Here comes the Huffeldinks.....

Well we are back and we had a really good time. I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of our cruise. So to begin I need to start with the title of the blog. We reached the ship early on Sunday afternoon and as we walked on board a member of the crew asks for your family name so that they can announce each family. Now a couple of months ago when we were out to eat and we had to wait I started making up names. For example, if the hostess would ask us for our name instead of saying Jones I would say "Weinerheimer" mostly because it embarrassed Kaitlyn to no end. Well when the lady asked me for our family name to announce over the lobby speakers I could not help myself and told her we were the "Huffeldinks" to which she replied the "Huffel what?" I calmly replied "dink, Huffeldink". So as we boarded the ship the lady said "Everybody welcome aboard the Huffeldink Family." As the crew applauded over our arrival I thought Kaitlyn was going to crawl off the ship and Kristena was going to wet herself as she laughed herself silly all the while I never cracked a smile. Ain't nothing better than causing your children a little embarrassment to get you through the night. I think Tyler was excited to meet the Huffeldinks and had no idea that they were talking about us.

The next highlight had to be a Tyler moment. No one was more excited to take the cruise than Tyler. All he has talked about since we booked it was getting on the cruise ship. Several times when we would tell him that we would not be leaving for several days he would break out in tears. But when we arrived and he got to stand next to Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse he gleamed with pride. Then when we had to let the next child in line take their turn with Mickey and Minnie you would have thought his little world had ended. He covered his little eyes and cried "I want Mickey and Minnie" and just sobbed. This continued throughout the cruise. We would watch one of the live shows and at the end of each one they would bring out Mickey and Minnie Mouse and when the curtain closed and he could not see them his little heart would break and he would place a hand over each eye and sob. He just kept saying "I wub (love, for those that don't speak Tyler)Mickey and Minnie". It was so bad that we made him a deal that when he got home that he could watch Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse all day.

The best part of taking a cruise is the food. Really you can literally eat all day every day and get almost anything you could ever imagine. That is not to say everything is great but there are some basic standby's that are fabulous. One of the highlights is that everyday at breakfast and lunch it is a buffett. Now there is always something for everyone on it. For kids there are things like macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, cheese sticks, you know stuff that every child would love. But this buffett had not met Kaitlyn. Each day we wondered through the buffett she would come away with green jello and and some crackers. Not a chicken finger or a corn dog. Just crackers and jello like she was being fed prision food. On the next to last day on the cruise we forced her, that's right, forced her to eat some of the macaroni and cheese. By the way, this is the best mac & cheese we have ever tasted. After taking the first bite she said hey this is not bad. Well yea it was not bad that was what Kristena had been telling her before we even left the dock. The only other thing she would eat was dessert. She would eat anything that was on the dessert table. At breakfast everyday she would eat waffles and enough donuts and muffins to keep her running all day. Then when she went to dinner with us she would load up on what ever she ordered. I guess there is no moral to the story other than never assume that all kids will eat the kids food but they all love dessert.

One on the third day of the cruise we arrived at Disney's private island Castaway Cay. On our last cruise the kids had a blast on the beach but wanted very little to do with the ocean itself. This time could not have been more different. Kaitlyn and Tyler loved every moment. The immediately headed straight for the water. Kaitlyn walked straight in and stayed in for about 3 hours. She now is claiming she can swim but her swimming consists of either hanging on to my arm as she kicks her legs or her moving her arms as she walks through the water. We told her that was not swimming but she is convinced that she can swim. She was so convincing that she now has Tyler believing he to can swim. As he left the ocean he would walk swinging his arms saying "I swimming". Tyler had no fear of the water. He walked out until the water was around his neck and then demanded that I take him further out. I would show you pictures of them in the water but I look like a whale with arms and legs and I will not allow these pictures to see the light of day but you will have to trust me that it was a blast!

On the Disney cruise their are lots of activities once your child is 3 or older but for the little kids there is only one real place to be is a place called Flouder's Reef (after the fish in the Little Mermaid not one of the dishes we had for dinner). The last time we were on the boat Tyler cried everytime we dropped him off. This time much like the beach was a different story. He barely even said good bye. He "wubed" it. When we went to pick him up after his first stay he ran out and looked at Kristena and said "Mama, lady changed my pants!". Who knew getting your diaper changed by a stranger would make his day. I won't know that joy until I am about 40 years older. Every night there after he could not wait to go play with the babies. The last night he got the evening snack which was a juice box and crackers. And he said he wubed it too. He said tonight when he was sitting on the potty that he had fun playing in Flounder's Reef with the babies but next time he wants to play where Kaitlyn played in the Oceaneers Club. He was quite the little man.

The last thing that I will share about Tyler occurred a couple times in various parts of the ship. As everything he did was new to him in a lot of ways his reaction to everything was priceless. A few months ago we were in Old Navy and if you have been there lately you know that they now sell dog toys. Well Tyler thought they were toys for him. So when Kristena told him that they were doggy toys and that he could not have one he got down on all fours and started crawling around Old Navy saying "I puppy now". So on the cruise there were patches of carpet that looked like waves and everytime he would see them he would lay down on top of them and scoot across them and say look "I swim like fishy". Kristena was able to catch him doing it after he decided he was done watching the movie Cars outside of the theater on board.

My last Kaitlyn story came as a wake up call to Kristena and I that she is no longer a little girl that she is growing up. It was something she told us that made us realize the little baby she once was is now being replaced with a much older girl with her own opinions on things. We were sitting on deck with her probably eating because well that is all there is to do sometimes. Eat and then go swimming. Something they tell you not to do when you were younger but on a cruise ship it is not only encouraged but expected. The worse part is that you stuff yourself to the gills with food (especially our server who at dinner insisted through his very thick accent that he bring us practically everything on the menu) and then you want to swim in a bathing suit that is substantially tighter than before you got on the ship. Several times I was pretty sure I needed to get a nice 56DD bra and load these puppies up. If they get any bigger I will need to move them out of the way in order to scratch my ankle. I am sure that some people looked at Kristena and the kids and think it sure would be nice if he shared the food with his wife and kids. But anyway we were eating on the deck and Kaitlyn was dressed in one of her new polo's and I realized that she had buttoned every button all the way to the top (something she has done since she was 2). All she was missing was the taped up glasses and the pocket protector. Kristena and I told her that it would look better if the top button was left open. She kept arguing and we argued back with the old argument that we had been around longer and that we new what we are talking about. Kaitlyn looked at Kristena and said "Mommy, you get to make all the decisions but sometimes I need to make some decisions". Wow, we both thought what a realization. There are some things that she can now decide and it probably is best that we begin to teach her how to make good decisions and she is now capable of doing it all on her own. When do they grow up. It must be at night when I am not watching. Because I watch and I never see it happen.

Well to summarize we had a great time. I am now almost large enough to declare myself my own country. My fingers after all of the food look like little chubby sausages and the kids can fill my belly button with water and take a swim. I have hired a personal trainer at the Y to see if he can beat some of this off of me before I have to add a caution sign on my butt as I climb the stairs at work. Anyway we are now another week closer to the baby arriving and we bought the baby his or her first toy. My bargin shopping wife found it on clearance at Target. So good night and good day to all of you. We wube you all!