Day at Sea-Monday (Janey)

Monday was a “Day at Sea” aka “Discover the ship and eat to your heart’s content (and then some) day!”

I do believe I was the first one up and off to exercise in the mini gym at the front of the ship. Always a nice thing to run at sea level with more oxygen in the air to make a good morning run a little easier…..but always kind of weird to sweat WAY more than you normally do because of the humidity.  After my run I headed down to find Blaine and Kristi and Dad off to the dining room to enjoy breakfast together. Nick, Mom and Stef had made it up to the 10^th deck and decided to run/walk on the track outside where 4 laps equaled one mile. During the morning exercise they met a man on the track who became their “running buddy.” We saw him occasionally throughout the week and enjoyed getting to know him a little bit better. I don’t think Rosey and Max had quit gotten the bed off their back by the 10:00 hour. J

Over the course of the morning, the rest of the family ate in the buffet style Unicorn café and some even were lucky enough to see a dolphin and flying fish on the side of the ship. Throughout the course of the day, everyone kind of did their own thing…sometimes together, and sometimes separate. From what I can remember, this is what everyone’s late morning/afternoon consisted of:

Dad: Decided he wanted to get excited for the upcoming ports and went to see what shore excursions Carnival was offering. Carnival had a little presentation that they gave, showcasing some of the shore excursions they were offering. Dad didn’t buy any of them.

Mom/Kristi and Rosey/Warner: Participated in the bean-bag toss game. Team Rosey/Warner moved onto the final round (no thanks to Rosey….we decided this was one of the VERY FEW sports that she didn’t excel in) but didn’t win. They had a good time though!

Max, Janey, Stef, Nick: Enjoyed watching the bean-bag tournament!

Blaine: Uh….if I remember right, I think he spent a couple of hours looking for everyone. Somehow he lost us and it took him until lunch time to find everyone.

Janey, Stef, Rosey, Max, Nick: enjoyed the [very crowded] swimming pools! (Side note: I would LOVE to have a swimming pool like these someday. They had a little shallow edge around the entire pool to just lounge in, but an area to swim in if you wanted to swim. Okay, the pool itself could have been a little bit bigger…especially because it was so crowded. But I very much enjoyed thesepools.)

Stef, Rosey, Max, and Nick: Enjoyed a couple of trips down the slipping slide. Let’s just say there are better and faster slip’n slides in this world. As Rosey moved .02 mph down the slide, a little girl yelled to her from the top, “point your toes.” I guess that’s a technique that’s supposed to help you move a little faster down the slide. On their way back to the pool, R, M, and N “enjoyed” a solid 5 minutes of the traditional “Hairy Chest Contest.” They informed the rest of us that 5 minutes was 5 minutes too long!

Blaine and Warner: Enjoyed lunch together in the dining room. This is where Blaine ate some of the finest avocado soup he’s ever eaten.

Kristi, Mom, Dad: Ate lunch in the dining room.

A few of us enjoyed a short nap to try to get rid of sun/heat exhaustion headaches before it was time to start getting ready for “Cruise Elegant” night in the dining room. Everyone looked their best as we all gathered together for a fabulous dinner! This was a night filled with strawberry soup, lobster tail, and melted chocolate cake. Besides having at least 3 appetizers and 2 other entrees, I believe Blaine ate 3 lobster tail’s during the course of his meal. After enjoying a few rousing rounds of “Happy Anniversary”  sung by our waiter Winn to other guests in the dinning room, we left with our stomachs overwhelmingly (but delightfully) full.

We went and took individual  photo’s, couple photo’s, and family photo’s in our fancy attire. A few of us got some cheesy pictures taken by the professional photographers.  Eventually we made our way to one of the lounge’s and caught the end of the comedy/magic show. After the magic show, we went to change. Some people decided to call it a night, and some people changed and somehow made a little room in the stomach for a late night hot chocolate/pizza snack and enjoyed visiting with each other.

It was a fabulous day and fabulous trip. Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Cruise: Coming Home form Paradise (Dad)

Well, my assignment was to cover the dreaded last day of the trip.  This is the day when everyone's heads hang a little lower, the carefree smile droops, and everyone seems a little bit more pre-occupied with thoughts that are far away.  But I've got to say, that for my part, it wasn't too bad as last days go.  Our little group wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere quickly, and so we just enjoyed each other and clung tight all day long.  Here are some of the highlights of our lowlight day.

Met at Mom and Dad's cabin at 8:00.  We had to be out of our rooms by 8:30... but since the dining room was going to close around 8:00, and since we'd already done our packing the night before, everyone was right ready, and we wandered with our carry on bags up a floor to the Tiffany Dining room.  We got 2 nice tables next to each other and ordered breads, juices, eggs and pancakes, etc.  We visited back and forth across tables and visited till we were almost the last ones left.  We then decided to go to a place where we could sit and wait until our luggage # was called.  The ship was filled with people sitting next to their luggage waiting.  We went out on deck on the 3rd floor, and watched them prepare the ship for it's next voyage.  In lots of ways that was one of the best things I could have done.  It was fascinating to see logistics in action.  We had lots of fun discussions about the process they must follow to get the old out, and get the new stuff in.  We talked about the fastest way and cheapest way to get stuff loaded.  We watched the kinds of foods that they were loading and wondered.  It was fascinating.  Our group then wanted to go inside, so we wandered down to the big mural/picture of motion picture 'legends' which hung in a hallway.  We sat for a little while til someone found the card room empty.  So we all wandered down to the card room, where we visited and pulled out a game or two... we sat in there and visited until they called our numbers and beyond.  We stayed in there until finally they said 'everyone should be off' and so we decided to leave.  We said 'bye' to Peeta (Peter) our comedy assistant cruise director who was leaving the ship.  and we went down to get our luggagte in the cruise terminal.  Our luggage was easy to find, because it was basically the only luggage left.

We went through customs, and went outside.  We found our pre-paid shuttle across the street.  And after they kicked off a party of 4, so that they could fit us (a party of 10) onto the shuttle, we were officially on our way home.

At the airport, we found that we couldn't check in our bags for 3 hours...that's because you can't check your bags for 3 hours prior to departure... and our flight wasn't leaving until 5:00(?).  So for 6 hours we visited, played games (Settlers of Katan) played a variety of iPad games (mostly Mayan Ruins puzzle game and Achtung-Tron style game, and the Logos Quiz game).  Of note was that Warner got level 14 on the Mayan game which Blaine and Nick could only solve by searching online for cheats.

We found the Tampa airport a hospitable waiting area with good/cheap food all around and with lots of "Republican Elephants" and banners to look at since the Republican Convention was being held the following week.

We flew from Tampa to Phoenix, changed planes, and then flew from Phoenix to SLC arriving at around 11:30 pm.  Both flights made Kristi (and all of us for that matter) nervous.  We saw lightning hit the plane leaving Tampa... and we saw lighting in the clouds leaving Phoenix.  Plus with the weird mid-flight shifts, it made for some willey-nilly flights.  But thanks to Kristi who got us our A tickets on Southwest, we at least had comfortable seats to enjoy.

Everyone had rides waiting for them at curbside, and so after some sweet hugs and sad farewells, we climbed in our respective vehicles, and drove home in the darkness.

Special thanks to ALL of you kids for arranging your schedule to be there.  It wouldn't have been nearly so wonderful if we'd have been missing someone.  Thanks for spending so much time together.  It's so fun to review pictures and see such fun groups.  Thanks to your parents (our in-laws) for watching kids and making it possible for you to join us.  And thanks to M&D Bassett who's inheritance dollars left us enough that we could pay for this trip.

Until next time?

Suggestion

After we all finish our posts, someone-and I would be happy to be that someone- should go edit the order of the days/ports so that they are sequential :). just sayin.

Also, a little update from down south.  Bret is just loving preschool!  I am so happy for him, I feel like it is such a big step and he is doing really well.  Clay and I will enjoy the time together once Bret gets in full swing.  They ease into the schedule so he has only gone twice for one hour each which hasn't been much time to do anything besides go pick him up again...
Also, somehow babysitting always finds me.  I am watching a sweet girl named Scarlett who was in Bret's joy school co-op.  Her Mom is quite busy.  I just can't say no.  That kind of interferes with quality time with Clay while Bret is at school.  We will get in a groove soon enough though!

I have finally stopped rocking after the trip :) yahoo! I have started the dance company again and I am also teaching one dance class.  Those alone should be plenty to keep me busy.  I am really enjoying my days with the boys just hanging out outside with our neighbors Emily, Corbin, Naomi and baby Parley.  They all came swimming with us at Nancy's today so we could fulfill our garbage duty.  We have lunch and sometimes dinner together frequently.  They are a sort of saving grace for all of us and we have a lot of fun with them.  Emily is also my walking partner at 6:45 am as many mornings as we can do!

We are tired after so many trips up, but LOVE so much the time we have gotten to spend with all of you.  We hope for much much more!!!

Love, Stef

Grand Cayman (Stef)

On Friday, August 17, 2012 we had our final port in Grand Cayman.  Being the last port, our monies were spent, our energies exhausted, but we had just enough in us to spend one awesome day at 7 Mile Beach.  The whole family was together at this stop which was really fun!!  I think we all would agree that the ocean and weather were absolutely perfect for this "beach day."  Blaine and Kristi were nice to share and bring their snorkel gear.  Nick and Warner also rented some gear and those boys spent most the day off snorkeling around.  Mom rented a kayak and was so kind to share with each of us, especially since that was the reason we all go to see a sea turtle!!!  It was so cool the way he would hold his breath forever and swim down at the bottom, then come up for one quick breath of air and go back down!  Blaine the best "feel" of the turtle if you know what I mean! :)

We found lots of cool seashells on the beach and under the water (thanks Nick and Warner)!  Mom built a fun sandcastle.  B, K, M, N and S tried out the chicken tenders and fries at the restaurant close by.  We spent time floating on our backs forever and looking up at the amazing sky while listening to the quiet sounds of the ocean.  Lots of us got really sunburned lips and some of us got sunburned leggies and shoulders from snorkeling!  Dad got a little cat nap in the beach chair he rented.  Mom and Dad explored the whole beach!  We got great pictures and hated to leave the ocean when it was time to get back to the ship.  The dark storm clouds moving in only helped a little bit.  We were lucky enough to have perfect weather the ENTIRE time we were there!  We enjoyed not being bothered by people selling things, although the beach wasn't quite as clean as West Bay on Roatan.  We paid $5 a pop to taxi to this beach and were pumped when we found a guy that would do $3 a person back to the port.  Only two downsides to that, first-I had to ride on Nick's lap the whole way, poor guy getting a dead leg from his pregnant wife, second-we were in such a hurry to go that Warner realized the rental guys had forgotten to give him back his drivers license.  Hey enjoyed a $6 ride back to get it!  We still had a little time left to shop around before getting back on the ship.  Nick and I found a Christmas ornament and Mom found a little turtle.  Max bought perfume for Kristin- just kidding- is this where you bought your cologne Max or was that Blaine???  You get the picture though.  We all got back on the ship to shower and get ready for a big feast in the dining room that never did disappoint!  What a fabulous day!  We will hold the memory in our minds for A LONG TIME of the whole family being at that perfect beach!!!   LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the ocean in the Carribean!  Thanks Mom and Dad!!