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.