As Promised

After two amazing adult only vacations this summer, the husband and I (okay, probably mostly me) were feeling major guilt over having done virtually nothing for or with our children this summer. Unless you count yelling at them to clean up after themselves, I'm not sure why that doesn't count.

We managed to finagle a decent price to stay down at Disney's new Art of Animation Resort for two nights. It's so new that we were the very first people to stay in our particular hotel room. Awesome, right? 

Here's the part where I tell you that we did not have plans to take the kids into any of the theme parks. For our family alone, it would cost upwards of $400 for a single day pass. Nah... 

We figured that the Resort itself has enough fun stuff going on that we wouldn't have any problem filling our time. If we got bored, we'd head over to Downtown Disney (Free Disney!). Our poor children. Someday they'll realize how cheap their parents were and need therapy.  We can use all that money we saved by not taking them to Disneyworld! Everybody wins!

Warning: This post is picture heavy.

 Uhm. This probably isn't the best place to start. We were just being weird.

 This resort was probably the best decorated one I've been to. It was as if they dropped you into the movies themselves. The rooms (which I didn't take any pictures of) are awesome! We stayed in the Lion King suites, but they have Cars, Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid areas as well (The Little Mermaid area wasn't yet open when we stayed there). And yes, every room is a suite which can sleep 6 adults (or 5 kids and 2 adults in our case) and has a kitchenette and two bathrooms.

 They had a humongous Mr. Ray.

 This resort features the largest pool on Disney property (or so they say). We took the kids on over. It was fantastic. One of my favorite parts was that they developed special underwater speakers and the music playing underwater is totally different than that playing above the water. The pool staff even provide life jackets for non-swimmers. We had a blast. The only downside is that being in Florida we end up with a bunch of random short thunderstorms so the pools close frequently.

Lucas is starting to be slightly more manageable. Slightly. I strongly attribute it to the fact that he started PRESCHOOL! (Insert video of me jumping up and down.)

 You know you wanna give this one a snack. Please. A snack, mommy. Mommy, a snack. Please. (Repeat ad nauseum.)

 One of the great things about Disney Resorts is that they have quite a few programs running at all times to keep the kids busy/entertained. For example, we took the kids to this Learn To Draw class. They had an animator sitting there teaching the kids to draw Mickey. My kids ate it up. Except Libby who threw a tantrum. (Repeat ad nauseum.)

 Yeah, Mr. Ray is huge.

 This is probably my favorite picture of Lucas, ever. It's taken on one of their "playgrounds".

 Um. Yeah. Abbie, at almost 11, thinks she is way too mature for playing. Please notice the glasses (it's only a matter of time and they'll all be wearing them) and the incredibly long hair. Whoa.

 Fortunately, Miles and Lucas are still young enough to think posing with a car is still awesomesauce.

 And I'm not sure what was up with Libby but in every single picture we took that weekend, she was making some approximation of this face.

 Oh, I'm so cute. Look at me. Blurgh!

 There were TONS of these sculptures everywhere.

 I totally love this picture of all of my kids. Even though Miles can't be bothered to stop whatever pretend world he was playing in.

 And another of the whole crew. I think we had great success. The kids had fun. The adults didn't kill anyone. Yeah, we call that success.

What I Did With My Summer Vacation: Part Two

 A million years ago (or 2.5ish), some of our best friends high-tailed it out of Florida. They followed their hearts back to Utah, which really sucked at the time, but came in very handy when we needed a place to stay. 

 Meet Gary & Alecia. Best hosts ever. They bought us the best donuts I've ever had: Maple Bacon Donuts from Beyond Glazed. They let us play with their doggies. We played the most hysterical game of Curses! Ever. It was actually really hard for me to leave them. I miss them so much!

 Classic Photobomb. Also, check out the husband's sweet bowtie! Real! 

 While in Utah we had the awesome opportunity to hang out with my brother, sister and their respective families. This is my Sister-in-law, Erikka. Isn't she so beautiful?! 

 And this is my baby brother, Matt. And his baby girl (who is now 3!), Arya! This was my first time meeting Arya and I found her to be just the sweetest little package of awesome. Plus, so cute! I have no pictures of my sister Rachel and her little friend, David, because they kept making weird faces for the camera. 

On our final day in Utah we traveled to the booming metropolis of Provo. We got to meet up with some old friends, The Hansens and their 3.1 kids. We had the privilege of enjoying delicious foodstuffs: JDawgs, Hokulia Shaved Ice, and Four Seasons Hot Pot and Dumplings.  All recommended!

 We also realized that Provo pretty much feels the same as it did 10ish years ago when we met, dated, and fell in love there. 

Would I move back to Utah? If the price was right...

What I Did With My Summer 2012: Part One

So, we did the cruise. 

Then we found out that my husband's youngest brother was getting married in August in Utah. We just had to go. You see, that's where the husband and I met, wooed, and decided to get married. (We were actually married in Washington DC). But Utah is where the magic happened. The short short version is that we both lived in the same apartment complex and attended the same church congregation (in the LDS Church it's called a Ward). He was attending BYU and I was attending UVSC (now UVU) and I was quite the looker. He couldn't resist my feminine wiles. Or something. 

At any rate, I haven't been back to Utah (we both still have family living there) since 2007 and for Matt it was more like 2004. So, we were both fairly excited at the chance to "walk down memory lane." Also, we didn't take the kids. I know. Two vacations this summer without children in tow... it was like a dream. An awesome dream. 

We attended David and Diana's wedding. It was honestly so beautiful. The reception was probably one of the nicer ones I've ever been to. I kept saying, "the next time I get married, I'm totally doing it like this!" Then my Mother-In-Law had the nerve to remind me that in just ten short years I could be planning the wedding of my own daughter. Uhhh... Not cool, Mom!

 My husband is a very attractive man. 

 Have I mentioned that the husband had Lasik done back in December? He did. What's that? He's wearing glasses? Yes. They're "for show." Psht. Men. 

David and Diana are so cute together. After the temple portion of the wedding, the bride and groom, fully decked out, went to Cafe Rio with us. It was pretty awesome. 

More later.

Costa Maya (and the rest)

Our last Port was Costa Maya, Mexico. 

Being that it was our last port, it was the one we had done the least amount of research on. We didn't know what we wanted to do, or how to get there. In short, we had no plans. 

We decided the night before to just get off the boat and look around. According to reports there was a large pool just inside the port that was free. If all else failed, we'd just swim there. 

 Lounging? Waiting for something to happen? Who knows?!

 We did shop around quite a bit. We were on a mission to find Matt a hat. He'd been wanting one since before we left Florida. 

 This is a lovely shot of us pretending we weren't taking a picture of ourselves. We are just so awesome.

 This was actually the first port where we ran into any type of law enforcement. That gun? Real. We asked to take a picture.  He begrudgingly told us: Only one. Twenty seconds later three hot chicks asked for a picture... he was all smiles. 

What did we end up doing? Have I even told you about our love of the Golf Cart? No? 

 We ended up renting a cart for three hours. We drove all over the place in this thing. 

 We ended up at a private beach that has a deal worked out with the golf cart people. They allow people to sit on their beach for free. We also had access to a sea kayak (had we wanted to go out ... I did. Matt did not). Plus, their drinks/etc were super cheap (in comparison to some of the places we had eaten). 

 You can see our cruise ship smack dab in the middle of the picture. We did a little bit of snorkeling. Laid out for a little bit longer.

 Poor me. I had to go there. Life is so rough. We did end up ordering a pina colada (virgin, of course) which Matt deemed the best pina colada he'd ever had. It was pretty freaking good. We walked along the boardwalk area (shops and beaches) for a bit... where Matt FINALLY found his hat! 

 We enjoyed a coconut water. But between you and me, I'm not sure what all the hype is about.

We decided to hop back in the golf cart and go exploring. 

 We drove along this little road for a couple of miles. It was gorgeous. 

Did I mention we love golf carts? It's a disease maybe.

 This was our view as we left Costa Maya. There is a pool like area over there... it's a dolphin tank. For the low low cost of your firstborn child, you can swim with a dolphin. It seems to us like something it might be worth it to pay for one of your children to do.

 One last shot of the ship. It really was a massive beast of a boat.

 At dinner that night we were looking mighty crispy! And happy. Honestly, of the four ports I think Costa Maya was my favorite. It was just so relaxing. And beautiful and not nearly as touristy as some of the other ports. 

The next day was spent entirely at sea as we sloshed our way back to Florida. We spent it napping, and hot tubbing.

 And we finally got around to doing the onboard Mini-golf. Don't we just look the part?

 Apparently, I needed all my concentration.

 I have to say I was doing pretty well, even though we didn't keep score.

 And Matt, featuring the one thing on board that we didn't get around to: the waterslides. It was always filled with kids and I didn't feel like waiting in line. 

 Don't we look refreshed? And happy? I know we felt it. 

 And finally. I never talked about our tablemates. We got lucky and they sat us at a table for four. Which meant that we only had to worry about two potentially strange dinner mates. But we needn't have worried. We got to meet Rakesh and Gurjeet. They were a very nice couple about our age (so what if we were older!) who were extremely pleasant! We found ourselves looking forward to dinner so we would have someone to share the day's adventures with. 

Yes, we've already friended them on Facebook. 

That brings our cruise travelogue to a close. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. 

Roatan, Honduras

Also known as the slightly scary experience where we ate some weird but good food.

 Port day Three landed us in Roatan, Honduras:  a sliver of an island only four miles wide. Our goal for today was just to go to the beach and do some snorkeling.  We ended up deciding to hire a somewhat shady taxi driver named Benny to drive us out to a private beach. Private meaning you have to pay to use it. So, yes. A Tier 3 decision. As we were being ushered around in a 1992 Honda Accord with no a/c, Benny told us a little about Roatan. Apparently, they produce nothing. They have no exports, only imports. Their main industry is tourism.

 Despite being a little leary of Benny, he did as promised: delivered us to a gorgeous beach. The he waited around for us while we snorkeled, laid out, got sunburned, and drove us home.

 This was my view for much of the day. There were a TON of locals who walked up and down this beach hawking their wares. "Wanna massages, lady?" We purchased nothing. On the way back, we got into a discussion with Benny about the fact that they hunt (illegally) and eat iguana. He asked if we were feeling adventurous. Sure!

Benny took us to this little roadside restaurant.

This, ladies and gents, is Iguana. Looks like chicken? Tastes like a chewier, slightly gamier chicken. Also, beans and rice and fried plantains. I thought it was just meh. Matt, on the other hand, loved it. Which is good because we ended up trading plates. I got this: 

 Steamed Grouper. It. was. amazing. Easily the best food of my whole trip. I'm craving it now. My mouth is watering.

 This nice gentleman above is Bertie. I'm fairly certain he's preparing more iguana right now.

 Once again, the road takes you right along the coast. Some really cool views.

 I wish I could remember the details about this ship but I did ask if it had been dragged there and they insisted that it was a real ship that had run aground and been abandoned.

We headed back to our ship sorta early and took a nice long shower and nap. This is me. Dorking around on my Kindle. I hope you enjoy this super closeup of my feet. 

 My dinner outfit. Mostly, I just love the bracelet I picked up that day in Roatan. It's made of Tagua Seeds.

 And Matt was there too.

 And just some random shots.  This was a black forest cake we bought while on board. It was okay. Meh.

 The view from the Lobby all the way up to the top of the ship. Also know as the Dream Atrium.

 This was by far my favorite dessert of the trip. Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I had it three times. Judge me. It was amazing.

 And this was a delicious looking Tiramisu. I didn't have any so I can't tell you if it was any good.

Tomorrow: Final Port... Costa Maya