January 2012

Sailing Away 2012

DAY 1
Well, today is the day! After a wonderful visit in Fort Myers, Florida with Jason’s Gram Henderson, we arrived in Port Canaveral to leave on a 7 day cruise! There are eight of us going-Jason, Amy, Beau, Jonah, Carter, Isabelle, Grandad (Steve) and Mamaw (Connie).  We are so thrilled!  The closer we got to the boat, the more excited the kids got!  Beau was the first one to spot the boat as we crossed the bridge to the port.  WOW! That boat is COLOSSAL!!!  It’s the 2nd biggest ship that Carnival has and it has a 3 story water slide!  Well, we boarded the ship and got a major surprise-MamaKay and DaddyKay met us as we came around the corner! They are going to cruise with us until we get to their port of St. Thomas! AMAZING! The kids are so thrilled to have both of their grandparents all to themselves!  What a special trip this will be!  As soon as we got over the shock of seeing the McKays, we headed straight to the slides!  It was only 50 degrees, but the kids didn’t seem to notice. Their lips were purple, they had goosebumps covering their skin, and they were shivering uncontrollably, but their smiles couldn’t have been bigger! They were having a ball!  After playing on the slides, we had a nice dinner (steak, chicken, lobster, shrimp, etc.).  Then, we went to bed because we were going to Nassau the next day!

DAY 2

It’s Nassau, Bahamas day!  We got off the boat and caught a bus taxi to the beach.  The waves were pretty rough and crazy, but, as usual, the kids didn’t notice!  They absolutely loved playing at the beach.  While on the beach, Isabelle, Mom, MamaKay, and I all had our hair braided in the Bahamas‘ style!  We won’t talk about the price-let’s just say that I could have had an amazing two-hour massage for the price of mine and Isabelle’s hair! We learned a lesson on the beach-ask the price BEFORE you let someone spend 30 minutes torturing you with braids!  But, it was a fun experience and all of our hair looked pretty awesome!  We headed back to the ship and got all dolled up for our first formal dinner!  Again, my group was looking snazzy! Best looking kids on this boat-hands down!  While at dinner, the boys were talking about their muscles and who is the strongest.  Carter proceeded to tell us all about his “six pack”. Well, Izzie then says, “Hey, I have an ICE PACK” and she lifted her shirt to show us!!!!! It was hilarious!  That girl is a mess!  A PINK mess!  After dinner, we went to a show; it was pretty good.  Then, we crashed! More adventure awaits tomorrow!

DAY 3

Well, the weather does not like us today! It’s pretty cool and rainy. The ship is really rockin‘ and rollin‘ today (a little seasick, I must admit).  The kids really wanted to swim, but after a little bit, we decided it was just too cold and rainy.  The boys went to Camp Carnival and played games for a while and the rest of us just bummed around the boat (we played cards and walked around).  The boys all played bean bags (it’s like horseshoes, but with beanbags and a board with a hole in it).  I have to say this-the kids are certainly taking advantage of the 24/7 ice cream bar!  I can’t count the ice cream cones they’ve had-at least 5 a day!    Carter has also discovered the french fries station! I bet he’s eaten 25 pounds of potatoes all by himself in the past 3 days!  Oh well! It’s vacation, right! We went to another great dinner and had a strange episode. I looked down the table at Beau and his lips were swollen-he looked like Fat Albert! Or Julia Roberts! Either way, it was abnormal for Beau.  We took him to the medical clinic and they gave him Benadryl.  Apparently, he’s allergic to anchovies!  Who knew!!!!! So, we went to the room where the dining crew had packed up our dinner for us and we ate.  Then, we headed up to the Lido deck to have-you guessed it-ice cream!!!!!  Isabelle was our “entertainment” for the evening. She stood on the table and did a dance show for us!  That girl loves to dance!  After our dinner, dessert, and “show”, we crashed out early.  

DAY 4

We pulled into St. Thomas harbor today and it was beautiful!  Boats silhouetted against the rising hills and beaches- just breathtaking.  We got a bus taxi and went to see MamaKay and DaddyKay’s coffee shop (Lattes in Paradise).  We all had mochas, coffees, smoothies, or milk shakes! YUM! Thanks for the tasty treats, McKays!  Then, we went to see the McKay’s house. It was really nice!  It has a beautiful view of the water and islands beyond!  Then, we hit the beach!  WOO HOO!!!! The kids were on Cloud NINE (adults too!)!  The beach was the perfect beach for them.  They swam and snorkeled until we literally dragged them out of the water several hours later!  Then, we went to eat some delicious pizza and head back toward the boat. We did a little souvenir shopping by the pier, then we said goodbye to the McKays! ;-(  What a day!  The best day of our trip so far!!!!!!  Well, goodnight! We’re off to St. Marten tomorrow!

DAY 5

We went to St. Marten today. We spent a little while at the beach, but it was chilly.  The kids played in the water and I enjoyed a fresh aloe vera foot massage on the beach by one of the locals! NICE! We decided to do a little shopping and then the rains came! Dad, Jason, and the kids headed back to the ship to eat lunch and swim while Mom and I headed out for a driving tour of the island. Despite the rain, it was really beautiful. We had a great time and saw some pretty neat stuff. We finally headed back to the boat to meet the rest of the family. We had another amazing dinner and saw another show! Whew, I'm tired!

DAY 6 & 7

We are headed north now and back to reality! BOO! We basically swam and played on the water slide all day for both of these days. We walked around the ship and shopped and had a great time! We watched some shows and ate some great food.  Beau tried everything (escargot, frog legs, sushi, etc).  He also continued to break out in humongous hives for the remainder of our trip (little did we know that these break-outs would last for the next three weeks and cost us numerous trips to the ER, allergist, doctor, etc.). Saturday morning, we arrive in Florida and get back in the car to head home! It was an amazing trip!!!!!

Home Again

We are glad to be home! It was a crazy ride, but it was worth it!  The kids got settled back into school and I started subbing again. Beau started practicing baseball and Jonah and Carter enjoy playing on the trampoline every afternoon.  Isabelle is enjoying dancing non-stop! We are going to put her in some gymnastics classes in the fall.  She just loves to dance and flip!

January was an adventurous start to 2012 for us and we hope it's a great year!