Jackson Update

Jackson has been in and out of the Dr's for about 3 weeks now trying to figure out what is wrong with him. After lots of blood drawing, ultrasounds, pokes, and prods they have come to a diagnosis and though it sounds bad, it's good news!

About 3 weeks ago he woke up with a giant lump in his neck and a fever. And he just hasn't been himself at all. Crying and screaming every other minute. It's been a rough few weeks for us! We have literally been to the Dr. every other day last week and every day (sometimes twice) this week. I'm so happy to be done with that!

Yesterday the Pediatric Infectious Disease Dr. said he had a "Bacterial Staff Infection of the Lymph Nodes" Sounds fun huh? Of course he got it from all the lovely things he sucks on or picks up off the ground and throws in his mouth. Yum! I should have figured! I'm just so relieved it's not any kind of cancer or long term disease. So, we are counting our blessings and administering antibiotics!

Disney Cruise Day 1: Embarkation

Our first day on the boat! We were all so excited! We woke up early, had breakfast on the hotel, took the shuttle to the airport, checked in, and got on the bus to Port Canaveral. Who knew it was such a process just to get on a boat! Phew! Once we were on it was nice and relaxing. We got on around noon and just ate, swam and relaxed. Everyone on the boat was very friendly. We kept forgetting that we didn't have to pay for anything. I felt like we were stealing food and drinks!
Big kids in their seat belts!

This is Abbi's friend MaKenna that she met on the bus ride. They had a blast the first day on the boat together. They swam together, went to the kids club and were BFF's. The next morning we saw Makenna and her family and she acted like she didn't know Abbi. Rude! Girls can be so mean! Abbi who is so friendly to everyone and doesn't understand girly mood swings was so confused. Poor girl.

View from our room. Our room was squished, but not as tight as I thought it would be. Abbi's bed pulled down from the ceiling and they set up buddy's crib every night and took it down every morning so there was plenty of space.

Buddy falling asleep in his first of many odd sleeping locations.

Up on deck there was a special "Anchors Away Party" as we left the port. All the Disney Characters were there and they introduced all the Youth counselors. Very fun! The weather was beautiful!

It was weird to be moving through the ocean on a hotel sized boat. We really couldn't feel it until night time when they sped the boat up.

We only spent half a day on the boat and already it was the best vacation ever!

Disney Cruise Day 2: Nassau & Boat

Ok, so Nassau is not all the incredible beauty I thought it would be. I guess I was expecting something like beautiful white sandy beaches, friendly tropical locals, good shopping. I don't know! We decided to just spend a few hours walking around the town then get on the boat. This town was a little disappointing. No beaches, lame shopping, locals trying to take your money at every turn and staring at you like you were rodents crawling the streets! We decided this wasn't the place for us, so we got a cab (scary) and took it to the Atlantis Resort.

The cab ride was interesting. We got into a cab with 3 other people. No seat belts. We began our squished ride to Atlantis, then the driver stops in the middle of the street and we load 4 other people into the cab. It was very interesting. We got to see some pretty cool run down parts of the city. Kind of reminded me of Tijuana. So, with 12 people in our small cab we headed over to Atlantis, paid the driver double what he told us the cost would be and began our tour of the resort.

This was not the crazy cab ride. I couldn't move to take a picture of that THAT! This is the ride back. We even had seat belts! High class! We asked someone on the boat earlier if we would need car seats for our kids if we took a cab in Nassau and they literally laughed at us! Now I see why.



Jackson thought he was pretty big stuff to ride in a big boy seat with a seat belt. Between this and the bus ride back to the airport he kind of got used to it and when we got home did NOT want to be strapped back in his car seat.



We just wandered around the resort checking out the Aquarium that goes through the whole place. It's huge! Then we ate lunch at the resort and headed back to the boat on another cab (less interesting this time). We both kind of wished we had just stayed on the boat that day, but it was worth the adventure to see the town. But I don't think I would do it again.

There were literally miles of Aquarium. You could see fish from above ground as well. We even saw some people scuba diving in the tanks.

This guy was cleaning the glass in the Aquarium. Pretty cool job eh?



We ate a yummy dinner on the boat (poor buddy passed out in the middle of dinner) and went to the Toy Story show which was amazing! We loved all the shows on the boat. They were all great! But my kids are big Toy Story fans so I think that was their favorite.

That night was "Pirates IN the Caribbean Night" so we all dressed up as pirates and joined the party up on deck followed by an awesome fireworks show in the middle of the ocean. By then it was 10:30 and our kids were about to pass out on the deck, so we went to bed.

But I snuck out around 11 to go watch a movie in the movie theater on the boat. Who can turn down a free movie by yourself!? I watched the Last Song and did NOT cry! I was so proud of myself!

It was a good long day. Next stop....Castaway Cay!


This Carnival boat followed us around the ocean. It was at Port Canaveral and left right before us and showed up at Nassau right after us. I'm definitely glad we went on a Disney Cruise after seeing some of the people get off this boat.

He just couldn't make it! It was a long day and this spot looked as good as any. He fell asleep in some awkward places during this vacation. He was so glad to see his bed when we got home!

We had a different Towel Animal every night along with chocolates on our bed. The kids loved the chocolate before bed time!

Sunset on the ocean. Both kids were at the kids camp after dinner and we enjoyed some alone time where we just walked around the boat because we didn't know what to do with ourselves! One night we played bingo just for the heck of it. That was interesting. Our kids LOVED going to the kids camp and hardly wanted to spend time with us.



Paul the Pirate! I'm not sure why I don't have pictures of the kids in their pirate get-up. I think I just took videos of them. Sorry.


Here is an entertaining video of buddy falling asleep on the table:

Disney Cruise Day 3: Castaway Cay

Family shot after a day at the island. You can see how worn out and sunburned we are!

View of Castaway Cay as the boat pulls away. So sad to see it go!

I don't even know if I can do justice to Castaway Cay. It was so fun and amazing. Nope, didn't do it justice! Castaway Cay is Disney's own private Island. Beautiful white sand, clean warm water, beaches free of most crazy tourists (we did have a few on board), no grumpy adults scowling at our children, beautiful 80 degree weather, hot sunshine, lovely scenery, good food, fun activities, free childcare! Does anything sound better than this? I wish we could have spent a week on this Island. If only we didn't all have such bad sunburns. The kids came away relatively unharmed, but my shoulders took the brunt of the sun that day. Ouch!

We all had a blast. Abbi built Sand Castles all day long, buddy walked back and forth between the water and our beach chairs saying he wanted to take a nap. Finally he ended up passing out on my shoulder, then I transferred him to the wagon where he rolled along with us for about an hour. Abbi was such a trooper. She even had her hair braided, which was really fun (at first). Paul got to go para sailing. I couldn't join him since I'm pregnant, but it was amazing to see the videos he took. I'll try to post them on here.

Abbi eventually fell asleep at the kids camp. I freaked out because I couldn't find her when I picked her up. She was only there for about 30 minutes. I couldn't see her anywhere and started asking all the counselors where she was. Turns out I was standing right by her. She had fallen asleep in the arms of one of the counselors and she was laying on a cot in the shade of a palm tree. How peaceful. I had to put her in a wagon too!

It was a great day and Abbi still asks if we can go back to the Disneyland Beach every day! Oh how I wish we could!

I think the Wagon might have been Jack's favorite part of this day.

Abbi is such a little sand crab. She could play in the sand all day long...and that's exactly what she did!

sand...

sand...

more sand!

Disney provided these wagons free of charge, it was super convenient to haul all our beach garb in! Thanks Disney!

The Disney Wonder behind the Flying Duchman from Pirates of the Caribbean

View of the family beach from the walkway.

Everyone floatin' around on the tube.

Upside down picture of Jack asleep in the wagon. Priceless...I don't know why it's upside down.

A tired Abbi and Goofy.

More tired, sunburned people at dinner, gaining more wait on yummy cruise food! Seriously look at me. I think I must have gained 20 pounds. But I'm pregnant so I have an excse...Right???

Belly shot! 20 weeks. I think I'm mostly carrying her in my arms! Jee wiz!

Sunday...the day of REST!

We got back Sunday morning and decided to just take it easy most of the day in our hotel room. But by 5 pm the kids (and parents) were getting a little antsy, so we wandered over to Downtown Disney. Ok, Orlando Downtown Disney, so much bigger than Disneyland Downtown Disney! Wow, it had 4 huge sections and the largest Disney merchandise store in the world (no joke)! We took the kids on the Carousel, then Abbi wanted to ride the teacups haha. We ate dinner at the T-Rex. It's like the Rain Forest Cafe, but with dinosaurs. We thought the kids would like this, but they ended up sleeping through the whole meal! Buddy finally woke up towards the end and was a little frightened of the large lizards, but he eventually warmed up to them and started "roaring" back. It was an experience.


Both kids fast asleep in the stroller as we enjoyed a peaceful meal together (if you consider dinosaurs roaring and wholly mammoths screeching all around you peaceful...I can't believe they slept through the noise)


Buddy having fun on the carousel with Daddy


Abbi waiting in line with her "money" for the carousel

Typhoon Lagoon

On Monday, we were ready to get wet again! It was 100 degrees in Orlando (I'm not exaggerating, it really was 100 degrees!) We were originally going to Magic Kingdom, but changed our minds when we walked outside. So we went to Typhoon Lagoon, one of Disney's two water parks. It was amazing! There was a whole section of the park just for little kids with tiny slides and a tiny water ride. It was adorable! There were so many trees and tons of other shade. There were exotic birds walking around everywhere. They had a huge wave pool. I think it's the biggest in the world. It was just awesome, I can't wait to go back again!


All this way for water slides and Abbi just wants to play in the sand. Typical!


Buddy fell asleep on Paul in the lazy river. He went around like this about 5 times while he slept and got an awful sunburn on his feet!

This is the baby water slide: