Disney Cruise of a Lifetime, part 1: Getting There

Yes, this is going to be a long, multi-post vacation log.  The trip was just too wonderful to forget, and I was so sleep deprived the whole time that there is a serious risk that I will.

The story begins last year when Spencer's mom decided she wanted the whole family to go on a cruise to celebrate her 60th birthday.  It took a lot of planning to find a time to get so many people's schedules to align, but we made it work and scheduled the trip for January 2012!  The crazy part was, everything was booked before Amelie was even born, so she was listed as baby girl Deery with an estimated birthdate.  As the date for the cruise neared, it was kind of surreal that it was actually happening and now Amelie was almost 6 months old!  The other surreal part, was that we had now moved half way across the country.  It's amazing how much life can change in a short time.

Needless to say, with all of these changes, the week of the cruise came upon us and life was crazy!  The exhausting week before the cruise, we were busy house hunting, settling in to our apartment, unpacking, packing, dealing with an extremely ornery 2 year old, trying desperately to get said 2 year old to nap, and figuring out our plans for an awesome trip.  Liam was such trouble that I was beginning to fear for our trip.  I'm sure it was related to the major upheaval he experienced with the move, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.  Add to the mix Amelie was waking up 2 and sometimes 3 times in a night, and you get the picture.  We needed this vacation!

The day we left for Florida was the biggest snowstorm we experienced this past winter (so this really isn't saying much, because we only had 2 snow storms and they both left us with under 4 inches of snow).  Spencer wasn't allowed to take paid vacation because he hadn't been at his job long enough, so our plan was to leave as late in the afternoon so he could count the day as work.  I had the task to finish packing, clean a little, pack everything in the car (including the kids), and then get Spencer-all in the snow.  Fortunately, his boss let him leave early since there was talk of an ice storm.

The ice storm was a bit farther to our north, and so we made it to the airport in plenty of time, but it turned out to be a good thing we got there so early.  I had Amelie wrapped up in a Moby wrap and to my surprise, security let me go through the metal detector without removing the wrap.  However, they had to test my hands for explosives.  No big deal...except that I tested positive for explosives!  I was pulled aside (I still didn't even have my shoes on!) and escorted to a private room by two very nice female TSA agents to experience a TSA pat down.  Spencer had Liam and they weren't even sure where they took me or what happened-I had no time to explain.  The TSA agents were very nice and very professional-treating their job as important while also acknowledging that I wasn't a terrorist threat.  I never felt suspect, but I also felt like they followed protocol seriously, both of which I appreciated.  Fortunately, I passed the second round of tests and was released back out to Spencer where they had to check my stuff.  Unfortunately again, my diaper bag tested positive for explosives!  (Yes, I know there are lots of jokes to be made here and I was more than a little concerned that stuff I used for my kids is explosive!).  After they went through everything in my diaper bag and were thoroughly satisfied that I had no more devious ambition than keeping my children pacified during our late flight, we were released.  We made it to the gate, just in time to enjoy family boarding...and that is where our exciting adventure began.