Grand Cayman Vacation

Lounging at the beach

Say "Cheese"

After a dip in the pool

Fruit loops - Yummy

Building sand castles with Daddy

The coolest kid on the beach

Dinner at the Wharf

The Bruce Family

Matthew's daycare was closed on Friday so we decided to take our summer vacation and take Monday off as well. We went to the Grand Cayman Island and lounged around the ocean and pool. Matthew truly enjoyed this vacation since he just started using his goggles to explore under water in our home pool. The sand was white and the ocean was clear with lots of fish and a coral reef just off the beach. Matthew called the sand area his "sandbox". He enjoyed digging in the sand and filling up his bucket. He would get hot after a couple of hours in the sun so we would go to the hotel room and relax in the room and take our 2-hour nap before going back for more in the afternoon.

Matthew is quite the swimmer. He enjoyed swimming in the pool with Daddy. Daddy would act like a bull with Matthew on his shoulders and Matthew would love trying to not get bucked off. He would giggle and everyone in the pool would watch them. It was hilarious. Matthew would fetch his toy at the bottom of the pool. He also liked to swim back and forth to mama and daddy.

He was a little hesitant to walk on the sand with his barefeet at first and he was a little scared of the waves of the ocean. But during the second day, he quickly warmed up to the idea of the ocean. He would say "ocean" and point at the ocean and then say "pool" and point to the pool and do this 5 or 6 times. I think he called the ocean a pool at first and we corrected him so now he was aware of the difference.

He would watch the fish in the ocean. There were small schools of fish that would swim by and then there were medium sized fish around. Some people would touch the fish b/c they were so close. Matthew wasn't scared of the fish but he also didn't try to touch them. His eyes would burn in the ocean if water got into his goggles so he would talk about that a lot "eyes burn".

In the evening we would go to dinner. Matthew was a trooper and fully cooperated at dinner every night. One night we went to the Wharf for a nice dinner and we sat near the deck and Matthew fed some very, big tarp fish with bread from the table. That kept him entertained for the duration of dinner! We would get ice cream some nights after dinner and Matthew was in heaven hanging out with Mama and Daddy. He threw a few temper tantrums when we would try to get him to leave the pool but for the most part he was so pleasant to be around.

After we ate lunch one day, I took him back to the room. He was sleepy from swimming in the morning. He kind of gave me a loving look and I said "I love you, Matthew" and he said "I love you, Mama". My heart just melted. It was the first time he said that. After his nap, he was in the ocean with Daddy and Andy said "I love you, Matthew" and Matthew said "I love you, daddy". Andy really enjoyed hearing that as well.