Week 25 12/9-12/17 Vacation!

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Well, nobody can say that traveling is stressful until they've tried to do it with a 6 month old! But, I must admit that things worked out a lot better than I expected. Alex had to use some vacation time before the end of the year and we found a really good deal on a 4.5 day cruise to the Bahamas. So, we called up my parents and convinced them (we really had to twist their arms!) to go with us. So, we flew into Ft. Myers on Saturday morning and stayed for the first weekend at my parent's place in Punta Gorda. Logan was great on the plane and slept most of the way. You could tell his ears started to bug him a few times, but nursing really seemed to help clear them out for him. Then, we went over to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my aunt and uncle on Sunday. They just bought a new condo on the 28th floor of a luxury high-rise development. The views were unbelievable! Then, Alex's Grandma and Grandpa Swords were able to come up from Green Acres to meet us for lunch on Monday. It was great to see them and we were thankful they were able to meet us on such short notice.

Then, we jumped back in the car and headed over to Miami on Monday afternoon to catch the boat. We were a little leery with all the sickness outbreaks on cruise ships lately, but Royal Carribean did a nice job of trying to reassure everyone. There were hand sanitizer stations everywhere and they gave free doctor's consults to anyone that was feeling under the weather. So, we made sure to have our sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, and jumped on the ship. The first night at sea was a little rough, but Logan didn't seem to mind the motion of the boat. We set up a little bed for him on the ledge by the porthole in our room. It worked out perfect. Tuesday, we docked in Nassau, Bahamas. We walked around to some of the little shops in town and spent the afternoon by the pool onboard. We were bummed that the ship didn't have a kiddie pool, but we were able to sneak him into the hot tub (it was only warm like bath water) for a little bit in the afternoon. It took him a little bit to figure it out, but he enjoyed his first time swimming. He was pretty good at floating on his back and liked to splash at Daddy.

We spent Wednesday in Coco Cay, a private island with tons of sandy white beaches that Royal Carribean owns. Logan loved playing in the sand, but didn't care for his first dip in the ocean too much. We think it was just too cold for his little tootsies, but we had fun taking his pic with his Santa hat on at the beach. Logan took a nap in his stroller for a while (I swear that kid sleeps better outside). My parents kept an eye on him and Alex and I went for a walk around the island and played a little bit of volleyball.

We were in Key West on Thursday. Originally, Alex and I had wanted to try to get some more sun since the week had been mostly overcast up until then, but it was still cloudy. So, we decided to do a train tour of Key West. It turned out to be a great tour and we were both really glad we decided to do it. Then, we all walked around Key West and did a little shopping on Duval Street.

Night life on a cruise is a bit different with a 6 month old, but we still had a great time. We enjoyed dinner in the main dining room every night with my parents and went to most of the shows. Logan liked to watch all the colors and hear the music, but usually fell asleep during the show every night. Alex and I went to bed early a few nights too to catch up on some much needed sleep. It's funny the things you appreciate the most when you have a baby!

Overall, Logan was a big hit on the cruise. Lots of the staff knew him by name and our head waitress, Vilma from Lithuania, actually took him around to all her tables on the last night when we had him dressed up in his Christmas outfit with Santa hat. It was nice because we were able to eat our dinners uninterrupted and we always knew where they were from the "oohs" and "awes". Quite a crowd collected too when we were having his pictures professionally taken. My dad joked around that we should have charged admission. We tried to have family pics taken when we were all dressed up for formal night, but Logan decided to puke all over his outfit in the middle of them which the photographer caught on film. Even though it was pretty funny, we decided it wasn't worth the $19.95.

We deboarded the ship on Friday morning and headed back to Punta Gorda. We took Logan swimming a few more times at my parent's place. By the second time, he had already learned how to kick his legs and reach out his arms...it almost looked like the breast stroke..sort of:) There was a floating ball in the water that he did his best to try to grab. We can't wait to start swimming with him more back at home. Overall, the weekend was relaxing and we headed home Sunday night. Logan was great and slept almost the whole flight home.

So, there were quite a few "firsts" this week...first time on a plane, first time on a boat, first time on a cruise ship, first time to the beach, first time in the ocean, first time swimming, first time out of the country, first time to Florida...and first vacation (besides camping)!