Heavenly Half Moon Cay

Our second stop on the cruise was to the beautiful little island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise line called Half Moon Cay. It was Heavenly.

Tara and Jason had done a little research and discovered that for a little extra money we could rent our own little villa for the day. It sat right on the sand steps from our lounge chairs and the ocean.

The top floor was  a single room with a wet bar, table complete with a lovely fruit buffet, and a covered porch.

The lower level had an 8 person jacuzzi, a bathroom, shower with fresh hot water, and a second covered patio.

It was stocked with sodas and ice, lounge chairs on our private deck, floaties to lay on out in the ocean, and snorkel gear for 8!

It was worth every penny!

All of the kids used the gear, but I coudn't get over Lauren attempting to walk out to the water with the fins on!

It was anything but graceful. Simply awesome.

Jess on the other hand understood it was best to remove all the gear before attempting to go anywhere. I was kinda blown away at grown up she is these days!

We had some good friend time just lounging on our chairs talking and reading and enjoying our families.

The ocean was the most stunning shades of blue and you couldn't have ordered up a more perfect temperature for the water!

Our boys strolled the beach, met up with friends they'd made on the ship, and pretty much felt like they owned the place.

None of us minded walking around on this sand though, the consistency is like nothing I have ever seen. We decided it was the color of cookie dough and felt like powdered sugar!

Our little villa was right next door to the restaurant and the rental shop for all the fun beach toys. Jeff rented a couple of Hobie Cats for our group.

We have a picture somewhere of these four guys standing on this same beach by these same boats from 4 years ago.

The guys divided into teams and raced eachother out and around the cruise ship.

but not before putting their game faces on

Then they came back and started giving the kids rides

During their last run out on the boats a random storm came through and dumped water by the bucketful! We all went into the cover of our little villa, sat in the hot tub and waited out the 15 minute downpour

Before we knew it the sun was out again

The little kids played in the sand

and the big ones did too

Macy coated herself in it

I was content to just sink my toes into it. The entire day was blissfully perfect and we all agreed we would gladly have skipped our day in Freeport for an extra one planted on this perfect little strip of sand and sunshine. As far as beach days go, it doesn't get more perfect than that!