St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Vaughn is such a good daddy! If he saw a princess he would jump right in line to get a picture of him with them for Sammie! He also asked them to say a short message for Sam on his phone! They were so sweet and I'm sure they are told what to say, but it was cute that every single one of them called her Princess Sammie! If it was a boy character, Vaughn asked them to say hi to the boys! He is such a big kid himself, he fit right in!

Emily & Sophie, Jessica, Sarah, Magen, Emma and Vaughn

The third night we were in the Enchanted Garden for dinner. It was amazing! They have these light fixtures that open and bloom just like real flowers! Everything about the ship was just hi-tech and top of the line! We were so impressed!

The next morning we woke up in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands! After eating breakfast we disembarked the ship and took a taxi to Magens Bay. I have a niece with the name Magen. Her parents (David & Brenda) visited the beach on a vacation before she was born and loved the way that it was spelled. 

When we first got to the beach it was lightly raining and overcast. It blew over just as fast as it came and we got to enjoy the warm sun and the beautiful water!

See! Bright blue skies!

Sarah & Jessica

Everyone had a blast playing in the water and snorkeling!

Johnathan and Brooklyn playing.

After playing for a few hours, it was time to head back to the ship. And it was perfect timing too! As we were loading up in the taxi another little storm blew in and it was once again raining and overcast. I am sure that probably happens several times a day. Once we were loaded the taxi driver took us up to a popular lookout point and let us take as much time as we wanted.

Magens Bay from the top. 

Although you can't see it in my pictures it is shaped like a heart.

Mom & Dad Hixson

There were iguanas everywhere! 

This was just a few feet from where we were taking pictures. 

Uncle Ozzie

He's not a big fan of crowds or pictures.

But Aunt Jeannie is.

Our ship from a far

Our taxi

They convert normal pick up trucks into taxi's by removing the beds and adding all these seats. Pretty genius, I think!

Austin behind us!

Sarah, Magen, Jessica, Spencer in the back and Austin

Ozzie, Jeannie and Richard

It was so beautiful! 

Also seeing all the different ships. There were four in this little bay and two others on the other side of that little peninsula (or whatever it is called). 

We did a little shopping in downtown St. Thomas. We also bought some post cards, got them written, addressed and mailed for the kids. Knowing we would be home before they arrived, we still thought the kids would love getting mail. We had a great day in St. Thomas and took tons of pictures. 

Once we were back on we showered and got ready for dinner. 

That night "Pirates in the Carribbean"

We were in Royal Court for dinner that night.

I do not like seafood. At all. I have yet to have any seafood that I want to eat. Even with hating seafood I have made a point to try all different kinds, so that if there is something out there that I like I will find it someday! For dinner, Vaughn ordered scallops and he let me try a little bite. Still not a fan. 

There was a pirate party on one of the decks that we chose to skip out on, but everyone that went said it was a ton of fun! It must have been, because we had some very tired kiddos in our dining room!

Brooklyn and Ty 

Poor kids! They just partied their little hearts out and couldn't make it through dinner!

Captain Jack Sparrow

aka Johnathan!

He should have won a prize for his costume!

After dinner they had some entertainment on the deck that was pretty amazing! Disney definitely spares no expense of their shows!

Disney is the only cruise line that does fireworks off their ships. Out in the distance you could see other cruise liners.  I'm pretty sure they were hanging out for the show as well! How would you feel to be on one of the other ships and have them tell you, "if you want to see a show go to a deck and watch another ships fireworks!" Ha, I'd feel pretty jipped! 

While waiting on the deck for the fireworks and show to start I started noticing something really weird happening. As I was looking at the moon, I noticed that the moon was moving...and it wasn't going where it should have been going. It took a few minutes for us to figure it out, but the ship was slowly spinning! During the day we probably would have figured it out sooner, but with nothing to really get your bearings with, it seemed so weird! 

The next day they explained to everyone that they move the ship around to get it in an optimal position from the moon and how the wind is blowing. It was kind of cool to watch it. It didn't feel like we were moving and so it seemed like only the moon was moving. 

Sailing in the Open Sea

Once we set sail we had two full days at sea. It was so fun. I always thought I would be sitting on a deck reading book after book and relaxing if I ever went on a cruise. That was so not the case! There was so much to do on the ship! There were so many activities and movies and so much food to eat, and oh my goodness. I knew we were on a ship with tons of kids, but there were so many things going on that it hardly seemed like we saw any kids! The only time that we really were aware of kids was at dinner time. They have so many areas on there that keep them busy and there are even "kids only" places! 

Sunday, we all met together in a room named Outlook and had a Family Home Evening. It was nice to be together and it helped it seem more like the Sabbath. 

That night was the formal night. Our dinner was in Animator's Palate. It is so amazing the technology and entertainment they have on this ship. It was so much fun!  

Jason & Elizabeth

 For dinner we sat with either Jason and Elizabeth or Brenda and David. We love all of them and enjoyed sitting with them and catching up!

It was quite the party!!  

Almost everyone was up on their feet and enjoying the party!

Hixson Family Cruise 2013

This year we had the greatest opportunity to join Vaughn's family on a week long cruise! This cruise had been in the works for about a year and a half and we opted out of it. In the initial planning stages, we knew we would be having or have a new baby, and we didn't know if I would even be able to go, depending on how far along I was, or pay extra to take a baby with us. So we just put it out of our minds and forgot about it. At least I did. 

Fast forward to two weeks before the cruise. I had taken my bff's kids to their basketball games when Vaughn called. I was talking with a friend and didn't want to be rude, so I sent him to voicemail. He called again and again and finally I got a call from his brother, Aaron. At that point I knew I had better answer the phone. 

He had the craziest idea that we should go on the cruise. I was worried about Taysom and being away from him, since I am still nursing, but I told Vaughn we could make it work, if he REALLY wanted to go. 

The next two weeks it was a whirlwind of trying to find care for four kids! It was stressful, but we figured it out and we felt good about it. Taysom would be split between Malita and Tiffany. Malita on the weekends and Tiffany during the week. Malita stayed at our house and took Drew to and home from school. We took Mason and Sam down to my parents and they stayed with them for the week. I felt like this was the best option, so that not just one person was bombarded with four extra kids.  

We flew out early Friday morning. The trip was interesting. Trying to pump in an airport bathroom was really uncomfortable! I survived, but it nearly broke my heart each time I had to dump the milk. I think that was the hardest part about being away from Taysom. We flew from Salt Lake to Minneapolis and then on to Orlando.  

Once arriving in Orlando we board the Magical Express! The weather was so nice! It was in the 70's and it was so awesome to leave behind the snow and frozen rain in Idaho and Salt Lake. The cruise we were going on was the Disney Fantasy. The beautiful thing about Disney is we had these tags on the bags and the Disney employees takes care of your bags at every step of the way! They took them from the airport to our hotel room and were in our room waiting for us later that night! Then the next morning they took our bags from our room and took them directly to the ship and into our rooms! It was so hassle free! 

We stayed at the Art of Animation in Walt Disney World and it was amazing to see how they have incorporated so many movies into this hotel. There were so many cool things to look at and to see. I don't think we saw half of what they had. 

Jessica, Magen, Austin, McKay and Emma

This was the elephant cemetery from Lion King.  

Emma, McKay, Magen, Vaughn, Disney worker, David, Brenda, Austin and Jessica

This worker was beyond amazing! He found out that my nephew, Johnathan, had some homework that he had to turn in before losing the internet connection on the ship, and that he was having issues with the laptop, so he offered to let Johnathan come down to the back room where only employees are allowed and do his homework there! He also was asking us trivia and award us with stickers and even a couple of stuffed Disney characters! He definitely went above and beyond with customer services!  

Even though it was getting late in Orlando time, we decided we wanted to go and see Downtown Disney. We figured that we are only there for that night and why not go see what was down there. It made us parents feel like we were young again! Plus being with all the teenagers and young adults helped too!

Vaughn, me, Jessica, McKay, Brenda, David, Austin, Emma and Magen

On the shuttle to Downtown Disney. Once we were down there it it was pretty dark, but that didn't stop us from taking pictures and goofing off! We saw some really neat stuff and I am really glad that I convinced Vaughn to come with us. He wanted to stay at the hotel and go to bed, but I think he is glad he went.

One of Sam's favorite princesses!

Cinderella!! 

And her other favorite!

Sleeping Beauty!

While we were there some ate dinner and some ate dessert and we walked around a little more. Even though they didn't close for another hour or so, it was pretty dead. We decided that we probably should head back and get a little bit of sleep before waking up super early to get to the ship.

The next morning we woke up early (for our time at least) and met the rest of the family out front to catch our chartered bus to the ship. It was amazing to see all 32 of us and the amount of luggage that we all had!  

Mom and Dad Hixson 

Us!

I'm not going to lie. I was SUPER nervous about going on this cruise. I have never been on one and I have seen Titanic one too many times. I had full on panic attacks and had to remind myself to breath. I was so sure that we were going to end up on the bottom of the ocean. I tried to tell people not to pack so much, because the heavier the ship was, the faster we'd sink. Nobody listened. As we were driving to the ship I told my bil Chris that I was afraid it would sink and he said, "No, it's too big to sink." I said, "that's what they said about the Titanic!!" He probably thought I was kidding, but no. I was serious. I know it's lame to be so afraid of something like that, but man oh man. I was.  

The boarding process was so easy! I was so surprised! I thought we would be standing in lines for hours!! The longest line we stood in was to take a picture with Minnie with the replica of the ship! 

The entrance onto the ship was so cool! They had workers standing in two lines and as each family entered, they give you a warm welcome! I loved hearing, "Welcome Aboard Hixson Family!" The atrium was beautiful and very elegant. There were so many times that I  leaned over to Vaughn and said, "oh ______ (fill in one of our children's name) would love that! We definitely were missing our kids, but then seeing kids at the end of the day. Exhausted and throwing fits, made us not miss our kids. It definitely didn't look like a vacation for some of the parents with small children! Especially, if we would have had to go back to the cabin early each night for bed times we would have missed so much!

 Our cozy room!

 It really was a great size for the two of us and even if we brought a couple of the kids with us! Since ours was an inside cabin we had a video port hole. It really was amazing! Looking at the bed from this direction we really were facing the back of the ship, so our view was always the ship's wake. We peeked into a room facing the other way and it showed where the ship was going. It really was amazing and made the room feel so much bigger! 

While we were waiting for everyone to board we found the Eye Scream parlor! It had the absolute best strawberry ice cream! We found this comfy patio furniture and just sat and waited for the fun to really begin!

As we were leaving the port!  

The ships horn played several different tunes! It was awesome and so loud from where we were standing! Click on HERE to hear it. It is pretty amazing! 

Shortly after setting sail, it was time to go down for dinner. They had two assigned dinner times and we had the first one with all of the Hixson party. They have three restaurants on board and you rotate through them. Your servers rotate with you and so you really can get a good chance to get to know them!  

Sarah Jessica Parker

It's always been a joke that we needed to get a picture of all three of them, and we finally had them all together to do it!  

Our first night we were in the Royal Court. We were in a private room and it was so nice! The menu was definitely things that you don't get to eat every day. I told myself that I would step out of my box and try some of the different things. That night I tried duck, wild boar and rack of lamb. Some people may eat those all the time, but it was a new experience for me! I was surprised about the duck. It was surprising good. Which made me think...maybe the Robertson's on Duck Dynasty are on to something!!

After dinner we wanted to get a picture of everyone on the stairs in the atrium. Unfortunately, most people took off for one reason or another, so here is who was there. The obedient ones! Ha, just kidding!