Merry Christmas 2013

Since Jesse had to leave for his shift at 7am we had to wake the boys up at 6am so we could spend Christmas together. At the start of the year we learned that he would be working on Christmas Day. I was super bummed back then, but I've had a whole year to cope with the idea. This is going to be our lives from now on, so there is no need to complain about it. We must make the most of it.

 

The boys were really sweet. Before we opened presents I like to read the Christmas story from the Scriptures. Just to have some spirituality before we have our worldly moments.

 

Then it was present time. They were both really excited about their new bikes "Santa" had brought for them. Kinda sad they can't use them until the spring. 

 Both eagerly opening their new helmets.

 When our hour with Daddy was all over we sent him on his way. Over the course of the next two hours the boys played with their new nerf guns and we got ready to go to Grandma Heidi's.

We all met around 10:00am for breakfast. Since we had been up for 4 hours already it was second breakfast for us. Yummy.

After breakfast we all gathered around the table/fire to partake of the Smith Tradition. And that is to drink hot Chocolate (or Egg Nog) out of our Santa Mugs while we read the story of Good King Wenceslas.

 It's a story of a king who served his fellow men. A good example of what we should do. And a great message for us to remember, not only during Christmas, but throughout the whole year.

Then we opened gifts from one another. It's not as quiet and mild with the two younger ones. They were excited and fighting over each others new toys. There certainly isn't a dull moment when the 2 year olds are together.

Once we finished we just hung out the remainder of the day. Kaytee and Kendal (cousins of Jesse) came over for an hour or so to visit. So that was nice to catch up with them. And it was also nice to not have to rush to other places. I enjoyed having a lazy Christmas Day. The boys and I hung around until 5pm and we packed up and headed up to the Ogden Fire Station to go and visit Jesse.

It was great to see him. We filled each other in on how the rest of our day had gone. And talked about how strangely normal it feels to have him gone. I think if Jesse had started this job only a few months ago I would have had a much harder time with him being away.

 Jesse having this job comes with a sense of Pride. I know it's frowned upon in the scriptures, but I have to admit how PROUD the boys and I are of him. So even though he had to work on Christmas, I wouldn't change it for the world.

Low key Christmas this year. And I loved it. Nothing like being with family. It's the greatest! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

To keep the true spirit of Christmas, The Smith Family likes to give service. Last year we took dinner to a needy family. We loved it so much that we wanted to do it again, but we had a hard time finding a family. So we went to the retirement center near Mike and Heidi's after a yummy Christmas Eve Dinner.



 We went to a handful of elderly ladies and gentleman that don't get very many visits and sung them a couple of Christmas Carols and gave them a treat. Oh every single one of them were just tickled and in return my heart felt full.

 Another treat was Grandma Sally came to visit all the way from Denver. So it was great to see her. I was happy that we could all be together for our special Christmas Eve Traditions.

Temple Square Lights

The weekend before Christmas we joined with Mike and Heidi, Andrew, Emily and Sterling to see the Temple Square Lights.

 

We first gathered together at Olive Garden for dinner and then met up in front of Temple Square.

 

Cy and Sterlihg have the greatest time together. I was tickled at them wanting to hold hands as we walked through the square.

 Funny thing about them was that they had ZERO interest in the Christmas lights. All they cared about was the piles of snow they could climb on. The group attempted several times to get them to even look above them at the colorful lights. Nope! They didn't care. The Snow was so much better.

 The grounds were packed with a lot of people having the same idea as us. Which is great, but not so great when you have two 2 year olds that want to run away from you. We were all on edge trying to locate them constantly. So we resulted to shoulder rides.

 I love these people so much (Tyson and Tayler couldn't come because they were sick, but they were missed). I am very blessed to have such cool in-laws. I don't even think of them as the "in-laws". They are so good to me and they love me and my family.

Homeward Bound (Day 8)

Sunday Morning (Dec 15) we woke up super early to get off the ship to make it in time for our flight.  I have never seen so many people in line for the TSA security. And luckily for us we pretty much got to go to the front of the line in the family line. Thank you Cyrus for having a stroller.

 

Flying standby to Florida wasn't a big deal. Everything went smoothly. Going back home wasn't looking so lucky. Instead of flying from Ft. Lauderdale to New York we went from Ft Lauderdale to LAX. And then my mom said we would shuttle over to Long Beach and fly home to Salt Lake.

 

Well I guess the Long Beach to Salt Lake flight was looking bad. So Plan D was to fly to Vegas and then rent a car and drive home from there. UGH!!!!

 

This picture was taken I think on our shuttle ride from LAX to Long Beach. At this point they were exhausted but still had smiles on their faces. Little did they know how much further they had to go.

Good Old Long Beach Airport. I can't count the number of times I have been stuck there and total hours I have spent there.

On the plane to Vegas.

We are all faking our smiles at this point. We had been up since 5am Miami time (which is 3am Utah time) and we landed in Vegas around 9:00pm but still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us.

We rented two cars to make things more comfortable and bearable for everyone. Jesse and I drove in shifts. I would sleep for an hour or so while he drove and then we'd switch. Man I haven't felt that tired in a really long time. It was all I could do to stay awake. What a ROUGH ride home. I was super Jealous of the boys all cozy in the back seat sound asleep.

We pulled into our driveway around 3am. Which means it took us about 24hours to get home. That's the closest I have come to being awake for a full 24 hours. I couldn't do what Jesse does. I would be a zombie.

Jesse and I put the boys in bed then went to bed ourselves. We were praying they would sleep in. But they didn't. So we got up to feed them breakfast and put a show on for them so we could rest a little. When Ryker went into the living room to turn on the Xbox, I hear him ask me "Mom? Where is the Xbox?"

I'm thinking "That's silly, why would he say that?"

But when I walk into the living room and look where the Xbox should be... IT WAS GONE! So I asked Jesse "Did you lend the Xbox to somebody while we were gone?"

He said "No."

Then we text everybody that had access to our house to see if they knew anything about it.

Nothing.

The realization that it was stolen started to settle in. I still have a hard time believing it. We called the police and filed a report with them. The police officer asked for names and numbers of those who had access to our house. He also checked to see if it had been sold, but it hasn't.

Strangest thing about the whole thing is whoever stole the Xbox took 3 HDMI cables, only took 1 of our 2 controllers, left all the games and the Kinect Camera. Crazy Right? If you are going to take something, take it all. Doesn't make sense to only take part of it.

So we don't know if someone saw that we were gone and knew where the spare key was, or if a friend was with the select people that had access to our house. Either way it's gone. Sad Story.

I had Jesse change out the locks to our house to help me feel better. So Merry Christmas to us. New Locks! And Merry Christmas to whoever stole our Xbox.

Day at Sea (Day 7)

Another day spent relaxing on the ship.  Luckily this time Jesse wasn't sea sick and the ship wasn't rocking nearly as much as it was the first of the week.

 

We sent the boys to the kids camp that day and around lunch time we went and picked them up to go eat. They were all decked out in face paint and their t-shirts that they got to decorate. The Carnival Kids Camp was so great with the boys and all the rest of the children. They had a blast going there. 

 After we all ate, the boys wanted to go back to the kids camp. So then Jesse, Chan and I went to the deck to read and relax. I haven't had that much time to read a book in a really long time. I was loving it. When I am home if I have time to read I should be reading my Relief Society Lesson. Since I was done with that for the year I could read a recreational book.

 Our last night at dinner we were all talking about how quickly the whole week has gone by. We were all feeling sad that it was our last night on the ship. Ryker especially. When he heard that we said it was the last night, he started to cry, saying "I don't want to leave the ship." Glad to know he had that much fun.

We had to get a picture with our awesome servers that we had all week long. They were so great and took awesome care of us.

 We get to know them over the course of a week and then we are sad to say goodbye.

Grand Turk (Day 6)

It's bittersweet arriving at the last stop. Looking back over the week we had so much fun, but knowing its soon coming to an end it's sad.

 Grand Turk was Beautiful. I think it would be a great place to go diving or taken to a snorkel location. But to keep things cheap we stayed on the beach. Which I am totally ok with. Knowing the boys love it and I love it, I am happy. Neat thing about this stop was how incredibly close the cruise ship was to the shore. We litteraly walked off right onto the beach. Well we walked across a pier and then onto the beach, but still it was crazy. I could have swam to it in a minute if it wasn't blocked off.

 Another great place to snorkel. There wasn't a ton of stuff to see. But enough to keep us busy for hours. I guess Ryker saw a Barracuda at first and came back to the beach to tell me. I admit I didn't believe him at first because I thought he just saw a big fish and assumed it was a Barracuda. No. It really was a Barracuda. Jesse showed me the footage on from his GoPro camera.

When I finally made it out there, we tried to find it again and had no such luck.

 This guy was obsessed with the sand. He was rubbing it on his belly and anything else that he saw. I had to beg him to come play with us in the ocean.

At one point we put the life jackets on the boys and brought them with us to snorkel (All of this is recorded on the GoPro, I've been hoping to get some pictures from the footage, but Jesse is still trying to figure that out). It was so fun to have our little family together exploring in the ocean. Cy rode on Jesse's back with his head above water, the rest of us were floating on our tummies looking around. Cy doesn't have snorkel gear so I put some swimming goggles on him so he could look in the water and see some fish. But the goggles were too big, so they would fill up half way with water. About a half hour into it Cy started to get too cold. So I took him and Ryker back on the beach to play and get warmed up.

 Mom and Dad had enough of the sun so they headed back to the ship. Tyson had gone earlier because he was sick of the sun as well. But Jesse, Chantel, Ryker, Cy and I wanted to stay until the last possible minute we could.

 Chantel and I took a picture together and then she went out to join Jesse in the water. While the boys and I were playing in the sand (attempting to build a sand castle, that Cy would mess up every 30 seconds) I see Jesse running up the beach towards us. When he reached us, I asked him what was wrong, but he had run back to get his GoPro because he saw an Octopus that he wanted to record.

Oh I was so jealous. But I couldn't go with him to see it because the boys would be alone. So I hoped that when he returned to the area he could get some good footage of the octopus.

Awhile later, him and Chantel returned. Sadly, with no footage of the octopus. I guess he couldn't find it when he got back. Big Fat Bummer.

 It came time for us to head in. As we were walking along the Pier I couldn't help but admire the beautiful sunset. Setting on a wonderful day! Cy was so exhausted that he fell asleep in the stroller on the short walk back to the ship.

 When we arrived back to our room, Cy was still asleep. So we parked his stroller on the balcony to let him sleep while we all showered and got ready for formal night. At one point he woke up and he was super grumpy and whiny. So I decide to get him out of his sandy swimsuit and give him a shower. Hoping that'll help him feel better. Nope. He was SCREAMING about everything. Mad that I would pick him up, mad that I would put him down. Upset I was undressing him and angry I was washing the sand off of him. Trying to get a diaper and his clothes was a joke. He just screamed and screamed.

All the while I think I hear a knock on the door to our room that was joined to another room. Here I am with a screaming baby in my arms and I'm only in my garments. No way am I answering that door. They probably just wanted us to be quiet.

Well before long, I hear a knock on our main cabin door. I look through the peep hole and see an older man standing there, looking kind of anxious. Again, screaming child in my arms and only in my garments. Too scared to answer. So I ask Jesse to get out of the shower and answer the door. He does and puts on the bath robe.

I'm back in the room still with Cy screaming, as I'm straining to listen to what this guy wants. All I can hear is Jesse saying "Thank you" and "No we should be giving this to you."

He closes the door and turns around with a bottle of wine in his hand. The guy brought us the bottle of wine to tell us he understood that vacations with kids were not easy and that we should be sure to find time for ourselves and to enjoy the wine together. Very thoughtful!

I expected to be reprimanded from him because we were being too loud of neighbors. But instead he did the complete opposite and made us feel really good. Jesse didn't have the heart to tell him that we didn't drink wine. So he gladly excepted it with gratitude of this man's understanding attitude towards our situation.

Cy finally calms down and we are able to finish getting ready and head to our formal dinner.

 After dinner they had some dancing. Chantel and I were the only ones at our table that wanted to join in. So we danced away while everyone watched.

 Love this Handsome Man. I was so grateful to have him with me.

 After dinner we went to the 2nd Hasbro Game Show. And again Ryker said he wanted to go up on stage. The Cruise Director tells everybody that if they want to get up on stage that they had to get his attention and then answer a trivial question.

No joke, Ryker is in the isle doing a jumping-jack-dance to get the guy's attention. Finally the last person the Cruise Director chooses was Ryker. We of course help him with the question and he ends up on stage. Who would have thought? He actually pulled it off.

He was on the Red Team and was playing "Operation", but Ski-ball style.

 The team the accumulated the most points from the balls going into the random holes would win. Lo and Behold the Red Team won!

 Ryker's team then got to pick their Monopoly cards and one by one put them into the Machine to see how much they were worth. I love this picture because it was cute to see Cy cheering for his big brother.

 Ryker had picked the Monopoly card that had a skateboard on it. The Cruise Director asked every player why they picked their specific card. When he asked Ryker about it, Ryker said "Because I like them".

Jesse and I are laughing because Ryker doesn't own a skateboard or has ever asked for one or ever been interested in one.

When he puts it into the machine the amount of Monopoly Money came out to be $28,000. The entire audience jumped up and cheered for him. It was the largest amount yet.

After 2 more people putting in their cards, Ryker still held the highest amount and ended up winning the whole thing! The winning prize was $200 worth of Hasbro Games. $50 of travel size games and $150 gift card to HasbroToys.com

 I couldn't believe he won the whole thing. So Proud of him.

Afterwards my Dad asked Ryker why he picked the skateboard and he said "Because that boy won with the skateboard last time,"

Ryker had remembered and analyzed from the last game that the boy who won had picked the skateboard. So Ryker totally out smarted the game and picked the same thing.

The clever part is the fact that he didn't spill his guts to the cruise director about it. He played it off by saying he liked skateboards. SMART KID!

We had several people come up to us and Ryker afterwards to congratulate him and tell us what a cool kid he is.  Couldn't agree more.

San Juan (Day 5)

Mom and Dad have been to San Juan before and they said it would be fun to go see El Morro. They told us it was close to the Pier so we could walk there. El Morro was built and designed to guard the entrance to the San Juan Bay, and defend the Spanish colonial port city of San Juan from seaborne enemies. I pulled this picture from the internet so you could see what it looks like from above.

 

On our walk there we stopped to take a picture by this cool fountain.



 Mom led us down a path that was between the shoreline and the huge wall from the fortress. Its overwhelming to think that these walls were built back in the 16th century with no cranes or heavy machinery. I can't imagine the amount of blood and sweat that went into it.

 Mr. Independent had to get out of the stroller and walk with his walking stick and all. I swear there is a magnet in them that attracts sticks, rocks and dirt.

This sweet boy picked that flower just for me. I love it. He's always been a thoughtful kid. I'm a lucky Mama to have him as my son.

After our "short" walk to the fortress, we finally arrived.

 It was so cool how it was right on the ocean. The view was incredible.

 We saw a lot of iguanas and this one was particularly friendly. I guess it helps we were feeding it some apple, but we'll take what we can get.

There were several little tunnels like this that the boys loved crawling though. We could have left them there all day if we wanted to. A perfect place for them to climb and run around. All but the high ledges that made me even scared to stand on.

 After we  finished walking through all six levels of El Morro we walked over to the second Fortress, Castillo San Cristobal. I also pulled this image from the internet to show from above. This fortress was a lot smaller and there was more of the Old San Juan city around it.

We were starting to feel a little fortressed out. It was super hot and after awhile it all seemed the same. One unique thing about the Castillo Fortress was in one of the rooms where prisoners were kept was these drawings of ships. Made it more real to think that 100's of years ago someone was actually there.

 Group Picture!

 I love this picture because it shows how it's right on the shore and up so high. It's breathtaking.

 Once we explored both fortresses we went into Old San Juan to do some shopping and looking around. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the ship. I would really like to go back to Puerto Rico to see more of the Island. I heard amazing things about that place and we only got to see a tiny portion of it.

 Back on the ship, Jesse took the boys on the waterslide and played in the pool/hot tub. When it became available Ryker went to play with the giant chess set. The very first day on the ship he discovered it and wanted to play everyday. Believe it or not he actually knows how every piece of the game can move. We can thank Jesse's Dad for teaching him. Ryker is still learning strategy, but he is pretty good for his age. He was playing against a boy that was older than him, and  Ryker lost. He wasn't too happy about that. I think he is used to Grandpa going easy on him and "letting" him win.