Cruise Day 4- November 4th

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Cruise Day 4, Tuesday November 4^th

As I left off on my last message, I was up early this morning. I debated about going out on deck to see if I could watch the sunrise, but I hadn’t laid out my clothes the night before so I didn’t want to chance waking anyone. Good thing I didn’t bother as once we walked to breakfast, we could see it was very overcast out unfortunately.

We had another leisurely breakfast in the MDR. Olivia’s buddy from Croatia made sure he came by to wait on her and cut up her French toast! During our meal, we had 3 different ladies who came up to us to inquire if I was the gal from our roll call with all the kids. So it was nice to meet in person a few more people with whom I've chatted with online for many months. One of the ladies was a former homeschooling mom even (hers are since graduated).

There is a small window that passengers can look down on the bridge of the ship (where the ship is steered from). You can see the helipad in the front windows below the bridge.

After breakfast, we took Ava & Olivia up to their playroom on the 14^th floor as the gal in charge of their activities said she was going to do another craft with them today.  When they were done with the craft, she continued to play with them for about half an hour which was nice. During this time, the skies opened up and just started drenching the ship. At one point, Olivia stood on a chair in front of the big windows and said look, there’s water leaking. The gal overseeing them took a look and sure enough, there was a leak so she called maintenance that quickly came up to clean it up. The captain shared that the weather will remain like this for all of today sadly. So ya’ll should feel better we aren't soaking up any sun today (but it IS 72 degrees out! Ha)

Since it was raining, we were limited in what we could do with the little ones. The older kids headed to teen club so we just stayed in the playroom for a while. I went and got us some hot tea to bring up to the playroom and then read a magazine. I get a bunch of magazines free but rarely have time to read them at home so I stockpiled them and brought them along. Then I can throw the magazines away as I read them.

A view of the promenade that goes down the center of the ship.

Eventually we went for a walk all over the ship. I could see Ava was getting sleepy. Not surprising as she was up for the day around 6:50. We went to the Windjammer and grabbed some lunch to take back to the room for the girls. I was hoping that feeding them in a quieter environment would help chill them out to prep them for naps.

As I currently write at 1:30pm my time, BOTH little ones are OUT, woohoo!!! I nursed Ava & laid her down in her pack’n’play in our room then I cuddle up with Olivia to watch a movie on tv in the connecting room and she fell asleep. I am hoping Ava gets a good nap in as lately she has only napped in her stroller for short periods of time. While it stinks not being able to do much as I am limited in my room with a nightlight, and tv with Food Network on mute, I am using this time to journal and ordering room service for my lunch! Hey why not, it’s free so this momma might as well make the most of her alone time and eat in PEACE! lol Honey stung chicken & ranch dipping sauce, a side of sweet potato wedges as well as some spinach & artichoke dip, yum!

A photo of my food. Remember, I only had the light of the tv hence the dark pic! lol

Ava ended up sleeping almost 3 hours and Olivia slept about an hour and a half!!! Olivia & I spent some cuddle time together when she woke up while we waited for Ava to wake up. 

Olivia & I cuddling waiting for Ava to wake up.

About this time, we had asked the older kids to come back from clubs so they could babysit as our roll call was doing a group game that we wanted to participate in as we haven't done any activities since being on board. We had about 50 adults involved and our game had us going all over the ship. I came close to winning the game but lost. We had a great time though connecting with many and it was nice to have some adult time! I was busy with helping to run the game so I hadn't taken any pics. I asked around if anyone had taken any but seems like we were all having too much fun to remember to take any! By the time the game ended, it was almost time for dinner so we headed back to the room to get ready.

The only photos I seem to have of myself from the trip are the few selfies I took to prove I was actually there, ha! This is before dinner.

Unfortunately it was still raining so we didn't see any sunset from our dinner table tonight. After dinner, the older kids headed to clubs and I worked on packing our beach bag as tomorrow we FINALLY see land for the first time since Saturday! We will be visiting St. Maarten which is our 4^th time there (though it will be Ava’s first time on a beach ever!)

My delicious seafood appetizer

To entertain the littles tonight, Kevin & I went walking out on the promenade with them. We got stopped by 2 older gentlemen who asked to talk to us. The one man said he had wanted to talk to us for a while. Of course, then I started thinking uh-oh.  He stated that they sit 2 tables over from us during dinner and they noticed how well behaved our children are and he wanted to thank us for that. Both the men said they raised families and realize how tough that can be and they wanted to encourage us in that we are doing a good job and are thankful to see well behaved kids. Wow! It brought tears to my eyes and I was so blessed by their encouragement. Ava has struggled to sit through dinner some evenings and if she gets too antsy, we do remove her & walk around and I admit I was afraid those around us might mind this.

A photo of food in the windjammer. Every once in a while you see a creative food sculpture on display!

Once we got back from our walk, I went to the Windjammer to get Ava & Olivia a little snack. As much as I fought it, I got a few pieces of sushi. Again. HA!!! I pretty much avoid the elevator and walk many flights up & down each day. Just so I can splurge on the sushi! J

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All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.