A That thing where we eat…

August 18, 2019 | Stacy

The first thing you’ll notice about today is that our photos are overwhelmingly related to food. Ahhhh – cruise-life.

We were up early-ish and got ourselves right to breakfast. They sat us at a large, round table on the lower level. We had breakfast in the Washington Dining Room (our dinners are served in the Lincoln Dining Room.) Our waitstaff was excellent. Because it was a sea day the menu was a brunch menu with expanded options.

I snuck out to the bathroom and when I returned the girls had been given two hat shaped cookies each, along with frosting dispensers and directions on how to make Cat Hats.

So they got to enjoy some pre-breakfast sugar.

Which should not be confused with the Breakfast Sugar… those are square marshmallows on her pancakes, along with some kind of custard type sauce.

Marie, Tab and I enjoyed our first parfaits of the trip. These were so good. The chewiest yogurt you can imagine, and worth every spoonful.

Katriel had asked if she could have macaroni and cheese. As I was about to explain that macaroni and cheese is not on the menu the delightful server said that of course – he could get her macaroni and cheese.

After breakfast the girls wanted to go to the Camp Ocean.

At 10:30 John had second breakfast.

The boys chilled with dad while I went to find Marie and Tabitha.

I found them in what was our favorite pool. There is never a lot of space to swim on cruise ships, but we do like to jump in and cool off. These salt water pools were just perfect.

I had to go back to the room for something and our cabin steward had already prepped our beds for the evening.

The boys got into some swimming action. That little waterslide is actually a lot of fun.

Johanna and Katriel are fish, like their siblings, and they left the club long enough to do some swimming before lunch.

Lunch was so much fun. This ship had so many options.

I did return to Blue Iguana, because, well…

“Burrito bowl, please, with everything.”

Hello, “everything.”

So crazy yummy.

Look at what Katriel chose for her lunch.

At 2PM we headed to one of the lounges to assemble for a Dr. Seuss parade.

We played around a bit and then the kids got to pick out signs to carry and instruments to play for our parade from the back of the ship, through the center lobby levels (down the stairs) and up to the theater.

Katriel had Daddy carry hers.

Then we had a Cat in the Hat show.

Our 2:45PM Fro-Yo. (Not to be confused with the 12:30PM Fro-Yo.)

The girls went back to their clubs so John and I went in search of desserts.

We went to “Teatime” in the Washington Dining Room

I did NOT care for this… um… raw fishy thingie.

This was more my speed.

Before we knew it it was time to get ready for dinner.
This was our “Formal Night” as it was the first sea day of the voyage.

The magician was a lot of fun.

Oh look. Katriel ordered mac and cheese for dinner.

My mushroom appetizer.

Someone’s crab cake.

She ate three of the four bowls (she gave one to Marie).

Creme brulee. Normally this is my favorite dessert. Carnival did not blow me away with this. While their tiramisu was good enough to book another cruise for, this stuff was sort of runny. And with that – I’ll have more of a story for tomorrow.

We changed out of our duds and the little ones went back to Camp Ocean, while others of us played some Scrabble in the semi-open area of the ship.

About this time Tab told me she wasn’t feeling very well. She and I went back to the room.

We passed my favorite sign.

NOLA cruise ship embarkation

August 17, 2019 | Stacy

We didn’t need to set our alarms for Saturday morning, and we all enjoyed a solid night’s sleep after the overnight drive the day before. Nonetheless, we were up early-ish. We got ourselves together and packed up and headed to the kitchen area of the hotel for breakfast by 7:30 A.M.. It wasn’t awful or remarkable. I DID have the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a while!

We hoped to find some NOLA type items in the local Walmart around 9:30 A.M., but left empty handed. We also tried a drug store nearer to the city and port, but again had nothing to show for it. I figured we’d certainly find something in shopping center around the port, but as we approached the parking garage the signage was just so convincing to head into directly into the parking ramp and before we knew it we were parking the van!

This is one of the most fun ports I’ve ever arrived at. You can see the ship in the Mississippi River as you come over the bridge.

Pulling into the garage, porters come directly to your vehicle and unload your tagged luggage. For us, however, with such a large vehicle and so much luggage, our porter directed us to an emptier area of the garage and walked over to meet us there.

The older four kids took their documents and John and the little girls and I took ours and we split into our two cabin groups to navigate the boarding. My group finished a bit before theirs and we held on just past security until they caught up. We arrived to the terminal about 30 minutes before our pre-scheduled boarding; but remarkably, we were ushered right onto our lovely vessel. The gangway was the most convoluted one I’ve been on with lots of twists and turns, but that just built the enthusiasm for me.

We got on board AND…

sat?

It took me a moment or two to start collecting my brain and make some decisions about which way to go first. It was just after 11AM and our state room wouldn’t be ready until 1:30PM or so.

We headed up to the Lido deck and made our first stop at the fro-yo. There were two fro-yo stations on opposite sides of the ship and many-a-Butler visited often.

There were many dining options available in and around the buffet, and I made my first of many visits to the Blue Iguana.

We split up again to explore the ship.

We visited the Camp Ocean and got the girls their bands. We weren’t sure at that point how often they might visit, but we were glad to get band assignment taken care of.

It was finally time to find our staterooms and unpack. This is the last time their stateroom looked clean…

They were plenty big. We were on deck two, starboard, with connecting ocean view staterooms. They were perfect for our family.

I got my hacks working…

and we hung our still wet swimwear from the night before and change into our other suits.

We missed our chances to get drinks before our muster drill (the thing where they tell you what to do in an emergency) and we were all hot and cranky…

BUT

THEN

We set sail at 4:00 P.M.

Out on deck and hydration finally underway, we found some loungers and saw the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 come out.

So we went down to dance with them a little.

Marie and Tab tried out the one slide. It was actually very entertaining as I would find out a few days later.

They were willing to make us some non-alcoholic “mocktails” with our soda packages. Because the first 7 hours of the cruise actually take place in the Mississippi River, we had to pay taxes on all our drinks until we hit international waters. One weird thing about sailing from NOLA. It was a few cents per person.

Lots of lounging and hot tubs and a little bit of swimming and somehow it got to be dinner time.

We really do like dressing up for dinner on the cruises, but I admit I was far less creative in coordinating our clothes this time around. At least they were all clean. I think.

Table 656 was our dinner zone for the next five nights. Our head server was John Alex and he helped Stewart order meals for the following night after dinner each evening.

My blurry, but delicious strawberry soup.

Candied salmon, which was a one-bite-and-done.

Catfish – my new favorite thing.

Some very excellent tiramisu. I love tiramisu! I fully believe this was the best I’d ever had (and I’ve had some fabulous tiramisu!).

Carnival’s famous chocolate melting cake. I ordered this more nights than not. (Yes – I did have more than one dessert most nights!)

We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset as we navigated out the Mississippi River. We split up some, again, and I’m not even sure what all we did.

I believe J and K visited the Club Ocean, and I think we just lounged around.

The skies were gorgeous as we moved out to sea, but I think we were all in bed by 10/11 PM.

Travel day

August 16, 2019 | Stacy

I drove from about 9PM Thursday until 3AM Friday. Tab moved to shotgun to keep me company and Marie was awake most of the time just behind us. John slept in the back, Nigel slept in what we call the “hopper” seat, and Stewart snored away just behind me. The little girls shared the little bench.

On one hand, now that everyone is “older” there isn’t that desperate feeling to get the little ones to sleep.
On the other hand, now that everyone is bigger, it is harder for them physically to sleep.

But something about vacation makes it all tolerable – dare I say adventurous – so we made the best of it.

At 3ish, I went to the back to sleep. It was no where near as comfortable as the old van, but I did manage about 2.5 hours. John estimated he slept about 4.

The plan was to stop for breakfast around 7AM at a Cracker Barrel, as I’d learned recently they’ve upped their game with food allergies. We were inside Tennessee when that happened.

It took three tries to get that photo as I was a little addled after so little sleep.

Breakfast was okay.

Some meals were better than others. No one left hungry.

Marie had catfish. This was no where near the most exotic thing she ate on vacation. (Stay tuned!)

We can now add Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to our list of states.

As we neared New Orleans, we took the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. I’ve seen this giant lake on maps all my life and it was exciting to see it in real life.

Though we were tired, I pulled the mom card and had us do a tour. I could not green light the idea of just going to the hotel. I knew once there we’d just flop in front of TVs or electronics and not actually SEE any part of Louisiana.

I’d learned before our trip about how many plantations were in the region and picked one that had a long history, and was close to our hotel.

We learned that French plantations were different from Colonial plantations. Not better. Not worse. Just different.

This plantation once covered thousands of acres from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain and was a major supplier of indigo.

It was also very warm out. I think it was 94F or so.

These trees scream Louisiana to me!

Admit it. You’re thinking Bayou, too, huh?

We all kept looking for alligators.

When we left for our hotel we criss crossed the Mississippi River. Hey friend! Remember me? I dipped my hands in in 2015 in St. Louis!

We had two rooms in a LaQuinta in Boutte, LA. John and I bunked with Johanna and Katriel. The big four had their own double room up on another floor altogether.

We dumped our stuff and went to a little place I’d found listed on TripAdvisor when I’d looked into it before leaving home. It was a diner in a strip mall. Our first impressions were that it was a little unimpressive.

Then I had the catfish.

Where has this been my whole life?

We found a few minutes to wash the 1,300 miles off our tired selves, and made our way to bed by 9PM.

Here we go again!

August 16, 2019 | Stacy

God is good.

All the time.

And as we prepared to embark on another family vacation, I was blown away with how GENEROUS God has been EVERYDAY. Family. Home. Food. Health.
And on top of that, we get to travel to new places together. I don’t deserve any of this, and yet He has allowed these opportunities.

This was our first vacation in the new van which I have named Jarvis. I was sad to leave our old van, “Trippy” behind.

Our journey began after John and Stewart got home from work and we got the car loaded. We pulled out almost on time – 5:00 PM.

John drove us out of town and the plan was he’d drive til about 9PM or so, and then I would take over as he moved to the back to sleep.

One of the first things we noticed when we bought the new van was it had a LOT more cargo space. It also, however, has slightly less leg room in the third and fourth rows. We talked about working to be patient with one another and just making it all work.

Bon Voyage!

He’s (almost) 19!

August 14, 2019 | Stacy

We celebrated Stewart’s birthday early, as we will be out of town on his actual birthday. The kids drew him cards.

Doesn’t everyone have a card of Danny Trejo????

Some lemon cheesecake for the boy who loves lemons.

I can’t believe I’ve been a mom for (almost) 19 years.

Taller than the magnets

August 13, 2019 | Stacy

So – apparently I’ve been too busy to take photos…
Katriel urged me to “go get the phone” to capture how tall she is.

(Do you see how messy their room is? OY!)

That thing where we do a Camping Redo!

August 4, 2019 | Stacy

After the camping disappointment of June, we surveyed our calendar and found the ONE other weekend all summer we might be able to pull off a camp trip. THIS time we booked two nights at Branches of Niagara – a foo-foo camping resort with lots of bells and whistles.

John and Stewart both had the day off, so after knocking off a few appointments (and dropping the mini-van off at the garage for maintenance [sigh]) we headed out.

I do believe we were assigned one of the three nicest tent sites. (Thank you, God!) We got the tents set up rather effortlessly, however, some decidedly grouchy temperaments were emerging. We realized it was getting late so we ordered pizzas and change into our swim wear.

There are not really that many photos of the campground. A lot of this is because we were too busy. We were busy swimming, busy playing mini-golf, busy playing Scrabble, busy on the playground, busy in the kayaks, busy doing crafts, busy making fun food. All the best kinds of busy.

I think they played a dozen times.

We also had some great worship and family prayer. The weather was gorgeous. It only started to sprinkle as we were breaking camp. John actually noted the dark clouds as they were moving toward us, but we couldn’t outpack them. Smile with tongue out