Good-bye to Grandma Pink & Pappy @ SLC Airport; snacking on delicious PB&J mid-flight

Grandma & Pappy took us to the airport on Sunday, 8/29. We left our house by 10:30 am, and with our curbside drop-off and SkyCap we were able to roam the terminal for about 30 minutes before boarding our plane. Perfect. I did cause quite a ruckus through security though. SLC is one of the International airports that has full body scanners at their security check-point, and most people don't know that they are still optional. I flatly objected the full body scanner and directly Lovey & the girls to go through the traditional metal detector. One FFA employee noted my objection, and after making me state that "I object to entering the full body scanner" three times (!!) he escorted me through the traditional metal detector - with it alarming because of all of his metal - and into a glass compartment where I waited for a female attendant. Becca & Mary-Gail were nervous and Mary-Gail tried to open the door to let me out. But within 5minutes I was cleared with security - after receiving a full-body pat-down - and we were off w/o any problems.

Our flight to LA was wonderful. Mary-Gail & Rebecca were such good little passengers. JoJo gave them little presents (TinkerBell drawing pads and snacks - THANK YOU!) while Lovey and I kept sharing, "This is going to be so much fun!" glances. Becca's ears were "clogged " (as she put it) during the decent into LAX, and they wouldn't pop. Her ears hurt her so much she was in tears! Poor thing. Yawning, plugging/blowing her nose, and even gum chewing didn't help her. But Becca was a good sport, and our fellow passengers couldn't help but smile when they saw me and her doing exaggerated yawns for every breath we took during our decent. And then viola! "Hey, Mom, my ears aren't clogged anymore." Thank heavens.

Just the beginning of our adventure...

Getting from the airport to the pier was no problem - some crazy man walked up to Tony and said, "Where you going? I take you. No problem - I take you. You don't wait for Taxi - I take you." And Tony said..."OK." What?! Needless to say we made the 45 minute drive in one piece, both girls fell asleep on me in the back of his Subaru Legacy (I settled down, too, after he turned his radio on, which was tuned to NPR w/the program "Prairie Home Companion" playing). And then....we boarded the boat!!!

Overlooking the Promenade Deck, Deck 5

Aboard the big boat! Music was blasting and the girls instinctively started dancing

(P.S. they don't get those dancing instincts from me)

This was view from at end of the hallway from our room

The girls called this the "Party" because it was always hopping with people & music

Our room was on Deck 6 Forward (front of boat), Room 6202. We had a h u g e window and we were dead center of the front of the ship. It was awesome! Our room attendant, Mr. Lukmann, was from the Philippines and absolutely loved the girls. He said he had two girls too, one was four years old and the other was turning two the end of September. (I learned later that he would not be reunited with his family until the end of November! So Sad). Becca & Mary-Gail loved telling Mr. Lukmann about their room - as if he didn't know what it looked like - but he entertained their excitement just as well.

Helicopter pad

We did what all cruise guests do after finding their rooms and unloading for a brief minute - we toured the ship, did the mandatory Muster meeting, and then hit the buffet. Let's just say I gained 11 pounds in one week - ick. However, it wasn't all from the food (I didn't care much for it really), but they had milk. I drowned myself in milk: luscious, creamy, thick, fatty, Vitamin D milk. Let's see...for starters at breakfast, I had four cartons (and finished Becca's & Mary-Gail's), and it was downhill from there. Last cruise I lost 2 pounds; this cruise I gained 11! But last cruise the milk wasn't free, and I love "free."

One grouchy watermelon

This is how I feel now - bloated, grumpy, and insanely mad about those 11 pounds

Becca saw the pools and wanted to do nothing else but swim. She woke up every morning @ 7am, "Daddy let's go swimming." We have pictures of her swimming at 8:30 am (I insisted that we first have breakfast saying, "We need energy to swim," {and Momma needs her 6 cartons of 150 calorie/70 fat calorie each Vitamin D milk}) and pictures of us swimming @ 9:30 pm. It was heaven for the girls.

Becca was completely focused on blowing up her Dora float. Her sole mission on the boat was to go swimming every second she could. We were happy to oblige