Okay, so we haven’t been on a real vacation in years. We may taken a weekend trip to the beach or go to visit family in other states, but this is the first vacation for us in along time. Needles to say we were all very excited about the cruise we were going on
We wanted to make the most of it, so we decided to take a couple of extra days and spend a day in Miami before the cruise and then a day in San Antonio, we lived there previously and loved it.So, our trip started out with a 4 hour drive to San Antonio, as it is much cheaper to fly out from there thank our dinky little airport here in McAllen. My DH decides that since it is Spring Break, we have to drop of our rental car and catch a shuttle to the airport that we should get there a little early. By a little early I mean 4 hours
which turned into five because the flight was delayed. My husband is feeling vindicated for the cussing out I gave him when we got to the airport and it was packed, but it still only took us an hour to get through security and to our gate. We were still trying to make the best of it and did a little window shopping and had some lunch. All the while the kids both have 2 a suitcase and a duffle bag that they are lugging through the airport. They dropped them, left them in the restaurant; we lost them once...My husband can’t figure out why the kids are acting like asses 
and why we all are irritated with him.Finally, we make it on the plane and were off to Miami, where we told our youngest son, Nick that we would take him to Hooter’s on the pier. By the time we make it to Miami and drop off our luggage at the hotel and walk to the pier everything is closed. At this point is has been like 9 or 10 hours since anyone has eaten and poor little Nick he just burst into tears. We ended up ordering pizza and calling it a night.
I think whenever you are traveling with kids it is a bit more stressful. I can’t imagine traveling with real little ones. I would be pulling my hair out! Mine are 14 and 11 and they were a hand full as it was, but once we got all that behind us we had a great time!
So, I know a lot you helped pick out make up to go with my dress for my in-laws wedding renewal ceremony. Things didn’t go exactly how I expected…My sneaky little family gave me the surprise of my life, which well made up for the traveling nightmare. The first night of the cruise they had a “debarkation party” on the lido deck, so me and the kids are all dancing and acting goofy when all of a sudden over the pa system I hear “Lane Woodall has an announcement” so he grabs me and takes me up on the stage and asks me to renew our wedding vow’s. I was speechless and the cruise director said “uh-oh maybe she changed her mind” of course I didn’t, but I was completely taken by surprise. My husband can’t usually pull stuff off like and my children especially Nick, cannot keep a secret to save his life, or so I thought.
My in-laws were supposed to be the ones renewing their wedding vows, so when the kids and my DH kept asking questions about my dress and such I didn’t really give it too much thought. The only thing was my DH kept asking if I had my wedding rings…I sometimes take them off and forget to put them back on for weeks at a time. He also kept asking me about my dress “am I wearing a wrap or shrug” “what color is it?” Couldn’t quite figure that out until I saw the little wedding bouquet that my MIL made for me.
The ceremony was really nice the captain made a little speech and we had a little wedding cake. They sent us home with our champagne flutes and wedding cake topper, which was kind of nice because we got married at the court house the first time and my DH’s parents weren’t there, so they got to be there for this one. Everyone was tearing up and I had to tell them to stop because I was going to start crying. I am ugly when I cry and I hyperventilate…it’s not a pretty thing to see. Lol It was funny though because the captain was Italian with a very thick accent, so when were supposed to repeat after him. We could barely understand him
luckily; my in-laws went first, so I just listened to what they were saying.That was obviously the best part of the trip, but we had a great time in Key West. We walked to the 0 mile marker and the southernmost tip of the United States, you know all the touristy stuff. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t really cooperate. It was cold! I took tank tops, shorts and some sun dresses and had to buy some hoodies and yoga pants. It wasn’t that big of a deal for us though, because it so hot where we live that it was sort of nice. The weather didn’t get much better in Cozumel…we were supposed to go snorkeling but it was cancelled due to the cold weather. We went to the discover Mexico museum, which was awesome. We had a great tour guide and she really gave us a lot of information and she had a really fun quirky personality. We live just a few miles from Mexico, so it was kind of neat hearing about the culture and why we see some of the things we see. We did do a little shopping, but not too much as most of this stuff is available to us. My son wanted to buy a Sombrero, but we didn’t have a way to pack it and bring it home. I told him we can just go into Progresso and get you one. No one will know it didn’t come from Cozumel. He did buy a Luchidore mask because he wanted to barter. Funny thing was the masks were $13 a piece so Jay tells him I will give you $20 for 2 of them. The man didn’t even have a chance to say anything and Jay say’s “how about $22” the vendor just giggled and gave them to him for $20. I told him to he needs to work on his bartering skills. He put that mask on and walked all through Cozumel with it on. Funny thing was all the local’s knew what mask he was wearing. I don’t know if anyone watches wrestling, but Ray Mysterio was a big wrestler is huge in Mexico. Anyway, everywhere we went the local’s were like “hey Ray” and gave him “discounts” on little memento’s
The ship was great too! I thought that maybe the kids would get bored especially on the “fun day at sea” because we would be on the ship all day, but they had all kinds of stuff for the kids to do. It was kind of cute for the “tweens” they had a little night club just for them that had a DJ and they had a game room where they could watch movies and play video games. They also had a club for the younger ones where they did scavenger hunts and they got to take a tour of the ship, like the engine room, and captain’s quarters.
It was sort of the best of both worlds we got a vacation from the kids. I don’t mean that in a bad way, we have moved around a lot, so we don’t have family that takes the kids for the weekends or anything. They are pretty much with us 24/7. They are old enough we do go out and have “date nights” Anyway, we made sure we had at least a meal a day with the kids and other than shore excursions we didn’t see them that much. I am quite sure they were happy for the vacation from us too and the freedom to come and go as they please.
One last thing I have to share because it was hysterical! When we went to San Antonio we went to this restaurant called Dick’s Last Resort. When you walk in they ask if you have ever eaten there before and if not let you know that they provide “service with sarcasm. Don’t be offended” So we go in and wait to be seated. A few minutes later our waiter comes to show us to the table. We sit down and he throws bibs at us and throws our menu’s down. As we are looking at the menus we are noticing that everyone is wearing paper hats with various sayings written on them. We all are laughing hysterically at all these people when all of a sudden I feel the waiter slapping a hat on me. We all go little special hats. Nick had so much fun. He was just trying to get the waiter to say rude stuff to us. He actually asked the waiter “hey, what’s taking so long for our food” and the guy grabbed Nick by the back of his chair and drug him across the restaurant to the cook and said “here, ask him” Anyway here are pic’s of us with our hat’s
The look on my face is after the waiter walked by and knocked the hat off my head, so I just left it there and a minute later I hear someone saying "you better put that back on" so I am looking around and he say's "lady, I'm talking to you" I guess you have to have the right sense of humor for that kind of place, and we do. We had a blast!
I will post some more pic when I get them uploaded to photobucket. The one from Dick's were from my phone so that loaded really fast. Anyway so for the long post...I just wanted to share. ^_^
