Cruisin Was Heaven 2011

We talked about it on and off for about a year or so. "We should go on a cruise for our 30th birthdays." "okay, I'll see if I can get a cheap deal. We should invite some friends."
I didn't think it would really happen, but our friends Nate and Stacy, had the same idea. So before we knew it, we were on the phone negotiating prices, days off work, and most importantly, grandparent babysitting duty. And at the end of these phone calls, we were booked on a Carnival 7 day cruise leaving out of Long Beach.
In the weeks leading up to it, I would daydream about all the sleep I was going to be able to get. That's all that I really cared about. But once we were there-I found out how heavenly it really was.

The best parts for me were:

• the aforementioned sleep (and the excellent housekeeping)

• normal dinner conversation
• 

 

• ATV riding (despite how SLOWLY Ryan drove)

• the fact that Ryan did not work, at all (this is huge for him)
• making it through the day with clean clothes
• long showers
• no diapers!
• melting cake every night (I still drool over it)
• the lazy river (my new happy place)

I crossed off several of my Life To Do list also:

• the cruise itself 

• swimming, and riding on, and kissing dolphins (I'm grateful to everyone who indulged me in that-it was even better than I anticipated)

• eating escargot (I failed at that when I was actually in France, so I was grateful for the chance to make up for it)

• beating Ryan in Monopoly (with no cheating, and not just winning-crushing him)
• karaoke (Ryan did it with me and our version of My Girl was REALLY lame, but oh well)

Unfortunately, I don't think I can cross crusin' off my list for good. I'm afraid my first experience just made me eager for another one. I just hope we can talk gma and gpa into it again. We really appreciate them watching our kiddos. We didn't worry about them at all cause we knew they were in such good hands. And we only slightly panicked when we got a text that simply said, "What pharmacy do you use?" Then, a couple of hours later the story came out. Gma took Rachel into the doctor for what she assumed was an ear infection. But turns out there was a foreign object in her ear! So Rachel got bound and held down and the doctor pulled out...an earring! She put it in while I was busy packing and kept it in there for 6 days! So--she won't be getting her ears pierced for a looooong time!

It took a full week to miss the kids. But then I was anxious to get back to them. But after about three days, the novelty had worn off, and I started dreaming about Al and Ariel-those great men who brought me my 3 course dinner every night. Bless them.

It was great to see our friend Adrianna and finally meet her fiance. Thanks for driving us!