And We're Back!

Did you miss us?  Cramming two weeks of exotic family vacation into one post is probably a bad idea.  Here it goes:

Millie and I spent a few glorious days in Siesta Key, Florida with my family before all 20+ of us loaded up for a cruise.

Millie still loves the ocean

and Ruby loves Milie

 Millie and Nora loved Ruby's play kitchen.  Maybe Santa will bring Millie one soon?  She's already picked one out and everything.

Playing at Aunt Molly's before the cruise

 On the ship, I loved watching Millie get reacquainted with my family.

My beautiful Aunt Katie

Sweet Nora

 Since Buck couldn't come, Millie and I had a whole room to ourselves.  I just love that just-woke-up look on her.

Off the ship for a bit...

Cozumel maybe?

Back onboard we slept, 

ooh'd and ahh'd over our towel animals,

(Or tore them apart.  However you want to look at it)

Made messes for the steward to clean up,

(Which he did so well)

learned to play dress-up,

Swam,
(Who can resist a hungry bum on a baby?)

Nora by the pool 

Danced,

(even though we were the only ones)

Sang Dancing Queen to our heart's content,

Dressed up for a formal dinner,

Suzy sporting fake eyelashes not-so-expertly applied by me

 and enjoyed spending more time together.

We got off in Grand Cayman to snorkel and swim with the sting rays.

This included a bus ride and boat ride to the sandbar.

My camera isn't waterproof, so I didn't get any pictures with sing rays.  That's okay though.  It turns out I'm not a fan of swimming with animals.  I certainly didn't want to kiss the thing after it spit water all in my sisters face.  Yuck.

On the ride to another area to snorkel we saw this beauty:

It disappeared and we survived.  That's the last picture on the ship, too.

Back in Florida we headed over to Lido Key one day for some paddle boarding and canoeing through mangrove tree tunnels.  It was awesome.

Millie is really just happy with a pile of sand though.

Since I could write a (small) book about our vacation, I think I'll just give you a few more highlights and details.

My Mom's siblings got together and organized a cruise to surprise my grandpa for his 75th birthday.  He loves cruises and has always wanted to go on another one (they took us all on one 9 years ago) as a big family.  With the exception of Buck, my cousin Ella on a mission, and my cousin Tara plus her husband and new baby, everyone was there.  Not bad for him having five children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

One afternoon on the cruise we had a little birthday party for him.  Each person came prepared with a story to share about Rara.  We were only supposed to share one, which was so hard because of the kind of person he is.  He is fun, thoughtful, loving, and involved.  Since I lived with him for a number of years , I especially had a hard time.  I really would have liked to hear Buck tell a story about him, too.

My little cousins loved Millie to pieces, but unfortunately she hasn't figured how just how to show her love back yet.  She screamed from being overwhelmed a lot (and tired, hungry, and bored), but I promise she loves you girls!  Millie really loved all the men in my family, especially Riley and Beau.  Maybe I have a tom boy on my hands?

Oh and even though the cruise was only a week long, it only took a day or two for guests to start recognizing Nora and Millie all around the ship.  I was often asked in the elevator if that was the baby with the leash or the squeaky shoes.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but oh well.  The showgirls took to Nora after we sat on the front row of a show.  I had no idea they could really look at each person.  I feel so bad for snickering at some of the cheesiness.

Fun was had by all, but I sure wish Buck could have been there.  And Tara, Ian, Liko, and Ella.