Thursday morning everyone was so tired and slept in pretty late. The four older kids got up and went to breakfast by themselves because they were tired of waiting for the rest of us to get up. I loved that they felt so independent by the end of the week. The four of them did a lot of stuff together and I know it helped grow their relationships. I loved it.
Magnus was Mr. Sleepy-head and slept in for awhile. So did Andy.
After m finally woke up we went to breakfast together. When we got back Andy was finally waking up and I headed to the gym.
The view from the gym was incredible! We had docked in Haiti in the early morning and it was a beautiful island. It reminded me of Jurassic Park.
It was overcast and cloudy, but still warm.
After my workout I headed back to the cabin where everyone was getting ready to get off the boat and go explore Haiti. We headed off and decided to go straight to the beautiful beach. Haiti was incredible. I couldn't get over the great resort, the perfect water, the great sand. It was all just amazing.
We staked out some beach chairs and went to play in the warm ocean. it started sprinkling, but we didn't care. We were already wet!
After a little while it really started to rain. The kids came and played in the sand and built sand castles. Jonah and Laylah were still swimming out in the ocean and then all of the sudden Jonah came up on the beach crying. He had been stung by something and was pretty inconsolable. Andy took him over to the medic tent to see what could be done.
After awhile of the rain it started POURING. Like, buckets of water falling out of the sky. The wind was going crazy and it was a crazy storm. The kids didn't mind at all. I tried to cover up under soaking wet towels.
Andy came back and said that the medics had sprayed aloe on it and told him there was nothing they could really do, you just have to wait for the stinging to go away. So Andy headed back to the ship to get some ibuprofen. Jonah sat on a chair by me and cried. I felt so bad for him. He is a pretty touch kid and rarely cries when he gets hurt.
playing in the rain!
Can you tell how wet he is? Magnus is the only one who didn't even go in the water. He is SOAKED from the rain!
Shell collecting
After the kids got tired of playing on the beach we headed over to the kid's zone because Magnus really wanted to play on the splash pad. He loved it there and didn't want to leave. The other kids were bored, but I let Magnus stay and play for awhile.
After that we decided to get some lunch. Since Royal Caribbean owns the private resort on Haiti, they bring lunch out onto the island. We went and got our delicious barbecue lunch and watched some guys play some Caribbean music for a bit. They were excellent and this funny old lady was dancing around them.
The rain had totally stopped by then and the sun was out. So many people had left and gone back to the ship because of the rain and the resort looked kind of deserted. It was awesome. So we decided to go do our excursion. Once again, Magnus was too small for most of the excursions, so we chose one that we all could enjoy. There was a ride called the Dragon Coaster (it is kind of like the Alpine Slide in Park City) and only 12 and older can drive. But, you can have a passenger! It worked out perfectly. Andy, Laylah, and I took turns taking all of the other 4 kids on rides over and over again. It was so much fun and by the end we were flying down the mountain!
There was a pulley system that would take the cart up to the top of the mountain and then you would ride all the way down through twists and turns. It really was a lot of fun.
Top of the mountain! There is our ship, all the way over there on the dock.
Beautiful beaches
Jonah finally started feeling better and loved the Dragon Coaster. He was bummed that he couldn't drive it. If only he was 5 months older, darn it!
Going up!
It turned out to be a beautiful day after all.
After we had enough of riding the Dragon Coaster we headed back to play on the beach some more.
When the kids were tired and ready to go back to the boat we realized we had one last thing left to do... shop for souvenirs! We headed over to the main market shop to look around. The shops here were the best ones yet. They had so many incredible things, most of them hand made. It was fun. The kids had a blast looking at everything and trying to make up their minds. Laylah got a darling straw bag, Daphne got some hand-painted seashells and a t-shirt, the boys got necklaces, Magnus got a sweet wooden machete, Andy got a cool wooden box to put his "stuff" in that sits on our dresser, I got a bracelet and of course, some real vanilla. Once they had all found something we headed back to the ship. On the way we saw some braiders and I remembered my promise to the girls. Laylah was excited, but for some reason Daphne had changed her mind. I wasn't sure why, as she was the one who wanted it done so badly before. I asked her several times if she was sure, and she said she was, so ANdy took all of the kids back to the ship and I sat with Laylah while she got her hair braided. She only wanted side braids, so that's what they did.
We headed back to the ship amidst a beautiful sunset.
Haitian dancers and musicians
We got back to our rooms and I find a crying Daphne. She is sad that she didn't get her hair braided. I try to figure out why she didn't stay to get it braided and she can't give me a reason, because she just doesn't know. I guess that maybe she was slightly afraid, and that's why. Ohhhhh, kids. Such fickle creatures. I promised her that I would try and braid her hair for her. So then she was happy again. Crisis avoided. We got all ready for dinner and the kids decided they want to eat in the buffet rther than the dining room that night. Andy and Magnus and I went to the dining room and it was a quiet dinner with just the three of us.
After dinner the 4 kids headed to the kids club, but Magnus came back to the room with us. We were all so tired. I really wanted to go do some of the fun adult activities they had going on that night, but I literally could not get my body to move once I laid it down. We put Magnus to bed and then downloaded Downton Abbey that we had missed the previous Sunday and watched it. After the kids came back from the kids club they went to bed and so did we! We are old and tired parents, haha.
Souvenirs!
I think Haiti was my favorite island. It was so beautiful and such a fun day.
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