Let’s start before we left. Of course life was crazy busy, but the weather was nice before we left. The kids had a blast making a fort out of the tree limbs we had cut off:
Friday began bright and early. We had to drop our dog off at the vet. He is a new veterinarian in town…and he is nothing short of amazing-super nice guy. He watched our dog the whole time for us for a ridiculously cheap price. I joked that leaving our dog with a vet was like leaving your kid with a pediatrician…
Anyways, after dropping her off, we loaded up and made it to the airport in good time. We flew to Dallas, TX and then to Ft. Lauderdale. Each flight was close to 3 hours. So with a 3 hour drive and two 3 hour flights…it was a long day. I am so happy to report that my kids were angels traveling. Even Kayler…He was so cute, we got in the air, and he says “Uhh, I forgot my umbrella, how I am going to float down from the sky?” He also mentioned how excited he was to see the Care Bears in the clouds. On every flight G.J. and I sat by Kayler, My mom took Hallie, and my dad had Gavin:
Florida was beautiful. It was so warm and green and humid and felt so good on my dry cracked Utah skin!:
We arrived on the cruise ship mid day Saturday. My boys immediately climbed into the little porthole and were in awe at the ocean:
To say our ship was nice is an understatement. It was the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas ship. It is amongst the very largest ships. It held 5,000 people and 1,500 crew members. The size was seriously just massive. It had a movie theater, theater (for plays), casino, mall, arcade, church, several swimming pools, spa, gym, library, several restaurants, rock wall, ice skating rink, roller rink, and golf course-yep, it was massive-I think I am even leaving out a few things. It was also very beautiful and had a great crew. We met so many people from all over the world. Here are a few shots of it along with some of the fun things we did...hopefully the pictures are self explanatory (the pictures are on facebook with a brief explanation of each if you are confused!):
Saturday and Sunday were spent at sea. We were never bored with all the things to look at and activities to do. My parents were great to help out with the kids and G.J. and I along with my brother Kris and his wife Jenette went to the night time activities such as Bingo, the Newlywed game, and all sorts of other things. Jenette won $300 at Bingo, and Kris and Jenette won at the Newlywed game. We got to watch a belly flop contest. Of course my brother had to bring along his mullet wig and cut off wranglers. It was hilarious to see people sneaking up by him to get a picture by him hehe:
Sunday was “fancy” night. It was a sight to see everyone in very fancy clothes. I did my best with what we had. It was a beautiful evening though. One little side note….we almost witnessed a death. A guy a table away from us choked very badly on a piece of meat and had slumped over in his chair. He had to have the Heimlich maneuver done…it was quite the scene, luckily he was OK. His wife was screaming, “Call 9-11, call 9-11!!!” Sorry lady…it would take a LONG time for 9-11 to reach us….lol
Monday we arrived in Grand Cayman…which was beyond beautiful. It was a very clean, safe, friendly island-and best of all they spoke English. We had hired a guy to take us on his speed boat around to the best spots. We saw Sting Ray Island…which was SO cool. The ocean was a bit choppy, so it was kind of scary. But we swam with over 20 friendly sting rays that loved people. It was amazing. I don’t think my kids knew what to think!:
After that we went to a beautiful beach named Star Fish beach. Kayler was in heaven when he found “Patrick” (hehe…from Spongebob) He carried that poor star fish everywhere. At one point while I was snorkeling he put it on my back and he climbed aboard too and told me to give him and Patrick a ride!:
We then went to a little café on the beach. It was so nice to see the crystal clear water and beautiful palm trees while watching the kids play in the water while we waited for our food:
We loaded back up on the boat after an exhausting day. Which leads me to tell about how nice cruises are…especially for families. You seriously don’t have to lift a finger to work. You are constantly catered to…whether it be food, cleaning, entertainment…you name it. We never went hungry, bored, tired (without a place to rest)…it is the way to go! We unpacked once, and it was just so relaxing.
Tuesday we arrived in Cozumel. It was beautiful as well, but I didn’t like it as much as Grand Cayman. It seemed a little less safe, more dirty, and hardly anybody spoke English. If they did it was just to get you to buy their stuff…and I have a hard time saying no. We again hired a local to take us around. We visited several beaches. We found SO many cool shells and ate yummy food. We snorkeled, relaxed, and saw all sorts of cool stuff. I decided to let a little lady braid my hair while my kids played on the beach. She wanted to know everything about my life. So with my basic Spanish skills and her very basic English skills, we had a nice conversation! She was SO amazed that I lived where there was snow. She was also so excited to know that we had skunks and snakes (they don’t have very many animals there):
Wednesday was a little bittersweet. We were all so tired, so we took it pretty easy. We just looked around the boat a little more, and started packing up to come home. My mom’s birthday was the 25th. So we celebrated that night. We had the funnest waiters. Domaciano from India and Carmelo from the Dominican Republic. They brought my mom a cake and sang in their best English accents..hehe:
Thursday we woke up to beautiful blue skies and 80 degrees. It was something I had never experienced on Thanksgiving. It was then that I got the “post cruise blues” realizing that our super fun vacation was coming to an end…and that I had to leave the warmth behind. After 2 more 3 hour flights and a 3 hour drive (with yet again pretty good kids…thank goodness) we arrived home at 8:45 p.m. to a balmy 10 degrees in Vernal. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a convenience store meal of a lunchable and chocolate milk…that was kind of sad but considering what a great vacation we had I couldn’t complain.
Today I have done more laundry than I ever thought possible. I still feel like I am on a cruise ship…my body is still swaying and when I drove to pick up our puppy (who was SO excited to see us!) I felt like I was driving a boat! I feel so blessed that we got to go. I was constantly in awe of the beauty and diversity this world has to offer. I am so grateful that my parents took us on this vacation. I am so very thankful that my kids were so good and that our travels were safe in every way. It was so good to watch my kids make memories that I hope last a lifetime. I was so excited to arrive home and have my house all decorated for Christmas! We had put up lights outside before we left. I left all my decorations setting out and my tree ready to be decorated and my good friend Mandy came while we were gone and turned my house into a winter wonderland. I am now ready to get into the Christmas season….even if it means snow and cold weather!
