Cruisin' Disney Style

We had a great family vacation to the Bahamas on a Disney cruise ship with Nana, Papa Terry, Aunt Kim, Uncle Tyler, and Cooper.  Everyone had a blast.  The flight to Orlando was a little painful, but other than that all went well.  We arrived in the evening then met up with everyone at the hotel for dinner, after that we crashed.  And as you can see below, everyone slept well.  Luke slept in so late in the morning, very rare for him!

Sleeping beauty.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and got on the ship.  Right away we headed for the pool.  They had an amazing tube waterslide called the Aquaduck, Wyatt loved every minute of it.

The next day morning we disembarked at Nassau, Bahamas and headed over to the Atlantis resort, what a beautiful, sunny, fun day.

We didn't get a picture of the "lazy river", but this so called lazy river was dubbed the crazy river, because it had rapids and drops and a lot of wild twists and turns, it went around the entire park and each time around took about 45 min.  Even though Wyatt and Nana tipped their tube in the rapids, they still had fun.  Papa Terry went down several times too, and claimed he nearly drowned because, "the lifeguard shoved him into the wall."  What?, he's hilarious, we all died laughing.

Luke checking out the brochure for the resort.

Cruising Nassau.

After an exhausting, fun day, it was time to head back to the ship.  Wait, who's going to carry Mom?

Tiny tub time.

A room with a view.

Dinner in the Enchanted Garden restaurant.

Our waiter Ari, made oragami animals for all the kids.

Checking out the boat at night.

The next day we embarked at the Disney island, Castaway Cay, what another beautiful adventure.

Enjoying the sun.

Pirate waterslides and gorgeous sandy beaches.

Taking a ride around the Cay on a glass bottom boat.

The boys enjoyed feeding all the fish handfuls of oatmeal.

Let's just say the icecream bar was a big hit.

Back on the boat, what a view.

Bye Castaway Cay, you're beautiful!

When we got back to the ship, they had left pirate gear in our room for a pirate party on deck.  The boys geared up and headed out for a pirate dinner at the Kid's Club.

Kevin and I headed out for a romantic Italian dinner, just us two, how wonderful and peaceful.

Our view from the top restaurant deck looking out back at Castaway Cay.

Kevin enjoying dessert.

We just finished dinner in time to catch up with everyone for the late night pirate party on deck.

 The last night on the ship the had an incredible fireworks show.

Wyatt loved all the fun towel characters made by our room staff.

Dinner time with Nana.

 At night while the older boys were in the Kid's Club, which they never wanted to leave, Luke liked to explore the ship and meet the characters.  Here he is with Jake...

and Doc McStuffins.

Back in our cozy little room.

The last night on the ship, we watched a Broadway style play in the theater, Wyatt particularly enjoyed it.

Bye for now Disney Dream, it was a dream vacationing with you.

The New Year According To My Phone

All these photos were taken on my iPhone while out and about doing our thing.  There have been lots of park play dates, where this little man loves to climb trees.

We also took the "big huge train", the Coaster, down to Old Town to meet up with Daddy and Papa James for lunch.  The ride was beautiful cruising along the coast.

We took a trip to Disneyland with a few friends one day, it was a very chill day, I love those kind of days, don't you?

Luke enjoying a Disney show, the green army men.  He's mister independent lately and likes to pretend he's alone in public places.  "No worries people, I caught the bus over here by myself."

The boys building a fort with some buddies at Legoland.

Wyatt deciding to climb a palm tree also at Legoland, he's had his eye on this for awhile, but hasn't weighed enough until the other day, ya for 45 lbs.  I told him to eat his hot dog then run over there and see if he weighs enough, finally, barely made it.

While I've been working on my laundry/mudroom project in the garage the boys have been playing in the front yard, they drug out the pool toys and had a blast wrestling around with them.

One fun afternoon at Corvette diner after biking around Coronado for the day.

Crazy balloon hats!

The Kelvingtons visit.  We kept little Damon for a few days at our house while the bigger girls enjoyed Disneyland on their own, then we all met up for churros on Wednesday.

We loved having this little man around.  Luke was happy he was no longer the youngest and had someone to boss around and Wyatt was happy "baby Damon" was around to hangout with and dote over.

Shopping buddies, as long as they each had their own individual bags of popcorn.  These two were not ones for sharing food.

Christmas in San Diego

We were able to spend Christmas here at our new home this year.  Mimi and Tia flew out to visit us from Dallas.  Kevin took off a week of work and it was fun and chill.

This little man just likes to wear his undies around the house these days.

Kevin took Mimi and Tia and the boys down to Moonlight Beach one day to play in the sand.

We made "gingerbread houses", aka graham cracker bear caves, and trains with some friends one day.

We also took a night trip to the San Diego Temple to see the lights and nativity.

We tried to take a family picture before church, this is the best we got, well we tried.

This year for Christmas Kevin and I decided to give each other a "staycation" present down to La Jolla, we stayed at the Hilton Torrey Pines hotel and strolled around La Jolla one day and the next took a morning hike to Torrey Pines, it was perfection.  Thanks to Mimi and Tia for watching the kids while we were away.

Santa came to visit our house on Christmas Eve, he ate his cookie, drank his milk, and feed his reindeer an apple.  

Christmas morning was so much fun with Wyatt, he loved seeing that Santa had come to our house, he was so excited about all the goodies that he had brought everyone.  Luke could have cared less, he woke up as usual wanting his milk and to watch a show, he casually glanced at the presents but never cared to open any until he'd been up for about two hours.  Funny little guys.

As everyone else was opening presents, we glanced over to the bar and noticed this little Christmas present in Luke's undies, hum what is up with that buddy, use the toilet!  But we all had to laugh and all I could think of was that South Park episode.

Lately if he decides not to take a regular nap, he always falls asleep on the couch or in my bed around 4pm, it's the worst, but he looks so darn cute and peaceful, I always snuggle for a minute and have to take a picture.

 My friend Mike and his family were visiting his parents in San Clemente over Christmas and we were able to meet up at Legoland.  It was great to see them, but was sooo cold that day, we are not used to 50 degree weather and rain, so we all ended up leaving early.

The boys had fun on the train before the rain started.

Just as we were heading out, Luke spotted his favorite character from the Lego movie, Wildstyle, he jumped out of the stroller and ran to her.

Kevin and I went to an early dinner on New Years Eve, so we celebrated by popping confetti filled balloons every hour with the kids beginning at 4pm until 6pm.  We also toasted the New Year with "fancy" drinks and our favorite bean dip.  They loved the "big" party we had at our house.

Wyatt has been working on his chore chart this month and earned a trip to Build A Bear, he was thrilled to get a bulldog he named Chubby and was excited to share the experience with Mimi and Tia.

On New Years Day we all headed down to Old Town to explore and grab lunch.  Of course, Chubby came with us.

Apparently our neighbors had a big New Years Eve party at their house, where they had a snow machine brought in to make snow.  We saw it the next day coming home from Old Town and decided to head over and see if Wyatt could play, Luke had fallen asleep in the car.  They were happily letting all the neighborhood kids play in the snow, and since it had been so cold that week, it stayed for a few days, so Wyatt had a couple of sled days.

....And then it got hot, like gorgeous summer weather today.  Sorry Mimi and Tia, you left just before the dream of a January day happened.  We spent the day at the beach with some friends, it was so peaceful, the kids played so well together and I was telling Kevin I didn't even hear from Wyatt for literally hours, he was off playing pirates with his buddy Owen.  We stayed for over three hours and finally went home when Luke had worn himself out.  My kind of day to ring in the new year!