Well, I figured it was about time to sit down and tell y’all about the cruise. Warning: this will be long. Also, I’m not sure why some of these pictures are normal sized and some are super large. I have no time to figure it out. Sorry.
Honestly, it went surprisingly well. The kids were like little angels. It was as if little angel babies came in and took over my children for a week.
They ate great.
THEY SLEPT GREAT.
They played great.
They were sweet to each other.
They were sweet to every single person on the cruise. EVEN ME!
They were little sweet baby angels, I tell ya!
Yes, you did read that right… they slept great on the cruise! Mostly because we wore them out every day. They were in the sun and water all day every day and we loved it! It was so fun! We would all go back to the room and take a long afternoon nap and that was BLISSFUL. Then we would go explore something on the ship and enjoy the afternoon as a family. After that would be dinner.
Now, the first night for dinner was a disaster.
The kids were tired and grumpy and acted insane. Andy ended up leaving early with them and let me sit and enjoy dinner. Win!
The rest of the week they had in-room babysitters and once we put them in the daycare.
Now. I want to take a break and encourage all of you parents out there who might cruise in the future- IF THEY HAVE A DAYCARE THING ON THE SHIP, SEND YOUR CHILDREN!
I was very, very leery of all of this but oh my word it was amazing. The kids LOVED the in-room babysitters. They were Jamaican and so loving and fun. Rory would ask the rest of the week, “When are my girls coming to stay with me again?”. Then the last night we decided to leave them in the daycare and all we could do was ask, “WHY OH WHY OH WHY didn’t we do this all week????????”. Again, the kids LOVED it. They had little friends (max of 8 kids allowed) and played games and did crafts and snacked and watched movies. They were in heaven and I didn’t worry even for a second.
Okay, back to the cruise update.
The one other night we took the girls to dinner, they actually did AMAZING. They were so good and ate spaghetti like it was their last meal. In fact, they outlasted most of the adults at our table- ha!
The first port was the Bahamas. We went out with the girls and took them to the beach. We were so excited to take them since they’d never been to the beach at the ocean before. The water was too cold to really enjoy, but they had a blast in the sand!
Our ship
Little miss sassy pants, as per usual.
Strike a pose, giiiirl.
Rory was way too busy exploring to get a picture of her… unless she was running in it.
The second day was at sea. (I think this is right… but I may be a little off. ha!)
That morning we woke up and went and had breakfast with the Dreamworks Characters! Rory and Ryder had a blast seeing the characters and eating a fun breakfast. Shrek snuck up on Rory and FREAKED HER OUT so she was a little leery the rest of the morning of the characters, but we still had fun. Ryder was OBSESSED with the characters though. It was hilarious!
We stayed at the kiddie pool all day and Rory and Ryder loved it. Especially Ryder. She was in little baby pool heaven.
Also, did you know the baby pool is the only warm water on the entire ship?
I’ll let you think about it and get back to me as to why that is.
Something that we started with the girls on the trip was to make them hold hands everywhere we went. We knew it’d be harder to lose two who were holding hands and that they would be willing to hold hands like that because it is fun, so they held hands EVERYWHERE. It was the cutest thing EVER. Like, ever ever. HA! Everyone would just die when they saw them walking around holding hands in their matching outfits. And hello- do you know me?! They matched CONSTANTLY and my heart was full and happy. Thankyouverymuch.
On Wednesday we went to St. Thomas. Andy and I left the girls with his parents and got to spend the day with his brother and his girlfriend and his sister and her husband. It was such a fun day! We went up to Paradise Point and got some pictures and then shopped around.
We also took pictures of a guy who had the most epic butt crack I’ve ever seen. Like how do you not feel the breeze- I can see your entire butt? kinda crack. It was insane.
You’re welcome for that.
Austin and Victoria
Ashley and Drew
The next day we went to St. Maarten and it was my favorite day on the trip. Andy, the girls, and I got off the ship and did a little shopping. After that, we spent several hours on the beach. It was the most beautiful beach and it was really warm that day so the water felt amazing. We just spent the day swimming, making sand castles (meaning we would build like one tower and they’d knock it down), and just having fun together. Our kids are total beach lovers and I can’t wait to take them back.
On the water taxi – just taking in the beauty of St. Maarten.
trying to get Ryder to come out and swim with her – Ryder prefers just playing in the sand
taking a water break
little model
The next two days were at sea. The first day we spent all day outside at the pools. The last day on the ship was EXTREMELY cold. We had to stay in all day and it was just a hodge podge of a day. We went ice skating which was a total bust and we went to a parade that night on the ship. It was really fun for the girls.
Here are some random extra pictures I have from the cruise that I don’t really know where to place, ha!
With daddy, waiting on the parade!
With Daddy again, on formal night.
Before dinner on the night they did SO GOOD, in front of the giant Christmas tree on the ship.
At dinner, during the part where we swing our napkins over our head- their very favorite part (meaning Steve’s favorite too! ha!).
I don’t know what they put in that spaghetti but these girls SHOVELED it in their faces. ha!
Meeting Gloria
the entire family on formal night- all of my pictures are blurry from this night ?
sweet peas
So that’s it. The girls actually barely embarrassed me.
Rory did say several times, “why he/her talk funny?”, after some of the people on the cruise (none of which were American) and that was quite hilarious.
The girls also became a little famous on the cruise. People would see them walking around, holding hands, and they would say, “oh! I’m so glad we saw them again! They are the sweetest and cutest kids ever!”. I mean… I know they are but it was so nice to hear. HA! Honestly I got a lot of compliments on how well behaved they were and I was shocked every time. Because they are a bit heifer-ish at home, if you didn’t know this already.
Andy and I are already planning a little beach vacation for May. We had the best time getting to actually BE with them. No phones. No work. It was wonderful.
Hope y’all had a great New Year! I will be back to blogging regularly now that all the Christmas celebrations are over and I’ll blog about those next week.
But more than all that, I think the most important lesson my mom has taught me is to laugh. Laugh through the hard times, the good times, and all the times in between. I’m so thankful that my parents weren’t rigid and too serious. I grew up in a house where my mom said things wrong (for example: she was asked once, “what did you do while Tiff was in surgery?” and she replied, “oh, I just read a good boob!”… you can imagine the laughter that followed. in fact, I’m still laughing about it.) and had funny blunders. (don’t worry- my dad had them too!) Instead of crawling away in a hole and acting crazy about it, she just always laughed. In fact, she laughed harder at herself than anyone else could. There are so many more hilarious things she did- I will tell you about the time she believed she found “the marijuana” in my car another time, it is a personal favorite of mine …
