Beaches

I'll put up pictures from our trip in small doses. Our first day we spent in Florida, waiting to board the ship. Within about 5 minutes of landing, Elena turned to me and said, "Mom, where's all the snow?"
Needless to say the kids thoroughly enjoyed the sunny weather from the start. Here they are sunning themselves after a swim.

We were able to visit with Stacy, a high school classmate of mine who lives in the area. Later the owners of our hotel gave us a bag of bread and pointed us toward a pond where we could feed ducks and turtles. The kids had a good time, but the ducks were a little too friendly - if we took too long to throw more food, they would just come and grab it from our hands. Sam spent much of the time holding onto my leg and yelling "Go away!" at the ducks.
Our first and last stops on the cruise were Aruba and Jamaica. On both islands, we spent the day at the beach, which I think was the kids' favorite part of the trip. These were all taken in Jamaica - I didn't come away with many good Aruba photos, but they look pretty much the same.

You can pretty well measure how much fun the kids had swimming based on how much they sleep and eat afterward.

Sam, napping after swimming.

Elena, scarfing down a hamburger after swimming.