Tree Trimming and Snow!

Now that we are back from Grand Cayman we are in full swing Christmas mode! We usually get our tree and decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but since we left for GC on that day this year, we had to get started right away when we got home. I slowly put decorations up throughout the week, while trying to get our life back in order, and played lots of extra Christmas music to help get me in the mood... The 15 degree weather and snow we had helped bring me back to reality too!

We got our tree this past Saturday, Lucy is only awake for 2-3 hours at a time though, so by the time she woke up from her first nap, nursed, ate and got loaded in the car to get the tree it was almost time for her second nap! So, Ben and I were left to do the decorating without her help... what a slacker.

I let Ben get started with the tree while I whipped us up some hot coco and cookies to help us decorate...


Unfortunately, left unattended, this is what my lovely husband will do... (watch football and wrestle the dog) *sigh*


Somehow we were running low on time again so all we got was one ornament up... Lucy's "Baby's First Christmas" ornament from Katy... a good one to get up :)


Oh well, off to Nanni and Poppi's to help decorate their tree and celebrate Alli's birthday, and a quick picture in Lucy's first snow!


Posing in front of their Christmas tree in adorable coat and hat!


Four generations of Wagner women!


Lucy sitting at the kid table with all her cousins (well, my cousins... so her second cousins?)


Time at the Wagners is always a little exhausting so we took some time to recover back home, and relax by the fire...

Grand Cayman - Turtle Farm

Ok, one final GC post! Like I mentioned before, with 10 days, we were really able to do a lot! One day in the middle of the week, we headed over to the Grand Cayman Turtle Farm. This was another one of my favorites. Katie and Brent had been there before and recommended it, and I was glad we went.

The first turtle pool has the oldest (and thus largest) turtles. You can see they are bigger than Lucy! She was enthralled looking at them. On a side note - on at least 4 different occasions in the GC, people stopped us and said they were shocked when Lucy started moving in her stroller because they thought she was a baby doll (why 2 adults would be pushing around a baby doll, is beyond me). The first time someone said it, I thought, oh, that's sweet... they are saying she's cute LIKE a baby doll, but then after the fourth person, I realized- people really think she is literally a baby doll until she moves. I think it's because of the cheap umbrella stroller we were using, that looked toy-like... I told one lady this and she said... "no, it's her bald head"... haha!


Our baby doll staring the turtles down


Katie and Brent had a "tour guide" show them around the farm and explain things to them when they came before, so Katie, being well informed, acted as our "tour guide" - showing us which turtles we could pick up, and how to stroke their necks so they stayed calm. Isn't this turtle adorable!?!?


Ben with a bigger turtle


Lucy meeting a turtle up close


and wanting to pet it...


There was also a shark aquarium, a place to go snorkeling, a place to swim, a bird atrium, and a restaurant. We stopped by the aquarium, atrium and restaurant... but passed on the swimming and snorkeling.


Nursing sharks in the bottom right corner


Oh, hey mom


Katie feeding a bird, right out of her hand!


Ok, that's the last of it... all in all a wonderful vacation with lots to see and do... thanks again to the Kruithof's for hosting our family!

Grand Cayman - Snorkeling and Hell

A couple other popular things to do in Grand Cayman are snorkeling and scuba diving. We didn't want to go through the hassle of getting scuba certified, but fortunately, Brent had snorkel gear on hand, so we went snorkeling a couple days while in GC. Here are a couple shots from our first day snorkeling...

We went to Eden Rock, a spot Brent heard from some friends was great for snorkeling. He was right! In fact, right when you would get in the water there were hundreds of fish swimming around - some very small colorful fish, and some 2-3 foot huge gray fish... that made me not so excited about getting in!

Again, we sent the boys off to test the waters first... Katie and I hanging out with Lucy on the "beach"... or what is actually a little bit of sand, a couple lawn chairs, and big rocky coast.






I decided to get in, so Katy watched Lucy for us, again! I was so thankful she was willing to watch Lucy while Ben and I tried out some of the touristy activities.


Here we are snorkeling... this is another spot that I'm sure is incredibly crowded when the cruise ships are in, but since we went on a Sunday, it was just us and two of Katie and Brent's friends (Jeremy and Sheena, who are expert divers) out exploring the wildlife! It was nice to avoid all the crowds, but I'll be honest, it made things a little scarier. Ben and I went in by ourselves at first, but got scared when it appeared that the 2-3 foot gray fish began to circle us. I got out and asked Jeremy and Sheena if they wouldn't mind snorkeling with us, to make me feel more comfortable. They agreed, got in with us, and confidently shooed the gray fish away. I guess the fish are so used to people feeding them that they hanging around and swim right up to you expecting food.


The boys after snorkeling...


These are out of order, but I wanted to include a couple pictures from our visit to Hell in this post as well (what a funny sentence!) Another tourist spot is Hell, Grand Cayman, not because there is anything to do there, mostly because it is named Hell. People like to go and send postcards from the Hell Post Office and take pictures... so that's what we did!




We also stopped by the Tortuga Rum Cake factory (another tourist trap) and got to sample lots of rum cake and a little rum. My camera was running out of batteries at this point (can you tell why?) so I didn't get any pictures... oh well!

These were both places I'm glad we visited, to say we've been there... but there really wasn't much to see/do.

Grand Cayman - Boat Day and Stingrays!

Our first full day in Grand Cayman we got to spend out on Katie and Brent's brand new boat. We were so lucky to go out on the boat's maiden voyage with their friends Jen and Nate. The Kruithof's took us to Stingray sandbar, a top tourist spot in Grand Cayman and Rum Point, an amazing beach with fun rum drinks (of course) and relaxing hammocks. Katie and Jen both wrote posts on this as well, so if you want more details... check out their blogs! This was Ben and my favorite thing that we did on the island, we love boating, so that was a blast, and stingray sandbar was an amazing place to get up close to, feed and pet stingrays!

The Kruithof's new boat! (that they went in on with Jen and Nate)


Ben holding Lucy! She zonked once we started going fast!


Katie held Lucy for at least an hour (if not more) while she slept and Ben and I got in with the stingrays... we were so thankful for her!!!


Ben got in with the boys first to get comfortable and make sure these stingrays weren't actually going to attack us (at least that's what I told him to do so that I would feel comfortable getting in later)! Look at him holding that stingray!


I finally got in, but never left Ben's back... I thought I would get more comfortable the longer I was in there, but I definitely didn't! It's just a little unsettling being in the water when 10 huge sea animals are swimming at you and coming up to your chest... something about that just doesn't feel right to me :)


I did eventually pet one and feed one, then I asked been to quickly shuffle his feet back to the boat so I could get out!


Best buds!


After stingray sandbar, we headed to rum point. I could imagine that when the cruise ships are in, this place is packed... but on a Saturday in Grand Cayman, it was not crowded at all and the perfect spot for relaxing! Shallow waters, a beautiful beach, and free hammocks/lounge chairs.

Katie and I right before hoping in...


We got out and swam for a bit in the shallow water...


On the shore, we got some fun island drinks...


And played in the hammocks...


Although one diva was hogging a hammock for most of the time...

Grand Cayman

We had an amazing time in Grand Cayman - visiting great friends, eatting great food, and getting lots of sun! We did a lot of relaxing, but I really feel like I am just now recovering from vacation! With 10 hours of travel and a baby who didn't sleep so well the last couple nights, I really needed a vacation from my vacation! Funny how that works....

Anyway, we were in GC for 10 days, so needless to say I have a ton of pictures, that I'll break up over a couple posts to highlight some of the fun things we did there. You can also read more about our trip on Katie and Brent's Blog. When we booked our trip several months ago, I had major buyers remorse in that I wish we would have planned a trip after Lucy's first birthday for just Ben and I to go see Katie and Brent... going on the trip didn't change my mind, don't get me wrong, Lucy was a really good baby and extremely happy as usual, but the last 4 nights she would not sleep at night unless being rocked in our arms and there were a lot of activities I felt like we had to say no to or leave early because Lucy was getting sleepy/fussy. Oh well... we'll know better next time!

In spite of those feelings, I was super thankful that Katie and Brent were extremely gracious hosts and accomodated our family of 3 as best they could in their 1 bedroom apartment. They let us stay in a studio they had rented out for half of our trip and gave up their bedroom for the other half - 10 days is a long time to put up with house guests, so I am extremely thankful for their generosity!

Highlights from the trip:

So this pictures brings a lot of thoughts to my mind... 1. This was Lucy's first plane ride! Overall she did amazing, she didn't sleep much, but she didn't cry much either, so I was very thankful for that. Apple juice and puffs were my saving grace, I swear that girl drank and ate her body weight on the plane, but it kept her happy! Everyone said, "just nurse her the whole time", I tried this, but unfortunately, Lucy is at the age where nursing only takes about 10 minutes and she is easily distracted... thus apple juice became my best friend. 2. I was exhausted! We woke up at 3am to leave for the airport, making it even more surprising that Lucy didn't sleep. 3. Lucy's little red nose reminded me that right before we left she got a cold and her top two teeth started coming in... exactly what you want before a vacation, right?!?!

We made it! We got to walk out of the plane straight onto the tarmac - how fun is that!?!?

As I mentioned, Katie and Brent were extremely gracious with us, they gave up their bedroom and let us bombard their space with luggage and tons of baby gear... it's a good thing they like us so much :) Due to the tight quarters, we lived out of our suitcases the entire trip... this gave somebody a new toy to play with and climb in...


We spent most of our time at the beach or at the pool. The Kruithof's live less than a 5 minute walk from the beach and the pool is right outside their front door. This was great for us because we could go to the beach for an hour, come back, lay Lucy down, set up the monitor and lay out by the pool while she napped. This made for some relaxing afternoons!


Note the clear skies - we had beautiful weather every day but one... and by that time we needed a break from the sun anyway!





I wanted to get a picture with the cruise ships in the background - Ben and my first visit to GC was on a cruise ship on our honeymoon. It was nice being at the island for a more extended trip this visit because we were able to do and see so many more things than you can fit in the 8 hours the cruise stop gives you. It was also nice to do things in the evenings and on weekends, once the cruise ships had left, everything was much less crowded.

The water in GC is typically very calm and clear, but one day we went to the beach and the waves were enormous! I wouldn't let Lucy go in, but here you can see how big the wave looks compared to Ben...


Lucy watching her daddy and thinking he's crazy...

For meals, we spent about half in and half out. Again, we were thankful to have the Kruithof's as our guide as they had already been to several restaurants and had great recommendations for us and we were thankful that they were ok with us eating breakfast, lunch and some dinners in their home... made the vacation expenses not so bad!

I took this picture because Katie said the sky looked so pretty, but it actually reminded me to post about how we had to feed Lucy. Without a high chair, we had to feed Lucy on our laps for every meal which was not only a little time consuming... it was also a little messy! Fortunately there were lots of birds and lizards that picked up all the residue (I think!)


Some pictures from our other meals...


We went to Hagandaaz one night to get their buy 2 get 1 free scoop deal.


"Thanksgiving" at Jenn and Nate's house


I guess the sign does all the explaining here...


Katie and Brent watched Lucy one night while we went out on a date. The restaurant pictures I took were too dark, but I wanted to point out that Ben did some driving on the island - all on the other side of the road! He did really well... didn't hit anyone or anything!

Those are the highlights of our trip- all in all a great time, and we miss the Kruithof's already! Crazy to think we might not see them for another year and a half!