Bahama Mama Minus the Bebe

Almost two years later & Mama & Dad were able to leave Tootsie Pot Pie at home while we went on our own little vacay to the Bahamas to celebrate Shad's sister, Stacy's 40th birthday.

Of course I was F-R-E-A-K-E-D out about leaving Cashe & kicking myself for not having left him overnight AT ALL any time sooner than 23 months. Genius, Nicole. Genius.

The trip planning started earlier in the year, probably in March & we were a little skeptical about who should watch precious, little child. We have no family in Boise & the 'family' we do have either has children of their own as well as LIVES (busy lives) of their own that we found ourselves a little apprehensive leaving him with anybody.

Then, it dawned on us, Shad's Aunt Patty (in Seattle) is retired & loves to travel. She's phenomenal with kids & is totally fearless about finding her way around a new town. So we asked her. And she said yes. Hallelujah!

Patty came out a few days early to see how things are run in the Nyquest Household. And come Saturday night, we were on our way to Seattle to begin our very first adventure away from home without our Little Man.

When we got to Seattle, we began celebrating immediately since that was Stacy's actual birthday. We headed straight downtown to a FRIGHTENING place for dinner called the Pink Door.

Stacy had always wanted to try it because there was always a long line at the door to get in when she had been in the area. (I don't think she paid much attention to the quality of people who were standing in line.) It was a burlesque show; however let's just say there were more MEN flaunting their femininity than there were women on stage. None of our boys couldn't even look.

Aside from that, the food was okay & the drinks were 'eh'. And to top it off, I found myself super sick that night from whatever seafood dish I had ordered (either that, or the rememberence of the man I saw on stage doing the splits in his pink thong). Ick.

The next day (after sleeping in 'til noon to shake my illness), we jumped on a red-eye to Miami so we could board our fabulous ship, the Norweigan Sky.

And the rest, my friends, can be told through our wild array of fun & memorable photos. Here goes (in no particular order ... since Blogger is so stinking hard to maneuver this many photos on & I have zero patience).

Our own little formal night. We were 'freestyle cruising', so we didn't have a scheduled dinner every night; therefore there was no formal night, which meant we had to make our own.

Our beach shot on the boat's private island, The Grand Stirrup Cay. It was GORGEOUS there & the pina coladas came in giant water bottles & were to die for!

We barely laughed at all.

This is Atlantis. Oh MY goodness was this place incredible. It is a vacation in itself. It's a giganto resort on Nassau with an aquarium, a waterpark, a casino, ... you name it.

It was like a Vegas hotel, but on the beautiful, clean beach instead of a street where men hand you photos of naked women.

We are SO going back.

Shauna & me (in one of my many hats) had to take our photo next to the crystal clear water.

Dylan & Shauna ordered a bucket o' beers almost every day, I think. This is Darth Vador Dyl with the bucket on his head with his pretend lightsaber.

YUMMO - these were the tropical drinks at Atlantis.
One of the cruise staff members said the average person gains 6-8lbs on a cruise. I wonder why?

The view of our boat from Stirrup Cay.

One of our dinners.



We went to a comedy show one night & the comedian called me up on stage! He asked where I was from & called me "Boise" from that moment on, through his entire act. He also gave me a certifcate for free jewelry & a DVD of his comedy act, so I just HAD to have my photo taken with him.
After that, I had a lot of people shout out, "Boise!" anytime they'd see me later on the ship.
I'm so famous.

Here we are on the (ghetto) island of Freeport. It is beautiful in this photo, yes. However, this island is very industrialized & this entire beach was covered in freak-o's asking if we wanted to buy cocaine out of a seashell.

So instead of snorting coke from seashells, we took shots out of condiment cups at a local pizza parlor. That's normal.

The Nyquest siblings: Shauna, Shad & Stacy (minus Shane & Stephen). Awe.

"Bermuda.
BAHAMA.

Come on pretty mama."

The birthday girl.

Relaxin' with a $12 drink in hand.

Yes, we did get busted attempting to bring alcohol onto the ship (while trying to avoid the inflated alcohol prices).

Thankfully, they just hold it for you & you get it back at the end of the trip.

Hangin' out at the pool, waiting for the bad news about our alcohol being discovered.

We wondered why our bags never were delivered to our rooms. DANGIT.

Welcome to Miami. We had JUST boarded our ship.

Okay, forget we've only had 2 hours of sleep on our red-eye.
Let's partay!

Another dinner.

My one request of the entire trip was to go to DASH Miami when we got back. Thankfully, we had a cool crew of travelers because we walked 9 blocks in the pouring rain to get to DASH so I could buy a $60 T-SHIRT. Yes, just a T-SHIRT.

I am THAT much of a silly Kardashian fan.

I owe all of my fellow travelers a big 'Thank You' for enduring that trek for me.

And the reward for our 9+ blocks of walking? More drinks!

Not just drinks. TWO for ONE drinks.

Even GIANT two for one drinks.

Standing in the ocean at Miami South Beach.

90 degrees, baby on September 23rd, 2011 on Miami Beach.

It was H-O-T, but not much different than home aside from the humidity, of course.

Kissy Kissy.

I swear I had no idea I looked so 'Paris Hiltony' in this photo, but I kinda like it.
Besides, everyone else looks normal-ish.
This is our group: Steve, Stace, Shauna, Me, Dylan & Shad.

Steve's precious Budweiser beer bucket in Miami.

Steve's Budweiser beer bucket on its way home to Seattle.

Enjoying the shade from our fabulous sun hats.
(Mine was courtesy of Jennifer Bradley. Stace loved mine & bought hers in Freeport.)

Not only did Stace scorch her legs the day prior, the birthday girl's feet got hot. Here she is cooling them off in one of Atlantis' 36 pools.

"Strike a pose, there's nothing to it.
Vogue. Vogue. Vogue."

Okay, ignore my cheesy pose & check out that water!
GORGEOUS.

Awe.

No one liked my hat except Stacy.
And, I didn't care.

And, I couldn't fit well in the elevator either.

Too bad for my fellow elevator passengers.
I didn't even get sun burned.
Take that, hat-haters.

More hat shots.
(Where I look like a Halloween witch on vacation.)

This is me WISHING I hadn't packed my giant sun hat.

I was ROASTING.
This is when they had confiscated our bag & I wasn't about to cool off anytime soon without endulging in a fancy tropical drink. Cheers!

See?
You can tell by the look on his face how much he hates the hat.

Lovebirds.

Still waiting for our bags -- might as well take some photos before we get TOO sweaty from the heat.

This was taken after we went to an 'adult' game show where we were all on teams & had to basically do a scavenger hunt.

Our team captain had to be the first to run to onto the stage to provide the judge with specific items like, a man wearing lipstick, a woman's bra, someone who could do the splits, two men dirty dancing (Shad & Dylan stepped up to the plate for our team on that one - I would've given anything to have filmed it too).

Our sexy restroom shot outside the bathrooms at Stirrup Cay.

See my GIANT pina colada bottle?

All that liquid sure makes you have to pee!

And WHY NOT have your photo taken afterwards?!

This is all of us before boarding our ship (oops, backtracking a little here ... )

The Atlantis aquarium had a room where you could touch the sea life. It was SO neat.

Those shells (like the one I'm holding, that they hide cocaine in) moved around in the sand. The starfish moved too. I held both of them & we also walked through a tunnel of lobsters. It was a sweet experience & a nice break from the waterpark.

We managed to enjoy each other, believe it or not. I had ONE breakdown one night where I missed our little guy so much. I cried & cried & cried & scrolled through photos of him on my phone. (Good grief, drama queen.)

Everyone else had gone to the club to go dancing & at 12:30 A.M., Shad came to get me (after I had even taken Nyquil!) & 'encouraged' me to come dance.

My hair was wet from having taken a shower & our hairdryer didn't work, so I was all sorts of 'pretty' (note my sarcasm, please).
In addition to my sad hair, I had super swollen eyes from crying so much, & my Nyquil was kicking in, BUT I managed to go upstairs & shake a tailfeather.

The two beauty queen sistas at Stirrup Cay.

"I wear my SUNGLASSES at night so I can so I can ..."

Okay, so we're on South Beach in Miami & somehow we wind up in some DARK & dreary bar because they have two for one drinks (yet AGAIN).
I had already spent too much money on my DASH t-shirt, so I wasn't about to spend a bunch more on alcohol.
Besides, this place was getting B-O-R-I-N-G (only in my opinion though), so I decided to spice it up a bit & go for a walk & buy Shad some killer, new sunglasses.
(At least I spent my money on something tangible, right? Even if he never wears them again.)

This was taken walking through the Seattle airport the day we flew home. Stacy was escorting me around, holding my train.
Such a sweetie.
I felt like royalty.

That is Shad at the end of the giant tunnel of sharks.
This was taken at Atlantis in the aquarium.
Speaking of sharks, the Atlantis waterpark had a waterslide where you'd ride THROUGH a shark tank.

It was WAY cool.
The waterpark was actually pretty amazing & I'm NOT a waterpark fan. (I have too much anxiety of dropping down the slides so fast my stomach is in my throat & my swimsuit will wind up around my neck.)

"Bouncing in the club where the heat is on

All night on the beach till the break of dawn

I'm going to Miami

Welcome to Miami"

I love this picture.

Expect to see it on your Christmas cards this year because it makes me laugh.

Overall, the trip was a HIT!

Cashe did FANTASTIC while we were gone. He didn't cry once for Auntie Patty. He did get a fever from his 2-year molars & he did have a diaper incident in which he ate one too many strawberries, but all in all, he & Auntie had a GREAT time together AND ...

Mama & Dad enjoyed a sunny getaway together with some great family.