Florida: Siesta Key Monday thru Wednesday

 We got off the ship early Monday morning. We took a Uber to the location of our rental car. We drove through alligator alley on the way from the East coast to the West coast. We didn't think we would see any but we ended up seeing a lot! There was a small canal running parallel with the freeway and there were alligators lining it for miles. It was so cool! Of course there was a fence between that and the canal. 

We arrived at La Siesta condos right after lunch. The kids wasted no time and headed to the beach and pool with cousins. Marshall and I went grocery shopping to stock up for the week. Then we got back in time to enjoy the beach for a little while and the sunset. 

It wasn't hot there but warm enough and we were also happy there was no red tide. 

Katie made dinner the first night. We had a good time gathering together and eating and hanging out.

We all went to Olaf's after for dessert and to the Beach Bazaar to shop for souvenirs.

We were really missing Grandpa, Grandma and Betsy!!! We FaceTimed them and that helped. 

Uncle Coby continues to tease everyone. Luckily James can handle it. We played games back at the condos after. It was a lot of fun and then around 11:00 we called it a night.

One of the reasons we like this vacation is that everyone can wake up whenever they want and do whatever they want. I got up and went running. I made my kids do an hour of school and then they could do what they wanted. They all bounced back and forth between the pool and beach. I got to the beach before lunch and set up our spot.

Tag came with me. 

Another great part is that everyone gets along. There's no drama. Everyone is having a good time. It's magical!

The sunset was beautiful but then about a half hour there was a beautiful glow and the colors were amazing!

We hosted dinner and I made walking tacos. Everyone came over and we enjoyed dinner and then after ice cream everyone came back for games. 

Tuesday night we went to Abels. It was just as good and fun to have different flavors to choose from.

These are a little out of order but all from Tuesday.

Wednesday was another beach day and also souvenir shopping at Splash. I headed over to the beach with the younger kids after shopping.

We all got Pina colada from the snack bar. Mmmm!

Ali made some impressive sand sculptures! Tag loves turtles so we wanted a picture with Ali's turtle.

It was warm and sunny. We were so blessed to have nice weather!

Another picture of the beautiful glow about a half hour after the sunset.

Pizza night! I love thin crust pizza and Pie Pizza was very good!

We got ice cream that night at Olaf's I guess I didn't take any pictures.

Florida: Cruise Day 3

We were in the Nassau, Bahamas on Sunday. We got up that morning and ate breakfast in the Wind Jammer in our Sunday clothes and then got off the ship for church. We found a taxi to take us to church. It was a few miles from the port. The church building looked similar to American churches but slightly different. Tile was the flooring through out the whole building. Instead of installed pews in the chapel there were soft chairs that could be moved and stacked. I think the chapel was a multipurpose room. We got there a little early so we had time to sit in the chapel for a little bit. They asked James and Kade to help pass the sacrament so that was really neat for them. It was fun going to church in another country. The speakers were so good. A high councilman was suppose to speak but there was a technical problem and they couldn't get it to work. A member of the bishopric ended up speaking instead. He explained that with so many islands, the high councilmen can't travel and so they speak over streaming or a recorded message. It was fascinating to learn how things are outside of the US. We stayed for second hour and James, Kade and Lynnlee really enjoyed young mens and young womens. Tag and Sienna loved primary. I enjoyed Relief Society since I don't get to attend with my calling right now. Marshall went to elder's quorum and enjoyed it.

We arranged with the taxi driver to pick us up at noon. We headed back to the port. We had planned as a family not to shop on Sunday but everyone was a little bummed to not get any souvenirs. We shopped the day before at Coco Cay so no one would have to shop Sunday. They ended up going into one shop just to look and the owner asked them if they had been to "Service." They told her yes and she told them good job and gave them each an ornament shell with the Bahamas on it.

We enjoyed the ship the rest of the day, swimming, bingo, zip line, flow rider, rock wall, and anything else that we wanted for our last day. This picture was at bingo. It was family bingo and we appreciated all of the family activities on the ship.

We could see Atlantis resort from the ship. It would have been fun to go there if it wasn't Sunday. Maybe another time...

Florida: Royal Caribbean Cruise, Day 2

We arrived at Coco Cay on Saturday morning at 8:00am. I ran on the track and it was so fun watching us get closer and closer as we came in to the port.

We were some of the first people at the water park. It was chilly but we didn't let that stop us from going on all of the slides. By 10:00 we had been on every slide. It got more crowded so we were glad we got to go on all of them before the lines got long. We still stayed and enjoyed the rides but it was just more crowded and longer lines. Since the island is owned by Royal Caribbean, all of the food was included so we didn't have to pay anything extra. The grill had burgers, hot dogs, salads, fries, ice cream, fruits and vegetables. There was water, juice and lemonade as well. It was a surprise to us because we assumed the food wouldn't be included. So we were very happy that we didn't have to pay and could just enjoy all of the yummy food. The salad was sooo good. It was a Mediterranean salad. Mmmm!

The advertisements for Coco Cay is "The Perfect Day at Coco Cay." It truly was the perfect day! This was a bucket list item and it didn't disappoint.

We left the water park a little early and walked around the shops. It was fun to see more of the island. There were lots of beautiful beaches and pools but I was happy with our choice to go to the water park. We got a good black Friday deal on the tickets 

We saw the sunset from our room while we got ready for dinner. 

We went ice skating after dinner. It was madness. Kids skating in every direction. It was madness and I wish someone would have organized everyone to skate in a circle going the same direction.

After skating we watched a show at the aqua theater. It was an awesome theater at the back of the ship with a diving pool, various dive platforms, and a trampoline. There were divers and gymnasts performing and a small story line with it. We watched the first show during dinner and the second show after ice skating. We had a close up view for the second show and it was really cool! When we watched it during dinner, we saw it from the buffet dining room. That is where we ate dinner every night. We ended up not going to the regular dining room because we liked the flexibility and options of the buffet. 

Florida Trip: Miami

We've been planning a trip to Florida to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary for the last two years. We decided to add a short weekend cruise with it so we could go to Coco Cay. We booked everything this summer. My dad had a stroke two nights before we left on our trip. He recovered really quickly so we felt good about leaving and were hoping he and my mom would still be able to go to Florida. Our flights, lodging, cruise, etc were all non refundable and we couldn't reschedule them or make any changes. So we left as scheduled but it was very hard to leave. We had a redeye to Fort Lauderdale on a Wednesday night.

We were all so tired Thursday morning. We couldn't check into our Airbnb so we had breakfast at Denny's and went thrifting.

Around 11:00 we went to the Airbnb and even though we couldn't check in, they let us use the pool and go to the beach.

I had napped a little earlier so I went to the pool and beach with Kade, Tag and Sienna while Marshall, James and Lynnlee napped on the chairs around the pool.

We were hoping my parents would still be able to go to Florida but it was this afternoon that we got the bad news that they wouldn't be able to. My dad began having right sided weakness, slurred speech and after an MRI they found a hemorrhage in his brain. It was very hard to receive this bad news and really hard not to be with them. 

Marshall took James and Lynnlee to the Ft. Lauderdale temple and I stayed back with Kade, Tag and Sienna. Kade had wanted to go but he didn't nap at all during the day so by 5:00 he was asleep for the night and he couldn't wake up to go. This was the view from Miami Beach. 

There was this awesome trail along Miami Beach. I ran north three miles and then back. It was a beautiful morning.

This is a picture of the Airbnb for memory sakes.

We checked out at 11:00 and then headed to the ship.