Cool Cat

When I was pregnant with Jake, before I found out that he was a HE, people would always talk about how boys aren't fun to dress, blah, blah... WELL...*I* say...People who say dressing a boy is boring... see Jake Pickle... and the lady in charge of keeping it cool. Because I am here to tell you, I LOVE dressing my boy!!! eeeeeeyep. Boys ARE fun to dress. Their clothes are a little harder to seek out the good ones, but that makes it even better because I love the thrill of the find! Anyway, without further ado...

my little hipster.

This is just a play outfit, but it's still darn cute, I think. :)

Vacation Part Dos!

On Thursday, we were in beautiful Grand Cayman Island. I don't know what I was expecting at this place, but it was a very Americanized, utopia-like place. The tour guide said there was nothing poisonous on the island and there were very little insects. Whaaaaa!! My kinda place! Until they said that literally everything on the island is imported... so prices are all about three times what you'd pay here in the states. Gas was like $7 a GALLON. Yeah. I think I can deal with my bugs. :( In Grand Cayman, we went to the Sea Turtle Farm,

where we got to see all the different ages and stages of sea turtles (no one on earth can determine a sea turtle's age, so they keep them in tanks based on birth), hold sea turtles, and even swim with them! I tried my hand at snorkeling for the second time in life (first was on my honeymoon and it was NOT a success). I was successful with the turtles and I am SO glad Derick talked me into it! It was my favorite part of the trip. Jake swam for a little bit, but quickly got bored. Derick and I spent a little extra time just messing around in town before we had to head back to the ship.

Jake went back with his Nanna and Pappa to get ready for nap. In our room, we had a bunk that pulled down from the ceiling. For real. Haha. Anyway, that is where Jake chose to sleep. We gave him the choice of a cot beside our bed, in our bed, or in the bunk. He chose the bunk, and he did awesome the whole time!

On Friday, we arrived at Cozumel, Mexico.

 I'm going to sound like a snob when I say this, but I have been to Cozumel so many times now, that this was my least favorite of the 3 stops. We went to a private beach location called, Isla Pasion, or Passion Island.

This was my third time here. It was actually the same place those Corona commercials were filmed at. Pretty cool. Anyway, we take a boat to an island about 45 minutes away from Cozumel. Swim, play, and lounge on a private beach all afternoon and eat delicious, all you can eat, Mexican food. Yum.

Saturday was spent "at sea" and mostly relaxing from 3 fun-filled, very exhausting days.

We got back to New Orleans on Sunday morning and headed back home that day. Jake did great on the ride home, too.

All in all, I would highly recommend a cruise for a family with young kid(s)! We always have a blast.

We Went on Vacation!

Man! I have really slacked in the blogging world!! This ended up being extremely long so I broke it up into a couple different days.

Listening to some old school 1997 MON Hanson. Believe it.

Well, we went on vacation. And it was so fun! We have been blessed with a tremendous little sleeper in Jake, as well as a super flexible kid. We left for New Orleans and spent the weekend there before boarded the cruise ship on a Sunday. Jake was great through the 11 hour ride down there, thanks to Mommy's iPod, Curious George, and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
 In NOLA, we enjoyed some local cuisine ;-) went the to aquarium,

 an insectarium

 and rode the trolley.

This was our first trip not to bring a pack and play with us and Jake (of course) did excellent. He slept in his very own bed in the hotel in NOLA.

We boarded the ship on Sunday and left for the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean.

 Actually, it takes around 12 hours just to get out of the mouth of the Mighty Mississippi. And if you have seen the Mississippi River... well, it's nickname, the "Muddy Mississippi", is for a reason. It's no beauty, that's for sure. ;-) When we woke up the next morning, we were smooth sailing on the deep blue ocean waters.

 Jake was old enough this time to attend Camp Carnival. Carnival provides something for kids 2-teen. I guess the teenager one is pretty cool because I overheard a couple teens talking about what they were doing later, more than once. lol. Anyway, Jake was in the 2-5 group. He had a blast and would ask us if he could go. We took him once or twice a day, mostly on the "days at sea" when we weren't in port. We had 2 days at sea, then we arrived at our first port in Jamaica on Wednesday. In Jamaica, we went to an all-inclusive resort, which I HIGHLY recommend. It was a resort with a swim-up bar,

 a restaurant, and a very nice, very pretty beach,

 and some non-motorized water stuff. We rode a hobie catamaran...very fun!

The water was the clearest, prettiest water, I've ever seen! It was as clear as bath-water!

The one and only downside to this place were the jellyfish. There were gigantic jellyfish. But if you're not much on swimming in large bodies of water, like me... then it isn't a problem to you.

After Wednesday night at dinner in the formal dining room, we quickly realized Jake is not quite cut out for a long day, short and late nap, AND formal dining. So we changed things up and ate at the Lido Deck during days we went on excursions.

Until tomorrow... lol aren't you waiting on pins and needles?! Hahaha, right!

Happy Monday, friends!