Family Cruise

Starting off an awesome trip. I will be honest, I cannot remember if this was taken on take off or landing. We took the red eye literally and flew through the night. What a LONG flight.

New York!

Central Park. It was so cool to hear so much about this place and then be able to walk through it. I still don't know what all the hype is about. It is just a huge park but was still fun to say I have been.

This weird dude was just hanging out on the park bench. I walked over and realized he was posing for pictures for money. What an awesome job. Just sit there all dressed like a million bucks and have people pay to sit by you. Sign me up!

The Twin Towers
What an amazingly somber experience. It was so intense walking up to the ponds. I just kept looking around trying to imagine what once was. I cannot begin to imagine. 

Let the cruising begin!

Cruising past the Statue of Liberty. Amazing!

So, we set sail and of course with it being our first cruise we wanted to be on the top deck to check everything out. Well, we had heard that they were doing a welcome party for the kid's club to introduce them to everything and let us parents know what would be going on. We were torn....stay on deck and see the view or go and find out what we were in store for (again, this was our first cruise). So, we ran downstairs to the kids club and entered Bryce's name in a drawing for a Carnival Cruise Build a Bear. We waited until the end (with serious anxiety on my part) to see if Bryce won. Sure enough, they called his name. The look on his face was priceless. I am so glad we waited. We grabbed his prize and raced upstairs just in time to see the Statue of Liberty. I have no idea where Braiden was at this point. I am sure him and Alex were playing basketball or checking out the ship.

I found Braiden! This is what happens when you don't (can't) sleep on the plane. You crash hard!

 Good thing Bryce won the Build a Bear because the first day at the Kids Club they were offering Build a Bear's and of course Kayson wanted to make one. So we made Build a Bears. They both made puppy pirates.

Formal Night!

This is the night that Mom and Jodi love. I loved doing it once because when do I really get to dress up but once was enough. I prefer to head down to eat in my comfy clothes.

This is the life. I didn't think I would like that my kids were spending so much of our "family vacation" in the kids club. I felt guilty that they weren't with me all the time. I did however get very used to the relaxing and peace and quiet pretty quickly. I would go pick the kids up for dinner and they were so sad to see me and begging to go back for more. They LOVED hanging out with the new friends they made.

Cornhole Champ!

Yes, that is what they call bean bag toss. We all headed down for a friendly game of bean bag toss and it quickly got crazy. Lisa and Mom were on a team and Mom was okay and Lisa was doing awesome. They made it to the finals and Lisa cracked and Mom won the whole thing. They won a ship on a stick. Who would not want a ship on a stick? It was so much fun to watch. There were teams playing that kept telling us they were on "leagues" back home and that they practice all the time. Guess you could call Mom's luck beginners luck since she had never played before.

Puerto Rico

 I was so lucky to get to go on the excursions with these guys. I guess that is what happens when you have little guys that can't do all the crazy stuff. You go on tours of castle's and we were so glad Mom and Dad joined us.

I really hate having family pictures without the whole family there. A family picture without Braiden is not a family picture.

 While we were on our tour of the castle and of the city the rest of them were waiting to go on their excursion. They went on a late night kayak trip. There was algae that would glow when it got agitated. When you would go over it and put your paddle in the water it would glow. I think it was supposed to be a warning to enemies?

This was the best picture they got of the algae glowing

 

St. Thomas

Again, I am so lucky to get to explore with my Mom and Dad. And, I got Braiden on this excursion too! We got on a "party" boat and went over to a beach and spent the day sitting on the beach. It was nice but got a little hot at the beach. The others all went over to another beach and snorkeled. When we got back they were just pulling in. Some of us went back to the ship while some went souvenir shopping.

 Bryce joined in on the festivities and joined the limbo party. He did pretty good. When his turn was over he sat on the bench and danced and danced. He enjoyed the party boat.

Again, I am missing my Braiden. Physically and emotionally missing him. I knew he would rather be doing the fun excursions (that my little guys couldn't do) so he went with the others. I didn't want him to miss out.
Today we visited Grand Turk and it was Tim, Me, my Mom, Bryce and Kayson. We went on a bus and circled the entire island. It was neat to see how small it was.

 Lisa and Kaylee went on a horseback ride along the beach.
Dad, Brad, Alex and Braiden went deep sea fishing and Jodi, Riley and Cori stayed along the dock and went surfing and played on the beach. We visited this lighthouse and later when we got back to the ship and talked about our excursions we realized Lisa and Kaylee stopped here just after us.

 At the stop we got out and were able to shop a little bit. The shops were teeny and were locals selling junk. I swear it looked like stuff tourist's had dropped and they just picked up and put it in their store. We walked down to the beach and watched a local man swim down and get conch shells off the bottom of the ocean and give them to a man on the beach to clean out. They would then give the empty shells to tourists watching on the beach. They were big beautiful shells. I wanted one and asked him for one. He held up his finger and told me to wait. He then took off on his bike. I started getting nervous because our bus was getting ready to leave. He finally rode back up holding four beautiful conch shells. I paid him $5 and jumped on the bus. I was so excited to give them to Lisa and Jodi when we got back on the ship. We had to leave them outside to try out because they still smelled.

I love this picture. Kayson crashed at the end of our bus tour and I carried him to the beach. I love that our cruise ship is in the background. It didn't last long, he heard Bryce playing and woke right up.

 The boys all headed out to sea to fish. They were fishing for baracuda and they all caught one. What a fun experience for Braiden to do with his Grandpa, uncle and cousin. I am so glad he got to go do this. I guess Braiden got a little sea sick heading out there. Poor guy!

 

 

Happy Birthday Bruse!

We did another formal night dinner on Bryce's birthday and thought it would be lots of fun to get him a cake. Tim and I went to the gift shop and ordered one. I guess when I write Bryce my "y" looks like a "u" and I am not sure about the "s". Thank goodness Bryce didn't notice. I think he was so excited it was his birthday he didn't even read the cake. Everyone brought their presents to dinner and Bryce had a great birthday!