Grand Cayman Island

Grand Cayman Island
There are two things on Grand Cayman that I could do everyday if given a chance, swimming with the sting rays and visiting the Turtle Farm. Since Megan was with us, we knew that swimming with the sting rays was not an option this year. So a group of us went to play with the sea turtles at the Turtle Farm. The picture above is from the first "pool" you see when you walk in. This is where the "breeders" live. They are all 45 years old to 75 years old in this pool. As they swim they come up to breathe and make a very weird snorting noise so it was fun just watching them move around.

Just watching some turtles and feeding them too!
The BEST part of the Turtle Farm is that you get to hold a baby sea turtle!!! How cool is that!?! Tiffany and Rosemary held the turtle first. When Tiffany first picked this little guy up he was flapping his arms around like crazy. The staff member told her to rub under his neck to calm him down. Almost instantaneously, he calmed down and fell into a trance. If all babies could calm down by just rubbing their neck!

Rosemary wasn't so sure about touching him, but Megan was ALL about it! The turtles that we were able to hold, were all about a year old, just an FYI.

She's still petting the turtle!
"Ok, now that I have him, can I take him home with me???"

I could have held him all day! I think there is a similar picture of me posing like this from about 10 years ago, the first time I came to the Turtle Farm. I still can't believe how cool it was that we could hold a baby sea turtle!

Megan really loved feeding the turtles. Not sure if it was because the turtles were fun to watch or if it was because the food looked like dog food and she was able to throw it in the water (something she can't do at home!)

"Thanks for the snack, Megan"

The turtle were separated by ages into different "pools" But each pool was divided up, not sure why, but the turtles could move from mini-pool to mini-pool within the big pool. The big "pools" kind of liked like honey combs, filled with turtles :)

Here is a picture of the wall the turtles could climb over to move around from pool to pool. These turtles were resting on the wall but others had to struggle with all of their might to get of the wall. Also, fun to watch.

Looking at more turtles and trying to use up the rest of the turtle food. Between our group we had 3 bags of food and it took awhile to get rid of it.

Megan feeding the turtle and getting really excited about it!

Needless to say everyone had fun at the Turtle Farm. Of course we had to visit the gift shop! Grandma Berthold bought Megan this stuffed turtle and as you can see she loves it. She sat like this for about 5 minutes while everyone finished looking around the gift shop. Now that we are home, Megan takes her turtle everywhere and gets very excited when she sees a turtle on tv, in books, on clothes, you name it, she is all about turtles now (she takes after me) We have our home movie saved on our TIVO, and she flips out when she sees her and Rosemary at the Turtle Farm, it is so cute!

Next stop Jamaica and the end of our cruise :(

Cozumel Mexico

When we first got off of our ship, we were greeted by this lovely alligator. After some pictures we were off to the beach.

But not before we posed for pictures with the "Zonkey" (I don't want to know why it is called a Zonkey)
Mark taking Megan into the water for the first time. Megan had a blast even though the water was a little cold. Shortly after this picture a big wave knocked Megan down and she was ready to get out of the water for a bit. (and yes she is wearing a full body bathing suit because I didn't want to mess with having to put on sunblock every hour!)

Megan having fun playing with scoops and sand with Grandma Berthold.

Right before this picture Megan had a HUGE melt down on the beach. To the point where I had to remove her from the beach and take her back near the parking lot so she could cry/scream and not ruin every one's relaxation. For about 5 minutes Megan laid on the ground with her legs curled up to her chest, eyes closed and shaking her head back a forth saying "No....no...no" over and over again. Looking back I wished I would have had a video of this meltdown, because it was just so funny to watch her do it...on a beach in Mexico!

After a few minutes, she stopped looked at me almost like she forgot where she was. We had a talk then went in search of some protein!!! Anyone in the Schutte family knows how the children act when they need protein!

I brought some yogurt from the ship in a mini-cooler and Megan had a blast feeding herself knowing that the spills would get washed away in the water. Oddly, she isn't this messy when she feeds herself at home.

About to make our second trip to the water. Megan wanted to bring a cup and the beach ball with us. F.Y.I for anyone that burns easily, this top is SPF 50 and I never had to worry about if I was getting a sun burn which made playing on the beach enjoyable. Yes people looked at me funny, but it was so worth it!!!

It was super windy, which made sitting on the beach nice, but in the water kind of rough. I brought the beach ball with me but I didn't want it to blow away so thinking like a mom, I hooked it to a cord my ship card was on then hooked it to my bathing suit. This picture was me trying to show Megan seaweed, but also getting strangled but a "beach ball on a string."

Loving the water as a family.

Pretty picture of our ship from a nice area outside the restaurant, Pancho Backyard, we loved the food the last time so we knew we wanted to eat there again. We weren't disappointed, so good!!!

Megan just walking while we waited for our table to be ready. We weren't really sure why the beach chairs were there because this is a shopping center not a beach. My theory is so drunks will have a place to pass out when the leave one of the 3 bars that was in this area.

"Awe man, I got sand in my shoes!"

Perfect end to our day in Mexico.
After all the fun in Mexico, we needed to relax on the ship. Here's Megan enjoying the sunshine with her stacking cups.Another favorite toy on the cruise was ice! We brought bowls of ice to our chairs and Megan spent hours playing with the ice and then the water. Here she is sampling the melted ice.
Megan and her ladybug butt needed to rest up for dinner.
She needed to rest so she could join in the dancing with Rosemary tonight!
Moving to the music. So cute!

Next up in the Turtle Farm!!!

Cruise Part I

We decided to fly to Florida the day before our cruise to make sure we got to Florida in plenty on time to not miss our cruise. Plus why not spend an extra night in Florida...it's warm there! We had a group of 11 adults and 2 children for this years cruise. In this picture Rosemary Olsaver (almost 3 years old) her mom Tiffany and Megan are looking at one of many little gifts my mom had for them. New toys in an airport...always a good idea!

First time in the kiddie pool and she had a blast. Having cruised many times before we knew it would be hours before our luggage would arrive in our rooms, so Megan was all by herself in the pool because not too many kids had their bathing suits yet.

As you can see Megan fell in love with the window in our room. The first time she stood/sat in the window to look out she said "fishey?" Of course we told her that fishey's do live in the water but she probably wouldn't be able to see them. She didn't care, she learned how to say "window" and spent lots of time looking out of it. (she never did see any fishey out the window though)

Onto the life boat drill, which everyone on the ship has to attend before the ship is allowed to leave the dock (and yes they check your room to make sure everyone is on deck with a life vest on) This was the first time we didn't have to wear our life vests the whole time, it was so nice, because it's hot and uncomfortable. Megan was a trooper, she stayed quiet the whole time and other then being shy to the crew she handled the large group of people well. We did have to sneak her ID bracelet on while she was sleeping because she wanted NO part of it going on her wrist.

Yeah, we're moving!!! The Olsaver's joined us on the mini-golf course to watch the ship leave the dock

Rosemary and Megan had more fun locking themselves in the golf cage and running around then they did watching the ship leaving. At one point, Rosemary took everyone by the hand and "locked" them in the cage. Too funny!

I just thought this was a cute picture. Megan looked at Mark and Mike and found her own spot she could looking out.

The first sunset.

Our first full day at sea, and Megan loved every minute of it.

Mark enjoyed himself too! He was very excited that he made it down the slide this year. The last cruise, he literally had to push himself down the slide every 5 feet. But this year he zoomed down to the bottom of the slide without any problem.

Megan (Paws and Mickey) and Rosemary all ready for their first formal night on the cruise.

Yep, we'll have the mac and cheese again for dinner.

Rosemary was all about the dancing at dinner! This is one of my favorite pictures from the cruise. Rosemary was having lots of fun being twirled around by her daddy (Mike Olsaver)

The Schutte's on "formal" night.

Megan thought all of the stairs on the ship were her own personal playground. She had so much fun going up and down ALL of the different sets of stairs.

This brings us to the end of day two, next up Cozumel Mexico! But you'll have to wait a few days to give me time to rest my fingers from all of this typing!

Baby Chase Halloran

Before we left for the cruise, my friend Kyrah came home from Georgia so we could meet her son Chase. He was born Jan 13 and this was the first time Kyrah made the road trip back to Michigan.

It was a little different holding Chase because Megan was so tiny at 2 months, but Chase is a big boy. What you can't see in this picture is Chase sticking out his tongue every time I stuck mine out. We had a fun little game going. Megan liked Chase, but ironically when she had the perfect opportunity to say, "baby...baby...baby" over and over again, she didn't! She barely said a word (big surprise) Out in public anyone she sees under the age of 10 years old she calls a "baby" when she saw Chase she was silent!

I was able to hold Chase for a little while on my own, but after a few minutes, Megan moved in just to be a little closer. She never prevented me from holding Chase, she just kept a very watchful eye on me/him.

So Kyrah didn't have to haul a ton of stuff with her, I brought over the baby essentials, tub, car seat, stroller and vibrating seat. The odd thing here is that Megan really didn't like this chair when she was an infant, but she couldn't get enough of it when she saw it again. She just really likes anything that is her size!

***Cruise pictures are coming I just need to wait until I have pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's camera before I start telling stories, they took a lot more pictures then I did, so I want to make sure you get to see the best pictures of everything. You'll see them soon I promise!***

We're Going Cruising!

Well we're off on our vacation!!! Don't worry we will take lots of pictures and will have a lot of fun stories to share when we get back. Happy Easter!