Disney Cruise Vacation

Well we are back in the "real world" now (cooking, cleaning, laundry, work...yuck!)
The trip was amazing! I'll try to be brief, but there is so much to tell, and Laurin could add pages and pages.
We arrived in Port Canaveral in time to walk on the boat and start our vacation right away. Our cabin wasn't huge by any means, but there was plenty of room for everything. Mickey (or one of his representatives:-) had delivered gift baskets for Laurin (Sand toys and treats) and for Ron (bag, t-shirt and treats for his birthday). We checked in to the Kids' club and could tell that would be a big hit with Laurin. There was something scheduled for her from 8 am to 2 am everyday. She would only have to be in the room to sleep.
We received a message that our dining table was switched and that turned out to be the best thing on the cruise. They matched us with a family with a 10 year old (just turning 10 on the trip) girl. Alyssa and Laurin had a great time together, and Ron and I truly enjoyed hanging out with Rich, Stormy and 2 year-old Abby. I think we will all have new pen pals in Florida.
The cruise had plenty of activities to keep one busy, but there was also time for relaxing and reading. They offered Disney style Shows almost every night and even played "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" for us...that had only been in the theaters a week or so. Great to have connections. The weather was great. A little rocky at the start, so Ron and Laurin experienced a tiny bit of seasickness, but it wasn't too bad. As the days passed, we kept hearing of Hurricane Omar from the Captain and Crew. Turned out that Omar cancelled our stop in St. Thomas, but in true Disney fashion they went right with Plan B and we headed to Nassau. That turned out to be another good change in that we were closer to Castaway Cay so we got more time to spend there on the last day of the cruise. For those who don't know, Castaway Cay is Disney's private island and it was Amazing! Beautiful beaches, clear blue water, plenty of chairs and shade (needed by me). Definitely the perfect ending to a perfect trip.
We had to be off the boat by 9:00 am on Sat. morning, so we headed right to the Dolphin Hotel at DisneyWorld. That was an incredible place to stay as well, but we were all still remembering the Boat so being at the hotel was kind of a let down....even though we were still at Disney.
The days at the hotel were spent relaxing more and then on Sunday evening we went to the Magic Kingdom for "Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party." We got to Trick or Treat at Disney....how cool is that?! The park stayed open until Midnight and there were lots of fun activities.
Monday morning, Ron started his conference so Laurin and I went to Hollywoood Studios on our own. Had a great time riding the new Toy Story Mania ride, but the High School Musical show wasn't playing so I was a bit disappointed. Also, the Backlot Tour was having technical difficulties so we didn't get to do that ride either.
Laurin and I came home Tuesday evening and Ron stayed to finish the conference. He got home Wed. evening.
Now Ron and I are catching up with work, Laurin is catching up with school and we are looking at pictures to remind us of our great vacation.
We highly recommend the Disney Cruise and in fact, already made reservations for a 10 day cruise in Dec. 2010. Check your calendars to see if you are available Dec. 29, 2010 - Jan. 8, 2011 and join us!

First View of the boat

Start of the trip pics

Bus from the airport to the Boat

In the terminal prior to boarding

Sail away party

Pics from Castaway Cay

Arriving at Castaway Cay

Laurin and the Ocean (before)

Laurin and the Ocean (after) - she didn't like the taste:-)

Feeding the Stingrays

Saying Goodbye to Castaway Cay

I hope these links work....they are to the albums of our pictures in Kodak Gallery. I will probably still send out an email with an "invitation" to view the Gallery.
Smaller album (70+ pics)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=32919162110&collid=32919162110.636651603210.1224856660140&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0
Complete Album (250+ pics)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=32919162110&collid=32919162110.674084503210.1224856606613&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Back from visiting Mickey

Laurin and I are back home. Ron has one more day in Orlando. The cruise was amazing and our three days at Disney World weren't to shabby either.
I will have pictures posted this weekend (or at least a link to them because I don't think you want all 200+ here on the blog:-) On the off chance I can get all the laundry done and the mail sorted, maybe I will get to it sooner.
More to come.......

Happy Birthday Papa

Happy Birthday Papa! I hope you have a good one. Party time in St. Louis.

Here is a cake for you. Be sure to share.

Cruisin'

Mendelsohn's are taking a vacation! There probably won't be any updates until we return from our trip to Disney. 7 days on the Disney Magic and then 3 days at Disney World. We are all very excited. Of course Laurin won't get to do anything fun because she will have to spend her time doing all the school work she will be missing. I know I will lose my Mother of the Year award by taking her out of school for 6 days, but at least she is only in 3rd grade....probably the last year I would have even considered it.

We'll let you know how it goes and post pictures when we return.

M-I-C...See you real soon!

Caught up

O.K.  Hopefully that is enough to get us caught up.  I'm not sure how often this will be updated, hopefully we can maintain it at least once a week.  And I say we, because I can almost guarantee that Laurin will take over the Blogging.  Ron and I are both pretty computer literate (have to be, our jobs depend on it), but let me just say that Laurin has pretty much surpassed us with what she knows at her age.  She went to College for Kids this summer and attended a Web Masters class and is ready to be "published."  Rather than invest in Microsoft Publisher, hopefully this blog site will keep her happy.

Re-living the past: Mom's new job

Had to put in some news about me (though you'll notice there are no pictures).

I received a nice promotion in July. I moved up from the Registrar at Coble Middle School to the "PEIMS Data Analyst" for the district. PEIMS is the Public Education Information Management System, and in Texas it is a big deal (as I am quickly learning).

Re-living the past: First Day of Third Grade

Laurin started 3rd Grade on Aug. 25th.  Where does the time go?  The memories of Kindergarten are still fresh in my mind.

3rd grade has gotten off to a great start!  She was picked for the Spelling Bee and already has an individual study project to complete.  She is doing a report on Jonas Salk, so anyone with information on the discovery of the Polio vaccine, feel free to pass it on.

She loves her teacher (and so do I).  We're looking forward to a great year.

Of course, third grade is proving to be much more difficult....you know, with homework and all....but Laurin is up to the challenge.  Third grade is the first year for TAKS testing (statewide tests) and in the third grade, they have to pass the reading portion to move on to 4th; so Laurin is already nervous about it.  

Re-living the past: Aug. '08 - Black Belt

Ron earned his black belt this summer. It has been about three years in the works, and finally completed. Now that he has completed his black belt, he is helping the "lower belts" earn theirs.

Re-living the past: Summer 2008 - Swim team

Laurin had a great time with her summer swim team.  Since she is still swimming in the 8 and Under group, she earned a lot of 1st place ribbons, and even a bronze medal in the Championship Meet.  Next summer may be a different story when she moves up with the older girls.

I know Grandpa has lots of video footage, but I had a hard time finding any still pictures.

Her success in the pool and the Olympic inspiration helped her decide to be a "future Olympic medalist" for Halloween.

She also started back with the Mansfield Aquatic Center swim team in September, so hopefully there will be meet results and ribbon counts to post as the school year goes on.

Re-living the past: July '08 - Time to get ears pierced

Laurin finally decided it was time to get her ears pierced.  She agreed one evening we were at the Mall at Club Libby Lu, but we found out she wouldn't be able to swim for three days and she had the summer Championships that weekend.....I think she was relieved.

But we went up the day after the meet and got it done.

Now she wonders why she waited so long.

Re-living the past: Feb. '08 - Talent Show

I'll try to catch you up on the exciting things that have happened in the past....but I promise that I won't go too far back.

Lat Feb. Laurin got to perform in her school talent show.  It was quite a production.  Laurin and her Grandpa rewrote lyrics to Carrie Underwood's "Young and Beautiful," to come up with "While We're Young at Brockett School."  It was a hit.  If I can figure out how to post video, I'll put a link here.  We can always burn you copy of the CD if you want.

Club Libby Lu-do and talent show pics

Time to join the bandwagon

Well after enjoying everyones blogs so much, I figured it was time to do one for the Mendelsohn family. We used to have a web page when Laurin was a baby, but once the pictures started slowing down so did the posting.
Time to get going again to keep you all updated....
Now to go hunt for old pictures so I have something interesting to post.