Beach Story

Since returning from our cruise, Danny has been requesting "a beach story" nearly every night. I don't know exactly how it started, but now he chooses to replace any songs with a beach story. His favorite scenarios are scuba diving or playing ping pong with Grandpa, neither of which he actually did at Paradise Beach in Cozumel, Mexico. However, you can see from the pictures that it was a very fun, sunny beach day worth reliving every night during "beach story" time. Water trampolines, giant slides, fresh fruit slushies, parrots (didn't get a picture though), snorkeling, kayaking, sunscreen mustaches, and lots of splashing in the water.

Key West, Florida

This quick afternoon stop on the cruise was beautiful. We just strolled the streets, window shopped, and enjoyed the sunny weather and scenery.
A few treasures we found along the way . . .

Boa Constrictor Man - so named not only because of his snake,
but also the enormity of his biceps.

It's great having a grandma who's a biologist.

The boa was cool, but Danny preferred this cool treat -
frozen key lime pie dipped in chocolate. YUM!

After aimlessy wandering we were happy to make it all the way across the island to the southern most point of the continental USA. Hawaii is farther south, but otherwise this is it. While I consider living in TX living in the south, now I can say I've been to the true "deep south" of the United States.

60th Cruise Highlights

My grandparents will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this June. Last year, when I realized it was also my Grandmother's 80th birthday in January, I knew we had to do something big to celebrate. When we were all younger it was much easier to get together for reunions every couple years. Now there are many more spouses & great grandkids and we are spread even further across the country. However, with early planning and saving, 28/30 of us were able to celebrate my grandparents milestones together. We had cruised on Royal Caribbean for their 50th anniversary with 17 of us and decided it would be great to do again. Everyone flew in to Tampa and then we enjoyed a 4 night sailing aboard Grandeur of the Seas. Here are some favorite pictures, but the real highlight was having almost the entire family together to celebrate and thank Grandmother and Papa for their influence and love to each of us.

Florida Bound! Hooray for Southwest Airlines and no checked baggage fees. Boo for Danny not sleeping on the flight at all despite waking up at 5 AM.



Who knew life jackets could be so much fun! And the mandatory Muster Drill wasn't too bad thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, Leah, and Alex being so close.

This was our first cruise with a rock climbing wall and Matt certainly got his climb on. I was a cautious mama and didn't. By the end of the cruise Matt has successfully climbed every route.












We had lots of hangout time in Grandmother and Papa's rooms, on the decks, and throughout the ship.


I love these two shots of Uncle Aaron with Alex and Danny with cousin Ariana. They are all smiles. It amazes me how even when you haven't seen each other in over a year, family is still family. The bonds are reformed so quickly!

One thing that is pretty fun about cruising is that there is really something for everyone.

Ice carving for Stacey

Kisses for Papa

Pirate fun for cousins

Dancing (I only got a photo of Mom and Dad, not the wild cousin dancing)

Karaoke for Chris

Danny really had fun with the towel animals, but they had to be put away before bedtime because they were a little scary. One of the highlights of his cruise was formal dinner night. The waiter politely checked with mom and dad first.
"Would the little gentleman like some ice cream or a cookie?"
"That would be fine," I replied, picturing a child-sized scoop of ice cream and one cookie. Then the waiter showed up with this.

I've never seen such excited eyes. He knew they were all for him too. If Matt tried to take one he was quickly reprimanded, "Swiper, no swiping!" He did share a crumb with Uncle Aaron, but the rest was his. Don't worry . . . he only ate about 1 1/2 cookies total.

Congratulations on 60 years and thanks to everyone for a great time and another memory to add to the collection! We love you all!