Sunday, May 23, 2010

cruise day 2





This morning I was awake before Dennis was (not usual), and when he woke up, he asked "can I go to Camp Carnival today?". I told him it was closed until after breakfast and asked if he would like some pancakes. He said "let's go to breakfast and have pancakes and sausage and roast beef, and then we can go swimming!". And that is what we did, except for the roast beef part. Allison and the Gallmans joined us at the pool and we had a great time swimming and sunning. Dennis jumped in a number of times and tried to convince Chloe that it wasn't scary ("come on, Chloe, it's fine, you'll be fine--come on, Chloe, let's jump in together!") but she wasn't having any of it. She was in the water, sure, but she felt safer when she could hold on to someone. She very cutely showed off her princess bathing suit, and then, after we got out, carefully spread out a towel for herself on the lounge chair. The Daddies took them up to Camp and we girls got some chat time, and when they returned, we had a nice time visiting with each other and with Gigi. Dave and I took some turns on the Twister waterslide--very fun--and then it was time to dry out and change and go get the kids and have lunch. After lunch, the Daddies took the kids up to camp to a build-a-bear event, and when they met back up with Ellen and Allison and me, Chloe was clutching a frog in a cute dress and Dennis was holding a dog dressed as a pirate. He says the dog's name is Bogey (presumably named for Uncle Kim's dog). We all took an afternoon siesta before getting dressed up for formal night.

Dressing for formal night was challenging. Both David and Dennis were wearing tuxedos and we had the usual last minute "does anyone have a safety pin?" panic moments (thank you, Ellen, you ROCK, and I have never seen so many safety pins in one place!). My hair apparently does not love salt water, sun, and wind, and it took gobs of conditioner to make it behave at least as well as usual. But we got all dressed up and posed for pictures and enjoyed lobster and prime rib, stuffed mushrooms, cherries jubilee, etc (not all of us ate all dishes, lest you think it was a gorge fest...), and the kids had their favorite chicken nuggets and fries and 'white' ice cream (Chloe's term; Dennis used to call it 'vanilla'). They were so cute at dinner sitting next to each other and talking, and the waiter picked up Chloe and carted her away for a dance when the waiters did their dinner show.

They went to Camp Carnival while the rest of us went to a show and afterward Chloe came to play with Dennis in our room while her parents had a mini-date. Oh, the conversations they had! "Look, Chloe, I have a new cruise ship playset and you will have so much fun playing with it!" to which Chloe replied "where did you buy that? I want one, too." And, when she spied Dennis' bed asked "Does Dennis sleep all the way up there in that bed with the ladder? My bed doesn't have a ladder." Dennis was concerned, asking "your bed doesn't have a ladder? How do you get up there?" to which she replied "well, it's a little bed and it doesn't really need a ladder." They talked and played, moving the aforementioned cruise ship playset to the top bunk, then to our bed, then to the floor--well, they actually asked David to keep moving it for them--and they were so well behaved! They were enjoying looking at the digital pics from tonight on the computer and kept asking me to take pictures of their toys, so we got out Dennis' camera and taught Chloe how to use it. She was fascinated, saying "look! It took a picture!" and then closely examining it and saying "I don't have a camera yet" (the 'yet' tickled David and me). Dennis said "you'll probably get one". They said so many cute and wonderful things in such a short span of time that I wish I'd been video taping the whole visit, but I was mainly impressed at how grown up their conversations were compared to just a few months ago. Gosh they are growing up so fast! Chloe will turn three tomorrow! Tomorrow we'll be in Progreso, Mexico, where Allison says we'll get soup (ha ha).

I think you can click on the pictures to see them larger...

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