Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Saturday Ben beat me to the run and I enjoyed a bit of a lie in with the kids.   Always our favorite deck! We're kind of in love with Deck 4 I’m guessing Ben had to hold the iPhone over his head to capture this angle from his deck four run as we were pulling between Galveston and the mainland of Texas at dark o’clock thirty.   He’s tall, but the angle on this makes it look like he’s at least seven feet tall.   He isn’t. While on his run, Ben dropped off our feedback forms, making especially certain to mention how helpful Luis had been with Kylee’s special meals getting sent to the club as well as Beth, a counselor who Kylee adored throughout our cruise. As we stuffed PJs into our backpack for the day, Ben made passing remarks as to it being cold on deck during his run.   I didn’t have any warm coats for the kids and Kylee’s jacket disappeared into the club the day before, so it became time for me to have a massive case of mommy guilt. I figured it cou...

We went to figure out when our low stress Topsiders dinner would be ready… not yet although as a grammar notice-r, I found it hilarious that 1) the sign is being refreshed for “yourfuture” enjoyment and 2) that the sign had been fixed by sometime later the following day. I don't think it's possible to take a vacation and not take the "taking pictures of you taking pictures" shot. This shot involved massive amounts of peril as not only would the biscuits (the shuffleboard pucks) occasionally fly in my direction, but more than once, the entire tang (or "stick thingy" as we experienced cruisers call it) would be thrown as well.  I live dangerously. Chris decided to take me down stairs and school me in the ancient art of shuffleboard. A sport, which I am needlessly, remarkable terrible at playing. Ben and I took turns standing around taking photos of each other, the scenery, the ship and getting beaten mercilessly by our beautiful child. Not nec...

 After picking up pointers from Marisol, I finally let her go enjoy her cruise. We picked up the kiddos and took them back to the room for some rest and snacks. While they play with them endlessly, the counselors don't feed snacks in the clubs. If we hadn't picked them up they would've gotten hungry and super grump-tastic. I talked to a very kind lady at the room service number, who said that we couldn't order vegan cookies through room service. Well I knew (based on previous Disney trips) that perhaps I'd only caught the wrong cast member. I called right back and got someone else who said they'd be delighted to make us a plate of cookies, but that it takes a couple hours since they don't keep allergy free foods on hand. I asked if we could just order a plate for four the following afternoon. She said yes. But the kids still needed snack...so I ordered Chris his first ever Mickey Bar as well as one for Ben and a bowl of fruit for Kylee and me to split....

Monday morning, aka sea day take two, I decided against going for a run (shock! horrors!) and instead slept in for a teeny tiny bit. In the interest of hopefully keeping the kiddos sleeping and not up and hungry before our turn at Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast. Now we knew to expect a character breakfast, but not when exactly, so I poked around until I found the line on the bottom of our dining tickets…oh. See the teeny tiny print at the bottom? Really obvious once you’ve seen it, but is really tiny if you didn’t know it was there. Anyway we had plenty of time to get dressed and wander around to take a couple pictures as we waited for breakfast… Oh, look it’s all of us with Helmsman Mickey! Yep. And then we headed into Parrot Cay for some breakfast. And what do you do after you order food and you’re waiting around for Mickey and his friends to show up? You take some goofy photos. Total spaz moment Show me how you'll smile when Mickey get here! I wish ...

After brunch, we took the boxed up berry pizza back to our room, changed into comfy clothes wandered around for a little bit sans kids, then decided we should see if they wanted to hang out with us and have an afternoon snack. Chris and Kylee reluctantly left the Oceaneer Club and came back to try some of the mysterious dessert pizza. Kylee gave it a taste or too, but didn't like it, and Chris wouldn't touch it if we'd paid him too. Oh well, more for me! Now that I had room again, I could finish off the lovely pie. Kylee stomped on the hem of her skirt at some point during the running around Do Si Doing with Snow White and ripped the back of her skirt open, so I patched that up with the Wal-Mart sewing kit from the other day. Our guys ran out to try to find an available shuffleboard. Finally got the skirt all patched while little princess pulled an afternoon imitation of Aurora. I collected another of our many lovely FE gifts out of the hallway. Chris and Ben ducked...