Happy Halloween

I can't find the time to blog for some reason.....

I should have taken Josiah picture when he was standing on the kitchen table. He started climbing on the table this weekend. Oh, the joy!
Lydia dressed up like Belle and Josiah was Tigger.

Wesley was Captain Hook.

It is so hard to get a good picture with three kids looking at the camera. See?

Josiah let me carry him until I put him down one time then he just wanted walk!

There he goes.

They had so much fun!

Reaching New Heights

On our last sea day on the ship, Wesley really wanted to try the rock climbing wall. While we waited for it to open, the kids played some miniature golf. This picture is cloudy because my camera fogged over in the humidity. You have to be at least six years old to do the rock climbing wall. Here is Wesley ready to go.

Like me, he is afraid of heights. I never discuss my fear of heights with the kids; he seems to have developed his fear all on his own. I thought he would only get about this high and then be afraid.

He kept going and made it up to here before saying he wanted down.Coming down was a little challenging until he figured out he needed to push off the wall with his feet to keep himself oriented towards the wall.

As soon as he was down, he wanted to try it again. After waiting in a very short line, it was his turn again. This time he made it higher. He stopped about five feet from the top. The sports deck staff are very patient and encouraging to the climbers. The woman belaying Wesley kept encouraging him to go to the top and ring the bell but Wesley stated he was scared and ready to come down.

Of course, we were so proud of Wesley!

After the rock climbing, we all went to the pool for a while. Chris and I took the kids to main dining room for lunch after we got cleaned up and somewhat presentable. The food was delicious in the dining.

Later, while Wesley and Lydia were in the kids club, Chris and I watched the surfing competition. After the competition, two of the staff members showed off for a few minutes. They were impressive.

The Flowrider is located at the back of the ship and the views of the ocean were very beautiful that day.

At Great Wolf Lodge you only have to be 42 inches, but on the Royal Caribbean ships you have to be 48 inches tall to boogie board. Wesley and Lydia loved the kids club. They came out with painted faces on Saturday.

They also loved this cute little vacuum, Henry, and our cabin steward. She learned our names on the first day and was always very friendly and nice to the children. They loved seeing the towel animals she made. She told us that the Freedom is phasing out Henry in favor of larger vacuums.

All too soon, the week was over and we were saying goodbye to the Freedom of the Seas. It was a wonderful cruise and so far the Freedom is our favorite ship.

I took one last picture as we were driving away. That's the Disney Magic in the picture also. That ship is only doing three and four night cruises right now and that just seems too short for me.

I am already looking forward to future cruise vacations. Cruising really is my favorite way to vacation.

St. Maarten and Random Wind

In St. Maarten, the morning after the Pirate Parade, we woke the kids up early and had breakfast in our room. The kids loved getting room service. We were off the ship a few minutes after 8:00 because we were headed to meet up with Random Wind for a day sail. I emailed Diane twice to make sure it was okay to bring the kids. She said, "of course" both times. The day before our day sail, they had an eight month old baby on the sailboat. In the taxi van, we met another family who was also headed to meet Diane from Random Wind at Skipjacks. I was able to snap a quick photo of Freedom of the Seas from the van.

I missed getting a picture of us riding in the dingy to sailboat.

Once on the sailboat Wesley and Lydia found a nice spot to sit.

At our first stop, Lydia helped feed the fish.

Chris and Wesley snorkeled. I think I forgot to mention that Lydia did snorkel for about a minute at Sapphire Beach but she didn't want to do it any longer. Hopefully, the next time we have the opportunity she will love as much as Wesley does.

The fish Lydia was feeding.

Chris and I thought Josiah would nap in the taxi or at least when we first got on the sailboat, but he didn't. He was a little fussy and I thought, "maybe he will nap after swimming." I put him in a life jacket and I used a swim noodle since I had to help him stay upright.
This isn't a good picture of me, but it's a cute picture of Josiah and Lydia. She kept asking me, "Can we get a boat like this one and live on it." Diane and her two children live on Random Wind.

On the right is Random Wind and on the left is the Golden Eagle. On our only other trip to St. Maarten (our Honeymoon cruise) we went on an excursion on the Golden Eagle.

After playing in the water for a little while, Josiah and I got out. You can see him looking overboard in this picture.

We had a delicious lunch - salad, bread, and curry chicken. After lunch, Wesley, Lydia, and Rachel sat at the front of the boat.

Josiah fell asleep. First I held him, then Chris held, and then this super nice woman held him for us.

We did some more swimming at the second stop. Then we had multiple turns on the trapeze swing.

Here's Wesley.

Lydia.


Me.


Chris.


Diane and Trevor (who is 60). By the way, they were PERFECT hosts.


Wesley also jumped off the front of the boat.


Have you seen the History Channel's Most Extreme Airports? We watched it over the summer. Number four is St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles – "Short-ish runway, high terrain on departure end, proximity to beach on approach end, crazy people “riding the fence” when heavies power up to take off." We watched this 747 take off straight. He made a 90 degree from where he was in the picture and headed for the mountain. He went up quickly and made a sharp turn to the right. It looked like a thrill ride.
After six hours, it was time to leave Random Wind. When we got in the taxi to head back to the ship, we had almost an hour to make the departure time. Traffic was horrible. We were on a two lane road and our lane was stopped. The longer we sat there, not moving, the more I thought about the fact that we could miss the boat. Finally, our driver started driving in the opposite lane when there were no cars coming. When cars would start coming toward us, he would get back over in the right lane. Thankfully, people let him back in line. At one point, he had to wait for traffic to move forward to get back into the right lane and another car had to wait for us to move out of on-coming traffic. Rachel, 9 years old, said, "That car is in the wrong lane. Wait a minute; I think we are in the wrong lane." Her mother and I laughed so hard. It was a great stress reliever.

We finally saw what was causing the problem - they were stopping traffic to let a digger load a dump trunk. Two cars got to go in between the 180 degrees rotation of the digger. Once we were passed the digger, the roads were clear. I gave the driver a nice tip because I was so grateful that he safely drove on the wrong side of the road for us. We got back with a few minutes to spare but I think if he had stayed in the correct lane, we would have been too late. Yes, I know that is a chance you take when you do excursions separate from the cruise lines excursions.

We really had a wonderful day in St. Maarten. Random Wind was a wonderful experience for our family. You can go here if you want to see the photos Diane took that day.

Sapphire Beach, St. Thomas

We were eating breakfast as the ship docked in St. Thomas. Lydia asked me, "Are we going to ride the Thomas train like we did in those pictures on the screen?" (meaning the digital picture frame). I said something like, "No, Thomas the train isn't here but we are going to a nice beach" while trying not to laugh.

Once off the ship, we found a taxi to take us to Sapphire Beach. The taxi was similar to this one.

The road to Sapphire Beach is very steep and curvy and it scared Wesley. He is so brave about many things but he sometimes surprises us with what scares him.

When the driver dropped us off at the beach, he asked when we wanted him to come back. Chris said in four hours. The driver said he would be back by then and that we would pay him when he dropped us off at the ship.

Sapphire beach is free to enter but there are fees for the activities. Chris' mom rented two beach chairs for $7 a piece so we would have a place to put our stuff. The chairs also served as a home base.
It is a very pretty beach but my small camera doesn't do it justice. Wesley was in the water the entire time we were there. Lydia was in the water for a good three hours before getting out to get a snack (Fruit Loops again). When grandma took her to the bathroom, she said she was ready to leave. I think she was exhausted.
We saw a couple of Iguanas on the beach.

I snorkled with Wesley and my father-in-law. We saw more fish here than Wesley and I saw in Nassau but I didn't get any good pictures of them. I think it was $10 or $15 an hour for snorkeling equipment.

Chris rented a kayak for $20 an hour. He took Lydia out first.

When Chris and Wesley were in the kayak, Chris let Wesley paddle for a little while.

I think we all enjoyed our beach day at Sapphire Beach. The cab driver was ready and waiting for us .

Once back on the ship I was very hungry so we got soft serve ice cream. Yummy!

Wesley and Lydia didn't get dessert at dinner that night because they needed to be in the kids club to get ready for Pirate Night.
This was the only night, they went to the kids club. They aren't used to staying up late, but we thought it would be fun for them to participate in Pirate Night. So they were up until after 10PM and we had to be off the ship at 8AM the next morning for our excursion in St. Maarten.

There were 103 kids participating in the Pirate Parade.

Dressing Up for Dinner

Monday night was the first formal night. We think it is fun to get all dressed up.

Josiah, Daddy, and Weslely

Grandpa and Grandma

For months, Chris talked up the escargot to Wesley so he was more than willing to try it. And he liked it (it is a little slimmy but it tastes like butter and garlic). Later in the week, the mom at the table next to us told me that her 16 year old son tried to the escargot after he saw Wesley eating it.

I am really happy that our kids ordered and ate off the adult menu and not the kids menu. I really wish all restaurants offered adult style entrees in a smaller portion for kids. I don't like the fact that the kids menus usually consists of chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.

The first night I tried to order Josiah a fruit plate, but our waiter said, "No, the fruit salad is better because the fruit is already cut up." So, every night he had a fruit salad ready for all three kids and a glass of milk for them as soon as we sat down.

Wesley really liked the soups at dinner and he and Lydia both loved the Caesar salads (they ate them almost every night). A few nights, they shared an adult entree and sometimes they got their own. Of course, dessert was a big hit.

Thankfully, the kids were pretty well behaved during the two hour dinners. We took stuff for Wesley and Lydia to do at the table (like Color Wonders) but I should have taken more little toys for Josiah to play with at dinner. We just kept feeding him (he loved the variety) and he gained over a pound on the cruise!

Josiah ate the fruit and bread and then shared whatever Chris and I had. The food was really delicious in the dinning room.

We had in-cabin babysitting four nights on the cruise from 8:30 to 11:30 which meant the kids went to sleep and Chris and I got to have date nights.

We took the kids with us to the past passenger party one night before dinner. Fiona was there.
Josiah slept in his stroller through the entire party. Wesley and Lydia liked getting the glasses of fruit punch.

Here are the kids with the captain. He was really funny and we enjoyed his daily announcements.

On the second formal night, Josiah did not want his picture taken. Or maybe he just didn't want to sit with his siblings.
This night, Wesley decided to put his napkin over his arm and pretend to be the assistant waiter.

Here is a picture of Chris and me on the last formal night.