Vacation Season

We were very lucky that my mom wanted to spend a little more time with the grandkids before we head off to Texas so she invited us on another cruise. To refresh your memory, we went on a cruise last year around this time and it was awful. Taylor didn't sleep at night and we spent hours pushing her around the boat all night long and we were all exhausted and crabby. I'm sure we all vowed never to travel with her again but a year has passed and we decided to give it a try again. Since 5 days were so bad last year we decided to try 7 days this time! Yes, these pictures may all look very familiar since we went on the same boat and to some of the same islands but the kids had so much fun that it was totally worth it. They were both great sleepers and so much fun to be with. And thanks to the kids playroom, mom and I even got to enjoy some peace and quiet, although Ethan seem to think that we must be doing really fun things while he was gone so we always had to bargain when it came time to ship him off to play. Of course when I came to pick him up he always asked for a few more minutes so I think he was having a good time too.

Ethan came up with the idea several weeks before we left that he wanted to try all sorts of food while we were on vacation. He even made a list. He did great and I think we made it through most of the list. You can see the thumbs up for the crab cakes. He must have gotten his love of seafood from his dad. This look was actually directed at the fact that green beans were on the plate with his shrimp, scallops, and calamari. Scallops and calamari wasn't on the original list and they won't be on any future list from Ethan's lack of enthusiam. Just FYI even though Ethan is wearing the same shirt it wasn't the same meal. His brillant mother forgot to bring one stack of his clothes so there was a lot of repeats during the week.
The lobster was his favorite. So at the end of the week we crossed off shrimp, lobster, crab, steak, and fish. He cracked me up when he looked at the steak and said "Next time I want the red steak, like daddy, not this black kind." I guess he doesn't like my well done steak any more than Abe does.

Someone doesn't want their picture taken with their mother. Oh it starts early.I was trying to convince Taylor that she didn't need to smile big (ie stick out her lower jaw and bear her teeth). So I asked for a thinking face and I got it.

These adorable children truly struggle with smiling (I'm sure they get it from me). You can see Taylor watching my mom behind me and copying what she is doing. This lovely beach was right off the boat, as you can see behind the kids. It was just perfect.

The kids had a wonderful time at the pirate themed party. Taylor couldn't wait to have her face painted though Ethan was very much against it for some reason. You have to love a party where they paint your children at 9 at night and you get to fight with a tired child to try and remove it before bed. What are these people thinking? Good thing mom was prepared with vaseline or we might still be wiping it off.

Ethan asked me to take his picture and this was his best pose. He NEVER wants his picture taken but this one cracked me up.

Half Moon Cay is an amazing island in the Bahamas. I think mom and I were just as excited as the kids to go back. We were ready for a long day this year and the kids swam and played until they were both completely exhausted.

Ethan is a great swimmer with his lifejacket on. He is so independent and would never get out of the water if it was up to him. Taylor didn't have as good of luck with her lifejacket and was very high maintenance in the water.

Our favorite part of the island was the pirate ship play area. I really think Abe needs to build of one of these in our backyard in his spare time next year :) Taylor and Ethan both are huge fans of pirates so there was a lot of "arrrr matie" going on as they ran from one area to the next or were "trapped" by the bad pirates. Their enthusiam was contagious.

Taylor was always so excited to find a towel animal in our bed. Every night she would say "it's my ____ (insert the animal of the night) and I love him." Then Ethan would promptly destroy it and she would cry "but I loved him" and find the animal on grandma's bed. And we repeated that pattern for 7 nights.

Ethan's putt putt skills have improved from last year. Both kids would have played all day long if I had let them.

Our 30 minute stop in Nassau. If there wasn't a great beach the kids weren't even interested in getting off the boat.

We are very proud of our cheap, plastic trophy for our win as "Best Twisting Family" on the boat. Since this will be the one and only dance contest we ever win, we will treasure it. The kids were so excited. Ethan thought he was a shoe-in for the "Best Boy Dancer" since he was the only boy for the first 2 minutes of the song but then came some little boy with some serious moves. He won it fair and square but Ethan didn't see it that way and he was crushed. Thankfully there was one chance to redeem ourselves with the family twisting contest. We danced as hard as we could and they had pity on us!

The kids loved the water slide but it was a lot more crowded than last year so they couldn't play in the water at the bottom and it was also a battle. I was happy to see that my kids weren't the only ones that couldn't get the concept though.