Day Two Cruisin'

We were at sea all day so it gave us plenty of time to explore the ship! Breakfast was one of the highlights everyday!  I think each of the kids had two donuts everyday.  After breakfast, the older kids wanted to go see "Wreck It Ralph" in 3D.  We took advantage of having a movie theater on board!  Kendra wanted to stay and make crafts in the Oceaner's Club, which worked out for all of us.  Jax spent a few hours in his club too.  

 Kendra with one of her crafts she made!

After lunch we went to Deck 10 and spent some time at the basketball court.  Goofy came and lead an exercise program.  Even Jaxson loved that, although he would not loosen his grip on his ball.

The kids pool was a little crowded, but that didn't stop them from swimming!

 Kara and Tanner loved the all you can eat ice cream!  They would stand in line get a cone and get right back in line to get another, as you can see Kara in the picture is still finishing her first cone!

Jaxson could not swim in the pool because he wasn't potty trained which was a bummer.  They had a splash pad for the little ones, which he was totally happy with!

Cruisin'

We were all excited to go on the cruise, and it didn't disappoint!  Tanner now wants to live on a cruise ship, he can't stop talking about it and wants to go on another tomorrow!  Barry and I decided it will be another couple of years before we do that again, when Jax is Kendra's age it will all be much easier.  Barry's parents came along with us and they were great company to have!  

As we entered the ship they announced "We welcome the Acor Family;" and then they all clapped for us as we walked by...that was quite the welcome!

All the kids (except for Jax who loved the basketball hoop) agreed that their favorite part was the kids clubs they had on the ship, they had all kinds of activities and games and kept them entertained!

Everglades

Sunday we got up and went to church.  At church we had to wear head phones for translation because the ward we went to had half of their meeting in Spanish and half in English, there were only a handful of people who were not bilingual.

We headed to the Everglades Sunday afternoon.  It is one of my favorite places.  It is so neat to see all the wildlife!  

Kendra learning about the difference between crocodiles and alligators.

When we got back to the apartment we were all starving.  Kendra wanted some easy mac, we put it in the microwave to cook but forgot to add the water.  All of the sudden we could smell something burning, we opened the microwave and saw that the macaroni was black and smoking.  Luckily the smoke detectors were not working because the apartment filled with smoke.  Barry took the microwave out on the patio to try to get the smoke out.  Oops!

Seaquarium

The morning started off a little crazy!  Jaxson threw the TV remote off the balcony and it landed in the pool.  A guy was down there and fished it out of the pool for us, then tossed it up to us to dry out.

We headed to the Miami Seaquarium!  The Seaquarium was another place we frequented back in the day, but Barry never had the chance to come with us because he was always studying. After watching the dolphin show the kids wanted to get a picture with the dolphin. Kara actually wrote that down as one of her goals at the beginning of the year, so she was extremely excited. Kendra on the other hand wasn't too sure, especially when she was the one that got to sit by the dolphins mouth. It took some persuasion for her to touch the dolphin, but she finally gave a one finger split second touch!  The kids also played in a water playground pirate ship and got soaked (except for Jax who didn't care for the water).  Later at the Sea Lion show the kids sat in the splash zone and one of the sea lions sprayed them with a hose!  

When we got home to the apartment Tanner, Kara and Kendra put on their own show!

Sunny Florida!

It was an early morning heading to the airport, but it all went smoothly. Once on the airplane, Barry got to be doctor for about an hour at the back of the plane. Luckily all the kids fell asleep for part of the ride, Tanner and Kara both used the people sitting next to them as pillows, which they were horrified to learn when they woke up. It was amazing to get to sunny Florida! There was a recording playing on the bus we rode to get our rental car that said, "Have a Sunsational Day!" We rented a big Ford Expedition that would fit all of us, including Barry's parents who were coming in that night. Right away we decided to hit the beach on Key Biscayne! We all had fun in the sun and sand! Barry, Tanner and Kara got all the way in and did so swimming. I was content hanging out with Jaxson and Kendra in the shallow water. We started to get hungry so we headed to the Dadeland Vista apartments that we lived in back when Barry first started Med School. Nothing about them had changed in the past eight years! It was fun to show Tanner and Kara all the places in Miami that we used to frequent, like Walls Ice Cream where Tanner's picture was still hanging on the wall. He even tried to recreate it, but luckily he didn't get quite as blue as he did back in the day! Miami was a little bit of a culture shock and the kids picked up that everyone around them was speaking Spanish. When Tanner was little we told him that he would go around the store saying, "Hola Amigo!" The kids tried to speak Spanish to each other, but it sounded more like Chinese than Spanish.

It's Hard to Say Goodbye!

Saying goodbye is tough. We had a nice time visiting with a lot of the great friends we have in Janesville before we moved. On our last day, Barry and I worked hard to have everything ready to go when the kids got home from school. Jaxson had spent the day with Bethany and Leigh so we could get everything accomplished, which we were so grateful for. The girls came home from school to an empty house and Kendra was bawling. She kept saying, "I'll have more tears for later. I just will miss this house and all the memories we've had here." She made me take pictures of all the rooms in the house so she can remember. The others were sad too, but ready for our vacation. Kellie took us to the bus station in a bad snow storm, where we had to wait for the late bus. We took the bus to the airport where we then had to catch a shuttle to the hotel we were staying at. We ended up catching the wrong shuttle to a hotel we didn't have reservations at, so Barry just got a taxi for us to ride in to the right hotel. We finally had pizza delivered around 9:30 and called it a night! Kara and Haley hanging out one last time before the move.

Bronze

Our Neighbor Jeremy Lade just got back from the London Paralympics for Wheelchair Basketball! He won a bronze medal! We were all so excited for him. He was so nice to show us his medal and let us try it on...the kids were so excited they had to print their pictures out to show their classes! Tanner is going to get an autograph from his new hero! We are lucky to have such great neighbors!