Our Vacation to Paradise: Day 1

{Day 1: Miami}

After months of planning, 1 bottle of sea-sickness medicine, trying on 8 million swimsuits, and kissing the kids goodbye 12 times each, we finally set off on our Caribbean Cruise.

Our first day was a 5 hour direct flight to Miami in the back row of the plane with an empty seat next to us and "Safe Haven" playing on TV.  It may seem strange to some of you (particularly those who do not have 3 very energetic children), but this was like a day at the spa for me. 
Best. Planeride. Ever.

That night we stayed at a semi-ghetto hotel in the gorgeous and enormous city of Miami.  We ordered ourselves 2 pizzas (FYI...The price of 2 pizzas was less than the price of 1 pizza.  Since when, people?), we almost ate all of it, watched the Heat punish the Spurs, we danced, we kissed, we schmoozed...

and we woke up next to this guy.

The picture does it NO justice.  It was so enormous that Luke refused to even kill it.

So instead we named it and gave it permission to snuggle with the room's next occupants.

Unfortunately, the rest of Luke's family did not quite have the same magical travel experiences that we had.  His mom and step-dad's airplane was unboarded because of mechanical problems, they had to fly all night and extend their trip by several hours, and his brother, Bruce and his wife, Becca had their luggage get lost.  (Not the best situation when you're on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic.)

Also, minutes before we stepped on the ship I got a text that my sister-in-law's water had broken early and they would shortly be delivering their first son.  Which is super exciting, except that - once again- we were going to be on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic and there are no cell towers in the Atlantic.  

WHY ARE THERE NO CELL TOWERS IN THE ATLANTIC!?!?

(by the way, he's darling and healthy and happy and cute and i'm sure he has that newborn smell that's a mixture of puke and clean laundry but somehow manages to smell delicious.)

After walking every square inch of the boat and almost wetting ourselves with anticipation, the rest of the family made it and we were joyfully reunited.  

It took a matter of seconds before Luke and his brother were dancing a jig, skipping around the deck holding hands, and sharing an ice cream cone.  Actually, none of those things happened.

But almost.

Lucky for us (Bruce excluded), there just happened to be a dance party going on (right?!), so we had no choice but to join it.  

Luke thought he'd be sneaky and try to embarrass me with a picture of me dancing.  

This is the picture he got:

Who's embarrassed now?

After we wore out the dance floor with our mad skills (Me and Vicki - but mostly Vicki - lit it up on Cotton-eyed Joe.  Thanks you, square dancing night for Young Women's) we stumbled upon a cruise-style version of Jeopardy.

First, Vicki was chosen to be a contestant and she dom'd.  (Dominated, in brother talk.)

Next, Luke was chosen and he sort-of dom'd.

He had some stiff competition (and in his defense, 85% of the questions were about rap music), but he still managed to hold his own until the very last question.

It was all tied up, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, plastic ship trophy on the line, and the quest was to name the singer of a specific song and the movie that it was used in.  

The song began playing (see if you can get it)...

"Lemme see you just bounce with me.... just bounce with me..."

Luke slammed his buzzer and yelled out with gusto...

"WILL SMITH IN........................HITCH!"

Eeeeeeeeer!  Wrong.

Men. In. Black., my friend.

Sadly, the allusive trophy slipped through his fingers, but Luke did capture a much less cool 2nd place medal.  But let's be honest, neither one of those is cool.  at all.

Then we pretty much had the best dinner ever, stayed up well past our bedtime, laughed until we cried, and woke up the next glorious morning in Key West.

To Be Continued...