Cruisin' Part 1

We just spent the last week cruisin' through the Caribbean--all 3 of us. Chris and I love to cruise and thought we could introduce Sam to our vacation passion. It is just so easy....you get on the ship and everything is taken care of; transportation, food, entertainment. We figured the best way to introduce a 21 month would be with everyone's best friend...Mickey Mouse. We have become fans of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in preparation of this vacation (all I'll say is that I've seen EVERY episode if not 2 then 3 or more times). Needless to say, Sam knows the characters by name.

The trip was filled with all kinds of firsts for Sam....

First airplane flight. He did surprisingly well. He got a sucker at take off and landing and got to watch the DVD player throughout the flight. He did really well traveling and waiting all day long. We were most worried about the traveling to get there to begin with.

First time on a ship. We sailed on the Disney Magic, off for 7 days and nights of fun and excitement.

First emergency drill. Before you leave port, everyone must participate in a drill where you put on your life vests and go where you are supposed to in an event of an emergency. The babies get survival suits that they are pretty much stuffed into. Sam loved it for some crazy reason.

First time meeting a gold medalist and dancing star. As we were leaving for our drill, outside our door were two girls. They started commenting on how cute Sam was in his life preserver and were just talking in general. Chris took right up with the conversation. The whole time I'm looking at the one girl and think she looks really familiar. Eventually Chris says something about staying on the same hall as a gold medalist. Then it occurs to me that I'm staring at Shawn Johnson (and the rest of her family at this point). They stayed 3 doors down from us. No pictures for this, you just have to take my word. I didn't want to disrupt her vacation too much by hounding her for a picture or autograph.

First time face to face with larger than life characters. The first morning, we got to go to a character breakfast where we came face to face with all the Disney stars. I feared what Sam would do with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and the gang. He did surprisingly well. He loved seeing them and couldn't wait for them to make their way to our table!

In hopes of not boring too many of you, I'll stop the post now. Rest assured....more to come (more for the benefit of grandma and grandpa than anything).