I Need a Vacation after my Vacation!

We just returned a few days ago from our cruise in the Caribbean. We went on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas and it was a very cool ship. There was an ice skating rink with an amazing ice show, good food, a fun Promenade gathering area/internal street thing, a casino, bingo, pool fun, etc. Our family loves to cruise and about every other year our parents join us. This year Bo's parents flew down from the Seattle area and my parents came from Oregon. It is great to be able to drive 3 hours and leave right from Texas (saves money on airfare too!)

A few days before the cruise my husband's recurring eye problem cropped up. Last summer he had a sliver in his eye and it has never permanently healed. Well, this time was the worst ever. He was in a horrendous amount of pain and could not see or stand any light. Not only did he have the problem with the wound on the surface of his eye, but he also had a major viral infection that caused pressure behind the eye and threatened his long and short term vision. Needless to say, it was very difficult and very scary.

We went to see a specialist on Friday and she put him on all kinds of meds and drops and she also did a procedure whereby they "debrade" the surface of the eye (yeah - OUCH). Then she put a contact bandaid on it.

All of this basically meant that there was no way Bo would be able to get on a cruise ship on Sunday morning. Our parents, me, the kids, Bo.... we were all very worried and also very sad that the vacation would have to be cancelled (and of course we had no vacation insurance). It's alot of money (although I do think cruising is great bang for the buck) and there were so many of us (9 total).

We went back to the doctor on Saturday (she came into the office on her own time). She said the contact had to stay on until Monday but that Bo could fly out after that assuming it continued to heal and he was careful. So we made the decision to go on the trip and have Bo fly to Cozumel (our first port) on Tuesday.

It was hard to leave on Sunday with Bo in bed and all of us loading up for a Caribbean vacation... it felt wrong and yet what to do? We had Tuesday to look forward to.

On Monday Bo got clearance to go and then we heard from our ship Captain that the itinerary was being changed and we would be going another day at sea, then to Honduras and then back to Cozumel. So Bo wasn't going to be able to meet us on Tuesday. Everyone was sad - it was heartbreaking. I cried and my Mom came to my stateroom and gave me a big hug. It doesn't matter that I am 40 years old, that hug still felt good. Bo's parents and my parents were also very sad. There was a shadow all that day.

Then on Wednesday Bo decided to fly to Cozumel and on Thursday morning he finally hooked up with the ship! It was so great to have him back with us and everyone was thrilled that he was doing well and that everything worked out.

So, Bo's vacation was very short, but very sweet. At the time it felt like the end of the world... but it all worked out. Following are some pictures from our trip.


The Kids at one of the formal nights



Roatan, Honduras was beautiful!


Marie conquers the rock wall. I did, too. They don't call me SpiderMOM at Girl Scout camp for nothing!


Marshall digs a hole to China


Anne with her new pals from the teen club onboard


Please note that we do not know the guy in the wet suit, shown below. My daughter took this picture of a stranger. I am providing the picture purely as a benefit to you, my faithful blog readers..... a little eye candy for free:)