Our ship, the Oasis of the Seas

Before I tell you all about our trip, you need to understand a little about the ship we were in. The Oasis of the Seas is the biggest cruise ship in history. It has a crew of almost 3,000 and passengers in the 6,000's. Since it's maiden voyage in December of 2009 they have NEVER had an empty room. To walk the perimeter of this ship is one full mile. The Oasis is 17 stories tall. And this ship has everything imaginable. For example:

Restaurants:
-3 full service 24 hour buffets
- a 3 level main dining room
-An Italian restaurant
-A shushi bar
- a Greek restaurant
- a 50's style diner
- an outdoor cafe
- a pizza parlour
- a seafood restaurant
- an ice cream parlor
- a donut shop
- an adults only cafe
- 4 coffee shops
- a champagne lounge
- 10 bars.
- The Rising Tide - a bar that raised and lowered 3 stories.
- 24 hour room service

Live Entertainment:
- Broadway's "Hairspray"
- an Ice show
- a musical acrobatic act
- a diving/ sycronized swimming act
- a live comedy club
- live jazz music
- tribute bands
Swimming:
-15 different hottubs including 4 that jet out over the ocean.
- a 17 ft diving pool
- a lazy river]
- a kiddie pool specific for babies in swim diapers
- 4 other kiddie pools for potty trained and older
- 2 family swimming pools
- 2 adult only swimming pools
- a wave rider ( surfing)
Other Entertainment:
-a carousel
- a play room
- a casino
- an outdoor garden
- basketball
-tennis
- pingpong
- zip line
- a full servece salon and spa
- 5 different lounges
- shopping
- a candy store
- 2 photography studios
-a mini golf course
Not to mention they had business conference and seminar rooms, art auctions, jewlrey stores and so much more I know I'm forgetting things. I'll soon post more about what we actually did and post pictures as well,

Hair cuts!

Today, Kizzy and Kendal both got haircuts. It was the first time for both of them. We had a coupon to a salon called Snip-its which specializes in kids and they did a great job. They had plenty of distractions, including animal cookies, cartoons and toys. At the end of the haircuts they put a card in a machine and got a prize. I was kind of nervous about cutting their hair, but it was a really positive experience.



Kendal Before


Kendal During

Kendal After

Kizzy Before

Kizzy During

Kizzy After

CHRISTMAS!

On Christmas morning, we got to see what Santa brought to our house. He left a new crib for Kendal and a Lego table for Kizzy. Complete with legos! Santa also brought Kendal a moose and Kizzy a puppy.

We also all got a stocking full of goodies!

Here are Kendal's gifts.

Kizzy's presents

Here are my gifts.

Kyle set up my willow tree nativity on our mantle.

And finally Kyle's gifts.

We had a wonderful christmas and hope that all of our loved ones did as well. We missed a lot of you this holiday season, and we are looking forward to when we get to see you again.

Christmas Eve Part Two

After the Holker traditional Christmas Eve Dinner of tacos (yes, tacos) our family opened our first presents of the night. Kizzy was so excited to finally have a green light after weeks of "not" touching. Kendal actually got a couple of good tears on the paper before Kizzy decided he needed help.

And the presents opened first were: Matching Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Christmas Jammies!

Kyle's family have always opened all family gifts on Christmas Eve, saving only Santa gifts for christmas morning. We have found a happy medium in opening Grandparent gifts on Christmas eve and opening our presents to each other Christmas Morning. It's hard to tell, but in this picture Kizzy is actually trying to share this gift with Kendal.

Kendal had a blast playing with ribbons.

Kizzy got a rocking chair with her name on it.

And Kendal recieved this teddy bear.

Coming Soon: Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve Part One

On Christmas Eve, we spent the whole day as a family, spending time together and getting ready for the biggest holiday of the year. We tried to be festive, here we all are in our christmas green.

Kendal in his snowman outfit that his sister and cousins wore last year.

Kizzy is "decorating" cookies for Santa

Kyle pulled Kizzy around on the sled. We had a great time playing in our 3 + feet of snow.

It was Kendal's first time playing in the snow. Isn't he cute in his little snowsuit?

As always, Kizzy had a blast playing in the snow, she was a trooper and played outside for a solid 2 hours!

I don't think any of these pictures do justice to how much snow we had. All in all we had a great day playing and spending time together before any of the "official" celebrating even began.

Stay tuned for Christmas Eve Part Two, featuring christmas jammies and present opening!

Advenures in Potty Time

We've been talking about the potty for awhile now. Mostly talk, nothing else. Kizzy did go on the potty once, but that was months ago. Today, quite randomly Kizzy wanted to sit on the potty while watching her "Elmo's Potty Time" movie. She was getting very excited about going potty and refused to let me put a new diaper on her while dressing. So with some trepidation I put Minnie Mouse underwear on her. We talked about how Minnie doesn't like to get wet and so if she needs to go peepee, she needs to go on the potty. Well, the first time she needed to go, she stripped of her underwear and went running and climbed into the bathtub where she promptly peed. Thankfully it wasn't on the carpet. And now I know that she knows when she needs to go. The next time she needed to go she just started yelling "UHOH UHOH UHOH!" we weren't near her special potty so I took her to the closest bathroom and held her on the big potty. It scared the crap out of her, only not literally. She would not go until I lifted her down and then she went on the floor. Right now she is napping, in a diaper, but we're going to keep trying. She was very upset when I took her Minnie Mouse off. We'll keep at it for the rest of the day and see how it goes. If she keeps showing interest in trying, who knows, maybe this is it!

FOOD!

Kendal is a good eater. He is also a chunk. At one point he was waking up at night with increasing frequency to eat. When he woke up starving for the 7th time in one night, he got to eat solids the next day. He started out with rice cereal. He now enjoys apples (homemade), carrots (homemade), peaches, sweet potatoes, squash, and prunes. He has been given pears a handful of times and does not like them at all. Funny kid.