Our 28th birthday bash was some what of a spur of the moment trip. We had some airfare vouchers that we needed to use, and Nick as we all know is constantly checking vacation prices (I think he should be a travel agent!) Any ways he ended up finding a 7 day caribbean cruise for $199 per person! So of course we packed our bags!
In order to get the flights cheap enough for our vouchers we had to take a red eye flight from salt lake, and have a couple hour lay over in Atlanta...lets just say that was the longest night ever...Brooks does not like to fly, and the whole flight was spent apologizing to the people in front of us for the chair kicking. Of course, just as soon as Brooks fell asleep, we landed in Florida!
We were traveling on Holland America, the Westerdam ship. It was very elegant, and luxurious! And we were the youngest ones on the ship! It was fun having the two cutest (and almost only) children on the boat. The whole trip was spent with all the "mamas" and "papas" (as brooks calls them) ooohhing over our girlies! It was like we were mini celebrities...it was so much fun!
The cruise staff was awesome, and so friendly... I think we will definitely sail with Holland America again. Of course they always have the fun towel animals in the rooms...Kaylee loved it.
This is Nicks birthday dinner... haha I should of thought it through...whatever I do to him on his birthday (like have all the waiters sing) ...5 days later I can expect the same thing...usually worse!
Happy 28 to my main squeeze!
Brooklynn had so much fun at our fancy dinners...in the beginning...then towards the end of our trip something snapped...maybe she was sick of all the "paparazzi" and "fans" oggiling over her...anyways after a couple of nights she went a little Norman Bates on us, which in the end turned out fine...we ordered fancy room service in our room and watched a movie!
The first stop on our trip was to Holland Americas private Island Cape Cay (Key)...I cannot even begin to explain how beautiful it was there.
Everyone knows how big of Hawaii freaks we are, but I have to say the water in the caribbean blew it out of the water..(.haha see what I did there?) It was so clear and so turquoise blue, it looked like someone had put food coloring in it.
Kaylee touching a sea star at the stingray park.
View of our ship from the beach.
My big Ham playing in the sand.
Me relaxing while my 3 kids build a sand castle.
When we were packing for our trip I was thinking how big of a pain it would be to pack formal wear for all of us, although it did take up a lot of room...and nick ended up taking more pairs of shoes than me...it ended up being a blast!
Kaylee.. our little fashionista of course loved it! She got her first pair of sparkling dangling earrings...she was over the moon.
My 28th Birthday dinner...of course complete with the wait staff singing!
Brooks enjoyed every single dessert...more than anyone on that boat!
Formal night photos.
Our 2nd stop was St. Thomas. It was wonderful, and beautiful, until we came across these creatures...just roaming around everywhere! Sooo creepy! Kaylee thought it was cool and wanted to take one home...arguing that they were free!
Eating lunch at a beach side cafe.
This is the beach in San Juan
Puerto Rico. I was really surprised by how many people live in such a tiny space. We were also surprised by how expensive the million $ homes were, and not very nice.
We took a bus tour of Old San Juan, and New San Juan. I loved all the old forts and buildings. So much history.
After seeing the fun colored buildings I came home wanting to paint our house!! What do you think...maye green?! In Puerto Rico the government assigns the colors of all the buildings, and they cannot change any color, they can only restore it.
Of course we did some shopping...what vacation would be complete without it?
Walking around the old forts on the sea...they were amazing. The capitol building behind us is a replica of the capitol building in Washington DC..only smaller... and is built completely out of marble...it was beautiful.
Our last stop was Grand Turk Caicos. I loved this island almost as much as I loved our first stop in Cape Cay. It had the little tropical island feel...with all the little shops.
Kaylee took some great photos!
Dock in Grand Turk.
Grand Turk beach, where we found the coolest conch shells ever...like ones you find in stores..and they were huge! We managed to smuggle a couple through security, and in our carry on bags...
Beautiful sunset in Grand Turk.
Boat view from Grand Turk beach.
The ship was all decked out in christmas decor, and had huge gingerbread houses all over. Almost good enough to eat!
As with the end of any trip we were very sad to leave the boat...we did have one extra day in Florida before our flight home the next day. We ended up renting a car and driving to Key Largo. It was very pretty...wetlands. We ended up spending the night in a "quaint" (ya lets use that word) cozy hotel on Hollywood beach. The beach was beautiful, but next time we will spring for the marriott down the street...lets just say the hotel was not Grandma Jeanette approved!!
The next morning we got up, got ready for the airport ride home... thinking what a wonderful vacation we have had...it went off without a glitch...that is until we all came down with food poisoning (or some stomach bug)...lets just say the flight to florida...remember the one that we thought was so awful? It was christmas compared to this little bit of hell we experienced! Luckily no one threw up on the plane...although Nick looked a little green and moaned the whole time! :) We were so exhausted by the time we got home we put girls down for naps, and we crashed. Now its 8:50 pm, and we are all wide awake! At least we didn't get the black plague until our trip was over!!
We had an amazing trip...with great memories. We found we love cruising...besides seeing a ton of cool places it made us stay off all of our "electronicals" as my mom calls them, and actually be present all the time (since we physically couldn't use our phones or tablets)... it was wonderful making lasting memories.
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