Mexico

Mexico was a blast!! I had planned from the beginning for us to see the Mayan ruins in Mexico. I was more excited after I learned that Tobin would be studying the Mayan ruins in the spring in his social studies class. We landed in Cozumel and had to take a ferry over to the mainland and then take a 1 1/2 hour ride to the ruins. I really liked the bus ride as I was able to look outside and see some of its personality through the stores, houses and roads that I saw. We stopped about half way there for a rest break at a little store. There were lots of crafts and jewelry to look at and buy. It reminded me of my last trip to Mexico when I was 19 years old. Boy, has time flown by! The children and Andy got a Mexican ice cream treat and I bought some bells to hang on the wall.

When we got to the ruins, it was pretty hot. Andy and the children hopped on the bust to the ruins and I began the 1/2 mile walk to the ruins. We had a wonderful tour guide who gave us a great introduction to the ruins. The ruins were at Tulum, the only ruins on the Caribbean coast. The Mayan buildings were set atop a cliff with the most beautiful beach below. There were lizards all over the Mayan grounds. We realized they are like our squirrels. Brenna was really enthralled with them and I'm sure they are what she will remember from the ruins. Let's see, what do I remember about the ruin presentation:

1. Our word salary came from the sea salt they traded with.
2. They also used the coco bean (chocolate) to trade with. See, every civilizaton has known the value of chocolate!
3. They had 4 colors they used on the walls to make pictures, blue, red, black and white.
4. They had a myth about a God which they depicted as entering the temple upside down.
5. Our tour guide, talking about the origins of the Mayan tribes, stated that one of the theories is that they are a broken off branch of the tribes of Israel. Very interesting....

It was a really fun tour and we were given time afterwards to walk around. We really didn't have enough time. It didn't help that at one point we couldn't find Brenna. We had been walking around when we realized she wasn't with us. We had discovered a trail of paths that led in different directions. We were afraid she had followed an iguana away from us. Sadly, we found her sitting where we had last been as a family (about 15 minutes after we started looking for her) because she hadn't moved from there. She figured that she ought to stay put, that we would come looking for her there. It had been out of the range of our voices, so she didn't hear us calling for her. I was panicked, feeling in my heart like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't imagine losing my blond little girl in a place we didn't call home!! She was a little sad when we found her, but fine. We were able to once again see the beauty of the place. And then we had to leave! The pictures don't do it justice, but here they are.
















After seeing the ruins, we were dropped off in downtown Cozumel with about an hour and a half before the boat left. So,we walked around the open air "mercado" and enjoyed being outside.

Grand Caymen

First of all, let me apologize for the delay in blogging. I do have a lot to catch up on.

Grand Caymen was one of our favorite places on the cruise. Through the cruise ship, we set up a dolphin excursion. I knew this was going to be one of our favorite activities. And it was. We took a 15 minute ride to Dolphin Discovery where we were about to encounter a dolphin. This was going to be something we all experienced for the first time together. I love when I have an experience with my children where we are all experiencing it for the first time. I think it reminds me to be young at heart. I love watching their reaction, their excitement; it somehow makes me more excited about the event. Their reactions are so unfettered by social conventions, expectations, or others; it is so organic. They simply feel and it comes out. Even Tobin was in awe as we walked into the pool area and we saw the different dolphins. Noah was so excited, doing small jumps, and Brenna just kept shouting "look, a dolphin!"

Finally, we were able to go into the pool with our dolphin, Kopi. He was from Mexico and was about 7/8 years old. We got to pet him, (he felt like a wet mushroom), clap hands with him, kiss him, swim with him pulling us, and we got to be pushed from behind by him as we held onto a boogie board. Each time was so fun, and exciting. Kopi really just seemed like he was smiling all the time! The best way to describe it is to show you the video and pictures they took of us (which I'm hoping Andy will help me with soon). Yes, I spent a bit of money on the pictures and video, but as I told Brenna, "I chose to spend my money on pictures, rather than at the arcade or the spa. This is worth it to me!"









After the dolphin discovery, Brenna and I separated from the boys. Brenna and I went to the turtle cove and saw amazing turtles, ranging in size from those that fit into the palms of Brenna's hands to ones that she could have ridden on the backs of. It was really a fun place to go.

Turtle Cove





Andy was able to arrange a snuba diving trip for the boys. SNuba is a great introduction to scuba diving as it gives you the feel of it with the breathing mask and being below the water about 20-30 feet, but the difference is that the oxygen is floating on a raft on top of the water so it isn't compressed. So, you are attached to the tank with a thin tube.
Andy was able to arrange for a private tour for just the three of them. How lucky! Apparently they had a lot of luck in what they saw as well. Their private guide told them that this was the single best tour she had been on in terms of what they saw. Noah and Tobin were able to see a lobster, trout, flounder, turtle and barracuda as well as other fish and coral. Tobin and Noah did a great job and really "know" they want to get scuba certified now! What a great experience for them!

Jamaica: Our 2nd excursion

In the forefront of the picture you can see Andy swimming towards Tobin and Noah who are snorkeling.
Brenna's ever so graceful attempt to begin snorkeling!!






In the background you can see our cruise ship. We had times when it was raining throughout the day.


We arrived in Montego Bay, Jamiaca around 10:00 in the morning. It was exciting to think that we were free to go anywhere or do anything we wanted anywhere we wanted to do it. But, our thoughts were focused on snorkeling. We wanted to snorkel and have Brenna snorkel for the first time. So, therefore, we needed to find a beach! It was so much easier than I thougth it was going to be; I should have figured that tourisism is a huge industry in all of the places we were visiting and the natives were waiting to show their country to us. When we walked off the boat and into the customs building there were all sorts of information about tours and attractions. I really felt a sigh of relief to realize how easy it was going to be. And I also realized how different it was going to be from Haiti as we really could have driven all day around to the different areas of Jamaica had we wanted to. So, we found a map, asked about good snorkeling places and off we went into our bus. This was also organized and we were quickly directed to a bus.

One thing I've realized about going to different countries besides the fact that some of them drive on what we think as the wrong side of the road is that their cars and buses might also be different. They aren't always like we think of cars and buses. The bus we got on was no exception. It was really a hybrid between a bus and a van. And what was really neat was that the bus had these fold down chairs that when opened fit into the aisle of the bus. So, as you walked down the aisle there were two seats on either side of the bus. And yet, when you opened the fold down chair, we had seats for all five of us! No one had to sit by themselves; it was one of those fun moments where the numbers matched perfectly. I know, I'm so easily impressed.

The bus ride was actually one of my favorite parts of the whole day. I guess, at heart, I really want to see what other countries look like. I know the beaches of Jamaica are their greatest natural resources, but I want to see where the people live, where they work and shop. If it so different from ours, I want to understand how it is different. The bus trip only whetted my appetite for that information. Luckily, one of the first stops were the shops. I couldn't imagine getting off and going shopping there. It just didn't look like my usual haunts for shopping, Target, the mall, etc. I didn't have a context for it and I would have liked to, but I knew there was no way my family would agree to going shopping instead of snorkeling, even if it wasn't so much for the shopping per se, but rather to find out how Jamaicans shop. I'm sure this sounds silly, but I really like learning about people.

Our bus ride took us past Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. It looked like a great restaurant and a great place to relax and have a meal. I stored that place away for later if there was time. It was very cheery as were our tour guides (even if they did try and get us to take the extended tour of Jamaica which Andy didn't want to do). After Margaritaville, we quickly approached Doctor Cave beach where we were deposited for a day of beach and snorkeling.

Our first impressions were so scewed because it took us so long to get our snorkel equipment, make sure it worked properly and feel comfortable using it. Andy had to go back three different times to exchange equipment. Now, I don't think he was being picky as we all like to breathe. Finally, after probably an hour, we were able to swim out and snorkel. Poor Brenna never really got the hang of it and really didn't get to see what all of our excitement was about. She ended up hanging out on a water trampoline while the rest of us snorkeled. We will convert her next time!! The boys had fun and I was amazed to see how quickly they seemed to remember the ins and outs of snorkeling. We didn't see any fish or sea things that we hadn't seen before, but regardless it was neat to see them again. They boys loved trying to swim down and touch the fish-- yes this was all Andy's influence.

After about 5 hours at the beach, we were able to take a water taxi back to the boat. We were ready as we had been at the beach all day, underneath a really strong, beautiful sun. It was a really fun time and Margaritaville will have to wait for another day.

Haiti: Our first excursion

I can't tell you how exciting it is to wake up and know you are in a different country than you were in the day before. Waking up and looking out the window while laying in bed and looking at the most beautiful colored turqoise water I have seen in a long time and looking up to see an undisturbed coastline made me giddy with excitement.

Haiti was beautiful, but to be honest we only went to a small Royal Caribbean owned part of Haiti. Is this really seeing Haiti? I didn't quite think so, but I like to think that we were helping the economy of this poor country by partaking of its beauty and market vendors. There were two parts of the beach to go to and we chose the one with the water park for the children. They had lots of inflatable floats for the kids to play on, a trampoline, and a log for them to run across. They had a great time. Royal Carribbean also had a bbq lunch for us to share in.

I would say that Haiti was the place for relaxing. We had no plans to do anything other than enjoy the beach. This was our opportunity for pure relaxation. It didn't quite work out that way. Andy and I wanted to be down by the water's edge watching the children, making sure they were ok. And because we had three children wandering off in different directions, we didn't get a lot of time to relax. At a couple of different points we were showered with little storms. We tried to walk around and see as much of Haiti as we could. It really was beautiful and the part where we were was pretty much untouched. Andy and I could only spot one road and very few houses. It was a great first location.

Our Boat: Liberty of the Seas

Seriously? How ugly is this boat? We just spent this much money for this thing? were my first thoughts as the taxi brought us to the pier. The boat was immense and for some reason, didn't seem very dynamic, amazing, fun, or really, even clean. It was the balcony part of the boat that I was having trouble with. I hid my thoughts and turned a bright smile to my family stepping out of the taxi we had just taken from the Marriott to the boat. We were on our way to a week of family fun; it was easy to let that thought take hold.

The boat turned out to be absolutely amazing! It was a brillant, floating machine. And it turned out to be quite clean. We had a room with a window that framed our bed on the 3rd floor. The kids had the room next door. This worked out quite well as it had a door between the rooms and we had two bathrooms instead of one! The boat had everything a girl could want. It had a spa, two pools, workout room, a track on deck 12, numerous bars with servers walking around to wait on you at your chair, a dining room, cafes, and best of all kids camps! What's not to love.

We had a wonderful steward, David, who took quite good care of us in our rooms. He made our rooms up twice a day and made fun little animals out of our towels and sunglasses. One night Brenna left her doll, Lulu, in our room as we went to dinner and we came home "to our room" to find that David had made our bed and tucked Lulu in and made the room around her. We laughed hardily and enjoyed David's fun spirit. As our boat left Florida, and we had partied on deck 12 to say bon voyage, we wandererd around trying to get acclimated. We ended up at the front of the boat, what it's called I already have forgotten, but we were simply in awe of the ship, the ocean and our week ahead! The coast guard escorted us out of the bay which was quite a site to see them flanking our sides with guns in hand on the decks of their boats. Everybody was watching that happen.

What was really cool is that we were able to witness an event that probably not many people noticed. As we were at the front of the boat, shortly after all of hte others had left we saw a small boat come up to the rear of our cruise ship and we saw a man jump into it. Luckily there was a cruise employee and we were able to ask him what was taking place. Apparently, the cruise captain can't take the boat out of the bay--the "pilot" has to do that. So, what we saw was the boat picking him up. It's those little things that really make an experience complete. Let's see if you know this: Who do you think would have been the one who wanted to go exploring the front of the ship? Yeah, thanks Andy.














Brenna sitting in the hallway by our room waiting for the rest of us to catch up to her.

Our room with the cutest little "bug" in it.
At the front of the boat.
Saying good-bye in Miami.

The dining room: we ate in the Rembrandt dining room on the 3rd floor. Our waitre's name was Cat and he was from Romania. I don't remember seeing one cruise employee from the United States; they were all from foreign countries which seemed a little more exciting.

Bon Voyage

We're off to our cruise!! We're so excited and I will blog when we get back at the end of next week (no need to check our blog until a week or so). Andy and I hope this cruise (which will be the first for all five of us) will be a great family experience. And so far it is already happening! Our dream come true--all three of our kids playing with each other where laughter was the dominant noise. They were throwing gummy bears into each other's mouth. I am so happy right now. We're staying at a Marriott right on the beach. NOah's biggest discovery so far has been the Book of Mormon he found in the drawer. He thought it was true magic and delight! We've only been telling him that Daddy grew up with Marriotts. Andy is loving the mod technology of the showerhead that hangs from the ceiling and not the wall. The kids are listening to the ihome with their own ipods; it's been a great start. The plane was great and I must say that Andy's idea of bringing only carry-ons (which I thought would burn itself out) actually came to fruition! We all had a carry-on with all of our clothes--amazing--I would have never thought it would happen. We'll see at the end of the trip if I would do this again!! Hugs and kisses to everyone!