Cruising right along

Austin truly expanded his food horizons on the trip.  He got quite a kick out of going to the dining room and thought he was a pretty cool dude ordering fancy food and having to use his manners.  He didn't want me to order for him, he was going to take care of that himself.  It made me smile every time he told our waiter, "For my starter I'll have...and for my main course..."  He read the menu all by himself and insisted on NO HELP!  He ordered steak, bbq ribs, and chateaubriand!  He loved every morsel of food they brought him.  Carter on the other hand stuck to his good old standby...chicken strips.  

Getting ready for the captain's dinner...(my cool dudes!)

On our first night a pirate visited everyone in the dining room.  It definitely set my boys up to realize how much fun they would having EVERYWHERE we were on the ship!

Can you tell Braden is a bit freaked out by the pirate?  The look on his sweet little face was priceless!  There was no way he was letting the pirate get near him.

There was a welcome dance party for families hosted by the Camp Carnival staff.  The boys thought they were big stuff showing off their moves in a kids versus parents dance off.  Needless to say, the kids won the competition.  However, Kasie and Aaron came away sporting medals for best mom dancer and best dad dancer!  Since my rhythm gene has a defect, or may even be missing completely, there was no way I was coming away with any hardware :)  I just have to wonder how my brother managed to escape this little endeavor?  I don't remember seeing him remotely close to the disco area!  

The kids got a kick out of the towel animals that welcomed us every night after dinner.  They couldn't wait to get back to the room to see what would be waiting for them.

 

We enjoyed a couple of the shows after dinner.  One night the show was "Ticket to Ride" which was a tribute to the Beatles.  It was an excellent show and the kids were most intrigued by the glow sticks everyone in the audience got at the end to sway to "Let it Be".  It was definitely a cool experience for Aaron since the Beatles are his favorite group. We made it to a couple comedy shows and also enjoyed the movies shown each night on the big screen up on the lido deck.  There's something quite relaxing about laying on a deck chair in the dark with the ocean breeze washing over you watching a movie.  Oh to be able to spend every night like that!  

I've got the blues

Blue skies, blue water, blue deck chairs, blue water slide, blue towels, blue drinks...I think it became my new favorite color on vacation!  There truly is something so majestic and amazing about all the shades of blue that are found in the ocean.  It never ceases to take my breath away!

The days on the ship were filled with lots of fun.  Thankfully for us, Papa gets up before the roosters.  We never had to worry about getting deck chairs where we could easily see the kids because Papa headed to lay towels on the chairs around 3:00 am when he got up everyday!  It was nice because the four little fishes were always swimming like crazy and it parked us in a good location to view the big screen tv!  Of course, the kids weren't expecting salt water filled pools, but they quickly adjusted.  Once they finished in the pool, they headed straight for the hot tub.  

If the boys weren't hanging out in the pool, they could be found playing bean bags...

challenging each other to a game of basketball or mini golf...

going down the waterslide...

or gobbling up ice cream cones...

Carter's favorite food of all time is ice cream.  I really think there were times when he thought he had died and gone to Heaven.  I'm a bit embarrassed to tell you he had over 50 ice cream cones the entire time we were there!  It was the breakfast of champions for him and whenever else his little heart desired throughout the day - which was frequently!  I figured he was on vacation and I wasn't going to fight him!  He got a nice healthy dose of calcium :)

Come Sail Away

Vacation, glorious vacation.  Aaaahhh...there's nothing like it!

I've honestly NEVER taken a vacation in the middle of January.  Being a teacher, it doesn't really work so swell. Vacation usually falls in the summer when I'm off, and Aaron claims I'm on vacation everyday then!  Thanks to a very cooperative superintendent, I was able to escape for an amazing 8 day cruise with my entire side of the family to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary and their special "big" birthdays from last year!

We left the mighty chilly, okay it was downright frigid, Iowa temps and headed to Fort Lauderdale to set sail.  The boys had never flown before, so this was BIG stuff for them.  They were both quite nervous a couple nights before we left, sure that our plane was going to crash, but once we got to the airport, their eyes were as big as saucers and full of excitement.  They kept jumping up and down and telling us how excited they were.  It was so fun to soak up their excitement.  Despite being a little jittery on the initial takeoff, they both thought flying was pretty darn cool.  Austin couldn't get enough of looking out the window at the clouds and ground below.

We spent the night in Fort Lauderdale before boarding the ship the next morning.  Grabbing a quick bite to eat at the McDonalds next to our hotel turned out to be quite a memorable experience.  Bless my mama's heart...she's definitely a midwestern girl.  Give her four boys to corral and a man with an accent and she gets a bit flustered.  Mom was trying to order a couple of yogurt parfaits for her and Papa and the guy taking our order was giving her a hard time and said, "No hablo ingles!" with a sly little smile on his face as he knew she was a bit overwhelmed. All of this while she's been ordering and he's been speaking to her in English for about 2-3 minutes already!  Mom was already flustered trying to keep track of ordering correctly for Drake and Braden and misunderstood what the man said.  She was appalled as she thought he said, "We don't have parfaits."  She held out her hands saying "You don't have parfaits?  How can you not have parfaits? All McDonald's have parfaits!" The man was giggling while grabbing the parfaits and winking at me as I knew what he had said.  Mom was so flustered as she kept saying to the man, "How can you not have parfaits?" not even noticing he had two parfaits in his hands.  Finally, she turned around to me and said, "You talk and I'll pay!"as she stepped away from the counter.  The man and I definitely got a good chuckle out of mom's misunderstanding!

The next morning was fairly smooth getting ready to board the boat.  Can you tell these guys think they are big stuff and are pumped up and ready to go?

The boys were in awe by the size of the ship and everything that was on board.  Carter said, "This is like Heaven, only better!"  They definitely were in the height of their glory!

  

Fun in the Sun

Fun, sun and sand...

HERE

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COME!!!

My knight in shining armor

We were sitting in church this morning getting ready to sing the opening hymn when Aaron got a paper cut on his finger from the bulletin.  (Those darn bulletins will get you every time!)  He leaned over and asked if I had a band aid.  I dug in my purse for one and gave it to Austin to hand to Aaron.  Austin promptly leaned over and whispered in my ear...

"Your knight in shining armor is a wimp!"

Upward Basketball

Today was the first game of the season for the boys.  They both had a lot of fun and played great.  I had fun testing out my new camera and trying to figure out the sport mode.  Needless to say, I need MANY more lessons. (Miss Heidi...that's you I'm talking to!)

Austin shows off his moves.

Carter's a bit blurry here, but he's ready for the pass from Colton.  Those two are always in tuned to where the other one is on the court.

Drake was playing great defense.

We're all looking forward to the rest of the season.

They aren't mortified by me yet...

Today was my first "official" day of working in the same school as the boys for part of the day.  Since I started my day there, they got to ride to school with me.  Normally Aaron drops them off as I have to be at the middle school much earlier.  As we got out of the van to walk into the school, Carter turned around and said, "Your van sure looks good here in this parking lot mom!  Can you just work at our school everyday?"  It made my heart sing!

Of course, in another couple of years I'm sure they'll be singing a different tune riding to the middle school and back with me everyday!