Mediterranean Cruise - Day 1, Hurry up and wait some more

note:  James and the boys each kept journals on this trip, so the narrative won't just be me anymore!  Italics will indicate when it's text from one of them

The flight over to Europe is never really an enjoyable experience.  You have the anticipation of the upcoming trip to sustain you, but there's also the anxiety of knowing you MUST sleep but not really being tired enough or comfortable enough to do so!  We all watched at least one movie before trying to settle in for the night.  Rudy was my seat buddy and was really squirmy.  I told him I was going to start calling him Sir Squirmy.  

The plane was pretty empty, so we were able to spread out pretty well.  Brady and Rudy ended up stretched across three coach seats, but I don't think anybody really slept well. - James

Finally...we landed in Barcelona!  The anticipation for this trip was less than some of our others, since it was planned relatively last minute.  Even so, we were definitely ready to get started.  

Yesterday we got on a plane at 4:45 and got off this morning at 7:00.  yeah, it was a long ride but, Who cares?  We're in Barcelona about to go on an 11 day Medittearian cruise!  -Brady

We landed about 7:00 am and unloaded right onto the tarmac.  There was a nice sunrise coming up behind the control tower which looked cool.  We rode the shuttle bus to the airport and worked our way through immigration and met our driver.  We found out our ATM card won't work and I got in trouble for not bringing mine.  Whoops."  -James

I had booked the transfer through Barcelona Taxi.  I'm always a little nervous with these bookings that I make based solely on online reviews and research, but this one was a win.  The driver was waiting for us just outside of customs with our name on a sign.  The cost was about a third of what we would have paid to transfer through Holland America, even after the driver couldn't make change and got an extra 10€.  I'm sure that wasn't the first time he's found himself in that situation, but since it was still so much cheaper, I tried not to get too irritated by it.  

We had landed around 7 am.  We got to the port by 10:00 am and waited in the security line.  Then we waited in another room for check in to open.  We were able to check in, but then we had to wait another hour to actually board the ship just before noon.   

Ohio visit - Grandma's 95th birthday party

Grandma's party was at a park in Vermilion.  The weather cooperated again, and we had a chance to walk over to the beach until everyone arrived.  After dinner, we played a highly competitive round of Minute-to-Win-It games:

Cereal bracelets and cotton ball transfer

Nut Stacker and Dice Stack

Marshmallow Toss and Noodle Pick Up

M&M movers and Sticky balls

Blow it off and Unwrap It

Bill and Debra organized a Family Feud game.  (We were cheated!)

After cake and pie, we had to wrap it up to head over for our sunset cruise!

Rudy's ninth birthday party

Despite my best efforts to talk Rudy into a party somewhere besides home, he was insistent on a pool party sleepover.  I'm a sucker for some of these kids, so we ended up with five extra kids spending the night.  They are a pretty good bunch and, aside from a few who found potty humor way more amusing than I did, we had a great time.  

Ben, Cooper, Brady, Mary Emma, Nathan, Rudy, and Tanner:

Twinsies!

We had some time to kill after the pool but before the pizza was ready.  I'm wide enough to know that seven unsupervised kids wound up for a birthday party can be trouble.  I've got a standby bag of Minute to Win It games for just such occasions!

Pizza, then presents...

A few rounds of spoons before cake:

Rudy had a hard time deciding what kind of cake he wanted.  First, he thought he wanted one that looked like the Tomorrowland pin, but then he started thinking about his guests.  Mary Emma doesn't like cake, and Tanner is allergic to eggs.  Finally, Rudy thought of an ice-cream-sandwich cake, which was perfect:  super easy for me to make and each of his guests liked it!

Finally, settled in to watch the movie:

Overall, it went well.  They were WORN out because there was no chit chat after we called lights out!

Aircraft Carrier Birthday Party

Brady decided on an aircraft carrier party this year.  We had taken a tour previously and also went on the USS Midway in California on vacation in February, so he was inspired to share the experience with his friends.  The weather definitely did not cooperate; the skies opened up before we could visit the flight deck and the rain poured down all afternoon.  We had planned to have a pool party at Oma and Papa's but had to change that on the fly and pull out some of our old Minute-to-Win-It Games.

Headed to the carrier:

With airman George H. W. Bush...