Seriously, Can Anyone Find Grammy?

After another good night's rest, and by good rest I mean we slept like logs, not that it was long enough, we headed down for breakfast. This time, we had made plans to meet Grammy in the restaurant. And, yes, we were late again. And, yes, we couldn't find Gram again. But after we had run into her so easily yesterday, I wasn't really worried. We sat down for some good grub.

Today the ship had docked at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island, and we were all planning to spend the day on the beach. After finishing up breakfast, we took our regular "look for Gram walk around the pool deck". After 3 turns, we still couldn't find her. So we headed to her room. No Gram. Then we headed back to our room, thinking maybe she was there looking for us. Still no Gram. At this point, the kiddos were just about bouncing out of their skin in their desire to go to the beach, so I had to make a plan. I left a note for Gram on her door and one on ours telling her we would meet for at the island lunch spot at 1.30, grabbed our beach bag and we were off. It was a beautiful day, but very hot, so we headed straight for the water. After playing for a bit, I thought I heard someone calling my name. On a beach with 1500+ strangers, I wasn't the quickest to respond, but lo and behold, there she was. Our missing Grammy. Now that we had found her, or rather she had found us, we went to grab some lunch.

To be honest, I don't really enforce the strictest rules on a vacation. While not complete chaos, most of our routine goes out the window. Bedtime pretty much becomes whenever the kiddos can't keep their eyes open any more, and the whole "you have to eat all your dinner before you can have dessert" doesn't really apply. Can you tell that this makes the little man very happy?

He does love a good chocolate chip cookie! After lunch, followed by more playing, a bit of a fall on my part (details to follow in another post) and some snorkeling, we began the walk back to the ship. I had talked to my mom about maybe parasailing when we were on the island. As we were walking back to the ship, she says, "Hey, if you wanna go, I'll watch the kids". So, yep, I went parasailing. It was amazing. I thought I was going to freak out a bit because I'm not the biggest fan of heights, but it was so peaceful. I used my waterproof camera to take pictures, and will post some when I get them developed. After arriving back on the ship, taking a bit of a nap, showering, and catching another great Disney show (whew, I'm tired already), we were off to our lounge again for, yes, you guessed it, pina coladas. Here are the kids with their favorite person on the cruise, Nicola. She might have bribed them with frozen drinks, chips and salsa, but they sure did like to see her!

We were off to our final shipboard dinner together. Because this cruise was over the 4th, the ship had been decorate in red, white and blue. They also had a special dinner menu on this night in honor of the holiday. The kiddos were most impressed by the huge balloon display in the main lobby.

Mom and I tried to explain that the 4th was a holiday to celebrate America's Independence. The little man didn't have much to say about that, but my girl said the pledge. After another great dinner, the kids were off to their PJ party and mom and I were off to the piano lounge. The entertainer in there, Mark Farris, was really good. Incredibly talented and hilarious, we had a great time.

By midnight, I had everything packed up, the kiddos were sound asleep and we would be back home by morning. The trip was a very last minute plan, but I am so thankful we were able to go and that my mom was able to join us. Vacations like this make me realize that in addition to loving my little family like crazy, I really like them, too.