Colombia and New Year's Eve

Stop #2: Colombia.  I can truly say I never thought I'd visit this country.  Growing up in the 80's and 90's with all the news of drug traffic here but it was truly a beautiful place to visit.  HOT but beautiful.  Because we were just touring the city and not doing anything really kid friendly, we left Isla and Miles on the ship in the kids center.  They were in heaven.  Everyone else with kids was pretty jealous as they had to drag their kids around in the heat.  Ethan and Isaac were good sports though and it was good spanish practice for them.

Taylor's dad booked us a tour guide so we could go anywhere we wanted.

First stop:  the old fort

And coconut water already cause it is HOT!

And souvenir shopping.  Taylor and I have for years only bought the kids soccer jerseys as souvenirs.  They get worn and they're a great reminder of where we've been.  But too many times we've seen jerseys and thought, oh we're too busy to buy them now or whatever excuse we have and then we spend the last day frantically trying to find them again.  So our new rule is buy them the first time you see them.  So luckily on just our 2nd stop we found jerseys and we were done.

Cartagena was beautiful and kind of amazing to see such a large metropolis.  We've never seen this in the Caribbean.

Climbing the old walls of the city (that kept pirates out).

Downtown was beautiful and felt more like Europe than the Caribbean.

Esther's happy to have a break from pushing and Isaac is happy to have a toy to play with.

Back on the ship we picked up Isla and Miles and went swimming.

And since it was New Year's Eve it was time to party at dinner.

Apparently too much partying for this well dressed cutie.

Good bye 2015.  You've been great!

Aruba

Our first stop was beautiful Aruba.  

Taylor's dad let me book everyone's excursions knowing that I'd know what everyone could do with kids along.  So off we all went on a catamaran.  Arty and Esther weren't sure they could do it with a 2 year old and a 7 month old, but with enough aunts and uncles and cousins to help, it was perfect.  Barbara and Clint are about to join the parent group!

Mack and Sam and Aria

Arty, Esther, Ezra, and Stella

And part of our crew.  Who am I kidding, someone is always wandering off somewhere.  Luckily they're pretty good about coming back too.

Getting ready to snorkel.

Really dad?  We're not too sure about this!

Chillin' on the boat is great though.

Our catamaran had a slide off the back so it was really easy to get the kids in the water.

Or so we thought.  Miles is skinny enough that he just stopped at the end.  And sat.  And dangled his toes.  Until enough people yelled at him to get in the water and move out of the way.

Yep, still not sure.

Here go mom and Isla.

In truth snorkeling was kind of a disaster.  Four years ago when Ethan was just 7 we took him along with Taylor and I snorkeling in Tahiti and he did great.  I thought we could do the same with all our kids, but it turns out 4 is too many to tag team in the water and Aruba didn't have enough interesting fish to look at.  Isla was very scared and clingy making it hard for me to help anyone else.

And Miles and Ethan weren't interested at all.

Isaac was happy to do the slide over and over again but didn't want to snorkel.

And Taylor, though he tried to help with the kids, really just wanted to go off and snorkel by himself.

Taylor trying to coax Isaac in.

In truth I was a little frustrated after our first stop.  Luckily we had 1 more.  So we all got out and I held Stelli to help Arty and Esther who were getting frustrated that they hadn't been able to swim with their two littles.

The kids played on the trampoline mat.

And when we got to our second stop all the stress and frustration just magically disappeared.  We passed Stella and Ezra around and the adults that wanted to snorkel went off to snorkel.

And then my kids had the time of their lives jumping off the second story of the boat.

Balancing on the trampoline.

Playing with cousins.

Having dance parties.

And just hanging out.

It turned out perfect.  In truth my kids don't get to snorkel that often but they didn't care and they were so happy to have their own jumping/dancing adventure that in the end everyone had the perfect day.

Back on the ship we showered and headed off for more food.. of course!

And more lounging on our balcony.

Can't resist a few more pics of our perfect day though.

Trying to coax Miles to jump.

Which of course he eventually did.  Sweet Esther was at the bottom to catch him.  So nice to have these amazing adults who love my kids and treat them as their own children.  How truly wonderful for them to grow up like this.

Taylor off on his own, maybe a little too close to the rocks.

Daddy trying to convince Isla to jump to him.  Didn't work.