The Grady Family: January 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Cruising Through Life

To celebrate Kevin's new job, we decided last minute to book a cruise out of Houston to Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize on Princess.

Honest opinion?

The cruise was pretty disappointing.

Incredibly relaxing, but not as exciting and fun as we had hoped.

The summer before my senior year in high school, my family took a cruise from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta and it was an amazing vacation. We had so much fun! From the fancy dinners, to the shore excursions, to the free room service and the round the clock pizza and french fries, I was simply blown away.

The next cruise was our honeymoon which went from Long Beach to Catalina Island and Ensanada.

Another great cruise, abeit chilly, January weather.

I don't know what happened with this one, but it just never got off the ground, so to speak!

First of all,we arrived at our allotted time and it we encountered a HUGE line that took almost two hours to get through and on to the boat.

Our first day at sea was relaxing, but that night I got a notice that my ATV tour in Cozumel was cancelled due to flooding.

No biggie...I'll just book something else.

Excpet that everything else is booked.

Okay, no problem. I will book something once I get off the boat.

Nothing.

Okay, there are two other ports to enjoy...I can just enjoy the shopping.

Kevin came back from his scuba dive disappointed as well!

His sinus infection wasn't completely gone and while he could equalize, the pain in his sinuses made diving impossible.

The saddest part is that other experienced divers on the trip said it was the beset dive they've ever done!

BUST!

The next morning as we were supposed to dock at the Island of Roatan (part of Honduras) but the captain announced that due to the strong winds, it would be too dangerous and cancelled the port.

So no snorkeling at a cool shipwreck and another day at sea.

I like days at sea, but it got a little rocky!

It was so rocky that that night, everyone got sick!

Even Kevin!!!

The next morning the captain came on and announced there was an increase in norovirus cases on board and so everyone got a little nervous!

When we woke up the morning of our Belize stop, we were sure it would be cancelled...but it wasn't!

Yay!

Unfortunately, they had to cancel my cave tubing expedition but I was able to go ziplining (so fun!!) and Kevin took in some of the local ruins at Altun Ha.

On the last day of the cruise, we finally saw blue skies and sun! No more rain!

Well, needless to say that by the end of the trip we were eager to get home to see the kids but that was to be delayed as well! The fog was so thick that the harbor pilot couldn't navigate the port for several hours, so we hung out in our rooms until they finally kicked us out!

When we headed down to disembark, it was absolute chaos! Thankfully, we pushed and shoved our way off the boat and beat the crazy and crowds.

The kids were excited to see us and we were eager to see them.

So, this post sounds super negative but I promise we had a fabulous time!

I didn't have to cook, clean, take care of kids, or anything else and my biggest complaint was that because of the rain I couldn't get a tan but had to take another nap...boo hoo!

Like I said, it was incredibly relaxing and it was great to just spend time with Kevin.

Every night we had fun getting dressed up for dinner and the show and spending time meeting new people (a much older crowd!) and just talking about things besides what we did that day, what we will do tomorrow, and the kids.

We loved watching movies in the hot tub, ordering drinks, taking long naps, getting ice cream, listening to bad karaoke, and watching the water and the waves.

We are so fortunate that my mom could come out and watch the kids for us! It was her Christmas present to us, but she went far beyond the call of duty!

For crying out loud, she even potty trained Colin while we were gone!

New Years!

The Zollingers threw a rockin' New Years Dance Party!

Yummy food, good tunes, dancing, and a toast and smooch at midnight...

Such a fun night!

More Christmas

I was very excited to decorate the tree this year...maybe a little too excited!

I had it all planned out in my mind...

Hot chocolate, a Christmas movie, cuddling on the couch with my babies and hubby, putting decorations on the tree as I look at my beautiful family and count all my blessings.

The reality was screaming, Reagan eating hooks off the ground, Reagan eating the ornaments, Colin complaining about not getting to watch the movie as promised when the tension got too high, etc, etc, etc!

Oh well - that's real life!

I love how my stockings turned out! They took FOREVER but it was worth it!

We took the kids and grandma to Northpark mall for lunch and while we were waiting to be seated, Colin had a wonderful time riding the three stories of escalators!

We were able to have one of Kevin's clients over for dinner with the family. Kevin won his asylum case last year and he is such an amazing man.

We had lots of sword fights!

ICE!

I love this tradition of going to see ICE at the Gaylord...I just wish the kids liked it too!

This year the theme was The Nutcracker and the sugar plum fairies were my favorite!

They also had a Christmas in New York section that was adorable!

This little girl lasted about one minute before she started freaking out! thankfully we were able to get her out of there and take turns so we could see it all and really enjoy the exhibits!