Summer Rewind

*knock* *knock* *knock* Anybody still here??

We are on the final 3 week countdown until school starts......well, the hubby and I might be the only one counting down.

Our summer has been quite busy around here, it's been filled with GOOD, BAD, and UGLY! (warning: LOTS of photos)


GOOD:

The kids have spent most of the summer in the pool on a summer swim team. They swam 4 days a week and competed in a few meets. Both won several ribbons in their events and Lego-Man made the summer All Star swim team! I am a proud swim mom!!






We also took some time out for visiting family. It's always a good time when the littlest cousins get together for a week. It is non-stop F-U-N.






The local Princess turned the big 9. It's her last year of single digits.....*gasp*



BAD

The biggest bad news of the summer involved this sweet face:




And these cute boys:

As some of you may remember, last year's birthday present was tickets to see the Jonas Brothers. Earlier in the summer we found out her favorite boy band was going to be touring again this fall. The Princess begged for two more tickets for he birthday. I bought them and made plans for a fabulous weekend in Nashville with one of my favorite peeps and her daughter.

On the Princess' very birthday, I received an email that informed me of the JoBros canceling 20 venues, including Nashville (so they could add tour dates in South America????). Insert Sad Trombone Needless to say, I was waiting on a call from Team Jonas to inform my sweet girl of their poor decision making skills. We are still waiting on that phone call.

After receiving the bad news, the Princess settled on a birthday bike....complete with a pouch for her Mp3 player to blare on a speaker. Because the 9 year old needs ONE more distraction while riding her bike.



On another bad note, Lego-Man's summer hairdo strongly resembles Justin Bieber's. Oh baby, puhhleeze.

(FYI, the hairdo situation has since been rectified by the nice lady at Sports Clips.)

UGLY

My little sister and I had an encounter with aliens the Mac Photo Booth:

(Who knew my sister was Janice the Muppet)

We've had a really great summer here at the GRITS house. How about you??

The not-so-hip(hop) Mom

So, summer break is officially in session and I've finally got a few days off from work.....thank the Lord. The kids have swim practice 4 mornings a week and this week we've squeezed in Vacation Bible School.

Let me preface this whole story by a hopefully brief explanation. I grew up in a house where my dad owned a radio station....not just ANY radio station. A station whose claim to fame was "easy listening" music, which can also be defined as music with no lyrics, elevator music, Musak, and lastly, doctor's office music. You get the picture.

As I grew older, for various reasons, I wasn't really allowed to listen to popular music. I mostly grew up listening to Contemporary Christian music. However, in my adulthood I have grown to love some of the music I "missed out" on as a youth.

My iPod is mostly filled with Contemporary Christian music with a small variety of other music genres. My car radio is usually on the local Christian station but on occasion I switch it to other stations.

I'm also VERY bad at "name that tune" and "who sings that song", unless it is Michael W. Smith.


(which FINALLY brings me to the purpose of today's post)

Yesterday the kids and I are riding in the car, I switch the radio from one station to another. Fate had me stop on a local pop-rock station. After a few seconds, I notice the Princess singing ALL the words to the song on the radio. Then the following conversation occurred:

Me: "Princess, how do you know this song? I've never heard it."

Princess: "This song is 'Fireflies'"

Me: "Oh, really?"

LegoMan: "Owl City sings it, Mom"

Me: "What? Who? Owl City?"

LegoMan: "You've never heard of Owl City????" (followed by a laugh)

Me: "Whatever"


Because everyone likes smarty-pants-know-it-all kids. Right?!


In case you are not in the know, here's the song:

Homeward Bound

After our last stop in Calica, the ship was headed back towards "God's Country"....Alabama. The only thing between us and our home port was about 36 hours at sea! I think we all agreed we had A LOT of fun over the last 4 days, but we were ready to get back home.

Friday was another "Fun Day at Sea". We took the opportunity to sleep in and planned to just enjoy our last full day on the ship. The only two things we didn't want to miss on board was the "galley tour" and the the "how to make towel animals" class.


Check out some cool sights from our galley (kitchen) tour:

Making crab cakes for dinner.

He carved this from a watermelon!


I just loved this guy's enthusiasm.

The kids went back to Camp Carnival for a couple hours for some last minute fun, which included a short class on how to make the towel animals we enjoyed each night. I think they did pretty well for their first creation:

Lego-Man's Elephant





The Pirate Princess' Elephant

We even got suckered into buying a how-to book so we can impress our guests at home!

We had our final dinner with our awesome waiter, Francisco. He took great care of us all week and the kids really loved him. So, we had to take his photo:








And for the final towel animal of the week....certainly the best was saved for last:

Monkey

Meet our talented room steward, Ricky. I wish we could have brought him home with us!

Thanks for sharing our awesome cruise vacation with us. We had a terrific time. Come back this weekend for a post-cruise wrap up!

Flippers and Fishies

Thursday morning we found ourselves in the port of Calica, Mexico. From what I understand this is a new port that is trying to establish itself with the cruise lines. Other than the local shore excursions, many people took cabs to the nearby city of Playa del Carmen, which has more to offer.







Our shore excursion in Calica was a morning of snorkeling! We boarded the bus and were ready for our adventure!







After a 20 minute ride, we got off the bus at this BEAUTIFUL beach:




We had a quick lesson in snorkeling before we got our gear on and entered the water. Check out the Princess and Lego-Man.






I'll pay for this one, but here is the hubby getting his snorkel groove on:








While I am at it, I might as well roll my snorkeling self under the bus too:




We spent the better part of an hour in the water, which was a bit choppy if you ask me. The hubby ended up with the Princess and I wound up with the boy, whose name should probably be changed to Aqua-Man after this excursion. I could barely keep up with him!


Here are a few of the photos of some underwater sights:

Before heading back to the ship, we spent a little time enjoying the beach:







Care to guess what the Princess' favorite thing was in Calica?!





Yep, you guessed it....she LOVED the iguana's!! They appeared out of the rocks like magic when a local man tossed some DOG FOOD out onto this boat landing. I believe the word "pet iguana" was used on a sign nearby. The Princess actually asked her crazy germophobic mother if she could touch one?! And, no, I didn't let her.


After all the snorkeling and iguana fun one family could stand, we headed back to our ship.





We left Calica and got the ship headed back in the direction of Alabama:


Somebody was worn slap out by dinner time:



And tonight's towel animal......you tell me?!

Land Ho.....it's Mexico!

Early Wednesday morning, Lego-Man and I were awake before the other two. So we headed up to the front deck to see how close we were to land.





LAND HO!!!








Cozumel, Mexico was in our sights! We were excited. Not only because we finally reached our destination but because we had a day of F-U-N planned!

The shore excursion we signed up for was something called the "Isla Pasion by Twister!"
Raise your hand if that sounds like a lot of fun?!

The ship finally finished docking around 8AM and we had to be at our designated area by 8:45AM. We were off the ship with plenty of time to spare before our "Twister" adventure began.







We looked around the shops for a few minutes and we were ready for the Twister. Or so we thought!

Meet the Twister boat and our drivers, Pepe and Willie:



Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are straps on each chair....for harnessing each body down!
And as coincidence had it, the entire GRITS family ended up in the front two benches of the boat.













Join us on the Twister, if you dare:

Our ride to Isla Pasion was about 25 minutes from the dock. And let me tell you, we got our money's worth of fun on this excursion. Between the high speed boat ride and the 360-degree turns, the kids will be talking about this for a LONG time.

Here's a look at some of our other pictures from the day:

And, as you have learned, no post would be complete without the towel animal of the day:

A Bulldog!

See you tomorrow, with snorkeling in Calica, Mexico!

Fun Day at Sea

Tuesday, we spent the ENTIRE day at sea. No land in site at all, just this:



the beautiful blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico!



We started our day off with a delicious breakfast in one of the ships dining rooms, instead of the breakfast buffet on the Lido Deck. Why you may ask? Because you can't get Eggs Benedict on the Lido Deck. We also found out that the sit down meal is quicker than the buffet line.

So what do you do all day when you spend the entire day at sea?! First you study your "Carnival Capers. Your daily guide to FUN." There is something for everybody going on ALL the time. Bingo, trivia games, ice carvings, hairy chest competitions, and kids activities at Camp Carnival.

And NO we did not witness or partake in the hairy chest competition! However, we did see the video play back in our cabin. *shivers*

We spent a couple hours out by the pool. Me soaking up the suns rays and the hubby reading a book in the shade. All while both kids played in the pool and on the big slide:





















Here's where my point of peak irritation surfaced. When we got to the pool deck to find a spot to settle down, I noticed a whole lot of lounge chairs with magazines and towels on them, but no person in sight.

It took me a second to figure out that these selfish people had saved themselves chairs all while they were probably eating breakfast or sleeping in!! Of course, the "Fun Capers" clearly mentions this under the header "Lido Deck Etiquette". So not everybody on a cruise ship can read....or more likely, could care less. *stepping off soap box*

But look at all the fun the kids had in the pool:

After lunch, the kids decided to spend a couple of hours at Camp Carnival and the grown ups found a nice shady spot on the deck to do a little reading. Ok, I'll admit it, I just looked at the pictures in my magazines, but it was still relaxing!

Before our "formal" dinner, we attended the Captain's Welcome Reception. We were introduced to the ship's entire crew.

We decided "formal" for our family would be Sunday dress. There was a WIDE variety of "formal" wear, including a few in tuxedos and formal wear.






Dinner was a huge success for everyone when we found lobster on the menu. That is the one thing Lego-Man hoped he would have at least once.








We dress them up AND take them out:


And, of course, no day at sea would be complete without our towel animal for the day:

A pig (we think).

Tomorrow will be our day in Cozumel, Mexico! Stay tuned....