Our First Family Cruise

We had a great time on our cruise. We flew to San Juan, and boarded the Celebrity Summit. We visited St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Kitts, Antigua, and St. Lucia.

It poured while we were in St. Thomas so we didn't get to go to the beach that my mom loves. That was ok, Jack got to play in the Fun Factory which is the kids area on the ship. He loved it. The ball pit and slide were his favorite, and the staff who worked with the kids were great.

In St. Croix, we went to the beach for the day. We collected shells with Jack, played "shark" in the water with him (until Daddy scraped up his leg on some rocks in an effort to get Jack away from the shark -aka Aunt Holly), and enjoyed some rum punch.

In St. Kitts we went to Reggae Beach Bar and Grill. First let me say that St. Kitts is evidently crawling with monkeys everywhere. Then I will tell you that the place we visited has a 900 lb. resident pig named Wilbur, as well as some monkeys, a dog, and a goat. We had a great time there visiting the animals, playing on the float with Jack, collecting more shells, and taking Jack on a waverunner. Yes, we took him on a waverunner, but no worries, my sister and I were very careful with that precious cargo. In Antigua, we went to Stingray City. We swam with the stingrays and were able to get a picture of Jack with us and a stingray before he completely lost it and demanded to go back to the boat, lol. He thought they were neat, he just didn't want to be in the same water as they were. I get that. I knew they weren't going to intentionally hurt me when they rubbed up against me looking for food, but nonetheless, the thought of anything touching me in the ocean provokes some anxiety inside me!

And in St. Lucia, which I have to say I thought was the most beautiful island, we took a 6 hr. island tour. We had the opportunity to take pictures, visit a banana plantation, visit the island's active volcano, sample some of the island's food, swim at the beach, and shop. Most of the people were lovely, but one guy completely freaked me out. He came up to me as I'm giving Jack one of his inhalers, and tells me that his son had asthma when they moved there, and he took marijuana, boiled it, and had his son inhale that and he's never had a problem with asthma since. The guy was just wierd, but I thought perhaps marijuana was legal there, and no one else would think what he did was all that bizarre there. So I asked our tour guide if marijuana is legal and it turns out it's not. So not only did he use an illegal substance, but he gave it to his young son too!! That's spectacular parenting, lol. Geez.

And our last day was an "at sea" day meaning that we weren't in a port. That day the Fun Factory staff helped the kids put on a talent show for the parents. Jack signed up to "break dance" with some of the other boys, and he also signed up to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" solo. We have video of both, and are so proud of him particularly for the solo. The inhibitions a person has must surely be different as a child because I wonder if he would volunteer for the same thing 20 years from now. I certainly wouldn't!!!

I am going to share the video of Jack singing his solo (keep in mind that my sister's camera which recorded this didn't work for the beginning part of the song, so it starts about halfway into the song). I will not post the other video on this site at this time as I haven't yet figured out how to password protect a post, and it does have other people's children in the video.

And now for the pictures you've patiently been waiting for:

Jack in his captain's suit-

Jack admiring himself in his full captain gear-

Jack at the bottom of the slide in the Fun Factory, right next to the ball pit he loved so much-

Jack and I sitting next to Wilbur at the Reggae Beach Bar and Grill-

Archie, Jack and I-the one picture with Jack anywhere near stingrays, lol-

Archie, Aunt Holly, Jack, me, and my mom on our first formal night-

This yacht was sitting in St. Thomas when we arrived. Check out the helicopter on the back. This person is much more loaded than I ever will be!!!

Jack with one of the monkeys at Reggae Beach-

The active volcano in St. Lucia-

And the video of Jack singing "Rudolph"-

Update 1/10

I haven't posted in a bit, mainly because there hasn't been too much to write about. We are looking forward to doing our taxes, and praying that we'll get enough back to even consider doing another round of IVF. For some reason, I worry that we will not because I picked up hours at another hospital this year and thus, made more than I did last year. But we shall wait and see. I am planning on doing my 24-hour urine test for my cystinuria later this week before we leave for our family cruise, and will hopefully meet with my urologist about a week after we return.

This family cruise that we will be taking has been rescheduled 3 times!! The first time it was scheduled, I was pregnant with Jack, and about halfway through my pregnancy, so that got cancelled. My mom rebooked it, and we had a bad car accident which we thought was going to put us in court with a lawsuit, so we cancelled then. And this time she rescheduled it and as of this moment, it looks like we'll all be able to go. It is my mom, my sister, Archie, Jack and me! Jack is very excited, he keeps telling us we're going "to the Caribbean on a big cruise ship!!!", and reminding us that first we have to take a big airplane to get there. My mother got him a captain's suit to wear, and she tried it on him when it arrived a few months ago. It is adorable. He will be the big hit at dinner that night, no doubt. However, he is also convinced that he IS the captain of the cruise ship and informed us last night that he is going to "drive" the ship. Ummm, how do you break it to a 3-year-old that that is not the case??? I don't have the heart!

I will not be posting while I am on the cruise obviously, but I hope to post plenty of pictures (including Jack in his captain's suit!!) when we return and detail the cruise. Might as well since we will have nothing fertility related to blog about right???