Vacation! An Inauspicious Start.

For quite some time I have been wanting to go on a cruise.  I believe I have been talking about it for at least 10 years (I know it was considered as a honeymoon option).  But, I did not want to go with kids who were too little for the kids club and I did not want to leave them at home (it is one thing to be a quick drive away, another to be separated by an ocean).  When Kara reached the magical age of 3, it came up more frequently on my wishlist of things to do.  Thomas had almost zero interest, and I was happy to put it off.  Until...I found out I was pregnant.

 Hmmm, I think this is my first online mention of said pregnancy.  For those of you who didn't know, we are expecting.  What family can possibly be satisfied with a measly 3 children???  Apparently, not us, so a bouncing baby boy will be joining our family as it last addition in March.

Obviously, having a baby is exciting and wonderful.  But, the thought of putting off my dream cruise for another 4 years--not so much.  I wistfully visited the Disney Cruise website and saw something amazing--a fantastic last-minute booking deal!  I called Thomas and told him of this "way too good to pass up" offer, and being the loving, thoughtful husband he is, he indulged me. I booked the cruise.  We told the kids and began talking constantly about all the wonderful things we would do (well, the kids and I did, Thomas was a good sport, but was not nearly as excited as the kids and me).  We watched videos, looked at pictures, read trip reports (well, I read trip reports) and became experts on all things Disney cruise related.

Fast forward approximately one month.  The cruise was November 1-6, but we wanted to get to Miami the day before to ensure that there were no last-minute travel snafus.  On the 30th, Anna was not feeling well (she and Jack had passed around a virus), so I took her to the doctor to ensure she did not have strep throat.  She didn't, but I was still worried about people being sick.   On October 31st, everyone woke up feeling good, and I felt a huge sense of relief.  Our plan was to leave for the airport by 10.

Around 9, I was giving Kara a shower, when I heard a scream followed by Jack and Anna crying.  Hysterically.  Those who know Jack, know that he is pretty stoic when it comes to injuries, so I knew this was not going to be good.  Jack had been running in the hallway, when Anna ran out of our door and right into him.  The side of her head hit him just below the eye.  It immediately started swelling and looked awful. Being a baseball player, Thomas has seen his share of eye socket injuries, and we were worried that he had broken the bone.  It looked that awful.  Thomas got the ice pack while I did some quick internet searches.  We debated on whether or not we needed to go to the emergency room.  His vision was fine and he had zero interest in seeing a doctor, so we decided to travel as planned.  I figured the worst-case would be going to a hospital in Miami.  However, I was still really worried.  Jack kept reassuring us he was fine, but since he is 6, that wasn't all that reassuring.

These pictures do not really do it justice--it was awful!

For those wondering, Anna was fine.  Not even a bump, although I am sure it was very painful, because they must have collided hard.  She did end up scraping her knee and bleeding quite a bit, which was frightening to her and seemed to bother her more than her head did (I think she may have hit the doorway?  We're not sure.)

Obviously, all this made for a stressful morning.  Fortunately, we still made it to the airport with time to spare.  Everywhere we went people looked suspiciously at Thomas and I as they asked Jack what happened to his eye.  He was happy to point an accusing finger at Anna, who was quick to point out that it was an accident. After security, we decided to get some lunch.  Everyone wanted pizza, which was easy and pleasantly inexpensive for airport food.  By this time, Kara had begun freaking out about getting on the plane.  She was extremely nervous and begging us to just drive instead.  She was scared about how fast the plane went.  We told her she wouldn't even notice and that there were t.v.'s and snacks onboard and that if we drove we would miss the ship.  She reluctantly stopped crying and agreed to get on the plane.

Finally, we were on the plane.  Thank goodness for Jet Blue and their free DirecTV, it was very distracting and Kara barely noticed we took off.  The flight was uneventful (except I sat between the girls who talked constantly).  Primarily because of flight times (and because I really like Jet Blue), we had decided to fly into Fort Lauderdale, spend the night there (Homewood Suites) and then take a shuttle to Miami in the morning. We called the hotel and they sent their shuttle for us.  It was a quick ride to the hotel, which was nice, but not close to anything.  Fortunately, they were serving a reception dinner, which was surprisingly good.  Then, we walked around a bit and finally settled into our suite.  Everyone was very excited for the adventure that awaited us the following day.

We were still worried about Jack's eye, but he seemed completely fine, even though it really did look awful.