A perk--with the Cooks!!

Our road trip home from Orlando took us to our wonderful friends Kevin and Krissie Cook!

Those of you who know us, know that I served a mission in Houston, Texas and at the end of my mission, my assignment kept me crossing paths with an attractive, single, Ward Mission Leader who I later married. Kevin and Krissie were missionaries that I served with and the two of them were serving in the branch where Stephen served when he and I met! They are good friends and were thrilled when they got married! We even attended their wedding in CA.

Anyway, fast forward it WAY TOO FARand we were thrilled to find that they lived on our route home from our cruise and we stopped in for the night, played with their darling kids, ate some wonderful spaghetti and enjoyed a way too short of a walk to a lake and boat dock! Total envy!!
We've decided to come and see them again and enjoy their wonderful beaches and even better company!! Love you guys!!

Last Day on Board

Last one, I promise...on the boat. It was just a such a full day!!

After the princesses, and Tink, and the Diaper Dash upset, you'd think that was enough for one day right? It IS, BUT.....this is Disney!!

We enjoyed miniature golfing on the top deck (I wonder how many balls get thrown off the boat each trip?) a matinee showing of one of the nightly shows--Matthew wasn't a fan so I waited in the lobby with him and let him climb up and down stairs,

And we finished up one of the most clever activities I think--it's an on board mystery. You get a card with a who done it mystery and there are 10 "paintings" on the ship that are really computer screens. You have one of 2 mysteries and you hold up a card to the painting (which is really a computer screen) and it starts into the mystery giving you a clue and you have your list of villains that you're trying to narrow down the who done it. It was very clever, a great activity for us to do to fill time throughout the week. Our mystery involved stolen paintings and I think Maleficent was the one who was our culprit--bad lady!!

And while Matthew took a nap, Stephen took the older 3 to the pool and the much anticipated AQUA-Duck--a 750 foot enclosed water slide on the top of the boat that at one point has you going out over the edge of the ship so all that's below you is a 150 foot drop to the ocean! Kaitlyn and Sam each went twice and were super thrilled with it! Wish they'd brought a camera!!And that night for dinner, we all dressed up a little fancy--all except for Sam who we had to coerce into just wearing a collard shirt--this kid HATES dressing up! This is a photo of Stephen with his family--just love these wonderful people!!

That night Kaitlyn cried because she didn't want the vacation to end--inside I was right with her, I didn't want it to end either.

We had an early morning breakfast--here we are with our glorious waiters who took care of us each time--they were amazing!!
And then we got off the boat--here we are with it in the background--time for 8 hours in the car!! (we had to be jump started because we accidentally left an indoor light on!! oops! Thanks to a good guy named Jon who rescued us!)

Diaper Dash

So Matthew was one of a handful of babies on board, and at 13 months old, is probably the oldest one of those who don't walk, crawling is his thing, and YES, HE'S FAST!

The Incredibles" themed Diaper Dash was a crawling event for all babies on board and we knew he was a shoe-in for the win. Perfect strangers would watch him crawl (crew members too) and come up to me to ask if I was going to enter him. One guy jokingly said he was going to start a betting pool on him because he was so fast!

So come time for the event and we register, we size up the competition which was really a joke because he was so much bigger and faster than the rest.Stephen held him at the starting line and I waited at the finish line. We'd warmed him up and were holding him back because he just wanted to GO!!

But when it came time for the race to start, all the yelling and screaming really scared him and he turned around to go back to dad. I crawled about halfway to get his attention and get him to crawl to me, which he did faster than he has in a long time, crying the whole way--but know what?

HE WAS ROBBED!! the mother next to me had gone halfway up the lane too to get her babies attention and she picked her baby up before she crossed the finish line and they deemed her the winner!! (We've even got it on tape!)

It really wasn't a big deal to us, we thought it was fun and a good time. (and we knew who the REAL winner was!) There wasn't any big prize we felt robbed of, but it seemed to be a big deal to other guests. For the rest of the cruise people would call him "the crawling baby" and come up to me telling me how they'd seen that other baby cheat--and they were so upset about it! So funny!!

Disney Princesses (part 4)

So for our last full day on the boat, there were no ports of call, just some time at sea but that didn't mean there wasn't anything to do--on the contrary, there were many things we'd wanted to do and just hadn't found the time so we had a very full day!

After breakfast was an AMAZING experience, we stood in line for the appearance of 6 of the Disney Princesses!! I've been to Disneyland and know that just seeing one or two is an accomplishment but on the Disney Dream--it's a DREAM come true to get to pose with this many at one time.

Sam wasn't thrilled with the idea so he didn't bother getting into the pictures but we met: Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel, Belle (who was SO NICE and really genuine--one of my favorites), and Tiana (The Princess and the Frog) who was another sweet one who really took time with meet my girls. And then Lindsey was super excited to meet her favorite--Cinderella!!

I know it sounds cheesy but it was just magical. All week long we kept telling our kids how special of a trip this was and how blessed we were to do this. But while this princess experience was happening, I had a little "moment" with Stephen's parents who were looking on and watching their granddaughters have these "dreams come true"moments and we all got a bit misty!

Then because Tink's appearance was about to happen, we hung out, while this little guy took a nap. But it was okay, he needed his rest, The Diaper Dash was next!!

DREAM part 3

CASTAWAY CAY (pronounced key) was our port of call on Day 3 of the cruise, it's Disney's private island, they maintain it and it's really an extension of the care and attention to detail that we experience on the ship. The beaches are pristine, there are chairs, hammocks and umbrellas a plenty, lunch is provided on the island--a BBQ like none other, towels, showers and bathrooms conveniently available.

Again, we spent ALL DAY frolicking in the sand and sun. I was pretty obsessive about applying sunscreen (and did so like 3 times to each of my kids--we were NOT going to spoil our trip by getting burned) and for the most part it worked, sure we got some sun but no one was burned too badly.

I started off the morning by running a 5K fun run around a bike trail on the island--it was quite a bit hotter than I was used to so my time wasn't great, but I finished and it helped to burn off all those calories I'd been eating on board.

Then it was off to for some fun--this little guy (don't you LOVE this shot?) dicovered that sand is fun and was pleasantly entertained with shovels for hours. Even after we'd strapped him into the stroller for the walk back to the ship he stretched far enough to get a shovel and then from his stroller was leaning down to dig some more--he was an ANIMAL! And so was Lindsey who got herself buried!

Kaitlyn and dad enjoyed swimming--the water was so calm, so clear and so refreshing, it was perfect for them to play in. (See that hat? We lost it this day--Stephen is still sad about it.)--isn't that water gorgeous! It was so clear we could even see schools of fish large and small that swam around our ankles.

Aunt Rachel and Aunt Sarah were fun to be with!! And the Birthday boy was really enjoying himself!

We really wore ourselves out...then that night was the Pirate themed night, we got these bandanas and were encouraged to dress up like pirates. The dinner menu had pirate themed names and our waiters even got into it with us. That night there was a party on the top deck and fireworks, which we missed because we were SUPER tired! but it was such a good day!!

Disney DREAM vacation part 2

We woke up Monday morning in Nassau, Bahamas--could this get any better?!?! The weather was perfect~ and we got a slower start but finally got off the boat with swimming suits and WALKED, and WALKED until we found a nice little beach.

Our children had never been swimming in the ocean or played on a beach, let's just say they all took to it pretty well--except for Matthew who didn't really care for the sand at first and wanted to be held.Sam quickly got to work building a sand castle:
Lindsey cracked us up with getting drenched in the water, and then rolling in the sand and then running back to the ocean to get washed off, silly girl!!After spending the morning basking in the sand and sun, we boarded the boat and had some lunch. Not before us women folk stopped to spend some time with the street vendors. I got straw purses for the girls, some coconut shells turned into wind up turtles for the boys, and a couple of cute necklaces.

We then dropped our kids off in the wonderful kids area while Stephen and I took a break and let Matthew take a nap. It was so nice to just sit and relax and read, our room had a 4 foot in diameter window with a seat and I loved just sitting and looking out into the most blue water!! Here we are with Nassau in the background!

Dinner that night was memorable at the Animator's Palate. We were surprised when the TV screens came to life and started interacting with us! They even singled Matthew out and named him "Nemo" because he was wearing an orange romper with white stripes. He LOVED the attention and laughed and clapped his hands!

That night it was my turn to take Kaitlyn to the show featuring some of the Disney Villains. And got home just in time for Stephen to go watch "Tron" in 3D with his brothers. We slept well and couldn't wait for the morning~~CASTAWAY CAY!!

Our DREAM Vacation Part 1

Mothers Day 2011 began the BEST vacation I could have ever imagined for my family. We were celebrating the 60th birthday of Stephen's dad Carl and in total there were 7 kids and 9 adults off for the adventure of a lifetime!

2 days in the car to Orlando were pretty uneventful, the kids were super excited to see the Mississippi River and glimpses of the ocean, we told them that if they thought THAT was a lot of water, they were in for a big surprise. We also kept telling them that the boat was really big, but they didn't know what that meant. We passed the time by listening to "Ramona the Pest" by Beverly Cleary, watching an air show with dive bombing airplanes from the window, and Matthew tried to sleep without a crib in a hotel--it was a long night.

Sunday morning (Mothers Day) we attended a sacrament meeting in Orlando and then if was off to Port Canaveral to board our boat. Nothing could have prepared us for the magnitude of the boat this size:We went through the crazy process of getting us all on the boat, it was as smooth as could be expected when you consider we were on this boat with 4,000 new friends, and then we got on our boat. Lunch was an AMAZING, the Cabanas buffet up near the top deck with beautiful views.

Things were a bit hectic until the majority of the boat got opened for business. We tried to go swimming but found that everyone else had the same idea. We went up for the casting off party and lost Kaitlyn for a brief moment, she made me proud when she went and found a "mom with kids" who then found us.

Dinner blew our socks off, as it did every night, a 2 hour 5 course meal. The Royal Palace was beautiful and we saw glimpses of a few Disney Princesses too. And Stephen ordered escargot for an appetizer and I ate two of them!!

Sam HATED getting dressed up every evening, the requirement was no shorts so he wore his pajamas to the meal, then he had been begging me to go to bed, he practically dragged me back to our room where he slept a solid 12 HOURS!!

Dad took Kaitlyn and Lindsey to the first of many wonderful shows. This one called "The Golden Mickeys". We were wowed with our rooms and the turn down service and fun folded towels with chocolates! We couldn't wait for the morning when we'd be in the Bahamas!!!