Xtreme Danzz

The kids at their convention today. It started at 8:30 and ends at 7:30! They are troopers!












- Posted from my iPhone

{ weekend away }

It was time again for Tahitian Noni's Pearl Camp which means that we got to stay at the Grand America Hotel! My dad let us use his awesome suite for the weekend. It has become a tradition in our family and our kids look forward to it each year!

On our way down we stopped at the University of Utah so Logan could drop off a paper. The kids were really excited to see daddy's school and sit in his classroom!

{Sophie teaching the class}

{her students}

Of course as soon as we got to the hotel we had to get our suits on and head to the pool!

{some pretty excited kiddos}

They are lucky they have a dad who loves to swim because their mama . . . not so much. I am all for fun in the sun, which is why we get Cherryhill season passes each year. But as for getting in the water myself, I'm not really a fan. They had a blast with Logan though, well I guess just the big kids did. Myla wasn't happy the first day. But on Saturday we bought her a floaty and she was much happier.

{taking a post swimming tub with dad}

Saturday morning we went to Village Inn for breakfast!

We started talking about eye color and had to take some pictures so we could zoom in and see who has the most similar color.

I think Ayden and I are the close to the same. His are a little more green.

Myla and Sophie and pretty close too!

Poor Logan though, he's the farthest from a match!

Later that day we went to Tanner park up by Brammy and Bapa's house. The kids had a great time swinging and playing on the slides!

Then it was time for some more swimming.

Our kids are at such fun ages right now. We really had a wonderful weekend together. We played a game where we asked them questions about their parent's (where we met, when and where we got married, etc . . .) and they loved it! It was a fun opportunity to teach them about us and see what things they already knew. We truly love and enjoy our kids and feel blessed to be their parents.

{ Cruisin . . . day 8 & 9 }

Our last day on the ship was another "Fun day at Sea". We decided that since this ship was known for having sweet water slides we better give them a try! One of them was your standard water slide. Twists and turn, kinda hurts your back, you know the drill. But the other was different than anything I have ever seen. It was called the drain pipe. You went down about half the distance of a normal water slide and ended in a toilet bowl type thing going round and round depending on how much speed you got.

It was a riot! We went down a couple of times and were able to hang out in the middle to watch the others as they came down. It was so incredibly windy that day, the wind speeds were up to 80 kmh.

We found a spot to lay out for a bit before it was once again pizza time! After lunch we went and packed up our suitcases. We had to have them outside the door of our cabin before dinner that night. That last day was full of mixed feelings because I was sad that it was all coming to an end, and at the same time ready to be home with the kids. It's hard to go a whole week without being able to contact them or say good night. At the same time, I know that it would've been hard for them to hear our voices. We called from the ship once to talk to the babysitters and it was $7 a minute! Ridiculous!

Our last night at dinner we had to get a picture with our wait staff. They were awesome! We became really good friends with them. We asked them lots of questions about what their lives are like back home, their families, and what it's like to work on a cruise ship.

On the left we have Rolie. He was our head server and he has been working with Carnival for 9 years. He is from the Philippines. He has a wife and 4 boys ranging from ages 7-14. His wife works on the ship as well but she works downstairs doing paper work. His boys are back home and trade off living with his parents and his wife's parents. He was a stud! Very confident and together.

Next to Rolie is Walter. He was our bartender. He was brand new and you could tell he didn't have a clue what he was doing. We felt sorry for him because he seemed so lost all the time. He is from Peru and spoke hardly any english. It was hard to get to know him because every night at "Shh. . .ow time" he would disappear for a while. He was so shy and he refused to dance and sing with the rest of the crew.

On the far right is Made. (Ma-day) We became friends with him instantly! He was so fun and so happy. When we were first sitting at our table he would poke his head around the corner with a big grin on his face to greet us. He loved the times when we got up and danced with the crew. He is from Indonesia. He has a wife and one little baby. He had been on the ship for 3 months and only gets to talk to his wife and baby through skype. He was so full of life and energy. We loved Made!

This is a picture of the sun setting through the window in our cabin on the last night. The city to the right is Miami.

The next morning we got to sleep in a little because we didn't have to disembark until 9:00. Here are the final pictures of our rooms as left for the last time.

{Logan called her the disheveled woman. She was right outside our cabin doors.}

Once we were off the ship we had a lot of time to kill until we needed to go to the airport. We headed straight back to Budget to pick up our rental car. As we were waiting to see what car we would get we were surveying the amount of luggage we once again had to shove into the trunk.

Why would we ever doubt these guys? Of course they made it fit!

{ Our second sweet ride. At least this time we were mistaken for a cop! }

Once we were loaded up we pulled out our iphones and tried to find a place to go. We decided to check out the Kennedy Space Center!

We only saw the outside because when we got there we found out it was about $50 per person to get inside! I'm sure it would've been really cool to take the tour but we decided to try and find something else.

So we got back in the car and pulled out our phones again. We found a wildlife preservation where some Manatee lived and decided to check it out. When we got there it didn't look like much but we went on a little hike through some brush and found the bay where all the manatee hang out. It was kinda scary because they were so close to the shore!

In case you were wondering what exactly a manatee is (like I was) this is what they look like:

Kind of a walrus-dolphin combo. I believe they are almost extinct.

It was so hot and humid outside that after the manatees we decided to head over by the airport and grab some lunch before the flight. On our way there we kept seeing gators (or so we thought) in the ponds and rivers along the side of the road. So once we got closer to the airport we decided to go on a gator hunt. We found a river and drove along it slowly.

First up we found some turtles. They were so cute all lined up on a log!

We drove around a little more and sure enough . . . there it was! A real live alligator! We were stoked! I'm sure the people that live in Florida are totally used to it, but that was way exciting for us!

It was pretty far away but it still freaked me out a little!

We had lunch at a delicious BBQ called Sonny's and headed to catch our flight. The flight home was a little longer but we enjoyed the time to rest and get ready to go back to reality. We were so excited to see the kids we could hardly stand it!

{Saying goodbye at the airport. Home safe and sound.}

I am so thankful that I had this opportunity. It's not something that we do very often and I tried to really soak in every minute. Thanks again to all those who made it possible for us to go. I will never forget this experience.

{ Cruisin . . . day 7 }

Costa Maya, Mexico . . .

We were happy that we didn't have to get off the boat until a little later this day so we got to sleep in a little. We booked another beach day here because we were ready for some relaxin.

{ The Browns with Costa Maya as a backdrop }

The resort we were bused out to was once again, beautiful. They had canoes you could roe out to see in. There was a huge reef there so there weren't any waves and it wasn't very deep. But the water was warm and beautiful.

The ship set sail a lot earlier that day than the others because it was a long way back home so we had a shortened visit to Costa Maya. That night was the second Elegant night on board though, so we were grateful for the extra time we had to get ready.

{This is Weedee our housekeeper. He struggled so hard to remember our names. "meesta kuk, meesta Rogan, miss Texshe, and miss Madee. So cute. He was such a nice man. }

{ We found this random "Alice in Wonderland" looking love seat that night. }

We also discovered that you can make some pretty silly faces in the crazy mirrors in the elevators.

Now back to the PIZZA. I will never look at pizza the same. Once we discovered that you could have pizza any time you want, 24 hrs a day, Logan was hooked! And we made it a nightly ritual to go to the Lido deck every night for a slice. I didn't ever feel like pizza, I was still stuffed from dinner. But I did help myself to the endless supply of soft serve ice cream. YUM!

And nothing is better after stuffing your face with pizza at the wee hours then lounging on the Serenity deck snuggled up to the one you love.

I think I actually crashed for a little bit. I was worn out!

As a side note . . . there are a couple other things that I want to remember:

1- Texie's directions. This girl had no sense of direction once on board. Every time we were headed anywhere she would go the wrong way. It was hilarious.

2-Kirk's TB. Tiny Bladder. It was like he was pregnant. Every time we turn around he's looking for another bathroom!

3-Bruce. Kirk has always called Logan Bruce Wayne because he disappears so much. So one night we were looking for him and we found him but he couldn't see us. We were spying on him. Kirk said "he's just waiting for a crime to happen". Then all of a sudden he turned and walked into the bathroom and Kirk said "SEE!! He's changing into his crime fighting suit!" So funny.