March 2020

March was a crazy month! I can honestly say that I never thought that we would be required to work from home and schools would be closed at any point my life. It has been a big adjustment. Jeremy works in our office and I work in the kitchen and sometimes in our bedroom at a small desk. Blake enjoys watching TV in the gym, playing outside with Chloe, and playing in the family room or playroom.

When we came home from the cruise we decided to keep Kylie in daycare. It was still open but there were less kids. A few of Kylie's best friends weren't there but most of the kids in her class were. Blake was home with Jeremy and I doing school. Blake started distance learning on March 17th. It was a daily and still is a daily struggle to get him to do his school work. I mostly took 30 minute breaks from work to help him though a section of his school work. There was lots of yelling and tantrums but at the end of the day we always got it done. Jeremy, Blake, and I would go for daily walks at lunch. Blake would ride his bike while Jeremy and I walked. That was the best part of the first few weeks. I loved being able to just talk to Jeremy.

We did our traditional St. Patrick's day tradition. I always make green waffles and sometimes green eggs. The kids loved it. It's something super easy which means I can keep up with it every year. :)

Kylie has had small tricycle for a year or two but hasn't really had a real bike. She learned to ride Blake's so we bought her a new bike. She loves it!

Blake has picked up a love for vacuuming! He asks almost everyday if he can vacuum.

Starting March 30th, Kylie was no longer going to daycare. This was when it got really hard! :) Kylie would mostly play with her toys while watching Peppa Pig. The hardest part was if she wanted something then she would just demand it right then. She's not quite old enough to understand that we are on a work call. Kylie loves doing school! I found some alphabet papers for her to do. She has loved to fill them out and has actually learned to trace and write her letters a lot better. I wish I could give her more attention and teach her more but I'm stretched too thin with work and Blake's school work.

We did get a tree swing and the kids have loved playing with that. It is now getting hot so they don't play with it as much but in the morning its not too bad. 

Day 7 and 8 Carnival Panorama Cruise

Cruise – Day 7 and Day 8 (3/13/2020 and 3/14/2020)

Day 7 was our last sea day. Looking back this was our last day in the last two months that we were able to do any fun activities outside the house. I’m really glad we book advantage of some of the activities we ended up doing. This day was also a stressful day as the whole COVID-19 situation was getting worse. Jeremy and I watched the news everyday so we were aware of what was going on but as it was getting closer to getting off the ship things were feeling more real. It felt like we were floating on our own island while the world was going crazy.

Anyway, we started the day off early as we had purchased tickets to the 8:15am Dr. Seuss Breakfast! You purchase tickets on the first day when you get on the ship and we decided to go with the early option. Looking back I think the 9:45am option would have been better. We had stayed up really late the night before because the kids went to the pirate party. The kids were a little tired and grouchy but we made the best of it. The tables were decorated so fun! All the food was Dr. Seuss colors and theme! Kylie loved the music and did some dancing! Blake was really tired and didn’t participate in much. He did like the character pictures though which was surprising.

After breakfast we dropped the kids off at Camp Ocean. They had lots of crafts and games that they played. Jeremy and I went to the gym to workout. We went to the Groove for St. Jude party on the Lido deck. It was nice to just lay in the sun and have a drink. Jeremy and I also did the roller coaster and the ropes course. I was really excited for the coaster but it was a lot scarier than I thought. It was really windy when we went and it felt like I was going to blow off at any second. It was still really fun and a great view. The ropes course was insane! I used to do these things with no problem but this was so scary! Jeremy had no problem at all but there were some paths that were crazy. After doing it once, Jeremy wanted to do it again but he wanted to do it fast. I decided to suck it up and do it again and just not think and just go fast. It wasn’t as bad the second time. My motion sickness was starting to kick in a little from doing the coaster and then the ropes course. Next time I would probably do one and then take a break. Overall, they were both really fun and we were glad we did them!

At 2pm, we picked the kids up and surprised them with tickets to the Sky Zone. We have never been to a trampoline park before so we thought it would be really fun. This was Blake’s favorite part of the trip. They had a trampoline area, balance beam, and a sky ladder. The kids loved the sky ladder! Blake was able to go all the way to the top a few times. Kylie was so close and probably would have done it but our time ran out.

After the Sky Zone, we took the kids to the lido deck to grab an ice cream cone. We planned on doing the Family Scavenger Hunt but after getting the list we decided to just grab ice cream instead. We had fun looking out the window and talking. We headed back to our rooms to watch TV and start the packing process. Next was dinner time. We dropped the kids off at Camp Ocean and they ate dinner with their friends. Jeremy and I had dinner together and then did a little shopping. It was the last night so we took one last look at the shops. We also purchased a few of the family pictures. There were a lot of good pictures but we decided to go with the five-portrait deal. I wish they were lower the prices on the random pictures they take while you are on the ship because they are fun pictures but just too expensive. I went back to the room and packed everything up and then we picked up the kids. We went on one last late-night food run! This night was my second favorite! We all grabbed our own favorites and then took it back to our room and ate it. The pizza was a popular choice but the ice cream was hands down the kids (Kylie’s) favorite! I also decided to head out and surprise Blake with a Shirley Temple! I went to every bar on the ship looking for sierra mist and cherries. I finally found it at the last bar and they gave me the last cherry! Blake was so excited!

We woke up the next morning and headed to the restaurant for breakfast! This part was stressful. We had reception again and started reaching out to work to find out what our works were doing with the current COVID-19 situation. We knew at this point that Blake could not go to school for 14 days which at the time sounded impossible. We safely got off the boat and found our shuttle. We arrived safely back to our car and loaded up. We started our drive home. We stopped at a gas station and went to the bathroom. I saw some mac and cheese, cereal, water, etc. and I tried convincing Jeremy we needed to buy it all but he assured me that we will be just fine. We finished our drive but stopped at Chick fil a once we were in Phoenix. As we were in the drive-thru line we told the kids a little bit about what was going on and told Blake he can’t go to school for at least two weeks. Surprisingly they understood pretty well and there wasn’t much push back at all.

After we got home, Jeremy went to Costco and bought a ton of food. Our house was literally almost empty because we had been gone so we knew we needed to stock up as we need to quarantine for at least 14 days. Jeremy was able to find almost everything we needed except for toilet paper and paper towels.

I am so thankful that our family was able to go on this trip! It's crazy how close we were to not getting to go on this vacation. I feel for those that had to cancel their trips. We booked this cruise almost a year ahead as it was a brand new ship that first sailed in January 2020. This was the first big vacation that we have taken as just a family. I was extremely excited and very nervous about how it was going to go. Of course it could have started off better but overall after writing all these blogs I've realized how much fun and how many memories our family created. In the moment there was a lot going on and anytime the kids were at Camp, Jeremy and I were talked about the COVID -19 situation. We did not tell them about it at all as we didn't want to worry them or change the experience for them. I know the kids are going to talk about the "big boat" for a very long time! They still talk about the blue and yellow slides and how much they miss them! I hope once things settle and a vaccine comes out, that we will be able to go on another "big boat" as a family. I think it's the perfect way for a family to vacation. We had a good balance of family time and couple time. We mostly used the Camp at night for dinner and to work out which was really nice.

Day 6 Carnival Panorama Cruise

Cruise – Day 6 (3/12/2020)

Day 6 was our second and final port day at Cabo San Lucas! We got up pretty early and ate on the lido deck! At Cabo you take a small boat from the cruise ship to the city. We had one of the earliest tickets as we were only at Cabo for 5 hours. The kids loved the boat ride and enjoyed looking at the cruise ship and pointing out their favorite waterslides.

Right when we got off, we purchased a boat tour and snorkel package. The kids were able to see the arch and the different statues. They dropped us off at a beach to do a little snorkeling. I’m not sure what I was thinking but we were planning on having the kids snorkel as well. I had purchased snorkel gear and brought it with us. We quickly realized that the water was too rough and the kids wouldn’t be able to do it. Instead, they built a sand castle while Jeremy and I took turns snorkeling. The water was pretty rough so it wasn’t the best snorkeling but it was still fun.

We took a boat taxi to the popular beach area. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand and the water. First we buried Kylie in the sand and then the kids buried Jeremy. The kids thought it was really funny that when he breathed the sand would crack and come up and down. It was definitely a fun memory!

Blake loved putting his feet in the water. He stood there for at least 30 minutes. 

After about two hours, we decided to start walking back towards the port. We walked to the end of the beach and then put our shoes on. Jeremy couldn’t find his shoes and we realized that we left them at the beach we snorkeled at. The water taxi came faster than we thought so we were rushing to grab everything and his shoes were on the other side of the rocks and we did not see them. Jeremy had to walk barefoot as we tried to find shoes to buy. Surprisingly, all the little shops did not have any men’s flip flops. After about 20 minutes of walking, Blake started complaining that his legs were burning from his swimsuit. He had been walking in his wet swimsuit and it was starting to give him a rash. We were nowhere near a bathroom and he said he couldn’t walk any farther. 😊 We decided to have him stand in a corner and change into his normal clothes. Jeremy, Kylie and I all stood around him, at his request, so no one could see him change. We then continued on our search to find flip flops. During this time, it was every hot and we were all sweating. We stopped to grab a drink and snack at a convenience store. The kids grabbed Gatorade and chips. After a long walk we finally came to a very fancy mall. It was so embarrassing walking around the mall. All of us were in wet swim suits except Blake and Jeremy had no shoes on! We found a bathroom first and all changed into normal clothes. We then walked around trying to find flip flops. It was really hard to find men’s flip flops but we finally found a sketchers store that had some in his size. They were only $80! Haha! Jeremy almost died but he really had no choice as he couldn’t continue to walk around with no shoes. I honestly have no idea how he walked so far without burning his feet off.

If you look closely you can see Jeremy's fancy flip flops

After we found the shoes, we tried to find a sunglass shop that Jeremy and I had gone to when we were in Cabo a year ago. We walked all over trying to find it and never did. We ended up having to give up as we needed to board the ship really soon. Kylie then decided she had to go to the bathroom and could not hold it any longer. We started running around trying to find a bathroom which is almost impossible and they are never free. We finally found one and then we had to rush to the port. We stopped at a Senior Frog shop on our way as the kids had picked out souvenirs there. We ended up being a lot farther away then we thought we were. We started running at one point and each grabbed a kid. When we finally arrived at the port we were greeted with a mile long line. 😊 It was nice to know we weren’t going to miss the boat but we were exhausted! We grabbed a drink and did a little shopping while we waited for the line to go down. All the shops were much more expensive than the shops near the beach so we didn’t buy anything. The Cruise Director was at the dock to greet everyone and the kids were able to get a picture with her.

Side Story: Jeremy and I decided we want to remember this so I’m adding it in. When we went to the convenience store, Blake picked out a bag of Cheetos. I don’t remember the kind but they weren’t a kind I had seen before. Kylie picked something else out but ended up trying one of Blake’s and really liked them. Kylie really wanted a bag like Blake’s so we looking high and low while we were running around trying to find these Cheetos! We finally found them and we hurried and bought them and she was so happy! When we were in the long line she opened them and started to eat them. At one point someone near us said there were fish near the side of the dock. The kids and I went over to look while Jeremy held our spot. Kylie ended up dropping the bag of Cheetos over the edge into the rocks. Her world ended. Someone saw her drop it and was able to grab the bag for her. She only lost a few Cheetos and her life was complete again. 😊  



When we got back on the ship, we decided to take the kids to the water park. We got them changed again into swim suits and they played for a while. After, we all got showered and cleaned up. It was formal night which I don’t understand because everyone is so tired from being off the boat all day but none the less, it was formal night. We got the kids dressed up a little bit and sent them to Camp Ocean. They were able to eat dinner with the Camp again which was amazing! We dropped them around 4pm and they were there the rest of the night! Jeremy and I headed to dinner and had a nice dinner. It was filet minion night which is my FAVORITE night! After dinner, we went to check out the movie by the pool. We rented blankets and watched a little bit but decided to was too cold and windy. We walked around the ship a bit and then headed back to our room to watch TV. We don’t have cable at home so it was fun to watch some shows we usually don’t get to watch. It was pirate night at Camp Ocean so we let the kids stay longer than we usually did. At 10pm we went to pick them up and they were so upset. They wanted to stay and try and find the treasure. We checked them back in and then picked them up right before 11pm when they closed. The kids grabbed some ice cream and headed to bed!

Our room attendant was always so nice! He would always do something funny with the kids beds when he made them. I remembered to take pictures on this day. He tucked their Build-a-Bears in their beds. The kids always looked forward to seeing their room at the end of the day.