Memorial Day / Johanna’s birthday

The Hoyt’s invited us over for the holiday, so we celebrated Johanna’s birthday with our special friends.

An extreme badminton game.

Marguerite bought her balloons. 

I love this little girl and I love this family God is allowing us to do life with.

Some pre-birthday celebrating!

It was a rainy weekend, but the sun always shines through this one’s smile.

Our newest teenager!

She’s going to have a great year!

Graduation 2023–no Butlers!

we hurried home from our vacation so that we could attend graduation parties and the ceremony.

 

These beauties will get their moment NEXT May!

First Port Day–Costa Maya

We visited Costa Maya in 2016.  We had a great day there on that visit, but the region had been hard hit by both the lockdowns and hurricanes.  We knew going in that our day would be a little weird.

The ship was not going to dock until 1PM or so, so the morning was ours.

Daddy visited the coffee shop and brought the girls back some pain du chocolat.

 

We went to the main dining room again for breakfast.  It was such a nice view and our meal was excellent.

We all did, um, things(?) for the next few hours.  
Johanna tried the rock climbing wall.

Tab absorbed vitamin D.

Marie found a covered lounger.

Johanna went for a swim.

And came back with a beverage.  These kids know how to cruise!

 

John and Nigel.

After some lunch from the buffet, we got the all clear for disembarkation.

I had some basic idea of getting through the port area and finding a cab to take us to the Malecon where we could find a beach to chill on.

 

On the outer edge of the port, there was no shortage of men and women offering beach packages.  We found one that sounded safe (you need to re-read our 2019 nightmare to understand this was a HUGE leap of faith for us), and we headed to a very popular beach.  The package was inexpensive, and drinks were also reasonable.  But we had to endure SO MUCH SOLICITATION.  To the point that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  It was exhausting.

We had real Coke! Yum.

And after a few hours we decided to request a cab back to the port.  Here, we paused to enjoy some flamingos.

And take a photo with the same sign we have a photo of Tab and Hanny with from 2016.

It was  few hours until dinner, so we all kind of found things to do and eat.  The pizza was not terrible.  The sauce and cheese were actually good. 

This is where I need to brag on Katriel. 
The area where you can get pizza is also the area where you can get small sandwiches and pastries.  The pizza line is often super long, while the sandwich/pastry side is much shorter.  Katriel had discovered earlier in the cruise that if you were in the line for a sandwich or pastry and also asked for pizza, they would get you both.

She’s a genius!  She got a donut for her and two slices for me and no one was sad.

As the ship was pulling out of port I was able to get a cool video of the sun setting. 

Tab was with us for dinner, but wasn’t feeling photo-y.  No problem. 

*The great Blog Fix of 2024 - photos are out of order - dessert first*

Most desserts were represented.
The carrot cake was a 6/10 to Tab and I. Needed more frosting.
The sunshine cake was a 7-8/10 for three of us.
The brownie was 10/10, as was the chocolate cake.

Most of us had coconut shrimp.

Tab had bao tacos.

Katriel had the fruit cup. 

She also had mac and cheese again and ice cream again.

We really did try a wide variety of dishes.

DH and I had the jerk pork. It was amazing.

I only ate 25% but it was so so good

Tabby had tiger shrimp

Nigel is the least excited about food with a Caribbean flair; he opted for pesto pasta.

Johanna had NY strip AGAIN

And Marie had the Caribbean chicken. We’d been told it was quite spicy, but she said it was perfect