disney wonder

we're back and getting used to having to do everything for ourselves. no one to cook for me here, no one to make my bed every day, no one to clean my bathroom, no place to drop of my kids for some playtime.....bummer.

we had a great but exhausting week. rusty and i have learned over the years that vacationing with young children is just not quite as relaxing as we always hope it will be! the cruise was filled with tons to do....quite over-stimulating for my kids. it took them the first 2 days to adjust to it all. evan was quite clingy and always wanted to be held. ella was quite moody and fearful of it all. the first time she saw one of the disney characters, she cried and started shaking! she was scared of goofy and every other character for that matter!! each day she got better and after she saw one of the princesses....that made her super happy! to have her picture taken with cinderella was the highlight of her week! the kids loved the kiddie pool and probably would've stayed there the whole time if we would let them. overall, i would definitely recommend the disney cruise....but would recommend it for older kids. my niece, lane, who is 7....was a perfect age for all of it. my kids were just a little harder to manage with naps, and staying up late for the shows, and dropping them off at the children's area (ella freaked out), etc. if they were a few years older, i think it would've have been more fun. but don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable vacation!

it's a little hard to narrow down the 381 photos that i took last week. i'll post some now and then some more later.

here's evan, lane, ella & grace goofing off as we waited to get on the ship.

here are all the kids watching cartoons as we waited to get onboard. notice the girls all have on the same cinderella shirts and the 2 boys have on "cars" shirts....they were so cute!

evan, grant & rose....the finger sucker and thumb suckers!

the dance party as we set sail to the bahamas

more of the dance party. notice evan at the bottom pointing to mickey...he was so excited!

ella's DREAM! so i guess you can see her dreams really did come true! :)

the girls in the mickey pool

evan really wanted to meet minnie and mickey....but he wouldn't smile for the camera. he pretty much looked like that for most of the cruise...fingers in mouth! (notice who is missing in the family photo!!)

another highlight of ella's week...getting dessert every night after dinner! here she is eating chocolate pudding. another favorite was the mickey mouse ice cream bar!

one of the animal towels left in our room at night. this elephant was our favorite!