Fun on the Ship

 

 After the whole family had returned from our various excursions, we went up to the buffet to have lunch.  Look at all my healthy choices .... When you are on a cruise, you have to take full advantage of all the food they have for you at every turn, especially the dessert buffet!

Then we all headed to the Walt Disney Theater to watch Evie and Nora in a show they had been practicing for at their oceaner club.  They looked so excited to be up there!  Who wouldn't be excited to share a stage with Mickey and Minnie?

 

You can see Evie and Nora in this one.

 

Their little presentation was so cute!

 

Their adoring crowd of fans

 

After the Griffin girls' presentation we stayed in the theater for that night's show.  That night we saw Disney Dreams, the most spectacular show I have ever seen!  It was awarded the best cruise ship show out of all the cruise lines!!

 

Snow fell from the sky during the Beauty and the Beast segment

 

I know this is blurry but it gives you the idea of how detailed all the different segments were.  This is their performance of Under the Sea, bubbles filled the air during this number.

I loved the Aladdin segment!

 

I was blown away by the quality of the performance, it was completely magical in every way!  After the show, we all headed to our rooms to get ready for semi formal night for dinner.  Here is what I came up with for a semi formal look ...

 

 

 Nora had worked very hard on these cute cards for our servers and were excited to give them to them, since this was the last dinner we would have with them.

 

During dinner the servers put on a parade and held flags from all the different countries that they were from. I think there were like over 100 countries represented

 

Best dessert we had all week!

 

After dinner we all gathered in the Burton's room for a family game night.  We played Crappy Birthday, the kids' new favorite game.  It was giggles for days!

 

Jenny's face and Ben playing with a laser 

 

Love everything going on in this picture

 

I got to rock sweet Sammy to sleep in my arms, I adore sleepy, cuddly babies!

 

 A frog with chocolate eyes for us

 

 and a puppy for mom and dad

Adventure Karting in Ketchican

 

Our last Alaskan port was Ketchikan, and it is the only port where we had rain which I find quite remarkable!  The marina and little town were cute and quaint with their brightly colored houses.

 

 

The rain was actually a bonus for the excursion that Bethy and I had signed up for.  We went adventure carting through the Alaskan rain forest!  So, all the huge puddles of mud actually made our excursion a lot more fun and exciting!  When we arrived at the Adventure Cart Center, we got all suited up in our rain gear.  How hot are these outfits

 

 

After getting rain geared up, we got to pick our cart!  These carts are actually Israeli military carts that can go over 100 mph in the open desert!  

 

 

I got to be the first to drive!  So, after everyone was all strapped into their seats, it was time to take off up the road! The trail was full of all sorts of huge rocks and ginormous pot holes filled with muddy water, it was so fun splashing through them and getting completely covered in mud!

  

  

Within the first 5 minutes someone had something go wrong with their cart, so we all had to stop and wait for what seemed like forever!  Yes, those suits are hot as in attractive but they sure aren't anywhere near hot as in temperature!  I was fra -fra-freezing when we were just sitting there waiting!

 

 The scenery was just absolutely gorgeous!  So lush and green!

 

  

  

 Our first stop was at a look out point.  We all got out to enjoy the view and to learn a little bit more about Ketchikan from our guide.

  

 Not even half way done with the ride and our cart was filthy!  Lot of puddle splashin!

 

  

 

 

 

  

 Pickin up some speed!

 

 

 Our second stop and turn around point was at a small clearing that had a waterfall just a short walk up the road.  Here we stopped for the very filling snack of granola bars and bottled water and enjoyed our surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So, I thought this was interesting .... haha the wet side is actually the side that was inside the cart, not next to the "window/door" ... how did that happen?!

 

Bethy was super excited to drive us home

 

The ride home was a wet one, I got completely drenched!  We didn't have to stop as often so we could really pick up the speed coming down the trail!  Thank goodness for my huge overall pants.

 

My chin was the only part of my body that wasn't covered when I had my helmet on and visor down, so that is where I got mud all over!  I am so glad we had all that gear!

 

 After we got all cleaned up and returned all our rain gear, it was time to go back to town.  Our bus driver on the way back was the happiest go lucky kid I have ever met.  He just talked the entire 45 minute drive, about everything and anything, it was just like a never ending stream of consciousness.   He was really funny though so it made the ride enjoyable, his nick name was Ken because he looked exactly like the Ken barbie doll haha.

During one segment of Ken's ramblings, he talked about this candy store in town that was his favorite place to go and recommended the chocolate covered Oreos.  The way he talked about them it made me feel like my life wouldn't be complete if I didn't try some, so I really had no choice in the matter, I had to go and find me some of these famous chocolate covered Oreos!

 

I'm sure I don't need to tell y'all that they were delicious and I basically ate the entire box all by myself during the next couple of days....

 

 I had to race back to the ship because we had such an early departure to make sure we had enough time to sail to Victoria.  I had never seen the back of our boat until now, and I noticed Donald was back there painting the ship and one of his nephews was about to cut his rope!  Disney Details man, they are so fun.