Pictures from the Buddy Cruise

I apologize for the quality of some of these photos.  The room was dimly lit so if the flash went off the background was BLACK, which means most are taken with no flash and are just a bit blurry due to the slow shutter speed needed to capture anything!

 

During Sujeet's first performance the most "jazzy" piece a young man of 13 decided he wanted to dance and with that half the audience was on the dance floor!  One thing I LOVE about young adults with Down syndrome is their ability to dance so freely! (Sujeet's playing on the left- he left the stage and came down onto the dance floor as well ;) )

 

Then he dedicated a song to his new friend, Jason Kingsley and his Mom Emily.  Here's a picture after Emily and Jason started dancing where Jason's two roommates came and joined in with them as well :)

 

The song he dedicated was "Wind beneath my wings" and so many other moms and dads went out to dance with their sons and daughters.  These two little girls weren't going to be left out either!  The second picture is a mom and her 13 yr old son that we met before boarding.

The water was beautiful!  Too bad we never touched it... it was pretty tho!

This is the parliament building and park in Nassau.  Last time I went to Nassau we were offered drugs multiple times, we were told to watch our pockets a lot and I didn't think I'd ever get off the boat here again.  This time was a completely different experience and we had a great time shopping!

Martha, Aaron, Ethan, and little Luka!  This family adopted Luka from Republic of Georgia earlier this year and we had a great time visiting with them on the ship!  They came up to me as we were getting ready to board because they were walking behind me and saw the Reece's Rainbow shirt I was wearing :)  We visited there then later on the ship.  Such a beautiful and sweet family with two little guys that are not only ADORABLE but also SO WELL BEHAVED!~

 

Here we all are together- Shelley and I with the Spahr family.  Luka liked looking at the boat but we talked him into looking at the camera with a little tickle and Aaron was turning his head too LOL  One of the other families with a young man with Ds took the photo for us :)  This is the only picture of Shelley and I together too!

 

Sunday afternoon was an ice cream social and here are a few pictures from that. 

This young man, Myron, is from the Bahamas and was such a cutie!  I can see Micah being a lot like Myron in about 13 years!  Myron has great manners and is 15 years old.  I enjoyed him!  The other photo is a combination of three families- the woman on the left has Ds, as does the young lady in the middle and the baby in the stroller.  I love how everyone is interacting in this photo!!  The young lady with red hair in the middle and her parents live close by as well! 

Connor Gifford and Jason Kingsley signing the books that I purchased on the cruise.  I have an autographed copy of Jason's book to raffle off in the future :)

During the closing this young lady decided if no one was at the mic then it must be her turn... Someone nearby kept clapping when she'd stop singing and she kept saying "no, I'm not done yet" and waiving them to stop LOL!

And the young man is the friend of Myron, close in age and lives nearby his friend.  He was very sweet as well!

 

The kids all got up and danced to a few songs and here's Myron with a young lady that's either his sister or his friend's sister... which I didn't ever figure out! LOL  The two in the middle were so cute!  She's 17 and he's 18, they go to school together.  He kept creeping his hands up her sides and she kept moving them back down to her waist LOL!  And on the right, these two weren't going to be left out!  They were spinning each other while they danced.

This young man, well, let's just say it's obvious it wasn't his SISTER he was dancing with... he's glad she's tall too...   The next photo is Pam that organized the Buddy Cruise.  She's dancing with Connor Gifford, one of the authors.  And on the right, we just hope these two knew each other before the cruise... because they were getting in some lip action all through their dance!

I wanted to get these up today, over the next few days I'll post more about the cruise, the people, and the sessions that we attended!