• Travel & Vacation: Dinner and A Show

    Brina listening intently to the conversation…completely forgetting that it is not ladylike to put her knees up on the table!

    We spent the day heading over to Grand Cayman, exploring the island, taking a boat ride out to swim with the stingrays and snorkeling.  After we were back on the ship for the night we went to the Family Arcade Night, ate dinner, and went to the evening show before officially crashing for the day.  It was a fun day packed full of wonderful memories for the entire family!

    It was a super fun filled day.  Karlie crashed for a power nap in her seat at dinner.  Although she did perk up again when they brought the dessert menus around. 🙂

    Happy Birthday to my little brother Josh!  It was great getting a chance to celebrate with him this year.  Earlier that day we went swimming with the stingrays so that’s not something we get to do everyday!

    Nicko enjoying his dessert, a chocolate chip cookie.  Watch out for Cookie Monster!

    Karlie all smiles and now awake!

    Nicko decided to try and pick all the chocolate chips out of the chocolate chip cookies.  Too funny!

    Daddy and his girls heading to the show!

    They got front row balcony seats with the birthday boy – Uncle Josh

  • Travel & Vacation: Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas

    Our ship was the biggest one that stopped at Grand Cayman today

    We have been on three Royal Caribbean ships in the past few years.  The Independence of the Seas is the biggest one that we have been on.  I didn’t realize how big it was until we stopped at Grand Cayman next to several other boats and ours was the biggest one.  The girls enjoyed looking at the other boats too, they spotted a Disney one as well as one that had a face.  Since we couldn’t dock directly at the Grand Cayman Island we took a ferry over which gave us a chance to look at all the other neat boats that day.

    Look Mickey Mouse is in the Grand Cayman Islands!  The Disney ship was right next to us when we stopped for the day.  It was smaller than our boat, but they did have a pretty neat horn (instead of a horn it played Disney music).

    That circular piece in the top left of the picture is actually a hot tub hanging out over the ocean.  Yes, when we were in it I was thinking about how far it would be if we dropped!

    We were in a water taxi looking up at the boat.  You can see how little the people look on the balconies.  The yellow items are the life boats.  Thankfully we never had to use one!

    Our big boat – Independence of the Seas

    A view as we are leaving the boat and heading to Grand Cayman.  The little ferry boat beside ours holds 200 people and it looks so tiny.

    Passing in front of the boat, I wouldn’t want to get in its way if it was moving!

    The girls thought this boat was pretty funny next to us at port because it has a face.  The eyes and lips are awesome!

    A view of our boat next to the Disney one from Grand Cayman’s shoreline.

    The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax.  Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away.  Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories.  It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine.  Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn.  You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!