Saturday, April 24, 2010

Cruisin' Afterthoughts

I have covered the cruises pretty well, I think, but there are a few afterthoughts I wanted to add of memories that I will not soon forget:

Hannah making sure Great-Grandpa always had his favorite donut in the morning.


Watching the fantastic ice show together.




Watching the kids have fun at the pool.



Seeing what animal would be on our bed when we came home at night.

Seeing the fancy ways of displaying food--however, knowing that I would never take the time to do it myself!

Watching the great evening shows together.

Looking forward to dinner as a family, laughing, being entertained, and coming away stuffed!


Eating hamburgers and fries at Johnny Rockets--a change was really nice!

Spending time with my husband and dad--I don't get to see my dad that often, so it was a real treat!

Spending time with those we love so much--and wishing the other 15 grandchildren, 5 children, and 5 spouses could have been there, too.  Next time, hopefully we can all go together!

P.S.  After the Cruise

So George and I are about 1 1/2 hours from Ft. Lauderdale riding in our car back to Jacksonville when we get a call from Kevin that two of their children got bumped and were each receiving $600 vouchers from the airline.  Would we mind going back to get them?  Of course not!  We readily turned around and went back the 1 1/2 hours.  Instead of two kids, it turned out to be four of Kevin's and one of Kyle's!  We were  ecstatic!  We now drove the five hours back home.  When we got home, Kyle called and their flight was delayed on the run-way for an hour causing them to miss their flight in Atlanta, so he asked if he could fly Kim and the other two kids to our home since they couldn't get out for two days.  Of course!

This is our bonus room--wall-to-wall beds! 

Oh, I forgot to tell you, Craig, Cassie, and Riley were staying with us for two weeks while Craig did rotationals at the dental clinic for homeless at the beach and downtown Jacksonville.  This is our new centerpiece--isn't it great!


A really funny story--Craig was so good to wrestle with all the boys on the ground.  They all piled on him.  Isaac watched and then jumped on Craig's arm.  Craig started throwing his arm all around and Isaac just kept hanging on and proudly called out, "I've got this part!!!"  We laughed so hard!


This was such a great time for the cousins to see the new little ones.

We took the kids to see gators, but we only saw this one. . .

Lauren was so brave!

And a few turtles.  With over a million gators in Florida, you'd think we could have seen one, but not today.

We went to the park--all the grandkids know this is my favorite place to take their pictures.  Garrett loved being with his cousins.

Well, that's the last of the cruise blog.  Where are we going next?

Let's Go Surfin' Now, Everybody's Learning How!

One of the funnest things the kids--as well as some of the brave adults did--was to learn how to boogie board and surf the wave rider.  It was so much fun to watch their daring efforts! 
Getting the instructions . . .

Go, Kade, go!
Now Carter gives it a try . . .
That was so much fun!  But the lines are too long--way too much waiting.  Never fear--Kade's, Carter's, and the Petersen's dad all rented the wave machine for an hour one evening, and then we all really had fun!!!







And, yes, there were a few wipe-outs!

Go, Jenna!

Nice job, Kade!

Alright, Lauren!

Taylor looks like he came in straight from Hawaii!

Now the moms tried it . . .




These moms are good!
Now the kids got fancier and started surfing together!


Now, two on one board . . .
Yeh, they did it!


Now to see what the spectators were doing--Brady and Hannah were too little (height requirements) to go on the wave rider.  Maybe next time!

Kevin was studying the whole situation to see if he would try it . . .
And yes, he decides to go for it!
He actually provided us with plenty of laughs!
But, somehow he didn't steer quite straight, his board got away, and he ended up on the side!  You have to say, "He was a great sport!"
George's reaction to Kevin's attempt!  (Notice, George didn't get on it!)

Now for the real thing--to actually try real Surfing!

This is actually so hard to do--yeh, Carter!
Carter is a real surfer-dude!
Bring on the real ocean waves--Connor is ready!
Nice going, Taylor!
Kim, you're fantastic!
The music was playing loudly, the weather was perfect, the company was great--we all had the time of our lives, not ever to be forgotten!