Volume 22

SUNDAY NEWS
August 2, 2009

We are still recovering from our trip. Lori hasn’t even unpacked yet. Her suitcase is still down stairs. It was a lot of fun. We want to do it again.

Very Vayden
Vayden does not want to be left out of any conversations these days. When people are talking around her she starts gobbling like a turkey. Last night Lori called Karl on her ride home from work and Karl put Vayden on for Lori to say ‘Hi’. Vayden refused to give up the phone after that getting upset each time Karl tired to talk with Lori on the phone again. She is threatening to walk. Just last night she stood up by herself in the middle of the room and clapped her hands.

Completely Christian
The Victory has several pools and a giant water slide. Can you believe that Christian never went down the water slide? On the third day of our cruise Christian did something that prevented him from going swimming or getting wet for the entire rest of the trip. We have a new argument for Christian each time he is not listening. When he is not listening, we simply say, “Christian do you remember what can happen when you don’t listen?” He begrudgingly answers, “Yeah I know, I can end up with holes in my ball sack.” Obviously this needs a little explaining.



In Barbados everyone except Karl and Vayden went on an excursion that involved a submarine ride down to visit a coral reef and sunken ship. On the way back from the excursion Christian decided to climb a metal sign. Lori told him several times to get down or he might hurt himself. Christian as usual did not listen to his mother, and while sliding down the sign he came in contact with two sharp metal prongs. The prongs pierced his man sack completely through in two places. While we all felt bad for the guy, even his parents could not help but snicker when watching him walk after that. You have to picture Christian walking with a beach ball between his legs with locked legs like some kind of giant crab. He invoked many stares and a few comments. Some people must have thought he crapped his pants. It is hard to even discuss it without laughing.

After that Christian had to endure the humiliation of Lori’s inspection, Karl’s inspection, the ship’s nurse and then a very funny British on-call doctor who was called back from the ship to inspect Christian’s scrotal injuries. At Christian’s request, Karl accompanied Christian to the examination room with the doctor who had him lay down on a table and the put a giant spot light on the aforementioned area. The doctor taped the holes closed and sent Christian on his way with orders to keep it dry. The good news is that Christian recovered quickly and is back to normal. His parents now enjoy a very valuable pointed example now of what can happen when he doesn’t listen.

Really Roxy
Our little neighbor girl Cassandra came over each day and took care of Roxy while we were gone. We allowed Roxy to come inside through her doggie door since it was over 115 degrees the week we left. We did block off most of the house so she only had access to the kitchen area. Roxy must have been very upset at us for leaving her at home while we all went on a cruise. She reached up to a shelf in the kitchen and got a hold of Lori’s dried wedding bouquet and tore it into a thousand pieces. It was not a welcome sight when we got home late on Tuesday night, but we still love the little girl. Christian seemed to be far more upset than Lori. He has a sentimental streak in him. Roxy is glad to have us home. She is especially happy to see Christian who has been gone the longest and she missed the most.

Family Stories
Barbados – Submarine Ride
In Barbados everyone except Karl and Vayden went on an excursion that involved a submarine ride. The submarine dove down to depths off the shore of Barbados and visited a coral reef and sunken ship. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a sea turtle. It was after the submarine trip that Christians's famous climbing the sign incident occured in which he screwered his man sack.

Antigua – Horseback Riding on Runaway Beach
In Antigua, Lori and all three older girls went on an excursion to ride horses along Runaway Beach. They got to take the horses saddles off and ride the horses bareback in the surf.

St. Kitts – Train Ride and Monkeys
On the island of St. Kitts we boarded a train that traveled around the island. The train was once used to transport sugar cane. The train had a lower section that was air-conditioned and an upper section that was open. The island of St. Kitts is home to more monkeys than people and we saw some wild monkeys on the train ride. We also got some pictures with some of them while we were shopping.

Cruising the Food
Without a doubt one of the best parts of the cruise was the food. It is all free and you can eat as much as you want whenever you want. If you are too lazy to leave your cabin you can even order room service. There are two places on the pool deck where you can get hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, chicken strips, fries etc. There is a pizza place open 24 hours a day along with soft serve ice cream cones. The pizza place was frequented quite a bit by all of us. However Alyssa and Shelby were on a fist name basis with the pizza guy. There are various are buffets and Chinese food. There is also sushi and desserts. We ordered quite a few BLTs in the room with various desserts and cookies. We went to a show each night and the kids all ordered pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris, banana daiquiris and Brittney liked preferred to have a Miami Vice which was half pina colada and half strawberry daiquiri. There is also formal seating where you can order as much as you want off the menu. The formal seating menu changed every day, but there were things like There were pasta dishes, various sea food dishes, lobster, prime rib, steak, veal, lasagna, etc. There were also all kinds of appetizers and desserts. Christian ordered and ate an entire escargot appetizer one night.


Cruising the Shows
Each night there were one or more shows in the main lounge which is actually a very large theater for being on a ship. We watched dancing Broadway type shows, comedians, magic shows, a very funny juggler, played Bingo and watched passengers imitate famous recording artists in a show called Carnival Legends.