Ben Cruises to Bermuda!

Ben had his first vacation last week - a cruise to Bermuda!  It was our first family vacation and even Grandma & Grandpa were there too!  Just take a look at this picture below and you just know that Ben had a great time...

And here's the rest of our gang (minus Grandma because she was taking the picture)

Ben wasn't very happy at this moment because just a few minutes earlier he was having a great time playing with some rocks that he found while we were waiting for the ferry to take us back to the ship.

These little pebbles kept Ben busy for quite some time!

There wasn't much room to move around in our room on the ship mostly because of the crib, Ben's toys and the extra luggage taking up a lot of space.  Most of the time when we were in our room Ben would spend his time making crank calls down to the front desk and to some of the other passengers.

We couldn't let him keep doing that for long, but there weren't many places on the ship were we could just let him crawl around and stretch out his legs.  We did find a quiet corner with some open space and each evening we let him crawl around and play as much as he liked.

There were a few evenings that we even had an audience watching Ben play and crawl around.  I think that Ben should have gotten paid as part of the ship's entertainment because he made a lot of people laugh and smile on the ship...   especially when he flashed the people on the 'promenade' from our room.

He liked watching the people walking down the center of the ship from the window in our room.  A few of them would occasionally look up and point at Ben too..  I can't imagine why..

One of the funnier things that Ben did was when we took him to a couple of the shows on the ship.  We don't have any pictures of this, but he would watch the shows so intently - it would just crack us up!  He watched a dancing show and an ice skating show.  He just loved them!  ...until he wanted his bottle, then he just would konk out even with all the loud music and lights flashing.  Then as soon as we got back to our room where it was nice and quiet, he would wake right back up and be ready to roll.  Amazing.

Ben made lots of friends while on the ship - some old, some young, and some others that didn't quite fit in any category.  The ship had a play group scheduled for all the kids his age twice a day while we were at sea.  He liked playing with all the other kids and it was just a bonus having Mom & Dad there too.

 

We made friends while on the Ferry getting to other parts of the island too.

And he even made friends with the animals on the island...

And he even tried his luck at selling an empty ice tea bottle to some people from China sitting behind us on the ferry. 

They didn't buy it... But they certainly had a good time talking with Ben.

The weather wasn't very good while we were on the ship, but the rocking and rolling of the boat didn't seem to faze Ben very much.   He didn't puke or anything... but he liked to imitate the people who did.

Life on a cruise ship did change Ben's sleep schedule a bit...  He just didn't want to go to bed!  He just wanted to party all night long!   Even after everyone else went to bed, he was still looking for someone to play with!

 But when Ben finally did go to sleep... he was OUT!

 

Here's a nice family picture while we were out touring the island when Ben was awake.  

But it didn't last for long...  here he is on a trolley ride sound asleep.

Ben got a little spoiled in the evenings because sometimes Mom & Dad would snuggle with him to try to get him to sleep.  It worked, sometimes, and we didn't mind one bit.

 

But when he woke up again... he was ready to GO!

He wasn't too happy when we told him that the cruise was almost over.  He was having so much fun, he didn't want to go home.  His face pretty much said it all.

But then we told him not to worry - we'll go on vacation again sometime soon.

And he was happy again!