Shelby’s class did a class play. Tater and I went to watch. Shelby got to be the mother, and was SO excited about it. I even sent an apron to school with her to wear.
If you notice, she’s not wearing the apron. When I asked her what happened to the apron, she said she gave it to someone else who forgot their apron. I was really proud of her that she would give up her only apron to make a classmate feel better.
Good job, Shelby! You did great!!!
Tater went with me to get my nails done. So, I let her get her nails painted. She was in little princess heaven!
Here she is after the fact…
Look at those perfect little fingers and toes…
We’re kind of at a strange place for our family… Up to this point, we’ve been able to find babysitters without any trouble at all. Last summer, when one of our babysitters ended up in the same swim class as Chandler, we realized that we were at the point when our babysitters either needed to be older girls, or not at all. (Can’t have a 12 year old babysitter for an 11 year old boy, and I’m not quite comfortable enough to leave an 11 year old in charge of the crew.) Well, since it’s virtually impossible to find an 18 year old babysitter on a weekend, we came up with another solution…
We’ve started trading babysitting with my sisters. I do feel a little bad for them though. We have 4 kids, and they only have 2. I guess ours are little older and can “help” with the younger kids, but still! For us, it has been awesome! Our kids are really enjoying the time with their cousins and we are SO enjoying the FREE dates. Plus, we’re getting to know our nephews in a whole new way. They’re really different once their moms and dads leave. We’re having a GREAT time!!!
Here’s a pic from our 1st evening together…
Good times!
I just realized that I forgot to blog Chandler’s Pinewood Derby. This was his very last one. Next year, he’ll be too old. *sniff*
It happened the morning we left for the cruise. Since everyone was sick beforehand, and life was crazy, we didn’t have as much time as we’d hoped, to spend on making it great. I think it couldn’t have turned out better though. He was happy with it.
There were 25 boys and Chandler finished right in the middle of the pack… 12th. He was very happy with his placement. More importantly, Eric, Chan and I had a good time making it together.
Here he is with his cute car…
Here’s the big event…
Chan and his good friends, Hunter and McKay Moon had some friendly competition going on (Believe it or not, they’re twins.)…
And here’s Chan’s cheering section…
Dad was there, too. He was just behind the camera (or yakking with the other dads) for most of the time.
Well done, Chandler! Glad you had a good time!
Farewell to Pinewood Derby… FOREVER!!!
It took a while… But, after weeks of having kiddos and parents both feeling yucky, we’re all healthy! Yay!
We took a picture of all our meds, because we thought (even though we felt pretty crappy) that it was pretty comical.
But we’re all better… For now… ;)
Last week Dad & Mom Stewart celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a wonderful party and lots of family there to celebrate. Rik & Heidi and Tim & Shu Shu and fam even flew in for the festivities. Mom & Dad knew that the party was happening (but were left out on the details), but they had NO idea that Rik & Tim and crew were coming to town. We had a family dinner the night before the party and those from out of town just showed up and surprised them. SO much fun!
The turn out at the party was wonderful. M & D kept worrying that nobody would come, but were pleasantly surprised that it was quite the opposite. The decorations were wonderful and when M & D walked in, mom said, “This is the reception I never had!” That was just what the planners wanted to hear. Below are some pics from the party…
Mom & Dad Stewart getting ready…
The decorations…
Here they are surveying the “mess” they started. It includes 10 kids and (as of this July) 42 grandkids, (as of August) 3 great-grandkids, and then there’s the out-laws in-laws…
Per their request, the whole Stewart posterity sang their favorite song while they proudly looked on…
Then there was dancing…
The grandkids just enjoyed the chance to hang out together…
This is Tater’s cousin, Timmy (a.k.a. her boyfriend). He was so sweet to her. He carried her around most of the night and held her for about an hour when she got tired.
Timmy made it so I could help in the kitchen. The other in-laws and I spent alot of time there. We didn’t know most of the people that came, and that made it so all the Stew fam could greet guests and chat with friends/fam they hadn’t seen in a long time. We had a good time hanging out together.
It was a great night. And we’re VERY happy they found each other 50+ years ago.
If it weren’t for THEM… there wouldn’t be US!
I signed Tatum up for Kindergarten today. MY BABY!!! KINDERGARTEN!!! Where did the time go?
When I look back at the days when I had 4 kids under 6 years old at home… I seriously couldn’t even imagine the day when I’d be alone during the day. Wow! I can hardly believe that day is almost here.
*sigh*
It was hard to be at sea for 2 days at the end of the trip. Our other cruises, we only spent 1 day at sea on the way home, and that was hard enough. Knowing we were on our way home, but that it was going to be a while before we got home was pretty hard. We missed our kiddos a ton, and while we were at sea, we couldn’t talk to them. We could only email them. So we did!
The last 2 days were full of lots of leisurely fun. There was tons of sleeping in, trips to the buffet, ice cream by the pool, hot tubing, mini-golfing, naps, Flowrider, cards in the game room, shows in the theatre, dinners in the dining room, etc.
Day 6 was the 2nd of 2 “Fancy Pants” nights. We clean up pretty well, huh?
Our wait staff was the most AWESOME we’ve had on any of our cruises. Mimish our head waiter , and Avni our waiter, were both from Turkey. Jose, our assistant waiter was from the Dominican Republic. They were the BEST!!! They obviously sensed that we were a fun crowd and ready for a good time, and they catered to that.
Avni would always know what we needed and wanted before we even did. Often times we’d say we didn’t want what we ordered, and a new meal would magically appear within seconds of taking the old one away. He eventually told us that it was because he would put in orders for things he THOUGHT we’d want, because he learned what each of us liked and didn’t like. AWESOME!!! He was a single guy who kept talking about how he needed to get a girlfriend. At one point, he found out that Rik & Heidi have 8 kids. Then, he turned to Rik and said, “Meet me in the Royal Promenade tomorrow morning at 5. We need to talk! I need some advice about getting a girlfriend.” We got a good laugh out of it, but he kept saying it over and over again. I think he was serious! Don’t know if Rik ever gave him the advice he was looking for.
Jose made sure we never went without a drink. Every night we’d show up to sodas for the boys and chocolate milk for all the ladies. After the 1st day or so, he really warmed up to us. Once he realized we had 2 Spanish speakers in our group, he was more willing to talk to us. He had a 2 year old and a baby due in February. His contract wasn’t up until March, but he was going to try to arrange to get home to meet his new baby before then. Love that big smile!
Our head waiter only came a couple times each night, but when he did we always managed to have a good time. He seemed to be drawn to our table. I think the rest of his tables were duds, but we always managed to make it a party. He was very proud of Avni and how far he has come in his career. He loved to joke and kid around with us, but was always happy to have input on how things could be improved. He was very good at his job.
Day 6 was actually Rik’s birthday. So we told our servers, and they enjoyed the excuse to be silly.
Jose kept telling Rik that in the Dominican Republic it was customary to pour cold water on the head of the birthday person. So he just kept walking past with a pitcher of cold water, looking sneaky. At one point he came by pointing to his water pitcher saying, in his broken English, “Everyone already has water. What am I gonna do with all this water left here?” Rik never did get that water dumped on his head, but it was good for a laugh. Jose also refused to believe that Rik was 49. He kept asking Rik how old he was, and when he’d tell him he was 49, Jose would just shake his head and say, “No! No! No!” Too funny!
After dinner, the wait staff came and sang happy birthday to Rik and gave him a fancy treat with a candle in it.
My favorite part was Avni using the butter container lids as symbols.
Dinner on Day 7 was wonderful as always, but a little sad for us. After spending every evening with our amazing wait staff, and getting to know about them, their lives, and their families, it was hard to say good-bye. One of the things I love most about a cruise is the number of people we always meet from all over the world. They are always so happy to share with us about their countries and lives back home. They are all so grateful for the chance they have to work on these ships, because they can better provide for their families back at home. We will never forget what a great experience this cruise was for us, largely due to the great people we encountered along the way.
Thanks Royal Caribbean, for hiring the BEST!!!
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Soon we’ll head back to AZ with Corinne & Klint who live 10 minutes from us.
But we’ll have to say good-bye to Rik & Heidi who will go back to WA. Then, we’ll go through Rik & Heidi withdrawals for a while. We treasure these chances we’ve had to cruise with them. Eric & Rik are as close as they can be…
… But it means so much to me that I’ve had the chance to get to know both Rik and Heidi. We’re not just in-laws… we’re GREAT friends, and will be FOREVER! I am SO grateful for that.
On Day 7, Eric wiped out on the Flowrider and hurt his arm pretty badly. We were grateful that Klint (the PA) was there to evaluate and help. That was awesome! But, what came next was even better… Klint and Rik gave Eric a blessing. I was so grateful that at a moment’s notice, both men were able to use the priesthood power they’d been given. I feel bad that Eric hurt his arm (which is doing much better), but I am so grateful that it meant he was able to get a blessing from his brother. That memory will last us a lifetime… Hopefully, one filled with LOTS more memories like this. :)
Tomorrow we head for home! Yay!!! It was a great time that we will NEVER forget, but we always miss our munchkins, and are ready to get back to them.
We woke up to a beautiful view from our balcony of the most gorgeous water …
…and got a good shot of Rik and Heidi looking out their balcony 2 doors down from us…
They got a good picture of us, too…
As we got off the ship we were reminded of just how enormous our ship was. Docked next to us was an 8 story cruise ship. The cruise director put it perfectly. He said, “When I stepped off the ship, I looked over and thought, ‘Oh, how cute! The Liberty of the Seas had a baby!’” Funny guy!
This is our 3rd trip to Cozumel, so we knew exactly where to go and what to do. We headed straight to rent a car for all 6 of us, and headed for “Mr. Sancho’s”. It’s a great little restaurant on the beach complete with little shops to buy authentic Mexican goods (made in china), yummy food and wicked virgin daiquiris, a pool, massage area, ping pong tables, hundreds of lounge chairs, parasailing, and the most crystal clear blue water you’ve ever seen.
Corinne and Klint did the parasailing… (That’s them way off in the distance. check out her blog @ The Webbz blog for more parasailing pics.)
The rest of us were content to have a nap on the beach, eat nachos, drink virgin daiquiris, and swim in the beautiful water…
Hard to believe they’ve been married 20 years, huh? They act like 2 little newlyweds. It’s wonderful!
After spending a few minutes in the water, I discovered there were fish, and headed back to shore. I was really upset, because I had specifically ordered an ocean with NO FISH! Oh well! Eric and Klint went searching for fish, and found some. Glad they took some underwater pics so I didn’t have to see them, up close and personal! Phew!
After a few hours, we headed back to the ship. On the way, we went through all the shops at the port and found lots of fun things for those back at home. My hubby also bought me the most gorgeous Caribbean Topaz ring. (This pic doesn’t do it justice. It is SO colorful and sparkly.) He spoils me!
We stayed in port until 11pm, but we wanted to be back on the ship for dinner and such. So we got back and got cleaned up in time to go take some great pictures of Cozumel after dark. Beautiful!
After another fun show, fabulous dinner, and good times with our travelling comps, we headed for bed… around 2:30am! We’ll need a nap tomorrow for sure…
