Cute bums

I don't know what it is, kids in bath tubs are so cute (Austin back, Scott front)

Day at Sea and Castaway Cay

We had a day at Sea as we traveled back up towards Florida.  Austin (white shirt) and Scott (red shirt) both had a great time playing in the pool.  We took it easy that day.  

That night, we ate at Animator's Palatte.  They had each person draw a picture and then they animated it on the tv.  Sadly, Kate and I were in the bathroom.  We were pretty sad, but it's a good excuse to go on a cruise again!

Our last day, we stopped at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island.  It was gorgeous, clean, and had so many things to do.  Melissa and I went snorkeling together for a little bit.  The water got a little dusty because of all the sand getting kicked up.  We saw a lot of fish and even some fun Disney things--from Finding Nemo and things from a shipwrecked Mickey Mouse ship.

The kids loved playing in the sand.  Austin loved this tube and floated around on it for a long time.  Scott and Kate went on the slide (not pictured) a few times and loved it.

There was a shuttle to take you around the island.  The big picture is Austin and I when we arrived.

 For our last night, we went to Palo, one of the nice restaurants on board.  It was incredible.  The food was so good--and this is after a week of eating yummy food, so the fact that food still tasted good was saying something

We went with these lovely people and had a nice time!

After Palo, we went back to our rooms and frantically packed.  The next day, we woke up at 6:30 (4:30 Utah time) and got home at about 10 pm.  It was a LONG travel day, but all 4 kids did so good.  No major meltdowns, nothing.  Then we settled in for a long week--back to reality.  Scott's face pretty much sums up how we were all feeling.

One highlight not pictured is David--he was the host of a lot of the shows we went to and was so funny, we got such a kick out of him!  He really added a lot to the trip.  This cruise was so fun, the kids still talk about it all the time (it is June as I type this up).  We dream about it, and hope to be able to go again!  I think my favorite thing was that we got to go with about 30 of us.  It was so fun being together and strengthening those relationships.   What a party!!

Costa Maya and Cozumel

Monday morning, we went and ate breakfast at the Royal Court.  After, Rachel waited in line for the princess gathering, Kate was so excited.  She especially loved Ariel.

Aladdin came through while we were waiting/

At 12:30, we docked in Costa Maya.  It was a little run down, but it was fun to see a little more natural instead of everything being touristy.  The highlight was finding a little open supermarket.  Jeff got to practice his Spanish and we shared a delicious mango and some other fruit.  Yum!!  So many of the houses were little tiny things, but most had a satellite dish.

We rented golf carts to drive around Costa Maya.  We drove to Mahahual.  We walked around the beach, did some shopping, and Whitney even found a coconut that she figured out how to open and drink the juice from.

We also brought Ty with us to Costa Maya.  He didn't love it, but did okay.

Cozumel

The next day, we went to Cozumel.  We got there about 8:30 in the morning and got ready for a full day.  First, we got a boat that had glass in the bottom so you could see fish under.  Then, we all went snorkeling around.  The guide had fish food, so we were swimming in a fish frenzy.  It was incredible (but made me a little claustrophobic to have fish all around me!!) 

Brian hadn't had his sunscreen rubbed in a couple days before on Grand Cayman, coming up with a great design!!

We also saw a seahorse, it was so tiny!

 We took the kids back to the boat for the afternoon, then rented Scooters.  We drove down to the tip of Cozumel, Punta Sur.  It was beautiful there.

When we got back on the ship, it was pirate night.  We found bandanas in our room, put our eyepatches on, and got ready bo party (Scott Left, Austin right)

Everyone was dressed up at dinner, even our servers. (Scott left, Austin right)  We went and got ice cream after the festivities (this was an almost nightly activity)

They had a special Mickey Mouse pirate show.  The kids loved it so much.  They thought it was hilarious and were really into it.

 These two days were so much fun.  The snorkeling was such an incredible experience, the pirate night was So fun, just a really fun couple of days!

Day at Sea and Grand Cayman

Our second day was a day at sea.  We became familiar with the ship, relaxed, and went to some shows.  Eating breakfast here with cousins (Austin in white swim shirt, Scott in red)

Behind me was the view of the ocean we enjoyed

Kate swimming (really hard to do in the kiddie pool, it was pretty crowded!!)

Scott went up the stairs to go down the slide, we waited, finally he came down with this face.

He was going to try again...

Yay!  He did it (and a few more times after that when he realized how fun it was!)

Ty was loving life.  He was constantly entertained by all the action around him.  He was SUCH a peach all week.  We were pleasantly surprised how easily he adapted to that crazy life!

Scott and Kate playing in Nemo's Reef--a splash pad

We dropped the kids off one day for lunch so we could eat at The Royal Court, so fun!

We went to Aladdin The Musical one afternoon with the kids, it was so good!  We all were totally mesmerized! (Austin green, Scott red)

This is us on formal night

We learned by the second night the kids could eat at their own table and enjoyed that.

At Animator's Palate.  There was an interactive Crush (Turtle from finding Nemo), it was pretty funny, he had us all up dancing and moving.

After dinner, we went to a juggling show, he was so incredible and hilarious too.

Scott with Kai, Jax, Teagan, and Kate

Austin loving the spinning chairs

One of the kids' highlights--meeting Jessie and Woody, Scott, Kate and Ty (Austin decided he was good much to mom's chagrin)

First view of Grand Cayman from our verrandah

We all had cabins by each other, here is Alicia

We had to take mini boats to the island, Sasha, Kate, and Ethan

Everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road!

Jeff snorkeling, we loved it so much!

Scott, Kate, Austin, Below is Kate, Scott, Austin

We loved Grand Cayman.  It was SO beautiful and so fun to see the place that Aunt Staci and Uncle Drostan lived for a while.  It was a great day at the beach.