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.

Florida: Royal Caribbean Cruise Day 1

Our arrival time to the port was scheduled for 1:30. I was bummed we couldn't get a earlier time. Thankfully because we had no where else to go and nothing else to do, we headed to the port early. We were able to get on the ship at 12:20. This was going into the building at port. The propeller decoration was so cool!

We went straight to the pizzeria for lunch. 

Sienna and Tag got to ride the carousel.

We got in our rooms around 3:00. We had a girl room and a boy room. Unfortunately we couldn't get adjoining rooms but they were only a few rooms apart so that was the next best thing.

We did the flow rider, got ice cream, and checked out the ship.

We made a rule that you always had to have a buddy no matter what. The boys played at the sports court through the afternoon and evening. Lynnlee, Sienna and I explored the ship, tried out the Mexican restaurant, and had more pizza.

We loved Central Park.

I loved the jogging track. It was way longer than most ships so it didn't take as many laps to make a mile. It was on a lower deck and during the daylight had a good view on all sides of the ship.

This cruise was very family friendly and had a lot of fun activities. We went to the club for a fun dance. We all wore headphones and you switched between two djs. You could tell by the color of light on the headphones which dj everyone was listening to.

We didn't stay up too late. The kids decided not to do the kids clubs on the ship because we were having too much fun doing other activities.