Spring Break, Mushroom-Style

For spring break this year, Jay and I planned on the girls going to the daycare they go to during the summers and maybe taking a short trip to Chicago for a few days.  We would work, they would hopefully have fun, and we would take a family vacation this summer.  Well, 11 days before the kids would be out of school we found out our daycare couldn't take the kids, thanks to our school having a different break than the public schools. 

We tossed around ideas... I could take off a few days... Jay could take off a few days... But with the never-ending cold we have had, even Chicago may not be possible because of snow. Jay said, "If we are taking vacation we need to go somewhere warm! Where can we go with no passports for the kids?"

Twenty-four hours later, we were booked on the Carnival Sunshine for eight days of what we hoped would be warm, relaxing, and fun for us all.  We had nine days to get ready (we had NO summer clothes for Addi!), get the car ready for the 12 hour drive to New Orleans, lose 30 lbs, pick our vacation song, fix my last minute broken windshield, figure out where Roatan even WAS (Honduras, FYI), have my mom overnight my summer clothes she had borrowed for a trip, get work settled, get a tan, and pack.

Jay started having buyer's remorse about two days later, but he took that energy and did our taxes.  When it was all said and done, our refund was $5.34 LESS than the cost of the cruise.  Literally, $5.34.  Jay quickly got over his nervousness and did something he has never, ever done before and will likely never, ever do again. He packed himself seven days before the trip.  I think he was excited.

Well, we made it, and it was totally worth the stress. We blasted our chosen song "Beachin" by Jake Owen about 10,000 times on the trip to New Orleans, we got to catch up with college friends we haven't seen in way, WAY too long, Jay got the girls to scream, "We're FUN GUYS! FUNGIS!!! MUSHROOMS!!!!" every hour (especially after we found the 24 hour pizza place that served the #4 - Funghi pizza), the girls did dozens of things they've never done before, and we managed to gain less than 5 pounds each.

I have a lot of great stories to blog about the trip, so I'll do my best to tell them in a timely manner (ehem, Patty Carey), but to be honest, I'm still on island time.  :)