Day 5 - Caribbean Cruise 2015 - Roatan, Honduras

Being on vacation is so great!  Our room has been great, especially the extra space (I was able to shower with the two kids today!! unheard of!)...having Maxwell go to the kids zone has been great...being around family is great...having a real bathtub in our room is great...bringing a babysitter along with you on vacation is great, especially at night when it's bedtime for the kids but we still want to be out enjoying ourselves...taking naps while Emmalyn naps is great...It's great how much people love Emmalyn wherever we go on the ship...Maxwell getting to push lots of elevator buttons is great...

Sometimes though, things aren't great!

The pizza on ship hasn't been great...going up flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator hasn't been going great (Maxwell LOVES elevators so taking the stairs isn't an option)...having the worst period of your life during vacation isn't great...not finding that one food that you could eat every day isn't great...not getting to lay on deck soaking in the sun all day isn't great...We haven't been able to play as much trivia as we would like...while we are on vacation, we have found that we are still tired!

All in all though, things are great!

playing with the room key

Local musicians welcoming us to port

Roatan, Honduras

Taking a boat ride to the private island excursion

Maxwell LOVES his Aunt Aja.  When we are in our room he thinks it's so cool to call her room on the phone.

Jaxt, Tawny, Lola, Peter, Emmalyn

We hung out here for at least half a day.  It was a great place with lots to do.  Jaxton and Payton got to snorkel plus there were animals to look at and tons of local animals/reptiles for Payton to enjoy.  He LOVED it.

The beach was nice.  A little rocky in parts but still beautiful.

Maxwell quickly got in the water to play with Aunt Aja

Searching through the sand for seashells

Maxwell loves playing in the ocean and sand with Lola.

Selfies with daddy - they are pulling the same faces...

The public restrooms were super far away so I tried to get Maxwell to just go pee in the ocean.  He just couldn't do it.  We tried like 3 times with me out in the ocean trying to get him to go.  I was so frustrated.  He ended up having an accident by our stuff in the sand (which was no big deal but I really would have preferred the ocean!)

My happy beach baby

There was lunch included in the excursion but none of us really liked it (worst excursion food ever).  Luckily I had brought some food for the kids.

Jaxton and Tawny went back to the ship early because his broken foot was really hurting him after he danced on the pier for money in Belize.

Peter & Aja took Payton, Lola, and Maxwell to go look at the animals around the island while I tried to get Emmalyn to take a nap.

They got to feed and hold monkeys!!!  Maxwell DID NOT like this.  Peter had to bribe him with a dollar to even get him to get close to the monkeys.

Payton was in heaven and Lola loved it too.

This is the best picture.  Think the money found any bugs in Peter's hair?

Payton had found another critter and Maxwell had no interest in it.

Note the dollar that Maxwell is holding? :) 

I fell asleep too.  It was awesome having her sleep on me since she doesn't really do that anymore.

There's no WAY I would be brave enough to hold everything this animal warrior does!

The gorgeous scenery.  The island was so pretty.

Before her nap, I took Emmalyn into the ocean.  She liked the ocean much more here than Mexico.  I think it's because the water was warmer.

Uh oh...She's got handfuls of sand...

Yup, right in the mouth

and again...

I kept grabbing her hand to stop her and she'd pull the other one up to her mouth.  It was a battle I was losing.  Ugh.  so gross and it's gross to think I eventually just gave in.

Anyone want to share?

Splash

Beauty and the beach

She really had fun in the ocean and sand today

It looks like she's alone (for the sake of the picture), but I was right there by her

Payton found a little lizard

Still holding his dollar (which was carefully taken care for the rest of the trip)

Goodbye Roatan!  We had fun

(Again, Jaxton and Tawny had come back earlier, that's why they aren't in the pic)

Our ship

Crap, I took this pic because you can see our room but now I can't remember which of those rooms is ours...oh well

The welcome back aboard party wasn't as big this time but they still had cold towels, drinks, and cookies (and of course, always, hand sanitizer)

Maxwell picked out a turtle necklace at one of the shops and I bought Emmalyn her first jewelry, a little beaded bracelet.

That night there was a gorgeous rainbow over the ocean outside of our room.  Look at how bright the colors are!  I can't think of the last time I saw such a bright rainbow.

It's a double rainbow!  I ran upstairs on the top deck to get a better view of the full rainbow.

Left side

Right side

Enjoying the rainbows on one side of the boat and then the sunset on the other side

(Maxwell was at the kids zone - he is finally at the point where he doesn't get upset when we drop him off and is even happy even though he still doesn't like the idea)

Sunset over the ocean

...Nearly gone

Gone.  And instantly the sky is less orange.

Earlier we had taken Emmalyn to do a craft for babies - coloring with edible paint. 

When we picked Maxwell up from the kids zone, he clearly had a great time.  He had made Dora's backpack!

He was excited about the towel animal

Modeling the backpack

We left Aja in the room with the kids while they slept and Peter and I went out to enjoy the rest of the evening.  Peter got his nightly ice cream cone.

Day 4 - Caribbean Cruise 2015 - Belize

Today was a nice, easy day.   We knew that we weren't going to go do anything in Belize other than get off the boat and hit the shops on the pier.  We had been told that Belize wasn't a place you wanted to go explore on your own unless you were going on a guided excursion.  It's very much a third world country that is very undeveloped.  So, since none of the excursions would work well with the kids, we spent most of the time at port enjoying the empty ship.  (Tawny told us that she had taken the kids outside of the gates at the pier to go to a park that one of the locals had told her about but after she got outside the gates she felt uneasy almost immediately about the surroundings and they came back inside the guarded gates.)

Maxwell enjoying his morning time on the iPad

We enjoyed time out on the balcony looking at the gorgeous view

It's fun to have Maxwell old enough to take some decent pics (although from a pretty low perspective).  :)

Happy girl was having a great time

She is so short the feet of her PJs just hang off her legs...

Here's a view of our suite.  This was an upgraded "suite" and certainly was the most roomy we've ever had (which according to cruise standards is still very tiny).  There was a curtain that divided the tv/couch area and the bed.  It was perfect because whoever was stuck in the room with the kid(s) during nap time or bedtime could just shut that curtain and still have the light on by the bed without disturbing the kids.  They could also go sit out on the balcony too.

Since we weren't hurrying anywhere, we went to a restaurant for breakfast instead of the buffet and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.

How can you beat the view of that gorgeous water for breakfast?

Video - Emmalyn had honeydew for the first time on this cruise (it was consistently a good soft texture for her to eat) and loved it.  Lately she has been spitting out nearly every bite of food after she puts it into her mouth and then will put it back into her mouth.  It makes a messy meal into an even messier meal.

Perfection.  I adore this picture.

He really enjoyed watching what was going on

Of course Emmalyn is too focused on food to look up for a picture.  That girl loves to eat.

The ship had a great little room full of toys for children under 2 (since they couldn't participate in the kids zone).  The room was open most of the time and they would rotate the toys so you could come in later in the day and find a totally different group of toys.  It was such a great space and I appreciated it was so available regardless of what was going on in the kids zone.  

We dropped Maxwell off at the kids zone to play for awhile and then we went to the toddler room with Emmalyn. 

Her outfit showed those darling baby legs.

Eventually we got off the boat and took a tender to shore

It was super hot and humid so we didn't spend much time shopping.  The fam rested while I went into a shop for something I wanted.  Peter sure had Emmalyn giggling...

We spent the time on port just as a family.  Aja went on an excursion on her own to some ruins and Tawny and her kids hung out on the dock while Jaxton danced to earn some money.  He did a pretty good job of drawing a crowd.  He's got some really cool moves.

On the way back to the boat this time the crew had another welcome aboard party.  They gave out drinks, had cold wet towels, and frozen juice popsicles. What a treat!  (and no embarrassing incident this time)

Our balcony was right over the place where the tenders met up with the boat.  I was fascinated to watch the process and also watched them pack everything up and close up the boat again when it was time to leave.

Oh no, Emmalyn has my hair.  

Poor girl is doomed to a life of curl and frizz and poof when she's in the humidity.  Sorry, Emmalyn!!!!