We left Saturday July 14th and it was a week long. The kiddos did so good. We had to wake up early Saturday to get to the airport and it was both of their first times flying on an airplane. They did soooo good. The best thing I did for Corbin was pack little dum dum suckers for him to have something to safely suck on besides his binky and we lucked out and got window seats and he liked to look out the window. He was a lap child and that was exhausting cuz he like never stopped moving the whole flight and was trying to reach everything. Brylianna did great cuz they had little tvs on the back of the seat in front of you so she got to pick her own movie and watch it with Aunty Paige.
Then we took a bus shuttle to the ship and both kiddos fell asleep. I looked over and saw Brylianna looked exhausted and I told her she could nap on Aunt Paiges lap if she wanted and she said okay and laid her head on her lap and was out of it in like less than 5 seconds, it was so sweet.
We made it to the Norwegian Bliss. It is currently the 9th biggest cruise ship in the world and it was awesome. It was my first time cruising NCL and I liked it a lot. The ship had go karts, laser tag, and a thrilling water slide with an almost vertical drop where they drop the floor out from under you to start while you are standing, and then it goes back up and there is a hill you have to make it over feet first. Some people don't make it over that part. It is all enclosed and has see through sections that go over the side of the ship, it was pretty cool. Of course the first thing we did after checking out our cabins was hit the buffet. Corbin was SO cute eating, we literally had people stopping to watch him eat. There was a whole group of Asians who walked by our table, then paused and watching Corbin it and laugh and they just stood by our table for like 5 minutes. I wasn't quite sure what to do lol. But needless to say Corbin quite enjoyed the food. I found what worked best was to put a napkin around his neck like a bandanna bib and tie it in the back with one of my hair ties. Then he always needed to have a piece of silverware in each hand and he was good :) or a slice of watermelon or watermelon rind and he loved that too. He also discovered the greatness of ice cream on this trip and couldn't get enough. He definitely lived up to his nickname of Chubbers this trip.
Brylianna of course loved the ice cream, especially the strawberry with sprinkles. The cruise staff just loved her, especially the ones at the buffet and went out of their way to talk to her and make her giggle and bring her whatever she needed and call her princess. Before you could enter you had to sanitize your hands and they had workers at the entrance with spray sanitizer and they always said "Washy washy, happy happy" Brylianna and Corbin both loved having their hands sprayed to get sanitized and would stick their hands out.
Corbin also learned a new word "Wow" He said it everytime we walked by the huge chandelier on the ship. ( Grandma taught it to him) And he says it sooooo cute.
Brylianna loved pushing the buttons to open doors and for the elevators. Corbin did to every chance I let him. They also loved looking out the balcony of our room at the water. Our cabin was small for us but it was so cute to look over and see Brylianna sleeping on the couch bed and Corbin in the little pack n play next to her. It was adorable. Corbin also started babbling more and goes ah ah ah in a cute little voice whenever he wants something. He was also at a super hard stage cuz he only wanted me to hold him a LOT of the time, mainly everytime I had to do anything or eat lol. But he is so so sweet. He did really good considering the time changes and how little sleep he and Brylianna both got, but we did have some meltdowns from each of them too.
Sunday
Was a day at sea, we explored the ship and the kids went to the adorable kid club. They loved it so much. They got messy and painted and they loved the kid leader "Named" Kangaroo. They also played in this corn startch+water+coloring goop and got super messy. But they had a blast. They had a whole bin of toys that they dumped out for the kids to play with and then we cleaned them up and I looked at Corbin and out of all the toys he had grabbed a toy fork and spoon and had one in each hand and looked like he was ready to eat. It made me laugh. He cried when we had to put them away lol.
We ate at a restaurant on the ship called the local and it was yummy.
Monday
We got into Ketchikan Alaska today. We ate breakfast and went down to the dock and did some shopping. It is so hard to not buy everything when you have adorable little kids. We did indeed get the kids some cute souvenirs. Brylianna found a husky puppy stuffed animal and wanted it and hugged it and said she loved it, so of course we had to get it. And there was an adorable bear hat that kept her ears warm and she looked so cute in it I had to get that too, she just looked adorable running around in it the whole rest of the trip, worth every penny :)
Then Jamie's dad met us and took us on a little tour around Ketchikan. We didn't have a ton of time, but saw some fun stuff. We found a part of the coast and Brylianna had to through rocks into the water, one of her favorite all time activities. Corbin was a good little adventurer too. It was rainy in the morning but then it cleared up. It felt so good there, the temperature was awesome most the time. It was a nice break from 90 and 100 degree weather back in Utah. It was around 60 and slightly rainy most days. When we got back to the ship we ate and then I put the kids down for a nap and we watched the scenery go by on a deck in some comfy chairs and had hot chocolate. The sun rose at 4:27am and set at 9:27 that day. Good thing our cabin had good curtains. It was so cute to just look over at night and see both my sweet babies sleeping right there, Brylianna talks a lot before she falls asleep, she would often recite her favorite book right now which is called Dinosaurus and it rhymes and she would just recite in her cute little voice "Tyrannasaurus crashes in gnashing is claws, Wallop on the ground go his big back claws. He's huge, and heavy an all he wants to do. . is join in da rump, so why don't you!!!" it was too cute. Also with her little wolf stuff animal she named wolfy, I would sing her her usual primary songs before bed and lately she just wants me to sing " The little girl song" (there is a picture of a little girl) to Heavenly Father loves me, and I make it look like the wolfy is singing it and move his head and paws and she giggles and giggles and it is just tooo cute! Corbin still takes a bottle before bed and then I hold him and sing a couple songs sometimes we read a book if it isn't too late and he snuggles into his pack n play and usually sleeps on his tummy with his bum in the air or on his back with both hands behind his head.
Tuesday
We arrived in Juneau this morning and got to go on an excursion to go on a bus to the Mendenhall glacier. We walked up a little bit to see it better and there was a big waterfall by it too. And we watched a film about Alaska at the visitor center. Brylianna splashed in a puddle on the way there and I was all worried her feet would be freezing but thankfully her shoes actually didn't get too wet. Then we went back to the bus and got taken to tour a fish hatchery where there were tons of salmon and baby salmon. Brylianna liked looking at the fishies. We saw quite a few eagles too. Then we got to go to a yummy salmon bake that was delicious, the kids were really tired by then though. I wish we had more time there cuz it was a very cute little area and they said there was a short hike to a waterfall nearby, but we didnt have time to do it if we wanted to make our all aboard call. A sweet couple in line helped entertain Corbin and Brylianna while we waited for our bus, but it ended up being full so they had to call a van so we would make it in time back to our ship. When we got back to the ship, we got to sail through Glacier bay and it was amazingly BEAUTIFUL! There are so many waterfalls in the summer and they look awesome against the huge rocky mountains and beautiful green trees, and I have always loved the blue/green water color of the coastline of Alaska, it is so pretty. It was neat to cruise through it and there was music playing from the ship and it was just a neat thing to experience. Later that day Paige and I went and played at the arcade when the kids were napping and Paige did this spin the wheel one and one 100 tickets! It was great, I did the same game and won 4 haha Then we tried a spin the wheel one that had 2 wheels and you pushed a button when you wanted it to stop and you multiplied the 1st wheel by the 2nd and got that many tickets. It had 2 super bonus parts and Paige did that one and got 1 ticket haha Then I tried it and counted in my head every time it landed on the super bonus one and it took 4 seconds to so I pushed the button and got the super bonus on the first wheel then I waited and counted it just right for the 2nd one and won Jackpot! I won 800 tickets haha It was great, I had never seen so many tickets come out of a machine. We decided to save the tickets for the kids to comeback and choose prizes.
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| Mendenhall Glacier |
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| Salmon Hatchery |
Today we got into Skagway. It was kinda cool where we docked, when we looked out the windows at breakfast it just looked like this huge rocky cliff next to the ship and then you take the boardwalk into town .It is about a 15-20 min walk into town. My mom, Paige, the kids and I did a little bit of shopping in the morning after breakfast. Then we got to see husky dog sledding puppies :) With a smores cookout. They had some bigger puppies that we got to pet and watch run around and we also got to hold and pet some little baby ones which were adorable. Brylianna and Corbin loved them. Brylianna did so good holding a puppy and being gentle with it and Corbin was all smiles. We also got to listen to a pro musher who races the iditarod. It is crazy how far they go with sled dogs.
At the smores Paige helped Brylianna roast marshmallows for smores and Corbin sat on my lap and stole all my marshmallows before I could roast them haha and graham crackers too. It was fun.Then they dropped us off back in town by the Harley Davidson store and I had to buy Pat a shirt with an awesome float plane on the back. Then my mom and Paige wanted to do a bit more shopping. I had to change Corbin and they said the nearest bathroom was down a street so I went there and it passed an adorable park, so I changed Corbin then went back and got Brylianna and Paige and we went and played at the park while my mom headed back to the ship. They had so much fun playing at the park. Then we realized we better hurry and book it back to the ship if we wanted to make it on time cuz we had a long walk to go. So we hurried fast back to the ship. I had to carry Brylianna a lot of the way back. It was also starting to get windy and a bit colder. Earlier our tour guide said that in the winter they don't really ever have snow days, but they do have wind days cuz the wind can get so fast, he said when it is around 20 degrees they can have it be so windy with wind chill it can get to -50 degrees. I believe him. We made it back with very little time to spare. Sadly when we got back to our cabin, the Harley bag was no where to be found and we think it fell off at the playground so I didn't even make it back with Pat's souvenir :( I was really really bummed but had no time to go back and check. It was a bummer. I did check lost and found on the ship but it wasn't anywhere to be found.
We ate at the buffet tonight and there was the sweetest worker named Carmel who helped me carry my food to the table with the kiddos. She LOVED Brylianna and talked to her and laughed and even brought her a bouqet of balloons and Brylianna said her favorite was yellow so she went and got her a yellow balloon too. She was so so sweet. She also brought Brylianna a strawberry ice cream cone and 3 different bowls full of toppings for her do put on top of them. Needless to say Brylianna was way hyper the rest of the night. It was like 9pm already lol. And a lady at the next table thought Brylianna was the sweetest thing too and made a point of coming over and talking with her and telling her she didn't know that a princess was on board. It was very nice. The next table over a baby was crying and I asked Brylianna if she would give him her yellow balloon and she didn't even hesitate and said yes so we went over to see if they wanted it and the mom said no thank you, but thank you for being so kind. I was so proud of Brylianna to do such a nice thing, which is hard when you are 2.
Thursday
Today was a sea day. So we got to spend the day on the ship, we let the kiddos sleep in, Brylianna was so cute she would wake up and say Mommy? and then crawl over to my bed and snuggle :) We love breakfast at the buffet and ate there of course. Pretty much every morning I loved the hashbrown cakes, bacon, a huge bowl of fruit, and the oatmeal with brown sugar was delicious. Occasionally a bagel and cream cheese too. Corbin loved the pancakes and fruit. Brylianna loved the cereal and wanted fruit loops one day haha She ate the oatmeal too though somedays. Then we went to the fun kid club activity. They had a baby disco party. It was adorable. They gave the munchkins glowstick necklaces and had fun light up things and balloons hanging from the ceiling. They got to play and dance and they had a huge air blower and a bunch of balloons and blew them all around the room. They also did bubbles, Corbin was so cute looking up at the bubbles and trying to catch them with the cutest look on his face ever. They got to play musical instruments too. It was fun :)
Then we went swimming! Paige and I went down the scary blue waterlslide first. We were totally nervous, It is a long walk up to the top. The girl who went before us didn't make it over the hill part. Then I went and then Paige went. Totally freaky when they drop the floor out from under you, it was a total rush. We both made it over though and it was fun once you did it once. Then we got my parents and I did it again so my dad could watch and Brylianna cheered me on really cute too. It also scratched my back somehow. Then I played around with Brylianna and took her down the kid slide that was purple. It was tiny I could barely fit lol and I tried to sit up the whole way and hold her but I fell over right at the end cuz it turned and then we both got a ton of water up our noses. I felt bad, but she still had fun. Then we swam around in the pool and then we got in the hot tub cuz Brylianna was a little bit cold. Paige was sweet and walked around with Corbin in the stroller til he fell asleep. Then we went back so Brylianna could take a nap in the cabin and I played with Corbin in the guppies area for a bit. I taught him how to do connect 4 and they had a huge one there, it took him about 10 minutes and then he learned how to slide the little checker piece into it, it was pretty cute and he was pretty proud of himself. Then he needed a nap so I took him up to nap too. Then we went to eat at the Taste restaurant again and I was running back and forth and trying to keep the kids happy and Corbin ate a roll and then was incredibly fussy and tired and trying to grab a million things and then I remembered I had to turn in our papers for before 6pm this night for the Canada stuff and so I had to grab Corbin and go do that which he was incredibly squirmy for and then I came back and got Corbin all set to eat and Brylianna. And this really nice gentleman told me that he had been watching our table and that I was a good momma for meeting my kids needs and that I was doing a great job and I looked very busy but in a good way lol. It was a very sweet comment and made my day. Then I got to eat my food and they had some delicious sweet potatoes that were very good. Then I put Corbin to bed and Paige and I got to go do the go karts that were on the ship! Brylianna and Grandpa Hollien came to watch us and cheer us on and my mom stayed and listened for Corbin in her room, I brought the baby monitor and hooked it into their room. The go karts where fun, you did a little orientation thing and then got to race 8 laps. I was going to have the very first go kart in line but the seat wouldn't scoot up so I had to get the back one. It was fun though and I waved to Brylianna everytime I passed her and she was jumping up and down and cheering really cute. They were electric go karts and super quiet and had stimulated noise. Then we went to the buffet for a late night snack and Brylianna got some strawberry ice cream of course :) Then we went to bed.
Friday
We had kinda a lazy day today enjoying everything one last time. We ate at the buffet of course and walked around the ship and let the kids play in the arcade and pick toys. We got quite a few cute ones and some nice boy gave Brylianna a ticket with 500 tickets on it and we got to use it and someone else gave us one with 17 tickets on it. It was very sweet. Today we also docked in British Columbia but I let the kids sleep and Paige and my mom went shopping and I showered and got ready while the kids napped.Then we all got dressed fancy and went to dinner. It was pretty late and the kids were pretty tired in spite of naps. We woke Corbin up cuz it was like 7pm already and he was not happy. It took about 20 minutes to get them in their adorable outfits and I seriously don't even know if it was worth all the crazy lol. I had to hurry and put my dress on cuz Corbin just wanted me to hold him. But we went down to dinner and tried to get some pictures while Brylianna was jumping around and Corbin kept escaping to crawl stairs haha. They lasted a little bit and then I had to leave after appetizers cuz Corbin was just exhausted. I had a delicious butternut squash soup and the rest of a kids cheese pizza and took the kiddos up to the buffet cuz several of the workers wanted to say goodbye to Brylianna and she got her last icecream and said goodbye to Carmel and Kevin and took pictures and gave hugs and told them thank you for everything. Then we had to go back to the room and pack everything, we didn't get to bed til really late that night poor kiddos. Probably around 1pm.
Saturday
We woke up luckily cuz Corbin cried and then went back to sleep but I got up and got ready and then Paige and my parents went to the buffet to eat and I stayed and let the kids sleep as long as they could. They brought me back breakfast and I scarfed it and then we had to get off the ship and say our goodbyes. Then we got to the airport and realized our flights left at different times. Paige and the kids and I left around 1pm but my parents didnt leave til 4 ish. So we went through the general security line which took forever and the kids were both crying and we were trying to juggle them push strollers and carry bags and it was quite the feat. Then we had some Mcdonalds and Brylianna got a free ice cream cuz she was so cute and the lady was nice. Then we boarded our plane and it was the longest flight ever. Poor Corbin was so tired and fussy. Brylianna did great and just sat on Paige's lap and watched a movie the whole time. Corbin cried a ton, but there was a nice lady in front of us that gave him a comb and mirror to play with that entertained him for a bit. I had one last little sucker that helped him for a bit, and there was a nice guy behind us that smiled and played with Corbin for a little bit too. But for a lot of the fight Corbin was just crying and screaming and I was that mom on the plane with a screaming crying baby and it was so sad because nothing I really did helped him and he was just tired and maybe his ears hurt and it was sad and frustrating and it really was quite hard to deal with at times and stay composed. My heart goes out to those mommas now. Poor little guy finally passed out in my lap right when the wheels landed at landing. He didn't get much of a nap. Then Jamie picked us up at the airport and we came home and ate dinner with Paige and Jamie til Pat got off work. We were so happy to see him, Corbin snuggled into him with the sweetest little smile. All in all it was a super fun trip with good memories though.
Some of my favorite things about the cruise was I wasn't on my phone or social media at all for a whole week long except to take pictures on my phone and Brylianna didn't ask once to watch a movie or play on a ipad and it was very refreshing and nice. It is fun to have these memories to cherish. We just hope Pat can come with us on the next one :)
