Monday, September 1, 2003
09-18-2003, 9:22 p.m.

Monday, September 1, 2003�

This morning we woke up later than I thought we would. We ordered room service to be delivered at 8:30 and I thought that we would be up and dressed by then, so I was surprised that it was the knock on the door that woke us up. I got up quickly and let them in, and set up the food on our balcony as my parents got themselves up. Mom says that she is going to enjoy this vacation in her most favorite way, sleeping late every day. Me, I definitely want to get up and see some sunrises and the such, but I am all for napping in the afternoons, hehe. Still, we were exhausted from the past few days, and sleeping late today is definitely a good thing, I felt much more relaxed.

After breakfast, mom laid down for a while longer, and Dad and I hung out on the balcony going over the Princess Patter, and deciding the things that we wanted to do today. I was so surprised to see just how much stuff they had planned, and I was a little bummed that a couple of things that I wanted to do were all at the same time. Luckily we have next week too, that makes it easier to pick and choose in a lot of ways. Tonight was already our first formal night, and we definitely wanted to get dressed up for that.

Mom and I eventually got dressed and then we went to go check out the spa and the gym. I signed Dad and I up for treadmills for the same time this afternoon, and then mom and I headed out to the pool to watch the pool games that were scheduled. We got good seats which was surprising as it was a Sea day and most people save seats for themselves and everyone else they know. Still we found great seats and ordered the drink of the day (Chocolate Banana, yum!) and settled in for the fun. Mom had seen them before and was so excited about me watching, and I could see why! It was hysterical!!! They had two teams of about 6 people each, and they had several relay races, and they had one race where they tossed buckets of fruit into the pool. The teams had to dive in and get as much fruit as they could� with a catch, they had to come out of the pool with it in their swim suits. Watching a guy come out of the pool with a big watermelon in the front of his speedo, and a big pineapple coming out of the back was just too much, and I spit half my drink all over myself. It was hysterical, and we laughed and laughed. Remind me to be thankful that I did not sign up to participate in this one. Although, sometimes I wish that I was a little more free about stuff like that, this was not one of them though.

We were going to swim after the games, but the pools were crowded so we went to the casino instead, where we all proceeded to get mad about this lady who kept yelling at us. Everytime we would be winning at a machine, any machine, she would come behind us and say that she was saving that machine for herself. After about 5 machines (yes, we were stupid enough to just let her have the dumb things), we got mad. First of all, you are not allowed to save machines, secondly, there was nothing there to even indicate that she was saving them, and finally, she was nuts.. we just wanted to get away from her. Dad left to take a nap, and eventually we went to see what he was doing. He and I got ready to go to the gym, and mom went to swim. I had a great time working out with my dad, and it was so wonderful looking out at the ocean while we did so. We even saw fish jumping and had fun looking for stuff like that. The time flew by too. We went to meet mom afterwards and swam for a while.

We finally made it back to the room, and I couldn�t believe that with all we did, it was still early afternoon. We decided to take naps until it was time to get ready for dinner, which was such a great thing, and something I fully appreciated later. As I mentioned, it was our first formal night, and we all had fun getting dressed up for dinner. I was excited about wearing my black velvet dress, as I have had it a long time, and have never had the opportunity to wear it. It looked really nice and I felt pretty in it. I loved going out all dressed up, and we really had a lot of fun with it. We took a lot of really nice pictures and I can�t wait to see them all. It was really neat watching everyone in their formal wear, and seeing all the beautiful dresses and the men in their tuxes and dark suits, it was just indescribably fun.

Dinner was wonderful, and afterwards we decided to go to the Princess Theatre to see a show. It was a musical, and I wasn�t sure what to expect, but it was just so fabulous. I had heard mixed reviews about the entertainment on ships, but this was top notch for sure. The theatre was beautiful too, very comfortable and I look forward to going to more shows over the next 2 weeks.

After the show, we walked around and checked out some of the other activities going on, and had fun until we were all just too tired. We decided to head back to our room, but stopped at the buffet first to grab some pineapple to take back to our room. Man, they have the best fruit on this ship� it is so fresh and so tasty. We took a whole platter back to our room and sat around eating it, laughing and joking.

Tomorrow is another sea day and I am enjoying the relaxation time. We have another meeting with the people from the message boards to go over our strategy for the horse auction tomorrow night. We have decided to all go in on getting a horse or two, and I am really excited about that. It sounds like so much fun. It also has been really neat having met people. We have been running into them everywhere today, and that has been a lot of fun, stopping to say hello and to talk to them. Mom and dad have been loving it too, especially dad who has met some people he is enjoying talking to. I just cannot believe how much stuff they have to do all day long. Sometimes it is hard to pick and choose what you want to do, but whatever you decide it always turns out to be fun. This day has seemed to last forever, with all the fun stuff we have done. I can�t believe it�s only been one day, I feel like we�ve been here a week already.

I have been sleeping really well too, and I feel tired a lot, because of the motion of the ship. I miss Stephen so very much already though, but I am having a great time. I am going to email him tomorrow and check in with the girls too. I can�t wait to hear back from them all. I am glad that we have a way to keep in touch, even if it is just a little bit.

Mom and dad are both asleep already, and I just dropped something else on them. I better get the hang of this bunk bed stuff before I kill someone, giggle. Night.