So we just got back from spending a week in paradise, a.k.a. Grand Cayman Island. Blake's Uncle Bob and Aunt Carol invited us and Blake's parents to their beach-front condo. It was absolutely amazing.
WARNING: This post is very long. I just had a hard time editing out pictures! It's so hard with a baby you like to take pictures of. You moms understand, right? So if you make it through the entire post, I will be very proud of you. If not, I will be so offended. :)
Reese's first flight!
I was so nervous to fly with a 4-month-old baby. Our first 3-hour flight we didn't want to pay for a seat for her, so I brought my boppy nursing pillow hoping she'd be able to sleep on my lap with that. Unfortunately that didn't go as planned and my wonderful husband finally just stood up with her by the bathrooms and tried soothing our fussy baby for about 45 minutes. She was way overtired. Then the sweet people waiting in line for the bathrooms kept talking to her and saying, "Oh, what a cute baby!" Meanwhile, I'm sitting in my seat thinking, "Don't talk to my baby. She's trying to go to sleep!" :)
Finally she fell asleep. Then Blake headed back to place her on my lap and that's right when the guy sitting next to me decided he needed to take his bathroom break. Gotta love it. To make a long story short, she ended up with only a 30-minute nap. :(
Other than that, the flight wasn't too bad. I'm so glad I had Blake to help me out. The next 3-hour flight went great, and the two flights home went great as well. Thank goodness!
One thing that I believed helped us out is the advice I'd heard from countless people about flying with a baby: Make sure they are sucking on something when the plane ascends and descends. Luckily she had just started taking a pacifier just a few days before we left, so I made sure she was either sucking on that, nursing, or even sleeping seemed to work during those times of altitude change.
What a party animal!
Of course one of the first things we had to do was go swimming with our little Reesie Cup! Her grandma Tink (Blake's mom) brought her this wonderful blow-up dolphin. It was perfect! However, the pool was kind of cold, so she wasn't very happy in there.
Blake, me, Karen (Tink), and Reese.
Next we tried her in the warm ocean, and once she found her thumb, she couldn't have been happier.
Reese stayed really busy in Grand Cayman.
Besides swimming in the ocean, she played cards,
worked on her laptop,
rode on the sharks,
and enjoyed shopping from her comfortable car seat.
Then I had to include all of these out-takes because they were so funny!
There's a good one! :)
I just had to take a picture of all the guys working on their laptops while in paradise. Unfortunately you cannot see the ocean, but it is right through that back screen door.
If the guys were not working on their laptops next to the ocean, then most likely they were diving a hundred feet or so under the ocean. Blake absolutely loves diving, so they went on several dives while we were there.
Sting Ray City!
After a 20-minute boat ride into the ocean, they dropped us off on a shallow sand bar where we got to play with all these people-friendly Sting Rays! It was so much fun! Their flappers/fins were so slimy and soft. They were everywhere, brushing up against your legs left and right. I loved it!
I am actually holding a Sting Ray in this picture. I know, I can't really believe that I actually held one! (Someone else definitely caught this for me. There's no way I would've been able to catch one myself.)
Blake, on the other hand, caught this Sting Ray all by himself. Fearless.
Speaking of fearless...here I am with a lobster!
Ok, Blake actually caught that lobster. That was us just trying to do a little old-fashioned trick photography. And here he is playing with the cute little cuddly creature. :)
Just outside our condo Blake was able to take us out on the Catamaran. When he lived in St. Simons Island, Georgia, this is what he did for his summer job on the beach.
You can see my Aunt Carol relaxing on the boat above. This is one of her favorite things to do, and I can see why. There's a slight breeze, and you get to have the warm water splash up on your feet as you enjoy watching the beautiful, clear water change all these different shades of aqua. I loved it!
As we got out a little further it looked like the water wasn't very deep at all. So I jumped in to find it was only waste deep, on me! It was so neat to be able to walk around in the middle of the warm, clear ocean.
Blake's dad enjoyed standing up on the catamaran. One time he tried to let go and balance. Blake noticed what his dad was doing and immediately swerved the boat, knocking his dad off into the water. It was so funny. :)
I just had to include this picture of my wonderful mother-in-law, Karen (Tink), holding the baby in one arm and taking pictures of us on the catamaran in the other.
Tink and Reese.
Isn't that the face you expect welcoming you to Hell? :)
Maybe this cut-out is a little more fitting for her.
For those of you who are wondering, yes, we did go to Hell, and it's really quite a nice place. Maybe someday we can all go to Hell! (Sorry, I just had a really fun time using this word while we were in the city of Hell.)
For those of you who might not know, apparently this harmless, eroding volcanic rock in the background is Hell. That's it. So no more worrying about our feet getting burned, our heads being put on backwards, or our souls being immersed in ice up to our faces (Dante's nine freaky circles of Hell). :)
Karen (Tink) and Michael in Hell.
Sweet little Reese was welcomed graciously to Hell.
Blake and I couldn't help but flirt with the Devil. We are such bad parents. :)
Family picture time!
Left to Right: Me, Reese, Blake, Michael, Karen, Carol, and Bob.
On the plane ride home Blake took the opportunity to teach Reese what to do in case of an emergency.
So, we had a fabulous vacation, and now we can honestly say that we've been to Hell and back. :)
