we just got back from our 1st "real" family vacation. we've taken many short trips and long weekends over the past few years but none like this. We survived 9 days away from home with much to talk about and stories to tell :-)
A little background as to why~~ it all began a couple of weeks ago, my mom had taken a cruise with some of her friends and when she got back she was telling us how awesome it was. (none of us had ever been on one before and I said i never wanted to take one) We were planning on going to Southern California anyway this week but we were going to be in the car a lot, several different hotels, lots of activities, Disneyland, SD zoo, sea world etc etc.... so i began looking at cruises. within a few hours i had canceled everything we had booked in cali and booked the cruise on a total whim.... and then the panic set in!! What had i done? What if we get sick? All of us in a 15 x 10 room ALL week? What if we hate it? Oh and finley and I don't even have a passport-- can we even go get back??? I called to see if we could cancel but since it was 2 weeks away they declined- OH NO! So we decided there was nothing else to do but make the best of it and that's just what we did!! ( oh and we did expidite our passports and got them with 2 days to spare- whew!)

Day 1: Saturday Mom and Dad came and took us to the airport... extremely reluctant to let Finley go that long. They were sure to get her all sugared up when the ice cream truck came by! (thanks guys)


and she had not had a nap so i was extremely nervous and getting her on this plane with these poor innocent people. for the most part she did great with an occasional outburst due to something in the movie she was watching (the DVD player was our saving grace!!) She did cry the entire decent because of her ears but everyone was really nice and totally understood. So after getting our 6, yes folks... i said 6, suitcases plus 2 backpacks, purse and stroller and a wild 2 year old down to the rental car line ( it really was a sight to see- i think next time my hubby will pay the $4.50 for the cart thingy- ha!) when we realized it was going to be a minimum of 2 hours of waiting so we decided take the shuttle to the hotel and send daddy back later to get the car. It was getting late so we decided to just grab a quick bite and get ready for bed. We had been in potty training boot camp for the past couple of weeks because the Adventure Ocean program for the kids required this for the kids to be left and the pools did not allow swim diapers.... so fin had been doing great- until this night! She did a whammy-- that right, double dooty after being in the hotel only around ummm.. 20 minutes! All you mom's know the panic and stress that just came over me at this point- is this the start of the regress?? can we hide the swim diaper with a one-piece? Is she going to get kicked out of the kids club? oh... C-R-A-P! what have i gotten us into??
Richard went and picked up the car and when he got back Finley and i were totally passed out.
Day 2: Sunday Fin began her cough the night before (perfect timing- ha!) and it continued throughout the 1st 3 nights and occasionaly during the day of the cruise so we slept in and had breakfast there at the hotel. richard informed me that the we had to go buy a car seat cause every rental place in the orlando airport was completely out. (Isn't this where Disney is?? you would think if they had anything it would be carseats, right? they gave us a big discount so it was all good) We actually needed a new one but we just had to add that to our list of things to keep up with -ha! We totally looked like the beverly hillbillies! we took the DVD player to breakfast where realized that somehow our DVD player screen had totally broke , thank goodness we realized this before getting out to sea! We went and stocked up on medicine at target and bought a car seat... I teared up and blowed her a kiss leaving cause it would be 7 DAYS before i would lay my eyes on her again!! (target that is) Ran by best buy and invested in a new DVD player went to our old favorite Chipotle for lunch. finally we were off to the "big boat" ...

to be continued...