Oasis of the Seas - Day 1

Sunday, March 4, 2018
Embarkation Day


Arrival to the ship starts about 11am, so we knew we had time this morning to take it easy and not rush. Good thing too, 'cause after breakfast Will told us he didn't end up re-packing the pants he un-packed Friday, so we had to run to the store. Then we drove to the terminal, dropped off our luggage, parked and headed for the check-in process. The adventure begins!

Quick pic before leaving the hotel

Arriving at the port. I have some great video of the kids seeing the ship on the drive in. It's huge!

We made it on the Oasis of the Seas!! The Royal Promenade was beautiful. Got a pic of the kids by the car then headed toward our room to drop off our carry-ons but they weren't yet ready. So we toured the ship instead.

 You could see down into Central Park from the Lido deck! So cool. It was super windy up there. Look at the kids just making themselves at home already, taking off their shoes and relaxing...
This was the last we saw of Jake's blanket for several days. He left it there somewhere and we realized later but it was already gone when we came back. I called/stopped by guest services and by mid week it made its way up from lost and found.

I wanted to get lunch before we boarded the ship so we wouldn't have to worry about feeding the kids until dinner and we could just enjoy exploring, but it didn't work out that way. After our room opened, we grabbed some pizza at Sorrento's which was amazing! We ate there several times through the week. Then we registered the kids for Adventure Ocean. And at sometime during all this, we danced on the Lido deck and got soft serve. Surprisingly, I didn't take pics our first night at dinner, but I guess I was too busy enjoying things. Great day and a great start to our trip!!

The road to Florida is long

But worth it when it leads to a cruise vacation!

We're so incredibly blessed and excited to take the kids on their first cruise!  Last summer I found a kids sail free promotion, showed Daniel and he said definitely book it. You have until 90 days before departure to cancel free and clear so there wasn't much to lose. I did consider cancelling it but Daniel was pumped about going, so we did! We finally told this kids in early January and began our countdown. I packed little by little the week leading up to our departure then the day arrived!

We left Saturday, March 3rd early in the morning (around 6am) and drove the whole day. We warned our kids ahead of time we'd be in the car All Day and they did a pretty good job. Proud of our little road travelers.

Now, I did want to leave Friday and split the drive in half- I find long drives more manageable that way- since we departed from Port Canaveral, I also wanted to take the kids to the Kennedy Space Museum. We haven't quite studied the history of that time period, but we did review Kennedy during our president study this year and also studied space and astronomy the first semester. So it would've been a really nice field trip/learning experience. And it's not like we're in Cape Canaveral every day. However, even with half the drive on Saturday, we wouldn't have much time at the museum so the cost outweighed the benefit.

Anyway! We left Saturday morning around 6am, I drove the first leg and we arrived in Macon, GA where we met friends for lunch around, well lunchtime. :) Getting through Atlanta took some time, of course but the kids enjoyed eating, stretching their legs and playing at Chick-Fil-A. The stop was about an hour then we got back on the road.

We reached the hotel about 7:30 Eastern time, 6:30 central, so we made pretty good time. Grabbed a bite for dinner and burned some energy in our hotel room. Tomorrow is a big day!

February

I took like 5 pictures the whole month of February... at least on my camera and I'm not very good at remembering to upload them from my phone. Anyway, despite the pictures or lack thereof, February was a very busy month.

There was PNO, Superhero Sunday & Superbowl party, bringing dinner to friends, Wednesday night bible study, Valentines Day, "field trip" with friends to Sky High, my aunt Cheri visiting, having friends over, Will had a solo, AND I volunteered at the consignment sale this time around. I worked several shifts which gets you a shopping credit and waived fees, so I'm trying to maximize my consignment profit. :) SO it was busy.

Here's a few pics from this month:

Maggie lost a top tooth! 

 Valentine puzzle from school above and lounging around below. :) Love my cuties!

Will's Bike

And just like that it was warm! After the snow and everything being shut down all week, we woke up to pretty warm temps Saturday. Welcome to the south. Perfect day for Will to get out and ride his new bike! I'm so glad we finally got him a bike, he's needed one for a couple years but kept choosing to buy other things for his birthday present. Now that he's 10 and has a little more freedom in where he can ride, it's good timing.

I feel like a Yeti

I mean, not really. But we did get two snowfalls within a few days of each other and everything shut down. Yep, it snowed again Monday the 15th which was already a holiday-- MLK -- but temperatures stayed pretty low the next couple days so there wasn't much chance of things melting. And really only the main roads are salted and driven heavily enough to make tracks.

Again, I was not about to bundle up all my kids, especially after they proved me right a few days earlier with the short lived snow adventure. On Tuesday, though, the boys wanted to go out and I said okay, but they were getting themselves dressed. I mean, they do anyway, it's just I wasn't going to rummage around and find several items that could be layered upon layers. And if they're only out a short time, it's not necessary anyway.

Jake took a short break after a snowball to the face, but I got him back out and they played a little while longer. Then Wednesday Will came up with a fun game of sledding down the driveway on skateboards. I love when he comes up with fun, creative games for his siblings. :)

Will was very upset we still did school work all week, but there was no point taking time off. So we weren't affected too much except our tutorial was cancelled two Fridays in a row and church one Sunday, which was a bummer for Maggie especially. We still had cabin fever though, at least I did, and even found a limit to pajama days. :)

First Snow

It snowed Friday, Jan. 12th and of course schools were cancelled, including our Friday tutorial. I didn't even bother letting the kids out in the snow because it takes so long to get them bundled up for such a short time spent outside. I used the day to catch up and/or get ahead in a couple subjects.

Saturday morning I caved because who doesn't let their kids play in the snow? It's not like we get much here in the south. So, I bundled everyone up in multiple layers, including myself so I could go out with them. And whaddayaknow.... they were outside for about 10 minutes. I was walking around with Maggie, from back to front and by the time we got back, Jake & Allie had gone in. *Sigh. I love my kids and am glad to spend some time with doing special things like playing in the snow, just seems like it should last longer.

 Fresh snow before the tracks. Then the littles came out and went straight to snow angels. Allie didn't care for it much and moved on to the swingset.

 Maggie enjoyed making an angel then 'eating' the snow before we started our trek through the snow

The tracks Maggie and I made walking toward the front of the house. This was the short walk we made where we returned to no children because they ran inside. It was still fun and everyone warmed up by the fire when we came in. Sweet times with my kiddos.