Christmas Cruise

We were lucky enough to go on a cruise the day after Christmas with the Nuttall family. It was crazy leaving the day after Christmas, but so nice to be in the warm sun.

You will notice there are very few pics of me posted. Being pretty pregnant I didn't care if strangers saw me in a swimsuit, but people I know is a different story. Mark took a lovely pic of me laying out on the beach stuffing my face with nachos and Coke...lovely. I wasn't even sure if I would make it on this cruise. They changed the rule that you have to be under 24 weeks pregnant in order to go and I was 25 weeks along. My doctor didn't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to go. I decided to just suck it in and put on a big sweatshirt during the checkin process and hope for the best! I am so glad I didn't miss out on this trip. I love being in the sun, relaxing, and spending time with family!

To say that Luke was not well behaved on this trip would be an understatement. Mark and I were seriously so stressed out at some points on this trip. The daycare has always been free, but this time it was nineteen an hour, so there were no breaks from Lukers. The poor kid had no sleep for three days from Christmas and then we dragged him on a long and tiring trip. Not smart planning for a toddler. He had a blast though, he is still talking about it to everyone. If you ask him his favorite part he'll tell you, "Swimming with the stingrays. The baby girlie spit at me...such a naughty girlie."

Luke walked away from this trip with quite a bit of damage. He already had his bad burn from the cookie sheet. That was getting infected and we had to keep bandaids on it. One day he was in the elevator with Grandma Tracy and Uncle Max and got his fingers stuck in the elevator door. While the door was opening he put his hand on the door and followed it. The door suck his little hand right in. They had to pull his hand free. Rather than trust stitches from the infirmary we kept those fingers bandaged as well. As if that wasn't enough Lukers decided to shave his tummy in the shower one day. At least with this incident I figured we wouldn't have to worry about an infection...not so. He kept complaining that his tummy was hurting him. When I asked why he said, "The treasure is hurting me." When he lifted his shirt he had a cruise ship casino coin shoved down between his wound and the bandaid...just what an open wound needs.

Luke's latest is knowing everyone's names. Any stranger we pass he says, "What's your name?" They tell him and then he responds, "Your whole?" Which means what is your whole name, first names are just not good enough. He was sure he needed to meet everyone on the elevator and memorize names. One night a couple got on the elevator with us and said, "Hi Luke." We had no idea who these people were...Luke sure made an impression on the ship! He loved our waiters and room steward. Luke always wanted to know where they were and if he could play with them. One night at dinner he told our waiter Anna that she was such a nice girlie! I loved our days at sea with Luke. He was so much fun to swim with. Luke is a much better swimmer than from just this summer. He was kicking all around the pool and asking us to throw him in!

We had three stops on this trip: Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Cayman; and Jamaica. In Cozumel we went to the beach and had such a relaxing day. Luke played in the sand and built lots of sandcastles. We laid out and swam in the ocean. To me there is nothing better than laying on a hot beach with chips and salsa and a Mexican Coke!!! Every time I would get in the ocean to swim this school of fish would come around and start rubbing up against me. They must like pregnant women...Luke thought it was pretty funny.

Grand Cayman was probably our favorite. Last time we were there we weren't able to swim with the stingrays because of the bad weather. It was AMAZING. First, our guide took us snorkeling in the middle of the ocean. Luke and I just swam around. The water was so clear we could see and feel the fish swimming around us. There were so many of them. Luke kept pretending they were biting his bum, he wasn't scared at all. Next, we went to the stingray sandbar. I love to touch and feel the fish life, but not Mark and Luke. They weren't too excited about it. It took Luke a while to warm up to them. I was able to find a baby stingray that he liked a lot and felt comfortable with. He just couldn't believe that mommy would actually kiss a stingray. However, when he was holding his dead squid to feed the stingray he decided to go ahead and give him a big kiss.

We had never been to Jamaica before and it was not what I was expecting. It is such a green place. Our family went on a tour and then spent the rest of the day at the beach. The rest of the fam did more adventurous activities that didn't really work for preggers and Luke. We still had a great day and enjoyed our visit.

It's always so sad to come home to the cold, but at least we were warm for a minute.