Day four and five

Alright time to finish up the cruise posts and move on to other blogging goodies so this we be the last one :) On the fourth day of the cruise we woke up and had breakfast together on the deck which was as usual fun and relaxing. Then we all headed upstairs to play some serious rounds of volleyball. It was so much fun, my dad is a pretty wicked volleyball player, and I had fun reliving my freshman Sunrise Mountain volleyball days. We played for hours, of course everyone had to talk trash and put on their game faces :) Then of course there was the institution of team names, can you guess which team Brenn was on??? Yep, the seagulls, yeah I know we are lame :) :) We had a whole bunch of other random people on the ship come up and join our games off and on throughout the morning. By the time we were done we were all sunburned and I even had a nice little bruise on my arm from playing. After we were done with the volleyball we still evidently had not had enough outside time so we headed over to the minature golf course. Golf is fun but none of us are very into it except maybe Dad and Deke so the rest of us played and sort of goofed around. After golfing we all sort of split up and enjoyed a couple hours. Deke and I played some giant chess and some ping pong and then headed to get the conference room set up for my dad's birthday present. I had gotten pictures for each of the girls of them and dad and made a DVD starting with the day I came home from the hospital through each child including grandbabies. We had each picked music that made us think of dad or that had a emotional tie for us. We went to dinner and all during dinner there was schools of dolphins tons of them jumping through the water right out the window it was so cool. After dinner we made dad skip dessert then hurried him down to the conference room. We had the room all to ourselves and set up chairs just for us in front of the TV. When I started the DVD a picture came on with my dad in a rocking chair holding me in a little pink blanket and I was barely a few weeks old. "Arms wide open" by Creed was the song I picked and it was so perfect. It didn't even take thirty seconds for his tears to start coming followed by every one of us in the room. It was so perfect, so worth it to see his face. Then we hit up a couple of shows and then headed to the upper deck to have desserts and played the drawing game. I will not go into explaning the game but Dad and girls here are a couple of pictures to remember it by :) :) We partied the night away and the next night got off the ship. It was such an amazing vacation I am so glad that we were able to take it together it was really special for all of us. My dad is such an amazing person, I am so thankful for him and the relationship we have. I love his quirkiness and how much fun he is to be around. Happy 50th dad, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Day Three

Well unlike the other posts I will not have a summary of the day just a quick review since I am trying to post on my lunch break and have limited time. I wish I could post all the pictures because I have so many fun ones but between the cruise, Sea World with the kids and their beach trip I was at like two thousand pictures or something ridiculious like that. Someday we will come out of the dark ages and get the internet at the house :) :) Today we were on the ship all day so we decided to take advantage of some of the on board activities. Deke and I woke up and went and played the marriage game which was fun, of course the women won. Later we all met up for breakfast on the deck and watched the "hairy chest contest" as we ate. We spent a good part of the morning playing competitive rounds of ping pong. I had no idea how good Dad and Lisa were. Lisa is awesome! It was so much fun I hadn't played in a long time and it was a blast to get to play on different teams and try to beat each other. We played game after game after game. We spent some time lounging around on the deck since it was too chilly to swim and dad wouldn't go anywhere near the hot tubs (they were really foamy and it was sort of gross, community hot tubs :( ) We then headed inside and played a few rounds of BINGO which would get exciting when you would have only one number left and would stand up, only to moments later have someone else yell BINGO! We then played the marriage game or rather watched the marriage game which was fun. We kept busy all day then that night went to a delicious Mexican buffet on the deck and some dancing. We also went to a magic show and a comedy show.

Day Two....

Day two: Here is just a glimpse, honestly each day was so packed I it would take forever to included everything so these are just some highlights. Well after having a night to rest and recover from my uber emotional day I was excited when we woke up the next morning at Catalina Island.

It has already been pretty chilly when we left San Diego and Catalina was covered in gray skies and fog. The fog surrounded the whole mountain it was so cool looking. The way the little town was set into the mountain made you feel like you were somewhere else in the world. We spent most of the morning walking through the shops and browsing, Brenn found a sweet pair of sandals and the rest of us only kept finding more sweet stuff to eat (as if we hadn't done anything but eat since we got on the ship). That is a gummy kabob that both Dad and Deke were excited about, there was also some killer caramel and candy apples if that's your fix. They had some fun little shopping areas and places to sit and eat and just listen to live music. Kimbre, Brenn, and I particularly like this little spot to hang out and listen to music and chat. It was so green and fun with it's cool little stores. Lots of others were attempting to lay on the beach even with the somewhat brisk wind while we decided to take a different route. We decided to rent bikes and bike around the island together.

Since Marley was under 18 she had to wear a helmet and so we all wore them to make her feel better. I of course subjected everyone to multiple picture moments which they are all very used to already. We also grabbed up a couple of tandum bikes as well. Before we even got riding just getting everyone on there bikes and situated was already providing humorous moments. Now I am about to make a ridiculously embarrasing confession. I did not realize until we actually rented the bike and I was putting on my helmet that I hadn't ridden a bike since I was like eight. Everyone started taking off and I started to peddle. As I started peddling I was shaking like a leaf and swerving and and kept having to put my feet down to stop. Horrified I realized that I had forgotten how to ride a bike. As my family continued to look at me in disbelief I got more and more frusterated. Everyone began chipping in their advice as I became more irrated, Brenn and Kimbre rode tandum circles around me as I frusteratedly peddled slower than people walking on the sidewalk next to us. How could this happen? I snow board, wake board, ski, ride the faster rollercoasters possible and I can't remember how to ride a flippin bike?!?!? Everytime I would finally get going Deke would praise me and instead of feeling happy I would feel more irrated. I did not want any more attention drawn to myself then what I was already doing on my own. Dad pulled up beside me and began giving me advice as if I were six again learning for the first time. Within about fifteen minutes I was fine and riding semi normal and withing a half hour I was sturdy enough to trust getting on a tandum bike with Deke. Which means I would have to be comfortable because he likes to bike fast. I loved the tandum biking with Deke it was so much fun. Once I was sturdy we biked all over the island. It was such a blast. The weather was nice and cool and it was so fun to bike up the hills with the mountain on one side and the beach and palm trees on the other. We all biked and talked and laughed it was seriously such a neat experience and such an awesome thing to do together as a family. I absolutely loved it and was bummed when it was time to turn the bikes back in. We pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the rest of the town and having lunch on the beach. Once we boarded the ship we all got cleaned up and decorated dad's room. Then we all headed to the captain's dinner (for an appetizer I had chilled strawberry soup...YUM) and then lobster for the main course, very very YUM which was fun for everyone to get dressed up and went to a show. The dancers in the show were pretty cheesy so we then headed upstairs to get some more food and just hang out on the ship for the rest of the night. We went up to the karoke stage since Deke and I have never done karaoke. This couple was so drunk, she was like forty and he was maybe 21. They kept going onto the stage and dancing and hanging all over each other. They were with a small group of friends who were also extremely drunk who started yelling "Go Shelley" to the 40 year old. Then the guy picked her up she wrapped her legs around his waist, flung herself backwards and started swinging side to side hanging off of him. It was so disturbing it made me realize why I have never been tempted to try alcohol. They Shelley and her friend decided to hit the mike which was interesting. Brenn and Kimbre headed up to the stage to join them which was hilarious to say the least. The karaoke was at time hilarious at times good and at times disturbing as well. We had arrived to late to join in so we added it to our list of things to do on another day....