Bridge Collapsed

For those that were asking...

David takes this bridge every single day. He missed it by 3 hours.

So grateful to God that he wasn't on the bridge or stuck on the other side.

A truck hit it and a whole section fell into the water. Who knows how long it will take to rebuild. For now David is taking alternative routes to get to work.

Cruise Part 4

Awesome faces

 Claire wasn't super interested in the pool. I don't blame her, it was a boring baby pool.
The adult pools were pretty awesome though. They had a beach pool, a sports pool, and the main pool. They were always packed and full of perverts taking under water pictures of girls butts, but they felt nice to get out of the hot sun.

Our second port was St. Thomas. Nonnie, Mom, Lori, and the babies stayed on the ship. Talisha and Brandon did their own thing. And the rest of us went to Magean's Bay Beach... which apparently is the only beach you have to pay for. After a long taxi ride, and $8.00 later, we were on the beach.

I look super tall. I'm not. We are both 5'3". My dad made a big deal about taking these pictures. He made sure everyone around us heard him say "They want me to take their pictures! I know these girls! They gave me permission!"

Clear water. So clear that there wasn't even any snorkeling. I saw a see through fish and a crab. This was the day I burned!!!! I fell asleep and woke up burned, I had a slash on my arm, and I was wet (David threw water on me to wake me up). No idea where the slash came from but it burned!!

St. Thomas was nice, but my favorite port was St. Maarten which we pulled into the next morning.

More to come....

Baby Shower Invite

I have the honor of throwing Amy, Aly, and Abby a baby shower next month!
I am going with a girly woodland fox theme.
I plan on flying down to Cali with a 1 year old all by myself.... I'm nervous already.

Cruise Part 3

Day 3 was spent out to sea where Claire tried her first carousal ride with Nonnie. She actually had a lot of fun and didn't once want off. The carousal was located on the Boardwalk section of the boat. This section also had a free doughnut stand, A Johnny Rockets, the Crab shack, and an Aqua theater  where there was a Belly Flop competition. We sat right in the front and got a little wet.

Formal night was nice for all of us to get all fancy. But did we get a picture together? Of course not.
Claire wore a dress that Nonnie made her and let me tell you, she was the talk of the town! She even had a lady ask to take a picture with her. She was seriously a local celebrity.

David is over a foot taller then me, so he took the picture pointing down. Always cracks me up.

This was our server "Gilbert", he was awesome. He always had tricks or trivia for us every night

We TRIED to get a nice picture of Claire and Gabe, but after several attempts, this was the best we got.
Claire got a free balloon from the balloon twisters. It was a huge hit in our room.

More to come...

Baby on a Cruise Tips

Some tips that I found to be very useful if you plan on taking a baby on a cruise:



The carousal on the cruise ship (her first time on one)

 1. Ask in advance for a pack and play in your room. The room stewards will set it up every night for you, and put a sheet down.

2. Bring their birth certificate. Obviously. I got a certified copy of hers, so I didn't use the original.

3. No need to bring a lot of toys if your ship has a play center. Our actually had a borrow program (I didn't use it) where you can "check a toy out" and then return it. I brought her dolly, a toothbrush (she loves toothbrushes, and an inflatable ball for our room). We went up to the play center at least twice a day.

4. After the first night, your dining room servers will have the high chair set up every night. The first night they brought Claire a appetizer tray of fruit to keep her occupied. Unfortunately it was all the fruit she was allergic to.... So after asking politely, they had watermelon waiting for her every night along with a glass of whole milk.

5. The whole ship staff loves babies. They went out of their way to accommodate us, get us tables ready, try and make Claire smile, and always wave and say hi to her.

6. Naps are important. Claire was able to take a few naps in her stroller (I got a reclining stroller which was helpful). All the other naps we ended up taking them with her. It was actually nice to take an afternoon nap.

7. Go with family. Don't go alone. David and I were able to enjoy ourselves because we had family willing to take care of Claire, or go to bed early with her. Go with family.

8. I brought her bib that catches food so we didn't have a big mess at the end of each meal. Worked like a charm.

9. I brought waaaayyyy too many diapers. But the ship store is so overpriced that it was worth having extra.

10. I brought Claire to a lot of the shows! My cousin put Gabe in child care, but since Claire is usually mellow and able to suck her thumb, I brought her with. Childcare costs $8.00 an hour.

11. There were 4 smaller pools combined to make an awesome kid area, however, only 1 SMALL pool was for babies. Any child in diapers were not allowed in any other pool. So we were stuck in a small pool that was probably more pee then it was water.

All in all, taking a baby on a cruise was so easy.

But if I didn't stress it enough above, GO WITH FAMILY.

My Weekend, According to Instagram

1. Sick baby cuddles // 2. Meet Burton, our new dog// 3. "I swear I did not drop that piece of food." //
4. Beep Beep // 5. We tiled this weekend. // 6. Necklace hanger

Cruise Part 2

Day 2 of the cruise landed us in Nassau Bahamas. While the rest of the group went to the Atlantis Water Park, Nonnie, David, Claire and I walked through town to get to a beach. The beach wasn't too crowded. Claire got to crawl around, get in the water (which she wasn't a fan of), and then she played in the sand with some kids that she made friends with.

I love this picture. One of my favorites of my Nonnie.

Rocking my post-baby body

After an hour or so, Nonnie took Claire back to the boat for a nap and lunch. David and I got to spend more time at the beach and then we walked around the town a bit.

Nassau was a little run down. Maybe on the other side (where Atlantis was) it was nicer?

Other shows we went to were the Improv (which I volunteered for), an ice show, a water show, and an acrobatic show. But the show that really got to all of us was the comedy show.... So back story. All 10 of us sat in the front row of this small theatre. The first comedian was funny, his sketch was hilarious. But then the second guy came out....

He immediately picked on Russel (my uncle) about not having his shoes on. Then he went to pick on Talisha (his daughter) and found out they were related. Then he picked on David and found out we were all related in the front row. He then proceeded to say "I hate this whole f'ing family". His whole sketch was all about us.

And while some of us thought he was funny. I thought he was drunk and didn't fully appreciate it.



Ealy anniversary couple. 4 years and going strong



Talisha, David, Jer, myself and 2 other ship mates played in the Dodge ball tournament. I was the last one standing in the first round, and after round 2 we had lost. We have never been so happy to lose. It was sooooo hot!!! Especially on that dark basketball court. I ended up throwing my arm out.

More to come....