CRUISIN' BLOG!

Here goes nothing! My attempt to recall the past week of fun in the sun and put in all out there on the blog! :) We had a super fun time - I just hope I can remember everything!



*In a side (and sad) note, our nice camera was stolen, so there aren't any pictures up yet. Lindsey, Trent, Steve and Shauna were nice enough to let us borrow their cameras for pictures, so I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I get them!*

UPDATE- Here is a link to the pictures! It takes too long to upload them to my blog- there were over 400 total pics, but I picked out about 100 favorites and here's the link. :)

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=423843007/a=73441033_73441033/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish


We were SO ready for a vacation, but it was also a little stressful to pack for such an event. Seven day cruise, with at least two separate outfits per day, baby gear, beach gear, etc. We ended up with FIVE suitcases and we were ready to go! We left on good Friday and headed to the airport.



----Let me back up for a moment--- The night before we left, the Easter Bunny made a surprise visit with a gift for Carley and Graham. He left Graham a swing for our swing set, and left Carley the princess scooter she has been asking for! She's been riding all over the house, pretending to "rescue" us. She's pretty happy with her new scooter! Now, we just need some knee pads! :)---



Ok- back to Friday. We were running a little late, but made it to the airport in time. We literally got some of the last few seats and actually got seats all together. Praise the Lord! Graham had been fighting his first ear infection, so we were pretty worried about the flight, but after takeoff he slept the whole way and did beautifully. He's more challenging on flights than Carley was, but if we can get him to sleep, it's perfect!

San Juan

We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico and got our bags and went to the hotel. We didn't do much exploring, but the area we did see of San Juan wasn't fabulous. We ordered in pizza for dinner and went for a short walk. We found the beach and Carley and I put our feet in the ocean. The waves seemed to like Carley, so she ended up walking back to the hotel with practically soaking wet pants. :) The next day, we had breakfast on the roof of the hotel, and headed down the street to a fancy hotel to use their pool. :) We just walked right in! The hotel shall remain nameless- just in case they happen to read my blog and try to send me a bill for pool fees. :) We spent the morning swimming and lounging, then headed back to get ready. I must say- Graham is the cutest little naked baby. He's so squishy and caught the attention of lots of little Puerto Rican girls who wanted to play with him. Swimming was fun- but we had to leave and get ready. We packed up and headed to the pier to get on the ship!



We arrived at the ship at the same time as the rest of the family! We had a little reunion and got checked in. The cruise ship was overwhelming- HUGE! Everyone was super friendly. As soon as we walked aboard, Carley and Grant started dancing to the music. They were a HOOT! We grabbed our mimosas and got settled in our rooms. Our room had a balcony that made for a gorgeous view throughout the trip. The rooms were small, with a pull out bunk above for Carley to sleep on! That was a pretty special treat! We headed to the buffet for lunch. Anything you could imagine to eat- followed by ice cream sundaes.

That afternoon, we had the mandatory life boat drill. We all had to get on our life vests and meet at our "muster station". I was glad when it was over- too many people! Graham fell asleep during the drill and Syd's arms just about fell off after carrying him for so long!

http://www.celebritycruises.com/plancruise/ships/ship.do;jsessionid=0000ayqNxTi8UzOJZY_nX1cH62F:12h3rnd1c?shipCode=SM&cS=FLASH

The Summit was the name of our ship. There was a theater on board, multiple restaurants and bars, a casino, a few dance floors, a kids program and more! We explored the kids program and went to get ready for our first night's dinner. Each night was a "formal" dinner at 6pm. Dress code and everything. (This is what made for tricky packing) Our servers were the same every night- Cihan (pronounced Jihan) from Turkey, Caroline from Jamaica, and Eagle from the Philippines. We got to know them VERY well, and vice versa. We had our own table for 10! There was a lot of action at our table with all of the little ones. Graham- who slept part of the time in the stroller, or had to be kept occupied constantly with toys and snacks. Bennett (who is 1.5) who had quite the appetite most of the time- and liked to play with his food. Grant and Carley (who were not allowed to sit next to each other) who played games throughout dinner. At each dinner, there were at least 3 courses! Wonderful food with fancy names that I didn't understand half the time. The dinners went well for the most part. It was a lot to ask of the little ones to sit there for a few hours, but they did ok.



After dinner, we headed back to our rooms to get settled and unpacked. After that, we found a dance floor where they were playing live jazz music. It took about half a second for Carley and Grant to be on the dance floor. All by themselves. They were hilarious and having SO much fun! We let them dance to a few songs before Carley had a few questionable dance moves and we decided to turn the dance floor back over to the adult crowd. (In the middle of dancing to the band's version of "Brown Eyed Girl" Carley proceeds to sit down on the dance floor and kick both legs up in the air....(she was wearing a dress)...revealing cupcake panties and all) I was mortified so I grabbed her hands and yanked her off the floor. I think she was going for "something new".

Oh brother.



That night, we headed back to our room to get settled in for bed. When we took off for St. Maarten that night, the kids and I were already sleeping. Syd caught the action, but the rest of us were sleeping.

St. Maarten

The next morning, we were in St. Maarten. Phillipsburg, I think. Guess who found us on the ship? The Easter Bunny! Carley woke up in her bunk with an Easter Basket filled with treats sitting on the other end. We were amazed that he found us out in the ocean and concluded that he must have come in through the balcony. We knocked on Grant and Bennett's door to share the good news before heading down to Nana and Papa's room to tell them all about our treats! Lots of candy treats and some new books! Nana and Papa even had MORE treats for the kids. After all the Easter hubbub, we headed to breakfast!



After breakfast we took the kids to the Easter party on the ship, where the bunny himself was present! There were games, face painting and an Easter egg hunt. Carley and Grant especially had a ton of fun. The youth counselors do a fantastic job on the ship!



Our daily routine for the week was always get up, get breakfast, head out for the day. Return, nap, get ready for formal dinner. Dinner, dancing (or go see a show) and head to bed! Anyway- after the Easter party, we headed out to St. Maarten. We decided to take a water taxi to a nearby beach. Our beach time involved lots of sunscreen, sand toys and a bucket of Coronas! We never stayed too long on the beaches- maybe 2 hours. Trent and Syd snorkeled, the kids played in the sand and water. Graham tried to eat sand and took some breezy naps. I've never seen water as turquoise as those on the beaches we were on. Picture perfect! Never too hot with the Caribbean breezes! Carley swam around with her water wings on. We LOVE her water wings! They help her get used to the water and give her some independence. She swims all over the place and practices using her arms and legs to get to where she wants to go. Definitely not a replacement for good lessons, but a fun way to play and learn how to move in the water. We got a lot of use out of them on the trip!



After finding our magnet (Syd and I agreed that the most shopping we would do on the trip was for a magnet from each island- sort of like our MISSION!) we headed back to the boat! Daddy and Graham took naps, and I took Carley with me to have our nails painted. We had a little date and our nails looked fabulous! When we got back to the room, we got ready for dinner. It was a formal night, so everyone wore their Easter best!



After dinner, we went to a deserted night club spot, where Carley and Grant could have the dance floor all to themselves. They have some moves, let me tell ya! Carley has some shakin' moves and I HAVE NO IDEA where they came from! She makes this serious face and sticks one hand high in the air and the other low, and twists her hands (like taking off jar lids) while shaking her hiney. I can't even describe it. I'll have to get it on video sometime! Anyway- these two were dancing machines! Ben Ben (Bennett) would try his hand at dancing, too, but most of the time his pants would just fall down! He couldn't keep him up for anything!



After dancing we went to the Broadway review show. The show was great and the two older kids especially LOVED it! They were great! Once we got Graham to sleep, Syd and I could relax and enjoy the show. The entertainers do a great job!



After the show, we left the kiddos with Nana and Papa and headed out to karaoke time! Just me, Syd, Lindsey and Trent. The crowd was small. I sang "Fever" by Peggy Lee first. Trent sang "Drift Away" and "Great Balls of Fire". We had a few cocktails and had a lot of fun. The crowd was pretty dead. It needed a little help so I got up and sang "My Humps". That's right. I mustered up all the singing talent I had to rap "My Humps." Goodness. It was fun, though. To cap it all off, Trent and I sang "You're the One that I Want"- then we headed home. It was a fun night!

Dominica

Monday- we were in Roseau, Dominica. As soon as we got off the ship, we were hounded with people asking to take us on a tour. Here, there, everywhere. I'm not gonna lie, it was really annoying! We started shopping and then decided to go on a tour of the waterfalls there and some hot springs. I was a sour sport at first, because I really didn't think it sounded like fun with the baby and whatnot. But I'm glad we went! We all piled in a bus with Peter, the tour guide, and headed to Trafalgar Falls. It's a 10 minute hike in the rain forest to the falls. The forest was amazing. So lush and green. We were ALMOST to the falls, when it started POURING down rain!!!!!!! I decided I was going to take Graham and walk back down. I'm a big baby about getting rained on. I hate it! But I turned around and kept going with everybody. Good thing I did because the falls were right around the corner from where we took shelter. They were pretty neat! Two water falls, side by side. We took pictures and headed back down. On the way down we saw a bunch of yellow crabs, walking on the side of the trail. Crazy! Our tour guide, Peter, said Boa Constrictors live on the island and he has seen lots of them. He joked that if we saw one they might give us a friendly Dominican hug. ha ha. We bought some magnets and then headed back. We stopped at some hot sulphur springs and kept on toward the pier. Once on the boat, we went to the pool for awhile. Then took naps and got ready for dinner!



I'm pretty sure that night was the same as before. Dinner, dancing, bedtime. For the dancing part, we took the kids to Elvis power hour in the lounge, so we did lots of dancing to Elvis songs!

Grenada

Next morning- Grenada! Grenada is well known for its spices! After breakfast we headed off the boat to Grand Anse beach. We found a perfect partly shady spot, bargained for some umbrella chairs and got settled in. The propositions and entertainers started coming.....hair braiding? reflexology massages? spice necklaces? tips for playing my steel drum? Ugh. I know these people have to make a living, but it got old! We got hooked up with Mark, the beach bartender and got some fun drinks. We tried Carib beer, which is really skunky. We bought some spice necklaces- the perfect souvenirs from such a spicy location! They smell wonderful and you're supposed to hang them in your kitchen! Syd and Trent went snorkeling again and everyone playing in the water. There were lots of little fish swimming around. Toward the end of our beach day, Trent stepped on an urchin and got little bits of shell in his foot. OUCH!!!!! Time to head back to the boat!



We took naps and then I walked around for a little bit with the kids before dinner. During dinner Graham was a little fussy so I took him for a walk. We walked through the nearby champagne bar, where he met Rita. He was really fussy, but all of the sudden a cute Hungarian bar server named Rita came up to talk to him. What a HAM! His attitude changed pretty quickly- it was funny to watch! Graham loved Rita, and She loved him! We headed back to dinner, but we frequently saw Rita after that during the trip. She was really sweet and loved to give Graham attention. That night at dinner, Carley and Grant played card games with Nana to keep occupied and we learned Matahaba (sp?). That means hello in Turkey. Trent also taught us that Sherif A (sp?) means Cheers in Turkish. We would "Cheers" every night and Grant and Carley would take turns saying the dinner prayer. After the prayer, Ben would always follow up with clenching his fists and saying "Yeah!" What a hoot!



After dinner that night, we took Carley and Grant and dropped them off at the Fun Factory for Pirate night! They did a scavenger hunt and other fun activities. Carley came back to the room with red paint on her face that she called her "Pirate bleed". Sounds like they had fun! Steve and Shauna went to a show that night, and when they returned they watched the kiddos while Lindsey, Trent, Syd and I went out again. We went to a bar where they were having the Newlywed Game. I tried to get Syd and I signed up but we didn't win. :( It was still really funny to watch- and the couple that won was the couple that had been married 46 years. They were really cute and got EVERY answer right! We stayed around to watch a bit of a 60s performance and dance show, and then headed back to our rooms. We watched some salsa dancing couples in the lounge as well. Fun stuff!



This was the first night I could really feel the boat rocking. I wore an ear patch thing the whole time to help with motion sickness. Half the time I would feel fine and not feel a thing- but the other time I struggled a bit with feeling the movement. I would feel a little dizzy and nauseous. I've never had issues with motion sickness until after I had Carley. Now I get it on boats and airplanes quite a bit. I take Dramamine a lot. It wasn't bad- but it definitely had its moments!

Bonaire

Thursday- Bonaire! We decided to take it easy on this day and not make it a priority to get off the boat. I think everyone else did, but we didn't. We slept in until about 9:30am! We had breakfast and then joined Lindsey, Trent and the boys for family bingo! It was really fun and interactive. We didn't win, but we got to do the "Bingo boogie" a few times when we were one away from a bingo! After that, Syd and I decided to take Carley and Graham to the pool on the boat since everyone else was getting off in Bonaire! It was great timing! The pool area was empty! We drank BBCs and had some lunch by the pool. After a few hours, Grant and Trent joined us at the pool. We saw Graham's girlfriend, Rita, again serving out by the pool. He loves Rita.



After the pool, we headed back to the room for naps and to get ready for dinner. It's a bummer that we can't say we've been to Bonaire, but our family really needed a day of rest! We still got our magnet, though...thanks to Lindsey and Trent!



Dinner was once again wonderful that night~ and we were off to Aruba!

Aruba

We got to Aruba early Thursday morning. We had breakfast as usual and headed into town! We found a bus and headed to Palm Beach, which we heard was good for kids. We found some chairs with an umbrella table, got our sunscreen on and headed out! The beach was beautiful and the beach was really shallow for the kids. We spent the morning doing more of the same- swimming, playing, and having fun. Carley and Grant played with the beach ball a lot. After a few hours we headed back to the boat.



We napped, showered and got ready for Formal Night!!! This was a pretty big deal. All of the guys were in black tuxes (including the little boys!) and the girls were dressed in formal dresses. Carley had chosen a bright pink satin dress for the night. Graham had a tux, but it wouldn't button around his arm, or around his neck, so he couldn't wear his bow tie. :( We had a quick drink and took a couple family pictures before heading in the dining room.

Almost every other night, once the kids were all dressed up, Grant would compliment Carley on her dress and then say "I look sharp!" They would then go back and forth on how sharp they each looked. :)



The presentation was grand! The menu was elaborate. It was a feast to behold. Only...I was only able to be there for half of it because of all nights, this was the night that my motion sickness caught up with me. To be discreet, I left at the beginning of the meal, and returned toward the end wearing a change of clothes. :( I think a combination of being dehydrated and the rocking boat caught up with me. Either way, I felt lots better for the rest of the evening! I joined in for the dessert- Baked Alaska. After dinner, Nana and Papa took Grant and Carley to a big show while Syd, Graham and I headed back to the room to go to sleep! We were exhausted! Carley had a wonderful time at the show- and even woke up the next morning asking where her orange headset microphone was. :) (we think she was dreaming this...)



Our final day, Friday, was at sea. It was overwhelming and surreal to look all around and see nothing but water. I'm not sure it ever really sunk in for me! We had breakfast as usual and then took Grant and Carley to the Fun Factory. After that we went to the photo area and picked out some photos that had been taken all week of us. As soon as we returned to the room, I got a call from the Fun Factory that Carley wanted to leave. Apparently she wasn't exactly having fun in the Fun Factory. So...I went and picked up Carley and Grant. They do a great job there with the kids- but there are a LOT of kids there older than 3 and they are a little rowdy. I can see how the little ones could get overwhelmed. So, Carley came back to the room and rested. When daddy and Graham were napping, Carley and I snuck out to have a little lunch date and get her signed up for the youth talent show! Nana and Papa and Daddy and Graham all met us at the talent show stage when it was time. She was the youngest one to do an act by herself- and she sang "You Are My Sunshine" with the microphone. She was SO excited!!!! I was so proud of her. She bowed when the audience clapped. It was really fun to watch.



After the talent show we headed back to the room to pack up some of our things and get ready for dinner. Before dinner we had a martini tasting where Rita made us 6 different martinis to sample. Original, flirtini, appletini, pineapple, raspberry and orange. Dinner was great, as always. We played the secret game at the table to keep the kiddos occupied. I had to leave dinner a little early to take Graham for a walk because he was squawking, so I went and got a latte and strolled around. He really does squawk! Not necessarily because he's upset, but sometimes just because. He will literally start screeching! This didn't make us the most popular dining room guests, but we'd just occupy him or take him for a walk! We met up with everyone else and headed back to the dance floor one more time with Carley and Grant. They would look forward to dancing EVERY night!



The next morning- we were already back in San Juan and it was time to have breakfast and get off the boat! Our trip had come to an end.

On a side note- I was having to give Graham medicine every day for an ear infection he was getting over. Toward the end of the trip, one morning as I was giving him medicine, I felt his gums and there was a TOOTH on the bottom!!!! His first tooth popping through! How exciting!



Overall, it was such a fun trip with the Libsack family where lots of memories were made. We got compliments just about everywhere we went about how well behaved, sweet or cute the kids were. I can't wait to see all of the pictures and laugh about our fun memories again. As soon as I get pictures, I'll post them!