Florida & Cruise- December 8th-17th

**WARNING:Most of these pictures are in order. But towards the end they are not, and I did not feel like moving them all around :)

*** AND I do not do well in humidity!!! So don't mind how gross I look and how soggy my hair looks!

We flew into Florida at 10 pm on thursday. Payten did really well for such long flights. Thankfully the 2nd flight that was 4 hours, she fell asleep for about 2 hours. Then she was entertained by a little boy acrossed the isle and by Deven, Grandma Bird, and I!!!

Then friday we spent the day exploring what Miami had to offer. We went to the everglades and were going to do an airboat ride but as you can see in the picture below it was a little stormy just then. So we just explored the animals that were there. It may look like it was not bright for us, but the direction we were looking for the picture was extremely bright!

Deven was brave and held an alligator, I DID NOT! I would not even touch it!

We took a duck tour (land and water) through Miami. It was a 2 hour tour and surprisingly Payten did good checking things out!

Chris & Shani's family got there on friday night. And then we left for our cruise on saturday morning! Us waiting for the shuttle to pick us up!

Now waiting in line to get on the ship. That day for some reason we did ALOT of waiting!

They had dress up nights on the cruise ship for 2 nights, but we only dressed up for one of the nights. The other night we wanted to be lazy and just relax watching an out door movie!!
Our dinners each night took us about 2 hours and Brighton and Payten did really well sitting through the long dinner.

There was a couple behind Payten she loved to play with and throw things at. She was entertained by them. Luckily they had a one year old (they left him home) so they loved Payten!

We would always meet in the same spot to have breakfast in the morning and touch basis with everyones plans.

Payten loved the cruise and checking everything/everyone out!

The sunsets on the cruise were gorgeous!

My adorable parents!

St. Thomas- absolutely beautiful!

My dad, Chris & Deven did a lot of snorkeling.

I HATE HATE HATE FISH!!! But I did really well for how friendly the fish were at our stops. I would swim by myself if Deven was off snorkeling, but if he was around he would usually be holding Payten and Me :)!!!

There was something about the calming of the ocean because it put Payten right to sleep when we would be out swimming!

A lady gave us some dog bones and tolds us the fish with come up to you and nibble at the food. The dog food does not dissolve like a normal cracker and lasts a long time! I was not too sure about using the bone to attract the fish around us! It worked really good though!

Grandma Bird was very nice to hold wet Payten as she slept! Grandma was definitely wet after Payten woke up. Payten LOVED Grandma Bird!

St. Johns was behind us.

The taxi in St. Thomas! It was like a roller coaster getting over to the beach we swam at. Sapphire beach!
After about 3 hours of swimming we went back to the ship to change and then headed back out to explore the little shops at St. Thomas.

2nd stop- Puerto Rico! Payten was ready for the next day of exploring.

Out on my parents balcony on the ship looking at Puerto Rico.

While at Puerto Rico we took a tour around the city! Another 2 hour tour and the kids did really good again! The streets were so tight, and yet the tour guide still drove a big 12 seater van down the tight roads.
This was a little scary going down the hill and seeing how sharp this corner was going to be. The driver did have to do a lot of backwards and forwards driving to maneuver around Puerto Rico.
This is the worlds smallest home in the Guiness book. The yellow building is a guys home!
After our tour we then walked around exploring Puerto Rico.

Leaving Puerto Rico


The cruise ship had a big outside movie theater. During the days at ports Payten did not get her full naps so by the evening times she was a little tired.

She was such a good girl at dinner!

At dinner they would have a thing called Didja (did you ever want to try...) and every night was something different. Deven and my brother Chris were the only daring ones. This is alligator!

Who doesnt love dessert!!! Deven would always get the chocolate melting cake with an extra scoop of ice cream. I loved the unlimited amount of soft serve.

Brighton and Payten absolutely loved each other. Every time Payten saw Brighton she got so excited and had to try and touch him! She is pretty close to being able to say his name!

Turks & Caicos
This place was absolutely beautiful! I must say the caribbean all around is pretty amazing!

Once again we were playing in the water and it put Payten right to sleep again. 2nd time falling asleep in the ocean!

This time we put Payten on the sand so she did not get Grandma all wet again.

I was very proud of myself because I actually snorkeled in Grand Turks. Since our honeymoon Deven told me I was banned from snorkeling with him. On our honeymoon I snorkeled but swam on top of Deven in the water and every time I saw a fish come really close I would push Deven under and almost drowned him :(. But this time I just swam next to him and did not freak out when the fish came close! Man I must say, in my older age I am getting a little braver :)

Random pictures on the ship

On the last night they had a let it snow party. You cant see in the picture but they had big bubble machines that made it look like it was snowing. Payten got them in her face.

Our waiter was great and always tried to make and entertain Brighton and Payten.

We walked into the store on the ship and Payten had to have every stuffed animal. We got her one and then a couple days later Deven went for a walk with Payten and he came back with another stuffed animal. We are going to be in trouble when she gets older.

The nightly towel animals Payten was not sure about. She thought she needed the sunglasses and not the animal.

We were famous, on the big screen on the ship!

Payten loves loves loves the water. She could not get enough of it.

More pictures of St. Thomas

We kept trying to get her to give him a kiss, but she would not!

Overall she was so happy the whole time.

A couple more of Grand Turks

Randomly and a bit gross, Payten put her cereal on the table and started eating it off like a dog.

This was her bed, It was just the metal bars with no patting on it. And Payten was excited when she first saw it and bunked her head on the bars. She likes to sleep pushed to the edges, so I took sheets/blankets and made her own bumper.

There was a little crack under the door where she could see our feet, so whenever someone went into the bathroom, she crawled over so fast to peek under and jabber at us!

Getting ready to fly back home

The cruise was an absolute blast! Taking Payten on the cruise made it so we did things a little different. Like going back to the room a couple times a day for her to take naps, didn't do so much of the night life on the ship, etc. But truly we still had an amazing time. We loved taking naps with her each day and just enjoyed having a little more of a laid back cruise. I could not imagine going on it without her. We loved having her there and getting to see her face so happy when she explored and saw new things. We wanted to go on a family trip and knew it would be a little different having a one year old! Stoping at the ports were a little hard having them back to back so she did not get good naps. But at the ports at she was able to fall asleep in her stroller or in the water. She had so much fun and so did we! We can't wait for more family trips, I think until all our kids are out of the house, I hope that all our trips are with our kids!