This is going to be a long post... you've been warned! And there might be a million pics.. ;)
My family went on an amazing trip to the southern caribbean on a cruise with Royal Caribbean... ah how I wish I was back on the beach right now!
Flights!
Some advice for moms flying with babies for the first time:
1 - if your baby is formula fed bring an empty thermos with you to the airport. Once you're through security and at your terminal you can fill it up with hot water and have instant bottle ready to go. Or you can ask the flight attendants for hot water on the flight. We bought one from Target (of course) for $24 that had cooling & heating technology & would keep the liquid at whatever temp you need for a solid 12 hours. I was way impressed.
2 - bring a baby bjorn. Olive isn't the most cuddly baby ever, and really loves to sleep in her crib, on her own, and without people bugging her. I was really nervous about the prospect of her having to fall asleep in my arms (which I knew was going to happen at one point or another on our trip) and the baby bjorn really saved me. On the flights as well as on our excursions or ports of call, it was champion to be able to get her to relax & sleep and still let me be able to use my arms.
3 - bring a new toy and book for each flight. I packed a full bag of food & toys for Olive and then a separate bag for myself with our iPad & passports etc. for the flights. The newness of a toy each flight would take up a good 30-40 minutes with her, which was SO helpful! Books weren't as helpful for her because she was a little A.D.D. and wanted to just spin circles in my lap whenever I'd pull out a book.
4 - bring lots of food & snacks. It might seem like a no-brainer, but trust me when I say to bring about 2-3 extra containers of food. Olive is happiest when she's eating (little chunk) or when her mouth is occupied by a toy or something new. So I packed the bottom half of my bag full of food. Baby solids, little Gerber Puffs, go packs, etc. and it was key to making her happy. Also try to give food during take off and landing so that their little ears can pop and not just be stuck at the wrong pressure. I also used teething tablets for her (she was popping 2 teeth during the cruse) but it helped calm her down & suck on them while we were landing.
5 - if you use benadryl, do a trial run! We were given the ok from our pediatrician to use Benadryl to help Liv calm down and sleep on the flights and he recommended doing a test of it before the flight because some babies get super hyper with it. Well I'd like to add to his advice and say to try it at the *same exact time* you'll be flying. We tried it before, she totally sacked out. Sweet, ok. So then because of the weather screwing with everything, we had to give her benadryl at a different time of day... and she was literally like high during the first flight. Thankfully it was pretty empty but she was soooo giggly and talkative and just BUSY!! So just plan ahead for that.
Trying to get out of Salt Lake City was a joke... there was a massive storm that hit the eastern cities really badly... canceling thousands of flights. We were among the lucky few to be screwed over by the snow. Micah and I made 3 trips to the airport, had 4 flights canceled, and then finally made it to Miami.
In New York we had another cancelled flight then quickly rescheduled and we were so lucky to have made that flight.
Olive showing off her balancing act in the JFK airport
This little bird finally fell asleep on my chest on our flight. I might have melted a little. :)
She also just needed to feel both Micah and I and I'm not kidding, once she put her cute little pudgy hand on Micah's she immediately fell asleep.
Our original plan was to hit up Miami for 2 days and then fly to Puerto Rico for another 2 days, then hop on the cruise ship. Well, having our flights pushed all over messed up everything and we ended up with only 1 night in Miami. Totally bummed because Micah served his LDS mission in Miami and we really wanted to go to the temple being built there and visit some families and areas. :( next time.
We did get a chance to go drive around Miami (at freakin 1am and we had to be back to the airport at 7am... kill me) and saw the "Dexter bridge." If you watch the showtime tv show Dexter then you'll know what cool bridge I'm referring to.
We did get a chance to go drive around Miami (at freakin 1am and we had to be back to the airport at 7am... kill me) and saw the "Dexter bridge." If you watch the showtime tv show Dexter then you'll know what cool bridge I'm referring to.
For the last flight she was wired beyond hyper and apparently stoked to go to Puerto Rico. No Benadryl enhanced insanity this time.
Old people shaming.
Puerto Rico - Valentine's Day
It felt soooo nice to be in humidity again!! If I could own a house in the caribbean I'd be so ridiculously happy. I can't get enough of the relaxing and just the comforting feeling that humidity does for me. I'm not sure if it has to do with growing up with humidity and it's just familiar, but man... I just drink it in. Gimme gimme! ;)
We stayed one night at the ESJ Towers in San Juan and met up with my brothers Mark & Johnny for a night in PR. Johnny has a friend that lives in PR and he picked us up at the hotel & took us to a fun little shopping area and to Danny's pizza for dinner. I don't know if it was because all I'd had for the last 2 days was airport food, but that restaurant had amaze-balls pizzas... freakin delish.
View from our hotel room
We then met up with my parents and walked around a bit more, listened to the Koke frogs make their weird chirping.
Ya know, when in the PR, why would you not go to condom world?
Micah snatched a red rose for me and I tried to hang it upside down to dry on our cruise but it was so humid it never dried out! I'm sure if I gave it a month it would haha but it wasn't even close to crispy when we packed up to go home, but I kept a petal. ;) I have a really darling "flower jar" I was given for a bridal shower gift; the purpose behind a flower jar is to fill it with flower petals from over the years of your marriage. It's a clear glass apothecary looking jar and over the last almost 4 years I've accumulated quite a few flower petals but it's not even close to full. It's fun to see all the different colored petals and remember which occasion I was given them.
The next morning we met up with Matt & Cara and shared a taxi to the ship and boarded! Micah and I have cruised with Royal Caribbean several times so we are Gold members and got priority check in and boarding so we didn't have to wait in the massive lines. Ah, it seemed like it took so long to get to the cruise with all of our flight delays and cancelations. Blah! Sooo glad to drop my stuff off in my cabin and explore the ship!
We wandered up to the Windjammer (the 11th floor with the buffet) and met up with my brothers and parents and for the rest of the day we checked out the ship, unpacked our bags, took a nap (not kidding!) and went to dinner.
Olive turned 8 months on the ship!
Oh and before dinner, we had the emergency drill where we have to go stand in your assigned "muster station" in case of an evacuation-type of emergency. Well, it's mandatory, and you have to go right when the alarm sounds. So we grab our sea pass cards (like a hotel room key but assigned to your credit card too) and grab Livi and notice she's poopy. Awesome. So I hurried & changed her, then realized she's going to be super hungry and screaming in this thing so we make up a bottle for her while I pack my bag full of toys and crap for her and then we race out of the room and down the halls, down the stairs (which took forever because we were on the 8th floor) then walk out onto the deck and are welcomed with boos!!! They turned into "aaaaaawwwwww" when everyone saw me holding Olive though haha. We were literally the last people to get out onto the deck. The very last ones. ON THE ENTIRE SHIP!! We apologized, said it was our baby Olive's fault, which everyone around us was just fawning over her, and really didn't mind.
Attention grabbing Livi.
From the first cruise member to our table's waiter, to the pool attendants and food assistants, every single one that we encountered knew Olive's name. Literally not kidding. They would welcome us into dinner or out of the ship or to the buffet, saying "hello Olive!" They all loved on her so much, it was so sweet! I of course had her nails painted fun and bright for the trip and the girl cruise members seriously died when they saw them!
St. Thomas
My second time to this island and we got to see much more of the island this time. Very pretty but a little too commercialized for my taste. I prefer the islands that are more cultured and rural.. more authentic. But hey I'm not complaining, I was still in the Caribbean!! We headed over to Koke beach and played around there for the afternoon. Olive cried a ton when we put her in the ocean (she was tired and hungry) so my parents hung out with her while Micah and I played around in the ocean.
On our way to the beach
Liv cuppin a feel haha
Paradise.
My little sailor didn't know what to think of the ocean.
Legit massages.
Olive passed out in Marky's arms. She never does this, I just about died.
Dangly legs.
Really beautiful landscape of St. Thomas
The whole point in this trip was to reconnect with family & to take a break from work & life stressed and it was SO much fun to sit all together around the table at night. I think the uncles had the most fun. ;)
St. Croix
Oh St. Croix, how I love you! It is the exact small town rural authentic vibe of an island that I love. Little fun shops all over the pier, beautiful ocean, and super nice locals. Love love love St. Croix. We did much of the same, headed to Rainbow beach and soaked up some rays. We put Livi in the ocean again and she was still scared of it and cried at first but I was hellbent on her liking the ocean.. so mean mom award, I just sort of kept her in the ocean with me til she was used to it, all the while making happy sounds, laughing, talking to her, and then she totally transformed and LOVED it!! She would cry when I tried to get out of the ocean!
The beautiful shoreline/pier
Back on the boat we made our typical trip up to the Windjammer for lunch.
Olive's cheeks were on the menu.
Olive fell asleep on my chest (in the baby bjorn) on our way back to the ship so I got to snuggle with her again. Once we got back to the room she woke up and was super giggly and happy! She's a beach bum for sure!!
That night was our first formal night.
Antigua
In Antigua we hopped on a bus and went to swim with the stingrays!
Livi fell asleep before the excursion. Cuddlessss.
It was super shallow where the stingrays hang out so we could just get off the water taxi and walk on the ocean floor.
My camera isn't water proof so I didn't take any actually with the stingrays but my bro Mark did.
My camera isn't water proof so I didn't take any actually with the stingrays but my bro Mark did.
Wiggly eyebrows!
My favorite pic of the trip.
Aw she's my fave.
Martinique
Martinique is a little French owned island that was really well established. Not commercial and touristy necessarily, but not as rural as St. Croix for sure.
We hopped on a water taxi to a beach that I cannot remember the name of.. Something Troy?
Whatever it was it was beautiful.
Abandoned hotel that will be perfect for a zombie apocalypse.
Favorite pic of her, ah!
Yep topless woman in the ocean. Oops.
After laying out and getting bombarded by the hotel managers on the beach (we stole some beach cots & they were being ridiculous and wanted us to pay $50 for the chairs) we left and explored the island a little more.
Fair warning to anyone who goes to Martinique -- the locals are really not tourist friendly. The shop owners are of course, but the try locals who aren't trying to get your money are really pretty rude.
After checking out the stores we decided to head back to the ship. We had about 3 hours til our ship left when we line up for the ferry. There was a massive line for the water taxi and we were about 1/2 way to the front. I was tired, Olive was tired & a little sunburnt and I just wanted to get back on the ship and get a glass of water. When the taxi docked, a swarm of locals cut in front of the entire line. I'm not kidding, like a massive amount of them cut in front of fifty of us. I'm not a huge stickler for not cutting in line or anything... but the reason I was so mad is this whole flock of locals made the entire half of the line miss the ferry that had been waiting for an hour and they barely waited 2 minutes.
So we got to wait another hour. Not even kidding. And to make things worse right around the hour marker, more locals came up trying to cut in front of us all again. We were in the front of the line this time so when that started happening, we all stuck together to avoid them from cutting us. There was a french canadian in line right behind me and he told them (in french) that they cannot cut in front of us and the local woman said "she just got off work" and so by her logic that was ok. There were a bunch of kids in line with their parents too and it was just sooooo irritating to see them teaching their kids that tourists aren't as important as locals, that just because she was done working, she got preferential treatment. We all made it to the ship just fine, thankfully. But if we had not been forceful on making sure we had gotten on that boat, we wouldn't have had time to wait another hour and still make it back to our ship before they pulled anchor and set sail.
Blah. Just be aware if you go there to give yourself extra time.
That night my parents babysat Liv in our room so that Micah & I could go explore the ship & hang out with Johnny & Mark. We hit up the pool table first... which fyi was awesome and also really hard to play on. It was on a gyro so that it wasn't affected by the ship's rocking & swaying.
I lost for us horribly.. oops haha
After that, Mark & Johnny split to go meet up with some girls and Micah & I went hot tubbing. It was so nice to relax, just the two of us in the hot tub & to not have any other distractions.
i love that man.
St. Lucia
Later that afternoon we met up with my family & once again plopped ourselves down on the beach & were extremely lazy. St. Lucia had the softest sand, no coral in the ocean, and no rocks on the beach either. The waves were also the biggest here and I'd be lying if I didn't say I got ruined by one or two waves... swim suits may have slipped off at some point haha.
We had a very sandy baby so naturally we got her naked & dunked her in the ocean. ;)
such a darling little chunk
yep she was soooo pissed.
After Olive was significantly sad & tired we headed back to the ship for a much needed nap (for all of us haha).
That night Olive learned the art of metal lids making music from her Aunt Cara.
Sea day
On the last day on our ship we took it really easy... you know, we'd had such a hard trip already... We woke up late, headed down to the deck to watch Mark play in the ping pong tournament (which FYI he killed it and won 1st place on the entire ship). That was pretty much the only structured thing we did that entire day. Well, that and go to dinner.
Micah and I got sooooo many ice cream cones!! Ah the best aspect of cruising right there. ;)
baby style
chillin with dad
Lunch date on the deck.
Yep she didn't like me taking her toy away haha!!
last cone of the trip. it was epic.
Old San Juan - last day of our trip.
After we got off the cruise ship we took a cab over to old San Juan, to go walk through San Cristobal Fort with Johnny & Mark.
Olive was unimpressed.
Rad chameleon that a local stopped to show us.
Hundreds of kites being flown everyday on an old battle ground where thousands of soldiers died.. Pretty crazy.
We caught a taxi after walking through the forts and grabbed some lunch at an amazing pizza place in Old San Juan (of course can't remember what it was called). We got it to go because we were running late and had to sprint through the airport and barely sat down at our gate when they announced they were boarding the flight. Woo! Close call but thankfully we made it on the flight.
Our connector to Utah was the best flight we had because Olive literally was asleep before the plane even took off and was asleep til we landed. Micah and I didn't sleep (that would've been smart) but we watched a few movies on our iPad.
xoxo
Mandi
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