Spring Break Cruise 2018: Day at Sea

Cruises are just the best.

I love them.

Our whole family loves them.

Spring break was the first week of April this year. We sailed out of Port Canaveral, which is close to Orlando. We drove down on Easter Sunday, listening to General Conference in the van as we drove. The drive was quick and easy. Well, as quick as 600 miles can be.

We liked our hotel and it was within walking distance of Cocoa Beach. Even though we got there at sunset, I couldn't resist walking across the street to the beach.

We were doing a Flat Stanley for Quinn,

so you'll see him appear in several of our pics. :)

The next morning we were off to the ship!

Eeeek!

Almost all of our past cruises have been with Carnival. We decided to give Royal Caribbean (RC) a try this year. There were pros and cons to the switch, but overall we were happy with it.

Here we go!

Our ship was called Majesty of the Seas.

It's one of their older and smaller ships.

Next time I book a cruise, I will pay more attention

to the reviews of the ship itself.
It was fine, but I think I would've liked a newer
ship even more.

Flat Stanley likes cruises now, too.

Lounging on the deck

Here was the kids' room.

Isn't it TEENY?

Good thing we're little people.

Oh, wait...

There was a pod of dolphins swimming right around the ship

before we took off. Love that!

Caroline, especially, was SO happy to see them.

One of the major highlights of our cruise happened before we even pulled out of port.

Our captain announced that we were going to delay departure by thirty minutes

so we could WATCH A ROCKET LAUNCH!!!

What???

Lucky!!!

It was AMAZING to watch.

I was busy watching it with my own eyes, 

so my videos are iffy.

But you'll get an idea.

I love the chants of "USA! USA!" in the background.

A couple of pics of the rocket in the air.

 I was trying to get the rocket in the background,

but at least you can see the smoke trail. :) 

One of the BEST parts about RC is that their ships

have climbing walls. Perfect for these two!

B-train just FLIES up the walls.

The employees timed him and he was the

fastest climber they'd ever seen on one of the routes.

One of our favorite things about cruising:

all the yummy food!

 We love the dinners in the nice restaurant.

The appetizers and entrees were very similar to 

Carnival. But the desserts were a little better.

The first night, the kids and I all ordered creme brulee.

And our server didn't want Andrew to feel left out,

so he brought one as a second dessert for him.

The kids didn't love it.

I did.

I went with the teenagers to the big show on the ship that night.

It was Disco night.

Not necessarily our favorite type of music.

But the singing and dancing were good.

And they did a whole ABBA montage, which we loved.

The first full day on the ship was our day at sea.

We spent time reading and relaxing on the deck. 

They don't have an adults-only deck on this ship.

Andrew and I missed that.

We played several quiz games.

We teamed up with this couple and took first place in one of them. 

The girls and I did a scavenger hunt around the ship

and took second place.

We had our share of ice cream cones.

One of the things we DIDN'T like about RC

was that the ice cream WASN'T SELF SERVE.

Lame!!!

It wasn't open 24 hours (like it is on Carnival).

They had a little employee stationed there making you

modest-sized cones. NOT Andrew-sized.

 And there was always a line,

which never happened on Carnival or Disney,

where they let you serve yourself.

On the upside, RC has self-serve CRISPY 

bacon on the breakfast buffet.

I'm not a big bacon eater,

but Andrew LOVED that.

What March Looked Like

Miss Whitney got to participate in All-County Chorus.

This was her first time.

It was FANTASTIC!

This one was in Spanish, "Cantar!"

She even auditioned for and got a small "solo" part,

which was actually with a small group of singers.

My lighting is bad, but she's the far right of the kids at the front of the stage.

So good!

Whit's kindergarten teacher was there watching her daughter,

and so was one of her kindergarten classmates!

They're at three different schools now, but it was fun to see them.

A new arcade opened in town...

with lots of coin pushers.

Yikes.

Andrew and I went to Winston and watched Our Town

for date night.

Mormon Prom!

Brandon and Emily had a great time.

B is a giant.

Or else he has lots of short friends.

Care Bear has been reading LOTS all year to prep

for BATTLE OF THE BOOKS!!

The big competition finally came in March!

There were almost 60 schools competing.

You had to take first place in your preliminary round

to go on to finals.

C's team took third.

Even though they didn't go on to finals,

they had a great time and she's looking forward to next year!

We went out to Sweet Frog afterward to celebrate.

Jared and Rachael got to a cute new puppy named Major.

C and I went over to meet him.

Popcorn is finally popping!

"Sometimes I could just stand 

here and watch my phone for hours..."

What is this thing???

And right when we thought spring was here...

we got another snow storm.

Boo.

Pi day!

Jessica and Tyler came to visit with us from Asheville

before they move to Missouri.

We had SUCH a fun visit and wished we could've

made it happen sooner.

It was over St Patrick's Day weekend.

Jessica and Tyler are former BYU Folk Dancers.

They made a special visit to W's studio and

taught a couple of Irish dances.

It was also the weekend of B's stake basketball tournament.

They won their first game easily.

Then won the second game in a nail-biting

last-second shot. So fun!

They ended up winning the championship, too!

Woo hoo!

Stake champs!

So glad B can play with all these guys.

I think only one of them is a senior,

so we should have a good team next year, too.

Care Bear got to dog-sit for Brownie.

She LOVED having a puppy for the weekend.

Gate City gala.

We were the only four from Adams Farm.

MPA for band.

They got two superiors.

Who's kid is that ruining the perfectly good picture????

It snowed.

Again.

I'm so over it.

Andrew had maxed out his vacation bank,

so I talked him into taking a Friday off of work to play with me.

We visited Old Salem.

Andrew had never been.

Had lunch in a yummy tavern.

I hear that people were shorter back then...

Blatant height discrimination.

We got to tour this Moravian church

and speak with one of the members.

They have a GORGEOUS organ inside

and pretty stained glass.

They also have a beautiful cemetery,

called God's acre.

They are not buried in families, but by

gender and marital status.

And everyone has the same flat, rectangular headstone.

Loved the architecture.

And the doors!!

We found a gelato shop in downtown Winston on our way home. Yum.

B and I went to watch Emily in one of her volleyball tournaments.

Volleyball has changed since I played!

Emily plays a position called "libero" where

she is kind of a back-row specialist and rotates in and out.

We had fun hanging out with Jenny and Emily.

I think this is the most colorful radar map I've ever seen.

Not sure colorful is a good thing...

How my seminary class looks some mornings.

Ugh.

I hate when I'm the only one that shows up to class.

Nicolle came into town and we got to play

some tennis with Natalie and Mari Miller.

So much fun!

The weather has been crazy.

Notice it says "23* warmer than Tuesday"

I got to chaperone a super fun field trip to Raleigh

with Caroline and some of her friends.

It was a beautiful day and this was a good group of girls.

Petting beetles.

Checking out 3-D printed items.

Like this iron-man mask.

LOVED spending the day with this girl!

Our temple in Raleigh is closed for the next year for major renovations.

Andrew and I made the trip down to Columbia, South Carolina,

which is now our closest temple.

So thankful for the blessings of the temple.

And loved having an extended date with my favorite guy.

Whitney got in to Penn Griffin High school!!!!

Yippeee!

So did Lauren and Skyler.

We're SO excited for them to continue their education together.

Easter Eggs!

We also had our conference party with the girls during

the priesthood session of General Conference.

But I forgot to take any pics.