Canada New England Cruise - New England Ports

After leaving Canada, our first stop was Bar Harbor Maine.  On our last Canada New England Cruise we missed this port due to rough seas.  Bar Harbor is a tender port and the weather was too bad for us to get off the ship.  So I really wanted to spend some time here.  We were able to plan our day so that we could do two excursions, which we booked on our own.  First on the list was a Cessna flight above Acadia National Park and the Bar Harbor coastline from Acadia Air Tours.  The weather was WONDERFUL and the views were beautiful.  Highly recommend this experience if you are ever in the area. (I actually found the company on one of those deal websites and got the flight for half price!)

After our flight, Chris took the girls to the park while Mommy shopped.  Our souvenir from each port we visit is always a Christmas ornament for our tree.  Then we met back up and boarded a boat for a whale watching tour. (We got a discount coupon for this tour from the flight company and saved 50%!).  The tour took us about 20 miles off shore.  We had a great trip and got to see finback, humpback and minke whales.  Absolutely amazing!

Our next stop on the cruise was Boston, Mass.  This was another port that Chris and I had been to before, but there is so much to do in Boston.  We decided to use this time for an upper deck trolley tour and visit to Fenway Park!  Melia was cranky and overtired, so I renamed her "the green monster" after the ballpark visit.  Funny to me, but not to her! She did end up having a good time giving a scalper a run for his money and screaming "tickets!  I need two tickets" outside the stadium.

Our final stop on this cruise was Newport, RI.  We decided to take a "land and sea" tour of the town to get a good view of the area.  The mansions are amazing.  The guests houses are huge.  The boats are unreal.  It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and this was the perfect port.  Although we were the only ship in town that day, Newport was very crowded.  Getting out on the water got us away from it all and really made the visit.

The cruise line doesn't plan their port stops around our kids schedules, so the girls were way off of their routine.  We pushed the limits on meals and naps.  We always went into port with plenty of snacks and drinks.  The girls are great about sleeping anywhere, so we had a lot of naps on buses and boats.  And our excursions were much more laid back than we would have done pre-babies. 

At some times we all got a little stressed out, but overall it was a great family vacation.  I have wonderfully flexible kids and an amazing husband.  I need to take a deep breath more often and remember how blessed we really are.

Canada New England Cruise - Canada Ports

Our Canada New England Cruise visited 3 Canadian ports of call - Sydney, NS; Charlottetown, PEI; Halifax, NS.

Our first stop was Sydney Nova Scotia.  For our excursion we went to the Highland Village & Museum.  Highland Village and Museum - A 43-acre living history museum that celebrates the Gaelic experience in Nova Scotia during the mid-18th century. Period buildings, rare farm animals, exhibits and costumed guides is a fun and enjoyable journey through history.  We honestly chose this excursion because of the farm animals.  It was a great choice!  The view of Cape Breton Island was beautiful, the animals were a highlight for the girls and Melia had a great time running around.  She loved seeing all of the "baby" stuff in the buildings.  Makena even checked out some of the farm and playground equipment!

Our next stop was in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.  Another excursion we picked to see animals.  This time it was seals.  We did a scenic nature cruise along the Murray River.  This is a huge blue mussel and lobster farming area.  We got to try some yummy fresh blue mussels (I even let Makena try one).  While we didn't eat any lobster on the excursion, Melia did get a chance to pet one.  The cruise took us by a beachy area with a ton of seals.  I think Melia was more excited about the lobster.

Our final Canadian port was Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Since Chris and I had been there before, we took an excursion that visited Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site offers the best example of an 18th century planned British colonial settlement in North America. It's also considered to be "the fishing capital of the world."  We spent some time exploring the town & checked out a playground before heading back to the ship. 

  

Canada New England Cruise on the Caribbean Princess

We just got back from a 9 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess to Canada and New England out of NYC.  Cruising with one kid was a big change.  Cruising with 2 kids was a HUGE change!

This was our first time on a Princess Cruise since having the girls.  While we love sailing Princess, they are not known for catering to families.  We did a lot of prep work to make sure things would go as smooth as possible. 

Princess does provide baby food as a special request, so we were able to have a ton of baby food and juice delivered to our stateroom our first day onboard.  We had so much baby food that we ended up bringing home a big box of stuff.  On our last cruise Melia ate a wide variety of food of the menu so I wasn't really concerned about her.  Both girls tried a bunch of different foods on the ship.  Melia was being pretty picky so she ate a ton of grapes and bread.  I thought she was going to turn into a grape!  I even broke a bunch of the "mommy rules" for introducing foods to Makena.  Here is a picture of her trying fresh mussels from the Murray River in Prince Edward Island!

We pre-arranged to have a pack and play for Makena to sleep in.  We made a little bed on the floor at night for Melia out of a bunch of blankets.  Somehow both girls usually ended up in our bed, but for the most part sleeping arrangements worked out well.  Since someone else was doing the laundry, we decided to test our nighttime potty training out.  Melia slept through 3 of the nights without wetting the bed!  While I was proud of her, we are back in pull ups at night at home.  Mommy isn't planning on washing the sheets every night yet!

We reserved a table at a fixed dining time so that we would have the same wait staff each night.  We really enjoy the "traditional" style of dining on a cruise ship.  Plus with kids the routine really helps.  Each night they had our table set with two high chairs and the servers quickly learned what we needed.  We would sit down and they brought over Diet Coke for Mommy and Daddy, a glass of milk for Melia and a small spoon for Makena's baby food.   The wait staff the entire cruise loved entertaining the girls and the girls loved them too.    Melia did decide that she preferred to eat her meals on the floor in the corner near our table most nights.  It worked out well where the table was that we had a small little corner where she could relax and eat.  As long as she was happy and I could eat my dinner, everyone was happy.  We even had compliments from other diners on how well behaved the girls were.  So I would say dining overall was a success!

Because Princess doesn't cater to families, their kids program doesn't start until age 3.  They will however, allow you to participate in the kids program if one parent attends with a younger child.  Chris and Melia spent a lot of time playing in the kids room.  Makena and I even hung out with them a few times because they had a great little "toddler" corner with toys and soft padding she could crawl around on.  They did offer a special Kindermusik at Sea program for babies and toddler that both girls participate in - they LOVED it!  One night they had a dance party for the little kids in the teen club.  It was so much fun to see Melia making friends and running around dancing.  She loves music!  One of the staff in the kids program was a retired school teacher.  She really went above and beyond to make sure Melia was included in the kids activities and had a good time. 

Both the girls loved the lights, music and dancing at the evening shows.  It was a great way to end each evening before heading to bed.  The cruise included 2 sea days where we got to spend some time in the pools and enjoying the onboard activities.  For a cruise line that doesn't cater to kids, the staff was wonderful with the girls.  We had a great time onboard.  We visited 6 ports of call during our Canada New England Cruise.  Blogs about our shore excursions are coming soon! 

Shopping for more toys!

And again, I find myself shopping for more toys.  It seems like a never ending cycle!  Luckily I stumbled upon a great website of some of the top selling kids toys.

Melia continues to be an avid reader, so I love that this site has childrens books of all kinds.  I have even bought her a bath book. Yep, she reads in the tub!  It's actually kinda cute to see her reading to Makena while they are bathing.

I ordered from ebeanstalk.com for the first time recently.  Super cute little cooking set (I recommend you watch the learning videos on the site - great way to see the toys in action!).   I was super impressed with their fast shipping.  And the site offers free shipping on orders of $75 or more!  I am the type of person that will spend more money to not pay shipping.  I hate paying for shipping. :)

I will admit that I don't keep on top of the "cool" toys for different ages, so I love the way the site breaks down age categories.  Really convenient when I was looking for toys for 4 year olds recently for a birthday party we had to attend.

Keep an eye out on updates of more great finds!

Ped Appointment x 2

Just sayin - I love being able to get two doctors appointments done in just one quick visit!

Melia had her 30 month (two and a half years for those of you doing the math in your head) check up today and Makena had her 9 month check up.  Both girls are doing very well.  Health and meeting milestones on or before schedule.

Melia is 34 1/2" tall (17th percentile) and 26 pounds (18th percentile).  I think this is the highest we have been on the percentage scale since she was born.  She is a petite little girl, but very healthy.  Melia is very active and full of energy.  She always wants to run or jump.  Her speech is getting better daily and you can really hold a good conversation with her.  Melia still LOVES reading.  We read books every night and  usually a few times during the day.  And she is always asking to go to the library.  We have a ton of Sesame Street books that seem to be the favorites right now.  And of course Dr. Suess!  Potty training is going well.  We are still using Pull Ups at night.  Luckily our road trip to Michigan didn't really set us back.  She had a few accidents while we were there but considering all of the excitement and things going on she did very well.

Makena is quickly catching up to her big sister.  She is 28 1/4" tall (66th percentile - not sure where she gets that from!) and weighs 18 pounds 8 oz. (38th percentile).  She was getting too long for most of her 9 month clothes, so we have started moving to 9-12 and 12 month outfits.  Makena does a lot of "baby talk".  I keep working on "Mama" for her first word, but she is definately leaning towards "Dada"!  She is crawling all over the place now and pulling up on everything.  Of course that means she is falling down on everything too.  I think the kid is going to end up as one big bruise! She has 4 teeth in and has been acting like some more are on the way.  Makena is a very happy baby with a beautiful smile!

As long as everyone stays healthy, next pediatrician appointment for Makena is 12 months and Melia is at 36 months (am I really going to have a 3 year old?!?!?)!

Michigan Memories 2011

Somehow Makena + Michigan = Road Trip.  Makena took her second road trip in less than a year to Michigan this past week.  Chris had a conference for the Grotto in Dearborn, so we used it as a perfect excuse to visit my family.

I packed the car with every diversion we could possibly need to keep the girls entertained on the 20 hour drive.  Snacks, toys, new books, Dora and Sesame Street downloaded to the iPod Touch.  We strategically planned our meal stops at locations with a playplace (way too much fast food on this trip).  The girls did great and kept pretty much to their normal sleep schedules during the drive.  Great for them, bad for mommy and daddy on the first day in Michigan.  All we wanted to do was sleep, but they were well rested and ready to play!

Day 1 was laid back visiting with Great Papa, Grandma, Aunt JJ and Uncle Mike before having dinner with Nonna and Grandpa.  Day 2 we took the girls to Domino's Petting Farm.  They both loved the animals and had so much fun.  After the petting farm we stopped by to visit Great Grandma Marge before heading out to a family cookout with the Shaffners and Tanasons.  I LOVE my family!  If Michigan were Florida I would totally move back. :)

The next day we headed with Grandma to the Detroit Children's Museum and lunch at American Coney Island.  The Children's Museum was small, but the exhibits were good for toddlers.  Melia got a little scared in the planetarium, but the show was short enough that she made it through without a freak out. 

Day 4 all the grandparents were working and Daddy had meetings, so Melia, Makena and Mommy had a girls day.  We spent most of the day at Jungle Java in Canton.  This place was amazing!  It was so clean and so much fun.  An indoor jungle gym with a toddler area, health food snack bar and play places that encourage parental involvement.  If we had one of these at home I would be there all the time!  After a visit to Grandpa's work, we picked up Daddy and Grandma and headed to Greektown for dinner.  Melia slept through dinner.  Makena enjoyed a loaf of Greek bread (well most of it ended up on the floor, but some of it was digested).

Friday we took a trip to the Detroit Zoo with Nonna and Grandpa.  They had a special Dinosaur exhibit going on called Dinosauria.  The animitronics were really well done.  Melia got a little scared of the dinosaurs, so some of the time she covered her eyes (that way the dinosaurs couldn't see her).  Makena really enjoyed watching the seals swim in the Arctic Ring of Life.  And of course, no trip to the zoo would be complete without a stop in the gift shop.  Melia picked out an elephant for her and a penguin for Makena.  Not sure why, but every visit with Nonna ends up with us leaving with another "lovey" to sleep with ;)  For dinner we finally got to hang out with Uncle Ian and visit his new job (and favorite restaurant) BD's Mongolian Grill.

Saturday was a laid back day.  During Daddy's brief meeting the girls and I went to Parkland Park so Melia could play on the playground.  Luckily one area of the park has updated playground equipment.  The section at the bottom of the hill literally has the same slide, swings and spinny thing that I played on 20+ years ago!  We hung out with Grandpa in the kiddy pool and ran through the sprinklers.  For dinner we went with Aunt JJ, Uncle Mike and Grandma to Mexican Fiesta to celebrate Aunt JJ's 18th birthday.

We are currently driving home.  It was a great visit, but we miss Molly (our doggy).  Not sure why the drive home always seems to take forever! 

Lots of pictures from our trip on Webbsyght, but here are a few highlights...