Varvel Family: 2017

We took our first big family vacation since before Sawyer left on his mission. We went on our first cruise and loved it! We did a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise, with stops at the Grand Caymans, Roatan/Mahogony Bay, Belize, and Cozumel. So fun!

We flew through the night to Orlando, and then drove to Miami. We went to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park to tour the lighthouse and play at the beach until it was time to check into our hotel.

Ready to fly out! Sawyer had to sit next to this strange man that kept wanting to talk to him the whole way. The only problem was that nobody could understand anything he was saying. Sawyer would just smile and nod. I was laughing so hard!

Yay!

At the state park in Miami, there were raccoons everywhere, and they were not the slightest bit scared of people.

Bailey was supposed to run on the beach with me, but once she saw the ocean, it took her a matter of minutes before she was in it!

The plan was to run, then tour the lighthouse, and then go in the water, but clearly they changed the plan. :)

Inside the top of the lighthouse.

Outside the top of the lighthouse.

It was a beautiful view from the top!

Hahaha, I wanted a picture of Sawyer, but clearly someone was feeling left out.

Mark is getting better with heights. Roller coasters don't scare him at all anymore, but standing at the top of the lighthouse still freaked him out.

Mark and Bailey were reenacting a Karate Kid moment, and I have no idea what Sawyer is doing!

We toured the house and grounds of the lighthouse. It was built in the 1800s.

We saw this fun guy in a tree!

These last two pictures are my favorite. Bailey and this raccoon were deciding if they wanted to be friends.....

Then at the last minute, they both decided they were scared of each other. So funny!

Day at Sea:

We embarked at 4:00 in the afternoon, so we spent that evening exploring. The next day was a day at sea.

Exploring the ship!

Miami in the background.

Our rooms were side by side, but they were so quiet. We could even knock on the walls and not hear each other.

It didn't take us long to realize that we could have as much ice cream as we wanted, and as often as we wanted. I'm pretty sure we all ate our weight in cones.

When we all had to meet for our safety instructions it was so hot! It took forever too. This guy kept inching his way closer and closer to Sawer. Sawyer was finally pinned up against the wall and was literally breathing on the guys neck. I was laughing so hard! This kind of stuff is only funny because it always happens to Sawyer. I wanted to pinch the guys bum, and then point to Sawyer when he turned around! Hahaha, I figured I better not get us kicked off the ship before we even started.

Bye beautiful Miami!

Carnival Glory

We loved all of our towel animals!

We loved hanging out on the deck! We must have gone down the slides a hundred times!

Mark was the best on the slide. The rest of us would come down and make a little splash. Mark would go down so fast, and make a huge splash at the end. The worker lady at the bottom would have to jump out of the way to not get wet.

This was our favorite entertainer on the ship. He was from Wales, and was so good! We would usually go find where he was performing after dinner, and listen to him for awhile.

The sunsets were one of our favorite parts.

We ate dinner in the dining room every night, and loved it. Bailey tried lots of crazy stuff. This was fried oysters. She also had sword fish, and escargot (snails). Sawyer had some fun stuff too. His favorite was the strawberry bisque soup. It tasted like strawberry quick milk.

The Cayman Islands:

Our first stop was the Cayman Islands. We did an excursion with a short snorkel in the 'coral garden,' stingray bay, and starfish cove. The water was really rough the day we were there, so if we ever go back, we're gonna do this one again. We loved the stingrays! I could have stayed and swam with them all day!

We couldn't believe how massive the cruise ships were!

The Cayman Islands

Our boat ride out to the stingrays.

This was our first experience snorkeling. I've never seen water this shade of blue before. It was so gorgeous! It's crazy to look at this picture, and then think of all the stuff swimming around underneath us. Tons of colorful fish, and big stingrays!

Mark

Bailey

Stingray Bay! We loved it! We all got to kiss a stingray, so now we'll have 7 years of good luck! :) We also got to feed them. It was like putting your hand up to a vacuum cleaner. They were everywhere, and would just swim right up into your arms. They seemed to like Sawyer a lot. He was always surrounded by lots of them. We all want to go back and do this again!

Starfish Cove!

This little cove was so pretty.
There were starfish everywhere!

Bailey came back to a cute elephant on her bed.

Mark and I had a frog.

Roatan/Mahogony Bay:

Our second stop was Roatan/Mahogony Bay. It's an island off the coast of Honduras. I thought this island was so beautiful! Total jungle, surrounded by the ocean. It was sad driving around it though, because you can tell that most of the people live in poverty. For this excursion, we zip lined through the jungle, and then went to a beach.

We made a cute little monkey friend while we were waiting for our excursion to start. He just kept going from person to person. He liked me the best because I had long hair for him to play with.

Mark and Cocoa

Bailey and Cocoa

Sawyer and Cocoa

Getting ready to zip line!

Bailey

Sawyer

This was so fun! I think we did 12 lines!

Our last line was the best. It was super long, fast, and you went straight towards the ocean!

We loved this beach! We could have stayed there all day, but we only had an hour (which flew by)!

It was warm like bath water!

An old ship wreck in Mahogony Bay

I loved this island!

This is the night she ate sword fish!

Belize:

Our third stop was Belize! So fun! We did a cave tubing excursion with a Mayan lunch. I loved the hike to the caves the best! So pretty, and different from anything we're used to hiking in!

Cave tubing!

We had to cross the river several times on our hike to the cave.

So pretty!

We had a really small group, which was awesome! There were only six of us, and the couple we were with happen to be from Idaho Falls! What are the chances of that happening!?! They were Nathan and Amy Taylor, and they were fun to go on our adventure with!

The cave entrance.

Here we go!

It was seriously so cool inside! We even saw bats!

Exiting the cave!

We highly recommend this excursion!

This is the night she ordered escargot for her appetizer! It was hilarious watching her eat them. Sawyer and I tried them, but Mark wouldn't. The only really weird thing she didn't order was frog legs. She took a hard pass on those. :)

Cozumel:

Happy Thanksgiving! This was probably our favorite day! We stopped in Cozumel, and had an awesome catamaran sail and snorkel excursion. Both kids were thinking they wouldn't like this excursion very much, and it ended up being our favorite!

The place we met for our excursion was so pretty, so we had a little photo shoot. Bailey is always game for it, but Sawyer just rolls his eyes at me, and then eventually ignores me when I tell him I want to take his picture.

Such a pretty place!

I love this picture!

We loved the catamaran! Bailey and I worried about getting sea sick, but we were fine. We even saw flying fish!

Sawyer

Bailey

The crew served us yummy chips and guacamole!

Our steward made us a cute little Thanksgiving turkey!

He made Sawyer and Bailey a hanging monkey! This was their favorite one.

Half pina colada, and half strawberry daiquiri. Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving from the middle of the ocean!

Day at Sea:

Our final day was a day at sea. We took full advantage of the sun and stayed on the deck all day! Well, Mark, Bailey, and I did. Usually when we were on the deck, Sawyer was in the gym or taking a nap.

Sawyer loved breakfast, because he could have french toast every day! This is Fruit Loop and Cherrio covered french toast.

We went to the Karaoke lounge a few times. Bailey and Mark were brave and got up and sang!

Bailey singing Karaoke

Mark singing karaoke. He busted out a southern accent that we had no idea he had! So funny!

Our last sunset on the ship did not disappoint!

Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure:

We extended our vacation an extra day to go to Universal Studios! How could we not, when they have The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and added Diagon Alley! Needless to say, Bailey was beyond excited!

Hulk has been our favorite roller coaster since our last vacation to Florida years ago! We love it!

The King Kong ride was fun!

Jaws!

The first time we went on Jurassic Park, We got soaked! Haha, we love this ride!

The second time on Jurassic Park, I took before and after pictures. Before...

After!

Before....

After!

We went on Ripsaw Falls, and there was not a dry spot left on us! So funny! As you can see, Bailey was having the time of her life! The boys don't get as excited about getting wet as Bailey and I do!

Hahahaha!

Now we'll get into the real reason we went to Universal...The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Bailey was beyond excited! Bailey and I went to the one in CA last year, but this one has Diagon Alley, and you can actually ride the Hogwarts Express back and forth between parks. It was a nerd's paradise, and Bailey ate it up! Mark and Sawyer actually thought it was pretty cool too!

Hogwarts!

Hagrid's hut!

Everything was decorated for Christmas!

Bailey got picked for the wand demonstration at Ollivander's Wand Shop. You would think she had just won a million bucks! She was giddy with excitement! We didn't buy the wand that choose her though. She already has a wand, and when you're 18 years old, you don't need two wizard wands. That's where I draw the line at her nerdiness!