Monday, November 17, 2008

Where have you been?!!

So I kind of forgot to tell anyone--except the people who were taking us to the airport--that Derek and I were going on a family cruise this last week.  Sorry everybody!  I tried to pre-post for the whole week, but I ran out of time.

This week for your enjoyment and for my record keeping needs, I'll be posting day by day what we did.  It was a ton of fun for us for two reasons, we LOVE to travel, and we LOVE to hang out with Derek's brothers and their wives.  The whole week we were trying to invent some word that meant "Derek's brothers and their wives" because "Derek's brothers and their wives" is too long and hard to say.  The best thing I could think of was "Chibrives" and that obviously stunk so I quit thinking about it.

November 9th
Our flight left Boise going to Ft. Lauderdale via Seattle (I know, CRAZY, right?!) and Atlanta at 9:30 PM.  I purposely picked an overnight flight because one, it was cheaper, and two, we wouldn't be wasting day time.  I mean, what do you do on a plane anyway?  Sleep!

Thanks to the Tuft family for taking us to the airport!  It was really nice of them and even though Boston screamed and cried half the way there (Nathan dropped him and Shauna off at Gma and Gpa's house part way through), it was way cute in a really pathetic baby's-got-a-cold sort of way.

November 10th
Our flights went pretty well, or as well as overnight flights go.  Daryl and Kim came to pick us up the next morning and the four of us found a nice beach to spend time at.  The weather was SO NICE!  I was genuinely shocked at the heat!  I had heard of places that were warm year round.  I've seen them in movies and television (Ernest Saves Christmas comes to mind), but I never personally experienced it.

The beach was pretty and it was just fun to hang out, talk and spend time together.  Here's some pictures...

 Derek on the street right next to the beach.

 
 Palm trees, obviously..
 
I tried and tried and tried to get a decent picture of a little bird digging for food.  It was hard because the sun was bright and I had sunglasses on, making it hard to see the little screen on the back of my camera.
 
Derek and a palm tree on the beach
 
Another palm tree.  I think I need one in my yard.  Do you think they'll grow in Idaho?

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures with Daryl and Kim.  Maybe they have some of themselves on the beach they would like to share? *Hint hint*

We met the rest of our family group at the dock around 1:30 or 2:00 PM that day.  All the passengers needed to be boarded on the ship by 3:30 for some official reason.  It was great to see everybody!  Four of the Cheney brothers were able to make it on this vacation, Doug and Melanie, Daryl and Kim, Daryn and Becca, and Derek and me.

We were--or I should say I was, Derek never stresses about anything--a little stressed getting on board because before we left, we weren't scheduled to sit with the rest of the Cheney clan at dinner time which really stunk because that is the best quality chat time on the boat.  Plus, I wasn't on the ball and didn't schedule our excursion online early enough.  After boarding, it was first come, first serve for the tickets. So we rushed on and got everything taken care of easily.  No need to stress.  I had called ahead about the seating thing a few days earlier and they had already taken care of it.

 
Us on the boat after getting nicer looking


The rest of the afternoon was spent being oriented by the cruise staff, getting to our staterooms, completing a muster drill (It was quite an experience! Almost worth its own post.  We'll see...), getting showered (at least Derek and I, because we took an overnight flight, it had been 24 hrs since our last showers), and getting ready for dinner.  Fortunately, all eight of us were seated together at our own table!

Let me tell you, a cruise is worth it just for the food!  Great stuff and you can try everything on the menu because the cost is included in the ticket price!  Our servers, Devang Agrawal from India and Mauricio Gonzales from Panama (?) were so friendly and nice.

About half-way through the meal, I started getting really sleepy.  Really, REALLY sleepy!  I was trying not to blink because when I did, I fell asleep a little each time.  By the time we were finished eating, I was ready for bed.  I didn't know if I'd be able to make it through dessert!

After eating, I tried to go to the comedy show, but that didn't work.  It wasn't all that funny and I was tired!  I think I was asleep by 7:30.  I'm not quite sure what everybody else did.  Derek said that most people did their own thing and went to bed early.

Great first day!

Tomorrow, Key West!!!

2 comments:

  1. Are you doing this to make us all jealous! But I'm still happy you got to go!

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  2. Oh, I so want to go on a cruise! Your comment about if a palm tree would grow in Idaho made me laugh, because I had a roommate from Idaho. One weekend we drove to Vegas and she freaked out when she saw a Palm Tree for the FIRST time.

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