April 20, 2015

Cruise to the Bahamas!

(over a month behind!)
woke up on the first morning to this beautiful view!
this day was race day! so we got on a tendar boat early and headed to the island. Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas.
on the little boat leaving our ship
 
the island was beautiful and pretty empty at 9am!!
 
the boy's first time in the ocean!
we quick found the perfect spot and rented a shade for our charis and got in our swim suits
the water was a little cool but they didnt care at all
chasen could float really well in the salt water, he floated on his back for a good minute and when he was done the lifeguard started clapping for him! 
chasen had so much fun exploring and was opening his eyes under water!!? in salt water??? crazy kid so i went and grabbed the goggles. he came swimming over to me yelling mom mom i saw a bumblebee fish...a black and yellow striped fish. he saw lots of minnow size fish and this really long fish and was long pointy nose that was as blue as the water, it was really cool!
and Dash loved it to and wasn't scared!!
 
we spent the entire morning swimming and playing!
the boys raced at noon and ean at 12;45
 chasen jumped the wall all on his own!
 dash had help from daddy
 we got them to the start line then went down a ways  to watch then start
 Ean was going to jump in and run with dash but he soon realized that he had crossed he start line and that it probably activated his timing chip on his shoe so he had to run to the checkin spot and try to get a new one for his race...which started in 40min!!
sooooo that left me in my flip flops and swim suit to run with dash. 
he had to have someone run with him since we couldnt see them the whole time he would have been totally lost
his first obstacle 
 ean finally met up with us but at this point I was just gonna finish in my cover up! 
he loved the obstacles but not the running so much!

 

 

 his last obstacle!!
 
 my little spartans!
 and we only got pics of dad starting and finishing....the rest of the race was all around the island and we couldnt watch. it wasn't muddy but he did have to swim in the ocean twice!
 after the race and lunch we went back to our spot and were surprised to see the tide had "went out" the water had receded alot!
if you scroll up you'll see the pic of ean sitting on that ledge below and the water was all the way up there
now we could stand on the rocks we were swimming over 
this meant there were some sea creatures left behind and you better bet Chasen collected them!! 
they were cool! the one crab was blue and they were crawling around fighting with eachother!
bye island see you tomorrow...or so we thought.
we were back on the ship around 3 for naps then changed into nice clothes to go eat at the fancy steak resturant
lets just say dinner was a disaster. i woke up from my nap and didnt feel good but decided to forge through. our resturant was at the front of the ship which was really rocky and once inside i couldnt stomach it. my appetize i ate one bite....took a break and went outside for fresh air....my soup came, i  ate half of it and started sweating....took dash out side with me this time...came back in my awesome looking steak arrived and i just couldnt do it. I had to leave dinner and go lay down which was a bad idea since our room was at the end of the ship and it was just as rocky and inside 
I stumbled down the loooooong hallway!

but i did sleep a little and then threw up...this was the only time i threw up and i blame it on the start of morning sickness ( I was 5/6 weeks pregnant!) and the rocky boat.
poor ean ate our romantic dinner alone with 2 rotten boys ;) and brough my dessert back to me wich we ate it outside on the ship after we took the boys to kids club! we stayed out till about 9 and could hear the waves crashing up against the boat. so it wasn't just my imagination the boat was moving although it didnt bother ean.
Ean went and got he kids and they had had a blast at the pirate party!! 
kids club was great each child had a wrist band that they scanned and we had our key cards that had our pic on it and scanned also we also had to have a password to pick up the kids so i felt pretty safe about it..and we got pagers incase they needed us!
we all crashed by 10pm!

April 6, 2015

Florida Cruise Trip

i can not believe i havent posted about the biggest vacation we have ever went on. .... but ive been sick and tired and pregnant!!

rise and shine....time for school. AND its vacation day!

we left at noon so chasen went for a half day.
we drove to chicagto where we parked our car, took a bus, and then a tram to the airport..the boys thought this was really fun!
going through security went smoother then i thought and dash did pretty good walking
excited to be on the plane!!!
ean got to sit alone with headphones
i got the kids and no headphones.....???
safety first
chasen thought it was so cool to see all the lights and the city
 
dash was very squirmy but quiet atleast
  
finally i said it was bed time just to see if it would work and he said ok, sing me a song so i sang a quiet song and he was out! umm what? That was way to easy, then i tried to fall asleep but 2 adult men 2 seats back were talking so loud that i wasnt the only one scowling at them!!
we landed around 11pm and took a shuttle 5 min to out hotel and passed out!!!
we didnt have to get up too early and the boys had time to watch the train on the tram and airplanes take off
yummy breakfast
we got dressed and checked out the pool and WARM WEATHER!!
 
Chasen wanted to explore the city so we went on a short walk. he was disappointed we couldnt walk all day
we took a shuttle service to the port
we couldn't take any taxi's since we didnt bring a carseat for dash, but i knew that ahead of time and had everything figured out. taxi = carseat, shuttles,or bus you dont have to have one!
we got on the ship around 11 walked around a bit and ate lunch with a view!!
we had a lot of time to hang out as the ship wasn't leaving till 5 and our rooms wouldnt be ready till 1
but we decided we'd rather be on the boat for lunch and swim then at the hotel!
dash and i shared a virgin pinocollada which i had to explain to the guy twice that i wanted it virgin, im not sure if he thought i was pregnant, confused or a recovering alcoholic!!
then we hit the pool! 
it was salt water!! and chasen could float like a fish!!
finally our room was ready and we took naps!
looks pretty small....it was but the window helped!
we woke up refreshed and went to have supper
miami marina
&
miami skyline
beautiful sunset
 
we explored the boat and hungout till bed time.
the boys went to kids club around 7pm i wasn't sure how they would like it since they werent in the same group dash was in age 3-5 and chasen 6-8
but when we went to get them they were so excited and loved it! 
and it was nice for us to have a little break from them :) 
we went to bed relatively early as the next morning was race day!