Our Vacation to Paradise: Day 2

{Day 2: Key West}

The next morning we woke up bright and early in Key West.  I had assumed the gentle rocking of the ship would tenderly lull me into a deep and peaceful sleep.  

Not. So.

I think I slept a combined total of less than approximately zero minutes.

Ugh.

 As it turns out, you can have no sleep and still have a wonderful day in Key West.  

We started with a little sight-seeing/shopping/touristing.

We spent about 45 minutes trying to decide on souvenirs for the kids and somehow ended up with 2 dolphin postcards, 1 package of random sea shells, a turquoise star fish, 2 turtles made out of shells, and a bag of goldfish crackers (the flavor blasted kind.  and oh. my. heavens.  have you tried these?!?  life altering.  for reals.)

Eventually, we met back up with Luke's family and got ready for our Parasailing Excursion.

Now, before this little vay-cay, I was not extremely informed on parasailing.  

Full disclosure: I thought it was some glorified form of waterskiing.  

Nope.  It's not.

Basically, you strap yourself into a harness which is attached to a giant parachute which is attached to a thin rope which is attached to a ski boat that is in the middle of the ocean.

It     is     A W E S O M E.

Surprisingly, while we were up there, it was strangely relaxing.  

We could see a million miles in each direction, there was nothing but the clouds to keep us company, the water was crystal clear, we were having a grand old time, and then...

WE. SAW. A. SHARK.

Let me reiterate this.

WE. SAW. A. SHARK. 

(I'm pointing it out to Luke in this picture; who saw it, and acknowledged that he saw it, but who now has had a crisis of faith and is claiming that maybe it was just an enormous fish that was shaped like a shark and looked like a shark and swam like a shark.  I, however, would like to bear my testimony that  IT WAS A SHARK.) 

Of course, it was seconds after this that the captain decided to start reeling us in.  And, of course, Luke had told them that we would LOVE to be dipped in the water on our way down.  I was positive that the shark was going to take a leg off. (See how I'm holding my feet out of the water?!  I almost started climbing the parachute.)

Seriously, though.  Parasailing was one of the highlights for me.  I'd do it again right now.  Minus the shark.

After that, we headed to the shore for some quality beach time.  Naturally, Luke and I decided that a Key West handstand picture was necessary, so we  kicked right on up on the end of the dock/pier/boat ramp. (?)  It has been probably 3 years since I have kicked over, but wouldn't you know it... I kicked over right there on the end of that pier and earned myself a one-way ticked into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Once we made it back onto the ship, we washed the ocean off and headed out to find some fun.  

And boy... did we ever.

First stop was an on-stage Hip Hop class.

Here's how that went... 

Oh, if only we had video.

Not.

Then we headed out in hot pursuit of the elusive plastic ship trophy.

One round of TV show trivia, and it was his.

So proud.

That night just happened to be Formal Night, so we got all jazzed up for our fancy schmancy dinner (which was divine.)

 It took 5 minutes and 6 self timer shots to get this photo:

 And it was super windy and I had several Marilyn moments.

 After that, we watched some break dancing show and then...

 we went to a karaoke bar.  Oh, yes we did.

And we sang - on stage - "Baby Got Back."

(Granted, we were the only ones there who remembered a thing about it the next morning, but still.)

Definitely one of our proudest family moments.

And then we went to bed and woke up the next morning  in Cozumel!

To Be Continued...

Our Vacation to Paradise: Day 1

{Day 1: Miami}

After months of planning, 1 bottle of sea-sickness medicine, trying on 8 million swimsuits, and kissing the kids goodbye 12 times each, we finally set off on our Caribbean Cruise.

Our first day was a 5 hour direct flight to Miami in the back row of the plane with an empty seat next to us and "Safe Haven" playing on TV.  It may seem strange to some of you (particularly those who do not have 3 very energetic children), but this was like a day at the spa for me. 
Best. Planeride. Ever.

That night we stayed at a semi-ghetto hotel in the gorgeous and enormous city of Miami.  We ordered ourselves 2 pizzas (FYI...The price of 2 pizzas was less than the price of 1 pizza.  Since when, people?), we almost ate all of it, watched the Heat punish the Spurs, we danced, we kissed, we schmoozed...

and we woke up next to this guy.

The picture does it NO justice.  It was so enormous that Luke refused to even kill it.

So instead we named it and gave it permission to snuggle with the room's next occupants.

Unfortunately, the rest of Luke's family did not quite have the same magical travel experiences that we had.  His mom and step-dad's airplane was unboarded because of mechanical problems, they had to fly all night and extend their trip by several hours, and his brother, Bruce and his wife, Becca had their luggage get lost.  (Not the best situation when you're on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic.)

Also, minutes before we stepped on the ship I got a text that my sister-in-law's water had broken early and they would shortly be delivering their first son.  Which is super exciting, except that - once again- we were going to be on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic and there are no cell towers in the Atlantic.  

WHY ARE THERE NO CELL TOWERS IN THE ATLANTIC!?!?

(by the way, he's darling and healthy and happy and cute and i'm sure he has that newborn smell that's a mixture of puke and clean laundry but somehow manages to smell delicious.)

After walking every square inch of the boat and almost wetting ourselves with anticipation, the rest of the family made it and we were joyfully reunited.  

It took a matter of seconds before Luke and his brother were dancing a jig, skipping around the deck holding hands, and sharing an ice cream cone.  Actually, none of those things happened.

But almost.

Lucky for us (Bruce excluded), there just happened to be a dance party going on (right?!), so we had no choice but to join it.  

Luke thought he'd be sneaky and try to embarrass me with a picture of me dancing.  

This is the picture he got:

Who's embarrassed now?

After we wore out the dance floor with our mad skills (Me and Vicki - but mostly Vicki - lit it up on Cotton-eyed Joe.  Thanks you, square dancing night for Young Women's) we stumbled upon a cruise-style version of Jeopardy.

First, Vicki was chosen to be a contestant and she dom'd.  (Dominated, in brother talk.)

Next, Luke was chosen and he sort-of dom'd.

He had some stiff competition (and in his defense, 85% of the questions were about rap music), but he still managed to hold his own until the very last question.

It was all tied up, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, plastic ship trophy on the line, and the quest was to name the singer of a specific song and the movie that it was used in.  

The song began playing (see if you can get it)...

"Lemme see you just bounce with me.... just bounce with me..."

Luke slammed his buzzer and yelled out with gusto...

"WILL SMITH IN........................HITCH!"

Eeeeeeeeer!  Wrong.

Men. In. Black., my friend.

Sadly, the allusive trophy slipped through his fingers, but Luke did capture a much less cool 2nd place medal.  But let's be honest, neither one of those is cool.  at all.

Then we pretty much had the best dinner ever, stayed up well past our bedtime, laughed until we cried, and woke up the next glorious morning in Key West.

To Be Continued...

School's Out For the Summer!

In celebration of school finally being out, I would like to present to you the 1-2-3's and ABC's of this Kindergarten Year.

1 child started Kindergarten in September and 2 graduated from it in June. 

We ditched school for Disneyland 3 glorious times (and got scolded by the office lady every single one).  

 4 times I had to break up a fight between the girls over who is going to marry Cassidy (the boy in their class.)  

We have the cutest group of 5 girls who are the most darling little friends ever.

Aubrey's and Brooklyn's teachers were Champs and I Don't Even know what we are Flippin' Going to do next year.

I am so proud of my Hard-working girls and I Just want them to Know that I Love how they Managed to Not Only make me Proud, but also make their teachers Quite pleased .  (Side note: Brooklyn Recieved the highest Score in her class on her STAR Test.  Go, girl.)

 Unfortunately, both girls are not Very Wildly EXcited for summer since they loved school so much. 

 But Your's Truly is going to make sure that this summer is truly Zesty!

WEBBSTAGRAMS (May Style)

 The view {from my phone} during the month of May...

Aubrey got herself stuck in the bed.  It was funny when I took the picture.  It was not funny when I had to viciously yank her out and we were late for school.

 We rang in Cinco De Mayo at our friend's house with some Mexican delicacies, a surprise water fight, and a pinata full of left-over Easter candy.

I took a last-minute road trip to Utah to help my sis, Brittany, move.  Cousin Holly got the privileged of holding Jake's head up for him while he slept.  Lucky girl.

I unfortunately was driving home from that excursion on Mother's Day so I missed breakfast in bed, Sacrament Meeting goodies, and the Primary singing.  But Luke made up for it by buying me an iPhone.  

Which we spent the rest of the night taking ridiculous pictures on.

We also got to go to Grandma's house where Brooklyn was inducted onto Grandma's Wall of Fame.

This door has hundreds of names and heights that are more than 30 years old.  

It was a big moment.

We took a trip to Disneyland with some sweet friends and Brooklyn finally got to go on Indiana Jones.  Another big moment.

Cameron spent most of the month playing around at the park, painting masterpieces, learning to fly, and teaching his teddy bear about the trashman.

 Lucky for him, Luke had an easy month and lucky for Aubrey, he's a pretty fun gymnastics coach.

 We also got to have a date night to the Redlands Temple at 9am.  It was beautiful.

 May was gorgeous and we took full advantage by spending almost every waking moment outside.  That's how I like it.

 We also sported our handmade {by me!!} mermaid tails all around town, which earned us some looks.  And some fun.The girl's soccer season ended and the girls got (gasp!) REAL medals.

Aubrey wore hers for a week and slept with it every night.

We went to Redlands University one day to let the kids go diving and Cameron finally got the opportunity to actually jump off the board.

 Aubrey has started attempting to walk on water.

So far, no luck.  But if anyone besides Jesus can do it, my money's on her.

Lately, Cameron has decided not to sleep.  At all.

One morning after efficiently demonstrating his desire to NOT nap, I was done.  I'd had it.  So I flopped into his crib and drove him crazy + snuggled his buns + fake cried hysterically.  And wouldn't you know it - it did the trick.  Except for 3 minutes later when I moved my arm, he woke up ready to party.

Awesome.

And that has been our month.