Gage loves the animals!

Both Caleb and Gage love the animals. But, as you will see in these videos, Gage just freaks out when he sees them! He loves them so much! You will also see how close he is to crawling!

That full belly laugh is the best!

One of the best vacations ever!

In February, we set out on what was certain to be an adventure! We were not sure how this vacation was going to go. We were taking along 2 7-month old babies. We would be driving in the car for 2 days, going on a week-long cruise and then ending it all with 5 days at Disneyland.

2 days before we left, I got a taste of things to come.. Our travel agency called and told us that Princess had upgraded us to family suite!!! I was so excited I was shaking. It was definitely a foreshadowing of the whole trip because it turned out to be one of our best vacations ever! The boys were so, so good! Better than we could have hoped for. They were so good in the car and had so much fun on the ship, in the sun and at Disneyland! Which made the other 3 of us enjoy ourselves so much, too!

5 people + stuff for 2 babies + 2 weeks on vacation = a lot of stuff in the car!!! Look how packed it was!!!

We stopped in Jean, Nevada for the night and we were all excited to get out of the car and stretch!

The Cruise - Our "Suite" Accommodations!

We were so excited when we walked into our family suite! We're used to just one small, interior cabin. This was a mansion in comparison!

This is the "master bedroom".

Here is the "master bath", complete with a full size bathtub!

Here is the living area. The door to the balcony opened off of the room. This room also had 2 couches that folded out into beds. The couch was SO nice for nursing twins!

Gage hanging out in the living room!

This was the second bedroom. You could get to it from the living room and it also had it's own door to the hallway. It was so nice to have this separate bedroom - we set up the twins' cribs in this room and we could shut the door when they were sleeping!

Here's what our room looked like after a few days - very lived in! I could have moved in forever! As you can see, we had room service quite a bit. So nice to call down and have a delicious piece of chocolate cake delivered to your room!

PERKS OF HAVING A SUITE:

There were so many "extras" that came along with having a suite. The huge rooms and extra space was just the beginning.

We had fresh flower arrangements - even in the bathroom!

Upon arrival, we had fresh flowers in the living room. Then we kept getting deliveries. Fresh chocolate-covered strawberries. A fresh fruit basket (we got one every day!)...

... champagne!!!

Fresh flowers to wear for formal night!

Every night we could order "canapes". This particular evening I got tuxedo strawberries and salmon with caviar.

Free mini-bar!!!

We even got our laundry done for free! I had to take this picture because I thought it was so funny how they even put all of the baby clothes on separate hangers!

We had so much room that I was able to set up an entire area devoted to feeding the babies (the cruise provided the baby food!).

This is usually where we fed the babies (when we were in the room). We fed them by the pool a lot, too.

One of the best perks of having a suite was having the bathtub! It was so much easier to give the boys baths instead of showers! And they had so much fun in the tub together!

We also got to eat a full, made-to-order, sit-down breakfast in one of the fancy restaurants. Complete with mimosas and bloody marys!!! This particular morning, we were the only ones there!!

Around the Ship

One of our favorite things to do on the ship is hang out by the pool! This was Caleb and Gage's first experience with swimming. They ABSOLUTELY loved the water and loved to play in the pool.

Here they are lounging on the sun deck.

Sitting by the pool - so many people would stop to look at them. They were the hit of the ship! I only saw 2 other babies onboard, and Caleb and Gage were the youngest. So, needless to say, they were a hot item!

The overflow part of the pool was the perfect place for them to sit and splash!

After breakfast, we would head straight to the deck to get our lounge chairs for the day! We all enjoyed the sunshine!

The loved walking around with dad in the pool!

That's Gibson holding his hands up in the water! He had fun playing in the pool, too. The water was nice and warm (I even got in!).

We had such a large balcony! It was so nice because we spent a lot of time on it!

There's nothing as beautiful as looking out at the vast ocean; it's such a unique experience. It's so peaceful.

On the ship one day, a lady approached me and said, "that must be the baby I saw in the swing on your balcony from our deck." We enjoyed as much time outside as we could!

Gage and Caleb hanging out in the room.

All the extra space in our room allowed the boys to play and roll around on the floor! It was so nice to have so much room!

Caleb sound asleep in our bed!

Caleb loves to put things in his mouth - including his sock!

Formal night.

Gibson didn't dress up for formal night because he was just going to the kid's area. That was much more fun than wearing a tie and going to boring dinner with mom and dad!

Caleb and Gage enjoyed going to dinner with us, though!

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

I had some stuff I wanted to get in Mexico, so Brady and I took Caleb and Gage into Puerto Vallarta for a little bit of shopping. We left Gibson on the ship in his Kid's camp; he didn't even know we were gone!

Here's a picture of the boys with our ship in the background.

A close-up of the boys.
Ahhh... enjoying my first Pacifico of the trip.
Ahhh... Brady enjoying a 7-Up! Ha ha!
Caleb and Gage took their naps in the stroller and were sound asleep when we took this picture.
I went back and forth on whether or not I should get these little shirts in Puerto Vallarta. Brady didn't think I would use them. But they are so cute and they are the perfect pool shirts!

Mazatlan, Mexico

We weren't originally planning on going into Mazatlan. The logistics were hard - having to take 2 babies in a cab along with all of our stuff for a day at the beach sounded like a lot of work. But we decided to do it anyway and we had SO MUCH FUN! Mazatlan turned out to be one of our best days on the cruise!

Here we are in the cab on the way to the beach. It's about a 20 minute drive. Since we didn't have carseats, we just strapped the boys to ourselves!

Gibson and I went parasailing! He had always wanted to do it and we were able to go tandem, so we did it! What a thrill!

After our parasailing adventure, we found the perfect spot on the beach. It's the place where we park ourselves everytime. All the cruise people were at the beach at the hotel next door and nobody was at this part of the beach. Lucky for us! We got these nice lounge chairs and this bit of shade, which also served as a wind block. It was the perfect place to set up with babies for the afternoon.

I always love the service of the restaurant here. They just bring a little table down to you and you can eat your food (and drink your beer) right on the beach!
Mmmm. Nachos!
Mmm. Quesedilla!
When it was naptime, the boys just took their naps here in the shade. Gage cuddled up on this lounge chair...
... and Caleb slept in his stroller.
Peek-a-boo, I see Gage!
There's not many things that Gibson likes to do more than play on the beach. He had Brady had a lot of fun playing in the sand and waves!



Back on the boat, we watched our departure from Mazatlan from our balcony - great, front row seats!

And we got to see a GORGEOUS sunset!