament meeting before getting on the ship.
It was Easter Sunday and we were excited to worship.
In my research, I could only find a Spanish ward that
met at the time we needed, so that's where we went.
We used Google translate for Care Bear and it mostly
worked great! (The Pools were at an English ward,
so apparently my research wasn't great. Ha!)
Eventually, we all met up on the ship!
Andrew, me, Bear, Julia, Trevor, and Heather.
We got two balcony rooms for the parents and an
interior room for Bear and Julia to share.
It worked out perfectly!
It's always fun to explore the ship on day one.
They had an empty workout room
that made for some cool pics.
Two tall girls!
We ate together every night in the dining room.
It was great. We loved it.
A sampling of our fancy food.
I think this was a beet salad.
That night they had an ABBA party in
the atrium. Perfect!!
We had so much fun singing along!
A little snippet
DAY TWO: DAY AT SEA
Had fun playing some of the trivia games on board.
Heather and Trevor won one of the word games!
Our ship had a dedicated game room and some
of the tables had an electronic top where you could play
games and it would keep scores for the week.
We would enter BYU as our score and had fun
filling up the leaderboard.
This was one of my favorite parts of the ship!
They had an adorable little bakery/cafe with
these yummy treats that were included
with your cruise fare. The line could get long,
but I visited this place often!
I saw a dolphin jumping in our wake!
So cool!
That night was a formal night,
so we got dressed up fancy and went dancing.
We had the dance floor to ourselves!
And we tore it up!
The Pools enjoy dancing, too, so that was fun.
Ready for our fancy dinner!
Obligatory "Andrew-is-too-tall" pic.
Or he would maybe say height-discrimination pic. :)
DAY THREE: Cozumel
In Cozumel, we took the Pools to Chankanaab,
one of our fave spots. We couldn't wait to go snorkeling.
And it didn't disappoint!
The water is so clear and the fish are amazing!
We got to sit on swings for lunch!
Andrew and I walked around the park and did a little birding.
Saw a cool iguana.
And a Yucatan woodpecker
That little sparkle of turquoise in the middle of that tree
was THE most beautiful hummingbird I've ever seen.
It is SO bright turquoise and it just hang out in front of us!
I'm not sure if it was a Green-breasted Mango or a Cozumel Emerald.
And after a few hours in paradise, it was time
to catch a cab back to the ship.
That night we went to a show together.
The entertainment was pretty good.
Caroline and Julia especially enjoyed the boy band.
