Here comes the Cruise

I have been super busy with piano festival stuff and our Blue and Gold Banquet this week. We also got a new computer, which also delayed me a bit. But I'm excited to start posting about our Disney Cruise. It won't all fit on one post, so here it goes.....

We were stressed when the worst ice storms since 1985 arrived the day we were supposed to leave for Houston. The airport was closed all morning but luckily our flight wasn't cancelled, just delayed. We arrived in Houston really late but were so excited it didn't matter. We decided we would spend the night in Houston and then drive to Galveston the following day. We waited in line for a long time for our rental car once we flew in. The people were really lame and the lady proudly told us that we could choose any car in the full size lot. I thought, gosh, that's nice. We will let the kids choose. Unfortunately there was only one and it was a total grandma car. The kids were laughing their heads off. Then we found one more that was a jeep. We made it to our hotel at 1:30 am and were exhausted. The next day was spent sleeping in, going to find some shorts for Savannah and meeting up with one of my mission friends. We got to Galveston in the evening and explored the city a little bit. It reminded me of what New Orleans would look like. There were a lot of people saying "sir" and ma'am". We got another hotel and got prepped for the Disney Cruise that would start the following day.

At the airport ready to go!

Ms. Savannah reading the paper while waiting for the flight

Notice the row of empty spots....and she happily said "pick any car you want in the full-size lot"....whatever!

Glad we found this car instead.

Laughing about the situation

I got on facebook and told Elder Suarez that I was in Houston because I remembered he lived there. Within about 20 minutes he left work and met us where we were shopping. We went with him to lunch at Olive Garden. We had some good laughs over mission memories. He is a cool guy. 

Chillin at the hotel 

I got on my droid and looked up "fun things to do in Galveston' .  LaKing's confectionery popped up as a place not to be missed. It is an old fashioned candy and ice cream shop. Everything is made homemade on sight. It was amazing!

Standing in front of rows of rows of candy and chocolate

Look how beautiful!

Ice Cream

This was called a sand dollar. It was kind of like a turtle with carmel, chocolate and nuts.

My girl found a horse to eat her ice cream cone on.

Yummy

I LOVE to read but don't get a chance to very often. When I go on vacation I always spend time reading.

They are cuddled up and can hardly wait for the cruise!

This is in the cruise terminal waiting for our number to be called so we can get on the ship. With all the people that would be boarding I was shocked at how seamless it went. The wait was short and all the check-in stuff was really organized.

Fun with Charli!

Kelsi and Charli stayed after the new year for a few extra days after Tom went back to school in Des Moines. Charli is such a cutie and I was hoping Mckenna and her would "hit it off"....it turned into more like "hit each other". LOL!  I know they will be good buddies some day! I know my kids have all felt threatened by the cousins who visit because they are used to having Grandma and Grandpa all by themselves. Sharing is also never easy when you are little. Whenever we talk to Mckenna about Charli now she says "Don't hit, Charli!". Here are a few pictures of one of the days when Charli came to play.

Peek-a-boo in the reading corner

Can you tell she is saying "CHEEEEEEEESE""

Wrong way, funny girl

When Charli was at the table with all of us she kept looking at each person and smiling. It was so cute.

Cool trick that her and Mckenna were doing with their spoons

Gotta make sure my baby still knows I love her even tho I love cousin Charli too!

Christmas

I almost hate to post this because I feel like I over did it on Christmas this year BUT it's always fun later on to remember what the kids got for Christmas.

Santa came and the presents are waiting for 4 happy kids!

Look at the dog for little M!

An Ipod touch for the music man

Savannah was a little less than enthusiastic about me taking pictures but she did let me snap a shot of her new movie "Napoleon Dynamite". Savannah also got a suitcase and money for clothes.

Brinley was in heaven with her horse and her new 3Ds.

A new baby doll for my sweet baby.

Christmas Eve

This year our Christmas Eve didn't go as planned. Mckenna started throwing up and my stomach was also really hurting. Kelsi and Tom were at my mom and dad's house so we really wanted to have a special dinner together. Powell bought a prime rib at Costco for the first time. We decided it would be best to still go ahead with our dinner assignments and they came and brought their food and we sent them ours. We had prime rib, mashed potatoes, pomegranate salad, green salad and rolls. It was delicious. We still opened our pjs and let the kids open their family gift. Their family gift this year was a DISNEY CRUISE.

We had the kids open up their passports. We explained to them what you need a passport for.....to go out of the country. Then we had them open up the brochure for the Disney cruise which had a picture of the Disney Magic Cruise ship on it. It was a great surprise.

Sick Girl

The fruit of the Gods is Pomegranates. I LOVE them.

Powell's masterpiece

opening the pjs

Even Powell got pjs this year!

modeling our new pjs

The whole family in our pjs!

Up to no good....

We tricked Heather into thinking we were "up to no good". We have a certain amount of hate for a certain person in Midway and we told Heather to bring her rotten eggs because we had a mission to accomplish. We told her we would pick her up at 10am to do our dirty work. We went to pick her up with our masks and hoodies on. We then surprised her by taking her for an early birthday lunch and pedicure. She had never had one so it was lots of fun.

Can you recognize us? Heather was laughing so hard when she saw us on her porch I thought she was going to pee her pants!

Felt so good!

The beautiful toes

Lunch at Baja Cantina.

GrandTom and Grandma Carrie

 We always love to have James up for dinner when he comes for the holidays. He is in medical school in Philadelphia so we don't see him very often. He came a little early so him and Powell could go shooting. I wish I had a picture of them together....

James looks pretty tough! Powell painted his gun to look like camo....pretty cool and crafty.

 One other Christmas tradition we have with the Harrison's is to make gingerbread houses. This year they decorated sugar cookies to make things more simple since GrandTom has cancer. Before they decorated cookies they had Burger King lunch, which is GrandTom's favorite. I guess Powell didn't get any pictures of the decorated cookies.....oh well!

I just love this picture of GrandTom feeding Mckenna a fry.

Little Mckenna with her chicken nuggets.

Isn't this a cute picture of Grandma Carrie's hair? She muts be doing a curl with a barrette? I'm not sure.

Enjoying the feast

Hunter performing for them

Mckenna doing a letter toy with Grandma Carrie