When the kids were younger Mat and I discussed how fun it would be when the kids turned twelve to take them on a trip of their choice just them and us. We thought it would be fun before we became too lame and before the teenage years set in. Bailey is approaching her twelveth birthday and we kept asking where she wanted to go. Bailey's pretty laid back and so she really didn't care. She even liked the idea of heading up to Park City and shopping. She did mention a few times the Bahamas. One of the requirements we had made for the trip was that we needed to go somewhere that had an LDS temple. The Bahamas didn't qualify. However, we had an opportunity to save some money and go on a cruise before her birthday and the cruise stopped in the Bahamas and so we snuck her out of school and took her a couple of months early so she wasn't old enough to do baptisms anyhow.
After a red eye flight from Las Vegas to Fort Lauderdale and virtually no sleep we accidentally slept until 11:30 the first day that the ship was in port. We went to Princess Cays in the Bahamas and by the time we made it over to the island we only had three hours to play. Bailey saw people on the water bikes and that's the first thing she wanted to do. We saw a stingray in the water and I'm afraid I scared Bailey from going near them the rest of the trip. :( Mat and Bailey snorkeled for a bit. Mat somehow didn't pack Bailey's mask with her gear so she didn't snorkel for very long. She did have goggles but she wasn't able to use the breathing tube so it was a tad difficult for her. Of course I don't snorkel so I worked on my tan.
Princess Cays was Bailey's favorite island. It only had people from our ship on it and was a beautiful place. Of course we did a little shopping before heading back on the boat and were one of the last people back.
We had our first of two formal nights that evening and while we don't own full formal gowns and tuxes we still had fun dressing up a bit.
The next day we visited St. Maarten. Mat and Bailey were scheduled for a para sailing tour that ended up being canceled due to high winds on the coast it was held on. We hit the shopping and beach instead.
It was surprisingly hot. We've never been to the Caribbean before but figured the climate would be similar to Hawaii's. It was quite a bit warmer. Bailey spent most of her time in the water and impressed many onlookers with her beach tumbling skills.
Of course, whenever we leave kids at home we are always seeing everything we know they would love if they were with us. We knew Easton would dig seeing Mat hold an iguana and he wasn't about to pick one up so we tried to fake a picture.
We spent the following day on St. Thomas. We went on a kayaking/hiking/snorkeling excursion though a protected mangrove lagoon. It was gorgeous. The guides were concerned with Bailey being big enough to paddle so they asked her how many push ups she could do. She said around thirty so they had no problems after that. :) It was my favorite part about the trip. We walked over to a hermit crab village of sorts. Thousands of hermit crabs were everywhere! We had never been kayaking before and while it was about as beginner as you get we still had a blast.
We had two different days at sea within our week cruise so on the second day was the second formal night.
Our last island we visited was Grand Turk. It had GORGEOUS beaches. The island was fairly small and only have about 5,000 residents so it was very laid back which was refreshing after the crowded Virgin Islands.
The trip was such a fun way to spend time with our little girl who is growing up so blasted fast. As Peyton is learning to sing "I love to see the temple" I can't help think that we were JUST teaching Bailey the same song and buying the same pink barbies and dress ups. People kept commenting on what a lucky girl Bailey was to get to go on the trip. WE were the lucky mom and dad however, that got to take her and spend time with her and let her know how much we love her!
