It is our 10 year wedding anniversary this year, and it took Nick and I quite a bit of thinking and planning to decide and finalize what we wanted to do to celebrate. We threw around the idea of going to see the Broadway show 'Wicked', but we would have to go to Little Rock, Arkansas to see it, which would have been fun. But it just didn't seem like the best way to celebrate 10 years of marriage....so we kept brain storming what our options were. We finally decided it would be amazing to go on a cruise, but of course we had to see if there was a cruise that would work with our schedule, budget, and of course find a way to make sure our munchkins were taken care of while we were gone. We called Get Away Today vacations and they were super helpful and helped us book a cruise on the Celebrity Cruise Line boat, Century. I was quite surprised how affordable it was for a 5 night cruise! Our air fare to Ft Lauderdale, FL was just as much as the cruise was, but we were excited to plan something that we have never done before and get a chance to travel! We worked it out with my mom, Nick's mom, and our great friend, Kristi, to take care of our kids so that they wouldn't miss school or dance during the week we would be gone.It was a bit stressful getting everything ready the week before we left. I wanted to make sure the laundry was all done, the kids were packed for the week, the house was clean, and I even typed up a detailed calendar and daily routine for the kids so that there wouldn't be any questions or problems while we were gone. My mom came to our house after her choir broadcast on Sunday, Nov 7th. Our flight left at 1:35 PM, so she and the kids took us to the airport around 11:30. We had no problems checking in, and my suitcase was even 4 lbs under the limit! I was a little worried that we would have to pay extra if it weighed too much! Here is Nick before we left on our flight. We actually headed to Phoenix, AZ first and then caught a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 
We got to Florida at around 10:30 PM (Eastern Time). We then took the hotel shuttle to our hotel, the Hampton Inn. We normally have had no complaints when staying at Hampton Inns, we really like them, so that is why we chose that hotel. But the ONLY thing that we would complain about the whole trip was this hotel! We got into our room and I first realized that is stunk like cigarette smoke AND it was two queen beds, not one king. So I called the front desk and they told me that all the king rooms were being remodeled so there were none available and then I asked them about it being a smoking room, and he told me that all the rooms in the hotel are non smoking. I was a little frustrated, especially because I couldn't understand how the sign outside the room said this.....(notice the non smoking sign)
Yet, there were THREE of these in the hotel room.
It made no sense to me! Nick and decided to each take a bed and sleep comfortably in our own space rather than sharing a small queen bed! (We are too used to our big king bed at home!). We got up the next day and had breakfast at the hotel and then caught the shuttle back to the Airport to meet up with the bus that would take us to the Miami Port to get on the ship. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the bus.
The weather was warm but a little over cast. But it was pleasant. We got our luggage tagged and ready to get to the ship.
We made it to the port around 11:30 and made our way to the check in area.
There were a lot of people checking in, but they had so many agents and people helping get everyone checked in, it was a very smooth process. They had us fill out a health questionnaire asking if we have had a fever, cough, runny nose, or diarrhea in the last 2 days. Nick and I both had a head cold and that included a cough. No fever or anything else, just an annoying cough, so we checked the yes box. Because of that, we had to be evaluated by a doctor before being able to board the boat to rule out Swine Flu or other contagious disease. I took this picture of Nick while we were waiting in a room for the doctor to see us.
The doctor came and it took her maybe 2 minutes to take our temperature and clear us to embark onto the ship! We made our way onto the ship and were greeted by staff and waiters offering us free champagne. Of course we passed on the champagne but we thought it was really exciting and welcoming to have so many people lined up to greet us! We found our cabin right away on Deck 9, and then headed up to deck 11 were the buffet was and grabbed us some yummy lunch!
We could tell right away the food was going to be amazing!!!!! After lunch, we ventured around the boat and found were everything was. We didn't leave the port until 4:30 so we had a chance to take some picture of the beautiful Miami skyline.
This picture was taken by complete strangers who we ended up becoming quite good friends with during the week, Tracy and Dale. They are from Indiana and they were SO nice and the first two days we kept running into them so we finally just hung out with them the rest of the week! :) You'll see pictures of them eventually!
We kept touring the boat and took some more pictures. I thought the boat in front of us looked pretty fun with the slide!
We were so amazed how big the boat was and the luxury it offered. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise so it was very exciting!
Before we had to have our Muster Drill, we found some yummy chocolate chip cookies and some milk to go with them for an afternoon snack. Again, the food was awesome!!! 
We attended our required muster drill, but didn't have to actually wear or take our life jackets with us. It took only about 20 minutes and then we were back to the luxury of our cruise and we embarked at 4:30 and we were our way to the Western Caribbean!!!
This picture is taken on Deck 7 looking down in the middle of the ship. It was a beautiful lobby area! It was hard to believe it was on a boat!
There were about 3 other ships that were leaving the port that day too.
As we watched the boat pull away from the port, we got to see a beautiful sunset over Miami.
We headed back to our cabin and got freshened up to attend dinner that evening. We had a 6:15 seating in the Grand Restaurant. We knew ahead of time that we would be sitting on a group table with people we didn't know, but we thought it would be more fun that way than a private table. We got to dinner and met our dinner friends, Andy & Barbara from Florida and Dale & Evelyn from North Carolina. There was supposed to be another couple on our table, but they didn't show up that night. They were all so nice and we could tell right away that it was going to be a fun bunch! The dinner was amazing! They had a big menu to choose from and it included appetizers like es cargo and shrimp. They had quite a variety of soups and salads to choose from and Entrees. Each night one side of the menu would stay the same and the other side would change every night. I was amazed at the food that was offered and felt very retarded for not knowing what most of it was! So it was fun to get to try new things and order things with out looking at a price since it is all included in the cost of the cruise! That was the best part of the food! One night we ordered three desserts because we wanted to try all of them!
After Dinner, we headed to the Celebrity Theater where they had a variety show that basically introduced all the talent on the ship. They had Celebrity Dancers and Singers who put on shows nightly at the theater. An A Capella group called On Point, a piano guy named Will who was only 23 years old and was AMAZING!!!!! A guitar guy, and a band that played in different places on the ship through out the day AND night. We went to bed around 10:30 that night because we were exhausted! It was weird to be on a moving ship and filling it rock a bit while you were laying in bed, but luckily neither of us got sea sick on the ship the whole week! This concludes the beginning of our amazing cruise and I will be posting the rest of our days in separate posts because of all the pictures and blogging I want to have go along with them! So be prepared for a lot of information, but I want to make sure Nick and I remember one of the best weeks of our lives!!!!!
We changed into our swim suits and found a great place to lay out on the top deck in the warm sun! We even ran into our friends Dale & Tracy and lounged by them for awhile.
After about 30-45 minutes of laying out and reading, we decided it was best to find some shade since even with sunblock we were afraid of getting sunburned it it was getting REALLY hot in the sun. So we found some lounge chairs a level down in the shade. We laid out for a few hours and enjoyed the weather, music, and did some reading.
I brought my new Kindle to use while on the cruise! It was great! I remember telling Nick how weird it was to just be laying around doing nothing and not worrying about anything! But it was nice! We finally decided we might want to get ready for lunch. While back in our cabin I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of our room to show the kids what it looked like. We had an inside cabin, which was nice for sleeping in and not having the sun to wake you up!!
I also took some pictures of my preggo belly! Here I am at 21 Weeks. I think the rule is that pregnant women can only go on a cruise up to their 24th week of pregnancy, so I was glad to hear that wasn't going to be an issue in booking our trip!
I normally wouldn't take a picture of myself in a swimming suit because I would normally blind the camera and those looking at me and my white skin. But I took advantage of a spray tan before we left on our cruise so I wouldn't frighten or blind people on the ship with my white skin! hehe!!! If only I could afford to get one of those every few weeks!
We had lunch at the buffet and then strolled along the 6th deck of the ship were there weren't as many people and enjoyed the beautiful ocean and warm weather!
We did venture back up to the 11th deck, where the pool was to watch the pool Olympics. It was hilarious. They had boy vs girl teams doing all sorts of games in the pool. One had them put on a shirt, swim across the pool, then get out and put the shirt on the next team member, and so on until all of them had a chance to swim across the pool with the shirt on. It was funny to watch, especially because one of the OLD men almost lost his speedo swim suit when his team mates tried to pull him out of the water!
The next race involved a raft that started with one player going across the pool and adding a team member each time until all 6 members were in the boat! It was just hilarious!
This was one of the desserts that night! I don't remember what it was called, but it was like a chocolate mousse. It was SOOOOO good!
Afterwards, we went and watched a show put on by the celebrity dancers called Dance around the World. It featured different costumes and dances from different countries. It was excellent!!!
Our friends Dale & Tracy from Indiana sat with us at the show that night! 
After the show we went and enjoyed some music in the Piano lounge and then took a picture on the cool stair case.
We didn't stay up too late that night since we knew we had to be up early to get ready for our excursion in Roatan, Honduras. It was a great and super relaxing day! I would love to live that day over and over again!
