Party (times 3!)

Saturday, January 26th: Triplets' Birthday Party

Keelin got to return to Inflatable Fun Factory for her friends, Emma, Alli, and Nate's birthday party.

 

 Emma, Alli, and Nate

Ace's Basketball Game

Friday, January 25th:  Holy Spirit field trip to the Lady Aces' basketball game.  Keelin got to sit in the front row and enjoy her first basketball game.

Ashlyn's 2nd Birthday

Our niece, Ashlyn, turned 2 on January 18th.  She had a Toy Story themed party at her grandma's house on Sunday, January 20th.  She is growing so fast!

Epiphany Dinner

Our annual faculty Epiphany dinner at Hornville Tavern.

My Birthday and Michigan

Drew and I (and the girls) had to leave for Michigan the morning after we returned home from the cruise (which was my birthday).  On the last day of our cruise, I found out that my Grandma Perry had passed away.

 

My birthday journal:  I went to work at 4:30am on a Sunday morning.  I spent 3 hours at work.  We drove in our SUV for 13 hours through rain, sleet, freezing rain, and snow!  We ended up stopping in Gaylord, MI to get a hotel room for the night.  The best part of my birthday was stopping to eat dinner at Bdubs (Drew's favorite restaurant), but they gave me a free HUGE brownie sundae.  I did share it with my daughters.

 

 Now that the girls are getting older, traveling is a bit easier when they can pull their own luggage!  We are leaving our hotel in Gaylord, MI.

 We arrived at my Grandma Planck's house before noon.  My mom had made me a cake in Evansville for my birthday and she traveled all the way to the UP with it so we could all celebrate my birthday.

 Keelin and I were asked to read the Responsorial Psalm at my grandma's funeral.  Keelin read the last verse all by herself.

 My grandma Planck taught me how to crochet when I was younger.  Keelin was eager to learn, so she spent some time working with Keelin.  (My dad had to share his footstool!)

The girls were troopers!  They did an awesome job in the car for 25+ hours with NO DVD player!  I went to hook it up in the car about 30 minutes into our trip and there was no cables in the case!  Fortunately, we did have a Nook and an Ipad Mini. 

The sky when we returned home on Wednesday.

Cruise Photo Book

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Our Cabin and Towel Friends

Our cabin was #6402

 Meet our towel friends who greeted us each day!

 (notice: the monkey is hanging in the first picture of our cabin.)

 This was NOT Drew's favorite! He walked into the room first and about backed up over me because it startled him so much.

Day at Sea

 

Friday, January 11th: Our last day at Sea

 We sat on the deck (in the same place as Monday) and relaxed.

Poto was our awesome server on the deck both Monday and Friday.  He made sure we stayed hydrated!

Grand Turk

Thursday, January 10th: Grand Turk, Turks and Cacaos

We went on a sail, snorkel, and beach excursion. 

 

 We were the only cruise ship in Grand Turk.  There was one long dock that came out into the water.  This port was very different from the other ports.  It was very small and beautiful! 

 After getting off the boat, we got on a catamaran that sailed us out to a coral reef.  We anchored and snorkeled for about 45 minutes.

 I snorkeled for about half the time.  There was too many people in a very small area.  The snorkeling was amazing.  After jumping into the water, I could see the bottom of the ocean about 15 feet below me.  I swam about 10 feet away from the boat and the drop off put me 7,000 feet from the bottom of the ocean.  The whole ledge/drop-off was a beautiful coral reef with beautiful fish.  If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the light blue water on the right change to dark blue on the left.

 Our captain calling all snorkelers to return to the boat.

Clay and Drew stayed in the water to whole time.

 On the trip back to our cruise ship, we anchored about 20 yards from shore.  We got off the boat and walked through the beautiful turquiose water to shore.  The picture below...that was our hike to shore.

 We had some extra time in Grand Turk before we had to get back on the ship.  We did some shopping and laid on the beach.

 We went to a "minute to win it" competition on the boat Wednesday evening.  One of the challenges was to drink down a can of Coke low enough to get the can to balance on its edge.  Since I was drinking a Coke after we got back on the ship, I had to try the challenge... SUCCESS!

 Thursday night was our second elegant evening. 

 

San Juan

Wednesday, January 9: San Juan

We did not do an excursion in San Juan.  We got off the boat and walked through the fort.  We also bought a wooden sea turtle for our wall at home.  We went for drinks at two places; one of them being Senior Frogs.