AHOY MATEYS!

After more then 2 years of planning, the cruise has come and gone. I really can't believe it's over. But it was a great time. Although Ron and I wished that Patrick was old enough to go to the Kids Club, and wasn't throwing fits every 5 minutes, we did what we could to enjoy ourselves. Mainly by getting out after Pat went to sleep and all the girls (Ally, Brittany, Alexis, and Emily) would hang out in our room. It was so wonderful to be able to spend quality time with my family. Our lives are so busy and we never really have the time anymore. It meant so much to me to be able to really get to know my nieces and nephews as adults, to have all of my brothers and sisters together laughing and having so much fun together.
Allyson had a great time with her cousins. They had a lot of freedom on the ship. The teen club was awesome. They loved being able to go eat lunch together in the restaurant with their boring parents, walk around the ship and do whatever they wanted. It was perfect for them.
Patrick liked the room and probably would have stayed in it the whole time if we didnt make him do things. He even came on stage the with me to sing karaoke. But most of all, he LOVED our waiter, Irwin. Irwin was THE BEST! He took such good care of Pat and was always one step ahead of him. He knew the food he liked, when to bring it, and what to do to make him smile. The last night on the ship, he kept hugging him. Even this morning, Patrick was asking when he was going to see Irwin. If we ever cruise again, I want to find this guy!
Bermuda was beautiful. We wish we had more time there, but have already talked about going back. THe people are so friendly and we never felt unsafe in any area.
I could go on and on about the trip, but in a nutshell it was wonderful.
My parents were so happy all week. Their party was a success. And my Dad was already trying to convince us to go on a cruise to Alaska next. (To which we all looked at him with the same "are you insane" loko on our faces.)
What I took away from this week was just how important family is. And that even though we are all quite different, and sometimes have issues with each other, we all love each other so much and I hope that we can all stay as close as we were this week.
There are over 150 pictures from our vacation. I am going to attempt to put up a slideshow, but I have them all on Snapfish, so I will send the link out.