The Call Family

On the morning of the 9th we woke up early to get off the ship. We kept our bags in our rooms so that we could get right off and out of there. We got off and had to wait for about 30 minutes for the shuttle to get there to take us to our hotel. We got in the shuttle and he took us to a hotel, it just was not the one that we were staying in! We were staying in one of the many Holiday Inn’s in Orlando and he must have misread the address or something. The problem with this was that we were supposed to take a shuttle to Disney World from the hotel and the rest of the group was supposed to take one to Universal Studios and the hotel we were at did not offer a shuttle there. There was a lot of confusion about how we were going to get to the hotel we had reservations at and how we were supposed to get to our various locations for the day. We tried to get them to just switch our reservations to the hotel we were currently at, but they would not do that. Skyler, Avery, Kaden, and I ended up calling a taxi to take us to Disney World while the rest of them waited to get things figured out.

We had not told our kids that we were going to Disney World so they were totally surprised when we got there. Avery was so excited!

We got our tickets and walked in the gate. WE rented a stroller for the day and then headed over to Fantasy Land. The first ride that we went on was the carousel. (Avery’s choice). Then we headed over to Winnie the Pooh. The line for the Winnie the Pooh line was really long, but they made it so much fun for the kids. They had all sorts of activities for the kids to do while waiting in line. Below are a few pictures of the various activities the kids enjoyed.

There was a lever that the kids could pull and it would water the carrots and make them grow. Notice that Avery still has her face painting from the pirate night on the ship.

They had these drums made out of vegetables that the kids loved to bang on.

This one they would turn the wheel and the vegetables inside would move around. They also had these touch screens that looked like they had honey running down them that you could put your hand on and it would change the way the honey moved. If you moved your hand back and forth over it a picture would appear behind the honey. It was really neat. The kids loved the ride.

We went on a couple more rides and then went to get some lunch. The restaurant that we went to had windows where you could see into It’s a Small World. Which is where we went next. Here is Avery standing in line. You can see the windows into the restaurant behind her. Kaden fell asleep while we were in line so, unfortunately, he missed most of the ride.

After that we went over to Tomorrow Land and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride twice. Kaden has been really into Toy Story so he absolutely loved the ride. At the end of our second time on the ride we noticed that Buzz was standing outside greeting the kids. The line was not very long so we waited so Kaden could give him a hug.

Avery gave him “five”.

Kaden would not take his eyes off of him.

We had lots of fun riding on rides. Kaden was so exhausted that he slept a lot of the day. He fell asleep right before we went on the teacups and stayed asleep during the whole ride.

Cute little Avery on the teacups.

My tired little boy.

We missed our free shuttle back to the hotel so we had to pay a taxi. We arrived at the hotel and waited for the rest of the group to return from Universal Studios. When they got there we walked across the street to Chili’s for dinner and then back to the hotel to get some sleep we were all exhausted.

The next morning we got up to head to the airport for our trip back home.

Thank you Grandma Call for taking us on this super fun trip! We had a blast!

On January 8th our ship arrived in CocoCay, Bahamas at around 8am. CocoCay is a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. The ship can not get all the way up to the island so they had to shuttle us over on these smaller boats

The view of our ship from the island.

When we go on the island we walked around to the beach area. They had several rows of lounge chairs set up. We were lucky enough to get the row closest to the water. We tried to get Kaden to get down and play in the sand, but he didn’t want anything to do with it!

Eventually Kaded decided that the sand was okay and he got down and played. He LOVED it!

I love these pictures of Avery.

Doesn’t she look so beautiful?!?

We didn’t bring any sand toys with us because we didn’t think about it. Skyler took Avery over to the shops and bought the kids some sand toys to play with.

Uncle Jake made Avery a mermaid tail out of sand.

My beautiful mermaid.

Avery and Aunt Lacey made a turtle in the sand.

Kaden loved snuggling with Grandma Call.

Cute boy!

Skyler and I decided that we would try out snorkeling. We got our gear on and headed out into the water. We forgot to turn around for a picture so we didn’t get one, oh well. We had a ton of fun. It was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

Kaden loved kicking his feet in the water with daddy.

My handsome boys!

Kaden posing for the camera.

The whole Call clan, minus Skyler who was taking the picture.

Our little family. (Notice my sunburn. I forgot to put sunscreen on. Luckily my kids don’t burn so I didn’t have to worry about them getting sunburns.)

When we got back on the ship we showered and changed our clothes. The kids center was going to put on a pirate play later that night and Avery wanted to do it. We put her in the kids center to learn her part and then went to the theater later to watch her perform.

My cute little pirate.

We had a fun day at the beach!

On the morning og the 7th we woke up early to have breakfast at the buffet. We were able to get a table at the front of the ship. It was run to be able to look out the window and see our ship getting closer to the island we would be playing on in a few hours.

As we approached the dock Skyler took these amazing pictures of the island and the other cruise ships.

We hung out on the pool deck while waiting for the ship to dock.

Avery and Kaden got in the pool with Aunt Lacey.

When the ship docked we collected our things to go play. Avery decided that she wanted to stay on the ship and play with the other kids there rather than get off with us.

We got off the ship and took a cab to Atlantis. Atlantis is a huge resort on the island. They have an amazing water park there.

Grandma Call paid for all of us to get in to the water park and play. They have a “Lazy River” that is a mile long. It is not really “lazy”, it had tons of rapids and waves. I took Kaden with me on my tube, he did not like it at all. Skyler and I loved it though! Toward the end of the river there was an option to either continue through the river or go up a conveyor belt to the slides. Kaden and I continued through the river, the rest of them went up to the slides. I eventually got to go down the slides while Kaden played with Grandma Call.

After playing at Atlantis for a few hours we went back to the ship to pick Avery up to go play with us. As we were heading to the cab to go to Atlantis we passed by some ladies that braid hair, I knew that Avery would LOVE to have her hair braided so we took her back.

Doesn’t she look beautiful?!?

After getting Avery’s hair braided we decided to walk around the island. We found a restaurant called Senor Frogs. They had lots of fun props to play on outside.

The whole Call clan, minus Jake who was sleeping.

Our cute little family.

We got back on the ship and headed to dinner. When we arrived we found that Joseph had already set our fruit bowls for the kids, a milk for Kaden in his special cup, and a plate full of broccoli for Avery. We were so impressed that they remembered all of that!

After dinner we headed off to bed to get some rest for our next big adventure!

We found this monkey made out of towels in our room. Avery loved it!

We had an amazing day!

We woke up early in the morning on the 6th to get on the shuttle that would take us to the ship. While we were all outside waiting, Grandma Call noticed that we had scheduled for the shuttle to come pick us up at 11am not 9am. So we were all able to go back into our rooms and take a little nap.

My cute boys waiting for the shuttle to arrive.

We rode in the shuttle for about 45 minutes to Cape Canaveral.

We all got so excited when we could finally see the ship!

We went through the LONG boarding process and were finally able to board the ship. We ate some lunch at the Wynnjammer, which was the buffet. After having lunch we explored the ship. We went to the children’s area and signed Avery up so that she could go play there the next day. The man that we talked with was this tall black guy. Kaden was not sure what to think of him!

After that we went to the back of the ship so we could watch as we departed.

My handsome boys.

The four of us. Avery is pretending to be asleep.

When we started going it got really windy out on the deck. Avery is deathly afraid of wind so she and I spent most of the evening inside. We finally talked her into going outside toward the back of the ship where the rock climbing wall was. We were behind a wall so it was not nearly as windy. Avery loves doing tricks for us.

About an hour before our scheduled dinner time we all got hungry so we went and got a few snacks from the buffet. Kaden was so worn out that he fell asleep on my shoulder.

We had a fantastic dinner in the dining room that night. Our head waiter’s name was Joseph. He did an amazing job. In the dining room they do not have kids cups they only have goblets. We were not too sure how Kaden was going to do with a fancy glass cup. Our waiter brought him one of those plastic cups with the light in the bottom that they would normally serve a specialty drink in with milk in it for him to keep. Kaden absolutely loved it! For dinner Avery and Kaden had macaroni and cheese. Avery didn’t eat too much of the macaroni and cheese she just wanted the broccoli off my plate. Our waiter ended up bringing her a plate of steamed broccoli for her to eat. She was in heaven.

We finally got back to our rooms at about 10pm and went to sleep so that we could wake up early for out next adventure.

On January 5, 2012 we woke up early in the morning to head to the Salt Lake City Airport to begin our adventure. We arrived at the airport, checked our bags and headed for the gate. When we go to the gate they had already mostly boarded the plane. Since Skyler and I were traveling with children they let us get right on. The rest of the group had to wait. Grandma Call almost didn’t make it on the plane because they had overbooked the flight. Luckily we found a row together so our little family could sit together. Skyler and Avery sat on one side of the row and Kaden and I sat across the aisle.

There was a cute grandma sitting by Avery who helped her get buckled into her seat. Also, sitting next to me was a cute grandma who helped me to keep Kaden from screaming because he had to sit on my lap.

Avery was so excited for her very first airplane ride!

The plane stopped in Denver and then again in Ohio. We did not have to change planes though. As soon as people got off in Denver we were able to move so that the whole group could sit together.

Kaden loved looking out the window with Uncle Jake.

Avery enjoyed looking at the magazines.

When we were getting close to landing in Florida, Kaden decided to throw up on me. We hadn’t eaten anything but snacks all day so his body didn’t know how to handle it. Luckily it didn’t smell like throw up, just bubble gum! I had only brought one pair of pants so when we go to the hotel I had to do a load of laundry. I was able to get it started and then we walked next door to THe Waffle House for dinner.

When we finally got back to the hotel we were all pretty exhausted. Avery and Kaden shared a bed with Grandma Call and Skyler and I slept in the other bed in the room. Avery was so excited to get to sleep with grandma!