First day grade 1 and 4!

When I was a kid it was freezing on the first day of school.  Here in Ontario it is sometimes still extremely boiling! What a treat to bring the girls to the same school for the first time! Rose was a bit nervous as it was a new school for her, but she did well on the first day.

Last night Disney.

As soon as we set sail away from Castaway Cay (after they played all of the ships horns in a long sequence, and I missed most of them as I was frantically speed walking down the hall from the spa, trying to make it back in time), the ship set sail back to Port Canaveral.  What a sad feeling.  Also what an anxious feeling...the captain made an announcement as we set sail that the hurricanes (not sure where they were as I had no internet), were very far away but we might feel the ship rocking more than usual.  I already felt the ships movements disturbingly rocky at night when I was laying still in bed, so I felt a bit panicky about this.  All staff said they could not feel the ship moving ever, FYI, so I was probably just overly sensitive. And oddly enough I found that night to be the least rocky of the entire cruise.

But anyway, as the ship set sail back to port Canaveral we got ready for our final dinner and tried to pack up the rest of our stuff. (Clearly not everything as we left behind a few special souvenirs...so sad). We had to skip the final stage show in order to make sure we got to bed on time.  Henry didn't nap and we knew we had to be in the restaurant for breakfast around 6:30am.

Leading up to the cruise I was so over the top excited.  We spent months looking at you tube videos and researching what it would be like.  Rose was almost excited as me, and when we were eating our final breakfast in the restaurant she was crying.  She didn't want to leave.  She still watches some of the videos (more than 3 months later), that we used to watch leading up to our trip.  It was truly a really fun time.  Sure there are always things that happen when you have 3 kids (hyper behaviour, craziness, the fact that we had to force them to go to the kids club, henry getting sick), but overall it was so much fun.  I felt like I would be sadder getting off the ship, but I think I really made an effort to appreciate and not take for granted all of the time we spent on the ship.  So it didn't go by too quickly.  And now we just have to wait 393 days from the time of this blog post until the next cruise! Woohoo! I'm really looking forward to trying a cruise in the winter as all 3 of our cruises have been in the summer.  I have to admit it was nice coming back to summer.  But when it's winter it will be fun to see how it goes when we are freezing at home and venture into the warm!

After we got back from the cruise we only had a few days and then school started.  I think for Rose it was the biggest adjustment as we came off a fun family trip and she was switching schools and having to make new friends.  It definitely was a bit of a culture shock.  

The Last day of the Cruise

I'm not sure I had ever looked so boiling hot in my entire life as when I finished the race.  As Mike was not rough like me, I sent him to get the kids from the kids club as it was probably a kilometre away.  It took them quite a while to make it back, so I just rested on a beach chair and people watched. I was also taking in the sights of the extremely choppy waters breaking at the edge of the reef (hurricanes on route but did not interrupt our trip!).  All excursions were cancelled for the day, but luckily we didn't have anything booked.  There is more than enough to do there anyway.  Once the kids got there we went for some swimming and lunch.  They had a huge buffet on the island, including some chewy mouth watering cookies.  Afterwards we put 2 and 2 together--the restaurant was called "Cookies", and further down the island was "Cookies 2".  Now it all makes sense.  We had a great lunch and fun swimming.  Although with the stormy seas the water clarity was really reduced.  The girls and Mike tried to snorkel but couldn't see much.  I'm sure the water is usually crystal clear. I spent a long time hoping that Henry would have a nap on the beach chair, and he did lie there quietly for a long time, but unfortunately didn't sleep! Had it not been so boiling  hot it would have been fun to check out the shops and take the kids to the water slide.  I think we were all happy to just stay in one spot though! 

You can see Henry with his tongue sticking out in the one photo.  All of the kids had their first experience with salt water on this trip.  Having a pool at home means they are in the water constantly, so the salt was a bit of a shock! (One amazing thing though--the salt water completely cured the girls of their green hair problem! Although when we got home and everyone started swimming in the pool again, it was green again.)

Castaway Cay is really great though.  You just walk right off the ship onto the beach, which you can't do anywhere else.  Its a good thing it's the last port though--it was super easy to bring the kids here and probably the best port day for them.   I should also mention that Castaway Cay is a private Disney island that they lease from the Bahamas...so that's the general direction that it's in.  

Castaway Cay 5K!

Well, that was interesting.  I had heard about the Castaway Cay 5k run via pinterest way back in the winter.  I told Mike that he should totally do it since he was already an avid runner.  I would go on the occasional run, but nowhere near 5k, and I figured I would have to watch the kids anyway.  Well I discovered that there is a kids club on the island that all runners check their kids into before beginning the run.  I thought about it for a few minutes and figured, "ok great! Sign me up! This way I can train all summer to run a 5k on September 2! No problem!"

Well, as life goes on, I only ever make it up to running just over 3k in the summer.  I run with Scout, it's boiling hot in southern ontario, and I have 3 kids at home.  Not super conducive to training all summer long.  I'm not a great runner, and 3k is an amazing accomplishment for me.  But anyway, Mike says not to worry it'll be ok and you can just run really slow.  I already run at snail pace, but I figure I can just take a walking break half way and just use the crowd and Mike as a motivation to keep going.  

In the morning we have a good breakfast to charge us up and then go get our numbers.  You can tell there are clearly some serious runners in this crowd.  Not to mention they don't even advertise the run on the cruise at all.  You just have to know about it through word of mouth, or through the RunDisney website.  As soon as the boat is docked the runners get to get off the ship first.  This actually worked out super awesome because on route to the starting line we dropped off our stuff in a prime location on the beach in the shade.  But I'm getting ahead of myself--first we step off the ship and are hit with a blast of intense heat and humidity.  It couldn't have been any cooler than 40 degrees celsius.  "This was a big mistake", I say.  As we make our way to the starting line after dropping the kids off (at what looked like a super awesome kids club with a splash park in it), I couldn't stop thinking about the route the lady had told us about when they prepped us for the run. Two laps though the bike path and down the full blazing sun air strip.  ie. no shade at all.  

So we start running.  I have my Cruise playlist which is actually quite motivating, but after running about 100 meters I was dying.  To make a long and painful story short, it took us 45 minutes.  This was my estimate, and it was spot on.  Crazy freakish runners were lapping us.  I can't even say I ran half of it.  After lap 1 I totally wanted to give up (plus I had to go to the washroom so badly....not sure how i didn't just sweat out all the water I was consuming), but I so desperately wanted to get my first ever medal of my entire life so I kept going.  Poor mike could have ran the whole thing but I held him back big time!! 

The funny thing is that as we finished the race I was thinking about how I would never do that again in my entire life!! But as time passed and I got hydrated and in my bathing suit in the ocean, the runner's high kicked in, and I started thinking, "As long as we go in the winter when it's cooler, I'd totally do that again!".  So next time I'm aiming for a better time!! And to run more vs. walking! Well, I say that now, but maybe I'll chicken out... I mean I already have a medal.  

Last sea day!

I was confused when I tried to compile this day of photos.  I guess we didn't take too many photos this day as it was a pretty chilled out day.  A lot of this day was spent with me trying to rebook our next Disney Cruise (typical me).  Well not really spent TRYING to rebook it.  More like THINKING of rebooking it.  The rebooking special was just to good to pass up.  So while the girls were playing a detective game and running all over the ship I just told them I would be casually waiting by the vacation desk, and I happened to line up and talk to the man at the same time.  So I decided to stop thinking about it and just do it so I could get on with my day.  He gave me a form to sign and drop in a box.  That was it. Easy peasy, Disney Cruise 2018 here we come!

Henry gazing down lovingly at Tiana and yelling "TIANA!! TIANA!!"

One of the times we went to drop off kids at the kids club and had a drink at the bar mid afternoon.  The kids were never asking to go to the club so we always had to force them, even though they seemed to have fun.  Next time we'll use the kids club more.  Henry absolutely had to nap this time to make it up to 10:00 every night.  That sometimes limited us from the club as we were also trying to do the family activities.

As sad as it was we started to pack up some of our stuff (sniff) since the next day was a really early morning and long day on Castaway Cay.

Ciao, the maitre D took this photo after our last meal at Enchanted Garden.

We went to see a family variety show straight after dinner.  The man was juggling, and for some reason he had M & M's in his act.  All of the kids were sitting on the floor in the front and Henry was saying something very loudly about wanting them so the man asked what Henry's name was and talked to him for a second.  Henry wandered back to me a little bit later and was telling me how the man wasn't giving him any M & M's.  I was quietly trying to tell him to not worry about it.  Meanwhile the man was looking for volunteers for the next part if the show.  Henry decided at this time to wander back to sit with Paige and Rose just as the man was asking for a "very small volunteer".  "Henry!!" the man says as Henry is literally passing right in front of the stage.  So he got in the show.  He was there for part of the reason he was on the stage but then left after saying "I need my mommy".

And it's pretty hard to see in this photo, but Mike and Rose are in the picture (mike with the camera bag and Rose in the white dress), and in front of the them are a mother and daughter in matching Lily outfits just like Rose and I had worn the night before! The girl is in the exact same dress as Rose had, and the mom is wearing the dress version of the top I had.  I had to stop and tell the mom.

St. Thomas day

Because everyone was keen to have a go on the aqua duck again (Paige had only been twice, and Rose had only been once!), we thought it would be a great idea to have breakfast and go for a swim before going onto the island.  So that is what we did...although because it was a port day they didn't open the aqua duck until 12:00! Now we know! That aqua duck is super hard to fit in when both girls need an adult to ride with, but Henry can't go on at all.  That means we had to go separately and it was always a half hour wait at least. So, we had to wait until the next day! The 2 times I rode it, it was a blast! So fun.  Anyway, it was really nice to leisurely eat and go to the pool without worrying about rushing off the ship.  

Our "port adventure" was a sky ride (gondola) to "Paradise Point".  All of us were kind of scared on the way up. At the top we had some yummy nachos, and everyone had a frozen beverage of some type or another.  A great view.  Afterwords we shopped for some souvenirs as the girls still had some money they were itching to spend.  

Although Mike and I had pigged out on the nachos, the kids had only picked away at the dry pieces and still needed lunch, which we got back on the ship.  Can't beat these views!

In the evening it was time to bust out Rose and my matching ensemble! This night's dinner was at the animator's palate again--and was the night where our drawings came to life on the screen.  So fun.  

I had to take a picture of this kids appetizer, as well as a half eaten plate of food.  The reason for that one is the mickey face ketchup that Henry and Rose had every night with their meals.

After the main course it was a decorate your own (3) cupcakes! Yikes! So much sugar.

And it was on this night that Henry had a super long dance with Tiana to "Shake it Off".  What a little guy.  He was ecstatic! I think she picked him because she could see he was just staring at her in awe.