Grand Cayman

It's been a busy summer traveling but we just took our last trip. We try to do a family vacation just the 4 of us every summer somewhere new, somewhere with a beach. This year we headed to Grand Cayman Island & it was beautiful!

 

We left early on Friday morning & the girls were troopers getting there that early. They always love going to the airport & watching all of the planes come & go:

 

 

We even gave them a little independence & let them carry their own passports & tickets:

 

 

Unfortunately it started raining as soon as we boarded so we literally sat on the plane for 1 1/2 hours before we took off. Thank goodness the girls cooperated:

 

 

We eventually made the short flight to Houston but we didn't have much time so we literally ran to our next flight & made it just in time. The next airplane is probably one of the nicest we have flown on with the girls. They had electrical charging stations underneath the seat & every seatback had their own tv with satellite service:

 

 

Don't let this picture fool you, she only saw & watched for 20 minutes or so! The rest of the time she did pretty good though - it was probably one of the best flights she has taken. The key we finally figured out is splitting the girls up. Usually I sit with both of them & Bryan sits on the aisle seat next to us. This time both of us sat with a girl in 2 different aisles & they did fantastic! Apparently they just needed a little space between them. I sat with Sophie & I even got to watch a movie both directions!

 

When we landed, we went straight to our hotel & were pleasantly surprised - they said they would upgrade our room to an ocean view or a harbor suite. To be honest, I love looking at the ocean, but with the girls, I will take the suite any day! It makes life so much easier when the girls have their own room & we have ours. That way we can stay up a little later, get up a littler earlier, read or a book or watch tv without bothering them. They also surprised us with a welcome gift:

 

 

Beach toys, sunscreen & a whole bag of swim diapers! Let me tell you up front that all of those items got used :) And then the doorbell rang again (yes, the suite had a doorbell!) & they delivered a birthday dessert for Bryan:

 

 

The customer service at this resort was phenomenal! We were a little worried because we had a few communication problems before we got there but they more than made up for them!

 

Every afternoon they feed the fish in the harbor so Bryan took the girls while I got us unpacked & settled in:

 

 

The fish were huge! The waitress had to hold Sophie back because she was afraid she would fall in or a fish would get her.

 

Finally we made it to dinner just in time to check out the beach & to see our first sunset:

 

 

It was beautiful!

 

My plan this trip was to let Sophie practice sleeping in the big bed with Sadie & depending on how she did, I was going to transition her to her toddler bed when we got home:

 

 

Don't let this precious picture fool you - this only lasted an hour! We had French doors from their room to ours & Sophie kept getting out of bed & opening our doors & coming to tell us hi. If she wasn't doing that, she was jumping on the bed or getting down & playing so Sadie kept yelling "Mom, Dad, I am trying to sleep but Sophie keeps waking me up!". We soon realized that Sophie wasn't ready yet & both of the girls would be cranky on vacation without good sleep, so literally at 10:00 at night, we had to call down & order a crib. The funny thing is that when the crib finally got there, Sophie cheered with joy & ran to get in it. Apparently she's not ready for the big girl bed either!