clockwise from top: James, Mackinnon, Everett, and Saunders

Spring break on the boat was very homey because I spent it with some good friends, the Bucks, Darleys and Carters. When the Bucks arrived, I was so happy I was literally jumping up and down. I just remember writing in my journal, three more days, two more days, and one more day until the Bucks come. That was all that I could think about!! When we met them at the airport, my first thought was, "My gosh, they're giants!!" My second thought, "It's so unfair!" Mackinnon was head and shoulders taller than me and Everett was as tall as my dad. Lucky for my sanity and my sense of fairness Saunders was still little Saunders!! After we were done with the hellos and caught up a bit we hopped on a bus and headed towards their resort.

Their resort was Gigantic! There are several different buildings all along the waterfront. It was more like a city than a resort. Our area alone had a huge pool, a big lazy river, an awesome water slide, two wave pools, and a not so little little kid's area. The Bucks and I spent the rest of our time that afternoon swimming. We spent most of our time in the lazy river. Our favorite activity was flipping the other person's inner tube over and dumping that person in the water. For dinner that night, we ate at a poolside restaurant. The Buck boys and I all had monster burgers that were delicious. That night Mackinnon spent the night, and we had a blast!!

The rest of the week was like that, either at our resort or theirs. We swam, boogie boarded, played in the surf, and played football in the sand, until that ill-fated sailing trip on Tuesday.

It was a bad day to go sailing to say the least. There was a big swell, and the wind wasn't great. We got to a max speed of four knots, which is about five miles per hour. The Bucks all got sick except for Saunders and Mrs. Buck. They were even too sick to swim when we stopped in the bay!! Finally, we got back to the marina and had a dinner of chicken fajitas. Once we were done, the Bucks headed back to their hotel and I was left wondering if tomorrow's sail will be kinder to the Darleys and Carters.

It was!! There was a perfect twenty knot wind and virtually no swell! The only problem was that Mathew got sick on the way to the marina and Mark had to take him back; plus Amelia and Jason were going diving that day, but the rest of us had a ton of fun! On a twenty knot wind, this boat leans over quite a bit, until the cap rail is almost in the water and the waves are splashing up on the sail and soaking half of the boat. Which Megan, the friend of the Carters and Darleys, learned really quickly while she was sunbathing on the bow. Nobody got sick this time either and we all swam except for the adults. But on the way in, we got a little bit of unwanted excitement. The Paradise Village marina hosts a junior sailing club, and all of these kids about our age go out in their little sailing dinghies and sail around. As we're coming in, this little sailor, a little younger than us, is cutting across our path. We can't turn sharply enough and we crash right into her!! SMACK BANG!! She slides about halfway down our bow, screaming the whole way!!AHHHHHHAHHHH!! Almost giving our poor parents heart attacks before finally sailing away. We all breathed a sigh of relief and continued on our way, but our excitement for the day wasn't over. As we were coming towards our slip, we realized that there was a small power boat in it, so we backed up and went into the nearest open slip, ending our sailing adventure.

The day after our perfect sailing trip was a very funny day. That day we went to the Grand Mayan for another day of swimming, but this time the parents joined in on the fun. Naturally our first stop was the slide. We grabbed inner tubes that made you go faster and allowed you to slide five feet across the water once you exited the slide. We learned that bigger people go faster and farther, and this was wonderfully demonstrated by my dad. We had all gone already and slid the usual five feet. Then it was my dad's turn. He came Flying down the slide and shooting out the exit! It was like bowling! These two little boys in front of me dove out of the way and narrowly avoided the road kill treatment and so did I. But Sydney wasn't so lucky; she got hit head on by my dad on his inner tube and got knocked backwards coming up with a nasty scrape on her stomach. Needless to say my dad got a strike! We were all laughing so hard, we must have swallowed a gallon of chlorine water! I would've given anything to have gotten that on video!

The next stop was the not so lazy river. Dad didn't go but my mom and Mrs. Buck did and I considered it my duty to give them the ride of their lives. I was feeling mischievous, what can I say? So I flipped them over multiple times and dragged them under the waterfall despite their best efforts, twice! They didn't stay in very long, whoops!? After that memorable afternoon, we went to Eddie's Place for dinner and we had fajitas and burgers.

The next day was Friday and the Buck's last day; it was sad. But we still had fun! We played two games of football, swam in the surf and the pool, and buried Saunders in the sand. After lunch the Bucks went to the airport and we went to the Darley's and the Carter's casa they had rented. We swam in their pool and had diving and cannonball contests. We even dove through their little inflatable inner tubes! We had a delicious dinner of lobster and cordon bleu with a baked potato on the side. After dinner, we played card games and just messed around. We didn't leave until almost eleven o clock that night. That ended the best Spring Break ever!!