GET OUT THERE!

BON VOYAGE! The whole Skousen "gang" went on vacation last week on Royal Caribbean's "Liberty of the Seas". The ship is huge and it has everything anyone could ever want. The flowrider, H2O zone,ice skating rink, miniature golf, ping-pong, pools, food whenever you want, and soft-serve ice cream!

We had a great time - and before I forget, I want to thank mom and dad/grandma and grandpa for taking us all on this awesome trip! There were 36 of us and we were all in the same hallway of the ship! I can't comment on any one else's neighbors, but ours were very nice and understanding and thought it was neat that all the kids wanted to hang out in the halls "together" even if it got kinda loud at times.

**It's completely impossible to show all of our pictures - we had 525 of them!
So I'll just share some of our highlights from the trip**

These are from the "Sail Away party". We went up to the very front point of the ship to wave goodbye to land and all the people watching.




Everyone was so excited to get going -
boy, we had quite a crowd everywhere we went.


"Sea Days" were a blast! Everyone loved the H2O zone...



That's one "very full" jacuzzi!

**the FLOWRIDER! This was a favorite for everyone! Tyler was the "Bomb" on the flowrider - even with a broken wrist! He learned to spin and jump from one board to another. He did the trick of the day - a 760! You had to be a minimum height to surf, so Courtney & Dillon could only try the boogie board, but everyone had fun regardless.

The cute instructor's name is Ryan. With his help, anything is possible!

All Dressed Up and goin' to dinner!

a quick "thank you to Jack and Stephanie, for taking on all the kids at dinner every night.


It was Emma's Birthday, so we all got to celebrate with her!

Our 1st port was Labadee, Haiti some of us did the Dragon's Breath Zip Line, Mom and Dad did a breathtaking/backbreaking JetSki ride, some of the girls got their hair braided and other's played and lounged at the beach.

The Dragon's Breath Flight Line is 500 feet high and 2,600 feet long! It's the world's longest flight line over water!

Talk about "white knuckling"! I think I was holding on for life!

And then there's Chris, who's always holding the camera taking such great shots of the rest of us...all he gets is a close up taken by himself!

He did get some pictures of the awesome view while zipping down.Mom and Dad on their Jet-Ski adventure.

**Goofin' off around the ship, taking funny pictures, singing karaoke, hanging out in the hallway, sittin' in the jacuzzi, playing guitar hero, and family feud seemed to be some of the favorite times for big kids and little kids alike.

next stop...
Montego Bay, Jamaica! We did another ZipLine in Jamaica.It was called a "Canopy Tour". We did a series of 6 zip lines through the trees like monkey's. Grandpa and Grandma went with Jack, Paige, Derek & Tatum. They were in the group that left just before us. We had Shannen, Robert & Haley with us. The rest of the family all went to the Dunn River Falls and said they had a great time there. You can see by the pictures, that we really had fun on the canopy tour. Our guides that helped us through the jungle were Rayon and Kanut (or Red Bull as he was called). They were awesome and made our experience so much fun.

Check out this video clip of Chris on the Zip Line! Once again, he was behind the camera the whole time - up until the very last zip - when I went before him and got video of him coming in turn on your speakers you can hear him through the pouring rain!


Our 3rd stop was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Chris, Jessica and Tyler all went Scuba Diving with Grandpa, Jack, Steph & Paige, Kristen & Dave, Amy & Nate, Rich, & Robert. The rest of us did other things, like play at the beach, shop, eat (like we hadn't done that yet), and Mike's family went to see the stingrays. Grand Cayman is really pretty and the water is unbelievably clear.

"the beach people"

Some of the Grand Cayman Scuba Divers...

Swimming with the stingrays!

on the tender back to the ship after a long, fun day.

"SPRINKLES" Get it yourself ice-cream...all day long! I'm sure missing that! Dillon for sure made the tallest ice-cream cone!

Last stop...Cozumel, Mexico. Again there was quite a group that went scuba diving in Cozumel. Chris and Tyler went. I took Jessica, Courtney, Dillon, Tatum and Derek to Playa Mia Beach to hang out and play. I don't know if we had a lot of fun - but got some good laughs and maybe some life lessons! Kristen, Lachelle and Kelli took some of the younger girls to swim with the dolphins and they had a really great time.

-scuba divers in Cozumel during their beach break-

**Playing Dodge Ball on the last sea day against the Royal Caribbean Crew team. We beat them the first round - and then we totally had them in the final, and they cheated! They know it - and we know it! They better watch out for the "Toros" next time!

This is Sabastian, he was one of our waiters.

The last night on the ship was so windy...some of us went out on the top deck to see the waves and got these funny pictures in the wind.

*I thought this was a pretty funny scene - waiting for shuttles or rental cars after disembarking the shipwith "all that luggage"

After the cruise was over, our family and the Spuhler family stayed in Ft. Lauderdale for just a couple days more. We went to the Sawgrass Recreation Area and took an airboat ride and saw some alligators and even got to hold one. We also hung out and caught up on some rest at the beach.

Those braids sure make it easier to get to dinner on time, but when they come out? hmmm

What a great time we had - we can't say thank you enough mom and dad for the great memories we have made.