Lost Ring

I am so sad!  Devastated.  So mad at myself.  I was about to walk out the door to head to church when I went to put on my wedding rings.  They weren’t there.  It dawned on me that I left them in our hotel room in Florida.  Oh no!  I called, they said they would look and call me back – but no one did.  I am not hopeful.  Maybe by some miracle I will find them in a random bag, but I don’t think so.  I remember when I took them off.  Mike said, “Don’t forget those.”  I replied, “How would I forget these?”  I am so lame!  How I wish that I had forgotten them on the Disney ship.  I probably would have gotten them back.  This hotel……I doubt it.  It all depends on who finds them.  Two diamond rings and a watch.  My wedding ring that I love.  It is beautiful.  My mom’s wedding ring.  The one my dad and I took off her finger right before they closed the casket.  The one I rub my thumb on constantly when I am missing her.  The one I planned to give to Maysen to use for her wedding ring.  How could it be lost so easily?  The last day I wore it was my birthday.  We drove from the Disney boat to our hotel.  I fiddled with the ring as I cried.  I thought about how much I missed her.  I thought about how she died in her 40s and now I am in my 40s.  I thought about how much I want to see her again and how I wished I had felt her presence at Matt’s wedding.  I thought about wishing I was brave enough to ask Elder Bednar if she was there, but I wasn’t so I will never know.  I thought about all my family gathered in the temple for my cousin’s wedding.  I thought about how he gets to have his mom there and Matt only had me.  I thought about how I am a horrible replacement for her.  I thought about how different my family would be if she were still alive.  I thought about my children having a grandma.  I thought about how much love they would have received from her.  I miss her so much.  Now my greatest treasure of the reminder of her life is gone.  And it is my fault.  Maybe a miracle will happen.  How will I tell my dad.

I’m so mad.  I wasn’t even going to take the rings on the trip.  The reason I did is because our back doors are still held up with duct tape from when Mike drove the golf cart through them.  I thought, “What if someone breaks into our house and takes my rings.”  Instead I just lost them.  Lovely.

I didn't do well at church.  We were sitting right up front, as usual.  I just couldn't keep the tears from coming.  It was pretty embarrassing.  I wanted to hide, but then I would have to walk out through the entire congregation, and that would be more embarrassing.  I just really, really, really want those rings back.  What a horrible way to end a fantastic vacation.

I'm still hoping I find the rings in some random bag, but that seems unlikely.  Why would I put them in a bag and not on my fingers.  I've gone through a few bags, but I'm almost scared to go through them all. What am I going to do if they aren't there?  So, so sad.  

Home Again

Now we are home.  We had three flights to get here.  It wasn’t so bad.  The weather was fine and the delays were minimal.  The kids did really well.  My dad met us at baggage claim.  When we got home our porch was filled to the brim!  We had a few neighbor gifts, but most of the things were for Stockton’s Eagle Project.  We also had four packages that were supposed to be delivered to our neighbor.  Oh boy.  Someone probably missed Christmas.  I took three of them to their house tonight, but no one was home.  I left them on their porch.  When I got home I found another package from them.

 Preston & Jorja

Stockton and Mike spent the rest of the day finishing up Stockton’s Eagle Project.  They went shopping for new toys for the nursery.  Now all Stockton needs is to get a few signatures tomorrow and he is done!  Hooray!

Stockton buying nursery toys for his Eagle Project

The First Day in my Forties

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!  I’m 40 years old!  Wow.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (That was written by Preston.)  We had an early breakfast where we got to see Aida and Adi one last time.  Sure wish we could take Aida home with us.  We got off the ship in the Daisy Duck group.  Found our luggage, found a taxi and headed to Fort Lauderdale.  When we started booking this trip I wasn’t excited about the idea of travelling home on my birthday, so we decided to stay one more day.  I wish I would have flown home instead.  I probably wouldn’t have made it to my cousin Jason’s wedding, but it would have been nice to be there.  I would have loved to see most of my family on my birthday!  That would have been fun.  Plus, I could have made Mike do everything.  Can you take Preston to the bathroom?  It’s my birthday.  Can you carry my bags?  It’s my birthday.  That could be fun.  Well, Mike helps a ton anyway, so it probably wouldn’t be much different.

Jorja left a towel creation, a note and chocolates for Ronaldo

 Now that I'm actually 40, Stockton tried to get another picture of me.

 Why am I laughing so hard?

Because Stockton looks ridiculous!

Stockton thought if he put the towel over his head

the glare on the number 40 would be reduced.  Haha!

 Preston and Shiver photobombing Stephanie's picture

It was hard to find a hotel in Fort Lauderdale at this time of year.  I wanted all of us to be together, and we were only staying for one night.  Most of the places were requiring at least a three night stay.  We got to our hotel around 11, but check-in time wasn’t until 3.  I was hoping we could still get in, but the previous guests hadn’t left yet.  There was a room in the back where the hotel let us put our luggage.  We were right on the beach.  I had put all our swimsuits in one bag, planning to wait on the beach.  It was a little overcast and none of the kids wanted to do that.  So, we did plan B.  We walked to a mall.  It was about 2 miles away.  The kids did great.  No complaining.  It was kind of fun.  We got pizza, Jamba Juice and Subway.  We then went to a movie theater and saw a dinosaur movie.  I slept through most of it.

Maysen, Preston, Stockton

 Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Jorja

We got back to the hotel around 4.  We were in room 1105.  It took us a bit to find it.  We couldn’t find the 11^th floor.  We got off on the 10^th and looked around.  Finally we got back in the elevator and hit the PH button.  Preston said PH stood for ‘pretty high’.  That was it.  Apparently I booked the pent house.  It was huge!  The kids were quite impressed.

Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Stockton

I have never been on a balcony so big!  It wrapped around the room and if you stood just right you could see the ocean.  The city lights were so beautiful at night.  I was really worried about this hotel.  I booked it on a random website.  Booking.com I think.  It sounded perfect.  Then I started looking into reviews from different sights.  They were not good! Made me even more worried.  The room worked out great for us, but I can see why there were many bad reviews.  The room was beautiful, but the upkeep is terrible.  There are cracks everywhere you look.  The place is falling apart.  At least we aren't picky.  The worst was the elevator though.  It was scary!  It made horrible sounds whenever you got in it.  The scariest one didn't even have an elevator inspection sign. Obviously. That thing never would have past!  I over heard two other people say they were never going to ride in it again because they had already been stuck in the elevator twice!  The less-scary elevator had an elevator inspection sign.  It expired in 2008.  We were on the 11th floor.  Oh boy.

Preston

 The sliver of ocean view

Mike and I walked to the McDonalds across the street and got the kids some food.  Stockton started feeling sick and ended up having a fever before bed.  I had brought some peppermint oil, so I put that on him every fifteen minutes.  He was so sweet.  Mike and I then went out looking for somewhere for us to eat.  Nothing sounded good.  We made our way to Winn-Dixie and picked up a few things.  We got breakfast for tomorrow and an ice cream cake for tonight.  The kids ate cake with me and then we watched Enchanted.  The kids went to bed after that.  Mike and I went to our bed and fell asleep watching the BYU/Washington game.  Fight Hunger Bowl.  When I saw the score in the morning I was glad I fell asleep!  That, in a nutshell, is how I spent my 40^th birthday.

The blue on the right is our room.  Crazy!

The Last Day in my Thirties

Today is our last full day on the boat.  BOO!  We are at Castaway Cay today.  Mike and I got up early and did the 5K run.  Mike was thrilled.  Haha!  No, he did great and it was nice to have him run with me.  As soon as we started I immediately realized that I have not been running in a LONG time!  It sure does use different muscles!  We did manage to run the entire thing without stopping!  Slow and steady.  We finished in 29 minutes and 10 seconds.  When we were lined up on the starting line someone asked if we would get a shirt when we finished.  They pointed to a gift shop where there were shirts you could buy.  Mike said, “Disney, where even the 5K ends in a gift shop.”  He got a lot of laughs out of that one.  This one girl said, “I’m going to remember that line for next time!”  The girl was one of the deaf interpreters.  There were two of them.  A girl and a bald headed man.  They were amazing!  Almost as fun to watch as the shows.  I wonder if they have them for every cruise, or only when they are needed.  I almost asked her, but lost my courage.

 Stephanie and Mike ~ post 5K

After the race we went back to the boat to collect the kids.  We rented bikes to ride around the island.  Mike went ahead with the older kids.  I stayed behind with Preston.  He was S-L-O-W!  It has been a long time since he has ridden a bike, so it took him a bit to not be really wobbly.  Plus, he talks non-stop!  It is pretty funny.  I don’t think he realizes how much he talks.  He will talk to himself when there is no one in the room.  He doesn’t believe he does it, but it is really funny!  Anyway, while he is riding the bike in his super wobbly state, these are the kind of things he is saying…. “It’s weird how know is just the word now with a K in front of it.  Don’t you think that is weird?”  Oh boy.  This is going to be a long ride!  We caught up to the rest of the family as they were coming out of the bike loop.  We headed toward the beach with them, but again we got left in the dust.  They had all turned back by the time Preston and I got to the end.  I was so disappointed because Mike had my phone, so I couldn’t take a picture!  Preston and I went to the lookout spot and it was beautiful!  Man I wanted a picture!  I was hoping Mike took a picture of the kids there, but they didn’t even stop to look.  They were all business with their bike riding.  Preston and I headed back and Mike found us right as we were entering the loop.  He had helped the other kids park their bikes and got them to the beach.  We rode the bike loop with Preston.  It was 5,000 feet.  Preston was so proud that he did it.  He told many, many people about it.  There was a lookout point here as well.  We got off and climbed the tower.  It wasn’t as beautiful as the first spot, but it was still pretty fun.

Maysen, Stockton, Jorja, Preston

You can see Goofy hanging off our boat.

 Stockton, Maysen and Jorja

 Mike

 Stephanie and Preston

 Stephanie

 Stephanie and Preston

 The view...
the other view was the beautiful blue you can barely see here.

 Stephanie & Preston ~ now that is my kind of view!

 Ummm, Preston...

 There we go.

I do not like the picture that I am posting below.  I don't like it because it looks like I am posing.  I try really hard to put pictures of me on my blog, even if it embarrasses me.  I know how much I love seeing any picture of my mom.  Even if it is blurry and grainy.  This blog is for my kids anyway.

Weird picture of Stephanie who is NOT posing!  

When we got back to the beach we found Jorja and Stockton burying Maysen in the sand.  Mike and I went with Preston to the water slides.  The ocean water was so cold!  I didn’t want to go in.  Mike said, “I ran the 5K with you, you can do this with me.”  It wasn’t bad once I dunked myself, but until I was brave enough to do that it was not pleasant!  The water slides were simple.  There were two slides.  One enclosed and one open.  Preston and I went down twice.  When you get to the end it drops you and there is no way you can keep your head above water.  Preston was required to wear a life vest.  I was glad he had one.

We left the water slides and went and found Maysen completely covered in sand.  Once she unburied herself we were back in the ocean.  There were a ton of fish swimming between our legs.  They blended in and were hard to see, but it was so fun!

Lunch was on the island.  The kids were so happy when they saw the soft serve ice cream machines there!  They love getting their own ice cream. 

Stockton & Jorja burying Maysen  

 Preston has now joined in on the fun

 Stockton, Preston, Maysen, Jorja

After a little more playing we headed back to the ship to clean up.  The kids let me get their picture taken in front of the sandmen and with Pluto.  Yay!  Maysen was in the bath for a long time before she asked me for help.  She said she tried to get the sand out of her hair, but couldn’t get all of it.  I scrubbed her hair for a long time.  I knew there was still sand in there, but I thought I got most of it out.  I probably did, but there was so much sand still left.  Wow.

 Preston, Jorja, Stephanie, Stockton, Maysen

 Captain Hook

 Preston, Jorja, Stephanie, Pluto, Maysen, Mike, Stockton

 Stephanie, Maysen & Jorja

I also convinced the kids to let me get their picture taken in front of the Mickey statue and the gingerbread house.  I even got a picture of the kids in their jammies in front of the Christmas tree!  Yes!

Preston, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton

 Preston, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Stephanie

 Preston, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Mike

 Jorja, Maysen, Preston, Stockton

We had dinner in Carabas tonight.  It was Brazilian themed.  I think just the costumes were Brazilian, because they didn’t have guarana.  The food was, of course, delicious.  This was our last night, so Preston kept hugging Aida.  He sure did love her!  Every time she walked by he would hug her.  I had the kids write a thank you note to give to one person.  Preston and Maysen both wrote theirs to Aida.  Jorja wrote hers to the Chefs.  We gave the note to the host, but he gave it back and had the chef come to our table so Jorja could give it to him.  Jorja was pretty embarrassed, but she did it.  Stockton wrote his to Ronaldo.  He cleaned our rooms and made us towel animals.  Jorja wanted to write another one to the Hot Chocolate lady.  Every day there is a lady who hands out hot chocolate and cookies.  It is so good!  Jorja and I would pick up a hot chocolate before dinner every day.  The others picked them up sometimes, but not everyday.  Stockton for some reason never wanted to try it.  I have no idea why.  Today Preston filled one cup up completely with marshmallows.  Oh boy.  He told the lady he would share the marshmallows with his family.  Preston passed the cup around and asked us each to take one.  How thoughtful.  I never figured out the hot chocolate lady’s name.  She was always wearing a scarf that covered her tag.

The waiters sang Happy Birthday to me at dinner.  My birthday is tomorrow, but I didn’t mind.  Today is my last day in my thirties.  I will be a lot older tomorrow!  They brought me a delicious chocolate cake.  I had already ordered dessert, so I did the responsible thing and ate them both.  Aida showed me what they do in Spain for birthdays.  She then pulled my ears one at a time, all the way up to 40.  It was pretty funny.  We will have to remember to do this to Aimee on her birthday!

Aida & Preston

 Aida & Maysen

 Stephanie & Preston with my birthday cake

 Stephanie ~ almost 40!

Our table number for the entire cruise was 40.  That is why I have a 40 stand thingy.  It was perfect.  We had great placement of our tables and awesome Adi & Aida.  Sure going to miss them!  Wish we could take a Spanish girl home.  They are lovely.

After dinner we let the kids look through the gift shop.  They were each allowed to pick one souvenir, and a couple of the kids still needed to get a present for our family name drawing.  (We planned on doing that last night, but everyone just wanted to fall into bed.)  Preston really wanted to get a Stitch Trouble game for Maysen.  I talked him out of it.  Stockton still needed to get Preston a present and decided to get that for him.  Preston got Maysen a Duffy the Disney Bear that she had her eye on. 

The show tonight was great!  Lots of Disney characters in this one.  I loved, loved, loved watching the sign language interpreters on this show!  They were so good!  They were even dancing with each other during the dancing parts.  It was funny to watch the bald guy pretending to be the fairy godmother.  Hilarious!

Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Jorja

Before bed we had the kids give their gifts to each other.  We did rock-paper-scissors to see who got to give their gift first.  Preston won.  Maysen loved the bear he gave her.  She said it reminds her of this trip and her trip to Japan.  Duffy the Disney Bear is HUGE in Japan!  You see him everywhere.  The Japanese people go crazy over him!  Plus, the bear Preston gave Maysen is super cuddly.  Perfect choice.

Preston, Duffy & Maysen

Maysen gave her gift to Jorja next.  She made her a key necklace in her Chemistry class.  It’s a key to our Georgia house.  She copper plated the key by dipping it in different things and running a battery through it…..or something like that.  Maysen also made one for her.  Matching sister necklaces. 

Jorja gave Stockton a zum and a Disney rubix cube.  Stockton then gave Preston the Trouble game.  I think everyone was happy with their gifts.

Mike and I (mostly Mike) have had a busy time packing up.  So sad this trip is coming to an end.  We have had a fantastic time!  I will end this post with a few random pictures of our room.

 The pillow faced this way every morning

and this way every night before bed.

 Our song

 The kids song

I think it is so fun that they have different lines from Disney songs in every room.  They sure have enough songs to pull from!