I had been simultaneously anticipating and dreading this vacation for months. Of course I was excited to go (I LOVE the beach), but this was the first big trip with all three kids, and I was a little apprehensive (okay, terrified) about how they would do on the airplanes and whether or not they would be able to sleep well away from home. We knew it would be difficult if not impossible to take this vacation without help, so we volunteered to use some of Preston's many SkyMiles to bring my parents with us. Soon, my sister Val wanted in on the trip, followed quickly by my other sister Amanda and her husband, Matt. The 7-to-3 adult-to-kid ratio sounded doable, so we packed our bags, our car seats, our stroller, our pack-and-play, and our diaper bags and headed out.
The flights there were long and tiring, but with all of our helpers we were able to keep the kids occupied and had no major meltdowns. Hooray! We flew into Grand Cayman and started our drive to the "quiet" side of the island, away from the hustle-and-bustle of Georgetown and Seven Mile Beach. Preston, Arden and I had been to Grand Cayman before, and I knew that I wanted to stay close to Rum Point. I thought it would be perfect because it isn't crowded (except for a couple of hours a day when cruise ships send people there for excursions), the beach is soft and sandy, the water is shallow and calm for the kids, and there is really good snorkeling. Not to mention that it is stunningly beautiful and one of my favorite places in the whole wide world.
Instead of renting multiple hotel rooms or condos, we decided to rent a beach house within walking distance of Rum Point since there were so many of us. It was a great decision. Here is Barefoot Kai, or as Arden calls it "our blue house."
Front view:
The house sits on a penninsula, across the street from the ocean, with a lagoon in the backyard:
We had our own private beach with our own private hammock under our own private palm trees next to our own private dock. It was FANTASTIC! Here is the view from the end of the dock back toward the house.
All of the houses on the island were bright colors, but I must admit I loved how this one was the same color as the Carribbean sky. Maybe we should paint our house blue? (Just kidding, neighbors).
We all spent a lot of time in the backyard. The kids loved building sandcastles, gathering seashells, throwing coconuts off of the dock, splashing in the water, and chasing the geckos and crabs that lived there around. Every time Dax saw a gecko, he shrieked "HEWWO WIZZARD! HEWWO WIZZARD!" The adults (when not playing with the kids) enjoyed swinging in the hammock and relaxing and reading in the lounge chairs. I had a lovely afternoon nap in the hammock one day that was seriously one of the highlights of my trip. I loved to look up at the palm trees from the hammock and watch them blowing in the breeze.
After we got all settled in and unpacked a little, we ran down the street to Rum Point and jumped in the water. The water was wonderful and warm, and we saw our first stingray. The kids loved it and were splashing around like craxy. However, Daxton had his mouth open the whole time and swallowed quite a bit of ocean water. His face after that first mouthful of salty seawater was priceless. We watched the sunset and soon it was getting dark. We headed back to the blue house and had dinner and then put the kids to bed. We learned the first night that putting Daxton and Arden in the same room was not an option (Daxton spent over an hour giggling and pulling on Arden's blanket and jumping on her and pulling her hair). So Dax ended up sleeping on some cushions on the floor next to our bed. Corbie was in her pack-n-play in our master bathroom (it was a BIG bathroom). Both Dax Corbie had a hard time settling down, but they were both sleeping when we went to bed around 11, and we hoped they were settled in for the night.
Our hopes were in vain.
Daxton woke us up around midnight by throwing up ALL over the place. He had been sick the week before but had seemed fine all day, so we weren't sure if he was getting sick again or had just swallowed too much saltwater. We cleaned him up (with him 95% asleep the whole time), threw a bunch of stuff in the washer, and tried to get back to sleep. Daxton was zonked for the rest of the night, but unfortunately, all of the commotion had awoken Corbie. After going and laying her down about a dozen times, I finally brought her into the bed with us around 2:30 a.m. She thought that was the funnest thing EVER and spent the next hour crawling around the bed and trying to stick her finger into the various holes in her parents' heads. Her VERY unhappy mother kicked her back to her pack-n-play, where she proceeded to scream until around 4:30 a.m. before she finally gave out. At this point I was wondering what in the world we were thinking trying to take this trip and promising myself that I would never venture outside of my house ever, EVER again.
Things looked better in the morning, and luckily the house was pretty sound proof and rest of the family slept through all of our adventures. THANKFULLY, the rest of our nights were much, MUCH better because: 1) Daxton's barfing was not repeated, and 2) we put a couple of blankets under Corbie the next day and she slept just fine after that. The only complaint I had after that horrible first night was that for some reason, Dax woke up at 6:00 a.m. every single day.
We spent our first morning playing in the backyard. I decided to snorkel down the lagoon to where it met the ocean. As soon as I started I recognized that the lagoon floor had quite a few jellyfish resting on it. I had seen (and been stung by) these jellyfish before in the Florida Keys. They are called Cassiopea, or upside-down jellyfish, and they look like round clumps of grass or sea anenomes when they are resting on the bottom. They just sit down there and don't bother anyone, unless of course you step on them or stir them up and then they float around and can sting you. The stings aren't very bad, but can be a little itchy and annoying.
I was already out above the jellyfish, so I thought I would just tell everyone about them when I got back from my swim. I saw a lot of fish, some barracuda, a lot of conch shells, and even a lobster on my little swim out to the ocean. I rested on the beach a while and then swam back. However, when I got back I found out that my dad had discovered the jellyfish the HARD way (sorry, dad!). He is training for another half-marathon (yes, my dad is in better shape than I am) and after his run he thought he would cool off by wading out into the lagoon. On his way back in, he thought that he scratched his foot on some of the sea grass or something and the seawater was making it sting. It was a little red and itchy, so I knew from experience it was the jellyfish. My mom put some vinegar on his feet and he was soon fine.
We spent the afternoon at Rum Point, playing and snorkeling:
Well, I am sleepy and the Jazz game is over (Yay Jazz!!!) so I will continue this later.
We got back VERY LATE last night from our trip to the fabulous Cayman Islands. I am dead tired and running around doing laundry and trying to catch up on work so this is all you get for now....but I promise there will be many more pictures and stories coming soon!
Hope you enjoyed your first trip around the sun.
The kids had already done an Easter Egg hunt at the park the weekend before Easter, and another with the Zaugg family after that, so they were getting pretty good by the time the big day actually rolled around. The Easter bunny left some eggs INSIDE the house this year for the kids to find on Easter morning. Arden and Dax found them pretty quickly, and even Corbie found one or two. 
