Day at Sea–

May 21, 2023 | Stacy

Tab and I got up and hit the gym. The view was gorgeous. It was the only sunrise we saw, and the only gym time we logged in.

I got some coffee at the Starbucks included with our drink package.

And ran into these two. ♥

After getting cleaned up, I grabbed a picture of the shower so I could demonstrate just how compact they really are.

We took some photos around the ship and had a seat to enjoy our coffees.

And then headed in to breakfast.

This is the one main dining room. At dinner time we eat on the third floor at 8PM.
For breakfast we are seated on the first level.

The girls enjoyed picking out pastries.

I had bagel with salmon and avocado.

And grits.

When we headed upstairs we saw that our steward had visited our room already.

We lounged around the pools most of the morning. Some went to play golf, and others did some slides. Katriel spent some time in the kids’ club.

We went to the buffet for lunch because we didn’t have other options. I ate two kinds of fish and some fresh veggies. It’s so weird how little appetite I have anymore.

We went to the lounge to play a Disney music trivia game.

We tied for first place.

The kids had ice cream number 2,420… or close to it.

After much hanging around we finally got ready for dinner.

We struggled to find great lighting.

It was dress up night.

French onion soup

Rainbow salad (Katriel)

Calamari

Caesar salad

Butternut squash soup

Lobster tail.

Katriel got fettucine alfredo.

Beef Bourguignon

Beef tenderloin

Some asparagus risotto

Cappuccino chocolate cake

Creme brulee

Apple cobbler

We went back to the room to watch a movie.

We were pretty tired.

Let’s get afloat!

May 20, 2023 | Stacy

I had planned this cruise to go out of Galveston because we had hoped to couple a shorter cruise with some TX road tripping. As it is, we will not be doing that post-cruise. There are a few activities going on with our homeschool co-op that Tabitha and I would like to attend, so we essentially drove two days for a five day cruise, and then will drive two days back home.

Breakfast was as good as yesterday’s.

We had to stop for a hole punch, bc I had noticed this morning that mine was missing from my cruise bag. We use it to punch a hole in our cruise card so we could put it on our lanyard.

I sincerely enjoyed the drive down the Bolivar Peninsula on the eastern coast of TX on our way to Galveston. It is a beautiful area, and yet you can see how it would have been devastated by Hurricane Harvey. So much of the area is newly built up. We had to take a Ferry to Galveston Island.

As soon as we exited the Ferry we could see our ship just a few miles away.

The parking was a bit hectic compared to most of our other cruise experiences, but everyone had an awesome attitude and we hoofed it to the port authority.

It wasn’t long before we were almost to the gangway.

And next thing you know, we were at the buffet followed by a trip to the ice cream.

We looked around the ship a bit.

And when we made it to our room I just about died. This was absolutely a terrible error on my part. The room did NOT have a couch/bunk bed set up. This tiny space was for four of us. (Nigel, Marie, and Tab had a similar set up, but with twin beds.)

I panicked for a moment, and then realized there was nothing we could do but suck it up.

We all went our different ways. Johanna, Katriel and I went for sodas.

And to look around the sports court.

We ran into John and hung on the deck for a while.

Some opted to try water attractions.

And we went to the art gallery.

Prior to dinner, we went back to our stateroom to get dressed up. This is how the room would remain for the rest of the voyage.

It was cramped, but we did what we could to maximize space.

The main dining room was gorgeous – I took photos another night.

Crab cake

Escargot

Artichoke dip

Pan-roasted fish filet

Prime rib

Stuffed portobello

Fried chicken

NY Strip

ahem

Key lime

Boston creme pie

Royal cheese cake

Dinner BEGAN at 8PM and was done around 9:40PM. We were all tired, and we headed back to our rooms for the night.

And the view from my bottom bunk.

Nigel and the FIFBC missions trip.

July 26, 2022 | Stacy

Early… VERY early… on Sunday the 18th, Nigel left with the team for their week in Honduras.

Late… VERY late… on Sunday the 25th, Nigel returned from his trip.

I don’t get much for photos, but he had an incredible trip. They built a Sunday School classroom next door to the church that the group had helped build a few years ago. They also made desks for a school that meets the needs of special needs students.

God is good. All the time.

Epcot Day!

June 27, 2022 | Stacy

I think I normally start out any post about Epcot pointing out it isn’t my favorite park. BUT – I was very excited about visiting this year because they have a new Guardians of the Galaxy Ride AND a new Remy ride.

We were up around 6:00AM and got ready quickly. At 7:00AM on the nose we got our Boarding Group for Guardians and our LL for Remy. I also bought an Individual Lightning Lane for Guardians because we knew we’d wanted to ride it twice and our Fairy Godmother sent us money to do that. ♥

7:23AM.

They let us in and held us at the rope on the side with Guardians, Mission Space and Test Track. We rope dropped to Test Track. We fondly remembered the time we were allowed in the upstairs lounge when John was a GM employee.

We made our car by 8:02AM.

We got off. Found a bathroom, and then went for our first ride on Guardians.

It absolutely blew our minds. WOW. WOW. WOW!!

Then we did Mission Space: Orange, which almost made me lose my breakfast.
Then we did Soarin’ standby, and had a 50th Anniversary snack.

We saw Winnie the Pooh, “in the wild.”

Did Figment.

Saw Pooh once more.

Grabbed an LL for Frozen Ever After later, and went to ride Nemo and visit the aquariums which is something I’ve never done!

Grabbed some photos.
10:58AM

And took our second ride on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

We did some photos afterward.

Tried some Coke products from around the world at Club Cool, which was closed on our last visit.

We headed over to World Showcase.
12:00PM

Rode Gran Fiesta in Mexico.

And waited LONG time to meet Caballero Donald.
12:44PM

Got some treats in Norway.
12:55PM

And we visited in and out of all the countries. This fish reminded us of Tabitha bc she draws beautiful fish.
1:20PM

1:51PM

Beauty and the Beast Sing Along was NOT on our plans, but it was cute. And had AC and seats. My feet were really starting to get tired.
Then we went to see American Experience.

And then continued our trek around the countries.

We got to Remy’s early and the wait said it was only 25 minutes, so we decided to ride it before our LL time, because we figured we’d want to ride it twice.

So..
We did ride it twice… but we would have been satisfied with once. It was precious, but not amazing.
4:06PM

We were kind of very hungry. We really hadn’t eaten much all day.
We went to the Patisserie in France and got bread bowls. There wasn’t much seating, but we got a table for our food. But when Marie went back to get our desserts and I got up to refill our ice waters, someone took our spot. Just then, it started to pour and pour and pour. We had to eat our desserts on a ledge.

All day we had hoped to see Mickey Mouse with our VISA card. This would mean we got to meet Mickey at all the parks.
We waited a silly-long amount of time in a weird little building and lo and behold, we were NOT in line for Mickey.

We bolted to his building (another weird building next door not at all marked for his Meet and Greet) and, he was done for the day.

Ugh. Marie wanted another ride on Figment.

We walked all the way back to use our LL for Frozen.

Took another spin on Gran Fiesta.

Then did another ride on Test Track; I’d picked up a LL during the day.

I had to cry uncle…

I had sore, wet feet. I wanted to watch Harmonious. But I wanted dry feet more.

AWAY WE GO! Marie’s Graduation Trip

June 24, 2022 | Stacy

You may remember that Marie graduated last month. In lieu of a party, we cashed out all of our credit card bonus reward dollars to fund a Mommy-and-Marie graduation trip to Walt Disney World for four nights.

Our alarms went off at 4AM and we quickly dressed, packed our coffee, and got on the road. We left the house right at 4:30AM, give or take a few minutes.

Our travel was far less traumatic than our last trip (Praise the Lord!), and we stopped only for quick potty breaks and some McDonald’s coffee.

This was 7:19AM

We were in the Disney Hollywood Studios parking lot by 1PM, where we lotioned, hydrated, and got on our way into the park.

We had splurged for Disney’s ride reservation system, Genie+, and as we were driving we’d been able to book a few rides for the afternoon/evening.

Our very first stop was – shopping?
Actually – it was because I was waiting to grab another “Lightning Lane” as WDW calls them. I was eligible to grab one at 1:00PM, but an unannounced drop was expected at 1:18PM (I know things Winking smile ). Sure enough, a drop popped up and I secured another ride for our afternoon.

We headed toward the Tower of Terror. I haven’t been on this but once ever. And I can’t even remember when that was. It’s not my favorite, but Marie loves it.

We saw Goofy!

1:37PM

The same dear friend who’d provided us with the precious shirts (and so much else) linked my account with hers so that we would be able to have the PhotoPass photos. 1:53PM

I was overly worried about getting dehydrated (I got over that concern quickly) and we stopped for some water. We managed to find some friends!

2:05PM

We scooted over to Toy Story Land and stopped for some photos.
2:12PM

We rode Alien Swirling Saucers 2:21PM

And then we decided we’d stop for an early dinner (we’d had sandwiches in the car for early lunch).

On the way we stopped for this (and many other) photos.

2:28PM

We split a pulled pork sandwich and each had a bag of baby carrots and some soda.

2:43PM

We headed back to Toy Story Land

3:08PM

And rode one of my favorite rides – Slinky Dog Dash
3:23PM

I met a friend, Karen, from my Disney message board.
3:33PM

And then we rode Toy Story Movie Mania. I won.

4:04PM

It was really hot. We were all but melting.
We headed back over toward Rock and Roller Coaster, and stopped for more Photo Pass pictures.

And then got to the party on time!
4:37PM

We had some time at this point, and went and rode Star Tours (no photos) and then waited in line to meet Sorcerer Mickey and Hollywood Minnie.

6:30PM

I was ready for a snack, so we headed to Starbucks for a Carrot Cake Cookie (more like a cake). We had perfect timing because the skies opened up and it started to POUR while we were in there. We stayed under the awning to enjoy our treat.
6:37PM

We had accomplished so so much – WAY more than I had dared to hope. And we’d picked up more Lightning Lanes along the way. We decided we’d bite the bullet and get in line for Star Wars: Ride of the Resistance. It is a ride that opened after our last visit in 2019. The stated wait time was about 90 minutes, but we knew we could handle that.

7:29 PM – this was shortly after we’d entered the queue. Maybe 10 minutes.

While neither of us are Huge Star Wars fans, we were blown away by the immersion.

We were off the ride by 8:30PM and then hurried over to Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railroad. I was nervous that we might miss the fireworks scheduled for 9PM. I almost bolted a few times, but online friends said they thought I’d be fine.

We waited and I am so glad! The ride was excellent!

And we were outside in a great spot for the nighttime show before it started.

A few days before we had left, Reservation Finder had found me an after-closing reservation for the two of us at Oga’s Cantina. It is a bar from one of the early Star Wars movies. It was something we’d never done before. It was fun.

She tried the Blue Milk,

and I had some other concoction that was refreshing.

We were able to grab a few shots as we left. We were tired! We’d been up a LONG time.

10:00PM

We found our car and made the quick drive to our hotel – Disney’s All Star Movies Resort. (The cheapest rooms on property.) It had a queen bed, and a queen Murphy bed.

10::50PM – What a satisfying day!

I got a box…

June 23, 2022 | Stacy

Not just any box.

I got a box full of joy.

I knew my friend was making me a shirt.
But she didn’t stop there.

A popcorn bucket.

Mom of the grad shirt was a surprise!

The one I had humbly requested.

The picture Katriel made me of all the Mickey heads Stephanie sent.

A sticker for Marie.
Some money for an additional ride on Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Rewind ride at EPCOT.

And a matching shirt for Marie.

This is getting real…

Heading home with helpers

May 22, 2022 | Stacy

I couldn’t skip past this – our first Buc-cee’s visit.
We all hope it is not the last!

We made it to the SAV airport around 1:30PM. We returned the cars (it was harder than we thought) and headed to the arrival concourse where we were met with three new friends from church in three vehicles.

Not all heroes wear capes.

After a week+ of driving a rental vehicle all over Georgia and Florida, it felt like a giant hug to climb into these waiting trucks and van and just be provided for.

We were home around 5:30PM and found some food and sunk into the unpacking process.

Park Day. Focus: Favorites repeated!

May 22, 2022 | Stacy

Stewart and Noelle’s friend, Kyle, joined us late last evening. He braved the massive rain and came the three hours up from his family’s new home in FL. Once from central NY, they also relocated last year.

We started the morning with devotion – this time Johanna read the bible passages.

Nan decided she’d take another day off, and the rest of headed to the parks. Entering is now old hat. Kyle has a season pass and he got me free parking.

Hulk. Spider-Man. Starbucks. Storm Force.
We did a lot of favorites a second time.

It was pretty hot.

Marie and I opted to do another ride through Velocicoaster. Otherwise, we kind of just all be-bopped around.

I guess when you are done, you are done. About 4:30PM or so we exited the park and found Stewart, Noelle and Kyle shopping.

Back at the rental there was some resting, lots of packing, and dinner.

Kyle’s mom had sent him with brownies and Stromboli. It was fabulous.

We weren’t trying to leave before dawn, but we needed an early start. The plan was to meet some men from our church family at the Savannah airport around 1PM.

Operation Christmas Child Processing Center and AHG

December 11, 2021 | Stacy

Nan helped yesterday by getting Marie and Tab to the drop off for their overnight trip to Charlotte, NC. They had a 3-hour shift at the OCC Processing Center there. From 7PM to 10PM the girls helped inspect boxes to verify that the contents met requirements to be sent overseas. They then sealed them and placed in larger boxes for distribution. Each hour they took a small break and heard updates about the ministry in general and the overall progress for OCC this year. The time went quickly and both girls enjoyed the experience immensely.

From there the girls went to a church in the area for the other AHG group they worked with to sleep overnight. They had pizza and chatted late into the night.