Our cruise came at a perfect time because in a way we were able to celebrate a couple of exciting things in addition to our anniversary.

For the past two years Andy has been taking online classes through the University of Massachusetts and right before our cruise he finished his MBA! He is so excited to be done with school (forever!) and not having the burden of school work always on his mind.

Completely unrelated to getting his MBA, he also got a new job. He had been at this recent job for almost seven years and, although there were many wonderful things about his job, it seemed time for a change. He found a job opening at a nearby Yahoo! office and applied online. He had an interview in March and seven weeks later he got an official offer. He signed all the paperwork right before we left for the cruise. Coincidentally, Andy's brother Timmy also got a new job recently, so we definitely had many things to celebrate on the cruise.

Andy finished his last day at his former job on Friday and is now taking this week off. Then he'll start at Yahoo! on June 3. It's amazing being back from the cruise and having school and a job search behind us. In some ways, it feels like we are still on vacation!

The last day of our cruise was spent cruising from Civitavecchia back to Barcelona.

Hanging out on the ship was a nice, relaxing way to spend our last day of vacation. We mostly lounged on the pool deck reading, drinking cocktails, playing Bingo, etc.

 

When it got too chilly on the pool deck, we retreated to our room and hung out on our balcony.

All of my previous blog posts have been about our trips on shore, but we had such a great time on the boat all week as well.

Throughout the week, the girls, at least, saw a few shows. We went to one show that was like Cirque du Soleil, and another night we saw Saturday Night Fever, the musical. There was even an ice skating rink on board, so we saw an ice skating show on our last day that was fantastic. The rink wasn't that big of course, so it was amazing how many twirls, jumps, and lifts the skaters were able to do. We also hung out a little in the Casino and at a piano bar.

Dinners were one of our favorite parts of the trip. It was like going to a really nice restaurant every night. The food was great, the service was excellent, and we spent about three hours at dinner every night enjoying long conversations.

This is Luckner, the sweet man who served me my weight in bread every night. The bread rolls were amazing!

See? Yummy bread!

Our waiter brought us out this dessert for our last night on the ship since officially we were celebrating our 10th anniversary, even though our 11th anniversary is only about a month away.

The whole trip was so fantastic. It was a perfect balance of relaxing and seeing amazing sights. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We owe a huge thanks to Andy's parents for taking us and another huge thanks to my parents for watching the kids while we were gone. It was a trip we will never forget!

Our last stop on the cruise was Rome! To be exact we disembarked in Civitavecchia and then took an hour and a half bus ride to Rome. Unlike our other stops, there were a lot of things we wanted to see in Rome. Andy (and his good friend, Google Maps) planned our route through the city so that we would be able to see as much as possible.

We started at the Colosseum. Then we saw...

The Roman Forum-a rectangular plaza surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome.

National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II.

The Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the world.

A stop for lunch and some homemade pasta! Then off to see:

The Pantheon- commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus as a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome, and rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian about 126 AD.

Piazza Navona and Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers).

Vatican City.

St. Peter's Basilica-this was the highlight of Rome for Andy and me. The inside of that church was magnificent!

Michelangelo's Pieta, inside St. Peter's Basilia-this was really cool to see in person. I still remember learning about it in Civ. Arts in college.

 

It was amazing how much we were able to see of the city in one day thanks to Andy's excellent and very thorough guided tour.

Our second stop on the cruise was the port city La Spezia, Italy.

Once we got off the ship we walked to a train station, and from there took the train to Cinque Terre.  

 

Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages. We visited two of them: Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza.

 

Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea.

Cinque Terre was another beautiful place to just walk around and enjoy the scenery and culture.

And of course, we had to stop for food and drinks. We got to have real Italian pizza!

This was the view from the place we ate at in Vernazza. Gorgeous.

I kept my Nook in my purse so that I could whip it out if I ever had a chance, like waiting for the train. I hadn't used my Nook before this trip, but that thing was awesome. In all I read about 3 1/2 books. That's my kind of vacation!

And then there's this. I love it.

Our first stop on our cruise was Cannes, France. It was a perfect first stop because there's not a lot to see, so we were able to sleep in, hit the breakfast buffet (yum!), and then disembark at our leisure.

This is right after we got off the tender boat that ferried us to land. Our ship is in the background: Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas.

Cannes, of course, is known for it's big film festival. We were there on a Saturday and the festival was going to start the following Wednesday, so we were able to see them preparing everything for the upcoming week.

Most of our time was spent strolling through these beautiful, quaint little streets.

Every once in a while we would stop by an outdoor cafe.

Then we made it to the top of a big hill with a beautiful view of the city and ocean.

 The weather was absolutely gorgeous and made for a perfect day.

That evening it was formal night in the dining room so we all got to get dressed up.

And we even ran into someone we knew on the ship. We went to college with this guy, and there he was advertising tuxedo rentals on the ship. Random!

Andy and I just got back from a Mediterranean cruise with Andy's parents, brother, and sister-in-law! Andy's parents took us for our (belated) 10th wedding anniversary. We flew to Barcelona and then cruised to France and Italy:

We landed in Barcelona early on Friday morning and weren't going to board our ship until later in the afternoon, so we spent the day on a bus tour exploring the city. It was nice because we were all tired from our long flights and the nine hour time difference, but we still got to see some cool sights all around Barcelona.

 A house by the famous architect, Antoni Gaudi.

 Mom, Andy, and Papa J with their orange tour stickers.

Sagrada Familia, also by Gaudi

This was the last stop on our tour and at that point I was so tired I don't even remember what it is. But it looks cool!

After touring Barcelona for a few hours, we were able to get on our ship. This was the balcony in our room. Our three rooms were all in a row, so we were able to open dividers on our balconies to make them all connected. It was sweet!

Andy's first cruise!

Four days before Ellie turned 16 months, I randomly tried to get Ellie to walk to me like I've tried many times before. This time she actually walked several steps. Then she walked about halfway down the hallway! That was the first time I've ever seen her take even one step on her own.

I thought she might just take off after she figured out that she can take steps now, but she still is only mildly interested in walking. She does enjoy walking when I have her stand and call her to walk to me, but I think she just likes the cheering and clapping she gets. Just in the last day or so I am seeing her get up on her own every now and then and walk a little, but crawling is definitely still her favorite. And why not, she's darn good at it!

Cutie pie!

And as a brief "shout out" to my friend Jenny from Mom's Group, she made this cute onesie for Ellie when she was born. Jenny sells other adorable embellished shirts and onesies that you can see here and at buy at her esty shop.

Silly girl.