Grenada and Barbados

Grenada is probably my favorite island we visited.

It was another beach day for us. The girls were excited to see turtles living in a large fountain in the restaurant we were by. I didn't get a picture of them though. This beach had the biggest waves, and the girls had so much fun playing, though I was a little more nervous because of it. Our bus driver brought along beach toys and snorkels for us to use. Ben and I spent most of the day trading the snorkel back and forth. It was really fun. There were tons of jellyfish, but they were small, and pretty easy to avoid.

The girls made friends with another little girl from the ship, and they played together the whole time.

A fabulous day! Isn't this pretty?

Evie was playing in waves that were clear over her head, and she was fearless, which is not usual for her. I'm just glad she had fun, even if I had a few panicky moments waiting for her to surface.

Kara snorkeled a little too. She panicked when she saw a jelly fish, and wouldn't put her feet down. I had to drag her back to the beach even though we were only about 4 ft deep. I think she felt silly when she finally calmed down enough to put her feet down, and the water was barely to her knees.

Our tour guide, Shawn was such a fun and nice guy! He helped the kids build a sand castle.

When we got back to the ship, it was time for the Halloween party. The girls got dressed up like princesses since it was also going to be princess night at dinner. They trick or treated 3 times while we were on board, and we ended up having to bring home an entire backpack full of candy. They were ecstatic to get all that, but little do they know, it will mostly be given away to trick or treaters in a few weeks. There were some great costumes! People are so creative. I sort of wished we'd brought costumes too, so we could participate in the adults costume contest, but we didn't want more stuff to pack.

The pumpkin tree finally bloomed!

Karalee as Rapunzel

Since Kiersten's Ariel dress no longer fits, we let her buy a new dress, and she picked this pretty Belle costume. She felt super fancy.

Evie dressed as Sophia. She spotted this dress at the local grocery store, and we got a great deal on it!

The girls all dug into their spooky spider mousse before I could get a picture. They had ordered brownies, but the server brought these out to let them see which they'd rather have. They all chose the spider dessert.

But of course, he still brought them the brownies. No one got tired or fell asleep at dinner that night!

Ben and I also got a special Halloween dessert brought out in addition to our desserts we ordered. They sure make it hard to stay under your calorie goals.

We couldn't finish three desserts between the two of us. But I tried to taste everything.

The next morning we woke up in Barbados. It's the port I was most looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. First thing in the morning we went off on a submarine trip. We had all the kids use the bathroom moments before we got on the boat to go over, but of course Evie needed to pee the second we were submerged.

Kiersten was grumpy at first, but it wasn't too hard to cheer her up. Who doesn't want to watch fish swimming around in the ocean?

We checked out a shipwreck.

And we were lucky enough to see a sea turtle swimming around. It was bigger than the ones we saw in Grenada.

We also drove through a huge school of fish, so that was pretty fun.

This is the boat that took us to the submarine, and then back to shore afterward. Kiersten is not pictured, due to pouting.

The pilot did a good job of maneuvering around to the spots everyone wanted to see. I liked looking at the coral reef.

On our way back.

Watching the submarine dive back under as we drove away.

We took the girls back to the ship, and then headed over to the Mt. Gay rum distillery for a tour. We got there right after a large group, and ended up getting our own tour, just us two. It was pretty fun, and informative. I didn't realize rum was invented in Barbados. A huge thunderstorm hit right when we arrived, so we didn't get to see the bottling room, because the path was flooded. Ben was in heaven, and loved having the place to ourselves.

There was another Halloween gathering that evening, but we didn't venture down. I guess I didn't get any more pictures that night, but I think we went swimming, and then to an 80's Music trivia/dance party. We even attempted and were semi-successful at a dirty dancing "lift". That was a lot more fun than the 50's/60's music trivia we went to and got brutally crushed.

Antigua and St. Lucia

We split up on our first morning in port. I took Kara and Kiersten on a beach day. We had some time to kill before our bus left, so we did some exploring. Evie was a little nervous to pose by the Halloween tree. I couldn't get her to do a very good spooky face.

But she was okay to pose by Captain Mickey.

The beach in Antigua was pristine and perfect. It's exactly what I would imagine the perfect beach to be. I guess Castaway Cay in the Bahamas now has some competition for my heart.

I thought it was a perfect day, but a lot of people were complaining about the clouds. They burned off in no time, and everyone got sunburned.

Kara had a great time in the water. It was warm and clear, with almost nothing but sand to step on. There were some seashells, but it really was a nice, smooth beach.

Evie had a blast hunting for seashells. I almost bought a bucket of sand toys, but it was overpriced, and I'm glad I didn't. They had a wonderful time without any toys. Instead of making a sandcastle, Evie discovered the fun of burying seashells together in a hole for someone to find later.

We were at the beach for 5 hours. The girls were more than ready to get back to the ship. I even snuck onto an early bus back. We were supposed to be there for 30 more minutes, but the kids had had enough of being sandy. Kara's suit got so full of sand between the layers of fabric, and I couldn't get it all out. She was crying because it was chafing her legs, so I had her take it off and wait in the bathroom while I rinsed it in the shower. But there was not much to the water pressure, so I did what any good mom would do, and tore a small opening with my teeth to let the sand out. Now that we're home, I'll have to remember to fix that...

Lucky Kiersten got to go with Ben to meet some stingrays. She was anxious to head out that morning.

I guess they went through some sort of bird enclosure on the way?

Ben said there were just stingrays everywhere, constantly bumping their legs, and eating out of their hands.

Pretty exciting experience for a 6 year old. He had to take her away from the stingrays at first to get comfortable snorkeling. Then she was a little less freaked out to be in the water with them.

I didn't expect them to be so large!

By the end she was brave enough to hold one. But I guess she was still unwilling to feed them. Can't say I blame her, they were her size!

I'm a little jealous, and almost wish we'd left Kara and Evie on the ship so I could go too. But I did get to go to the prefect beach, so I guess you can't have it all.

The kids had a pajama party after dinner, so they all wore their finest sleepwear.

At dinner Ben surprised me with fancy new diamond earrings! I was definitely surprised, and couldn't wait to try them on. He also bought me the dress I wore to dinner. Oh, and that seashell bracelet. What a guy!

Then I got to traipse around the ship in my new earrings while the girls went to the pajama party.

Evie really wanted to get a pic with Cinderella, so we pulled her out of the party a little early.

She actually fell asleep standing up while we were waiting for Mickey. I asked her if she wanted to go to bed, but she wanted to meet him. She does look like a little zombie in all the pictures. This was only around 9pm, I think, but 5 hours at the beach really can wear you out.

After Mickey, she asked to go to bed, but then saw Tiana, so we had to get a picture with her real quick too.

She was more than happy to get to bed, and had absolutely no trouble falling asleep.

The next morning we were in St. Lucia. We saw the brightest flowers there. It was my favorite island plant-wise. They also had huge banana trees.

We didn't sign up for anything through the cruise, and decided to take a taxi tour. The driver said it was normally a 3 hour tour, but we asked him to cut it down, since our kids aren't great about sitting in an un-airconditioned van on a hot day for very long. So he gave us the 1 1/2 hour version instead.

We drove the the top of the mountain to see the Governor's mansion. It's a pretty sharp contrast to all the dilapidated buildings in town.

We also went to see the college, which used to be a military base. The kids didn't find it very interesting, though I found myself quite intrigued.

My favorite stop was a local art museum. They have a few guys that do all of the carving. I loved so many things, it was hard to pick out a piece. But we had to go with something we could easily bring home with us, so I ended up getting a lovely wall hanging.

We also went to see where parts of "Pirates of the Caribbean" were filmed. If you can see that little arch in the background, that was filled with hanging skulls for some of the scenes. The driver was very proud to bring us here.

Fittingly, it was pirate night back on the ship. This time we decided to bring along pirate costumes to fit in better, and have a little more fun with it. The girls were excited to get all dressed up. Evie and Kiersten did pirate crafts before dinner, while Kara got to hang out in the lab. She was not a fan of her underskirt, and I don't think I'll have her use that part for Halloween. (We are making them get as much use as possible from these costumes!)

Pirate family!

Evie fell asleep at dinner, so Ben took her for a nap, while I stayed with the girls for pirate dancing. They had a great time. Kiersten was awesome at limbo. I don't think the rod ever got low enough that she even had to duck.

They went back to the lab for a bit, while I joined Ben and Evie for a nap of my own.

We all went to the pirate deck party later that night. Our waiter at dinner told us just the perfect spot to stand, and I was glad we listened. It was the perfect place to see the show. Kara and Kiersten did go down to the deck for some dancing.

Captain Mickey saving us all from the pirates.

 
Isn't he brave?

Fireworks at sea, a magical end to the night.