The Carnival Dream

Even though we lost a day of our cruise we still had so much fun! The kids absolutely loved Camp Ocean and they did so many fun activities and crafts. They had pirate night, princess night, and superhero night. On the last night Atreyu was able to be in the main show with a bunch of the other kids. He did so good dancing!

The kids also loved the waterslides! They would've spent every free moment there if we would have let them.

Another highlight for the kids was going back to the room every night and seeing what towel animal the stateroom attendant had created.

It was fun being able to go on a cruise with so many people. It was our family, my mom and Angela, Eddie and Bernie, and John Paul and Nayda. I probably didn't relax as much as I would have if I hadn't brought kids, but I really enjoyed watching them and seeing all their excitement. 

New Orleans

As we were getting all ready for our cruise, a hurricane decided to form and was anticipated to hit New Orleans, the port we were sailing out of, very early on the day we were supposed to set sail. It caused the port to be closed so our cruise was delayed by a day. We were still able to fly into New Orleans, thankfully. We had a layover in Texas but we were able to stay on the same plane. The kids were able to talk with the pilot and sit in the cockpit.

All the stores and restaurants were closing to prepare for the storm soon after we flew in. We were lucky John Paul and Nayda brought us some Popeyes chicken before they closed. The kids had fun swimming with grandma as we waited for the hurricane, which ended up missing New Orleans.

I was a bit sad that we missed out on that extra day but it gave us the opportunity to visit the French Quarter in New Orleans. It was such an interesting place with some beautiful architecture. We had a good time exploring stores with voodoo dolls and Mardi Gras beads. One store had this cool painting on the ceiling. Just about everyone enjoyed eating gumbo and jambalaya. Me? I preferred the steak.

 We also went to Café du Monde and had beignets. They were so delicious!

Roger's Gardens

The last weekend in September I was able to go down to Rogers Gardens near Newport Beach with a couple gals from church. Maggie and I both love Harry Potter and the gardens had a Harry Potter theme for Halloween. It was fun just being able to get out with the girls and act way too silly. While we were at the gardens we met Mark Hoppus from Blink 182. We may have purchased "brain balls" for our boys and Maggie may have said "brain ball" to Mark Hoppus and he may have called them "gnarly". It was a lot of fun!