Ahh what an adventure!!! My parents sure know how to spoil us when it comes to Christmas gifts. We were able to go on a 7 day western caribbean cruise.
1st let me point out some things that I learned.
I have amazing parents!! (already knew that one but had to throw it in)
Never take your kid/kids on a cruise!
Don’t go on a Carnival cruise (pick a different company)
Room Service ROCKS!!!
You don’t have to have a good body to wear a bikini.
It’s easy to gain weight when you can eat, eat, eat with no preparation or clean up. Don’t worry I gained 3 pounds in a week!! Hallie on the other hand decided to go on a purple grape diet and lost weight.
Weather plays a huge roll in a cruise.
PRE-CRUISE: MIAMI
View from our hotel window. It was too windy to swim dang it!
Memories:
Ordering pizza and hanging out with my parents.
Feeling the baby move for the first time that night.
Thinking my dad was silly for wanting to go out so late and get food for the next day. (We forgot the next day was Sunday. Opps! Dad’s always know best!)
Seeing a toilet seat on the balcony across from us. I sure hope it was because they were remodeling. wink, wink
DAY 1: BOARDING THE SHIP
The view getting on to the cruise ship.
Me and Hal as the ship was leaving
We called her Hollywood Hallie with those sunglasses on. So CUTE!!!!
Memories:
Seeing my Aunt Tammy and Uncle Brett for the first time in a long time. (They went on the cruise as well.)
Realizing just now many people were going to be on the boat with us.
Noticing our fake tans really weren’t so tan after all.
Watching people get drunk of their rocker before the ship even took sail.
DAY 2: ALL DAY AT SEA
Everynight at dinner we chose a starter, main coarse, and dessert. But wait it gets even better than that-you can have as many of each as you want!!
Me and Ben on our formal night.
My amazing parents!
Hallie refused to eat in the dining room so here we are later that night letting her eat in my parents cabin.
Memories:
Dressing up and getting our picture professionally taken for free. Too bad only the “taking was free” to buy the picture (that turned out super cute btw) cost $22. Too much for me!
Eating amazing food that I had never tried before.
Having my parents watch Hallie so Ben and I could go see a show, play air hockey and go dancing. So fun!! Well, until Ben twirled me and showed the room what was under my dress.
DAY 3: COZUMEL, MEXICO
First time off the ship.
The above pictures are all of the ancient Mayan ruins. It was awesome! Don’t miss the huge Iguana in the last picture.
The jeep we rented for the day.
Memories:
My mom and Hallie shopped.
My dad and Ben and I rented a jeep and went and saw the Mayan ruins. It was about a 30 min drive so we got to tour Cozumel on the way.
Stopping at some little resturant off the side of the road and eating the best tacos we’ve ever had. I made the mistake of putting their home made salsa on my taco before trying it. I have never eating something so spicy!!!!
Stopping at a beach and playing for a few minutes.
Seeing whole families on little scooters going across town. Seriously we saw a family with three little kids and two parents on one little scooter. Hilarious!! Everyone drives scooters in Cozumel.
DAY 4: BELIZE
One of the nicer houses in Belize.
Ben and Hallie on our city tour. Hallie was awful the entire ride. Ahh the stress!
The view leaving Belize.
Our cute little family on the Tender boat bringing us back to the cruise ship.
Memories:
Experiencing a 3rd world country first hand.
Being humbled to see the massive poverty. Wow we are blessed to have all we have.
Passing an LDS church house (didn’t get a picture). It was the nicest building in the city and it had a 12 foot barbed wire fence all around it.
Telling our tour guide (who was hilarious) that we were Mormons and finding out that he had started reading the Book of Mormon a while ago but had gotten busy. (IF only I had a quarter for every time I heard that on my mission.) I told him to start again. He was such a good guy I hope he does.
Seeing where the tour guide gets his hair cut.
Seeing shacks with menus written on the outside wall. (They were restaurants)
Seeing little kids fill up soda bottles with water that was from the gutter.
DAY 5: ISLA ROATAN (our favorite)
The view from our breakfast table. GORGEOUS!
The port we docked at.
Ben and my dad left the girls and went scuba diving. They LOVED it!
Another gorgeous view! Roatan is a quiet beautiful place. We are hoping to go back for a future anniversary!
Memories:
Docking at a different port because of the wind.
Spending the day with mom, Hallie, aunt Tammy, and uncle Brett
Seeing the LDS church house surrounded by fence. This time the Church lot even had a huge basketball court.
Finally swimming in the ocean. Hallie LOVED it- she was laughing the whole time!
Hallie burying everyone’s feet in the sand.
Having a million little kids try and sell us things. (Reminded me of slumdog millionaire.)
Getting sunburned because I didn’t put on sunscreen with the overcast weather.
My mom and uncle paying a little boy to be me and Hallie’s bodyguard for 15 min while we shopped. He stopped cars for us as we crossed the street, shewed dogs away from us, and helped us with the stroller.
Eating Iguana!!!! It actually wasn’t bad. It is what they eat a lot of on the Island so I had to try it.
DAY 6: GRAND CAYMAN
The town named HELL. We just had to get our picture! hahaha
We had to take this picture to depict what Hallie was like on the cruise ship. Don’t ever take kids!
This is one of my dads firefighter buddies that also went on the cruise. He was a stranger to Hallie but when he offered her ice cream she went with him without even looking back. I guess we know what we need to work on for talking or dealing with strangers… EVEN IF THEY OFFER YOU ICE CREAM!!! After this incident all the grandparent firefighters that were also on the ship kept coming and taking Hallie to get ice cream.
Ben and Hallie on the Tender boat as we road back to the ship.
Memories:
All of us together on the beach with warm weather at last!
Snorkeling!! It was the highlight of the trip. We saw beautiful fish and a string ray.
Hallie loving the water again! She’s such a little fish. My dad taught her how to kick her feet and swim.
Getting a tan line finally!
Going to the town of Hell and buying a post card.
DAY: 6: ALL DAY AT SEA
No pictures.
Memories:
Hallie finally having a huge chess set to play with.
Just hanging out
Parents taking Hallie again so Ben and I could eat dinner in peace and relax.
DAY 7: GOING HOME
Our little family waiting to go through customs.
Hallie in the airport eating trail mix.
Ben set up Hallie’s bed and she took a little nap. I was surprised at how well she slept-normally she can’t sleep with any noise. We were very grateful.
While waiting the five hours at the airport we met a hispanic woman who was kind enough to let Hallie love on her little grand baby. Hallie was so happy and giggly. She thinks she’s ready to be a big sister.
Memories:
Being sad to say goodbye to my parents. We miss them terribly!!!
Offering to take the next flight to D.C. in the morning because Southwest over booked our flight. We ended lucking out because 2 people didn’t show up. We got to go on our same flight plus we got almost $700 in flight vouchers. YAY we really have been blessed. This will pay for us to go to Ben’s brother’s wedding in May.
Coming home to snow and cold!
RANDOM:
Here is our room. I loved room service!!! Every time we left our room they came in and cleaned it. They always left a little towel animal. The one in the picture is a monkey hanging from our ceiling.
We had a great end to our 2009 year thanks to our friends the Hardings. They had a wonderful party that we just couldn’t pull ourselves from. I had originally thought that we would last until around 10 pm and then we would go home (pregnancy has been making me sleep A LOT lately). However, we stayed and celebrated the New Year. Hallie even got to enjoy most of the night. She stayed up and played until 10 pm and then we put her to sleep in an extra room. It is so nice to have a little girl old enough to play on her own and not have to watch her every move. Ahhh it was wonderful not having to chase her and worry. She’s old enough to play with all the big kids now.
Hallie was already asleep by midnight when we took this picture.
Guess who went on a date?! If you guessed me you are right! It was so much fun to go out to eat and socialize (thanks to our neighbor Eula who gave us a gift card).
Here I am getting ready
Hallie loves to help with EVERYTHING! I love her chesser in the top picture.
The happy couple!
P.S. I just wanted to brag that I got a love letter for Christmas from the handsome man pictured above! He’s so WONDERFUL!
The week before Christmas we got a HUGE storm. It snowed and snowed and snowed. In the three total years I have lived in DC we have never got this much! The area seriously does not know how to react to this much snow. Everything shut down including church. I LOVED it!!
Ben helping a neighbor get his car in his spot. Don’t ask why he pulled it out of his spot just to put it back in! NO one knows how to drive in the snow out here. Ben was getting so frustrated with this guy who just kept spinning his wheels.
We played outside for a while but Hallie only has the cotton gloves that don’t work well in the snow. She played until her hands hurt then I took her inside. As you can tell she wanted desperately to be back outside.
Christmas morning breakfast! I asked Hallie to smile and this is what I got. Silly girl!
I didn’t have any presents under the tree until Christmas morning. (I knew Hallie would try and open them.) She was really excited!
Opening her first present. I think the wrapping paper was the highlight of her day.
And another one. At first she would tear off little pieces at a time. It only took a few presents before she got faster and much more efficient.
One of her presents was a softball glove. We had to teach her how to use it because first thing she did with it was put it on her head and call it a hat. haha
We were able to skype with both of our families on Christmas. Hallie decided, without any encouragement, to give kisses. It was hilarious!!!
At our ward Christmas party the primary children acted out a little nativity scene. Hallie insisted on going on the stage so I gave her an angel’s halo and up she went. Let me just tell you she stole the show! She walked along the front until she placed herself perfectly. Then she looked out across the crowd and gave them the biggest cheeser grins (the picture doesn’t capture it fully). She knew she was cute and that everyone was looking at her. lol I was drying I was laughing so hard. Don’t ask me where she gets it from!
Beautiful Hallie in her Christmas dress. Thanks Nanna Romrell!
When you are sick and don’t feel like doing much you will try anything to entertain a toddler.
For example: I made jello pudding and let Hallie play with it in the tub. She loved it and it entertained her for a good 30 min while I just sat there and watched. HAHA Well, and took tons of pictures of course.
Just getting started and a little unsure.
First taste test.
Evidence that it tasted good.
Getting a little more into it.
Really into it now. P.S. I had a little fun writing on her.
More eating was involved.
The final result=good times and fairly easy cleanup.
It snowed in Virginia!!!!! I was so excited. We pulled the blinds up in all the windows and just stared at the beautiful snow flakes. It made me feel like I was home (Utah).
We took Hallie sledding. She is so funny! At first she seemed really nervous but then she finally started to smile. Silly girl!
We had another wonderful Virginia Thanksgiving this year. We were blessed to join Ben’s second cousins the Stoker’s for their feast. Boy was it good. Carol really goes the extra mile and makes everything from scratch. I mean even the stuffing came from homemade bread. We were spoiled to say the least!!!
Here are some pictures of our meal
I’m kicking myself now because I didn’t get any pictures of us!! DUH
That same Thanksgiving weekend we went up to the Shenandoah mountains where the Stokers were camping for the weekend. We only stayed for one day but we had so much fun. I seriously LOVE camping. Hallie really enjoyed herself as well and she even did great in the car (which considering her history is a HUGE deal!). YAY, thanks for inviting us once again Randal, Carol and Rachel.
Hallie riding in the wagon on our walk.
After awhile Hallie decided she wanted to help dad pull the wagon.
As I went around and checked out different blogs a few months ago I ran across The Mother Load. I read about the no spend challenge and knew that I needed to do it. I know our family isn’t the only one who has to watch what we spend and I know I’m not the only one who loves to buy, buy, buy. I’m a shopper what can I say. I LOVE clothes and I LOVE crafts. Joann’s craft store takes a significant amount of money from me every month. haha
I decided that November would be my NO SPEND MONTH. Of course I still bought groceries (but even that bill shrunk) and we even had a date night (which rarely happens). However, I never went out to eat with my friends for lunch, and I never bought anything at Joann’s or the mall or even the thrift store. It was so HARDDDDDD. I wanted to go to Joann’s a million times.
Now that the month is over and I can look over our monthly budget and smile because I can see the money we saved it was all worth it. YAY!!
