Cruise! Part Two

I wish I should stretch out talking about the cruise for an entire month. Then everytime I wrote I could feel like we were just there. I'm sure that wouldn't get obnoxious at all. It seems like we've been home sooo much longer than just 2 weeks. Back to the tropics we go!


We spent a day in Cococay which is Royal Caribbean's private island. The ship tendered there and we took a bumpy boat ride to this quiet little island with really nothing to do but enjoy the beach. Doesn't it look so tropical? I did nothing but float in the ocean and chat while Rick did some snorkeling. Oh, and then I floated in the ocean while Rick took a nap in a hammock. Lovely. Ahh...look at that water: (and a 40-pound svelter Rick!)

You can sort of see our ship behind me:

One of the nights was dress up night in the dining room. Our waiter was Teodor from Bulgaria. For whatever reason, he liked calling Rick "Mr. Rick". Much to Mr. Rick's disappointment, he has had zero luck getting someone here at home to pick that up. We did our best to eat one or two entries every night and have more fun than every other table. We always left the dining room pretty late and this night, there was a party and midnight buffet going on on the top of the ship, so we headed to the upper deck--where we could hear and see it all but with a little bit of space from the party crowd--and danced and laughed the night away.

I have no explanation for my husband.

The last day we docked in beautiful Key West. We went on a 3-hour tour via catamaran 7 miles out into the ocean to snorkel. I had never snorkeled before (I'm a water wimp) and the further away from land we went, the more sure I became that I would be clam happy to wait on the boat. The "pep talk" from the catamaran guide about fire coral and sure death didn't help either. But, thanks to an actual pep talk from the snorkel king of our group, I mustered the courage to gear up and jump in. And it was fun! Especially fun if you consider fighting the waves, gasping for breath, trying not to crash into the reef, and willing yourself not to have a panic attack fun. Bottom line--I do think I could be convinced to do it again. We saw fish and reef and a couple of big jellyfish. Some in our group saw a shark. We are thankful that someone wasn't me. Sadly, there is NO picture to immortalize us in our snorkel gear. I looked extra special because I couldn't get my adult size mask to seal to my face and they gave me a kid one to squish into instead. Oh, and I opted to take a noodle with me for luck. Don't make fun. We were in the OCEAN. Here we are on the catamaran afterward:

That about covers it! Rick golfed, I spa-ed...and maybe I mentioned we simply had a great time. A much needed week away from normal life and wonderful to pick up with such good friends. All in all, we were impressed with the cruise line and how very few people seemed to be on our ship when in reality there were some 2,800. We would do it again, maybe without the goucho cowboy, but definitely with people we love. Thank you friends, for making it so great.

Before I close the cruise chapter, I have to gush about my SISTERS! Lisa and Melanie and their families took charge of our family and made it possible for Rick & I to be gone. The Munks came to our house for the week--doing all the carpooling, homeworking, etc-ing that they'll have for their own in a few years, and the Quinneys adopted Logan into their family for the week and got a preview of life with a toddler and a baby. To each of you, we say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We absolutely couldn't have done it without you. And our kids had a ball.

Oh, and a thank you slash apology to a small, but not overlooked gesture from my brother Aaron who, after a miscommunication, showed up at our house at 5:30 a.m. the morning we left for the airport to be there when the kids woke up. Oops. What a good guy. Do I have great siblings or what?? This bunny's for you.

Catching Up

A lot going on since we got back!

1. MADDIE had her 9th birthday on the 13th! Even though she's been nine for almost 2 weeks, we're still in the planning phases of her friend party...our ideas of diva day or spa night are already getting used by her friends last week and this week--somehow all of their birthdays coincide and the slowpoke of the bunch (me) gets last pickins. I am open to suggestions. She had a fun fieldtrip to the planetarium this week and came home from first aid training at Activity Days yesterday with an apple COVERED in bandaids. Brayden saw it in her room and was totally stumped. I pretty sure she's not explaining it to him just to mess with him. She is maturing so much lately and I'm finding I can count on her more and more. It's almost like I have two oldest children--lucky us! She is such a great, spunky girl with so much going for her.

2. BRAYDEN and I did a fieldtrip downtown to Junior Achievement BizTown last week where he spent the day working in the radio group while I volunteered in the realty office. It's an adult working world simulation where the kids were responsible for managing their job, opening a bank/savings account, making purchases, paying insurance, etc. It was fun to see Brayden rushing around, solidfying advertising, and then hearing him over the sound system--reading ads, announcing requests, and doing the clever rap with his coworkers that he wrote ahead of time for the business. He loved it and I was impressed even though it was crazy busy. You can see Brayden through the window at the computer:


3. The older kids had their piano duet recital and festival competition yesterday and today. Piano has been one of the things that's been sliding over the last few weeks and they've been struggling to get ready this time. Here they were today...I love that you can hear Fisher cheering for them in the middle of the song:

Phew. I'm feeling for them because we're temporarily overscheduled for 2 months with another ward musical production going on. These productions are great fun, but various members of the family are at the church practicing at various times on Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Saturdays. Squeezing these practices in with three soccer practices, piano lessons, dance practice, scouts, Webelos, and two Saturday games is a bit of a trick. Hopefully, it'll pay off in the end and the kids will be left with great memories as usual. We'll report on that after May 17th!

4. CONNOR and I took a preschool fieldtrip to the aquarium together on Thursday (thank you, antibiotics):

He restarted soccer this week on his first outdoor team. He is SO excited and fully convinced he's going to be a superstar. I hope this is at least somewhat true for the sake of his little ego. I'm happy for him to have another outlet since this kid is sooo ready for a busier life than preschool 3 days a week is offering. He has picked up some sort of harsh Austrian accent--here and there he just starts speaking like "Ahnuld". He doesn't even know who Ahnuld is. The first time I heard it was so completely random--it was in the car while the little boys were watching a Blue's Clues movie and suddenly I had an Austrian 5-year old narrating along. I laughed so hard I nearly had to pull over. What a weirdo.

5. FISHER looks like this today:
Poor kid had an unfortunate meeting with the fence a couple of days ago. Despite his dodgy toddler appetite, he recently ate the leftover easter egg coloring tablets (hello, blue diapers) and sampled the hamster's fortified food pellets. I only know this because I found a few 1/2 eaten pellets on the floor. Eww. At least he got them directly from the bag that hadn't been sealed tight that day. Yesterday, he decided to venture into the front yard on his own, scaring me to death and sending us into lockdown mode. He's a bulldozer and loves wrestling with Connor. His almost-2-year-old talk is endearing--so much expression. The other night as Rick & I were going to bed, he started repeatedly howling "Hey, Hey!" I went in to check on him, but he was totally asleep, just singing the words to one of his favorite songs. Adorable.

6. LOGAN turned 6 months old and has just learned to SIT!

He is such a happy, lively little guy. Not surprisingly, he isn't especially content to sit still for very long and wants to get places. To keep him sitting, we often seat him in the Boppy or the pod chair, but he purposely does this:And this:So...his life mostly consists of getting himself continually stuck--high centered on baby positioning furniture or toys--scootched into something unforgiving--but stuck all the same. He's the human version of the very clumsy click beetle from our favorite Eric Carle book. Once he learns to "quick! click & flip"? I can only imagine what we're in for.

7. MISC other moments...McGee Family Fun Night where Maddie & Leah celebrated their birthdays, the boys at home, soccer (how did we not capture Connor's 1st game, duh?), Maddie after a party...it's been a fun week. Or maybe I'm just happy because I'm healthy again, my house is clean, and my kids are tucked in bed. Ahhh...I think I'll go put my feet up.

P.S. As of last night, I'm a new aunt to a beautiful, nameless niece!! Congratulations to Tyler & Katy! I think they are just trying to make us feel better about having such a hard time naming Logan. Thanks, guys.

Commence Gushing!

Ahh, the healing power of antibiotics. I feel like a new person. NOW I'm going to pretend we only just got home and start basking in post-vacation bliss! The cruise was so much FUN!! Royal Caribbean was great and being with our dear friends made it fantastic. Really, it made the cruise. It was a relaxing week, yet we kept busy every day, the food was great, the weather was great...we had a mah-velous time!

Leaving the Port of Miami: Those ominous (beautiful) clouds were only over the land--they were really fast moving but didn't follow us to sea. This was the only pretty part of Miami we saw. The guys had golfed that morning--maybe that was pretty. Otherwise, not too pretty.

First stop: Rock wall! It was a first for some of us and the guys revisited every day to outdo themselves. They even trained and swept the speed competition on the last day. The exception was 5th placed Rick, who would like to point out that he almost had those two gymnast girls.

We decided to scooter around the island of Nassau. We saw the Atlantis Resort, drove around the island along the coastline, saw both big vacation homes and poverty, and did some barter shopping.

Our ship was the Majesty of the Seas--it was cool. You can see the brown rock wall up on top:

I think this was the night that the guys watched the championship basketball game while the girls decided to test out the ship entertainment. We saw a goucho cowboy whose act was to swing two ropes with balls on the end, stomp, swoosh his hair and yell. Not something one needs to experience more than once, if at all. Funny though.

Gotta run. To be continued...

Channeling the Carefree Caribbean

I see that my cruise counter started over--no, we're not taking another first cruise in 11 months and 2 weeks. But it has been almost two weeks since we got home! Our blog has been wondering if we decided to stay in the Bahamas and ship the kids out to live a lazy island life. Alas, no.

I wrote this depressing post last Tuesday but didn't post it because I was too depressed:

WE'RE BACK! Sigh. We had the best time! The Bahamas were beautiful, my swimsuit was new, Rick & I had a fabulous time together, and our dear old friends are as great as ever. Sigh. It was great. Since then, not so great. We've been slammed back into reality since the moment we stepped off the plane late Friday night and the car didn't start. Now it's in the shop and we're scrambling. I caught some kind of cold/cough/sore throat on the flight home--my ears got plugged up on the plane and I've had volume & hearing problems since. Coincidentally, Logan and Fisher welcomed us home with the same cold and sore throats, and yesterday Connor and Maddie joined them. So, rather than being able to bask in post-vacation bliss, I'm feeling MAJOR let down from going from our beautifully carefree week to struggling to play catch up while spreading my sick self between teary, fevered children and discovering 3 ants in the house. Don't even get me started on the ants. And my suitcase isn't even unpacked--just rummaged through. Did I mention I'm having hearing problems? Well I am. And it's snowing outside. So, we're back. It was a L O V E L Y trip that I will certainly gush about in a future post, but we're back. To our fellow cruisers I say, I feel like a half eaten roll.

THEN, I wrote this more upbeat post last Friday:

NOW, we're coming out of the trenches and I'm ready to gush! The car problems turned out to be an antitheft glitch that rendered our key non-compliant with the car, so the car had to go to the dealer to be reprogrammed to our keys. Random and irritating, but at least it wasn't something mechanical. I've stopped taking Dayquil which means I can think straight and breathe at the same time, I've said no to some extras that were putting me over the edge, and the babies are the only kids left with colds. I'm hearing better, which means Rick can stop signing at me, and my suitcase is finally empty and put away. Commence gushing:

THEN, I started to gush and post a lot of cruise pictures...until something happened and I lost all of the pictures and didn't have time to repost them until after the weekend. I chose to grocery shop on Monday morning and by Monday afternoon I was knocked down by a terribly high fever and sore throat that sent me to the doctor by yesterday morning. Misery. I have tonsilitis and strep throat--Rick stayed home yesterday because I was totally dysfunctional and he's staying home today because I'm already improving, but still can't talk (I'm whispering this) or sit up for too long. That said, I'm going to postpone gushing for a day or two more and go lie down again.

We did have a fabulous time...

Gone Cruisin'