Ah, a wonderful vacation has come to a close. We returned safely home on Saturday, Nov. 11th.. It was a fantastic adventure! It was filled with a lot of warm chocolate melting cake and so many great memories. I hope this post can capture it all. It is lengthy... so skim it if you want :)
Nov. 7th we got up and headed to the doctor's office for some blood work. We were in and out very quickly and we had quite a bit of time on our hands before we needed to head down to Galveston. We decided to join the old people at a nearby mall and walk. We saw a lot of ankle weights :) It made me smile.. and we shared some laughs. We then headed to Target to pick up some last few items. We then headed to the boat. On the way we had a quick pit stop at a gas station.. and I kid you not.. there was a guy trying to fill up water bottles with gas... I hope that went well for him... yikes. Note to self: never.ever.do.that.
Our boat was the Carnival Triumph. We arrived to the port and we had absolutely no wait whatsoever! It was amazing!
First thing we did was check with maitre'd to see if we had our own table and he confirmed it with us. Little did we know that meant that our table was moved less than 6 inches from another table. After that, we headed to the Lido deck and had a nice lunch while watching dophins in the water. We wandered the boat getting to know what floors were what and where different things were. Around 2:45pm I finally recieved a phone call about my results, but I will save that for a little later. We then had "mustering" around 3:30pm. We all had to stand around packed in like sardines learning where the life jackets and boats were and where we would need to go. After that, we sailed off. We were so excited! Both of us even more so because Jon was able to shut his work phone off :) Commence 5 days of no worry and lots of fun!
After we ate dinner that night, we were wicked tired!! We didn't even bother to go to she show- we could barely keep our eyes open. We felt like old people! Haha... then again.. we had gotten up really early that day to finish packing and get to doc office. That was our excuse :)
Tuesday was a sea day. We went to the gym and worked out. After about 10 mins on the elliptical, Jon felt sick because of the motion in the ocean while trying to move on the elliptical. Running on the treadmill or elliptical is a very weird thing when you are moving on the boat. If the boat is moving, you may not land back down on the treadmill straight (esp if the waters are extra choppy). I've been lucky and it has never bothered me. Jon took some time to rest and he was fine later on. Later we played mini golf (very windy). It was such a nice day out too.
That night was formal night, Jon wore a tux and everyone raved about my awesome pink shoes.
After dinner, we changed and watched HOP on the deck... glad we didn't pay for it. Then we went to the show. We were wicked tired again.. at least I was. I was falling asleep. I can't even tell you what the show was... but I am sure there were lots of frilly outfits with feathers :) We ended up leaving early because Jon was falling asleep too. How ridiculous...
Wednesday was our first stop: Progresso. We had no planned shore excursions. We saved up enough for the cruise, parking at the port and all the gratuities. We figured that if we found something we could afford, we'd do it. Otherwise we would just wander the ports and go into local shops. We got up and got ready and we got off the boat. You had to walk through a store and then you exited to a free shuttle that took you into town. It was a very humble place.
It made me very thankful for all of my many blessings. There were a lot of markets, people trying to give you a massage on the beach and trying to have you buy stuff from their shops. We found a park with some art and statues and wandered around there.
Jon trying to have a 'stache
"I'm thinkin'"
We headed back to the shops where the shuttles dropped us off and we payed a dollar to hold a massive iguana. It was wearing a shirt!! Who wouldn't want to hold that thing??
We headed back and got back to the boat. Exercised. Jon did much better because we were parked and the boat wasn't in motion. We hung out on the deck after lunch and read books and just layed out in the sun. It was nice.
The boat was empty too- so not a whole lot of people hanging around because they were all still out on the port.
After dinner there was a game in the main lounge called 60 Seconds or less (aka: minute to win it). Jon was one of the 3 guys to be chosen to play and he rocked the house - he was the fan favorite. For the rest of the night he had people coming up to him telling him how amazing this or that was. Hehe... awesome. They had to drink enough club soda to be able to tilt the 12oz can on it's side and have it stay staying for a few seconds, they had to put cookies on the foreheads and get the cookies down to their mouth without it falling 2 times, they had to stack cups into a pyramid and then put them all back into a single stack and then the last one was blowing a feather in the air for a minute. Jon survived to the very end :) He was amaze-sauce!
The show that night was the magic show, some of the exact same tricks (and stories) from the last boat we were on :)
Thursday was Cozumel. No shore excursions planned again. Heard about a decent museum and asked at the information booth. We were told to go downtown by taxi. The guy circled the museum on the map and we felt all proud of ourselves for figuring it out. Museum was $4 and overpriced at that. They had a bunch of stuff left over from the "day of the dead" celebration and other old artifacts and a lot of things that looked like props for a play. There was even a Mayan display. After coming home we found out we went to the wrong museum- haha!
Donut?
After the museum we explored the rest of downtown before returning to the boat. There was a coke truck where pepole were lining up to get free stuff and it sprayed water on you... we got 2 free waters... lol. We picked up delicious Mexican Vanilla. Jon was all mad because he got shortchanged in pesos (He still owes me 3 more pesos!!!). Favorite quote from Cozumel from someone trying to get us to go into his store "Same junk! Less money!" lol.. we don't think he meant to call his stuff "junk".
old school mentos commercial... lol
Jon showing off his dance skillz
When we returned to the boat we ate a late lunch and then worked out. I know we wandered around and hung out on the deck. That night at dinner I was just so full!! I didn't even get dessert. We headed back to our room and I was surprised... on the bed was a cake and a rose. Jon bought it as a surprise to celebrate our 5 year anniversary (one month early). It was really sweet of him. I was also secretly glad that I hadn't eaten dessert at dinner- haha!!
Anyways, that evening was the talent show. It included everything from Kermit the Frog impersonations to Michael Jackson dance moves (skillz!) to a poker dealer belting the song 'Let It Be'.
Fri - Final sea day. Jon knew better than to exercise... I ran six miles. It felt great!! We did a lot of R&R and played a lot of yahtzee (my fav game to play at the moment... I blame bunco!)
At dinner that night we learned about a guy who died on Tuesday during dancing (where we planned to go until we passed out during the show). He was only in his 30's! I guess he had a heart condition that he knew about. How sad!
Saturday came and we were sad to leave. We were actually in the last group to leave the boat. After we ate breakfast we headed to a table and played our last games of yahtzee on the boat. As we were leaving, the cruise director came up to us and he still remembered Jon from 60 seconds or less. That was nice. We then had to return to real life. I am thankful that we came back on a Saturday because Jon still had some time before he had to fly out to Milwaukee again.
Okay... so you made it through the post!! I didn't want to break it up into parts... if I did that I would never finish it!!
So, I have had a lot of you asking me what the results were. Well, I had taken quite a few at home preggers tests and they were all negative. So, the day before the doctor's I got out all my frustration, cries and whatever else. I already knew what the results were going to be, but you always go in for the blood test just in case, right? Anyways, when I was on the phone with my doc office, I actually was able to talk to my doctor himself. He was just apologizing up and down and we talked for a good while. So, sadly, the 3rd round of cycles was negative again. It was hard to hear, but I am glad we had 5 days ahead of us of cruising. We needed it. Heh, at the museum in Cozumel there was a story about the goddess of pregnancy and there was a statue of her... Jon told me to rub her belly for good luck :)
Last thing to the post, promise. We had an appt with our doctor yesterday and due to our life time infertility maxes we are planning on doing ivf in 2012. If we continue to do IUIs we will run out of our maxes and then we'll have to start paying all out of pocket. We are waiting until all the major hollidays are over. They close their lab down during the week of Christmas anyways. However, there are a few things that could change our plans:
1. if we get pregnant on our own (which is obviously be the ideal situation) but pretty unlikely
2. if our insurance doesn't give us the go ahead.
The insurance guru at the doc office went over our insurance's policies. Because the coverage is so good for infertility treatments, they have a lot more pull on what they allow or not. Usually, they will only give the green light to IVF if you have done 3 rounds of IUI... I've only done 1 round of IUI.. but I've done a total of 3 rounds with meds and injections. So, we will have to wait and see. The insurance company should get back to my doc office by next week with their answer. So, it is possible that we might have to do IUI 2 more times.. and maybe we'll get preggers with that. I guess I am just hoping that if we don't get pregnant on our own.. that the insurance company will feel a little generous and let us go ahead with IVF... tis the season for giving... right?
With the date of our anniversary where it is, I have an opportunity to review the ending year and the great times with Crystal all in one post. Each year for Christmas we purchase a new ornament that has special meaning to us regarding the events of that year. As you can see from the picture above and post title, we have dubbed 2011 "the Year of Travel". 
