Vacation Part 1

We are back from our vacation. It was WONDERFUL!!! It was even better than we had expected. We had a great time and were able to relax too.

We left out on Saturday morning about 10am.

We ended up driving to Dothan, AL before we stopped for the night. It was midnight when we finally stopped. The kids were all out by about 10pm.



The next day we were up early, had breakfast at the hotel and were on the road again.

Here's Gracie using her potty while we were going down the road. As a young potty trainer, she needs to go pretty often and when she says she has to go, you have about 2.1 seconds, tops, to get her to a potty. So, I put her training potty on the floor in front of her seat and behind the front passenger seat. When she had to go, I'd put my seat back to reach her and help her out of her carseat, then I'd put my seat all the way up so I could help her use the potty. Then I had to put the seat back to get her buckled back in. A lot of work and some near misses on car-sick-ness on my part, but it was totally worth it.


We arrived in Jacksonville, FL around 2 or 3 that afternoon and after checking in to the hotel and resting for about 30 minutes, we put on swimsuits and headed to the beach. We couldn't pass up the chance to frolic in the Atlantic Ocean, now could we?!?!












Gracie was content playing in the sand. She wasn't a big fan of the waves. The boys loved playing in the waves, though!

Jason and I paid for the fun later, he had to spend over 2 hrs in a laundromat washing and drying swimsuits and beach towels because they all had to go back in suitcases the next morning and they were all WET and FULL of sand. I cleaned up all the sand toys and shoes there at the hotel and got the kids clean and in bed and we still managed to get somewhat of a decent night of sleep. At this point, we were wondering if we were ever going to get to relax on this vacation like we hoped!

The next morning, we opted for Room Service breakfast in the room so we could sleep as late as possible. We had to be packed up and out of the hotel by 10am in order to get to the cruise terminal in time. We still had to lock all the suitcases and put the special luggage tags on them. That ended up taking over 30 minutes standing outside in the 103 degree sunshine. Next time, I will do those ahead of time!!



Getting parked, luggage dropped off and through the cruise terminal ended up taking us over 2 hours. Whew! But, the kids did FANTASTIC and were so good waiting in line, etc. We couldn't have been more pleased with them.

Here we are on the ship, at last!
Jason and the boys were watching dolphins swim in the water right next to the ship.

Here's Gracie and I sitting on the deck. This was after we had finished lunch on the deck and were enjoying the scenery before the departure.


During the mandatory lifeboat drill, the ship started heading out of port. Immediately after the drill, we didn't even take the life jackets back to our room. We grabbed all 5 life jackets and headed straight out to one of the top decks so we could watch the ship go under the bridge. We had some friends go on this boat a few weeks ago and been told that it BARELY makes it under the bridge. Barely is the word. I was holding my breath!!
Here's Jason and Braden before we went under the bridge.


Here we are in our TINY little room. It was quite small for 5 of us, but we kept everything well organized and tidy, so we managed.

Here's me and Jason standing out by the deck railing on our first night after dinner. It was very windy! We had just dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival and were all alone for the first time!

Immediately after we took this picture, you'll never guess what we went to do...
Well.... for the sake of curiosity, I'll tell you just what we did.
We went straight back to our room.
And...

Jason began unpacking suitcases and trying to organize the room. We had to get some order established while the kids weren't there because we couldn't even move in there with all the suitcases and everything. He put everything in closets, shelves and drawers and put the suitcases under the bed.
And me? I spent that time in the self-service laundrette on the ship washing blankets from the night before that Gracie had peed on while she was sleeping. While they were washing, I went ahead and ironed all of the nice clothes that we had brought so that chore would be over and we could enjoy the rest of the vacation.
10pm arrived before we knew it and Jason went to get the kids picked up from Camp Carnival while I finished the laundry.
Not exactly the romantic evening we had planned, but when your first priority is being parents, you do what you gotta do. We've been doing this parenting thing for almost 9 years, so we're pretty used to evenings like this.

When I returned back to the room, this is what I found:



The boys had Pirate Night at Camp and Gracie had Space Alien Night. You can barely see her little headband with the silver antennae that she made. They were SO hyped up and BEGGING us to go back to Camp Carnival first thing in the morning. Answer to prayer! I was so hoping they would enjoy it so that Jason and I could have some quiet time with no kids too. We were so excited!
We finally settled into bed around midnight.

The next morning, we ate a nice sit-down breakfast in the dining room.


After breakfast, we took the kids to Camp Carnival and we walked around the ship and even relaxed for a few minutes! Imagine that!

But, before we relaxed, this is what we were doing. Working on work stuff at the internet cafe on the ship. It only took about an hour and 20 minutes that day, not too bad.

We technically only lounged in these lounge chairs for 15 minutes before it was time to pick the kids up from Camp. They closed at 11:45 each day and were closed until 2:00.

Here's the lobby of the ship, looking down at the piano bar from the Verandah deck, which is where the kids attended Camp Carnival.


The kids had been begging us to go to the pool, so after lunch and a very brief resting time, we headed to the pool.
The first one we tried was on one of the top decks. It was a smaller pool than the main pool with the waterslide on the Lido deck.
It was SO windy up there. Gracie could hardly stand up!




After about 5 minutes, we decided to go to the Kiddie Pool that was 2 decks down and on the very back of the ship. It was behind a big wall too, so there was no wind.


Here's a view off the back of the ship. It was cloudy and stormy looking pretty much all day. That evening, the captain didn't even attend the Captain's reception because he was at the helm, trying to steer us out of a nasty piece of weather. We did go through a thunderstorm, but from inside the ship, you couldn't even tell it was raining unless you looked out a window. Getting in a storm was my worst fear and I didn't even know it was going on!

Tuesday night, the 2nd night on the cruise, was the formal dinner. We had fun getting all dressed up!



Jason and I had delicious lobster for dinner that night!
Here we are at the dinner table.


Here was our first towel animal that the kids were looking so forward to!

The kids were having a pajama party at Camp Carnival that night, so we changed them into their PJ's.

Then me and Jason walked around the ship for a while and attended the evening's show. It was a tribute to 80's music. It was like reliving your childhood, live on stage. The singing, dancing, costumes and props were outstanding. We thoroughly enjoyed it! We also took several formal photos with the ship's photographers and went to the casino for a while. That was the first time I've ever been in a casino. I even lost $5 in a slot machine! I've officially gambled. I think at the age of (almost) 29, it's about time I can say that. :)

The kids' pajama party was for ages 2-11 and Rhett won the dance contest they had!
Here he is with his medal!

Here he is showing off some of his dance moves.

He said when he did the "Robot" all the girls screamed. My little heart-breaker!

That's it for the first installment of the Vacation recap. Stay tuned for the rest. This was only the trip there and the first 2 days of the 5 day cruise. There's still 6 more days of vacation to go!!