A mist our unpacking from the cruise and getting settled back into life at home we decided to pull out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree. The kids were super excited to help decorate the tree this year.
Our good little helpers.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Good to be Home
After our very long day and late night last night I was hoping morning would come later than 7 a.m. but our kids weren't having it. Mason and Emma came into our room which I think then woke Landon up. I still felt so out of it and disoriented this morning when I was first trying to wake up that sadly I don't really remember what Landon's first expressions were of seeing all of us again. By the time I came out of my fog he was smiling and happy though just like he always is. I took the kids out to the family room so that Steven could sleep a little longer and was trying to keep the kids from waking up their grandparents, but they were both up within not long anyways. Grandma Terrie spoiled them with chocolate chip pancakes and go-gurts for breakfast before we got ready to head home. We gave them the souvenirs we'd brought back for them and then got all our stuff packed up to go. We would have loved to stay longer, but we were anxious to get home and also Carrie had invited us to stop by their new house on the way home so we could see it. So we said our good bye's and headed to Carrie's for a quick walk through of her house and then we were back on the road headed for home. We were welcomed home to 20 degree weather and a snow covered house. We got home right about 12 and went right to work on unpacking and doing laundry. I always hate this part of vacation, but it does feel so good to be home and to have our family all back together again.
Letters to Santa
The kids sat down and wrote their letters to Santa tonight.
Mason asked for a power ranger sword, bow & arrow, a watch, and a leap pad. Emma asked for a car that Mason and her could ride in, a rocketship that she can fly to Jesus in, a motorcycle that she could drive, her own girl super hero, Elsa doll, and a pet dolphin that she could pet. Mason's seems very realistic, but I have no idea where Emma came up with most of hers!
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Utah Here We Come
Since our flight out of Florida wasn't until 5:30 this evening we planned to take the leisurely exit off the ship this morning. However we did have to have all our stuff out of our room by 8:30 so we still had to get up early. We got ready just enough to go get breakfast, ate and then went back to our room to finish getting ready and grab our stuff. We left a thank you note with our tip to Richard who took care of our room and always left fun towel animals for us and then we left our room for good just before the deadline of 8:30. We headed to the Lido deck to wait our turn to exit the ship and found Jeremy and Natalie up there waiting as well. We hung out with them and talked for awhile and let the kids color till they called our number 27.
We headed down to get in line to get off the ship and it took probably 20-30 minutes before we got off and then we had to wait for our luggage. They had 3 carousels that they were putting luggage on and our's was supposed to come off on the second one so that's where we were looking, but after seeing several numbers that weren't supposed to be on that one we went and looked on the other two and that's when we spotted our bags on the third carousel.
Again we had to wait a little while to get all of our bags, then waited again in the line to go through customs before making it outside around 10:30. We'd arranged for our shuttle to come at 11, but had a number on our reservation to call when we were ready. Well Steven called the number multiple times and could never get a hold of anyone. Outside was a zoo with people and luggage everywhere and buses and taxis coming right and left. We decided to go wait out where we saw the shuttles pulling up at, and continued to get a hold of the shuttle. Finally after waiting around for over an hour in the hot sun I found a different phone number from their website and we were able to let them know we were ready and had been waiting for an hour. While we were waiting we'd thought about just taking a different shuttle, but we'd already paid for the one we were waiting for. Thankfully, they did arrive within 10 minutes of me talking to them and we had a very nice shuttle driver for our hour long trip to the Fort Lauderdale airport. There was another couple riding with us that had been on a different cruse, but they had just gotten engaged which was exciting. It was a little before 1 pm when we got to the airport, and then we had to get checked in and see if they would check our luggage all the way through for us to SLC instead of making us change it Las Vegas, and thankfully they were able to.
Once we got all checked in and weren't carrying around all our luggage we got some lunch and found seats to sit in for the next 4 hours! This had certainly been the part of our trip that I was dreading, but the kids actually handled it rather well. They played their games, watched movies, colored, checked out the gift shop with us, and just lounged around to pass the time.
A little after 5 we started boarding our plane and this time I let Steven sit with the kids while I sat on a row by myself. I have to say it was much more relaxing then always catering to the kids. The kids did seem to do pretty well for him though and they were both asleep within the first hour.
We had an almost 2 hour flight from Florida to New Orleans where we didn't have to get off, but we did change seats and decided to split up 2 and 2 so we could both have a window seat and the kids could lay on us to sleep. Unfortunately since they had slept on the first part they didn't want to go back to sleep once we were back in the air. Instead Emma wanted to watch movies, eat and just be silly. I was so tired and just wanted to sleep, but I couldn't until she would. I finally got her talked into going to sleep which she did rather quickly once she sat still for more than 5 minutes, but then I couldn't seem to go to sleep. We got to Las Vegas at 10:30 and then had a 40 minute layover before boarding our final flight to SLC.
The flight to SLC was only about 45 minutes so it wasn't really long enough for the kids to go back to sleep, so by the time we landed just before 1 a.m. we were all thoroughly exhausted. However, despite our exhaustion the kids were still super excited to see their grandpa Cory who was waiting at the luggage claim for us. He is such a good man to come and get us at such an awful hour, so we didn't have to leave our van there for a week. We got our luggage and headed back to Cory and Terrie's house where we all pretty much went straight to bed about 2 a.m. All day I had still felt like I was rocking on the boat then with all the flying, and now sleep deprivation I was starting to feel sick to my stomach and could not wait to just lay down and sleep. I had been so excited to see Landon, and I loved being able to check on him and see him sleeping before I laid down, but I was praying he wouldn't wake up so that we could sleep. It felt good to be within arm reach of him again though!
Again we had to wait a little while to get all of our bags, then waited again in the line to go through customs before making it outside around 10:30. We'd arranged for our shuttle to come at 11, but had a number on our reservation to call when we were ready. Well Steven called the number multiple times and could never get a hold of anyone. Outside was a zoo with people and luggage everywhere and buses and taxis coming right and left. We decided to go wait out where we saw the shuttles pulling up at, and continued to get a hold of the shuttle. Finally after waiting around for over an hour in the hot sun I found a different phone number from their website and we were able to let them know we were ready and had been waiting for an hour. While we were waiting we'd thought about just taking a different shuttle, but we'd already paid for the one we were waiting for. Thankfully, they did arrive within 10 minutes of me talking to them and we had a very nice shuttle driver for our hour long trip to the Fort Lauderdale airport. There was another couple riding with us that had been on a different cruse, but they had just gotten engaged which was exciting. It was a little before 1 pm when we got to the airport, and then we had to get checked in and see if they would check our luggage all the way through for us to SLC instead of making us change it Las Vegas, and thankfully they were able to.
Once we got all checked in and weren't carrying around all our luggage we got some lunch and found seats to sit in for the next 4 hours! This had certainly been the part of our trip that I was dreading, but the kids actually handled it rather well. They played their games, watched movies, colored, checked out the gift shop with us, and just lounged around to pass the time.
A little after 5 we started boarding our plane and this time I let Steven sit with the kids while I sat on a row by myself. I have to say it was much more relaxing then always catering to the kids. The kids did seem to do pretty well for him though and they were both asleep within the first hour.
We had an almost 2 hour flight from Florida to New Orleans where we didn't have to get off, but we did change seats and decided to split up 2 and 2 so we could both have a window seat and the kids could lay on us to sleep. Unfortunately since they had slept on the first part they didn't want to go back to sleep once we were back in the air. Instead Emma wanted to watch movies, eat and just be silly. I was so tired and just wanted to sleep, but I couldn't until she would. I finally got her talked into going to sleep which she did rather quickly once she sat still for more than 5 minutes, but then I couldn't seem to go to sleep. We got to Las Vegas at 10:30 and then had a 40 minute layover before boarding our final flight to SLC.
The flight to SLC was only about 45 minutes so it wasn't really long enough for the kids to go back to sleep, so by the time we landed just before 1 a.m. we were all thoroughly exhausted. However, despite our exhaustion the kids were still super excited to see their grandpa Cory who was waiting at the luggage claim for us. He is such a good man to come and get us at such an awful hour, so we didn't have to leave our van there for a week. We got our luggage and headed back to Cory and Terrie's house where we all pretty much went straight to bed about 2 a.m. All day I had still felt like I was rocking on the boat then with all the flying, and now sleep deprivation I was starting to feel sick to my stomach and could not wait to just lay down and sleep. I had been so excited to see Landon, and I loved being able to check on him and see him sleeping before I laid down, but I was praying he wouldn't wake up so that we could sleep. It felt good to be within arm reach of him again though!
Friday, November 27, 2015
Day at Sea
This morning the kids and Steven were up early again and I apparently didn't even hear them getting ready with my ear plugs in and had slept in. However, I woke up just as they were leaving to go get breakfast and I didn't think I could go back to sleep so I hurried to get ready and met them upstairs for breakfast. When we were done with breakfast we came back to the room to finish getting ready before taking the kids up to camp carnival. They had to go there for a little while cause my parents wanted to have a meeting with just the adults to talk about the arrangements they've made in case something were to happen to them. The meeting didn't last to long so we were going to play cards afterwards, but wanted to find a better spot to do so rather than near the indoor pool and hot tub which felt like a sauna. We went to the library to play there, but it was full, then people got side tracked by looking at family photos, then we decided to go back to where we started only that was back by the indoor pool again and the heat and humidity were making me so light headed I couldn't stay in there. So I went and found a different table in the air conditioning and got everyone to move. Unfortunately by the time we'd done all this moving around it was 11:30 and we were going to have to go check out our kids from camp to get them lunch. We were also still waiting on Becca and Shane to come back so we could play hand and foot, but by the time they got there it was almost 12 and we left to go get our kids. I was a little irritated cause I felt like we just wasted a couple hours doing nothing when we could have been playing a game or packing our luggage. So then we got up to camp carnival and the kids were in the middle of watching a magic show that lasted till 12:30, so we waited around for another 30 minutes before checking them out and going to get lunch. We had lunch and then had to go check them back into camp while we hurry and got all our bags packed up. At 2 we went with all the adults to the veteran's memorial where they honored all the members of the military on board. It was neat to see 4 from our family up there and to hear that between the 4 of them they had over a 100 years in the military.
The program wasn't anything super fancy, but I did think it was a nice tribute to those in the different branches of the military. When it was over we went and got the kids from camp and went back to our room where the kids and Steven made a fort using their sheets.
Our monkey towel animal from a few days ago is the only one still hanging around and wasn't immediately destroyed by our children.
When we were getting ready for dinner we asked the kids if they wanted to eat with us in the formal dining room or if they wanted to eat with the camp and Mason chose camp, but Emma was pleading to stay with us. I'd actually thought they'd both want to stay with us for our last dinner on the ship, but Mason really wanted to go and this was like the first time he had wanted to so we decided to take him back to camp for dinner and the rest of us went to the restaurant.
Cannon and Emma dancing in the lobby waiting for dinner.
Cannon and Emma dancing in the lobby waiting for dinner.
It was kind of sad that it was our last night having dinner with everyone and seeing Danny and Derrin our waiters. Danny had come out with a different hat/headpiece every night and tonight he didn't disappoint coming out with a horses head on.
They were playing Inside Out tonight which none of us had seen and the kids really wanted to. The deck was pretty full and we had to go to one of the top decks before I could find enough chairs together for us to sit and watch the movie. It was a little chilly, but still okay. Steven went and got the kids popcorn to share and a pina colada for us to share, but by the time he got back and sat down it started to rain pretty good so we ran for cover. They were doing a rock concert in the big auditorium that the rest of the family was going to, so we decided to go there and see what that was like. We got there early so we had decent seats on the main floor and got there a little before the pre-show started. The pre-show was one guy playing the electric guitar for about 15 minutes and Mason wasn't liking it and kept saying he was bored and wanted to go.
Emma on the other hand was loving it and turned into some wild, rock child! She was dancing in the aisle and up and down the rows like a crazy girl. Then aunt Becca took her pony tail out and showed her how to hand bang with her hair so then she started doing that! She was very entertaining to watch and we were all just cracking up. When the actual show started she calmed down a little and was sitting on the drink table just completely mesmerized by the singers and the graphics on stage. On the singers started out standing right by us and when Emma saw her she said to me, "I love her".
The music was really loud, but I thought they put on a pretty good show and even Mason started getting into it and was enjoying it. It certainly not something I probably would have normally taken my kids to with the blaring music, and a few inappropriate dance moves, but they absolutely loved it and stayed entertained the entire time. It went till 9 o'clock and by the end our kids were definitely ready for bed so we just headed back to the room. By the time we got them in bed we were pretty exhausted ourselves so now we're headed to bed too for our last night on the ship. It's very bitter-sweet cause we have had an amazing time, but we are also so ready to get home to our baby boy!
Our last towel animal.
The kids all got a kick out of it and wanted to dance with him "gang-am style". Emma gave him a big hug good-bye after dinner and then we went to get Mason so we could go watch the movie on deck.
Emma on the other hand was loving it and turned into some wild, rock child! She was dancing in the aisle and up and down the rows like a crazy girl. Then aunt Becca took her pony tail out and showed her how to hand bang with her hair so then she started doing that! She was very entertaining to watch and we were all just cracking up. When the actual show started she calmed down a little and was sitting on the drink table just completely mesmerized by the singers and the graphics on stage. On the singers started out standing right by us and when Emma saw her she said to me, "I love her".
Watching the show
The music was really loud, but I thought they put on a pretty good show and even Mason started getting into it and was enjoying it. It certainly not something I probably would have normally taken my kids to with the blaring music, and a few inappropriate dance moves, but they absolutely loved it and stayed entertained the entire time. It went till 9 o'clock and by the end our kids were definitely ready for bed so we just headed back to the room. By the time we got them in bed we were pretty exhausted ourselves so now we're headed to bed too for our last night on the ship. It's very bitter-sweet cause we have had an amazing time, but we are also so ready to get home to our baby boy!
Our last towel animal.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Thanksgiving in Cozumel
Happy Thanksgiving from Cozumel, Mexico!
Went to bed by 9:30 last night while Steven watched his movie. He woke me up several times last night with his snoring, and so I woke him up just as much trying to get back to sleep. In the morning I woke up to Emma asking if it was morning yet. I pulled out my ear plugs and could hear chatter from my family out in the hall. I cracked the door open and saw Jeremy's family outside ready to go to the beach. I was barely awake and asked him what time it was, he said 9 o'clock! I couldn't believe Emma and I had slept in that long. Once I turned on the light I realized that the boys were gone, and I found a note in the sink that they'd gone to breakfast. Minutes later they returned and brought Emma and I some cereal. They'd apparently been up for over an hour, but left so we could sleep. Emma and I quickly ate and got ready so we could head out to Cozumel. We headed down to the gangway around 10, but right as we got there they announced that another cruise ship was docking so they had to close it for a little bit! We ended up waiting about 30 minutes before they reopened it and we could get off the ship.
We looked around at the stores first and got some souvenirs for the kids and a shell for us before taking a taxi down to Paradise beach. Paradise had a great beach that we played on for a little bit, but then the kids wanted to go swimming so we headed back to the fresh water pool.
We had so much fun swimming with all the cousins!
The skin around my eyes has been so raw from all the salt water, and it was so nice to be able to swim in fresh water again. The kids had a blast and we swam for a long time before pulling them out around 1 for some lunch.
Once they finished lunch we swam some more until 2 when we packed it up a and took a taxi back to the port. We found a few more souvenirs and then headed back onto the ship. We got showered, then had some lazy downtime in the cabin watching TV. Eventually we got ready for our formal dinner and met up with everyone for a big group family picture.
Once we got our picture then we went to our Thanksgiving dinner.
It definitely was not like any thanksgiving dinner I'd had before that's for sure.
We also started to leave port during dinner and it got pretty rocky which started making us all sick.
After an hour of the rocking I ran back to our room to get medication for everyone. I came back to hand out meds, eat ice cream and then we headed up to the comedy show.
Steven snuck out on the deck for a minute to catch a picture of the huge waves.
The comedian tonight wasn't very funny, Emma was tired, and Mason wasn't feeling well so I was just about to take them back to the room when Mason started puking all over. It was so gross and the smell of it was about to make me lose my dinner! His clothes were covered so JJ ran and got him a towel from his room so we could take his shirt off and cover him to get him back to the room. I felt so bad for the house keeping staff that had to come clean it up! We got the kids back to our room, cleaned Mason up, got them both ready for bed and tucked them in. They were both asleep within 20 minutes. Steven wanted to go hear the next comedian so he went back up while I stayed with the kids.
As I finished getting myself ready for bed I could hear Becca outside saying her room key wasn't working. I poked my head out to find something was wrong with her door and no key would open it so I went out and sat with her and Gracee for a bit. I didn't stay long cause I was nervous about leaving Mason sick in the room. I came back, started a movie and have been catching up writing about our trip so far. Steven came back a little after 9 from seeing the second comedian, who he said was awful. We finished watching the movie and then went to bed. I sure have missed our baby boy today, and really can't wait to get home and see him. It's been kind of hard with it being Thanksgiving today and celebrating the holiday without having our family complete here. I know he's having a good time with grandma and grandpa though.
We looked around at the stores first and got some souvenirs for the kids and a shell for us before taking a taxi down to Paradise beach. Paradise had a great beach that we played on for a little bit, but then the kids wanted to go swimming so we headed back to the fresh water pool.
We had so much fun swimming with all the cousins!
A few pictures from our underwater camera
I was impressed with Mason that he could hold his breath long enough for an underwater picture!
Emma was a little harder to get pictures of since she would freak out as soon as she went under the water!
Love this picture of Emma and her grandpa!
Silly boys
It definitely was not like any thanksgiving dinner I'd had before that's for sure.
The turkey and ham dinner plates looked delicious, but neither were good.
After an hour of the rocking I ran back to our room to get medication for everyone. I came back to hand out meds, eat ice cream and then we headed up to the comedy show.
Steven snuck out on the deck for a minute to catch a picture of the huge waves.
The comedian tonight wasn't very funny, Emma was tired, and Mason wasn't feeling well so I was just about to take them back to the room when Mason started puking all over. It was so gross and the smell of it was about to make me lose my dinner! His clothes were covered so JJ ran and got him a towel from his room so we could take his shirt off and cover him to get him back to the room. I felt so bad for the house keeping staff that had to come clean it up! We got the kids back to our room, cleaned Mason up, got them both ready for bed and tucked them in. They were both asleep within 20 minutes. Steven wanted to go hear the next comedian so he went back up while I stayed with the kids.
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