Field Trip to The Frontiers of Flight Museum

Neal is a great dad. There is no debating that.

 

Yesterday he chaperoned Rhys' field trip to The Frontiers of Flight Museum. He really has fun with his kids and helps out in the this way as often as he can. He even splurged on these bad boys for the special day.

 Not far in to his bus ride there, I got this text: "You know that scene in the Grinch where he's all noise noise noise noise... That's my life right now"

He had a good group of 4 kids and got a tour from an 85-year-old WWII veteran, Tad, who was a wealth of knowledge. He even got to mark another Apollo Command Module off his list (that's 3 now). Good times!

St. Patty's Day and a Big Reveal

The kids didn't bother to trap the leprechaun this year and my son said we'd be nicer to give him a break but since I already bought the goods, we had fun anyway. Neal helped me make it look as though a unicorn had crapped a rainbow all over the house. We left yellow lemon gum containers in their shoes for pots of gold.

They loved it but this may be the last year. Sophie upon returning from school asked in front of Rhys if leprechauns were real so I deflected and later, when we were solo with her, Neal and I brought it up again. This time when she asked we told her the truth and she made a bit of a disapponted "Ooooh." We asked her to respect our wishes and let Rhys ask us on his own and not spoil it for him. We told her she could be on our side of the fun now.

This has been MY biggest hang up. That she may spoil the fun for him when he has at least another two years or so, if we stretch it. I also am interested in how this goes with the other false traditions we've kept up.

It has already started because Rhys lost a tooth at school on St. Patrick's Day and the tooth fairy made her visit. On Saturday morning when Rhys was making his discovery and we were talking about it, Sophie looked at Neal with the "It's all coming together" look. Next, it will be the Easter bunny if it's really coming together.

One of the many, many faces of Sophie. Girl loves the camera.

He actually liked it, but that face!

We finished up St. Patrick's Day with a corned beef dinner and Irish soda bread. Rhys helped me with the making the bread. I love playing in the kitchen with him.

The Cruise That Dead Grandma Paid For

I know it sounds bad but it's actually true. When Neal's mom passed away about 4 years ago, we found she was quite the collector of stuff. Luckily not a hoarder, just a collector. A collector of things that we mostly held no interest in. Enter Ebay.

Yep, for 4 years we whittled down the boxes and boxes of "stuff" and passed it on to those it would could bring joy to, like it did Susan.

Grandma would be happy to know she treated her two kids with their spouses and her grandkids to a 7-day Caribbean cruise. Mahogany Bay, Belize City, and Cozumel. Thank you, Grandma for the fun and memories made.

Oma and Opa joined us for the fun and off we went to Houston the first day to enjoy restaurants, museums, and the space center. We finally experienced the spectacle Bucky's is on our way there. That place is crazy with people but they have yummy cookies and taffy! We stayed in a hotel with a great view. Sunday we headed to church and joined the pack for traveling to and boarding the ship.

It was gloomy Sunday but we had fun exploring the ship, getting settled in and dining. We did what people do on cruise ships, nothing and everything. Aunt Kira planned a great scavenger hunt for our families. We took photos and shared them afterwards and the kids got prizes. There were two tall water slides on the ship, a ropes course, and miniature golf which we had fun doing. We ate A LOT and tried lots of things. I ate a mussel and snails and didn't die. Neal and Rhys tried frog legs and ox tongue. Sophie ate shrimp like it was going extinct. Rhys danced with our waiter during "show time" 3 nights or so and he actually got weepy when it was the last night in the dining room because that fun was coming to an end. We enjoyed playing trivia games, getting professional photos done, and seeing shows. It was just fun hanging out with family and resting.

Trivia winner and smarter than all his family!

At Mahogany Bay in Honduras, we went on a family excursion to enjoy macaws and monkeys up close and personal. That's what was advertised and that's what we got so we were very happy.

  

Another Carnival ship was docked in front of us that wasn't leaving for some reason as expected so we ended up in port for hours after our intended departure time. Because of this the next days excursions were delayed and we had to take a tender to land. Neal, the kids, and I followed our tour guide through the port shopping area to the bus when a Carnival employee showed up and said our excursion was cancelled due to time constraints, though they had repeatedly told us all was well, up until that point. We were really looking forward to seeing the pyramids and ruins and seeing the wildlife on the boat portion. Neal was so disappointed and we were all wondering what to do in our new circumstances.

After a few minutes to rethink and an hour or so of wondering around, we ended up in a win-win situation. Bert, a taxi driver, stopped us as his last shot before heading home as he had not had any luck that morning. We were looking for something to do that felt safe and right. He asked if we wanted a tour, and I felt good about it so we talked some more and since I still felt good about it, we enjoyed a great, very informative tour of Belize City. He was great. I wish I took a picture of him and the area but we were too busy asking questions and learning. We saw the slums, the new areas, the water drainage, wild dogs, street vendors which we got fried plantain chips from, and historical buildings. Our kids didn't care much about what was happening but they didn't complain either. It mad a unpleasant situation into a good one. And Carnival comped us for the excursion and the previous day's excursion.

We spent the last day at port in Cozumel where our whole family and got another taxi, shopped, saw ruins (no pyramids but still good) and the blue blue water of the beaches. I've seen blue waters in pictures and on TV but I still could not believe how blue the water actually was. It was a real nice day.

Looking up at a group of 5-6 bats inside.

It was a great trip and an extra good one because of being with great family (and limited phone/device usage).

There is only one more cruise I care to go on in my lifetime and that is an Alaskan cruise and I wouldn't feel sad if that never happened but it would be nice. Neal's family seems to be cruise people. I am not complaining. It was great! I just want to do other things more. Luckily we don't have to miss the best part of the trip too much as we will be with family again on a trip this upcoming August.