Jordan's One Year Older

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

It's great to be 15 - isn't it!

Dinner last night at Outback Steakhouse with our good friends Aaron & Dawn. Jordan loves a good steak. We'll have birthday cake today and spend time with family.

Our Caribbean Cruise - Part 4

Thursday - Belize

Being tendered (there's that word again) from the ship - looking towards Belize.

This pretty much summed up this port for us. Keith and I took the little ones souvenir shopping while Jordan went with cousins on a tour. They ended up paying too much $$ just to be driven 10 minutes away and back. The beach they wanted to go to was a man made swimming hole and the people wanted to charge an admission fee to boot. Belize didn't make a good impression on us, but maybe if we'd managed to get beyond the tourist part it would have. We decided to head back early after the kids did their shopping and let them go swimming, etc on the ship.
The happy shoppers.
Wouldn't Uncle Ralph make a great 1st Mate or some such person? He looks like the official lookout. Think he must have been hanging on to his hat so it wouldn't fly off into the wet-n-wild blue yonder.

Headed back to the ship. Lovely turquoise waters - best part of Belize (that we saw).

Proof we really were there.

Oh yes, it was our anniversary this day as well. Number 9. Hubby forgot it though. I don't think remembering it late in the afternoon really counts - do you? Okay, I'm being a bit harsh. But still... I suppose it'll be memorable because of that. At least for me, if not for him.

Then Jaeden had a sunburn to boot and I had to spend dinner cooped up in the room with him while Daddy took Brooklyn as his dinner date. And nope, dear hubby didn't think to bring me dinner or even a smidgen of the yummy melted chocolate cake that was on the menu every night. Have to vouch for room service though! The tuna salad on an English muffin was tasty.

I had just tucked Jaeden into bed - thought he was wide awake still. I went to set our tray outside the door and turned to go back in only to realize I'd locked myself out - my key card was inside. Tried knocking but Jaeden had already fallen asleep. Just my luck! I tried getting a cleaning person to let me in, but he wouldn't (I'm sure they have to take proper and secure measures to make sure it was really my room). Just as I was feeling frustrated and a tad bit frantic, I turned around and Keith was coming down the hall. Perfect timing!

Quite an anniversary. One for the books.

Green Thumb

Can we take all the credit for these beauties?

They're in our yard. Doesn't that count?

It shouldn't matter that they were already here when we moved in.

It shouldn't matter that Mother Nature is really the one who waters these.

It shouldn't matter that she also provides adequate sunshine.

It shouldn't matter that we don't have to coax them to come up every year.

Oh, all right. We won't take the credit. But we will take pictures to share!

Old Man Winter

...isn't giving up so easily this year!

The poor flowers look a little unhappy about it, too.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Our Caribbean Cruise - Part 3

Wednesday - Roatan, Honduras

In Roatan, we hired a van and tour guide to take us around parts of the island to really see what it was like there. We wanted to experience a bit of the culture and see how the people lived. Fred was quite adept at negotiating our taxi and guide fees.

Fred and his mom-in-law Deanna with some of the natives in costume that were dancing for us as we came off the ship.

Many little shacks like this up on stilts. Must get quite a bit of flooding - maybe during hurricane season.
Everywhere we looked, clothes were hanging on the lines to dry.

Jenny and Jordan trying to look 'cool' in spite of the heat!

Local children going horseback riding.

A real shipwreck. Supposedly been there since the 80's. If I remember correctly, the ship was bringing lumber for the people to build homes.

The local people knew that cruise ships were stopping on this day, so this little family was set up by the side of the road selling little odds-n-ends. We bought some worthless Roatan money as a souvenir and the sweet little children picked some flowers for us women. Even though we didn't speak their language, it was amazing what expressions could communicate - especially a smile. Darling children - I just wanted to kiss and hold the baby. Would have loved to spend all day with them if we could have, even visiting their home. Brooklyn and the little girl were the same size - wonder if they were the same age? Debbie gave the children some sticks of gum and they unwrapped it and put it in their mouths as fast as they could. Must be quite a novelty to them.

The mayor's home. A bit extravagant compared to the majority of the people's. Next we stopped by an iguana farm. It turned out to be a bit of a miniature zoo.

Our dear tour guide, Reina, showing Brooklyn how to feed the iguanas. Lucky for us they're vegetarians.

Reina had seven of her own children at home on the other side of the island.

I didn't take any chances walking under a tree. They were full of iguanas. Didn't want one dropping down on top of me. No way!

Brooklyn getting friendly with a little monkey. He'd reach his hand out and hold fingers.

After viewing the animals, we could walk down to the water.

Sue and Jerry

Watching a float plane take off right in front of us.

One of many examples of sea-life we saw.

Fred, Debbie (Jolene's sis), Dick (her dad), Deanna (her mom) & Jolene.

Some of the older kids felt a little differently about snorkeling after seeing the barracuda in these waters.

Jolene and Fred contemplating the sea-life.

Ahhhhh......nothing like quenching your thirst with an ice cold soda.

Jordan, Kayla & Jenny having to drink it all so they could leave their bottles for recycling. Parrots

Neil waiting patiently for everyone to pack into the hot van.

Lots of lush foliage. Saw many banana trees (reminded me of Hawaii) and cashew trees.

Gorgeous panoramic views.

We were taken to yet another beautiful beach for some snorkeling.

Packing up to leave the beach. Jenny (center) had her hair braided by some locals.

Jordan and his usual smiling self.
Wish I knew what was amusing them...I feel left out. Think I was too busy taking a picture to catch the punch line.

Coming soon (since I obviously can't adhere to a "tomorrow" deadline): Belize, Cozumel and any other miscellaneous pictures of our cruise. There are very few left that I've taken so will beg some from other family members when possible.

May you be enjoying warm sunny weather wherever you are! Cold front moving in here today.

Our Caribbean Cruise - Part 2

I know the lifeboat drill was an absolute necessity, but it was soooo miserable. We were trying to adjust to the Miami heat and humidity and then standing on this deck with another 4,500 sweaty people, no breeze to speak of whatsoever and these lovely orange floatation devices stuck around our necks. Let's just say after spending a day in airports, numerous hours in lines waiting for buses with luggage, security checks, customs clearances, registering to board, picture taking, etc. we were wondering when the vacation would actually begin. We won't mention how cranky Mom was getting at this point... Oh yeah, did I mention claustrophobia and we're stuck at the back of this crowd because we were some of the first to respond to the drill?!? Not a highlight of the trip but quite a memory. So imagine how thrilled we were to get to an upper deck and just BREATHE.

Hello, Miami!

It was incredible to see how this ship could completely turn around in this small-ish area.

Maybe we'll come back to just stay in one of these resorts.

Goodbye, Miami!

We could watch the action, from down below, up on the big-screen. The kids enjoyed some time on the water slide later in the cruise.

Monday - Day at Sea

Brooklyn & Kayla - Buffet breakfast in the Retro Rosie Restaurant.

Jordan & Brooklyn silhouetted against the ocean.

Brooklyn's 'formal night' hat.

Auntie Jolene thought that it would be fun if the women in our group (approx. 22) brought hats and ribbons, trim, etc to decorate them with. It turned out pretty fun because all the guys wore top hats, tuxes, bow ties, and canes. As mentioned in a previous post, I'm already regretting the times we didn't take pics. Formal night was one of those times. We have a huge group pic taken by the cruise line, but no snapshots. So we'll have to rely on others in our group for those - sorry!

Tuesday - Grand Cayman

Below is a "pirate ship". Niece Molly and her husband Ron took an excursion on one and got to walk the plank.

Looking towards Grand Cayman. We were anchored out a ways and had to be tendered in. (Hope that's the right expression). When I originally read that Grand Cayman was a 'tender port', I thought it meant they accepted our American cash. Tender - cash, get it?? Ha! What a surprise I got when I found out we didn't just walk off the ship into port. Who knew there were a bunch of definitions for 'tender'. Oh, don't be so smug - just 'cause you knew. Good thing I didn't sleep walk off because I'd be the one walking the plank!

Leaving our ship.
Brooklyn looking at the beautiful blue water.

Thirteen of us hired a taxi to take us to the beach so we could start snorkeling. We had to make use of that big bag of snorkel equipment we drug all this way with us. Thanks to Keith's boss who let us borrow it. He and his family snorkel quite a bit in Hawaii.

Love the clear water!

So fun to snorkel and play in. Amazing how coarse the sand was, too.

Uncle Fred rented a kayak and many in our group had a fun go at it!

Jordan & Uncle Fred

Jaeden & Uncle Fred

Jordan & Boo

Jordan & Cousin Jenny

Jordan, Cousin Kayla and Boo

Uncle Jerry & Auntie Sue

We had a great time at the beach and the day sped by all too quickly. All that sun and water made us ready for dinner and bed that night.

Tomorrow: Roatan, Honduras

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