Cozumel and Camp Carnival

We left port in the early evening - - in time to watch the sun set over the skyline of Miami. It was pretty. We headed to the lido deck for food and drinks and the kids loved eating while looking out the windows at the sea. The most repeated question of the cruise started there. “Is that deep water?” The same response, “Yes, it’s deep water.” Then there would be more excitement, “Is it DEEP DEEP water?” Yes would be the answer again. They wanted to know if there were sharks and octopus and whales in the ocean. We would respond with a yes.

That evening, we had our first meal during the early dining option for the cruise. We quickly learned that the fine china and the long service would not be doable for the boys. We scarfed down our first nice meal and went back to the cabin to watch movies.

Throughout the entire night, cruise goers would return to their cabins at all hours of the night – laughing and carrying on. Obviously, they were enjoying their first night on the “Fun Ship” and came back at all hours. We, of course, woke up too as they came home at 1am, 2am, 3am, etc. It was a restful first evening on the ship. Of course, the kids were exhausted when they woke up the first morning. To our surprise we awoke to rain on our first full-day on the cruise. Dreary rain was the forecast for the entire day. Lovely.

We took the kids to Camp Carnival – the cruise line’s area for kids. They tell the folks that you can drop off the kids for a couple of hours at a time so you can enjoy the cruise. Well, we dropped them off (another line for drop off), received the phone so they could beep you if there was a problem, and left to the room to relax. Not even one hour went by when the happy ring tone loudly went off. I nervously answered the phone.

“Your son is hitting kids and that behavior is not tolerated.” So I head over to Camp Carnival where I witness 50 kids and three counselors. The great piece about this is that one counselor is checking in and checking out kids, one counselor is doing bathroom duty and the last one is trying to herd the kids into an activity.

Eban is crying saying he didn’t want to leave but the big boy kept stealing “his” fire truck. As I walked out with Eban, he told me the big kid (it’s the 2 to 5 year old room) kept stealing his truck so he’d ask the boy to return it as he wasn’t done playing with it. The big boy told him no so Eban gave him a right hook. Understandably, that choice wasn’t right, but I can understand his frustration level after witnessing the pure chaos of the underperforming staff.

Now, if Carnival Cruise lines knew half the boat would be kids with their families, why didn’t they adequately staff the camp rooms? Instead, they were able to adhere to other criteria as the ship’s home wasn’t U.S. They could adhere to other countries norms for childcare. This is something I didn’t know prior to going on a cruise. On this note, most of the staff were from other countries.

I loved the fact that so many countries were represented on the boat. Surprisingly, the U.S. probably had the fewest staff. I found out later that this is because they don’t need to pay U.S. wages or taxes if the boat’s charter is held in another country. Another interesting tidbit of info.

So the first full day, we spent in the room and walking around the interior of the boat as the rain prevented us from enjoying the other aspects of the boat. So the evening before we were to arrive to Cozumel, the festivities for other passengers occurred all evening. The yelling and the screaming of the guests could be heard at all hours of the night. Our cabin room was located close to an elevator where it would spit out the drunks who wobbled home loudly. I’d like to thank Carnival Cruise lines for this thoughtful gesture too.

So the morning that we arrive to Cozumel, I’m up at 6am with Jack who is cranky as all get out. The brown circles under my eyes are pronounced and he is inconsolable. If you’ve ever had a too-tired baby who is miserable, then you know the un-winning battle that ensued for the first hour of the morning. As I’m cradling him and trying to engage him with other things, the phone rings. This time it’s the cabin phone. I answer it. All I hear is a super-irritated woman’s voice.

“Shut that effing baby up.” She used the real word though.

I said exhausted, “Excuse me?”

She said, “Are you even trying to hold it? You are ruining my vacation.”

Deflated from the fight with Jack, which I was obviously losing, and tired from the lack of sleep and the overall feeling of being on a confined boat, I told her, “Yes, of course I’m trying to soothe him. You should see how tired I am too. I’m sorry. This cruise isn’t what I expected and I’m really trying to ease my son. I’m sorry.” Whatever I said, her response was clearly surprised as I guess she wanted to fight. I was apparently so tired and unwilling to be put on the defense that I just backed down. Therefore she became less erratic and a little bit more understanding by the time we ended our five minute conversation.

Of course, Tutu and Ryan wanted to know who called. As I told them about the warm greeting, both of them bristled with the thought of answering a call like that. I know how Ryan would have reacted so I guess it was a good thing that I answered. I prepped myself every night after that with jeans near the bed so I could easily escape the room with whichever kid was cranky in the morning. Every morning we had to implement the stated plan of escape with one of the cranky tots. Trust me when I say this wasn’t restful – WHATSOEVER. So after this little incident, I actually cried a couple of tired tears for my sad son and for the fact that I was ruining someone’s vacation.

I was ready to disembark the ship to visit Cozumel - - on another gray and rainy day.
Another line to disembark.
Another line to stop to get your photo taken (we didn’t stop with our drenched hair and our soaking kids).
Another line to wait for some merchant to give you a sticker to tell you where to buy jewelry.

Finally…off the boat!! We had to walk through a duty-free area of Americanized goods and over-priced snacks at the port of call in Cozumel. We found van after van of people wanting to take everyone on a pre-packaged tour to all the same destinations. We found a nice cabbie and told him to take us away. After we went a few blocks, we figured we’d go to the beach even though it was gray and drizzling. We chatted a bit more and somehow fire trucks came to be the topic of conversation. He told us that he was a volunteer fireman for the island and he was happy to show us the fire station. This was great news. The boys beamed as they saw the fire truck came into light. What was funny is that the island of Cozumel bought their fire truck from Fort Collins, Colorado. Small world!

We then headed over to the east side of the island. There are few beaches over there and one of my work study students recommended a place called Chen Rio. She said there’s a beach for the kids and fresh seafood that they go out and catch every morning. As the cab dropped us off to the barren and desolate beach, we looked at the empty surroundings. PERFECT.

We waved goodbye and said we’d see him in four hours. As the boys played in the beach in the overcast sky, we saw only a fishing boat in the distance. That boat eventually came to shore close to us and we saw them bringing in the “fresh catch” of the day. It was great as I sat under a thatched roof hut and the boys frolicked in the waves. Jack didn’t swim but happily played with the sand. He watched as Eban peed in the ocean and then he wanted to pee in the ocean. This was the first time that Jack peed on command - - in the ocean in Cozumel. There’s hope for him yet to be potty-trained!

After two hours, some people started to show up. Not many, but a small handful. The workers also were busy in the small kitchen and came to us first and told us that we should get the party meal with the fresh catch…and then the rest we couldn’t understand. We just said yes. As the chips and spicy salsa arrived, we also had a guest next to our table. A yellow crab. I thought it was fake and wanted Eban to go grab it as it looked like a good toy. So when it scurried away into the hole in which it came, that was a shock. There’s a good video of us talking about it below.

The meal was my favorite of the trip. We had fresh red snapper (with crazy big, sharp teeth and Jack called him the monster), warm-water lobster, rice, avocado, homemade tortillas, shrimp and other items. I can’t tell you how much I loved it. I also can’t tell you how much it cost as I know it was a small fortune. But it was worth it for a small piece of pure happiness on the trip.

We left our little island utopia to return to the Carnival Liberty with 3,000 of our non-closest friends and to the one lady who said I was ruining her trip. Eban returned to camp and after thirty minutes promptly got kicked out of Camp Carnival for hitting and then excessive crying as he wouldn’t calm down after the camp counselors told him he had to go. We were two for two with our kid and camp. We then went back to the room for another family night as the rain kept people away from the deck activities. Wonderful.

Chen Rio Beach


Yellow Crab


Monster Fish

Holiday Vacation 2009 – Worst Vacation Ever

We left bright and early for Florida and the boys were stoked about their vacation on the big boat. They loved riding on the train throughout the Denver Airport terminals and were great on the plane rides to Fort Lauderdale. Eban was so cute as he would say thank you to all the men and women in uniform. He’d look at us and say, “I’m saying thank you to the army.” I just hope the Marines or the Coast Guard personnel didn’t take offense to being called Army.

Anyway, both boys loved reading the emergency pamphlets in the seat pockets of the airplane and wanted to know more about crashing in case we did. They wanted to know about water landings and oxygen masks. It was great that they were asking questions but they would get excited about “crashing” as they love to play “crash” with their toy trucks. Ugh…

As we arrived in Florida, the weather greeted us with a torrential downpour. We could barely see six feet in front of the rental car’s dashboard. It was delightful. We should have predicted the rest of the trip was going to be like this but we were unaware of the premonition of the first day. After being in the car for only 5 minutes, we heard on the radio - - FLASH FLOOD WARNING and TORNADO WATCH. The sideways glances we gave each other were hopeful. We got to the hotel without hydroplaning or getting into a wreck so it was a success.

We couldn’t decide what our alternative plans should be due to the excessive rain so we opted to hit a local Chucky Cheese where the kids could run rampant and get some energy out. It wasn’t the option we would want - - but the kids loved it and they were able to run around in circles and play games. Some of the roadways became impassable due to the water that evening so we found a way back to the hotel where we knew the next day would be beautiful. Alas, our first full day in Florida was miserable. It rained cats and dogs. We even hit up a Starbucks on the beach just so we could go to the ocean and say we hung out there - - even though we were inside. We went over to the local children’s museum which was nice and interactive. Following that short excursion, we went to the airport to pick up Tutu. Of course, there were more tornado warnings as it was time for her flight to arrive - - what luck! She arrived – albeit late - - safe and sound. This is the second time she has had to arrive during a horrible storm. She landed at Denver last summer during a tornado and was diverted to Texas or something like that. Again...I should have known this was our omen.

We headed up to Delray Beach to see Aunt Ruth, my 98-year old great aunt who was the first Wesson Oil culinary demonstrator in the United States during the Great Depression. She was thrilled to finally meet Ryan and Jack and we caught up for only an hour. She tires easily so we took off after that. The boys enjoyed listening to the music that the assisted living place had playing because it was their Christmas program. They wanted to listen to music rather than visit with their great great aunt.

That evening, Tutu was tired so she took it easy while we went downtown to find some seafood. I, of course, had crab legs, and the boys delighted in eating half of my meal. Jack called the crab legs, “shark” and Eban just enjoyed eating them. We hit up a quaint little local place called Southport Raw Bar. If you’re ever there, I recommend that you eat there as it was fun and good food!

The next morning we prepared to go on our first cruise. We headed to Miami and returned the rental car and went to the port. It was overwhelming witnessing all the grand ships and the amount of cars and people who were doing the same thing we were. There were lines everywhere – to check our passports, to check us in, to take our photo, to get on the ship, to wait for an elevator. I realized that “lines” were something I should get used to real fast. A vacation with lines and a two-year old and three-year old - - wow (please hear me saying that unenthusiastically). We finally left the port of Miami for the worst vacation of our lives. It was a glorious sunset and the kids seemed to love it. In fact, they loved their vacation.

In the next post - - I'll try to relive the first full day at sea and Camp Carnival and Cozumel


See the beautiful weather Florida gave us - it's reflective of the two days we were there - ignore the commentary

The Polar Express 2009

Since the boys love the movie, The Polar Express, I looked around Colorado to find a train ride that would simulate the movie. It was easy to find in Canon City through the Royal Gorge Railway and for a small fortune you can reserve seats on the hour and a half trip which takes one to the “North Pole” to see Santa and then back. The ride goes slowly up a canyon four miles to Santa’s makeshift village of lights and he hops on and then it returns to the train depot.

The boys had been so excited for this trip and talked about the choo-choo train all week. We sped down there (two hours roughly) to hop on board to hear holiday music throughout the rail car. It was great. Every booth was singing and the kids were happy. The boys, decked out in their pajamas, sat side by side and we took off into the night. The bad thing about the “expensive car” was that you couldn’t see a thing as it was so dark out. The good thing is that it came with a table so as soon as the attendant brought the hot chocolate the boys drank some of it and put it down easily. Other cars did not come equipped with a table or a slot for a drink.

The singing was my favorite part. Santa hopped on board and came through our car first and Eban was afraid of him for a bit and Jack just looked at him with his big ol’ Jack eyes. They loved the bells Santa gave them and proceeded to ring them all the way back to the station - - we took them away so we could drive in peace back to the house.

Next year, if we go, we’ll get a room in Canon City for the night as that would be easier than what we did. I guess we could tour the prison system or visit the real Royal Gorge Bridge?

Every activity we do,

Jack seems to say, “I want to go home.” For months now, he seems to be such a homebody and gets easily frustrated with the scene. For the first time EVER, we heard him say, “I want to stay,” and that was leaving Disney World. We looked at each other incredulously as he has never asked to stay anywhere. We smiled and knew it was the right thing to do - - taking the boys to Disney World, that is!

Check out Eban's Thumbs-Up at the End


Seeing Santa - Quick Video


Singing Accompanied by an Accordion Player

Thanksgiving 2009 and Our Epic Fail with Eban's First Day on the Slopes

Thanksgiving 2009 was a week full of activity.

First, JWU was on 9news.com (Denver’s NBC affiliate) for a help segment on holiday meal preparation. We got there early and stayed until 9am. Four chefs answered the “help” phone lines where viewers would call in with their questions for Thanksgiving. Most of the questions were about when to defrost the turkey and how long to cook the bird depending on how large it was. Some other interesting questions were about brining and what to offer guests who adhered to gluten-free diets or were vegetarians, etc. One caller claimed that we were charging them 29 cents per advice so I had to ensure the morning show producer that we were not doing that. They must have called another number as that notion was preposterous. We had a good giggle about how we would take the 29 cents over the phone and one caller wanted to talk to the chef with hair as the other three were bald – hysterical!

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had dinner with our friends Charlie and Carolyn and their three girls. I explained that I volunteer on Thanksgiving morning at 5am at Rosa Linda’s Mexican Café to feed those who otherwise would not have a warm meal. Not only does this family open the doors to their restaurant for free that day, but they deliver meals to the elderly who are homebound or to the infirm. It’s such an impressive operation and this is my third year of assisting. Cassie, their oldest daughter, said she wanted to volunteer. So we told her she could spend the night and get up at 4:30am to go to the restaurant with me. And that she did - - all with a smile. She’s practically the only teenager who could wake up and not be cranky! She was fabulous to work next to all morning and she had a smile on her face while working to make stuffing for 4,000 people or cleaning the dishes. They served roughly 5,000 meals that day before running out of food. They also distributed winter jackets for those in need - all free of charge. I told Oscar, the owner, how amazing it was and he shook his head saying it wasn’t amazing at all. He said the fact that there are so many new people in need isn’t amazing.

It was interesting to view it that way.

In the early evening, we headed over to the Rehm’s house with our pies in hand for over 30 people. Only ten showed up while all the others were no-shows. Chris and Jen didn’t blink an eye with the discrepancy and said they were thankful for those who did show up as they are a part of their extended family. New this year was the fact that Chris cut the turkey utilizing a samurai sword - - I have no idea what prompted this new way of slicing the bird, but it was certainly memorable! It was a great time (as always) yet I really missed Jen’s family who were up in the mountains.

One of the highlights was the fact that Eban begged Jen to blow up the jumpy castle in the basement. She did and all the kids were romping together and I headed downstairs with a bag of garbage when all hell broke loose. I guess Denny was jumping and then up came his dinner all over the jumpy castle, one other child and then he was heading toward me with his arms extended so I would pick him up and make him feel better! YIKES…I extended my arms and picked him up and then Jen came down to grab Denny from me and then clean up the mess. They laughed it off and said it’s not a party until someone throws up! They really were good-natured about all the little curve balls that were thrown their way that evening. The evening also reminded me that Kelsi is a candidate for HOBY for next summer due to the fact that she’ll be entering her sophomore year. I asked her if she wanted an opportunity to interact with other kids her age for an intensive three-day workshop next summer and she was bouncing with enthusiasm with the notion of the idea. I called her school counselor and she signed Kelsi up. It will be neat to see her in action next summer from the sidelines of the camp!

Early Friday morning after the Thanksgiving food coma ended, we headed up to the Keystone cabin that the Rainens let us use for the weekend. What was wonderful was the fact that Jen’s family was up there too and had leftovers which we could happily eat. We invited them over for dinner that evening and it was like another Thanksgiving all over again. We had the same food (plus ribs) and great company. No one threw up this time. Eban loved hanging out of the mini-balcony overlooking the big room and most of all, he loved the bunk room in Bubbe’s “cabin” and he told me it was the coolest room in the whole wide world!

Early Saturday morning, he headed to the slopes for Eban’s first day at ski school. He was such a big boy and was ready and excited to learn. There are signs all over the place that say, “NO PARENTS PAST THIS POINT” and they encourage you not to come around. After we dropped him off and we stayed around to watch him get sized up for boots, etc., we left for a coffee run. Well, we didn’t pay attention to the signs and we tried to sneak back to the kiddie slope to spy on Eban’s progress and of course, take pictures! Well, it was an epic FAIL as Eban saw us and started to cry to be with us. He wouldn’t stop wailing and the teachers were very nice and reiterated the fact that those signs were in place for a reason. Eban wouldn’t calm down so we had to take him from ski school but Vail Resorts said he could come back for a day of ski school and they wouldn’t charge us. We promised to pay attention to the signs next time.

That . afternoon, I ate sushi to comfort the feelings of failing and little Eban wanted my sushi! He ate it and dipped it in the soy sauceI couldn’t believe it! Then we headed off to see a movie and Jack didn’t even make it through the previews, so I took him to Target to run around in the aisles.


Eating Sushi


Sweet Video


Eban Trying on the Ski Boots


Jack Jack Playing "Boo"

Model Railroad Exhibit and I ruined Eban's life

While I know this post is roughly two months old, I want you to know I write some of the little things down so I can remember to share them with you. I think that this little blog is a good diary of sorts and it will be fun for the kids to review it when they are older to see what they did or said, etc.

In November, Grandpa Morgan took the boys and me to the largest model railroad show which is a traveling exhibit. I didn’t know if they’d like it, but they LOVED it. They sat in chairs and watched the little trains go in circles and circles. It was so funny that these little toys captivated their attention. Another interesting tidbit was the fact that all these people do this as a hobby – not only is it expensive but it’s time consuming. I loved people watching at this! It’s really a niche market and the kids ate it up. I couldn’t believe it. So did Grandpa so I see this as a good outing for just the three of them next year!

November was tough as the boys passed one sickness back and forth to one another. That was touch and even Eban explicitly told me, “Momma, make me feel better!” after several trips to the bathroom to throw up. He received his H1N1 vaccination and was a total trooper. Maybe that caused the bug, but not the flu - - who knows? After he recuperated I took him to the store where he proudly told me and several other aisles who were in earshot of his screaming antics, “MOM – YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE BECAUSE YOU DID NOT LET ME GET THAT PRETEND BIG TRUCK!” I kind of liked that one. People were smiling at me and I’m simply assuming it’s because they are parents too and have been recipients of those types of words. Another comment he likes to randomly shout out is, “Smack me like a tortilla!” I have no idea where he got this one or how he is misinterpreting a sentence, but it can be funny.

Harriet is doing so well with our family. She still eats stuffed animals, sippy cups, and an occasional shoe or two. She has been smart to shy away from the couch and other massive items. She loves Seamus and loves the boys. In fact, we just returned from our family vacation and after we put the boys to bed after our first night home, we caught her sleeping sideways in front of their doorway. Last night when Jack kindly woke up at 5am (it’s better than the 4am that he has been doing as he’s still on Florida time), I was surprised to see Harriet in the fire truck bed happily sleeping there watching over Jack (Eban had snuck into our bed and that’s why he wasn’t there). It was so sweet!

Another fun activity we did was to participate in the reading of The Polar Express book at our local book store - - Border's. Eban wore his jammies like the directions said and well Jack…well…he was a dinosaur again.

Ryan was asked to sing with some of his Microsoft cohorts at a pub up in Longmont. It was such a neat venue as it was an old opera house so it still maintained some of that rustic charm. Ryan rocked it in front of a packed house and it was fun to hear him sing even though they were songs I didn’t know!

Finally, Quincy and I attended the Broncos vs. San Diego Chargers game and we had a blast. I ran into one of my Denver Police friends who told us to go to the tunnel where the opposing team has their locker room so we could get better pictures. Quincy was in seventh heaven watching her home team come in. She couldn’t believe we were that close!

Speaking of Quincy, she told me that Eban loves cherry tomatoes and eats them like candy. Again - - what an interesting palate for a three year old! Eban also likes to exclaim, “Jiminy crickets frogs!” Jackson is using full sentences but will not say I’m sorry with he throws a punch or a super kick into a shin. It’s frustrating that he’s so thick-headed with saying I’m sorry. Eban also loves Youtube. He can navigate to pages he likes using the “favorites” under the toolbar. We watch him closely as one day he ended up on an animal rights video which was showing something for the case against the cruelty to horses. He wanted to know why the people were hurting the horses. So I certainly understand the need to be careful when he starts double clicking through the various videos. It’s unbelievable to see how tech-savvy he is. I guess that’s how kids are now these days. Such a different world they live in compared to even me…

The kids watching the model trains (and not crashing through the skimpy little ropes to touch them)!


Eban doing the monologue of a part of the Polar Express movie - he didn't do it as loud as he was because the camera was in his face, but you get it


Harriet's Howl (Yes, we prodded her to do this so you could hear what we hear every morning)

Halloween and Truck Stop 2009

Right after Uncle Steve left, Halloween came along. Eban and Jack were both going to be Spiderman - - we bought two outfits. Well, Eban ended up being a fireman (from a hand me down yellow rain slicker from Quincy) and Jack ended up being the green dinosaur that Eban was last year. Jack has become quite fond of the dinosaur costume and tends to wear it a lot. We try to hide it in the laundry room and when he passes it, he wants it on “NOW!”

Anyway, Halloween was a success at the zoo! We ended up hopping in the van and heading down to “Boo at the Zoo” as the Denver Zoo calls it. Every ten feet, there was a station where companies would showcase their products and hand out a treat for the kids. My VERY favorite station was one that handed out a loaf of bread! I was laughing so hard, but it was SO useful to me as that was on the top of my grocery store list. The kids loved all the activities that the zoo had and I think this will become a family tradition.

In the evening, Halloween was interesting as we got into our outfits to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Well, after we took photos on the driveway, a major meltdown occurred.

We walked across the street to our neighbor’s house and they rang the bell. Out came Scott and his two girls with a bag of candy and Eban took a piece and so did Jack. They immediately started fussing as they wanted the candy NOW and I told them to put it in the bag. They eventually complied but then they wanted to go to the next house quickly without saying thank you. So I stayed with them at Scott’s house and asked them to say thank you. They both were grumpy and refused to say thank you and I told them that if this is how trick or treating would go, that we wouldn’t trick or treat this year as manners are more important. They continued to throw fits. Scott and his girls couldn’t believe it, but I picked up both of those boys like potato sacks and carried them back to the house kicking and screaming. Ryan was smiling as I got to the door with the screaming little toddlers in my arms. I told him what happened so we just played at our house for an hour. Finally Eban said he’d like to go trick or treating again after other kids were ringing our doorbell. I told him we had to go over to Scott’s house to say sorry for the outburst and also say thank you for the candy. He said he would. Jack told me he wouldn’t say sorry so I told him he could stay home with poppa and hand out candy. Well…Eban did what he said he’d do. He walked over to Scott and Sandy’s and apologized (SUCH a big boy) and then we continued to canvass the neighborhood with the rest of the ghosts and goblins and their respective families! He loved it and raked in a lot of candy. He had a few pieces and then the entire bag went with me to JWU so I could give it to the students and faculty/staff!

Another highlight of the beginning of November was our visit to the truck stop. The boys love trucks and anything like big machines. We headed over to Bass Pro Outlet to see the fish and see the big camping gear. The boys simulated that they could drive Quad Bikes (I think that’s what they are called) - - Jack as you can see is still a dinosaur.

Then we headed to the truck stop near the store. The boys loved pointing out the window at the various trucks coming in – TANKER TRUCK! BLUE TRUCK, PICK-UP TRUCK, DUMP TRUCK! It went on and on…it was funny. Eban also wanted to know what the trucks were hauling. I told him that after we ate, we could ask one trucker at the counter what he was hauling. I kept my promise and Eban walked toward the counter that was filled with the truckers! He picked the biggest, burliest guy with tattoos all over his thick, strong arms while sporting a crazy mustache (yet bald), to ask what he was driving in his rig. The burly man looked down from his seat and smiled the nicest smile I could imagine and happily told Eban that he was carrying tea bags and doors. I laughed and continued to laugh as we walked out the doors as it’s a combo I never expected! Next time, we’ll sit at the counter so we can chat with the truckers rather than sit in a booth by ourselves!

Random video of the boys playing with a minor outburst by Eban