Mediterranean Cruise Day 2 August 11, 2019

Sunday August 11,
We had a great breakfast on the boat.  There were so many choices.  American, Asian, English breakfast styles.  Lots of muffins, bagels, pastries, fruit, oatmeal, and cold cuts.  In the back I didn't even discover until the 3rd day you could could order eggs, omelets, waffles, and pancakes.

Since it was Sunday and we didn't have anything booked we called a taxi to take us to church.  It was about a 15 min drive onto the mainland.  It was a nice church, though the A/C wasn't turned on much in the chapel.  They gave us some headsets and a missionary translated for us.  I could feel the spirit, especially when we sang.  It was fun to try and sing in Italian.  The slower songs were easier.  We had the taxi driver come back when church was over and we went back to the boat for lunch and to change our clothes.  I'm glad we went to church.

The rest of the day we just wandered around Venice.  We went to a famous bridge and saw the Grand Canal.  It was all so beautiful! 

There were water fountains throughout the city so you could fill your water bottles.

The glass in Venice was exquisite.  I could have spent hours looking at all of the things in the shops.  I finally decided on buying two cute lady bugs for the girls and a necklace for myself.  It was so hard to choose. We also bought a fan - we had brought our cardboard 4th of July one, but it was getting beat up.  

On our way to the boat there were about 8 of these panels on the fence.  It is chewing gum! 

We got back to the boat in time to shower and get ready for our dinner reservation in the restaurant on the boat.  It was called the Trellis.  Our waiter was Fabian from Jamaica and Balsa from Montenegro helped.  The food was so good.  I tried to keep track of all of the things I ordered, but I've already forgotten most of them.  I'm pretty sure I ordered some shrimp on the first night!

 We watched the tow boat coming to take us out, but we had to leave to catch the first show. 

I enjoyed all of the shows.  There was a cast that toured with the boat that did 3 shows.  This night was the first, called Broken Strings.  The plot wasn't terribly clear because they told the story all through songs - modern and musicals.  The dancing was great, the vocals were decent.  So fun!

Sunsets on the ocean are beautiful!

After the show we played Exploding Kittens with the younger group in the therapeutic pool area.  Richard and Tannie had never played and Marcus and Annie commented that it was much more fun to play with adults than with their kids. :)  

I had a terrible night's sleep.  My pillow was way too big and I tossed and turned all night.  

Mediterranean Cruise Day 1 Aug 9-10 , 2019

Alright let's get back to blogging.  And what better way to start then to write about our amazing trip to Italy.  Our journey starts months prior with lots of planning, shopping, coordinating stuff for the kids etc.  We were gone for the first few days of school so I had to make sure I had everything lined up for them (outfits, backpacks, carpools).  Doug's sister Amy came out to watch our kids which was such a lifesaver.  I was able to enjoy the trip and not worry about what was going on at home.

But our official journey started on Friday August 9th (our 18th anniversary).  We left for the airport around 10:00 and got there plenty early.  The playing cards and air fresheners didn't go through security well and my bag was thoroughly searched.  Our first flight went to Toronto, Canada.  The conveyor belt for the luggage was broken, so not all of the bags made it onto the flight.  That made a quite a few people upset.  We were very very glad that we only had carry ons.

We had a few hours in Toronto.  We walked around the terminal and ate dinner then got on our flight to Venice around 8:30.  It was a 9 hour flight.  It was so hard to try and sleep.  It was a long flight.  The plane was older and not very big.  They didn't even had screens in the seat, you had to use our own device and hook up to their App.  Anyway, we tried to sleep, without much success.

Saturday August 10
 We arrived in Venice at 9:00 local time, which was 2:00am Houston time.  We waited for a bit in the baggage area, then went out the transportation area and I happened to see my mom and the rest of their group.  It was a tender mercy that we met up.  We bought a bus ticket to get us into the city to get to the boat.

There were lots of people, and our whole trip was full of smoke, lots of people in Europe smoke!  We got on a "People Mover" to take us to the port.  We had to wait in line to check in, it wasn't too bad.  At first they told us that we had to wait to leave our bags, but then Doug asked someone else and they said we could drop them off in our rooms, even though our rooms weren't ready yet.  We went to our rooms, through blocked off doors and dropped them off.  Then we met up with Marcus and Annie, ate lunch on the boat, and found a water taxi to our first tour.  We made it just in time.

This tour was of St. Mark's Basilica, the Dodge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs.  It was a great tour.  Our guide was very knowledgeable.  She didn't think much of Italians though, it was pretty funny to hear her talk about their lack of planning and construction plans.  It was a great tour, though after 3 hours of standing and walking our feet were getting tired.

Mom and Evelyn went back to the boat after that.  The rest of us walked around Venice. It was so pretty.  Every alleyway looked like a postcard.  We took lots of pictures.  We found a little restaurant: Bar Academia.  I had Chicken Carbonara.  It was very good. It had been sooo hot all day.  It was much better in the evening when the sun we down.  We were tired and walked back to the boat.  I think I slept pretty soundly because I was so tired!

We saw a museum for Vivaldi, there were lots of old violins and other instruments. 

We bought our first gelato of the trip.  It was so good.  This time it was cherry and mango.

Thanksgiving week with a trip to San Antonio 11/18 - 11/24/2018

The kids had the week off of school for Thanksgiving.

Monday I had my dance fitness class and then the kids played poisonball in the afternoon. 

Tuesday I was getting ready for our trip and making food. Months ago we had planned to go camping with 3 other families over thanksgiving.  Well as it got closer it looked like it was going to be pretty cold (for us Texans) and rainy.  Two families bailed and then the 3rd decided not to go just this past Sunday.  We thought about going by ourselves, but I really wanted to be with friends for the holiday.  We had booked a hotel in San Antonio for Wednesday and then we were going to camp Friday and Saturday.  We couldn't cancel our hotel, so we decided to do a quick trip to San Antonio and then come back for T-day with friends at their house.  I offered to bring food that I could make ahead of time.  So I prepared a veggie tray, jello, drinks, and planned to cook some corn on the day of.

Wednesday we left early to go to San Antonio.  We arrived around lunch time and ate our packed lunches in the van.  We went to the Doseum - their version of a children's museum.  We all had so much fun, even the older kids.  The first part was a like an escape room.  We spent a lot of time looking for clues and finding secret doors.  We lasted about 3-4 hours at the museum, then we went to dinner at Panda Express and then saw the new Wreck it Ralph movie in the theater.  We packed a lot of fun in one day! Everyone was tired.  We checked into our Holiday Inn - it was in a questionable part of town, but nothing bad happened.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that there was a pull out couch in the room, we had thought we were going to have to put 3 on the floor.  So Damon and Jenna slept on the pull out bed, Chris slept on the 'L' part of the couch, Tyler and Kaylee shared one of the queens and Doug and I had the other.  It was a bit tricky getting everyone to bed with the shared bathroom and not enough doors - but we managed. 

I'm inside this dodecahedron!

Thursday - Thanksgiving Day!  So grateful for my family and Doug especially.  We had a fun breakfast at the hotel - it was great having so many options that I didn't have to make.  I had a yummy omelet, cinnamon roll, yogurt, pancake and juice.  The kids are getting better at these types of buffets.  So nice that the older ones can take care of themselves.

We got a shuttle from our hotel to the Alamo at 9:30.  There was a fun run going on in the city so we had to go a creative route to get there.  So glad that we weren't driving - we wold have had a hard time finding our way.  The Alamo was pretty neat.  It was a chilly morning and we only had our light jackets.  We would warm up in some of the different buildings as we walked around.  Everyone liked learning about the canons and the different types of balls that they could shoot. 

 After the Alamo we went down to the River Walk.  We didn't go very far, but it was very pretty.  The girls we complaining of being tired and they were cold, so we headed back to the hotel.

After we went back to the hotel we packed up to leave for home.  We ate at a What-a-burger on the way.  We tried a McDonald's but they were closed.  We left around 1:00 and got home around 4:00.  Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled for 5 so we had a bit of time to collect ourselves.  I made a quick batch of molasses sugar cookies to bring.  I was going to make a cobbler type cake and cook it at her house while we ate, but she said her oven would probably be in use.  So I thought cookies would be good for the kids. 

Dinner was great, we had a fun time with the Seagers.  They had a nice formal dining table set up for the adults and the kids did pretty well on their own in the kitchen.  Another family came over for pie afterwards.  We started dinner kind of late, so we had pie a little too quickly I think, but it was fun to visit and try some different pies.  I felt bad that I didn't have time to make one, but the Rowley's brought a bunch. 

We just visited for quite awhile and the kids played upstairs.  It was a nice thanksgiving and probably warmer than we would have been camping. :)

Friday was nice to just be at home.  I got some shopping done online - I had done some earlier in the week too.  We got out all of the Christmas decorations and had fun putting the tree up.  The kids are getting to be better helpers.

Saturday we cleaned and did our normal things.  We decided to take advantage of the warmish weather and go to the beach.  Everyone had a blast playing in the sand.  Another mom with her boys came and joined us. 

I took Chris to a birthday party in the evening and I picked up a few things at Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Store.

It was a great Thanksgiving week.  Not looking forward to making lunches and getting up early again. :(