Mickey's Yacht

A year ago, my parents announced that they would be taking all of the Holderness clan on a Disney cruise through the Caribbean for 7 days of blissful vacation.  That sounds small right?  Just the Holderness clan.  That included 157 aunts, uncles, cousins, people who married my cousins, kids that came from my cousins, etc.  Tons of Holderness.  It was a fantastic week and was really magical.

But let’s back up.  Kenzie had a doctor’s visit on Monday and the doc said she was totally good to go on the cruise with us.  She was on the fence before and didn’t want to go if she was going to have any problems with the baby.  She pulled the trigger and got added to the boat and we were stoked to have her come.  Wednesday morning her doctor called and they had some problems with the lab tests that they ran.  They asked her to come back on Friday and told her it wasn’t a good idea to go on the cruise with the lab results that they were seeing.  On Friday morning, I packed up the two girls and we started driving on our 17 hour trip to Florida for the cruise.  About 6 hours into the drive, Kenzie called me and told me her lab tests were clear and that she was buying a plane ticket to Orlando.  We were all so excited that our whole family was coming on the cruise and the girls were stoked that they weren’t stuck with dad for a week.

The drive was about what could be expected.  About 6 hours in we stopped at a Chick Fil A and lunch was about 45 minutes.  In that 45 minutes, I took 6 trips to the bathroom.  6.  The day was pretty much like that with lots of potty stops and false alarms.  The girls were good sports though and enjoyed trying to guess which state we were in when we stopped.

We picked Kenzie up from her hotel on Saturday morning and bee-lined for the port.  We were right on time and got to meet up with all of my siblings and cousins while we registered and got on the boat.  It was so fun to see people that I hadn’t seen for 7 years.  The girls were excited to see our room, their cousins, and they were captivated by the magic of Disney.  They loved the fact that there was endless pizza, mac and cheese, and of course, soft-serve ice cream.

Our room shared a door into JD's room with Ethan and Hailey.  This was pretty lucky for us because we treat JD like our own personal trip adviser.  I called him a few days before the cruise to ensure that I was packing everything that I needed to and to make sure I had all my activities lined up. Our first stop was Cozumel.  We hopped off the boat and into a taxi to take us to a small beach.  The girls had a good time playing in the sand and playing in the inflatable obstacle course, splash pad, and on the water slide.  Cousins started showing up by the car load and we had a couple of fun hours of sunshine, cousins, and water adventures.  We got out of there just in time to hit the Disney buffet for a late lunch and I got to take Kenna on the AquaDuck on the boat.  She was so exited to ride the slide on the Disney boat and made the height cutoff by less than an inch!

Dinner was always an adventure with rotating assignments and grumpy kids who don't like to sit for an hour and a half while you chat.  The food was amazing and it was fun to catch up with folks who I hadn't chatted with for several years.  We also got pretty lucky on the assignments and got to see my brothers and sisters a lot at our table.

The second stop on the cruise was the Grand Cayman stingray tour.  We spent a lot of the start of this trip packed into tight spaces waiting for everyone to arrive or waiting to get on or off a boat.  The whole logistics piece of this took a while, but the trip ended up being our favorite part.  We took a ride to the boats that were reserved for us and the Holderness crew filled up three entire boats.  We took about 45 minutes to get to the stingrays and the girls enjoyed a nice boat ride with the sun beaming down on them while they put their legs over the side.

The water was crazy choppy when we got to the stingrays and there was about a 3 foot swell constantly rolling in.  The girls were pretty scared to jump in and Kenna was absolutely opposed to it.  We paid for the adventure though so I jumped up and gave her the old heave ho to throw her in.  She was pretty mad at me for a while but quickly got over it when the stingrays started to surround us.  They were amazingly active and were bumping into, over, and around all of us.  Callie was in love with them and was fearless.  We got to pet, kiss, and swim with the stingrays for about an hour and it was a great time.  We even got to feed them, which is one of the strangest things ever.  It feels like feeding a vacuum with small teeth.  Crazy fun.

Callie got to kiss a stingray, which she will be happy to tell anyone who will listen to her.  The tour guide also lifted the stingray up and it sprayed her with water, which she giggled about, saying, "It spit at me."

After the stingrays, we took a short trip to a small little beach called Starfish beach.  The kids got to pick up some starfish, play in the sand, and enjoy the day.  Kenna managed to walk away with her older cousin and get lost for a while, but we eventually tracked her down.  It was a great day and we were pretty tired when we returned to the boat.

Our day at sea was pretty action-packed.  We hung out with cousins, finished a detective interactive game on the boat, ate, swam, ate some more, and had a fantastic time. The shows at night were incredible and the girls really enjoyed them.  Callie usually went to bed before the shows, but Kenna was at every single one and the twinkle in her eye as she watched them was pretty cool to see.  The magic was still alive with her.  She knew that some of the stuff wasn't "real" but anytime a character was close or she was seeing something performed, she was right back in the believing mindset.  We docked at Jamaica for a day and we decided to stay on the boat.  We swam, played, had activities with our other cousins, and really had a great time.

The last day was Castaway Kay, Disneys island in the Bahamas.  I decided to run the 5k with some others so the morning was spent doing that.  The waiting and coordination of all the runners took a while and Jolie and I almost backed out.  We had to check to ensure the breakfast buffet would still be open by the time we finished.  Once we verified that it would be open, we decided to go ahead and run.  It was pretty fun and we got back in time for breakfast.  Then we journeyed out to the beach and enjoyed about an hour of sun before the clouds rolled in.  The rain began to fall pretty steadily but the kids didn't care at all.  Then it started to rain pretty heavily and they shut down the beaches.  At that point, Disney began to herd all 4,000 people through one security entrance back into the boat in a downpour.  It was about as fun as that sounds.  We eventually made it back on the boat, put the girls into a warm tub, and all was well.

The girls really enjoyed the character breakfast.  Callie got to see all of her favorites and even Kenna who kept telling me that they weren't real lit up when she saw Doc McStuffins (her favorite) and Mickey Mouse.  I'm glad the magic isn't quite gone yet.

Both girls were happy to see Elsa and Anna and Kenna was beaming when she told me that Anna told her she gave really great, warm hugs.

The trip really went by quickly.  On the way home, Kenna asked "how come the week went by so quickly".  We split the drive home into two days and had an overnight stop in Hattisburg Mississippi or something like that.  The girls were great on the drive home and were great travel buddies.  Kenzie also decided to drive with us on the ride home so it was great to have a copilot.

The week was magical.  It was tough to go back to work and reality after such a fun trip.

October

Another month.  We started with sunny and 95 and ended with rainy and 60, so I guess you can say fall is here...and I am very happy about that!  It's funny how after living in Texas for 4 years if I wake up to an overcast, rainy day I think what a nice day it is.  In fact the other day there were a lot of darker, low clouds in the sky and Callie kept looking at them and asking if they were fog.  Pretty crazy when a kid doesn't even recognize what clouds are.

As a continuation of his pre-midife crises Nate took the girls on more Kayak trips which they still love.  He also went Boar hunting for a weekend.  He got all dressed in camo, wore the no scent spray and got to try his luck tracking a pig.  He did end up getting one which he brought home and had a friend smoke.  We ate it and it was pretty good.

We had a big trip to Utah this month for Anna Banana's wedding.  While we were there we go to sleep with the windows open every night because it was nice and cool!  The girls didn't know what to do with themselves when the ground was too cold to walk barefoot outside in the mornings.  It was a great trip!

We left right after school on Tuesday and the girls got to ride the train and eat dinner at the airport.  Callie who is generally fearless was pretty nervous and kept telling us how brave she was being on the train.  She was appropriately rewarded/bribed with candy.  The flight out was pretty miserable.  The air conditioning on the plane was broken and we sat an extra hour waiting for them to try to fix it.   Both the girls were still sweaty and tired when we finally go off the plane.  

We all recovered after a good night of sleep and spent the next few day playing with cousins, visiting friends and eating lots of good food.  I think Nate ate at Cafe Rio 6 times in the 4.5 days we were there.  He told me he does that so that he is sick of it by the time we leave and it holds him over till our next visit.  

We took a trip up to the Alpine slide and roller coaster with Grandma and Grandpa where we learned that Kenna has become a dare devil.  She rode with Grandma on the first ride and kept yelling at grandma to go faster, so we put her with Grandpa on the second ride who says he didn't touch the break the whole time and it still wasn't fast enough for Kenna.  We spent some time sitting and laying in the nice, soft Utah grass where the girls befriended a local dog and had cartwheel/somersault races.  Kenna got up to 24 cartwheels and Callie did about 12 somersaults in a row.  It was a fun, relaxing day.

Anna had her rehearsal dinner which all the boys were shocked and disappointed to find actually meant a rehearsal followed by a dinner.  Luckily no one starved and we all got through the rehearsal.  The girls monopolized Anna during the dinner and she was nice enough to indulge them.  

The next night was Anna's last night as a single lady, so of course we had an all out, wild, night to remember.  It included taking all her nieces to witches night out.  We dressed as witches, had a delicious dinner and made a stop at the candy store.  The girls took some pony rides, danced to Halloween music on a spooky stage and walked around the village on a scavenger hunt looking for all the different kinds of witches.  Some of the highlights were 3 witches playing baseball, a witch with a cat, dog, and mouse chasing each other under her skirt and a witch reading a newspaper in an outhouse.  The scavenger hunt was Kenna's favorite part.  Callie couldn't get enough dancing in and told me that was her favorite part.  I'm not sure it was the most exciting bachelorette send off but we're glad Anna invited us along because we had a great time.

The wedding was lovely and I got to see so many family members I hadn't seen in years.  There was a tense moment when I thought the girls wouldn't perform their part walking down the aisle, but after a longer, slightly awkward pause, the made it and were darling!  When they finally got to their seats Callie looked at me, gave me her big Callie grin and said in a less than quiet voice, "Mommy I did it! I throwed the flowers!"

Anna and Andrew's vows were great.  They made everyone laugh and cry and it was a beautiful wedding.  After the ceremony they caught a break in the rain just long enough for a few pictures outside before the reception started.  Their theme was games, so there was stuff to play at every table and she gave some fun games as her wedding party gifts.  The girls ate too many cupcakes, stayed up too late and had a great time!

It was sad to leave the next  morning but it is always great to be home!

We started Halloween festivities with a pumpkin carving/painting party.  Mom ended up doing most of the carving, but the girls had fun paining and running around with their friends.  Callie got to wear her costume to ballet class and do a dance to the siamese cat song from Lady and the Tramp.  And to top it all off the night before Halloween the kids got to go trunk-or-treating with some friends at the church.  Kenna got to test out her pink hair spray and it was a great start to the weekend sugar high.

 Notice the siamese cat tail?

We had our traditional Halloween bonfire with Jarom and Lixi.  The weather was nice and cool and the kids had fun running from house to house trick-or-treating.  As has also become tradition, we had to get home early enough for the girls to hand out candy the the trick-or-treaters who came to our house.  A part of me thinks they may enjoy that more than the actual trick-or-treating.  They sure are cute girls and we had a great October with them!

Callie and Emmy playing nap time