And with the blink of an eye...July has passed us by ( I should have been a poet)

The best part about summer is that although June starts with no real plans, (well besides our amazing vacation, which I will get back to) every sunny day ends up getting filled up and the kids and I are always off and running. Daddy has even been able to enjoy a few of our summer days; now working 12 hour shifts with his new job, he doesn't work everyday, so we have gotten the chance to have some family bike rides, lunch on the beach, and so much more. The weather has been amazing and we have had so much fun together...

So where did our July go??

It started off with the most amazing gift ever...a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean with my parents, the kids, and my awesome friend "Nurse Jen" boy what a trooper she was..and oh so helpful!! I will admit it was A LOT of work and it was HELL no fun on a plane with a one and a half year old who already has issues a hard time sitting still. I think by the time we got there every single passenger on the plane wanted to throw us off the plane, but luckily we made it... in one piece...barely!!

We flew in on the red eye thinking that the kids would sleep the entire way...WRONG!! No amount of Benadryl was going to put Alexa down, not that I tried or anything hee hee. She was up for the long haul and by the time we got to Florida it was 6am. I was hot, tired, hungry, frustrated..you name it...I was D.O.N.E. .com! Luckily we were greeted at the hotel by my parents who had a nice restful night of sleep. I handed over the kids, checked into our room and I was lights out for a few hours...thank GOD for my parents :-) We did a little sight seeing in Ft. Lauderdale (what we could do in the rain) and the next day we we were on our way to our ship...The Oasis of the Seas...

This ship was the largest ship we have ever been on, in fact (insert fun fact here) "it is the 3rd largest cruise ship in the world"..yeah we were big time on this trip LOL. It had everything from an ice skating rink, a wave rider, four pools, six jaccuzzi's, a kids water zone, an entire floor dedicated to kids programs..OUR LIFESAVER, various clubs, a level of shops, daily parades and so so much more. The kids club was Nathan's home away from home as they did so many fun things with the kids and he loved hanging out there. They also had a Nursery fully equipped with toys, cribs, strollers, etc. My mom suggested that I send Alexa there for a few hours a day this way she could get some fun time in, nap, or just relax and mommy could have some much need R&R by the pool (did I mention the cocktail in hand). I felt guilty dropping her off and didn't do it at first but by the 3rd day of Alexa protesting being in the sun (my little German baby) I took my mom up on her offer and I thoroughly enjoyed my mommy time. Thank you Mom times 1,000 it made the trip so much more amazing ;)

I wish I would have taken more pics of all the amazing amenities on the ship because my descriptions do not do it justice, but if you have the chance just google "Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas" and you will see exactly how awesome it was.

Thank you so much to my parents and Jen who made my trip so much more enjoyable, it was a wonderful vacation and beside my minor breakdowns after dealing with my "action packed kiddos" I had an amazing time!