The local college held a zoom Maker’s Faire so all four kids did it at Anna’s! They started by making rockets! It was only a bit of a cluster the rest of the day but they had fun!
And Tom and David built a rocket launcher so the kids didn’t have to go to the college to see them launched! It brought all the neighborhood kids over!
I took the kids to visit Brianna’s kittens as they’ve never seen kittens (I know, right?! But ours were already cats when the kids were born!) and oh man did they love it! Laughs and giggles and soooo much happiness. It was wonderful after the recent loss of Charlie.
I really wanted to try the VR rollercoaster and kind of laughed at Katie when she was trying it and saying she felt weird. We were watching it on the TV and it looked neat but nothing crazy.
Well.
Haha.
It was insane—totally different than watching it on the TV for sure. It really felt like you were on the rollercoaster. You could look over the side and see all the way down. You felt like you needed to turn your head as you went around curves. And then after that first drop it got nuts.
Logically I knew that I was standing in my living room. Logically I knew I was in no danger. But it really felt like I was falling and I was trying desperately to catch my balance.
I didn’t know they were recording me…but it shows how crazy I was feeling. I was not faking anything. And when I was done I was exhausted.
Enjoy this video of Maggie trying to bury herself in Katie’s laundry. That sheet just doesn’t want to cooperate.
We just gave Owen his birthday present—a personalized video from a YouTuber we watch all the time—and he freaking loved it! (If you don’t watch Charlie on YouTube, you should.)
Here’s the original video if you want to watch without Owen’s reaction.
If you want your own personalized video from any number of people, check out Cameo.
I tend to leave them on a solid color but the kids like the craziness.
I know I’m not supposed to care what their rooms look like but I CANNOT handle this. I am ready to clean it all out myself. As in empty it.
There were basically two schools of thought on Facebook:
It’s just so frustrating. We’ve tried random and various rewards and prizes and money and everything is glorious for 2-3 days and then it stops. We’ve tried chore charts and boards and tokens and iPhone apps. Nothing works. Part of it is we just don’t have the energy to police everything. We also do it strong for a few days and then we miss a day and then it all goes to hell.
We do make them pick up their rooms every so often—they are supposed to do at least 5 minutes a day but they don’t even do that. Her room was decently picked up less than a week ago. 🙁
I have also bought a nice kid book that tells HOW to clean it. I have walked her through it (and done it with her) multiple times. She knows. And every time I try to help her or guide her, I get “I KNOOOOOOW MOM” but she doesn’t do it.
She did recently have a totally clean slate as we just moved in two month ago. But it’s pretty much looked like this since Day 3. I have told her she will not get a nice pretty new girly room (we are prepped to totally Pinterest her room) unless it gets and stays clean. And again, it works for 2-3 days and then…this. We moved at least five garbage bags of stuff we removed from her room already that she literally SOBBED over but hasn’t given a second thought to since.
Owen HAS lost everything in his room one time already (at the last house) and his isn’t quite this bad but it’s bad enough. But they know I’m serious when I say I WILL do it.
It isn’t quite the same as there are only three teams (instead of like six), spectators need to stay six feet apart (and wear masks to and from the fields) and the boys can’t sit on the bench and also need to stay six feet apart when not in the field…but it does feel good to have a little bit of normalcy again. Tom is once again an assistant coach.
Owen thought he wanted to also catch this year but after doing one game and his back hurting (!) he opted to stick with pitching (and of course he loves first base but they still get rotated through all positions).
They don’t quite manage to stay six feet apart, but at least we’re outside in the sun and fresh air.
Here’s a compilation of some of Owen’s game time today. Papa requested some as they won’t be able to make it to a game this season.
Katie loves running so when I was clearance shopping at Kohl’s today I picked up a pair of running shoes for her (like not just generic tennis shoes). She was SO excited she wanted to go out and run immediately. So Owen went around the block with her on his Segway.
Give this girl some empty space and this happens. Constantly. Needless to say she loves the new house.
One of these days I’m going to get a full video of her doing this. I stopped recording today because she laid down…but then she started up again so I missed some. But she can’t resist a stack of blankets so it’s only a matter of time!
It took them a day but they finally have the hang of how to really maximize their runs! Now we need to make sure it doesn’t end at the fence!!
Katie picked out this fancy dress to go to school supply pickup. Of course she hadn’t showered in three days.
She missed her last class Zoom meeting where they were going to share their goodbye posters so I posted it to the school’s page and sent it to her teacher.
School supply pickup was more emotional for me than I anticipated. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed as we drove away. I asked Katie if she was okay and told her I was sad so it was okay if she was. She said she was a little sad but she was okay. Leave it to Mom to be overly emotional.
Then we had to go through a huge garbage bag of Katie’s stuff…including…a lunch bag. Thankfully it was empty!! We were all thinking we’d have to just toss the whole thing. Phew! Oh, and we had an outfit change!
Then it was time to take Owen’s pictures—-and he hadn’t showered in awhile, either. But Tom had given him a buzz cut.
Normally last day of school pics are just me and the kids…
…but since Dad is working from home, he got in on the action. #gonnamissthisbench
This is what happens when you combine your stock with your neighbors. You get a mini firework show!
Katie’s teacher sent a YouTube video of her reading a story so I asked the kids if they wanted to do one…and to my surprise they both said yes. Katie whines and complains so much about reading that I was FLOORED that she was excited to do it. She knew exactly the book she wanted to read (they’ve read it in class), she knew what one I should read (an old favorite), and Owen knew what one he wanted immediately.
I love it when they do stuff like this…
but it eventually mutates into some type of argument.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Owen told me this is how he gets around using (limited) screentime game minutes—he makes his own game on the calculator since those are free minutes. He just does +1 or +.5 and then just hits = over and over and over and over (seen here in a brief snippet).
REALLY?! You’re that desperate to look at a damn screen?! 臘♀️路♀️藍 Creative for sure but damn annoying as well. This is what I have to fight on a daily basis. This is why I take technology away. This is why I hate them having to use it every day for everything.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve tried our really good blender before (that’s supposed to be good with ice but… didn’t give you really smooth ice) but wasn’t sure the cost of this would be worth it.
But it is. It sooooo is.
The only thing at the moment is I don’t have the individual ingredients for margaritas…so I’m just using my ready-to-drink mix. It’s good, but once you mix it with the ice, it tastes diluted. So…I decided to add some extra tequila, some Grand Marnier, and some mashed strawberries from the freezer!
And then this happened. NOOOOO!!!
Yes, don’t worry. I know how to fix it. After realizing there was no way to get all the cork out…in it went and then I strained it.
It’s really disconcerting plus it’s loud when she does it in the middle of the night.
No one else showed up today so she had the instructor all to herself… She was done with her lesson when I challenged her to swim the length of the pool.
And showing off her mermaid moves…
Play time afterwards…
Getting ready to head out to the Blue & Gold bridge ceremony.
As part of the ceremony, all the scouts had to saw a piece of wood.
There was an Arrow of Light ceremony where parents present the scout with a homemade arrow with bands of color signifying all the things the scouts have completed. Unfortunately Owen was so new to the troop that he wasn’t able to get one, so he was the only scout not up front. But then they called him up separately and gave him a really nice introduction (among other things they said what a great addition he was to the troop) and I didn’t record it because I totally wasn’t expecting it!
And then they all did the pledge.
They each got a chance to say thank you as they crossed the bridge.
Owen getting his new neckerchief and scout book.
All new Scouts!
She still doesn’t like her wet food so once in awhile she tries for human food. Today it was animal crackers.
The kids have a great time sledding at the church by us, but we wanted to take them somewhere new. This is at Hunt Club community center.
We had dinner and game night and fireworks!
The fireworks started somewhat small.
Then we had one that was a little bigger.
And then the last one we were like Well this isn’t that impressive… and it kept going and going and getting bigger and bigger. 😂
Get this. Tom was watching YouTube videos of the Allure and we saw Owen! And then we saw the rest of our group! The kids were totally freaking out and joking that Owen was famous now!
It starts about 6:12. After that you will see us, too, after they do the quick walk-through of the restaurant. (This is just some random persons vlog. Nothing actual Royal Caribbean sponsored.)
We decided to eat breakfast at Johnny Rockets again before heading out into San Juan. The breakfast sandwich with extra bacon was really yummy. While we were sitting there waiting to be seated and then waiting for food, I think we made at least seven trips back to the room—I sent Katie for my hair clip, then I wanted the Aleve, Tom went up for his hat, I went up for a battery backup (it was our first day with internet and I knew we’d run our phones down)…it got to be quite comical.
Owen loved having his own camera.
Papa stayed behind today as he didn’t want to walk through the city. As it turned out that was a good call as it’s really hilly and it was really hot. Our first planned destination was the Chocobar. We’d been there on our last cruise and knew we wanted to go back.
Unfortunately I had forgotten that we wanted to eat there…so we only had drinks and churros again. That’s a Chocolate Bloody Mary (I wouldn’t get it again).
Then it was off to the fort. I could have cared less about visiting there again—I had more than enough the last time. But we were with our friends and I didn’t want to miss out, so there I was. We stopped to let the kids cool off before heading over…
And then it was back into town to hit the street of umbrellas (which were army themed this time)…
And a recommended restaurant, Raices. With a margarita, of course. 🙂
The remnants of their shaved ice.
The kids didn’t want a single thing on the menu so they just sat and played while we ate. We really wanted to try mofongo since we didn’t the last time.
Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish with fried plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green and fried, then mashed with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil in a wooden pilón. -Wikipedia
Tom ordered butter garlic octopus mofongo and I got fish tacos. The mofongo was good but my fish tacos were outstanding. Not much to look at in this picture but super delicious. The only bad thing was that it took so long to get our food that we were starting to worry about getting back to the ship on time—we were only a few blocks away but you do not want to miss the ship—so we all had to eat fairly fast. I really wish we could have eaten slower and enjoyed it longer.
Heading back to the ship! With time to spare!
Half an hour later? This.
The kids were down at the pool with the other families.
I was back in the room working feverishly while we still had internet as we were leaving the port—a new product had dropped so I was busy posting on my group and trying to post a few vacation pics!!
It was hot by the pool…and hard to see to take a good selfie.
Soon it was time to get ready for our second formal night. And joy of joys we had drama with Katie and her hair. JUST LIKE AT HOME. YIPPEE.
She had been in the pool so much and hadn’t really shampooed it well (since I wasn’t doing it daily like at home) so it was a total rats nest. But she wouldn’t let me wash it and complained and whined when I couldn’t do her hair like she wanted. I was still able to do something cute but she was very unhappy and that pretty much solidified that I don’t want to vacation with the kids again (I mean, who wants to parent on vacation?!). So we left the room and she had a total grouch face… Which is why I’m surprised I got these super cute pics.
We were walking through the Promenade since we had a few extra minutes to take photos…
And a bunch of the ship photos we took but didn’t buy. 🙂
The second formal night means lobster tails!!! I thought I’d get two, but Owen didn’t eat all of his (but he ordered it!) so I finished his. Our awesome server made this and we had to take a picture for Gramma Jean.
Afterwards we changed clothes, saw our daily towel animal…
…then went to an acapella show. It was decent, but Katie wasn’t terribly interested and…
This morning we ate breakfast at Johnny Rockets! Normally it has an extra fee—but not for breakfast! I kind of missed all the choices available in the Windjammer buffet, but it’s also nice to have limited choices.
Don’t ask why I didn’t take many pics—I have no idea. None of the ship, none of the wildlife, none of the excursion line or the catamaran we were on. Maybe because it was HOT and I hate hot. 🙂
We got on the boat and everyone had a seat with snorkeling gear on it. We traveled about 20 minutes to the bay where we were going to be swimming with the sea turtles. We got our instructions, safety briefs, and enjoyed the breezes. Then it was time to get in the water. And it was…not what we expected. The short version is that it was too exhausting and too short.
The longer version? It was described as
Cruise in comfort aboard a power catamaran to the waters off Buck Island, where you’ll snorkel amidst colorful fish, vibrant coral and maybe some sea turtles!” with the typical warning “Guests must consider their physical fitness level and medical history when determining whether this tour is appropriate.”
Which kind of sounds like you’ll hop off the boat and leisurely swim around looking at turtles and sea life, right? Well I am a healthy 46yo woman who is not a peak swimmer but I know how to swim and I’m not going to drown…and this was EXHAUSTING. We had to swim A LONG WAYS to see the turtles. They are protected, so the boat has to drop anchor way away from where the turtles are so you have to swim over to them. They did warn us that there was a long trip and a short trip…but if you wanted to see the turtles you had to do the long trip. They also offered the use of fins, but strongly warned against using them if you were not used to them (citing the possibility of leg cramps). But if you don’t use them, you are likely going to struggle in the water since you have SUCH a long distance to swim (but they don’t tell you that). And you are swimming with snorkel gear (that you are likely mostly unfamiliar with) and maybe a waterproof camera…and there are like 50 other people swimming along with you and you are dodging 3-4 other boats and excursion groups. Egads.
So some people are faster and get there right away (with the guide) and you’re left dragging behind, struggling to catch up. My dad had to turn around and go back (and Tom had to help him, so he had to double back) and thankfully Katie opted to stay behind—she never would have made it and there is no way I could have helped her as I was barely making it. Tom and Linda had fins and didn’t have as many issues (but they were familiar with fins) but Tom was still tired. So by the time we all made it to the sea turtle area…we had about 3 minutes before they were moving on to the reef…which, you guessed it…was another longish swim away. And I was already exhausted. So my plan of a leisurely snorkel off the boat to check out some sea life and take some pics was not happening and I was frustrated and exhausted—not exactly best case scenario for a Caribbean vacation excursion.
Oh, and did I mention that Katie had refused to get off the boat? Yes it ended up okay because the swim would have been too hard, but still. That’s not what you expect after you’ve paid a bunch of money for a snorkeling excursion. She said she didn’t like saltwater and didn’t want any fish to touch her. I kinda wanted to strangle her to be honest. She wouldn’t even hop off the boat and swim for a few minutes.
And then we were back on the boat. And it was time for unlimited rum punch. I don’t generally like rum but this stuff was delicious.
Then it was off to “enjoy an hour of swimming, sunning, and relaxing at this idyllic spot.” If by idyllic you mean having to jump off a boat into neck-deep water to get to shore and then share the beach with a ton of other people from other boats…and that hour was over WAY too quickly. We barely had time to grab a quick lunch and some more rum drinks… And I practically had to BEG Katie to get in the water and Papa totally refused saying he didn’t like getting wet (or didn’t want to get wet?) which was silly because he was already wet from getting off the boat! But we had fun just relaxing in the water!
All that said, the excursion staff was amazing. They were all witty, helpful, and nice. I felt safe the entire time, they were good with our kids, and you could tell they knew what they were doing. I just wish Royal Caribbean would have more than a boilerplate description on their site because this was NOT the relaxing experience I wanted.
Once back on shore, we split up. I took Katie and Papa back to the ship and Tom, Owen, and Linda walked around St. Thomas. Katie and I dug into the frosting dog. The other group shopped and ate lunch.
Then Katie and I headed to the pool—I stayed in the hot (warm) tub and chatted with a bunch of people. Katie was running around in the pools and eating ice cream and visiting me in the hot tub. I don’t remember what all we did the rest of the night…but I know we called it an earlyish night again since we had another early morning planned for San Juan.
One funny story: the kids came home and said they had photobombed a video. So we had to watch it on the room TV…and sure enough… wait until the end. 🙂
While we were hanging out in the room at one point yesterday afternoon and I was looking through the app to see what was going on the next day, I saw that there was an opening for a private Flow Rider lesson at 8am. We thought that would be a special cruise treat for Owen (Katie had a cupcake decorating class with Tom scheduled for the day) so we were up early to be on the pool deck early! Papa and Grannie made it there, too! It was really nice and peaceful and quiet that early!!
Owen had fun, but unfortunately, I think the lessons need to be revamped. I know that everything on a cruise is a money grab…and this was no different. I knew my $69 wasn’t going to get an hour of personal time, but it was ridiculous to have to sit through SIX OTHER PEOPLE—especially because your own time relied totally on the whims of the instructors and how well you were doing. If you fell a lot, you got about three tries in three minutes. If you managed to stay up, they let you stay up until you fell—and then maybe let you go again. So Owen maybe got seven minutes total and another woman probably got 12 because she was better and didn’t fall as fast. It would be somewhat better if your lesson was a dedicated 10 minutes (and I said as much on my survey).
The kids played mini golf.
We played our elevator game—we’d all predict which elevator would arrive first!
I enjoyed my first quiet time on our balcony…
Then it was cupcake time! Owen and I were off shopping for lanyards and then came to check them out at the end of their class. They invited us in and we ended up taking home the instuctor’s cupcake plus she gave us EACH free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (it was for class participants only). We bought Katie an apron and a pink bag.
Katie did really well!! The cupcakes weighed about 2# each with the amount of frosting on them!! And we had THREE to carry back to the room! But Katie had decided that she was giving hers to Mark, and he was actually next door at Sabor, so we went and delivered it! Then it was back to the room where we ran into Papa and brought him back to the room. He enjoyed eating the remains of one of the cupcakes.
The kids then headed off to the pool and I went for some margaritas. 🙂 The avocado one was strangely good—every sip was like THIS IS WEIRD but then ended with BUT GOOD. Then we sat by the pool with our friends and drank while the kids played in the pool.
Some artwork in the vestibule on my way to the bathrooms.
On our way to dinner and playing the elevator game!
At one point they had a conga line with the staff and all the kids went off and had a blast!
And Hai was doing toothpick games for us.
Zoltar worked this time! But we didn’t get a card or anything. It was a little disappointing.
I can’t remember where we were but apparently the kids were at another bar with our friends and their kids…
Our towel animal!
We let the kids run around while we went out and about, and apparently they ended up with friends on the Rising Tide bar!
We called it a night pretty early since we would be in St. Thomas first thing in the morning and our excursion started at 8:30!
Getting their jump on with good friends on a day off of school! Bonus points for matching Pokémon shirts.
Katie being a monkey.