Disney Cruise!

Finally, the screen I've been waiting for on my countdown app!

I've never considered myself a cruise person. Having never been on one, sure, I don't really have much to compare it to. But being stuck on a boat? With all those people? And what about those horror stories you hear of everyone getting sick? Yeah, it's never really appealed to me.

Enter our neighbors, who have recently become Disney Cruise professionals! After hearing story after story of their amazing experiences (and knowing there is no way we're taking our kids to the Disney parks any time soon) we started wondering... Next thing you know, we had signed ourselves up for a Fall Break cruise to the Bahamas on the Disney Dream. The countdown was on! I spent basically all summer working on cruise details, joining various Facebook groups (there was even a group for our specific itinerary and it was cool to get to know some people and have a place to share ideas), and planning Fish Extender gifts.

Fish Extenders are this whole thing where you join a group of ten or so staterooms, and then get little gifts for everyone. During the cruise, you hang a special bag with pockets outside your door on the fish-shaped hook, and then the people in your group leave little presents throughout the trip. It's like putting a stocking up at Christmas time. It's certainly not mandatory, but it adds a little something magical to your trip. Of course I just had to participate, and I knew I had to get it all done this summer because once school started, I wouldn't have time to think about the cruise at all!

And then, the hurricanes hit. I knew Harvey wouldn't be a problem, and Irma was too early to affect us (although there were fears the Disney Island, Castaway Cay, would be damaged). Jose spun himself silly in the Atlanta before getting close. But Maria. Oh, Hurricane Maria. Our FB group was hot with speculation, concern, prayer. After watching anxiously, things appeared to be okay and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Anyway, all that to say, after weeks of cruise gear growing on the dining room table, we finally had our princess costumes, pirate outfits, Fish Extender gifts, and luggage packed and stuffed in the car, ready to go! After a quick stop in Peachtree City to celebrate Annie's birthday, we hit the road Sunday morning for the long trip to Port Canaveral.

We're on vacation!

We stayed the night at a hotel just minutes from the port; we even had dinner there the night before we sailed off. The entire hotel was packed with fellow cruisers. Annie made quick friends with the family next to us for breakfast who had been on the cancelled Hurricane Irma cruise - they were just happy to be sailing! After we couldn't stand the wait any longer, we headed to the port.

Let me tell you, Disney has this thing down to a science. A well-organized smooth science. Everyone is assigned a specific port arrival time to keep the lines from getting clogged. We checked it, used our new passports for the first time, and after hanging about the terminal for a bit (it was crowded but not unmanageable) we were finally given the go ahead to take our turn.

I'll admit, I teared up just stepping onto the ship. I have such a nostalgic connection to Disney from my childhood. I used to say I was going to marry Mickey when I was little, or work at Disney World. My brother and I made it a mission one summer to watch every single Disney animated classic movie. Plus this was such a big trip, had been planned for so long, thought about so hard... When we announced as we walked on board, "Welcome to the Loughman family!" and we walked through a line of clapping Disney cast members into this huge beautiful atrium... it was an emotional experience.

Minutes away from stepping foot onto the ship!

From endless previous discussions, we knew the first thing the kids wanted to do upon boarding was head to the pool deck. And why not? We were on board before noon but our room wouldn't be available until 1:30, with luggage delivered even later. So we had our swimsuits on under our clothes in preparation. Day one is a great day to hit the pool as well, because the ship won't be fully boarded until 3 p.m. or so. Might as well grab a spot on deck while it's less crowded, right?

I'm on a boat!

The girls immediately wanted to try out the Aqua Duck, a water slide that wraps all the way around the ship. Annie was juuuust tall enough to ride, which was awesome! I had already emotionally prepared her for not getting to go, but perhaps turning four two days earlier gave her the extra bump she needed! We rode the slide, found the much-anticipated free soft drinks and ice cream machine, and had a blast.

View from the Mickey Pool! See the water slide wrapping around the ship?

Waiting for our turn on the slide!

Matt and Annie on the Aqua Duck!

Violet on another slide.

Next we decided to grab lunch. I'd gotten an insider tip that rather than eating at the buffet on the pool deck, we could have a sit-down table-service lunch at Enchanted Gardens, one of the ship's restaurants. It remains one of the highlights of our trip. Something about being just the four of us, in this beautiful restaurant (think greenery, cobblestones, a fountain), being served a lovely lunch complete with the girls' first Mickey Bars for dessert... After the crowds getting on the boat, waiting for the slide, navigating the elevators - it was a beautiful oasis of calm in our day.

Family Selfie

We were finally able to check out our stateroom and unpack our bags. One of the first things on the list was decorating our door. Yes, to make it cute. But more importantly, so we'd be able to find it again in a hallway of identical doors! We met our stateroom host, the person in charge of making sure we were taken care of the whole trip (and the person who'd be making those cute little towel animals for our bed every evening) - Mr. Goodluck.

See the Fish Extender hanging by the door?

We visited the kids club area during their Open House hours, went to the required muster drill (safety briefing), and watched the Sail Away Party from the pool deck, where Mickey and his gang come out singing and dancing. Then it was time to get dressed for the show - The Golden Mickeys! - and dinner. At this point, the ship was rocking pretty steadily. Whether it was due to rough post-hurricane seas or the speed of our travel, there was significant motion. People were stumbling in the hallways and the curtains were swaying. It was clear pretty quickly that Annie wasn't feeling good. We arrived at dinner, met the very nice family with two girls we'd be dining with each night, and were basically in crisis management mode with two exhausted girls. Dinner that first night was pretty much a bust. Matt ended up leaving with a crying Annie and Violet and I were out before dessert. Once both girls were asleep, Matt and I ordered dessert via room service and were happy to call it an early night as well, with promises from Mr. Goodluck that the motion of the ocean would by done by morning. He was right!

Family picture on the balcony!

Happy Birthday Annie!

A Mickey Pirate theme cake before our Mickey cruise!

This sweet girl turned four! Can you believe it? Annie really feels like a "big" girl now and you can tell how proud she is of herself. She's learning sight words and lowercase letters in school and sits in her "big girl" booster seat in the car, just like her big sister. She is one smart and sassy cookie, let me tell you.

We celebrated her birthday with our neighbors and Annie got two different costumes, perfect for our Disney cruise. The next day we headed to Peachtree City so we could celebrate with family.

Celebrating with the neighbors.

Botanical Gardens

My girls and the Earth Goddess. Or as my girls insist, Te Fiti from Moana.

We took advantage of a truly beautiful fall-ish day to visit one of our favorite places in Atlanta, the Botanical Gardens. We have a membership pass, but the middle of the summer is always so hot, it makes it hard to even want to go. But mid-70s on a sunny Saturday in September? Yes, please! 

Look How We've Grown

Back to School

And then the summer was over, and we all headed back to school. Somehow I ended up with a second grader! How did that happen?! The days are long, but my how the years are short! Violet once again wants to be a teacher when she grows up. (I'll keep my opinions about that intended profession to myself.) She was totally ready to go - no tears, no whining, no "please walk me to my classroom while I hang onto your leg". I was so excited to learn Ms. Post was her teacher this year - I have a thing for second-year teachers. They're still full of enthusiasm and innovation; they haven't been beaten down by the system yet, haha!

Off she goes!

Violet and Ms. Post!

Matt took a "first day" picture with Annie too, even though she officially started a week early due to my pre-planning schedule. She's in Early Pre-K this year, thanks to that September birthday. She just missed the cut-off! This is hopefully our last year of daycare - my school opened up two special needs pre-k classes, and each classroom has two "typical peer" slots for staff kids. We toyed with the idea of trying to get her in this year, but it was too last minute for me to think through properly. Plus there would be no guarantee of a slot next year, which is when she is supposed to go. So, we're with Carrington for one more year. It's not a bad thing, either. Her teacher from last year looped up, so it made for a smooth transition, and we LOVE Ms. Breanna!

The first-ish day of Pre-ish K!

Annie's class... see her self-portrait in the top right corner?

And as for me... well, the best part of starting this year was not being the new teacher anymore! It's a relief to have a year under my belt at this beautiful school. I know how things work, I know what to expect, I know what's coming up. It makes a huge difference, let me tell you. And although I was sad to see the summer end, it reaches a point where you just want the school year to start and get the waiting over with!

A beautiful day to go back to school!

First grade team!

All In the Family

Our last adventure before heading back to school this year was the annual (okay, every other year) Loughman family reunion. The location rotates every two years between five different states, and this year it happened to be the Georgia year (so convenient!) While other family members booked their plane tickets and packed their vans for multi-hour drives, we just took our usual trip to Peachtree City! Which worked out well, considering that school was just around the corner. Had the location been half a country away, I'm not sure we could have made it. As it was, I was able to enjoy a few last minutes of summer and lots of family, food, and fun.

One of the best parts of the trip was watching my girls play with their cousins. (Second cousins? First cousins twice removed? I'm not sure we ever got the exact terminology correct but that didn't seem to bother the kids!) Growing up, we lived too far away and there was too much age difference to do much bonding with my own cousins. So the fact that these kiddos not only met for the first time, but managed to become instant buddies during the weekend was so much fun to watch. There were golf cart rides, water balloon fights, diving contests at the pool... two years is too long between these visits, but hopefully they'll always just pick up right where they left off!

The hallmark of these family reunions for me isn't the activities or events planned. Given that this is my city, there wasn't a need for sightseeing, after all. But even in a different location, the main event remains the same - the stories of antics from the past, the memories, the side-splitting laughter and hilarity - all of us just sitting on the porch, sprawling in the living room, the pockets of conversation springing up in this corner or that. 

And of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have the Loughman family recreate this family photo on the back porch! I even made Lee Anne close her eyes for continuity!

Call Me Maybe

The firstest of all first world problems has happened to me.

I'm out of cellular data. A full nine days before Verizon will graciously refill the bucket. I just don't know what to do with myself.

My phone has just reverted itself back to its most primitive form - a phone. I can use it to call people. And that's it.

No GPS - I guess I'll have to pay attention on the road now. I totally took a wrong turn on the way home from church the other day and had to wing it. I go East on 285, yes?

No email. No pulling up coupons on my phone when I go to checkout at Target. No Amazon price comparisons. No weather. No killing time on Facebook while waiting for my kids to finish up gymnastics camp. No posting to Instagram those artfully filtered photos. I'm barely even getting text messages. (You should hear the way my phone blows up when I pull into the driveway and cross the border into our wireless circle. Nine texts, 14 posts, three alerts...)

My phone is basically worthless at this point. I use it to actually call people, what... nine percent of the time? Who actually talks on the phone anymore?

Do you remember your very first cell phone? Mine was this very flashy Nokia brick. And I thought it was so amazing. I got it my sophomore year in college. Before that, the Athens dorms had a special deal where you could call five Atlanta numbers without paying long distance charges. Can you even imagine? Living in the dark ages, we were. The Nokia was a massive step up from the pager I possessed in high school, but would quickly be replaced with the much coveted flip phone. I remember obsessively checking the phone to make sure I was still within my 300 minutes of talking time. Texts weren't even a big thing yet, although the x-amount of texting package was not far behind. I remember carrying around this phone, but not really using it. No one was relying on cell phones yet. We were still arranging our plans in advance, waiting patiently for everyone to show up at predetermined locations.

Think about how rapidly things have changed. Now we have unlimited talk, unlimited text, free long distance, so much coverage that roaming is barely a thing anymore. Remember the fear of roaming and its massive overage charges? Remember when a new phone meant getting a new phone number and having to somehow update all your friends in the pre-social media days? Good grief, how did we live? How did we come to rely so heavily on our technology? What a transformation we've made, my fellow Xennial Generation, those of us with an analog childhood and digital adulthood.

I have two more days of cellular blackout before I can once again rejoin the mobile world. It's been educational, trying to explain to Violet how we survived in the pre-wireless age. "I had to call the store and ask for directions, then write them down on a piece of paper and take it in the car with me, possibly stopping along the way at a random gas station to verify I was actually on the right road..." She doesn't get it. Kids these days.