Monday, March 26, 2012

Cruisin'

Spring break was phenomenal! Dax and I (along with over 40 other family members) went on a cruise to Progreso and Cozumel Mexico. Daniel and I did this same cruise about 3 years ago and fell in love with cruising so there was no way I was missing out on another opportunity to go! I was super, super bummed that Daniel couldn't go and be a part of off the first for Daxton but I guess it's just part of the med school process. We'll have plenty of time in the future to go on fantastic vacations as a family.... ones that Dax will actually remember :)   
Ok.... so brace yourself for picture overload! I use this blog as sort of "memory book" so I'm going to go a little overboard with pictures.... but they're cute... so I'm sure you won't mind ;)

So when we go on a cruise... we always leave the day before and spend the night at a hotel in Seabrook, TX. I love this little town and the hotel we stay at is always great too. So 10+ cars full of family members left at 6:30am Friday and caravanned all the way to Seabrook. I was super nervous about an 8 hour car ride with Dax but he did awesome. He's a rockstar for sure. I plan on making a post soon on traveling with a toddler.

 We got to the hotel that evening with plenty of time to play with cousins, enjoy the pool, run up and down the hall (he had been locked in a car for 8 hours) and go out to dinner.

The next morning we wake up bright and early and headed down to the port in Galveston. We were so excited.... all 40 of us. We had been planning this cruise for over a year now so the anticipation was huge. And for most of the group this was their first time cruising... so I'm sure it was a mix of excitement and nervousness.
We left on St. Patricks Day so the whole group was decked out in green. It was fantastic.
I was terrified what going through security and the whole boarding process was going to be like with a toddler but it actually went incredibly smooth. We got there early enough that we didn't have to wait in long lines. Since I had done this before I new what documents I would need so I had them all on hand. I had the stroller so Dax was just along for the ride. The worse part was when he had to walk through the metal detector... that freaked him out a bit but it last a total of maybe 3 minutes.

Well the boat set sail and our vacay began! Our schedule for the week was depart on Saturday, Sunday was a day at sea, Monday we were in Progresso, Tuesday in Cozumel, Wednesday a day at sea, and then arrive back at Galveston on Thursday morning. It was fabulous. Cruising with a toddler was a completely different experience than cruising with Daniel, but it was still a great vacation. That's one of the great thing about cruises... they're super, super family friendly. You can make them as wild and crazy as you want (there were a lot of college spring breakers on our ship) or as calm and relaxing as you want. They're awesome.
During the week, Dax and I spent a lot of time doing this...
watching the elevators... which he so kindly renamed "Beep Beeps" (think about the sound and elevator makes). He was fascinated by them. If he got fussy... we just had to go watch or ride the Beep Beeps for a bit.  We also spent a lot of time doing this...
There was a semi quite place on the starboard side of the ship with some small tables and booth-like seats. We loved sitting back there and watching the water and having a snack. It just happened to be right next to the ice cream parlor/coffee shop :)  Quite a bit of time was also spent doing this...

Dax got some much needed cousin time in. The one thing that I hate more than anything about living in a different city than my family is that he doesn't get to see his cousins much. Me and my cousins were all really close and I have a ton of great memories with them so I want that to be the case for Dax as well. He def. made up for lost time on this vacation though. I figured out exactly which room they were in (only a few doors down from us) and would run to their room, bang on their door, and yell "Yey yey" (chey chey) and "Nainer" (Zainer). He also super impressed me with his rough-housing skills. The way this boy plays you would think he has three older brothers at home. He was wrestling with the best of them! Pushing them down, pulling their clothes, jumping on their backs, trying to sit on their heads, smacking them with whatever weapon he could find.... it was impressive.  Since we've been back home he will randomly ask for "yey yey" and "nainer". We settle for looking at pictures of them for now.
So the one down side to cruises (with the exception to I think Disney cruises), is that children can not get in the pools in they still wear diapers. I understand completely (the pools aren't chlorinated, only salt water) but I was a little worried about how Dax would cool off. We had brought along a tiny blow up pool but I really didn't want to have to mess with it. Luckily there was this wonderful fountain by a pool in the back of the ship. Dax spent a lot of time playing there. He thought it was awesome... between it and the showers by the pool... he stayed nice and cool :)


Progreso was Dax's first time in the ocean and first time to play in the sand on the beach. He was very curious and ran straight to the water.... until he realized how cold it was. With it only being March the water was still pretty chilly so we didn't spend much time in it.  He also didn't like when the wet sand would stick to his feet. He sort of has texture issues (like his mommy) so foods and how some things feel freak him out. He liked the sand if he was dry and the sand was dry, so we stayed away from the ocean and played with the pretty white, dry sand on the beach.

Overall the vacation was wonderful.... tiring with a toddler... but wonderful. I have a ton of great pictures on facebook from the entire trip if you want to see more. Like I said earlier... it was very different than cruising with Daniel, but still a blast, just in a different way. Me and Daniel are already planning a seven day mommy and daddy only cruise for late next spring. I think we're addicted :)

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