"It All Started with a Mouse"

So our cruise was WONDERFUL! Heavenly even. It was so great to just chill, with absolutely zero responsibility. People to clean up after us (twice a day!) and feed us... all we had to do was decide which programs or leisure activities to do. And the food... omg! Gobs and gobs of amazing and rare food. I got to try escargot, oysters, baked Alaska, duck, hen, venison, etc, etc. And that wasn't the best of it! All the amazing desserts, fresh fruit, and breakfast items a person could want. Dessert buffet twice a day. And the fun towel animals every night (though we never got the monkey on a coat hanger.) There was almost a 2 to 1 ratio of guests vs. employees. The service was amazing. And our dinner servers rotated through each restaurant with us. So we got to have a pretty good report with them. We quickly learned to trust the recommendations. They were always fantastic! Sleeping with the mild rock of the ship was amazing (thank heaven, not really any seasickness!) And that's just the stuff that's on pretty much every cruise.

We went with my brother, Reid, and sister in law, Leighanna. They let us crash their anniversary celebration with our graduation celebration. We got to play Family Feud, giant Jenga, shuffle board, quiz games and a couple of Disney related games. We played ping pong, Things (a pretty fun party game) and foosball. There was a track, and of course it was nice to just sit on deck and read or sew (for us old ladies). Chad and I went to a couple of art auctions, which was fun for us. Of course there were 3 pools (kiddie, family, and adults only) with hot tubs. Lots of movies too. We finally got to see "UP" in 3D. Then there were all of the shows and entertainers. We had a fun magician, ventriloquist, comedian (who specialized in impressions), and juggling comedian. And the shows each night were amazing and fun. They go all out. We saw "The Golden Mickeys" which was a tribute to all of the well known Disney movies. There was "Disney Dreams" which was kind of the same thing just held together with a different plot. And then "Twice Charmed" which was Cinderella, continued. The effects, pyrotechnics, and costumes were great. Oh, and then there were two deck parties. They'd cover the family pool and dance and party. One was upon disembarking and the other was a Pirate Party, where pirates take over the ship. Guests went all out dressing up for pirate night. And pirates slid down the smoke stack to take over the stage. Then pirate Mickey came in on a zip line, from one smoke stack to the other, to save the day. And fireworks erupted (apparently Disney is the only cruise line allowed to do that.) It was fun. I got to learn some origami (a flower and crane) and to draw two Disney characters - pluto and mickey. Reid did the drawing one with me. It was like a luxurious summer camp for the whole family. Oh and of course, Disney characters were everywhere.

We docked at Tortola (British Virgin Island) and St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Island) and of course, Disney's island Castaway Cay. In Tortola, Chad went scuba diving while the rest of us went to Virgin Gorda. It was the most amazing couple of beaches in the world. Seriously Heavenly Father must have had a blast making this spot on Earth - amazing! We took a ferry and taxi there. Then we hiked to the beach. It had all of these rock formations we had to climb through. Every two seconds, there was another amazing spot that we had to take pictures of. We couldn't wait to get into the water. It was so amazingly clear and blue that none of us expected the salt. It looked like a pool. Reid and I climbed some rocks along the beach. It was cool, and really fun to hang out and "play" with my brother like we did when we were kids. And the view from the top, incredible of course. Then we floated and swam and lazed. We had lunch and played in one of the grottoes. We were the last ones to leave. Chad had a blast diving. He's determined to get certified now. I wanted to do it with him, but figured there's only one Virgin Gorda. I can't wait to join him one day.

The next day we pulled into St. Thomas. All 4 of us took a sail and snorkel excursion. On the taxi over to the boat, we finally got to call the kids (St. Thomas was the only american port.) Everett was really sick, but talkative as ever. It was SOOOO good to hear the kids' voices. All of the kids on the ship made me miss ours. All of the characters made me wish they were with us. I didn't pine too much though. It was nice to have such freedom. We can't wait to take them back with us one day. Anyway, the excursion was really fun. We got to see some amazing fish and corral. It took me a long time to get the hang of it though, oddly enough. I took on a ton of salt water... no fun. And poor Reid gets terribly sea sick. So he and I hung out on shore for a bit. But the last 20 min. of the excursion were the best. Chad and I saw some cool stuff and I didn't feel like I was drowning any more. We sailed back and had lunch. Then we all did some shopping. It was mostly way too high end for us. But we went to a shop that carried locally salvaged pirate treasures. Apparently there is a ton around the area, and you're not allowed to hunt for it. Treasure Island and Dead Man's Island were near Tortola.

Castaway Cay was nice. It was like a continuation of the ship, no money (just your room key) tons of good food, beautiful, well manicured, lots of characters and photo ops. Chad and I just snorkeled and swam the whole time. It was nice to be lazy and not feel rushed like at the other two ports. And we got to see lots of really cool stuff. There weren't as many tropically colored fish. But there was some wreckage, tons of perfect sand dollars, sea biscuits, and other cool shells. We got to play with some live conches and see starfish the size of dinner plates! Oh, in St. Thomas, there was a beautiful green fish with lots of other tropical colors. Fun fun. I so wish we'd had an underwater camera! That was half the fun right there. Good thing Chad and I both like sea combing. It's fun to do together. Anywho, here are the pics. I couldn't join the two albums... oh well.

Upon returning home, we found Everett better, but scratched by the wretched cat. (That's the third time our kids have been scratched by those stupid cats. I could kick them both!) But the kids were well and happy to see us. And we were thrilled to see them! Seriously, we couldn't have been happier to be back together. It had been rainy all week and Everett was sick. So it was a great week to be away! Yesterday, we went to Stake Conference and saw a family from our Indiana ward! Isn't that crazy?! They now live in the ward that we spent two years in right after we got married. "It's a small world" in the church. We got to see some of our friends from our old newlywed ward too. Now, let the job hunt begin! Chad's already got 3 interviews set up for this week. WAHOO! I can't wait to find and make a new home. I keep telling myself things to keep me patient like "it's better to wait a few more days for the perfect opportunity than to rush into a place where we might not be happy." And I'm praying that the Lord is preparing a family for us, to be our best friends. Because parenting is too hard to do without a support system... believe me. I've been doing it for a long time.