Catching Up Post 3 of 5

SEPTEMBER 2013

 

September was a big month for us.  We started September off by going a 7 day cruise!  Oh my goodness, it was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!  We were lucky enough to have my parents come down to Utah to watch Shailee for us, so we could go alone!  It was so nice! :)  Thanks again mom and dad for this!

 

By the way, this is a large post, with lots of pictures!  You have been warned!

 

 

Here we are, on our first flight, bright an early (6AM) on August 31.  We spent our first night in Florida.  The cruise ship didn't leave until September 1!

 

It poured on us when we got there.

 

The clouds, threatening the storm to come (see above picture).  Good thing we weren't going to the beach this day!

 

September 1st came, and we boarded the ship.  Here are a few facts about the ship we boarded.  We were on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Sea.  This ship is the biggest cruise ship in the world.  The second biggest is her sister ship, The Oasis of the Sea.

225,282 gross tons

11,926 plants and trees

1,187 feet long

24 distinct dining options

24 knots cruising speed

16 guest docks

7 neighborhoods

2 rock climbing walls

 

Just leaving, we sat at the front of the ship as it was leaving.

 

Wes brought me a refreshing pina coloada!  It was so yummy! :)

 

Us on the boardwalk, they had some fun house mirrors along both walls, and we took some funny pictures of us!

 

This was also on the boardwalk, and we couldn't resist taking our pictures with it.

 

Wes makes a pretty good red-headed mermaid!

 

We watched a show here. It was called OceanAria.  Here is the description of OceanAria:

Graceful divers soar overhead as glittering fountains dance to the song of the ocean.  An ancient underwater civilization comes to life in this highly entertaining Aqua Theater extravaganza.

 

The show was amazing to say the least. 

 

They had divers jumping and diving from the very top and the middle section shown here.  Wow!

 

This was all Day 1 of our cruise.  Obviously it was spent at sea because that is the day we left and we had to sail to our first destination the following day.

 

Day 2: Nassau, Bahams

This day was by far our best day, as far as excursions go.  Some of the pictures are out of order, but for the most part they are in order.

 

On our way to our excursion, we drove (on a ferry type boat) past the famous Atlantis!  Pretty cool, and I wouldn't mind visiting it sometime ;)!

 

Also on our way to the excursion.  It was early in the morning, and I was up earlier than I normally would have been.

 

That island is where the ferry was taking us.

 

This was our excursion.  We swam with the dolphins!  We got to touch them, play with them, and they (two of them) pushed on our feet and through the water!  It was an amazing experience, and worth every penny.  Luckily we had a small group of 6, so we got lots of one on one time with the dolphins.  They had two mommas and each of them had a baby.  We were told not to touch the babies, because it might re-inforce some bad behavior before they are fully trained.  But we could touch the mommas as much as we wanted.  The trainers were very entertaing, and were full of information about the dolphins.  We got to rub the dolphins down, dance with them, the dolphins brought us rocks from the bottom of the ocean, I got feel the teeth, play catch with them, hug them, and kiss them.  The dolphins had fun splashing us, kissing us, and playing and dancing with us too!  So fun, and I would definitely do it again if given the opportunity!

 

This is at the entrance of the little island where we were swimming with the dolphins.

 

The dock, and the beach the island also has with toys.  For us, a beach is a beach, and so we didn't venture over there.  But a lot of people did.

 

On our way back to the main island the cruise ship was docked at.

 

Leaving the island we were swimming with the dolphins.

 

Someone's very expensive yacht on our way back.

 

Our ship is the biggest one there, on the far right.  Next to it is a Disney cruise ship (still pretty big) and the smallest one there is a Carnival ship.  Gives you a perspective on how big our ship really was!

 

The mail boat.  I guess this is how you get your mail in the Bahamas? lol

 

On our way back, I had a little nap.  It was hot, and I was so tired.

 

The ships again.  Closer though!

 

Wes, with our ship behind him.

 

Our ship again.

 

The Disney cruise ship.  I would still love to go on a Disney cruise, once we have all our kids and they are old enough (meaning, the last one is potty trained, lol).

 

This picture was taken in the morning before we got off the ship.  This was around 6:30 in the morning.  The sun was just peering through the clouds, it was so pretty.

 

Just a panoramic of the horizon.

 

Eating breakfast with Nassau along the horizon.

 

On the island, after swimming with the dolphins.  We didn't have time to get aboard the ship, change, and then get off again to explore, so we just stayed in our swimming suits and explored.  I found this cool pirate statue, and had Wes take a picture of me.  Inside this store they had amazing rum cakes!  They were so good.  Later on in the cruise, at dinner one night, they also had rum cake...but it wasn't nearly as good. 

 

Me in front of our ship...kinda lol.  There was storm coming, and we ended up getting back on the ship just in time.  It started raining pretty good once aboard.

 

The front of the Disney cruise ship.  Looks like a fun ship!

 

Our first towel animal.  If ya can't tell, it's an dog!

 

Day 3 was at sea...so we did lots of exploring on the ship.  It was a hot hot day!

 

They had a small zip line on the ship, and we took the opportunity to go!  It was so fun...but we expected it to be a bigger zipline than it was.  Oh well, it was still lots of fun!  This is me.  We didn't get a picture of Wes because he went before I did.

 

They also had a flo-rider on the ship.  Sadly, I didn't get pictures of Wes (he was the only one who did it) but I did get a video of it.  He was pretty good his first time.  He ended up going a few more times on our other days at sea.

 

They did a How to Train Your Dragon on Ice show.  Here is the description:

When fire meets ice, jaws are sure to drop.  Kids and adults alike will delight in our newest show inspired by the lastes DreamWorks hit, How to Train Your Dragon.

It was really good!  They did a summary show of the movie. 

 

We also saw Chigago:The Musical.  Here is that description of the show:

Murder, greed, corruption...and all that jazz.  If you missed CHICAGO: The Musical on Broadway, you can catch the musical sensation onboard at the Amber Theatre.  Parental discreation advised.  CHICAGO: The Musical contains explicit language, and adult themes.  May be inappropriate for young people under 13.

 

It was an amazing show!  We loved every minute of it, and wished we could have gone a second time to see it.

 

Day 4 was St. Thomas.  Sadly, we didn't get off the ship.  It rained the whole time we were docked here and we didn't have any excursions planned, so we enjoyed the ship and the hot tubs (they were practically empty this day!).

 

We went to a Headline Showtime starring Ronn Lucas show.  The description is long, so pass it by if you don't want to read it.:

Ronn Lucas has been entertaining fans for more than a decade with his incredible, unique talent.  The ultimate entertainer, Lucas mixes stand-up comedy, improvisation, audience interaction and astonishing voice gymnastics to delight fans worldwide.  No stranger to the media, Lucas has appeared on and starred in national TV programs including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, L.A. Law, America's Funniest Home Videos, Who's In Charge Here on the Disney Channel and most recently FX Network's hit show nip/tuck, NBC's 1 vs. 100 and American Airlines' in-flight program "Eye on American".  In addition, Lucas has appeared in Maxim Magizine.  He has been awarded numerous accolades, including "The World's Best Ventriloquist," by The New York Times and The London Times; honored as "Entertainer of the Year," by Gold Cabaret Awards, and "Ventriloquist of the Year" by the American Society of Ventriloquists.  He has stared in his own TV variety series, performed before several United States Presidents, and was the first ventriloquist to have his own, long-running show in Las Vegas.  A true expert in the field of ventriloquism, Lucas has put in more than 13,000 hours perfecting his craft.  Lucas mixes vocal artistry with humor to create the ultimate show for children and adults.

 

The show was awesome!  Super entertaing, and he had us laughing the whole time.  We ended up seeing his show twice!

 

Day 5 was in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten.  It was a windy day, and the excursion we were going to do got cancelled due to the wind.  It was too choppy to sail out, and snorkeling wouldn't have been any good either.  We were a little bummed, and headed back to the ship to do some more exploring of the ship.  But here are a few pictures we got of St. Maarten as we walked to our excursion (before we knew it was cancelled) and around the island before we got back on the ship.

 

Some pretty flowers!

 

Wes at the St. Maarten sign.

 

Us, in front of our ship.

 

You can kind of see how choppy the water was.

 

Just off the ship, I held a little iquana!  It was so cool, and I really wanted one lol.

 

This is the pirate ship we would have gone on if the excursion hadn't been cancelled.  We would have gotten a free barbequed lunch of chicken and beef.  For those who did, they had an open bar too...but I assume that would have included some pop and lemonade as well.

 

This was the dinner that night.  Chicken cordon blue.  It was amazing!  So good, I had to take a picture this night.  Wes and I were the only ones at our table this night.

 

We went to an Ice Games show this day.  Here is the description:

With a roll of the dice, the adventure begins.  Odds are you'll be amazed!  A Monopoly board sets the stage for the spectacular Ice Games, featuring world-class skaters in dazzling costumes.

 

The show was awesome!  We loved it so much, we saw the show 3 times over the course of the cruise.  We also took the opportunity to go ice skating one day.  No pictures were taken sadly.  This was my first time ice-skating, and I had a blast.  It took me a while to not hold onto the side, but I did, and had so much fun!

 

Here is a picture of us after dinner this night.  We ended up purchasing this picture, so we have it! :)

 

This is St. Maarten!  From where our ship was docked.

 

Day 6 was at sea again.  We had fun exploring more of the ship!

 

Pictures of Central Park on the ship.  They had lots of pretty plants and flowers here.  So pretty, and relaxing to walk around.

 

They also had a few restaurants in Central Park.  We didn't eat at any of these, because they were expensive, and we got free gourmet meals with our meal plan we purchased with our cruise tickets!

 

Pretty flower!

 

That night, they had disco night.  The crew members did lots of singing and dancing for us!  So fun!

 

 

The guy in white is the cruise director.  I swear he never slept.  He would be at one event talking or whatever, and then before you knew it he was on the other side of the ship at another event.  Plus, he did a morning show every morning before we even got up! 

 

Kung-fu Panda made an apperance and danced with us on disco night!

 

Our second towel animal, and elephant!

 

On the boardwalk, they also had these carousel horses in the steps to build one.  This is step one.

 

Step two...

 

Step three..

 

The fnished product.  It was cool to see the process.

 

A model of our ship.

 

This is the hot tub we spent a lot of time in, and was our favorite!  This is the model of it on the model ship.

 

More of the model. 

 

And even more.

 

Pretty sunset one morning.

 

Another towel animal, a monkey.  This one is my favorite!  We took videos of all the animals, (undoing them) so we could make our own at home! :)

 

This was disco night as well.  We bought a package of light up things including, rings, glasses, a pin, and a lanyard!  It was fun.  We are dancing on top of the ice, of course they put a floor out for us!

 

We also went to a show called Blue Planet.  Here is the description:

One moment you're watching a tree come to life.  The next-acrobats soaring over mountains.  It's not a dream, but it will leave you breathless.

 

The show is a Cirque-de-Solei (spelling?) type of show.  They had singers, and acrobats, and people jumping on trampolines...it was amazing!!  We went and saw this show twice, and wished we could have gone more...if only it played more!

 

This is the tree that actually came to life.  There were dancers all over it and they came off the tree and did interpritive dancing.

 

After the show, I was able to get a picture with our cruise director, Ken Rush!

 

More pictures on the boardwalk.  The scuba diver was on the other side of the mermaid, but we didn't know that until a few days later when we took these pictures!

 

The Ice Games!  Told ya we loved it!  The captian of the team (shown here in a red jacket) did a couple back flips!  It was awesome!

 

While were on the cruise, like I said earlier, my parents came to our house to watch Shailee.  They brought my dog Oreo.  She loves Shailee (because Shailee will actually pay attention to her and throw her the ball or frisbee constantly lol) and this is where she spent a lot of her time when Shailee was either down for a nap or not up from the night.  Cute Oreo!

 

While we were gone, my parents painted the house for us!  Thanks again, we love it!  This is the kitchen.

 

The hallway...

 

The entrance...(don't mid the Christmas lights, and decorations, I finally got around to taking pictures of the new color in December after we put decorations up lol)

 

Another shot of the entrance...

 

One side of the living room...

 

The fireplace and TV...

 

The other side of the living room...

 

The other side of the kitchen, where the dining table is...

 

On September 13 we went to the Utah State Fair.  Here is Shailee on a horse saddle that was on top of a hay bale.  I think it was supposed to be a game of ropeing but we just sat her on it, and she played with the horse shoes and rope that they had there.

 

She asw ducks!  It was raining a little bit while we were there, so we stayed under umbrellas and indoors as much as possible.

 

September 20-22.  Here we are at the park, feeding ducks.

 

September 22, my parents came up this weekend.  They came down on my dad's Harely!  Shailee thought she was so cool sitting on Papa's bike!

 

Pretty sunset!

 

September 28 we took Shailee to Hogle Zoo.  They have an elephant statue and we stuck Shailee on it for a picture opportunity!

 

Just outside the primate building with Mom!

 

Looking at the orangutans!

 

Watching the polar bear swimming around.

 

Dad and Shailee with the giraffes!

 

Shailee's first carousel ride.  I dare-say she loved it!

 

Sunday, September 29, right after church.  I had just given Shailee a bite of a Kit-Kat bar.  Before it was all out of her mouth, she sneezed...

 

This was the result!  I couldn't stop laughing...it was so funny!

 

Well that sums up our month of September.  If you made it all the way through this post, CONGRATS!!  Next month isn't quite as big...so stay tuned for the month of October's update!