One year anniversary cruisin the Caribbean!

Well nothing will ever compare to Spring break 2013 [Marriage!] but I must say our Spring break this year was heavenly!  We went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.

First we flew to Miami but didn't really see much while we were there other than the ride to our hotel and then to the cruise port.  We did see American Airlines Arena it's really pretty looking over the water and of course Josh loved it just because it was American Airlines!

Saturday morning we boarded the Carnival Liberty bright and early.  Much to our great surprise they gave us a balcony room! Basically a little piece of heaven it was such a fun surprise.  We got to sit on our balcony and watch the ship pull out of Miami to the open sea!

Our ship (:

View of Miami

So in love with having a balcony room!

The first day on the ship we played every game/sport possible: volleyball, mini golf [I won!], shuffle board, basketball, you name it we played it it was a blast.  We read a ton.  Normally Josh won't read with me but believe it or not I couldn't get him to put his book down this cruise it was amazing.

It was so mind blowing I had to capture it on film.

The first day at sea was our first formal dinner.  Once we got on the ship I realized I only had one pair of contacts and was totally paranoid I'd some how lose them the first day on the ship and wouldn't be able to see snorkeling so I took them off and only wore my glasses!

I love the towel animals they make so we documented them
every night!

Dinner- our favorite!

After a full day at sea our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  Our plan for Mexico was to snorkel so after we landed on the island we headed to a beach Josh had researched and how did we get there you ask?  Oh Josh just drove us around Mexico again but this time on a moped!

We were very fortunate every port we pulled into our balcony faced
the side with the sunrise.  Absolutely gorgeous every morning (: Here's
our first look at Cozumel. 

Here is Corona Beach we went to to snorkel 

Snorkel buddies!

 After a fun morning/afternoon of driving all over Cozumel Island on our Moped exploring as well as snorkeling we spent the last hour before having to be back on the ship shopping at all the fun Mexican flee markets!  A perfect day!

At least we had helmets I suppose!

Day two we stopped in Belize.  It's a beautiful place.  You have to tender to get off the ship and due to the big waves we almost didn't make it in time to get to our excursion.  Thank heavens we did because it was amazing!  We went cave tubing.  We went with a local company and we are sure glad we did it was much better than the tour provided by carnival.  First they took us on an hour and half bus ride through Belize explaining everything along the way. 

Once we got over to the cliffs we took a 20 minute hike up to the water and caves.  It was absolutely beautiful.  You get to play in the water then they tie all the tubes together and you float through the caves.  The caves are full of waterfalls, beautiful rock formations, stalagmites, and stalactites.  It was dark in the cave that's why we all have headlights and we couldn't get any good pictures but trust me it was incredible.  Once out of the caves instead of having to hike down like the people who toured with carnival we took a 25 minutes float down the river basically surrounded by jungle with rocks to jump off of and beautiful plants and animals.  

Josh is jumping in this picture!

Cave tubing was incredible.  I would highly recommend it to anyone and the company butts up is who you should go with!  Along the way when the water gets shallow they have to yell bottoms up so you don's get scraped by rocks!

Sting Ray.  So cool!

The third stop just so happened to be the most amazing and it was on our anniversary March 12 (: Best day ever.  We pulled up into Mahogany Bay Roatan and got to each breakfast on the balcony while the ship docked and the sun was rising.  Absolute perfect morning. 

Once we were able to get off the ship we joined another local tour to go see monkeys, a bird sanctuary, an iguana farm and snorkeling!  First we went to the monkeys.  There was a sloth there that instead of staying in the trees with the others preferred a chair in the sun.  We got to pick him up and hold him.

Next we got to hold and snuggle a baby spider monkey named Cuna.  Oh my goodness she was the cutest little baby monkey ever!  I was in heaven.

I'm in love!  Such a wonderful experience.  Spider monkeys are really cute and sweet when they are young but when they grow older they bond with only one person and can be very aggressive and mean.  After the spider monkeys we got to go in a cage with a bunch of other little monkeys and feed them.  Turns out they really love sunflower seeds.  They would bounce all over you and cuddle up on your shoulder.  They loved to grab the sunflower seeds out of your hand and crack them in their mouths.  They had a hay day stealing Josh's hat from him.  It was a blast!

This monkey business [HAHA] was most definitely my favorite part of the trip (:  After the monkeys they also put parrots on our heads!

the view from the monkeys!

 After the monkeys we went to the bird observatory and saw tons and tons of beautiful birds.  One who kept shouting hola to get attention!

 After the birds we went on to the iguana farm.. it was so creepy they were huge and everywhere but fun to feed elephant ears to!  We also got to hold a night monkey who loved to lick the sweat off you.  so cute!

After the iguana farm they took us to an amazing beach resort to snorkel and get some sun.  It was an incredible resort and lots of fun to snorkel and explore.

most comfortable cabana!

the view!

tonight's towel animal (:

Our last stop [so sad!] of the trip was to Grand Cayman.  All these islands were so pretty they looked like they were right out of a movie.  Here we went snorkeling.  It was quite the experience.  To get into the water you had to swim pass these huge fish that looked kind of like carp.  They were at least 3 feet long and quite wide around.  They were use to people so they didn't move out of your way when you swam through.  It was terrifying!!! But once we got through them we saw some of the best coral reefs of the whole trip.  amazing multi color schools of fish (:

right behind us is where you jump in with the huge fish!

After snorkeling we took a taxi to 7 mile beach to play in the sand and water.  It was a blast!  Beautiful beach definitely recommend it!

Today's towel animal.  Very impressive!

Our last day at sea was full of delicious dinner, movies on the deck complete with popcorn [which I made Josh come and get with me almost every night ha] and games with friends.  We met some other people from Utah and ended up having fun card game nights with them.  Small world!

Our last day at sea a man's appendix burst and the US coast guard had
to come get him by helicopter to a hospital.  It was super windy and
 the helicopter couldn't land on the ship so they had to propel a guy down and
a basket to get him.  It was crazy!

Last towel animal!

So grateful for our safety and adventure we were blessed with this back week and a half it was so fun to celebrate our one year anniversary it has been the best year yet I am so grateful for my sweet husband and how close we have grown this last year.