Monday May 14th

I finally found a little bit of time to sit down and catch up here. This post and the following ones are from our first big family vacation...

This morning Hubby and I ran for 40 minutes down the beach again. After that we had breakfast with the kids, hit the gift shop for some postcards to send off before boarding the ship, and then swimming at the pool. I went back to the room before everyone else so I could get cleaned up and then started getting us all packed. We get off the ship on Friday and as of this morning we didn't have a room because the hotel we were staying at was full when we first made reservations. After our run this morning though Hubby checked with the front desk and was able to get us a room that faces the ocean for our last night in Florida before we leave next Saturday for home.

Once we were all ready and checked out we drove to Miami and Hubby dropped the kids and me off while he took the rental car back. Once he met up with us and we were all officially checked in we got on board the ship and it was immediately overwhelming. Hubby and I wanted to watch the ship take off, the little girls wanted to swim, Elliot wanted to eat, and Marleigh just wanted to look around. One thing about a cruise ship is that there are so many things to do it really can be a bit confusing. You don't want to miss out on anything but if you try to do it all you won't enjoy the things that you do. Ya know?

We only had an hour before dinner after the ship pulled out of the harbor so we hustled to our rooms to figure out what we would wear on our first night. It was then that I realized that there was no iron in our cabin. Nice, huh? Well, pretty much everything we had needed to be ironed. I picked out the things that were the least wrinkled and got everyone dressed and headed to the Moonlight Dining Room.

After dinner we explored the ship some and checked out the kids' activities. I hadn't planned on even looking into it because this is supposed to be a family vacation and I wanted them with us. But man, as soon as they saw the place they loved it and wanted to stay! Marleigh said there was no way that she would go to the teen room but changed her mind as soon as she saw that she could get on the computer. The kids all wanted to stay in their classes so after signing them in Hubby and I hit the casino for a bit where he played craps and I just hung out taking it all in. When we picked the kids up later they didn't want to leave. I'm so glad they like it so much and the staff is wonderful with them. I feel like they are very safe there which is always great. Marleigh had so much fun with her new teen friends (they are all 12 which makes me more comfortable) that she ended up staying an extra hour.

The rest of us headed down to our room and just hung out while I got everything unpacked and put away. It was a challenge because the cabin's are pretty snug! After a lot of discussing and trying to figure out who would do best where we decided that Hubby would room with Marleigh and Elliot and I would take Selah and Tess. After I shut out the lights they were asleep in a matter of minutes. They are completely wiped out!

We are looking forward to tomorrow and our fun excursion to a private island on Nassau!