Day 3 -- Formal Dinner Night

It was our night to eat at Lumiere's, as in Beauty and the Beast. Kaci loved this restaurant because there was a a mural painted of Belle and the Beast so she felt like it was Belles restaurant. Kaci and Chase took a picture in front of the mural.

Kaci's favorite part of the meal was dessert. She always ordered the Mickey bar which is vanilla ice cream dipped in (a really good dark) chocolate. She even managed this night to keep her Cinderella dress clean.
I had a book about the cruise and it had said that on formal night a lot of little girls wore there princess gowns. So we packed her Cinderella gown, although Kaci wanted to pack Snow White and Belle also, and let her wear it on formal night. She looked so cute dressed up like Cinderella but the hit was her light up shoes.  FANCY!!
Here was one of the desserts that night. The show that night was The Golden Mickeys and they carried the theme through dinner.
Me and Kaci, although she is being shy for our picture.
Jackson was just bitter that he had to wear a tie but aren't these two handsome boys.
Here is Kaylee and her dad!
Grandma and Grandpa -- notice the diet coke with lemon!
The show after words was lots of fun. After the older kids went to their classes and got back to the room around 1 am. After Kaci fell asleep, we pulled out the Rook cards. I'm pretty sure the girls won!

Day 2 --Jackson's debut!

This juggler guy was awesome.  He made us laugh and could do the most incredible things while juggling.(and juggle some weird stuff -- tennis rackets, machete knives, kitchen sink etc.)  Jackson got pulled out of the audience to help on stage.  I only had my little camera to record so it is not the greatest but it is still fun to watch Jackson and his cruise ship acting debut.  

Day 2 - Key West

Grandpa wanted to go and see where Ernest Hemingway lived.  He left all of his money to his cats so they all live in his home and the caretakers take care of it and the tourists get to tour the home and see the cats. The kids didn't really care about who the guy was but they did enjoy searching for the over 30 cats that lived on the property. Kaci and Chase thought it was funny that this cat was sleeping on the bed.

Chase wanted some sunglasses and he chose these Mickey ones that open. Don't they just match Chase's personality perfectly!
We visited the southern most point of the U.S. and we were only 90 miles to Cuba, not that you could see it because it was not a clear day.  
Key West was fun but not a lot of beach and swimming time.  Mostly we walked around, shopped and enjoyed being outside on this beautiful but windy day!!

The Disney Princesses

The cruise was worth every penny when we saw Kaci's face the first time she saw the princesses. She was so excited! Every time we saw a princess (there were only 3 Cinderella, Snow White and Belle) we had to stop and talk to her and take a picture.  I bet 50 of our pictures are with Kaci and the princesses!

SNOW WHITE

BELLE

CINDERELLA

I'll spare you the other 47 pictures!

Day 2 -- Character Breakfast

Our first breakfast was the character breakfast.  The characters came from table to table signing autograph books and taking pictures with the kids. Notice how there are few character pictures with Jackson. I had to beg, plead and threaten to get the family ones with the characters.

These are supposed to be Goofy ears. The waitress made different napkin hats for the kids. Chase had a Peter Pan hat and Kaylee and Kaci had Minnie bows.  

Chase ordered the Mickey Waffle and Chocolate Chip pancakes.  YUM!!
Kaci loved kissing all of the characters. She tried to kiss one of the princesses on the lips. The poor lady just pointed to her cheek and Kaci kissed her there instead.  
Here is the man himself. 
Here is everyone with Goofy! The kids just loved seeing all of the characters!!

DISNEY CRUISE

Are you ready for vacation overload? I will spread it out over the next few days. We took about 600 pictures so I will spare you most of them. We had a great time and we were NOT ready to come back to the snow, school and work. I have 8 suitcases of dirty clothes and an empty fridge to clean and fill today. Trust me, I would much rather be on the beach, laying out, reading a book  and playing in the sand then doing house chores. I guess at some point you have to go back to normal life. Hope you enjoy reading about our trip.

Day 1 -- Getting on the boat

In the terminal while you are waiting to get on the ship, you go from line to line getting everything you need done.  The highlight for Kaci was her first (of many) sighting of Mickey and the gang!!  

Here is my favorite shot!  

She ran right over into Mickey's arms and gave him a big hug!
Here is Minnie!!
Chase was pretty excited too!!

After lunch on the ship, we headed to the top of the ship for the Anchors Away party starring the gang!!  Kaci was so excited to see everyone.

Here is the gang getting everyone excited to head out to sea.
Grandma and Grandpa Gardner came with us!  We are just about ready to leave.
It was REALLY WINDY that day.  We were hoping that the wind would quit but it didn't the WHOLE 7 DAYS!  At least it was warm and sunny and not snowing!!