If you missed part one about our trip you can read all about the boat and what there is to do on it.

As soon as we got on the boat the first thing we did was get a cocktail (duh!) and then we walked around the boat to check it out.

Our bags took a while to get there. (Apparently we were suppose to put the alcohol in our carry-on.) So we laid out on the deck until they got to our rooms. After getting ready we decided to go to a comedy show and catch up till 3am. Party Hardy!

The following morning we didn’t get into Free Port till about noon so Meredith ad I hit up the spa! It was awesome. A facial, back, neck and shoulder massage! I felt so refreshed especially a night after drinking!

There wasn’t much on the island of Free Port. Lots of abandoned buildings from the hurricane that came through and not a lot of people around besides the tourists.The first thing I noticed, which scared the crap out of me, was that they drive on the wrong side of the road! (whose to say we drive right, but it was just really awkward.)

The weather was perfect. Once we got to the beach we got bombarded by Bahamians trying to sell their excursions. We were going to go on the banana boat ride but then I got all paranoid about getting into a boat with random Bahamian guys. I shouldn’t have though, it looked super fun. But ever since Caden I’m very cautious about the decisions I make. Especially this trip because I thought I was going to die!

We laid out most of the day and went to this bar close by to get some food and drinks.

It was a pretty relaxing day. Meredith was caught up in her bay watch moment and she biffed it, flat on her face in this enormous hole.  We asked how she didn’t see it and she said that she was just so excited about going in the ocean that she wasn’t even paying attention. (She must of got caught up by the wind in her hair, the fresh air …)  This had us laughing all weekend.

Once we got back on the ship, we got ready for dinner and headed out. We didn’t stay out too late because we were docking pretty early the next day in Nassau.

When we were in Nassau the plan was to go to the Atlantis and pay for a day pass to use all their amenities. Unfortunately it rained the whole day but we were still able to go in the water park which was a blast.

This one slide called the Abyss was pitch black the whole way down. I think the Leap of Faith was the scariest! You drop and then go through a tunnel of sharks. These slides were no joke, I don’t usually scream on things like this but my throat was sore after this day.

Once we were done conquering all the slides we headed back to the boat and sat in the hot tub for a bit before we got dinner and headed to another comedy show.

The following day we were at sea all day long. It was gorgeous so I, along with every other woman on the boat laid out and read 50 Shades of Grey. I kid you not 90% of the women were reading this book, including Nicole. I still haven’t gotten through the first one but I’m close. And of course I took a small break to drink out of my Monkey Coconut!

Overall the trip was great. I missed my little family like crazy and everywhere I looked I saw kids Cadens age, which made me miss him even more. I was more then ready to get home and squeeze my little nugget but I’m hoping we can do a girls trip every year. It’s great catching up with old friends and experiencing new things.

Do you take a girls or guys trip once a year?

Looks like I might have left my brain along with my legs on the boat. How in the world did I miss an entire day? All day yesterday I was thinking it was Tuesday which is why I posted about my Bahamas trip and Not our typical What’s in My Diaper Bag. I was reminded yesterday when Kelly had asked me about her post, I can’t believe I was a whole day off. Geesh! My bad everyone.

Here is Kelly and her edition of What’s in My Diaper Bag.

*************************

I am honored to be guest posting for Susan. I hope you get some great tips on what to pack for your little one!

My name is Kelly, I blog at Cupcake Kelly’s, I live just outside of Boston, MA with my husband Nick and 9 month old baby, who we nickname B. I started my blog to document my baking and cooking experiments. Then I found out I was pregnant, so started blogging about a variety of topics. I still write about my baking and cooking, but I also blog about my family, travel, fitness and races. I like to blog about life’s little moments and I hope you enjoy reading about them.

B was born on July 9, 2011 and life has never been the same. He has been an absolute joy and I love being able to stay at home with him every day. He has just started crawling and has stopped eating any pureed food. We have completely moved to table food, even though we do not have one sign of a tooth coming in any time soon. The past 9 months have flown by, and while I wish it hadn’t, this age is so wonderful and I am just enjoying every day as it comes.

I don’t like to be stuck at home all day so it is important to me to have a well-stocked diaper bag. I typically keep the bag in my car so I don’t have to worry about anything except for food. I go through the bag once a week and re-stock anything I am missing.

The Butt Essentials:

• Diapers, usually 5-6. The longest car trip we’ve made was 2.5 hours so there is no need for anything more than that.
• Wipes in a travel case. It holds about 20-25.
• Butt cream. Whatever is your preference. We use Aquaphor at every change.
• The best gift I ever received, a diaper trash bag holder. These are the same as dog poop bags, they have a perfume smell and I’ve left a dirty diaper in the hot sun in our car for an entire day, the car didn’t smell at all!

Food:

• Formula, breastfeeding was not successful for us, so I make sure that we always have at least 2 – 6oz containers of ready made formula
• Bottles, I always have 3 bottles. 2 8 oz. Dr. Brown’s and one 4 oz. I use the 4 oz. for water. That is easier to use in a car then a sippy cup.
• Snacks. Today I had puffs, but there is always a variety, puffs, yogurt bites, waffle pieces, or pancake pieces. Whatever I have on hand that day. I have tons of these little containers, so before I leave the house, I fill one and throw it in the bag when I get to the car.

Clothes:

• A short sleeved onesie
• A long sleeved onesie
• Pants
• Socks

Weather is still cool in Boston so I make sure to have warm clothes just in case of an accident. Also, I keep multiple pairs of socks; it is the rule that if you leave them on while changing a dirty diaper, the baby will inevitably put their foot right in the poop.

Changing Table:

• A mat, my diaper bag came with a folding mat, and I think most diaper bags do.
• The mat is small and flat, I have a baby on the larger side so I always have a small thin blanket to but over the mat when using a public changing table.

Hygiene & Documents:

• Pacifier Wipes, I typically only use these at restaurants on B’s plastic toys or pacifiers after he has inevitably thrown them on the floor.
• Hand Sanitizer, I use it after I wash my hands, I just always feel gross after using the public changing tables and bathrooms. I have wipes in separate packets and bottles.
• I keep the appointment card for B’s next appointment in the diaper bag as well as his vaccinations records. Mostly so I don’t forget his appointment, and also in case or emergency, I have his documents.
• My wallet. It has my ID, insurance cards, credit cards, cash, my point & shoot camera, and my phone. I want to make sure if there is ever an emergency I have everything. Also, I don’t carry a purse when I am out with B unless I am going away for the weekend.  This is also the only item besides the snacks that I don’t leave in the diaper bag.

Toys:

• Pacifiers. He doesn’t always want them, I have them on hand, and mostly they are used if we are out close to naptime.
• Toys that are plastic and can be washed easily. If we go away for the weekend I bring toys that require more maintenance in terms of washing (stuffed animals, loveys, etc.…) I bring these because B has a tendency to drop pacifiers and plastic toys on the ground while we are out running errands.

Packed Bag

I hope you enjoyed this post! You can read more about my life and B at Cupcake Kelly’s, and feel free to follow me on twitter and facebook!

Well I’m baccckkk. Whew, do you ever need a vacation from your vacation?

I felt like doing absolutely nothing yesterday. And that’s exactly what I did. Well, besides take CK for a walk up to our water fountain. But I’ve been exhausted since I’ve been home. Of course CK was awesome for Nate and slept great, all smiles, the whole nine yards.

As soon as I get home he’s a teething maniac! He hasn’t slept good at all, barely eating anything and has been Mr. -Sir -Cranks -a -Lot during the day. These last couple teeth are killers!

*******************

On another note, the cruise was a blast. (Instead of doing one long post I’m going to break it up into two posts. I figured this way you won’t be bombarded with a crap load of pictures.)

We all flew into Jacksonville from all over the country. I of course came from NC, Libby from Chicago, Nicole from WV and Meredith from LA. I haven’t seen these girls in forever so when we finally reunited it was awesome. They are the closest thing to having a sister for me. I’ve known them ever since I was little. They know so much about me, I know so much about them. We’ve been through all sorts of stages together in our lives. We fight like sisters, get annoyed like sisters but no matter how long we are apart, we pick up right where we left off.

Nicole’s friend ended up picking us up from the airport and we all went out to lunch before we boarded the ship. After a few drinks and some food we headed towards the cruise ship. I was seriously amazed when I first saw the ship and how big it was. Of course I’ve seen cruise ships from a distance but being that close it’s just unreal how enormous it is.

Once we boarded we went straight to our room. I wish I had a picture of this room. We got an interior stateroom so it didn’t have a window and it had twin beds on the ground and then two twin beds that folded down. Let’s just say it was the smallest room I have ever been in and very tight quarters for 5 days. But I will say that it had a lot of storage for being so small. We had plenty of room to hang all our clothes and put all our stuff away in drawers which was nice.

The boat was called the Fascination which is one of the smaller cruise ships. I was surprised to see that it only had one small pool for so many people. It did have water slides in the back of the boat as well and about 4 hot tubs. 2 which were in the adult only area.

The boat had a casino, auditoriums for shows, numerous bars and restaurants, shopping area, a kids area, put-put, a full gym and track, full spa. This boat pretty much had anything you can imagine.

Over all, I liked the cruise and I felt safe throughout the trip knowing that were was ample about of boats and life jackets. Can you believe that this small little boat fits 145 people? Crazy!

It was a little scary the last day because of the weather the boat was really rocking. I didn’t feel sick unless I was in the room. Being outside on the top deck was fine but looking out over the boat with nothing else around and looking straight out into the horizon and just seeing this enormous  boat rocking up and down was a little unsettling at first but then I got use to it.

Overall, I really liked the cruise ship, there was a ton to do and the staff was super friendly.

Would I ever go on a carnival cruise again? Yes. But I would definitely pay the extra money for a balcony or window. It was really hard for us to know what time it was in the morning and how the weather was or if we were at port.

I also would  love to bring CK on the boat but I would wait till he was a little older and really good at walking. If the boat rocks he needs to be old enough that he wouldn’t fall over. Not to mention I would feel more comfortable with him walking around the boat knowing he’s not going to fall and slip over board. It’s not easy to fall out but the rails aren’t foul proof if you know what I mean.

I don’t know if I would call myself a cruise person just yet and I probably couldn’t or wouldn’t want to always travel that way but it is a fun, different kind of vacation to take.

Have you ever been on a cruise? How did you like it?

Now that my friends and I have reunited in Jacksonville, Fl and have made it to the Bahamas by now (I hope). I wanted to share the gift that I put together for them. It’s called a Hangover Care Kit.

At first I wanted to get them personalized slap koozies that we could wear on our wrist around the cruise. But I found that they wouldn’t get here in time. So then I thought about regular personalized Koozies but I found that you really can’t order just 4 and we really didn’t need 3 each. So, I continued to look around for something else. I finally came across these adorable insulated cups at Black Lion in Huntersville.

I had them put each of our initials on the cup. Then I hit up target and found all the hangover goodies.

• Eye mask
• Goodies headache medicine
• Advil
• Chapstick
• 5 hour Energy Drink

The cups are only so big so I really couldn’t fit a beer in there or a water bottle or a bloody Mary for that fact. But all the other necessities fit great. So what do you think? Anything you would have added? Taken out?

Have you made anyone a Hangover Care Package? If so, what did you put in it?

Well. Here goes nothing.

I’m off to meet up with 3 of my best girlfriends in Florida for a cruise. This is my first trip away from my baby. I couldn’t be more happy, sad, scared, nervous, anxious, thrilled, excited in my life! With so many emotions going through me right now I don’t even know what to do with myself. I just might have to be THAT girl on the morning flight slurping down a stiff one. I know once I’m there and see my friends it will be fine. But getting out of the house and not being able to hug my baby bye is going to kill me!

So Wish me luck! I need all the encouragement I can get right now!

PS: If you want to follow our trip and check out our photos, follow me on Instagram (reallifetravels) or just click on my Facebook Page and click on the Instagram icon and all the pictures will show up!)

Later Gators!!! (huh, how appropriate for Florida!)

PSS: I have a couple posts coming out while I’m gone, so don’t forget to check back! Tomorrows post is really cute and well needed for this trip!

I’m a part of a moms group on Facebook and I have to say I love those ladies. It’s so nice being able to chat with so many different women all over the US. I think we may have some moms outside the US as well. We all posts our thoughts, concerns, questions, stories all about our little ones and family life. It’s awesome, I have truly enjoyed being part of this group.

Just the other day I really needed advise from other first time moms. What did I do? I turned to them.

Here’s what I wrote:

Everyone made me feel so much better  and told me that I’m not alone having these terrible thoughts. I’ve never thought about my mortality until I had Caden. Now it’s what if this happens, what if that happens. I seriously plan out in my head sometimes before I fall asleep what I would do if there was a tornado or a fire. I literally have a plan of attack on everything.  Is this a good thing or am I becoming completely nuts? Sometimes I literally have to take a step back and get my thoughts under control. This has been happening a lot lately since I’m leaving Caden for the first time. Which is why I posted this in our moms group. I wanted / needed reassurance that 1.) I wasn’t crazy or alone with having these thoughts and 2.) That I wasn’t going to die.

Thankfully these ladies reassured me that I wasn’t alone, I wasn’t crazy AND I wasn’t going to die. After hearing some replies from them it made me feel so much better.  I told Nate after I posted it.

Me: Seriously like crazy stuff that would be out of my control, like what if we hit an ice berg on the cruise or the plane crashes or we get mugged or kidnapped in another country.

Nate: First off you won’t hit an iceberg, your going to Bahamas. But if this makes you feel any better you aren’t going that far. Florida and Bahamas aren’t very far from each other, it’s not like you’ll be in the middle of the ocean. If something were to happen, a rescue team could be there pretty fast.

Do you know how much this made me feel better? I’m not even kidding. This is why he is in my life, to calm all my crazy thoughts.

So I’ll leave you with this ….

First If your a first time mom or mom for that fact and you are having crazy thoughts about every bad scenario possible, your not alone and your not a lunatic. We ALL have them.

And Last, If your aren’t part of a moms group local or on the internet try and find one. It is awesome to have another group of ladies who aren’t judgmental, are there lending an ear and ready to give advise.

You got a crazy thought story? I’d love to hear!

Hope you all enjoyed your Mothers Day yesterday! I know I did!!

I Learned this Weekend that

• I love Mothers Day so much it might be my new favorite holiday. I loved spending time with Nate and Caden and have never felt more needed and loved in my life. It was awesome.

• Caden’s birthstone is a Pearl. Him and his daddy got me beautiful flowers and gorgeous earrings with his birthstone on them. Nate said this way anytime I’m out I can always remember him.   How sweet is that? I love that “they” put some thought into the gift, it means so much more then just receiving any pair of earrings.

• Caden might be afraid of heights. He has climbed up the stairs before and had no problems but now he will not climb up them. When I put him in the middle of the steps he starts breathing really heavy, looking backwards and then starts whining and crying. He looks terrified and clings on really tight to my fingers or shirt. It’s so weird because he’ll climb up the deck stairs outside or the front porch stairs but not the main ones. Nate isn’t a fan of heights so maybe he got it from his dad?!?!

What do you think, can a baby be afraid of heights?