Disney Cruise Day 2: Day at Sea

The first full day of the cruise was Sunday, March 12th. It was a day at sea as the ship sailed south to the Caribbean. We love days at sea--they're the most fun and relaxing days of the cruise.  

The boys and I ate breakfast in Cabanas (a nice big buffet restaurant near the top of the ship) before going up to the pool deck before it got too crowded. 

Breakfast with a view!

And a micro-view too. Look at the little Mickeys!

 Chillin' on the pool deck.  

We ate lunch near the pools and then I spent two relaxing hours in one of my favorite spots on the ship, The Rainforest Room, which has heated lounge chairs, private hot tubs, and saunas. My absolute favorite are the heated lounge chairs. I read and relax and fall asleep in them. They're heavenly!

We ate dinner at Animator's Palate, which is a really neat and fun place to eat. 

Sam at dinner.

Just desserts. 

It was Formal Night! It's fun to get dressed up and get some pictures taken. 

(Full disclosure: I'm the only one in the family who thinks this is fun.)  

 

 

The view of the grand atrium lobby while we waited in line for pictures with Captain Mickey. 

This sums up what Sam thought about picture-taking, as does his expression in the next photo with Mickey.

Ha ha!

I love the beautiful chandeliers on the ship.

We finished the day in the theater watching the musical Aladdin, which is such a good show! It's Broadway-quality and it's my favorite show on the ship.  

Every evening when the room attendant gets the room ready for bed, he (or she--on this cruise we had a woman for the first time) leaves a different towel-origami animal. That night it was this cute elephant (which the boys then promptly destroyed. Hooligans!). 

Five Things for Friday

I'm happy to report that this week was much better than last week. We were all healthy, it was warmer outside (in the 40s, although it got cold again yesterday), and I was organized and productive all week. That shapes up to be a pretty good week! So I don't hate 2018 as much this week as I did last week. In my continuing efforts to be positive this winter and this year, here are five good things that happened this week.

1. I bought my first Tory Burch bag. I'd been looking for a bag in this particular size and color, and then it presented itself. I paid a price for it that I swore I'd never pay for a mere purse, but I did buy it on sale, and because of the high quality it should last for many years, even decades, to come. 

2. Peter and I went out for lunch at Panera (since he was between jobs this week...::sob::...but he left midweek for California for meetings with a company he's part of). My love for Panera's Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken was reinforced. I LOVE THAT SALAD SO MUCH! It's one of my happy things in life.

3. I read Costco's magazine and it had some good recipes for Energy Bites, which I've been interested in making for a long time. So I made a batch, and they turned out to be so good! I've been snacking on them all week and yesterday I finished them and made another batch. The ingredients are peanut butter (Skippy Natural Creamy is my fave), rolled oats, flaxseed meal, honey, and some mini chocolate chips. They remind me of Girl Scout Tagalong cookies (the chocolate and peanut butter ones, which are my second favorite after Samoas Caramel DeLites), only these are much healthier (and cheaper)! And they really do seem to give me energy too. I didn't have to take a power nap all week, even on a day when I woke up for two hours during the night!

  

4. Food apparently made me quite happy this week because here's another one. Actually this one is a drink. I saw this fancy lemonade when I was grocery shopping and decided to get a bottle. Rose lemonade gets a "heck yeah" from me.  

Lemonade is one of my favorite drinks but I don't drink it as much anymore because of its high sugar content (I've been working on cutting down on sugar over the last year). But I'll make an exception for this special treat! 

I felt like I was buying a bottle of liquor, which was weird.

 5. Sam is starting a new reading program in which he and I have to read and discuss a chapter book sent home by his teacher. The book she chose for him is The Boxcar Children. Yay! 

I really enjoyed this series when I was younger. The resourcefulness of those kids made a lasting impression on me. Ironically, I'd been thinking about The Boxcar Children often recently, wanting to read some of the books again, and I'm glad I'll get to do that now with Sam. Contrary to what you might think (from things like #1 in this post), I find a lot of appeal in using what you have and not spending money and being self-sufficient like the boxcar children had to do. I worry that things are going to go crazy in the world in the future and that we'll have to live this kind of lifestyle. That's why I'm preparing for that now while also living it up while I still can! While it would be a difficult adjustment to live like the boxcar children did, if we have to do it...bring it! 

(Famous last words.) 

So anyway, I'm excited to read this book with Sam.

I'm looking forward to this three-day weekend. We're going to the movies to see Paddington 2, I'm going to decorate for Valentine's Day, and I'll probably watch a Hallmark movie or two while Peter and John watch the Patriots play-off game. It might snow, and for Martin Luther King Day I'm going to show the kids the movie Perfect Harmony, a wonderful civil rights-era movie that I liked a lot as a kid (another thing that made a big impression on me). I highly recommend it!

Have a great weekend!

Disney Cruise Day 1

We boarded the Disney Fantasy on Saturday, March 11th. It was our third cruise on the Fantasy in four years and it honestly felt a little like coming home. I love this ship and the happy memories and experiences we've had on it over the last few years.

We had some photos taken in which we kind of definitely look like cheeseballs, but I treasure them nonetheless!

These were the two delicious desserts I ate that day, one at lunch and the other at dinner. My appetite was back and my sore throat from the strep was almost gone.  

Carrot cake

Strawberry shortcake

This was the main part of our stateroom. It looked like this by day. It was different at night, as you'll see.  

It's a pretty heavenly thing to have your own balcony to sit out on and to have fresh right-off-the-ocean breezes coming into your room, along with the soothing sounds of the water. This is what I call a seaside home!

And here's what the room looked like by night. Our wonderful room attendant effected the magical change every evening. The couch turned into a bed and the higher bed came down from the ceiling. 

 That heavy curtain on the right side could go across the whole room, dividing it into two, which was very convenient for when the kids went to bed before we did (which was every night, though sometimes just barely!).

Day 1 = Home sweet home!

Disney Cruises Are The Best!

There's no better time to do a few blog posts about our last Disney cruise than in the cold bitterness of winter. What better way of bringing a little warmth to my little slice of the blogosphere?

Because I love Disney Cruise Line (DCL) so much, I've become a self-proclaimed DCL ambassador. I want more of my friends and family to go on a Disney cruise because I know they'll love it too, even if they don't think they will. 

Here are some reasons why you should go on a Disney cruise:
the ships are beautiful, elegant and classy, and well-maintained
 DCL has fantastic attention to detail and great customer service
the delicious and plentiful food and the excellent restaurants
 the high-quality entertainment
 the fun places you visit
 a really nice spa
the ability to completely relax
it's very family-friendly and is good for all ages
 and the fact that it can be as much Disney or as little Disney as you want.
And more! Much more.
I also want you to go on a Disney cruise because I want to have more friends and family who have done it so that we can talk about our cruises and compare experiences. The Disney Cruise Line Junkies Facebook group can only go so far for me. I want to discuss it with friends and family! 

So save up your money (because admittedly a Disney cruise isn't cheap) and go on a Disney cruise! You won't regret it! We have friends who did it after talking to us and they had so much fun and can't wait to go again.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, here's my first post with some pictures from our cruise last March to the Eastern Caribbean. (I'm not planning on posting tons of pics in these posts, just the best of the best and the more interesting ones. I'll be a good editor! Or I'll try to be, anyway.)

Okay, quick change of plans (once I looked at the photos I'd put in my picture file). This isn't the actual cruise yet; this is the place we stayed at the day before embarking on the ship. It was the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida, which is a Marriott hotel (we're Marriott fans; it's part of our religion. Just kidding. Sort of.) This place was so nice and I'd love to stay here again. I was still pretty sick with strep throat when we were there but the loveliness of this resort lifted my spirits, my appetite and ability to eat started to come back, and the balmy Florida air was good for my recovery. 

It was one of those open-air places with a huge glass ceiling and real trees and gardens growing inside and everything. I love that style.

There were little alligators lazing around inside too.

There are the boys waving at me from the balcony of our room.

The aforementioned room.

I loved the colors and pattern of the carpeting in the hallways. 

 Normally I wouldn't do a post about our hotel but this place was special enough to merit it.
Next time, on to the real star of the show (literally)--the Disney Fantasy!

John's 12th Birthday!

John turns 13 exactly two months from today so I better do my blog post about his 12th birthday quick. 

(Better late than never!)

He had a football cake (of course). 

Here it is all lit up...

The singing of the song...

And the blowing out of the candles...

I had Peter take some mother-son photos of us because we don't have enough of those. (We really don't!). This one was my favorite.

  When I was going through some of John's baby photos later I found a sweet photo that matched up well with the colors we were wearing then and now (pink for me and blue for him). How I miss those newborn baby days! But I'm thankful for where we are now, twelve years later.

(Also, in a vain aside, this picture makes me miss my longer, healthier hair, back when it used to grow and cooperate. I'd do anything to have that hair back again!)

Instead of a birthday party, he invited his three best friends to go to an indoor trampoline park with him. 

They had a blast!

Here they were in a hurricane simulator (or something like that). 

John has had a good year being 12: getting the priesthood and being able to pass the sacrament, graduating from elementary school, starting junior high, making the Honor Roll, and earning his first phone. His sense of humor continues to develop in hilarious ways as he gets older and I love his outgoing and adventurous nature. I'm excited to see what the age of 13 will bring for him!

Five Things for Friday

After yesterday's pessimistic post, I have a more upbeat one for today. 

Here are five things I'm looking forward to this winter!

1. "Paddington 2" comes out a week from today. I'll definitely take the boys to see it. The first Paddington movie was such a nice surprise; it was funny and cute and we all enjoyed it, so I have high hopes for the follow-up! 

2. Another entertainment courtesy of England, the second season of Victoria begins airing on PBS on January 14th. I really enjoy this show and I'm looking forward to this new season with Victoria as not only the queen of England and passionate wife of Albert, but also a mother. I'm interested to see how they portray her as a "mum" since in real life, she really didn't enjoy motherhood or her children that much.

3. I'm looking forward to the Winter Olympics in February. I think the Olympics is such a fun thing for the world to experience together (as opposed to, say, nuclear war and the like). Figure-skating is my long-time favorite!

4. The season of "hygge" is upon us. I like this Danish concept of cozy homey-ness. I intend to fill it as I usually do in winter but to a greater extent this year with hot cocoa and soft blankets and pretty candles and crackling fires in the fireplace and good books, TV, and movies to entertain, as well as some snuggling with my guys and my pets to the extent that they'll allow it! 

5. I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day. It's such a sweet, simple holiday.

So there you have it; my attempt to be optimistic in the face of cold and dreary winter!

An Inauspicious Start to 2018

I hate to be pessimistic but sometimes it can be therapeutic to write a list of everything that's not gone right, and boy have I got one since this new year started only a few days ago! 2018, what's up with you!?

-On New Year's Eve I took a nice relaxing bubble bath; usually I sleep really well when I do that before bed, but it didn't happen that night. I couldn't get to sleep but I was too tired to read, which is a frustrating combination. I ended up going downstairs and laid on the couch next to the lit-up Christmas tree, where I finally fell asleep. But it was a broken sleep, and I woke up with a sore neck, a slight headache, and I was so cold because I was wearing t-shirt pajamas, no socks, and I had only a light blanket and it got down to somewhere in the negative 20s or 30s that night, and in our high-ceilinged living room, that's chilly, even with the heat on. It wasn't quite the way I envisioned waking up to the new year.

-This relentless frigid cold weather isn't budging. And it's sunny too. My most-hated type of weather is sunny and cold. If it's going to be bitterly cold, at least throw some cloud cover in (I love cloudy weather, and today is actually cloudier than it is sunny, yay!). But the last several days have been sunny and below zero (sometimes way below zero) and it hurts to go outside. Plus I feel bad for all of the animals out there, as well as people who don't have a warm place to live. This weather is detestable!

-Speaking of which, and I know this is totally a first-world "problem," but I'm mad at myself for deciding not to go on a Caribbean cruise this week. It would have been the perfect week to do that. What was I thinking? If only I'd had a crystal ball earlier this year when we were planning our vacations.

-I had a big red ugly monstrous zit next to my nose, the kind where you can feel it under your skin for a few days before it erupts, and then boy is it ugly when it does. I don't break out that much anymore but my skin will still throw a big teenage tantrum every once in awhile, and it decided to do that for the new year. Thanks skin.

- My wonderful home alone staycation came to an end. Peter and the boys went on their annual father-son trip to Wisconsin Dells after Christmas, leaving me home alone for six wonderful, peaceful days in which I had total control of my schedule and what I did or didn't do. I missed them and was glad when they came home, but I'm nostalgic for my alone time too. I truly excel at being a hermit.   

-I figured out that our cat Bentwood probably has fleas. Fleas! Our pets have never had them. I think he got it when we boarded him in November while we were on vacation, and we're just finding out now. 

-Un-decking the halls is not fun.

-Post-holiday blues are real. 

-In the early morning hours of Wednesday I was up twice during the night because John suddenly got sick and was throwing up. He was sick all yesterday with a stomach bug. I nearly threw up myself when I had to clean up the vomit in his room, which has to be one of the most disgusting tasks ever. I'm hoping and praying that none of the rest of us gets sick. Thankfully he's better today so it must have been a 24-hour bug. Good thing because he has a big gymnastics meet this weekend that he's been looking forward to competing in. 

-Our wonderful prophet and leader President Monson passed away on Tuesday night, which made me burst into tears when I found out. I'm going to miss him.

-I bought a big bag of bird food yesterday and when I brought it inside and plopped it on the floor, it split open! It was such a pain to clean up (although not gross like the other clean-up task I had to yesterday). 

-I'm jealous of the big winter storm the East Coast is getting today. I know it's probably misguided of me, but I miss those storms. I think they're exciting as long as you don't have to go out in them. I hope we get at least one big storm here in Iowa this winter (as long as it happens on a convenient day and doesn't make us lose power. Ha ha.)

-Today is Peter's last day at Transamerica. I'm really sad about this. Life transitions have always been hard for me and this is a big one. He's excited to start a new job with a new company this month, and I'm happy for him, but my anxiety is high about how this will change our lives, including a probable move this summer. I don't like changes, and these ones are huge, and so this new year is a scary one for me to face. It's really disconcerting when you can't even envision where you'll be in a few months and you just want to be in your cozy home and community that you know and love and not have anything change, ever.  

So all in all, I'm not feeling terribly excited about this new year. I still have so much more to be grateful for than to grumble about, and I'm a naturally optimistic person, but the last few days have been tough. I wish I could hibernate for the rest of the winter, and maybe for the rest of the year too!