Cayman Part 3

And here we go again....I swear I am going to finish blogging our trip this time. (I know this is way more detail than anyone except me will ever want to read, but I know I will forget it if I don't write it down)

The day after the turtle farm we headed back to Rum Point in the morning. We got there pretty early since Dax was up at 6 a.m. again and had the place to ourselves for a while, which was amazing. The rest of the family drifted over a little later and my sister Amanda took some pictures for me because I am such a picture taking slacker.

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Here is Arden, my beach baby. She would stay in the water all day (as long as she has her floaters of course):

Corbie and Preston playing on the beach:

Corbie and me "walking" around the beach. She still doesn't want to walk on her own yet, but loves walking around with someone's help.

We had a fun morning of swimming and snorkeling, and I even saw a lionfish right under the pier. We had lunch at the restaurant right on the beach there (MY FAVORITE). I think I ate my weight in Mahi Mahi on this trip. After lunch, we headed to the blue house back for a quick nap. Corbie and Dax were tired from playing at the beach, but we didn't have time for a nice long nap. As it was, we had to hustle back to Rum Point so that we didn't miss our catamaran to the Stingray Sandbar. I really enjoyed the trip out to the sandbar, it is so beautiful!The water is just an amazing color out there that brings joy to my heart. Arden, Preston, Dax and I climbed down to the back of the boat and dangled our feet in the water...it was so clear we could see all the way to the bottom. Arden thought every rock she saw was a turtle...it was hilarious. We climbed back up and sat along the side, and Corbie loved looking over the side and chewing on the rope (obviously). It must have been salty or something.

Our first stop was out by the "Cayman wall" where we went snorkeling. Preston and I took turns so someone could stay on the boat with the kids. The reef out there is so beautiful, and I swam with a huge school of purple tangs (no camera, sorry). Amanda's camera goes underwater too, so here is a picture of hers showing some of the coral out there:Next we loaded back up and headed to the Sandbar. The kids LOVED it. Dax was excited to touch the stingrays, and even Corbie reached right out to touch one.

I even caught one all by myself (well, my sister Val herded her towards me and then I picked her up): Yay, Me! I held her for a while so everyone could pet her, and then gave her a kiss (it is supposed to be good luck) and let her go. I guess the stingrays heard about the good luck kissing too:Awwww! Besides stingrays, we saw a puffer fish and some conches hanging around too. Corbie wasn't afraid to touch the conch in its shell, but Arden didn't want to. (the conch is by someone's foot on the left):

We all had such a good time, and here are my sisters and me and Corbie on the ride back:

The kids were EXHAUSTED. So the next day we just hung around the blue house pretty much the whole entire day, splashing and reading and relaxing and making sure everyone got their naps. Daxton actually fell asleep while eating lunch at the table, poor tired boy.

There was a lot of art on the walls at the blue house, most of it including pictures of tropical fish or birds or turtles. Corbie LOVED it. She actually learned two new words on this trip, mostly from making us all walk her around the house so she could look at all of the art. She learned to say fish ("ISHHH!") and bird ("BOOHDEE!").

Thursday, it was back to Rum Point in the morning. These are about the only pictures I can get of Dax these days (him running away as fast as he can): Arden is much more cooperative:
We had lunch at the beach again, and then after naps we took a drive over to the East Side and took a walk down one of the beaches there. The beach was a little rocky, and there were thousands of seashells and coral washed up on the beach. Arden and Dax had a great time looking for things to pick up. Preston carted back a bag full of Arden's treasures (shells, rocks, etc.) to the blue house, which we later used to throw into the sparkly water when Arden wasn't looking. ;) Here is us with my sister Amanda and her husband Matt, taking a break on a covered bench:

The next day was scuba day! My parents stayed home with the kids (thanks!!!) and the rest of us headed over the 7-mile beach to meet our guides. It was a small boat, and luckily we were the only ones on the trip. Here we are on the boat and ready to go:
And here is a picture Matt took of Amanda and me and our guide. Preston and Matt had to get back on the boat because they both suck their air so fast, and Amanda and I got to go back down and look around some more (Amanda is in the back, our guide is the lowest and I am the other one):

We went on two dives. My sister Val had a hard time equalizing the pressure in her ears on the first dive, but she did great on the second one. We saw a couple of turtles, two HUGE lobsters, thousands and thousands of fish including a very large puffer fish, an old anchor from a Spanish galleon and some stingrays and even a cuttlefish. It had been a long time since I had been diving, and I had a great time (except for that minute or two when I thought Val was lost).

The next day was our last full day so we decided to cram it as full as we could. First, we drove back into Georgetown and took a ride on a semi-sub. If you have ever been to Disneyland, you know what this is. It is pretty much a boat, but with windows below the waterline so you can look out and see the fish. The adults had seen lots of fish snorkeling, but here was the kids' chance. Here is Daxton, who yelled "HEWWO FISHIES!" pretty constantly through the whole trip:

Corbie thought it was great. She had her pointer-finger out the whole time. Look at these wide-open baby eyes:

Another fun thing was that once we were out away from shore a little way, they let us snorkel from the boat. The kids loved watching everyone snorkel through the windows. Here is Daxton on the inside, looking at a snorkeling Preston who swam down to say hello:

After we got back to shore, we grabbed some lunch and headed up to Cemetery Beach to have another snorkel. There is excellent snorkeling there, but you have to swim a little way out to get to it. I saw a flounder, more stingrays, a barracuda, some rainbow parrotfish, and another, smaller school of tangs. Preston decided to chase them a little:

Snorkeling is so much fun! And, everyone is so attractive while doing it, right Manda and Mom?

After we dried off a little, the girls (and Matt!) headed into town for a little more shopping:We headed out to Kaibo Grill for our last dinner on the island. The food was good, but there were a few too many intoxicated tourists there for my taste :).

The next day was the day we had to head home. Before we left, I got the kids dressed in actual clothes for a change and took them out in the backyard to try and get some pictures. They weren't too cooperative, but between Amanda and me we got a couple of good shots. Here are some of my favorites:

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We sadly packed up our stuff and headed to the airport. We flew to Atlanta with some grouchy kids, and had a LONG layover in Atlanta, which was made even longer by a flight delay. Dax was in the mood to run around, so I ran that kid all over the airport. I think he must have jogged at least a mile, which in toddler miles is like a marathon. He was so tired, and starting to melt down. Preston held him in his lap and made him hold still for just a minute, and he was OUT. He fell asleep before we boarded, but did not wake up until we got off the plane in SLC. I was holding Corbie, and she cried a bit while we waited for our turn to take off, but by the time we were airborne she was asleep too, and Arden followed soon after. I was so relieved....for about 45 minutes. Then my legs started falling asleep. But if I shifted my position even the teeniest bit, Corbie started to cry. So the next 4 hours or so were pretty much torture as I tried to hold as still as I could without actually starting to cry from the pain from holding still. Nooooo fun. We landed just after midnight, and waited (and waited and waited) for our bags. Our amazing friend Nate picked us up (THANKS!!!!) and we got home and put everyone in their own beds and asleep again around 2 a.m.

And Dax was up at 6 :)

It was an amazing vacation!!! The kids really missed having everyone around, especially the first couple of days. Each morning, Dax would ask "BUGGA, ANNIE WENT?!?!" which means ("Wherever did Grandpa and Grandma go?") and Arden keeps asking me how many more days until we can go back.

Hopefully it won't be too long!!