5 Year Aniversary Cruise: pre-vacation

I can't believe it has taken me this long to blog about our awesome anniversary trip! Ever since we got married, we joked saying we'd go on a cruise for our 5th anniversary. It was a joke because we figured we'd have little kids we wouldn't be able to leave, we wouldn't have much extra money, etc etc. Then as we approached our 2nd year of trying for baby #2 we decided that if I still wasn't pregnant by our anniversary we would go no matter what as a reward to ourselves for being so patient. Well I wasn't pregnant so I decided to look into prices just for fun.
I asked around for suggestions and thought I was finding some pretty good prices. Then I stumbled across a Bahamas cruise that was on sale (or whatever you'd call it) just until Friday. I think I was looking on a Monday. The problem was the even though the cruise was only $199 a person for FIVE nights, airfare was insane! It would have been something like $400 each ONE way! That was not going to happen. Sad. We thought Mexican cruise out of California would have been fun, but we really wanted to try to go to the Bahamas.
On Tuesday, a friend who knew my dilemma, told me that JetBlue was having a one day sale on airfare. I was so excited but even with tickets being almost half off it still was going to cost too much money. Even though that didn't work, since it was a JetBlue sale it made me think of my friend April in our ward who works for JetBlue. I asked her if she knew of any discounts or coupon code type deals we could use. She said no. It felt like another strike out. Lame.
Then she told me she and her husband Jack had been wanting to go on another cruise but with people they knew. She asked if we'd want to go with them. My initial reaction was no since it was our anniversary and although April and I are friends, Tyson and Jack had never even met. Then she told me that we could use buddy passes if we flew with them and they'd be WAY cheaper. That made it definitely worth considering. Long story short, we decided to go with them (which ended up being so much fun!) and not only was the cruise a great price, but plane tickets ended up being about $250 TOTAL. I mean both of us, both ways! Not only did they save us so much money, but we left a couple days early to make sure we made all our flights (we had to fly standby which was the one downside) so we got to spend and entire day in NYC. April is from a little city right outside the city so we got to stay at her parents' house for free and have our own personal tour guide all day haha! It was a pretty sweet deal and all fell into place so nicely!

We left bright and early on Friday, Nov 31. Aiden and I dropped Tyson off at work and then drove up to Idaho where he was going to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa Whiting as well as Uncle Brett's family. He was so excited!

Saying bye to Tyson before work. So fun that the next time I saw him we'd officially be on vacation!

When we got to Idaho we got to have a late brunch with Aunt Wendy who happened to be stopping in Burley (the town over from G&G Whiting) with her track team on the way to Boise. It couldn't have been better timing because we got to Burley about 5 minutes after the team did and they were just there long enough for all the kids to get food. So random and fun!

We had talked to Aiden so much about how he was staying and we were leaving that when we pulled up to Grandma Whiting's house and he realized I was following him up to the porch, he turned around to say "Bye Mom! Bye! No! I stay here, you go! I go by myself!" It took some talking to convince him to let me stay and play with him for a few hours before going back to get Dad haha! I tried not to let it hurt my feelings that he was so happy to see me leave and just focus on the relief that he wouldn't be missing us at all and would just have an awesome time without us!

Aiden made himself right at home playing games on Grandma's computer. I loved the still somewhat chubby crossed feet.

I took Aiden to the grocery store to pick out some snacks and treats to use during the week. He was thrilled that there was a shopping cart just his size and that he totally got to be the boss of what we put in the basket. "Hmmmm I think same a dis!" I did feel like a pretty bad mom directing him away from the celery towards the cookies. He was happy with his bananas and carrots though!

After I hung out with Aiden for a few hours we took a nap together and then I headed back to Salt Lake to pick up Tyson from work. It was weird saying bye to Aiden knowing I wouldn't see him for so long but of course I was still SO excited! After picking up Tyson we headed to Salt Lake for a fun little date night to kill some time before we had to be at the airport. Our flight didn't leave until 11ish so we had several hours. We walked around City Creek and ate dinner at the food court. We thought about going to temple square but it started raining so we just went to the airport a little early to "nap" in the car. Unfortunately, whatever we ate for dinner was NOT sitting well in my stomach so I mostly just tossed and turned the whole time. :( Plus we were so excited we just kept talking and laughing and being excited.

Hanging out at City Creek with the temple in the background. Tyson totally mocked me that I still said "cheese" as I took the picture. I guess Mom habits are hard to get rid of...even on a romantic anniversary vacation haha!

Waiting to meet up with April and Jack at the airport. We tried to sleep here too but again, the excitement wouldn't let us. We were just like two little kids waiting through the night for Christmas morning.

After April and Jack arrived, we got all checked in and on our plane. The flight was about 5 hours which meant we got to NY at 4am Utah time and 5am NY time. We tried to sleep on the plane and got a little bit here and there but it was a pretty bumpy flight and since it was full we had no room to spread out at all so we mostly just took turns sleeping on top of each other's laps...not great. Oh well. Something was better than nothing!