Back to life....back to reality

 We were sooooo grateful that everyone stayed healthy on our big adventure but it was kind of inevitable that someone would get sick as soon as we returned. Transitioning back to west coast time was brutal. Char and Clark woke up Sunday morning at 4:30AM...ahhhh!! Then Thursday Miss Char popped a fever at school and we all spiraled down. 

No strep. No ear infection. Just a weird high fever. Got her rest and she was somewhat normal on Saturday. Then Sunday a little better which was amazing so we could celebrate Stella's 7th birthday and watch Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs eek by a win on Super Bowl Sunday.  Randomly, what is up with this dog hat our kids were obsessed with??

Gigi and Char might have sneaked into Stella's makeup and Char came out looking like a powder puff. 

Sadly Monday I got another call from school to come get Miss Charlotte because of a suspected pink eye. I was NOT happy as I had a ladies Valentine's party later that morning. Thankfully, we got into the Urgent Care again who confirmed it wasn't bacterial pink eye. The doc cleared char to return to school the next day so she came with me to the end of the party. Slept a lot. Did not like the eye drops we gave her. But woke up Tuesday (Valentine's Day) looking 100% so back to school she went in time for her party. 

Whew! Sickness we are done with you! But it's hard not to feel blessed that we didn't miss any fun events. And later that week I found cute pots at Lowes to plant my budding succulents. We started ripping off the backsplash in the bathrooms so that is coming along. And we got a gift of MEAT from the Barrientos. Enough to fill our freezer to the tippy top. So generous and helpful and yummy. We really are so blessed!

And off again

 And then we were done. Friday morning we disembarked from our holiday and chilled with G&G for a bit before Grandpa drove us back to Orlando. Since we had an early flight we stayed at a super sketchy hotel (ewww!) with the tiniest beds. Good thing us Gailans are tiny people. We even squeezed Gerald and Bun Bun in. 

The kids were insane. Cabin fever insane so it was a true blessing to find a Kid Play zone within walking distance from the hotel. 

Even Dana got in on the fun proving once and for all that white men can indeed jump. 

We flew out the next morning after wandering the Orlando airport and determining it really is the best kid airport we've been to thus far. They had food courts before you even checked in (which was good because we were starving!) and a giant fish tank to entertain the kids so we could eat. Nice one Orlando. 

The kids did great on the flight. We put Clark over in the aisle seat and it was just him and one sweet older lady. He did not make one peep the whole 6 hours, just glued to his game happy as a clam with snacks. Miss Char on the other hand struggled with boredom and her favorite game became waking Dana up:) At one point she realized she needed to poop so guess who got to stand in a airplane bathroom for 10 minutes with a small squatting struggling human? Yes, that would be me! She owes me forever. But we made it. Picked up our car in Seattle and started the long drive home. Well....some of us did. 

Not pictured is Dana passed out in the passenger seat. I think we successfully destroyed the Gailans on this adventure. Let's do it again....ummm someday:)

On the Boat

There was so much to see and do on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. Since we wore the kiddos out every day we were all asleep usually around 8:30PM. Thankfully, we had one full day at sea to try out everything on the big boat. 

Clark and Char both loved the kid zone. They made besties right away and Clark kept bumping into his up at the Windjammer cafe. 

We went to a Circus Ice Skating show (Clark chose to stay at the kid zone) and Charlotte got picked to be one of a lucky few that go to ride in a train on the ice. She was pretty cute and shy. 

Later that afternoon we played at the back of the boat on this weird chip shaped climbing zone. It was a maze to get out of but that added to the fun. 

We ended up at the Mariner Golf area several times. Clark was just obsessed and they got really good at the holes by the end. 

We even hit up an escape room with Grandma and Grandpa and allllllmost got out. There was one tricky puzzle that poor Grandma Tina and this other lady were working on that just stumped us all. But it was so fun to work with other guests and get a few puzzles right. 

And every night we came back to funny animal towel shapes. Only got a photo of the monkey but we had a elephant too. 

Nassau and Cococay

 Our two ports were Nassau, Bahamas and Cococay. Both awesome for different reasons. 

NASSAU

Got off the boat very leisurely, picked up a bus to quiet Love beach and spent a few hours running in the waves, relaxing on the sand and meeting random European strangers. Funniest moment was Miss Charlotte straight up tossing her goggles into the ocean. Just threw them right in. Obviously missed the concept that the ocean in not a pool and you cannot dive for your goggles. So....yeah those were gone. 

We wore out pretty quickly and headed back to the boat for a nap and dinner. Got to watch the ship take off and catch a photo of the kids with this little lighthouse on the edge of land. 

Wednesday was Cococay which was hands down everyone's favorite. We rented a cabana which made it super easy to stash our stuff and wander. We first hit up these racer slides. Charlotte was just tall enough for the yellow one so while Clark and Dana did a bunch of slides she did this one about 17 times in a row. 

She would race down, run to the entrance, stand on this little scale with her arms out wide, wait patiently for the worker to wave her on and then race up again. Little miss independent. 

The rest of the day was playing at the big pirate ship and then HOURS at the wave pool. Both Clark and Char would slap on life vests, wade out, and just jump and jump with the big kids. Dana and Grandpa Pat took turns but we all honestly took a big nap while they played and played. 

Let's just say we took some tired kiddos back to the boat and got a big giant nap before dinner time.