The most amazing family vacation EVER!

So we just returned from a vacation and it was absolutely AMAZING! The dream vacation that we have always wanted to do-my whole family (parents, siblings and spouses and all their kids-yep, all 28 of us!), on a Disney Cruise, in the Caribbean and Bahamas in super amazing concierge suites! (This was an awesome surprise gift given to us from one of my generous siblings and spouse so we didn't even have to pay for it!)

The whole crew, all 28 of us, at church on Grand Cayman-love all of these people so much!

CAR, PLANE, BUS AND BOAT
Getting there...

The 3 Musketeers insisted on sitting by each other on the plane

Grandma was amazing and had both of the babies on her lap on the airplane for awhile!

Our hotel shuttle taking us to get on our boat! We filled  up almost every seat

OUR SHIP-THE "DISNEY WONDER"

http://www.nedcruise.info/disney%20wonder.htm

The shops

1 of the many pools and at this one you could watch movies at night on the huge screen!

 The kids loved the Mickey Pool and it was hard to drag them away.
The Mickey Pool aboard the Disney Wonder in the Bahamas / Photo: Chrissy Pierce

McKenna dancing with Grandma to the live piano music in the Atrium while we waited to meet more Princesses. The piano player was super talented and didn't use any music!

Our ship also had this really nice movie theater where they played all kind of fun movies that are currently in theaters, we watched "Into the Woods" and "Big Hero 6" while we were there.

Natalie and Aya 

It was so fun to get a big group together and go to the shows after dinner every night. My favorite was "Disney Dreams"

 One of the highlights for the girls was of course meeting Elsa and Anna! They were so cute and fun and talked to each of the girls for awhile, answered there questions like "where is Olaf?!" and admired their Frozen art work so they were in Frozen heaven.

More Princesses!...

I love Kimberly's Elsa pose 

Grandma and Gradpa with the 2 oldest grandgirls about ready to board the ship


This picture say so much-I love it!

 


OUR SUITE

Our amazing 2 bedroom concierge suite! When Glenn & Lynda (our awesome personal crew members whose job was to take care of our every need-no seriously!) found out about our birthdays coming up and decorated our door for Hana and I!


This is the floor plan, pretty amazing! (the girls room was set up with 2 twin beds though, instead of the queen that is shown here) http://www.themagicforless.com/disneycruiseline/cabins.shtml

View of our front room and dining room with the veranda on the right

I loved having this veranda! I'd never even had a porthole on any of my previous cruises so this was AMAZING to be able to sit and look out over the ocean and listen to the waves, one of my most favorite sounds :) Some people in our group saw pods of dolphins and watched them playing and following the ship!


The super comfortable queen bed in the master bedroom. The towels folded into animals is always so fun on cruises! Our bedroom had doors that opened onto the veranda and was connected to an awesome bathroom with a jetted tub, separate shower, 2 sinks and a walk in closet!

The turtle towel was my favorite, of course

This is the girls' bedroom, it had 2 twin beds and one that pulled down from the ceiling which was perfect for cousin sleep overs! They also had a TV, walk in closet and private bath with a nice, deep tub!

AMAZING FOOD! 

Bushmans love to eat and we all enjoyed the endless supply of yummy food 

At the "Animator's Palate" dining room on the first night, table 1...

...and table 2

All the kids loved the "Mickey bars" and ordered them for dessert pretty much every night.

Aya's love of ketchup went up even higher when the waiter made her a ketchup Mickey!

Pirate night-these 2 are wild!

Breakfast at "Triton's"

 Hana's pick from the buffet one morning, she took this picture with her camera

Aya discovered something she loved-Sprite!

Since a third of our family has birthdays in January (Jacob Jr., me, Mom, Oliver, Kimberly, Dallin & Hana) we had a birthday celebration one night at dinner. Our waiters brought out birthday tiaras and hats and these delicious little birthday cakes.

The birthday cousin twins, Hana & Kimberly. They were born only 1 week apart.

Finishing up at the "Beach Blanket Buffet"

All this good food and excitement can be exhausting!

One night all of the adults went to the fancy adult only restaurant "Palo" while the kids ate at the kids club or with the older nieces, it was delicious and fancy and so much fun!

Loved spending lots of time with my boy!

My brother and his wife and their oldest daughter who bravely decided to join the adults since she's old enough now!

My cute and amazing parents

My younger sister and her husband

My older sister and her husband

My youngest sister and her husband

The best calamari I've ever had!

This chocolate souffle (with vanilla bean ice cream, cream and fudge sauce) was one of the best things I've ever eaten! We ordered several to be brought to our room the last night of the cruise and secretly invited the adults over so we could eat them again!

GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND

On Sunday we were on the amazing island of Grand Cayman and it was so cool to attend the branch there. After church we headed to a sea turtle farm!

This is us being tendered to the island to go to church. It was so fun to be surrounded by my fun, crazy family the whole week. Also, doesn't Aya look so much like her cousin McKenna? The cute twinners.

 All 28 of us at the LDS church building on Grand Cayman

On to the turtle farm...

Sea turtles are my most favorite animal so being able to hold a baby one was a dream come true-such a cool experience! I loved how soft their skin was, kind of velvety.

It was hard getting the kids out of the pool with the turtles!

 

THE DISNEY PRIVATE ISLAND "CASTAWAY CAY"


http://www.fitzness.com/blog/disney-cruise-line-making-wonderful-fit-family-magic-on-the-high-seas/disney-wonder-at-castaway-cay_2/

View of the island from the ship

Geoff and Captain Jack! This Captain Jack was hilarious and very much in character

 

On the Disney private island, named "Castaway Cay (Key)" the being pampered and spoiled continued as we had private cabanas right on the private beach!

Outside of the cabana on the ocean side

Inside of the cabana, where we all hung out during a huge rainstorm

 

And of course, the beach!...my favorite!

Savannah getting a mermaid tail

 

AND BACK AGAIN...

We took up a large section of the airplane

On our way home! We did pretty awesome to not lose anyone (or our sanity) with all 16 of our children, two of them being toddlers!

Many thanks goes to the older nieces who each had a little buddy or 2 that they kept excellent care of! I wish I had one of them at my house full time! Love you Savannah, Samantha, Marianne, Evelyn & Brooklyn-you ladies are the best!

Until next time...

                                   

Happy New Year 2015!

I feel like every year I think "Wow, last year was so busy!" and then the next year seems to surpass it! We've had a busy (can you tell by my lack of blog posts?!) and wonderful 2014. To sum it up, we:

1-Moved back over seas from Hawaii to Utah

These family pictures were taken right before we left by my talented and dear friend, Vanessa Hunt, at a beach that was walking distance to our home and the best place to hang out at sunset with friends-Secret Beach

All we own packed in bags and suit cases (again!) for the flight back

2-Found a great little yellow house to rent (Thanks Ben & Tatum!) right on the lake, that happens to be in our same neighborhood in the Daybreak community of South Jordan!

How cute is this yellow townhouse?!

Right across from the lake and a big grassy area-we love the location!

3-Hana finished 2nd grade and started 3rd and Aya finished preschool and started Kindergarten.

Hana's 1st day of 3rd grade. Our Japanese student, Mizuki, came to see her off too.

Hana is always a good big sister and takes care of Aya. I'm glad they are best friends.

Aya's first day of Kindergarten! She was so excited.

4-Geoff got a job at the Morgan Stanleyoffice in South Jordan and is working there.
5-I (Rachel) started my own website for meal planning classes, home organization and working as a professional organizer.

6-We spent loads of time with family and friends, here in Utah and loved every minute.
7-And also spent time missing our friends in Hawaii, Japan and all over the world. (Love and miss you all!)

Currently we are:
-Enjoy singing in the choir, playing the flute (Rachel) and learning and playing the Irish Whistle (mostly Geoff but a little of Rachel & both girls too.)
-Geoff is serving as a Wolf den leader for the scouts in our area, and I get to play the piano in primary (children's church class) every Sunday and I love it :)
-Hana and Aya are still loving Frozen, along with all of the girls there age so we hosted 2 Frozen themed birthday parties and will soon be doing another one for Hana's 9th birthday at the end of January!

-I am still addicted to running and find the trail around the lake to be perfect! Geoff is planning to join me with the daily work outs this new year.
-Still working on our dream to start a homestay program/English school in Utah or Hawaii for Japanese and other foreign students.
-Feeling very blessed and humbled by all the things our Father in Heaven has given us and continues to give us.

Happy 2015! Love you all!

Aya's preschool on the farm

Since we moved here during the middle of the school year it was quite difficult to find a preschool with an open spot for Aya (people register 6 months or more in advance here) but we lucked out a someone moved and a spot was available in February at Little Farmers Preschool at a farm really close to our home!  I'd been to this farm (Petersen Family Farm) many times before to buy their fresh eggs, grass feed beef and produce during the summer and fall months.  I LOVE this place and it's amazing that it's so close to my house.  I love that you can see the chickens that lay the eggs you buy and watch them bring in produce from the garden just outside of the "Farm Market".  As I'm sure most of you know, I adore real food that is local so it doesn't get better than this for me! I could go on and on but I'll save that for my other blog. ;)  If you live in Utah you should totally check out all the amazing things they do there.  Anyway, I was delighted to hear that they had a preschool and that there was a spot open so we hurried and registered Aya and got her enrolled.  Here are some pictures from her first day:

Our proud "Goose" so excited to step out the door for her first day of preschool on the farm

Entrance into the preschool

They have a live bee hive in one of the classrooms with glass on it so the kids can watch the bees in action! So cool!

The arts & crafts & writing practice room

Reading and rug time room

Super cute play time room

Aya in her yellow farm boots that the farm provides for the daily trip to the barn to feed and check on the animals.  Aya was so excited to be chosen as the line leader!

Looking at the pigs

Aya was beyond thrilled to spot some kitties in the barn!

Feeding carrots to the bunnies

Saying hello to the goats and sheep

So pleased with her art project (Love Bug is one of the many nick names we call
Aya so this was perfect!)

Aya has been going to this school for a month now and really loves it.  I've been really impressed too and so happy we were able to get her in.  In Hawaii her birthday in August missed the deadline for starting Kindergarten next fall so we weren't planning on it but here in Utah she makes the deadline so we decided we better hurry and get her ready to start next August! 

Love you all and miss our friends, family and Ohana that aren't close by!

Rachel