When You Wish Upon A Star...POOF your teens vanish!

Disneyfalcon · Jan 31, 2013

You are good at drawing! Wow! I'm very impressed. Even chubby Goofy looks great!
We like the bridge report channel too. It's our go to channel when we aren't watching anything.
Yay! Gulf toes!!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

We took it easy a bit. Yeah, it's that constant relaxation we have going on but I also had Mother Nature wreaking havoc on me today. All the ladies out there will read that and be like, "Dang. That sucks." Yeah, girl, it sure did. I came prepared with my frumpy sweats, too. Now all the ladies will be like, "Oh yeah. Good thinking." LOL!

Next we hit Lumiere's (deck 3, midship) for lunch at about 1:00. I had the turkey & cheese panini. That's mayo on the side there. I love mayo on my fries.

I didn't even eat it all. No dessert. We're doing good on this not overeating thing!

We hit the Walt Disney Theater (deck 4, forward) for the 2:00 matinee of tonight's show of "Twice Charmed". The theater was pretty full by showtime. I had chocolate caramel corn for a snack. Yuuuuummmm!!! Here's some pics pre-show. There's strictly no photography during the shows. We sat in the back up against the control booth so we wouldn't have anyone behind us kicking our chairs.

Oh! My toes goes to the show!!! I'm a poet & didn't know it! Bwaaahahahahaaaaa!!!!

It really is a magnificent theater! The production shows onboard ("Twice Charmed" is one of them) are really fantastic. Definite must-do's on a Disney cruise!

After the show we returned to our room so I could start primping for tonight. I wanted to have extra time to fix my hair up. It's formal night. We also wanted to leave ourselves plenty of time to get pictures tonight in all our gussied-up glory. Oh but it's so hard to stay away from that amazing verandah:

Even when there's weather out there!

Oh! Looks like some whitecaps out there as time presses on! Wonder what the "ride" will be like if it gets rougher???

Yep, we even called the boys on their phones and made them come back early to get all prettied-up with us. Now, originally when we were faced with our first "formal night" IIIIII wanted to skip it. No dressing up. Just wear what's comfy and hit the buffet instead. The subject kept coming back up over and over during the planning so I finally relented. We made the splurge to purchase tuxes for all 3 of the guys ($119 each for coat, pants, shirt, bow tie, cummerbund, and studs at Al's Formals) and an evening dress for me. Considering we had 3 formal nights on 3 cruises coming up this year, it seemed like a reasonable thing to invest in so we could participate all 3 times. I mean, the sum of all those cruise fares vs. the sum of the formal attire expense...let's just say it made sense to do it.

So we were ready to go around 5:10. We now had 3 hours to hit as many photo ops and characters as possible before dinner. Seemed like we had done a good thing. Fancy toes pic for Tammy's Toes:

My "babies" all handsome and dashing 'n stuff:

Pooh'sBuddy · Jan 31, 2013

^^^^^^awwwwww!^^^^^^^^

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

We hit up like 3 photo ops around the lobby/atrium (decks 3 & 4, midship). First there was the statue (why do I not know the name of this one???) shots:

Chandler took this one of Tracey & me while that last picture was being taken:

Then we did a round at the moonlight on the twinkling ocean background one. This was the one we purchased from that set:

And we hit the moonlight with the ship background spot. Had to get a family picture in all our crazy clothing:

We hit all those atrium/lobby spots so fast. There was virtually no wait for any of them. Usually there's a good 10-20 minute wait for the different photo ops, longer if it's for characters. Those 3 spots took us all of about 20 minutes including time to walk from one to the other and decide where to go in between. It was FAST!

We headed towards the area of Preludes outside the Walt Disney Theater (deck 4, forward) to see what characters we could catch. Ideally we wanted Mickey in his finery but I knew that would be a long shot. Daisy was just finishing up. I snapped her on her way back stage:

Dang! Wish I'd gotten Daisy! But then Minnie was on her way. She'll do.

The seas out were getting pretty rough and ship had started to roll. It wasn't big, scary movements but it was noticeable to me. No, I didn't feel sick because of it. I was simply aware. I guess it didn't help being on stilts (aka heels) because I felt like my balance was not quite right. As far as the movement, that slow rolling sensation, I loved that part. I like to feel the ship movements. It's just cool! As we got to the area near the theater there was a CM cleaning up a roped-off area of carpet where a little kid had just...well...not enjoyed the ship's movement all over the floor. And her mother. I asked Tracey if this is movement that makes people sick and he was like, "Haven't you seen the kids puking?" Nope. Apparently I wasn't paying enough attention. This was the third kid the hubby had seen not enjoying the ships movement since we'd been about this evening. Oh.

We stood waiting in line for Minnie for about 20 minutes. At this point we were all really HOT and miserable in our scratchy, uncomfortable clothes. If I said my feet were killing me by now I'd be lying. It was beyond that. I wanted to gnaw them off at the ankle myself. I was in PAIN. I tried to stay upbeat. I even occupied myself with taking a picture of my screaming hoofs and Chandler's feet:

You'll have to take my word for the fact we actually met Minnie and took pics in our torture attire. It totally showed how uncomfortable we were and the pictures all looked seriously "off". I didn't save even one of them. As soon as we took the Minnie pics we scooted straight out the side door out onto deck 4 to get some fresh air and cool off. There was some amount of sea spray every time the ship pitched downward on the starboard side but I didn't care. I had to get some relief. I plopped my butt onto a bench & pulled those evil shoes off my feet. The back of the left shoe had dug a hole in my leg that was nice and open. And bleeding. Ouch. I sat for a minute but the spray was kinda bad so Tracey pulled me back onto my bare feet to walk down to the next door (deck 4, starboard, midship). Every step I took on my bare feet made the ball of each foot feel like it was exploding. It freakin' HURT. Never have I felt that before. As we walked towards the door we passed another couple. Chandler got his panties all in a bunch because he overheard the lady say outloud after passing by me "She really shouldn't be wearing that..." I had to calm him down by reminding him she could've been talking about anyone, not just me. And, hello! I was carrying my glittery heels vs. wearing them. At this point I obviously agreed about the fact I shouldn't be wearing those things! But that's my boys for ya, ever the over-protective young fellas... **sigh**

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

I so wanted pics of us in our "finery" (fine what at this point was open for debate) with Mickey. The problem was there was no way I could get my hoofs back into those shoes just now and Mickey wasn't due out until 7:45. It was currently just after 6:00. Dang. We decided to go back to the stateroom to cool off and rest a bit. We'd get back out in time to line up for Mickey then hit dinner at Animator's at 8:15. No problem.

We got back to the stateroom and I carefully laid myself across the bed so I wouldn't mess up my dress. Or hair. Tracey sat nearby and studied the bridge report channel. The boys sat in the living room watching classic Disney toons. ((I loved the delight my boys took in watching the classic toons channel incessantly on this cruise!)) Tracey & I started talking about the evening and he was concerned about my feet as well as the nice little hole on the back of my left leg. We agreed we grossly overestimated the time it would take to get all those pics done. We were proud we scooted thru so fast but now sorry we had so long to wait. I don't know who's idea it was to even debate ditching the fancy clothes, kissing off the Mickey shot, and hitting the buffet for dinner. We immediately agreed it was a subject that required the family vote. We called the boys into the bedroom and explained it was vote time. We had just over an hour before we could leave to go line up for Mickey. We'd have to sit and wait here so I could rest my feet. Then we'd be able to proceed to dinner at Animator's. Or, we could change NOW back into our comfy clothes, skip Mickey, grab dinner at Topsiders, then go about our merry way(s) for the rest of the evening.

"Raise your hand if you want to wait it out, get the picture with Mickey, and go to the Main Dining Room for dinner."

Everyone just sat there looking at each other.

Then we all burst into rolls of laughter. LOL! I choked out, "What are we doing?! Lets get out of this crap and go eat! I'm starving!!!"

And THAT was the end of the fancy-pants for our little family. I'm proud. We lasted just over an HOUR! LOL!

Feelin' muuuuuch better I snapped a self-y with Chandler while we waited for Tracey to finish hanging up his penguin suit:

Silly boy! Don't you love yer Momma???

Brian wanted to get in on the love-fest, too:

We headed up to Topsiders to see what kinda goodness we could find. We were all pretty hungry and not feeling particularly picky. I tried to get a pic of the menu but failed miserably. Basically it's a sampling of the same stuff being served in the main dining rooms tonight:

Tracey and I both had the salad bar and porterhouse steak. No pic of the salad. That's not so interesting. The steak was pretty darned good:

We were good and skipped dessert. Well, maybe for just a little while. LOL!

Returned to the stateroom and found all our beds prepped for tonight's slumber. What towel critter did we get tonight??? A cool elephant! You can tell he's cool because he has to wear shaaaaaaades!

Of course, elephants make us think of none other than my big brother, Jerry aka obrienIII on these boards. He's a huuuuge Crimson Tide fan. Tracey showin' some love just for Jerry:

Jerry, all I gots ta say is, "RMFT, baby!" Woot! ((I'm so gettin' a phone call for that one...and prob'ly a shout-out here!))

As soon as we got back to the stateroom the boys were gone to Vibe for the evening. We didn't give them a curfew. We homeschool. This is their chance to flex their wings and fly solo. They had to follow the basic rules: no going in other staterooms for any reason and nobody comes into our stateroom for any reason. They have to stay in public places. If they stay out past closing time for the clubs they can hang around the public areas on deck. We figure if they're obnoxious or disruptive (which we totally don't see happening) they'll get sent back to their stateroom by the crew. So our boys were gone until.....

What's the old man & I to do with ourselves??? Well, we could go to the adult cabaret and Match Your Mate show (a take on the old Newlywed Game). Aaaaahhh...but laziness and relaxation win again! We opted to "borrow" a movie from the concierge and order room service goodies instead. We called Tawanda to "order" our dvd. The list, which was included in our concierge welcome folder, is really extensive! What did we settle on??? "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"! Tracey had never seen it. Can you believe that?! Tawanda was ringing our doorbell in no time and delivered our movie along with a bag of popcorn. Love the little touches! We invited him in for a visit so we all sat and enjoyed a wonderful conversation about family and life in our respective homes. So fascinating to hear about other cultures. Tawanda has an adorable 3 year old son. He showed us a video of him playing "football" (soccer to us) in a park. He soooo has his daddy's beaming smile! We also went ahead and had Tawanda cancel our Palo dinner reservation for the next night. We just weren't feelin' a 2+ hour dining experience. Neither of us wanted to eat that much anyway.

Once Tawanda was gone we called room service, threw on our jammies, popped in the dvd, and curled up in bed. Mickey's premium bars and soft cookies in bed with your sweetie. Life. Is. Fully. Awesome.

I also took some time to read over tomorrow's Navigator. Oh! And we had this little reminder waiting for us! Gotta set the clocks forward an hour since we crossed into the Eastern time zone:

We didn't even finish the whole movie! We were asleep by 11:00. Good golly we're pitiful! What about the boys??? Oh! Chandler came in around 12:30 a.m., Brian at 1:00 a.m. I only vaguely remember hearing Chandler come in. He said something about a new friend. I had to take Chandler's word for when Brian came in. I was dead asleep. I'm not the bestest momma right about now, huh?

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Mrs.Skellington said:
So ready for more!!!! Excited to read this and look at the amazing pictures

Thank you! I don't think my pics are that amazing. I kinda dropped the ball on my picture and note taking on this trip. I was so in the moment relaxing. LOL!

Disneyfalcon said:
You are good at drawing! Wow! I'm very impressed. Even chubby Goofy looks great!
We like the bridge report channel too. It's our go to channel when we aren't watching anything.
Yay! Gulf toes!!

Oh thank you, Tammy! I was/am so crazy proud of how Donald turned out. He actually looks Donald-ish! LOL!

Yep, bridge report channel is our go-to, also. I'd say 90% of the time that's where our tv was set. I tried to think of you and get toes shots. I just wasn't in my normal state of mind on this trip. I was like on cloud 9 completely seperated from my brain. LOL!

Pooh'sBuddy said:
^^^^^^awwwwww!^^^^^^^^

^^^^^^^^^^^awwwwwwww^^^^^^^^^^
Love it!

Sumrdog · Jan 31, 2013

I am so excited to read your trip report! We are doing this same cruise in March which I think I already told you when I was asking you about Galveston...
And a good Momma gives there kiddos freedom to test their boundaries, seems like a ship is the perfect place for that! Can't wait to read more!

PolynesianPrincess · Jan 31, 2013

YAY another SweetPee adventure!! But how on Earth am I supposed to finish writing my TR from SEPTEMBER when you're posting this?! haha.

You all look FABULOUS in your formal wear. Sorry your feet got so sore!

I know whenever I do pageants where I have to wear them for 8+ hours during rehersals, interviews and then the pageant itself, I'm ready to rip my feet off at the end of the night. But I can luckily rock a pair of heels out dancing when I go out with my friends. My feet must have built up a little tolerence for pain!! lol

Your drawings of Goofy and onald are great!! You have a talent for drawing for sure! I'm sure if I attempted to draw either of them mine would come out looking like a lumpy sack of potatoes with eyes and a hat! ZERO artistic ability here!!

Can't wait to read more!!!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Sunday, January 20 - At-Sea Day Love All Around!

Even with the time adjustment we were up at 7:30. Guess that happens when you go to sleep early. I took me another soak in my tub then we hit Topsiders for breakfast again. I think Chandler may have joined us for breakfast. Brian, I'm sure, slept thru. Muesli with strawberries and fresh fruit for me. And coffee. Can I say how much I freakin' love not making my own coffee every day??? Yeah, it's Nes-Crappe but I didn't have to make it. Happy in spite of the blech!

After breakfast Chandler was gone, Brian was up, and he had disappeared, too. No problem. We took a leisurely stroll. We passed by the art gallery area to admire some artwork. Last night we had seen half a dozen little kids here running their hands excitedly and roughly over the surfaces of the paintings. Made me cringe. I know that's bad but it's hard for me knowing what I would've done if my boys had touched a painting even gingerly with 1 finger at those ages. Ugh! So here's some art pics. I liked the Brave pieces:

Pixar pieces! Ever a favorite:

So colorful!

Still my favorite although Tracey has a point. Wouldn't it be sweeter if they'd done something this amazing but with Ellie & Carl when they were younger and happy together?

This would so be a perfect gift to give a BFF:

These would make great pieces for a big kitchen and/or breakfast area:

I'm not a fan of Thomas Kinkade overall but this piece I don't mind. I like that Ray is there but where is Louis???

So romantical with all the hearts...heart balloon, swan heart, trees heart, heart in the clouds....

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Love the cruisin' love:

Then we strolled a lap around deck 4 being mindful to step to the side when runners were passing. We passed thru the shops, too. I needed to get a mini-first aid kit to doctor the hole in my leg from those evil shoes. They look all awesome with their glittery glory but don't let that fool you. Those bad boys were mean to me! Oh! And we spent a few minutes admiring the gorgeous Sophia Fiori diamond jewelry that was being showcased. I was very careful to point out that as much as I liked the stuff I'd rather have something simpler and more "me" if I was to get any new jewelry. Had to be sure to kill any ideas the hubby might have had. That stuff was pricey! Even with a generous "offer" like this...

...a $13k ring still comes out to be pretty pricey even by my standards!

I mean, think about that! How many cruises can you do for $13k??? This is precisely why I'm still wearing my bargain-basement little diamond that I got after being married for 9 years. Every time I look at "upgrading" I see that glittery little rock in contrast to all the adventures I could take with my guys. I'll take the adventures, thank you.

Love the window displays outside the shops. Ever a favorite:

When I took this I was noticing the stickers on the suitcases. I've stayed at 3 out of 4 of those resorts!

Headed from the shops towards the forward elevators. Notice the floor indicators over each elevator:

When we returned to our stateroom we found a surprise on our door! One of our Fish Extender Gifts was Mickey's parts magnets! I love it!

Goofy6294 · Jan 31, 2013

Tuning in! Great TR so far!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Sumrdog said:
I am so excited to read your trip report! We are doing this same cruise in March which I think I already told you when I was asking you about Galveston...
And a good Momma gives there kiddos freedom to test their boundaries, seems like a ship is the perfect place for that! Can't wait to read more!

I have all the Navigators scanned as .pdf's if you want them! Lemme know! I can email them!

We tend to think the ships are a great place for the boys to test their boundaries. We've worked tirelessly at imparting them with good working brains. After a certain point you have to let go and let them us what you've given them. We've also explained about the not-so-magical things that have happened to other young people on cruise ships (assaults) and how keeping their guard up is so important. And they have to watch out for each other, too. They do really well. I'd say at least 85% of the time if you ask one of the boys where the other is he can tell you with certainty. The other 15% of the time they will find out for you within 5 minutes. It's a team thing!

derelicte19 said:
YAY another SweetPee adventure!! But how on Earth am I supposed to finish writing my TR from SEPTEMBER when you're posting this?! haha.

You all look FABULOUS in your formal wear. Sorry your feet got so sore! I know whenever I do pageants where I have to wear them for 8+ hours during rehersals, interviews and then the pageant itself, I'm ready to rip my feet off at the end of the night. But I can luckily rock a pair of heels out dancing when I go out with my friends. My feet must have built up a little tolerence for pain!! lol

Your drawings of Goofy and onald are great!! You have a talent for drawing for sure! I'm sure if I attempted to draw either of them mine would come out looking like a lumpy sack of potatoes with eyes and a hat! ZERO artistic ability here!!

Can't wait to read more!!!

LOL! Well, I'm sorta guilty of ignoring other people's reports with all our trip prepping and now reporting. Don't feel bad! I'm more of a schmuck than YOU! LOL!

Thank you for the sweet compliment. I was perplexed as to why I didn't tolerate the shoes better. I wore them around the house to get used to them before the cruise. I know I've read about the phenomenon of swelling while cruising. Maybe that paired with Mother Nature's wrath threw me a bit too far. I'm just not sure what the deal was. Either I was that swollen already, I'm a total wuss when it comes to heels, or I chose the WRONG shoes for my hoofs. I don't know how you do it! Dance?! In those shoes?! Good Lord! Now THAT would be a comedy show to behold! An adult comedy show at that with all the swearin' I'd be doin'! LOL!

The animation classes are cool! They walk you thru the whole process line by line. It's really very easy when broken down like that. No erasers, tho! Gotta be light and fluid with your pencil. It all comes together in the end. I bet you would really amaze yourself!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Goofy6294 said:
Tuning in! Great TR so far!

Thank you! We're not even halfway thru this bad boy yet!!!

Disneyfalcon · Jan 31, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Oh! My toes goes to the show!!! I'm a poet & didn't know it! Bwaaahahahahaaaaa!!!!

Oh. My. Word.

You took Walt Disney Theater toes?!!! That is unbelievably awesome!! Those are the best toes ever!!!

Although I do love those dress up toes too. THANK YOU!!

I also love that you voted to skip the fancy dinner. Too funny. But perfect that you all did what you really wanted to do. Especially since you had to get those awful (but gorgeous) shoes off!

You all looked gorgeous!

sweetpee_1993 said:
...a $13k ring still comes out to be pretty pricey even by my standards! I mean, think about that! How many cruises can you do for $13k??? This is precisely why I'm still wearing my bargain-basement little diamond that I got after being married for 9 years. Every time I look at "upgrading" I see that glittery little rock in contrast to all the adventures I could take with my guys. I'll take the adventures, thank you.

I am the same way. Partly because I don't like jewelry and don't wear it, but I don't ever want to spend money on it. My diamond came out of my wedding ring about 14 years ago, and I went 7 years without replacing it. I just didn't want to spend all that money on a diamond! I'd much rather spend it on memories.

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Disneyfalcon said:
Oh. My. Word.

You took Walt Disney Theater toes?!!! That is unbelievably awesome!! Those are the best toes ever!!!

Although I do love those dress up toes too. THANK YOU!!

I had visions of being totally flamed for propping my bare feet on the seat in front of me to get the theater toes pic. You never know how those things will go over sometimes. I kept my feet clean, tho. I swear! I don't have funky smells or weird secretions. Just my un-nasty footsies. LOL!

Disneyfalcon said:
I also love that you voted to skip the fancy dinner. Too funny. But perfect that you all did what you really wanted to do. Especially since you had to get those awful (but gorgeous) shoes off!

You all looked gorgeous!

We so overestimated how long pics would take and were so hungry. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I think it's important when traveling to be prepared to change gears in spite of your best laid plans when it's called for. How miserable would the pic with Mickey have been if we were starving to death, grumpy from a long wait, and uncomfortable still in the fancy clothes??? That would've been a disaster of monumental proportions! We did the right thing. And we were all happy with the decision. No regrets!

Disneyfalcon said:
I am the same way. Partly because I don't like jewelry and don't wear it, but I don't ever want to spend money on it. My diamond came out of my wedding ring about 14 years ago, and I went 7 years without replacing it. I just didn't want to spend all that money on a diamond! I'd much rather spend it on memories.

Um yeah! We've talked about the same thing with furniture before. ((Although I did finally crack and buy a new sofa & chair when we moved last summer.)) I'd rather stick with what I have for lots of things (car, furniture, bedding, clothes, jewelry, etc.) even if it's not the nicest, newest, or fanciest and use the money towards more memories. It's all in what you value, I suppose. To me nothing is worth more than adventures with my family. That's the stuff we'll be talking about 25 years from now...not how nice my car was or how awesome my jewelry was. Right?

Sumrdog · Jan 31, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
I have all the Navigators scanned as .pdf's if you want them! Lemme know! I can email them!

We tend to think the ships are a great place for the boys to test their boundaries. We've worked tirelessly at imparting them with good working brains. After a certain point you have to let go and let them us what you've given them. We've also explained about the not-so-magical things that have happened to other young people on cruise ships (assaults) and how keeping their guard up is so important. And they have to watch out for each other, too. They do really well. I'd say at least 85% of the time if you ask one of the boys where the other is he can tell you with certainty. The other 15% of the time they will find out for you within 5 minutes. It's a team thing!

Thank you I would love to see the Navigators, I just sent you a little message! You are the best!

I too am trying to give my kids "good working brains" I think its my number one goal as a parent!

You looked beautiful in your dress, such a bummer about those adorable shoes...

Disney_Belle · Jan 31, 2013

Loving this report Kelly! And I think your Goofy and Donald were awesome

Pooh'sBuddy · Jan 31, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Sailing out of Galveston was so great. No traveling. It was wonderful. If you're going to do it, tho, better do it quick. The Magic will be in Galveston thru early May then the Wonder will come over in later September. She'll only be here until the end of the year. We've been hearing some of the last Wonder sailings out of Galveston are in danger of being cancelled. Once the end of the year rolls around there are no more Galveston sailings on the schedules so it's this year or bust. Just an FYI for ya!

We've got eight days at WDW in June, so a cruise won't happen.

We'll see what happens in a few years.

Love y'all's fancy pants! You looked beautiful! Sorry those ped-torture devices were so painful.

fractal · Jan 31, 2013

You have some artistic talent there Kelly. Nice drawings!

You and your family looked great in the formal wear. Sorry to hear about the shoes.

The story about "going casual" is hilarious! As someone that usually wears a suit for work, I try to avoid it any other time.

Catching up on the rest...

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Sumrdog said:
Thank you I would love to see the Navigators, I just sent you a little message! You are the best!

I too am trying to give my kids "good working brains" I think its my number one goal as a parent!

You looked beautiful in your dress, such a bummer about those adorable shoes...

I'll get those Navigators to you tonight. When Tracey gets home in an hour or so we're going to see his Dad (more on that later in the report) so it may be later tonight but I'll be sure to get it done.

Seriously, all we can do as parents is try our bestest to impart our offspring with the best, most complete set of tools we can manage. After a certain point what's done is done. Once the kiddos hit that "I'm __ years old, I know everything" there's very little adding to the tool collection that can happen because they are convinced they have it all already. You're skating on what they've got to this point. Right?

Thanks for the compliment. I love that dress. I love the shoes, too. They're so glittery and pretty! Funny they didn't bother me one bit in the store or at home. So odd!

Disney_Belle said:
Loving this report Kelly! And I think your Goofy and Donald were awesome

Awwww...thank you and thank you! ((((smooooooch))))

Pooh'sBuddy said:
We've got eight days at WDW in June, so a cruise won't happen. We'll see what happens in a few years.

Love y'all's fancy pants! You looked beautiful! Sorry those ped-torture devices were so painful.

I'm hoping DCL will come back to Galveston again in a few years. It'd be nice. For now we're oober happy to have had the opportunity to cruise so close to home and definitely considering the other lines/ships that sail out of both Galveston and (later this year) the Houston ports. One of the families the boys met that had more than one teenager, too, is fairly closeby in Austin. We chatted their parents up on the last night of the cruise and definitely have plans to get the families together soon. They mentioned sailing the Carnival Magic out of Galveston in January 2014. I wouldn't be opposed to that ship. It's big, new, and has a full waterpark on top. Sounds like a winner to me!

fractal said:
You have some artistic talent there Kelly. Nice drawings!

You and your family looked great in the formal wear. Sorry to hear about the shoes.

The story about "going casual" is hilarious! As someone that usually wears a suit for work, I try to avoid it any other time.

Catching up on the rest...

Thanks, Chris! I do love to draw...and paint...etc. etc. I'm also terribly tender-hearted so all my best pieces I made throughout my life I've given away as gifts. It's part of what drives me. When I'm working on something my mind fixates on who it's for and how much I adore that person. These 2 little sketches were fun and simply for me to play. If they ever go to anyone other than me it'd be Tracey just because he's part of the memory. Awwww...I'm such a softy....

Yeah, I think I'd be a terrible socialite. I'm just too laid back. I always marvel at how nice we can all look when we put forth the effort but in the end it feels so NOT us. Sad. So sad. I know!

When You Wish Upon A Star...POOF your teens vanish!

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