Spring Break: The Adventure

Thanks to the generosity and graciousness of Luke's dad and his wife, our whole family (and I mean everybody) was treated to Spring Break on the Disney Cruise. The Disney Magic, to be exact. After a busy day of packing and a long flight, we arrived in Florida late Friday night and stayed over in a hotel. Our travel worn and over excited girls had a hard time settling down for bed until their dad conjured up a bedtime tale starring three mysterious princesses with mystical powers. Laying there in the dark on that bumpy sofa bed watching them give their dad such rapt attention while he entertained them was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The girls loved it too, and the story continued each night at bedtime for the rest of the vacation.  The next morning we shuttled over to the port and we were on our way. All aboard!!

We spent the first day swimming, eating, and finding our way around the ship. The weather was sunny and the kids were lovin' the pool. The ship was beautiful and very clean. To help prevent the spread of germs, we were asked over and over to wash our hands and were constantly given wipes to clean up with. The service was impeccable and our room was thoroughly cleaned twice a day. The food was good. There was lots to do. We were going to have a great time. 

That night we bunked down to the sound of waves splashing outside our window, and then lo and behold, we woke up in the Florida Keys, just like Magic.  The excursion guide led us to a butterfly conservatory and shared some history and interesting information about Key West on the way. The beautiful garden and fluttering butterflies made the girls feel like they were in some kind of a fairy land. Madeleine asked me, "How hard would it be to put something like this in our backyard?" I don't know, but I can't say I didn't think about it. 
A big, blue one landed right on Beth's head!
Time for lunch, and then we walked over to the aquarium. Madeleine made friends with an enormous hermit crab and Mary pet a baby shark.  Key West was a fun stop, but the ship and all it's food and entertainment awaited . . .
One fun thing about the cruise was that there was a different show performed on stage every night. Sometimes it was was magician type performer, sometimes a musical performance. After a few nights of watching Princesses whirling and twirling Beth seemed to forget how to walk. She skipped and danced all around the ship, leaping and kicking while she sang. Every little girl has a princess inside. She just couldn't help letting hers show.

The girls spent the next day playing with their cousins in the pool or in the Kid's Club while we sailed away through the ocean blue. At that point motion sickness was starting to get the better of me so I spent some quality time in the stateroom while Luke put the fitness room to good use.  Then it was time for another yummy dinner, another fun show, and another bedtime story. Bright and early the next day we pulled into Grand Cayman.

We vacationed in Grand Cayman when Madeleine was nearly 3 and Beth was a baby. (If I was really awesome I would find one of the pictures from that trip to post here, for the "Then and Now" effect, but I'm not that awesome so just picture it for yourself. ) We were excited to go back and we weren't disappointed. The turtle farm we visited 6 years ago had relocated to a better facility in a big park. We made friends with the turtles, snorkeled in a lagoon, and played in the sand. Mary didn't love the snorkeling because she kept getting salt water in her mouth, but I think she did pretty well for a 3 year old. Beth swam halfway around the lagoon with her mask fogged up, but once Luke cleared it she excitedly discovered there were fish down there! 
It was hard to leave the sandy beach but the boat waited for no one so our happy day came to a close. 

Next stop: Cozumel and the much awaited Swimming With Dolphins excursion. Madeleine counted down the days until this event for months. She was so excited she could hardly eat breakfast. Luke took Beth and Mary to more shallow waters to meet the dolphins, and he said Mary enjoyed petting the dolphin and gave it a kiss before she climbed out of the water to join her cousin on the pier. Beth got a kick out of dancing with the dolphin and kissing it's nose. Meanwhile, Madeleine and I jumped in for a swim. It is difficult to describe the sensation one experiences when a dolphin pokes the bottom of your foot with it's nose and then pushes you across the water! We also rode on it's tummy, and "surfed" with it on a boogie board. It was incredible. Smelled like fish, but incredible. The national park where the dolphin excursion took place was pretty great too - restaurant, swimming pool, and a beach so we spent the afternoon there relaxing and having fun while the dolphins flipped and flopped in front of us. (Pictures need to be scanned so they will be posted later in the slide show. )

Back on the ship, Mary wasn't feeling too hot. Actually, she was feeling a little too hot. Too much sun? Too much swimming? Hmmm. After a dose of Tylenol her dad asked her if she was feeling a little better. She replied, "No, I'm feeling A LOT better." We hoped that would be the worst of it. We sent her off to the Kid's Club with her cousins and her sisters while all the adults enjoyed a scrumptious dinner in the ship's gourmet restaurant. Several parent's pagers went off during dinner, but ours wasn't one of them so we figured Mary was feeling fine. The next morning she woke up and went to breakfast looking like this . . .
Until this guy showed up!
Even so, we popped into the ship's doctor. Slight fever, slightly irritated ear, nothing some Motrin couldn't handle. She was up when the Motrin was working, down when it was wearing off. Then Madeleine said her throat hurt. Hmmm. Then Mary started coughing. Then we bought more Motrin,  and then some cold medicine. Wanting to save our energy for our big day on the Disney island, Castaway Cay, we tried to lay low and get the kids to bed early. I really wanted them to have fun on the Island. 

Friday we left the ship in cloudy, cool weather. Madeleine struggled to walk from the ship to the beach and once we got there she shivered on a beach chair with her cover-up on and two towels laid over her. Luke dutifully obliged to seek out some hot chocolate for her at my request, his effort gaining him some strange looks but no warm beverage. Mary played in the sand for a bit and then joined her oldest sister. I was beginning to think our day in paradise was a bust when the sun peeked through the clouds and started warming everybody up. Beth was busy in the sand and the ocean, and late in the afternoon Madeleine perked up and joined her. 
Mary did not budge. 
At the end of the day we trudged back to the ship and were nearly there when Mary commented, "My shoes are back there." So, I trudged back to the beach and back to the ship again. By the time I got to our stateroom I felt like the life was being sucked out of me and I couldn't wait to lay down. Hmmmm. Luke observed, "You look like you just got hit by a truck . . " and took over with the kids. We ordered room service for dinner - 8 bowls of chicken noodle soup and some popcorn. As Luke phoned in the order he said, "I always have to make the weird orders . . ." We passed the Motrin and cold medicine around, listened to a "Daddy story" and drifted off as the boat turned towards Florida. 

Saturday we left the boat early but the whole process of disembarkation, customs, etc. took a little bit of time. I became frustrated with Madeleine because she kept sitting on the floor whenever we were waiting in line or standing around somewhere. After a week of constantly washing our hands and using sanitizer, sitting on the floor looked like an invitation to a germ fest to me. Finally we got her in a car where she could just sit and rest. We stopped on the way to the Kennedy Space Center to buy a box of Kleenex and more Motrin. We saw alligators in the ditches along the roadway as we drove. At the Space Center all the kids were in good spirits and seemed animated enough. We passed the time there until we needed to leave for the airport. 
At the airport Madeleine was once again dropping down onto the floor while I cringed and frantically groped in my purse for the hand sanitizer. Mary was drooped on Luke's shoulders, and Beth was perfectly fine. That is the first time I felt relieved to get my kids on a plane for an extended period of time. Madeleine and Mary slept most of the time while I huddled in the corner, coughing and shivering under one of the oversized handkerchiefs the airline calls a blanket. Poor Beth was tired and bored but at least she wasn't sick. We went directly from the airport to the Instacare. Mary's temp was 103 and she had double ear infections. Madeleine and I both had a "nasty virus." We limped in from the doctors at nearly 10:00 and realized we left a bag at the airport (the one with the kid's blankies and teddy bears in it, of course) and we still had to pick up a prescription. What a day. It finally ended well though, with all our bags claimed, family members medicated as needed, and everyone cozily asleep in their own beds, blankies and bears in hand.

Sunday morning I woke up sicker than I have ever been. I mean it. This was not your run of the mill body aches and fever. This was throbbing pain everywhere - too tired to move-irrational frame of mind kind of sick, and all I could think was, "Did my children feel this awful and I was yelling at them for sitting on the floor while I dragged them through the airport??" It occurred to me that I didn't know where my children were or what they were doing but that it didn't matter since I couldn't get out of bed. Enter stage right, one Super Man of a husband, ready to save the day. Luke brought me a mega-dose of Advil, took care of breakfast for the kids, and got them all squared away before he left for his early church meetings. I spent the next four hours in bed. By that point I thought I felt good enough to shower and get dressed for church. I wouldn't have gone except it was my last week as a leader in the Young Women's program and I wanted to be there. I left for church when Luke walked in from his meeting, leaving him to make lunch and care for the sick kids. When I got home I saw he had also cleaned the kitchen, picked up the family room, unpacked all the suitcases AND started the laundry. What a guy! I crawled back into bed feeling sooooooo grateful for such a wonderful husband and confident that I would soon be over the worst of this bug. 

Maybe we didn't end our trip on the highest note, but it was a great vacation and we don't regret it a bit. Madeleine told me,"this vacation fulfilled all my dreams - to snorkel with turtles, to swim with dolphins, and to find a hermit crab in the wild." Having family time together and watching my children have so much fun made the trip a dream come true for me too.