Yummy!

This silly boy takes after his mom in taste buds. He loves olives! He even puts them on his fingers before he puts them in his mouth.

Crusin' into 2014

 On Monday, December 30, 2013, Tim's grandparents took the Gordon Larsen family to Orlando and started our 4 day cruise to the Bahamas...all 34 of us! Grandpa got us a private bus for our shuttle from the hotel the boat. The drive let Ty sit in his seat and Ty was in heaven. Our boat was named Enchantment of the Seas. This is our room, notice the monkey our room attendant folded out of towels for us one night. Our first morning was spent at Carnival's private island.  I LOVE the sun, especially on Dec 31st.

 

View from the boat the first morning:

 

 

 Ty did not like the water...or the sand. He pretty much didn't like our first stop.

...until we found this awesome beach wheelchair. Talk about service!  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the sun and scenery.

 The morning started out nice, but the wind picked up. Tim took the grandparents and Ty back early, but I stayed back for lunch on the island, then it started raining and the wind didn't stop. We had to be tendered to the ship by smaller boats, but the wind was so much worse than predicted that the small boats couldn't leave. We ended up waiting in line to get back to the boats for two hours. When they said it was safe enough, the small boat left with the group before us, and we all watch on edge as it tipped and sloshed in the waves making its way back to the boat. It can't be a good sign when even the workers were going out to see if it would make it. With concern, we got on the tender and headed back to the ship. My niece Mackenzie, who was sitting next to me, looked up at her dad and asked with all seriousness (a few times) "Are we going to die?" The first few waves were okay, but some water got in and was covering the floor. At the next wave I heard a scream and looked up to see a wall of water coming toward me. I pulled the towel over my head as it soaked me and everyone around me. Though wet, we made it back to the boat and were set in place by two other empty tenders pulled up next to us to hold us in place while people exited. The pictures below were of us waiting to exit. We all had big smiles because we were so happy to be alive. These pictures were taken before we got off the boat. Aubrey and I were the last two to leave (besides other workers). Just as I was stepping onto the ship, a huge wave hit us and knocked the ramp off it's mark. We were ordered to go sit back down as they backed the tender up and replaced the ramp. They then called for us to hurry as fast as we could off the boat. Men were lined up on both sides of us making a walls and they held our arms as they guided us into the ship. It was pretty crazy. Once we were back on the boat, Tim and Ty were waiting for us. They had heard others' crazy stories and were worried about us. Our cousins were on an earlier tender that was waiting for an hour in the middle of the water trying to wait for good enough conditions to dock at the ship and let people off. At one point they heard the captain shout to open another door. When the ship said no, they heard him yell, "It's now or never!" I'm really glad we are all safe.
The tender:

  We lived to see 2014! Happy New Year!  This was our formal night and I'm so bummed I didn't get any real pictures of me and Tim. We had to take turns with Ty and I opted to put him to bed, so I didn't get much celebrating in. At least we had a delicious dinner and Ty got to decorate cupcakes for dessert! Tim and Brian watched football on the big screen by the pool on New Years Eve.

 

 

New Years Day 2014: Nassau, Bahamas

 Apparently, New Years Day is the biggest holiday in Nassau. They held a parade that lasted from 2am-10am and all of the shops were closed until 1pm. We opted to walk to the closest (but not nicest) beach. Ty even warmed up to the idea of a beach with water and sand.  Ty loves his aunt "Alta" (he kept calling Aubrey the name of the dog we watched over Christmas).  More beaches. We got lots of pina coladas at the shacks pictured.  Scott brought croquet. Ty and Matthew liked to collect all of the mallets, so everyone playing had to share theirs. On the way back to the boat, Ty was too tired to be held, so he opted for a ride in Grandpa's wheel chair.

 

My Boys

 I love this picture! Tim, Ty, Shelby, and Nick

 Ty Gordon and his namesake

 

 

 Cute cousins Harper and Eva had fun together!

Activities on the boat included swimming, rock climbing and a bungee thing.

 Above is Tim's cousin Taylor. He and Brian didn't love the bungee jumping, so I didn't try it, but I did do the rock climbing! I think Taylor started once I was half way up and he made it to the top at the same time as me (notice the bottom middle picture). Oh well.

Our last night party had Ty and Shelby up dancing.
Ben and Diann put a game of Family Feud together that created a few laughs. 

The whole clan

We all had flights the afternoon we got back, but they were almost all delayed. Don't worry, our 34 person family set up camp in the airport and kept busy. I love the top left pictures when the girls were playing with Nathan's hair.

And we finally made it back. Ty had a fun-filled week, but was glad to have some time to relax once back home. We had a great time in the sun and sand, eating lots of good food, and mostly being with family. Thanks for the cruise, Grandma and Grandpa Larsen!

Wizards for a Day

Our little family was very spoiled this year. In addition to going to Disneyland for Thanksgiving with my family, we had been planning on a cruise to the Bahamas for the past year courtesy of Tim's Grandparents. Because the cruise left out of Florida, Tim's parents decided to take his family a day early and check out Universal Studios.  Ty LOVES his Christmas present from Aunt Aubrey; Disney's Cars. It kept him quiet on the 3.5 hour flight. We made it to Florida okay but, unfortunately, Ty's carseat did not. Though there were several flights from Denver to Orlando, we had to wait at the airport for four more hours so we could actually leave the airport on a shuttle. Ty kept himself busy by planking. Haha! (No, that luggage belt was NOT on)

 The next day we went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios and promptly headed to Hogsmead (Harry Potter World).  All of the little store fronts were fun. Some of the merchandise was "bewitched!" We checked out Honey Duke's candy shop and also the joke shop next door.

   Because we've learned our lesson about amusement parks: go early, we didn't have to wait too long for the Harry Potter ride, but because the line was moving so fast we didn't have a lot of time to take pictures in the castle. We went back later in the evening to "tour" the castle. I had to add lighting to a lot of the pictures because it was so dark in there, but we walked by Dumbledore's office, Harry Potter's Quidditch locker, and the staircase with moving pictures! Note: the Hogwarts ride is kind of scary and makes you sick, just fyi.  They are making another Harry Potter area in the other Universal Studio Park and the rumor is that the Hogwarts Express Train will take people between the two towns.

 

 I really liked the Hippogriff coaster, and Tim liked the Dragon Racing coaster, but the best part of HP world: the drinks! It's hard to see below, but I'm pointing to my Pumpkin Juice. Mmm, kind of like apple cider!

Tim's parents took Ty home and we stayed with Aubrey to eat at the 3 Broomsticks. More delicious drinks...Butterbeer. Yum. The foam on top was amazing!

 

I put all the HP pictures together, but we only went in the morning and evening when it wasn't too crowded. In the middle of the day we experienced the rest of Universal Studios. They have areas for Dr Seuss, Jurassic Park, Adventure...something, and more. Ty's favorite areas were the playgrounds for kids. The Dr Seuss play area had water to play in and he was a happy boy. It was a fun-filled day!