Goin to Jackson

I love that Johnny Cash song/duet with June. The lyrics go something like, "I'm goin to Jackson . . . .goin to Jackson town".

The end of the school year was definitely stressful and adding travel plans immediately after the last day of school didn't help things any. I was able to pack and prepare for the most part, but once I sat in the car, I couldn't make it ten minutes without falling asleep. Poor Darren, he pulled over once to trade off driving (heading to family reunion in Wyoming). I happily got going with many snacks in hand. . . . only to make it about twenty miles. Seriously, Darren said he had seen the mile marker where we exchanged seats. I couldn't go another mile before I needed another rest. Pathetic.

Oversharing these details helps set the stage for this post, I promise :-).

Needless to say, we did make it to the family reunion in Star Valley, which was Awesome. Seeing my dad for the first time since he'd had one major health crisis after another in January, February and March was definitely high priority for me.

I was also excited to see my niece McKenzie since she came home from her mission to Kansas. I was happy to be with family again. It all felt surreal - I was in a beautiful mountain-ish area with my family. Heaven.

Cousin Fun

Cute Girls

We had a room with a view :-)

Cottonwood Canyon - I think :-)

Moss Posse

The reunion was over in a snap. It was all so fun and happy and simply great. After we said our goodbyes, my little family headed northward to Jackson Hole. I had already made reservations for a hotel and we just planned to stay a night before heading over to see Darren's family in Idaho Falls.

The drive from Star Valley to Jackson is gorgeous, by the way :-). Once we got into town, we couldn't find the hotel I had reserved. It turns out, I had reserved a hotel in Jackson Missisissippi. I'll blame it on the internet age. I have no idea why my phone thought I wanted a hotel in Missisissippi, but when I did the search, that was what came up I guess (couldn't possibly have been oversight by the user, right?). This is another example of pushing too hard at the end of the school year :-).

Jackson was loads of fun. We went down the Alpine Slide that first evening. My kids were each so funny. My oldest was extremely cautious,

 my middle child extremely happy to be sliding along, and my youngest, well, I will let you interpret her reaction.


Reports were that she screamed the entire way down

Olympic Runner

I like to run.

For fun.

I live by the Olympic Mountain Range, and by "by" I mean like within a five hour drive (including ferry ride).

We might have run exactly over this creek
<a href="http://photobucket.com/images/port%20angeles" target="_blank"><img src="http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/sherryleal/Port%20Angeles/twilight-creek.jpg" border="0" alt="port angeles photo: Port Angeles twilight-creek.jpg"/></a>

So, a few weeks ago, three of my running buddies went over to Port Angeles (gorgeous) and ran a race in the mountains. It was awesome. Truly. The race was all trail running. I did the 10k (aka - wimpy) and my friends did the half marathon (She-Ra).



http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/bjizzle6968/shera.jpg
 

Needless to say, with all of this kind of breath-taking scenery,

I was down in these mountains - cool huh?

 paired with my breath-taking lungs :-), I tripped on the trail, skinning my knee (even tore a whole in my pants). Don't worry though, I'm OK. (I'm very glad I didn't slip down the mountainside - these were not flat trails).

Sort of like this

After we got home (Saturday night), and I was able to relax a little (Sunday afternoon), I nursed my poor little knee (c'mon people, sympathy here) by pulling up one of my capri legs to give it air. I may or may not have looked a bit strange.

Anyway, some very nice friends came to the door to deliver some very delicious cookies (I love cookies). I didn't answer the door initially. My 8-yr old, who's terrified of dogs, did and she promptly slammed the door in their faces (b/c their dog tried to come in our house, their dog's name is Max and is very little and playful). Hearing this rude behavior :-) (I wasn't aware of the dog part), I ran to see what was going on (forgetting to pull my pant leg down over my "owie").

I opened the door and went outside to talk with these kind friends. They immediately asked what was wrong with my knee to which I enthusiastically answered, "I ran a race in the Olympics". They looked at me really strangely, almost as though they were confused. So, to help them out, I repeated myself giving just a bit more energy to my already spastic personality. "I ran a race in the Olympics, it was just gorgeous. I fell and skinned my knee."  By this time, my friends must have thought I was having some kind of delusions. They were probably thinking, "OK, how do we slowly disappear - this lady is crazy." They, again said, "What?" which was about the time I figured out that, oh yeah - I am not an Olympic runner but a runner who ran in the Olympics -- ha ha ha.

Innocent until proven guilty

You know, there are just so many things we as parents try to teach our children. Let's see, today, for example, my children wanted to know what "swollen" means. It happened to be so handy that my oldest daughter could demonstrate swollen with her emergency elastics (she always has hair bands around her wrist because a girl just never knows when they might come in handy). She showed how red and "swollen" the tips of her fingers could get after squeezing the blood out. You know, this is the kind of discussion that occurs in elementary-age households across the country.

Apparently, I have missed the boat on teaching my children swear words. The other day, my daughter excitedly showed me a story she had quickly whipped up. She narrated it at the same time I read the story. Just to give you a full picture: in addition to the already plethora of "shit" endings, she has a tongue thrust and pronounces all of her /ch/ as /sh/.

I think I'll quietly put this story aside. I'll just keep it in her "special" things box. It is very special indeed ;-).

Key Lime Pie -- mmmmm

Ladies and Gentlemen, girls and boys, welcome back to America :-)

By this point in our trip, our kids were very comfortable checking themselves in and out of the child centers, our room, the ice cream bar . . . .savvy? Every day before this our son begged and begged to just be allowed to "explore the ship".

So we let him.

Honest.

He had an id bracelet and room key, and we had our cell phone so we just left him on the boat. And, he will tell you that was the best move we've ever made. He had a complete blast. When I asked him what he did (maybe four hours), with a huge grin on his face he reported, "I went up and down the stairs thirteen times". Then I asked him if he had any ice cream and the grin came back - with a sheepish, "Yes". He also spent time in the child center.  He will definitely tell you this was his favorite part of the cruise.

Meanwhile, we were having a little key lime pie.

We found a beach and enjoyed swimming and relaxing. It was another beautiful, sunny day. I loved talking with Darren. The girls were so much fun. It was just a great vacation day.

So, the significance of these pictures are that our oldest daughter became ecstatic when she saw the name of this museum; Mel Fisher. Apparently in one of her series, there is a character named Ruth Rose who goes back in time. We heard about Ruth Rose's adventures a number of times, in fact she is probably like family :-).

I honestly can't remember being reunited with our our son, but he was so excited to have been "grown up" and allowed some independence.

We enjoyed the last night of entertainment once again. I looked at all of the fancy pictures taken of our family that would've cost $250 dollars (in the ship's library) and then went to bed around midnight.


We had many pictures taken with Disney characters.

We also got three pillowcases signed for the kids that have been really fun to look at since we've returned home. 

I guess that just about does it for this Disney Cruise Vacation. Thumbs up review from this family. See you on the open sea . . .

Dolphin Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, girls and boys - welcome to the Bahamas! Meet your excursion representative at the aft end of the boat bright and early . ..

We were always hearing about aft, topside, and astern side of the boat, which means I was always confused about where to go ;-).

So, this was the day of our big shore excursion. Last year our oldest daughter made a New Year's Resolution to "swim with dolphins" so we decided this would be her chance. We got off the ship and onto a much smaller boat, headed over to Blue Lagoon Island. Here, we split ways: Darren and the older kids went to "swim" with the dolphins and the youngest and I went a different direction to have an "encounter" with the dolphins. After putting on the dry suit, (that I just tried not to wonder about who wore it last), we stepped into the water with a full grown dolpin swimming circles around us and doing tricks and squeals. It was so much fun! The trainer was obviously very good and I particularly loved watching his "behavioral therapy approach" to rewarding the dolphin (actually fascinating to me -- isn't it Pavlov, anyway, cool stuff).

After a little bit, I see my husband and daughter walking toward our group. She had tears in her eyes and looked so sad. Apparently, swimming with the dolphins just wasn't her thing. These are some of my favorite pictures of the whole cruise - tell a million stories don't they?

Maybe she just needed her mother :-)

I did get to see footage from Darren and our son's swim with the dolphins and it was seriously awesome. They were gliding through the water with two dolphins pushing their feet. Darren said it was absolutely incredible.

The beach at Blue Lagoon Island was totally awesome (to use my 90s slang). If there is ever a next time, we are most definitely going to the Blue Lagoon beach. It was so clean and so crowd-controlled (meaning there were people there but not hordes). Ahh, I loved it. Darren and I have both remarked at how magical that beach was.

Kids can play in the sand 24 hours a day. I'm not even sure if the kids got in the water. Ahhh, wonderful.

Why not do cartwheels?

In case you are wondering, no dolphins in this section of the water, but when we crossed the little bridge back to the boat we could see dolphins swimming around. It was just beautiful.

We stayed on the island a bit longer than the others, this is a very happy moment in life :-)

Back on the boat, we hurried off to dinner and spa time and nightly entertainment. Busy, busy, busy, and definitely fun. It seems like we would get tired of the entertainment, but we didn't. That night's show was an illusionist, Jason Bishop. He was incredible. We were literally mesmerized the entire time. I have since looked him up on Facebook. I would love to see another show if he tours nearby. He was funny too, just an all around super family-friendly, fun evening.

I think he was having the kids help him lift the case to ensure everyone knew a human was inside. My son is the one with the napkin-cape, one of those proud Mommy moments :-)

This might have been the night of the deck party and have I mentioned the unlimited ice cream? That was a huge hit with the kids, in fact our older daughter spilled some on her shirt (that was supposed to be worn under a sundress, which is why it looks so small). I was thinking how glad I am that we took so many pictures of her wearing that ice cream :-)

One of the many, many character sightings on the ship.