Disney Cruise... Part 3

{DAY 6}

a fun-filled Sea Day.

There was another round of "Mr. Toad's Wild Race"

It came down to the wire...

and then "winner" {our nemesis} pulled it out over Tayler.

I offered to buy the trophy from him.

He looked at me kind of funny.

I was serious.

We went back for family time in the kids club...

It was open house time so Lydia could go and we did "Mousketeers in Training".

Lydia loved it... Jadyn... did... NOT... want to be there!

We hung by the pool.

basically eating again.

And seeing these guys.

Then we went to "Friendship Rocks" for Kenna and Jadyn,

all the kids from their club performed a little dance and we watched a slide show.

After another fabulous dinner they went to find "Tinkerbell" with Peter Pan.

That's where Jadyn got her coveted pixie dust. :)

Fitting for a night with a show called "Dreams".

Once again an amazing Broadway style show!

We tried to get in on a few rounds of Mickey Mania.

And then the girls karaoked.

It was all kids.

It was honestly REALLY hard on the ears.

All except mine.

Seriously.

Tayler and Saige were definitely the oldest...

they tried to back out but in the end didn't.  They sounded amazing.

Kenna made friends with these two cute girls from California who were cousins that looked SO much alike.  They really hit it off and sounded great karaoking too!

She misses these girls. :(

That night Tayler and Saige went to Mickey Mania with their clubs.

And after... Tayler went to "Homecoming" under serious pressure from her parents.

She ended up having a good time and meeting lots of kids from around the country.

{DAY 7}

a day of paradise spent on an amazing island called...

... there's no other place on earth like Castaway Cay.

I want to live there.

It's gorgeous... Disney's private island.

And Disney just knows how to make everything perfect.

We got off the ship as soon as we could and stayed til' the ship was pulling out. :)

The weather was beautiful!

Which made the day even more perfect.

It looked a little like this...
Heaven...

Poppa took Tayler, Saige and Kenna out sailing...
They were impressed with his skills.

That's them...

While they were off sailing.

The rest of us ran into these guys.

And then it happened...

Jadyn touched a character!

Yippee, Yippee, Yippee

 And then... 

{GASP}

Let Mickey put his arm around her!!

Can you hear the happiness in my heart?

(but crying just a little that we lost that adorable hat of Lydia's on the island...  I guess we'll just have to go back and get it!)

It was then time for the Crab races and our last chance at a trophy...

We had 2 crabs and one came in 2nd...

the other was that big one in the center that never moved an inch.

He ate too much on the cruise I guess!!

  So we accepted the fact that we would NOT be having a Disney Cruise trophy in our home...  {don't go out and buy me one off ebay now, we've recovered.}

Castaway Cay was where we did our only organized excursion...

feeding and snorkeling with stingrays.

Kenna had a dream...

she had done a report on stingrays and she REALLY wanted to touch one.

We wanted to make that dream come true for her so payed for the over-priced excursion.

Only that dream turned into a nightmare when it came right down to it.

She did NOT like it... ONE... LITTLE... BIT.

There was screaming/crying some loud noises, and I'm not sure that she ever did actually "touch" the stingray.

We weren't really happy that she got out of the water and ran back for Grandma and Poppa to save her, but it made it more enjoyable for others doing this excursion I guess. :)

Poor girl... 

 We all enjoyed a yummy barbeque.

And more ice cream of course!

We were sad when we had to leave this beautiful place.

But we were getting hungry again I guess. ;)

We had our last dinner.

And our last Mickey Bars for a while.

      And said goodbye to our fun and very attentive waiters Sam and Antonio.

Then we were off to the final show,

"Remember the Magic!"

I teared up just a bit thinking of how time flies.

How we took our 1st Disney Cruise 8 years ago when Kenna was a 6 month old baby.

And then 4 years ago when Jadyn was 18 months.

And how my girls are just growing up before my eyes. {tear, tear}

And thinking of what a magical week it had been.

And how amazing it is that we have been able to experience this with my parents 3 times!

And we didn't know that we still had a magical experience coming up that night.

Earlier in the day we found this on our door. (and one for Tayler and Lydia too)

We weren't sure what it was,
we weren't sure how many were invited,
or why?

And then "Eric" greeted our family and maybe 4 other families (with 1 child each).  And told us that the characters jobs are to make this experience magical for the guests.
But that sometimes the guests make it magical for the characters and that we had been invited by one of the characters to have about 20 minutes with ALL of the characters... and ALL of the show performers...
it was amazing.

We assume it was "Belle" who loved our Lydia...
and said she didn't know if she could survive without those Lydia hugs.

But then it could have been "Ericka" a crew member (that we found out that night was actually a show performer) who we met while boarding the ship.  Who later saw and talked with Saige and thought she was the sweetest most mature 12 year old she had ever met.
And told Saige that she had called her husband and announced that she had just met the cutest family with 5 girls and that they NEEDED to have 5 girls.
She did say she had been watching our family and asked us for our stateroom numbers earlier in the week...

But either way it was wonderful to have that one on one time with all of them together.

 Hook was the one character that I promised Jadyn before we left that she did NOT have to get a picture with... I saw the fear in her eyes and didn't even ask her to get in the picture.

It was a perfect ending to a perfect week.

After a "short" night we took one last picture.

And ate one last breakfast.

Then got off the ship and realized we were missing Jadyn.

Oops, left her on the ship!

For real...

Tayler re-boarded and found her waiting patiently with a lady in the lobby.

The flight home was thankfully uneventful,

but the drive through the snowy canyon wasn't extremely enjoyable.

On a whole bunch of levels.

The girls are behind in their school work and slowly digging themselves out, we're all exceptionally hungry and craving desserts and more meals than we should have.

But it's nice to be home too.

Not saying I wouldn't repack and go back this weekend though...

Thanks again Mom and Dad for taking us.
You are truly the best.
They always tell us that they are, "spending our inheritance, while they can share it with us."
And I can't think of anything better than experiencing life with them now.
We'll be forever grateful!
Love you forever.
Thanks for the memories.