Final Vacation Pics & a Few Baby Shay Ones Too

Shayla with the crew on the second formal night.
My "cruise bargain". There were two formal nights on the cruise. Before the trip, I tried on the long dresses I owned. Shayla and I decided they were really out of style so we went shopping, but not with any luck. (Dresses, much less long dresses are hard to find right now.) Therefore, I went to Goodwill, tried on 30 or so dresses and bought the three that fit. When I came home Shayla said, "Why did you buy three? You only need two." When I said, "They were $5.00 each so I thought for an extra $5.00 I'd let you decide which two to take." She couldn't believe each dress was only $5.00. (I couldn't either!) While sitting at dinner on one of the two evenings, Shayla said, "Don't you just love formal nights?" It cracked me up! She really loved everything about our vacation.
Learning a dance, from the Royal Caribbean's dancers, to a song from "Wicked" in the kids' room.
Photo by Shay
Shayla with a former Olympic gymnast. (He was amazing!)
Shayla managed to make friends (imagine that, cough) with many little girls on the ship. We were grateful she had someone to play with. Here's a group of them getting ready to rock climb together.

Since a blogger asked.......We definitely prefer Royal Caribbean over Carnival. We felt the service and the food was MUCH better than on any of our previous Carnival cruises (three). Additionally, using the rock climbing wall every day, the ice skating rink many times and watching the most incredible ice skating shows we've ever seen only exist with Royal Caribbean. Shayne may not be much of a cruiser, but it's an ideal vacation for the gals! I'd love to go again next week, but trust me - there are no travels plans in our near or distant future.

Shayla had a great week at school. She was glad to be back with her friends. Getting all of her makeup work done and having musical practice many times this week kept her busy and made her happy. (Having a student teacher, who is a great student teacher, has been keeping me happy at work! I've also conducted three interviews for my dissertation and I've had a ball!) This morning, at skating lessons, Shayla was presented with the "Skater of the Year" award which shocked her. (We - bias parents - of course, were not surprised.) Currently, she's with Tiffany at a play at Heidelberg. She was really looking forward to that! Tomorrow, we will head to a "swap meet" in Findlay to try to buy all of Shayla's Western and English show clothes (and chaps) for this summer's horse competitions. We're also looking forward to going to that with Aunt Marty and Uncle Jeff. Sunday night will find "Webby" and his beautiful wife overnighting with us - can't wait!

Shayla with my mom and Joe (Grandma Nonee and Paw Paw Joe)
Baby Shayla in my arms, with big sissy Christi nearby. Christi liked to think she was so much older than Shayla, but really it was only 21 months.
Shayla being held by Shayne's Mom (Grandma Nee Nee)
Shayla being held by the lovely ladies who turned out to be her 3rd and her 4th grade teachers. She recently made some comment about how nice of them to come visiting all of the new babies that are born and I had to break the news to her that they're my friends, we taught in the same hall together, that's really why they came. She thought about that for a bit and then she said something like, "Well, I can just see them doing something like that. Can't you? They're the kind of people that love babies."
Shayla's 1st birthday party. With her great grandma and grandpa Fatler. (Grandpa died when we were treating in NYC in 2003 and living at the Ronald McDonald House. I didn't make it back for his funeral. He was so sweet! I miss him!)