Escaping the cold.

It has been very cold here in CT, for extended periods of times.  Temperatures in the single digits with feel temps below zero.  We can't go outside to play, even though we have snow on the ground just beckoning us to tramp around on it, so we've been playing a lot inside.


Thursday's after school I've been packing a lunch and taking the kids straight to Stepping Stones Museum in Norwalk to have lunch and let them run around and play.  We even made new friends who are coming over for a play date soon. Pics. below at Stepping Stones.

I also signed up the kids for a sibling class at this place called Great Play in Stamford.  It's really affordable, they have 3 open gym classes in addition to their class every week.  We've been going there a lot and it's so nice to see both Mikey and Katie run around and enjoy themselves.  I especially love it because putting the kids to bed on those days is easy peasy.

Trampoline time.

Swing time at the end of class.  The chains are so long that you really swing back and forth pretty far.  That's Buddy (the projected image on the wall).  They change the images on the walls through out the class and some are even interactive.

She is really good on the balance beam and insists she does it herself.

Standing swing.  They both loved this.

He can run really fast and we always have a little cat and mouse chase.

I think girls are just born to know hop scotch.

See-saw time!

Cozumel

The last island we visited was Cozumel in Mexico.   Scott and I hopped off the ship as soon as it was docked to do a little shopping before our excursion.  The only other place we shopped was at Grand Cayman so I had 2 things I wanted to get in Cozumel.  We spent our day at (Playa Mia).  Click on the link.  It's a really fun place! They had everything there.  Pools, water slides, a huge water adventure course with trampolines off shore, snorkeling, sailing, surfing, paddle boats, paddle boards, hot tubs, a kids water area that was awesome!  The excursion was to last 5 hours  but after 3.5 Scott and I were done with the sun, sand, water, chlorine, salt water and bad food, so we hopped a cab back to the ship. At this point it was raining and would be for the rest of the day so we ran down the long port, with buckets of water falling on us.  It was pretty fun....running in the warm rain.  We were just about ready to come home and see our kids, who we talked about the whole week.

A Cozumel resort.

Pulling into port.

Caught in the rain running down this back to the boat.

Parked next to us.

The one and only picture I took at Playa Mia.  Just so much to do, I forgot to take pics.

One of the many shows we saw.

The captain and his crew. Amazing how the cruise crew is from all over the world.

The Captain and I.  He was from Sweden and had a voice like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 Scott was in bed sick the last day of the cruise.  Sunday morning we were frantically trying to book him a flight home because he booked his return flight for Saturday and not Sunday and with the snow storm that just hit the east coast, there was virtually nothing from Pittsburgh to Washington DC to Boston.  We were lucky and found one seat.

This munchkin was awake when I got back. We missed her and Mikey so much.

They did lots of this while we were gone.

And lots of tumbling. :) 

Jamaica and Grand Cayman

The first day of 2014 we spent on Jamaica.  Our shore excursion we did was the VIP Bamboo Beach Access.  VIP just meant that food, drinks and transportation was included.  The beach was very different from what we were expecting and so was Jamaica. Jamaica itself was very run down outside of the touristy area and almost 3rd world looking.  The beach was gated with an armed guard to protect us while we enjoyed our stay.  The water was very rough as there was no sandbar, or reef or levy to break the waves from the ocean.  The sand was more pebble like and hurt if you walked on it for more than a few minutes.  We made the best of our couple hours and ate the local food, took a dip in the ocean and danced to some live music.

Sailing to Jamaica.  The island surprised us in the fact that it really rises in elevation not far from the coast.

See how tall the island is?!

Pulling into port.

Wind blown and don't have a care in the world.

Bamboo Beach. 

The end of the beach was this huge cliff.

Eating lunch- Jamaican jerk chicken and lobster tail with rice and these hush puppy things called festivals.

Packing up and ready to head back.

The ship boat and I.  No one was around to take a pic. of both of us.  Boo.

Dressed for dinner.  Don't tell anyone this dress is really old. I mean over 5 years old!  But the Caribbean is really the only place I can wear this dress.

The next day we were in Grand Cayman and again went to a beach for our shore excursion.  We did the Tiki Beach All Inclusive Package.  Again food and drink and transportation to the beach.  Grand Cayman was by far our favorite island we visited on this trip.  We would love to go back.  The sand was so fine and white, the water clear and warm and the sun shining bright!  It's a very British island and very clean.  Everything screamed Caribbean!  It is what I imagined a Caribbean island to look like.

At least 4 other cruise lines docked in Grand Cayman.

We arrived at 8 am.  It's going to be a beautiful day!

At our resort for the day.

 Tiki Beach is part of the 7 mile beach area of Grand Cayman.  There was lots of activity in and out of the water and you could walk the entire beach if you wanted too.

The beach just went on and on and on...

...in both directions. 

Walking along the beach and I caught my shadow.  The sun was so bright.

Taking a break from the sun.

Scott in the ocean.

Tiki Beach with signs to all the other beaches and activities.