What do you really need for football season...WELL..since it WAS my birthday it was really a serious high tech camera...I so got it and LOVE it! I got some amazing pictures! OHHHH I am so excited wait until you see...yes I am a little giddy!
Just a little info on Jared! To his coaches surprise he has grown 7 inches since December...YES 7...He is the same height as me and is only 12. Jared is also lightning fast! Jared plays flanker and cornerback. Enough chit chat lets get to the games!
Hawks Royal played in a pre-season tournament this past weekend. To say we killed is an understatement.
For the weekend....Hawks Royal 94 points....Opponents (all together)14 ..... OUCH! Here are some of Team Marien's favorite recaps....Jared is 23
Jared is behind 7 who is ready to block for him
Still runnin'...did I mention it was 4th down
And that's how it's done!
"Dude! That was awesome...Did you see them runnin' after you?"
This was Jared playing corner on defense...That ball ain't going any further!
Tough to see Jared in this photo but if you look carefully the kid he was stopping...He just pulled him down on top of him. He is in front of 87...WOO HOO!
Ready for my favorite touchdown of the weekend! Again, lightning fast!! 
Run Forrest RUN!!!
Hey Mom...I'm ready for my close up
OK boys chase after me...you too Ref 
For all you football fans: Jared's Stats = 3 touchdowns, 3-2 point conversions, caused one fumble, won two awards from coaches
To say January moved by very slowly would be an understatement. Paul was overwhelmed and seriously stressed and I was so missing my best friend. My sister who is the most amazing sister and friend (and the best Auntie EVER) told me she would take my kiddos for the weekend and to go buy a plane ticket! WOO HOO!! She didn't have to tell me twice...Valentine's Day and Paul here I come!!
On a side note...I love Valet Parking
Paul finally got there around 9 and we were off for a great weekend. He had to work during the day but went in at 5am and stayed until 1pm and then we had the afternoon to ourselves. We love the nightlife and there is nothing better than people watching in Vegas. We walked the strip more times than I could count. We went to the Toby Keith Bar and Grill and danced the night away and had a blast! (WE LOVE TOBY KEITH!!) We went through all the hotels and many of the bars and ate at amazing restaurants, including Mario Batali's (one of our favorite's). Valentines Day we got massages and spent the day at the Spa (ahhhhhhh) and that night we stayed in knowing there was no point in paying $500 for dinner. We went and got wine, cheese, and bread and had a picinic in front of our floor to ceiling view of Vegas! It was amazing and that is all I have to say about that ;)
This one is my most favorite...Outside the Wynn...Love you all! xoxoxo
Did I mention that Grammy & Papa came into town on Thursday from Tucson! We have had a big week planned while they were here! We had Jared's baseball tournament (minimum of three games), and Drew's benefit show of The Stinky Cheese Man. The games got cancelled first and then the benefit...SAD, SAD, SAD! The kids had no problem finding something to...electronics (WII, playstation, and their ipod's) kept them busy for a while and then the two younger ones decided the backyard looked fun! The oldest (man of the house) went out front and took care of business! 
After Jared took care of the manly jobs he did what every man does best...back to CHILLIN'!
The youngin's decided that the trampoline in the backyard looked fun so they hung out in the snow for a while...they were sopping wet when they came inside but were all smiles!
Then the kids being Military brats get the brilliant idea to build forts and have a snowball fight! It was great and they take it very seriously...you will see from the salutes!
Drew...I love my OCD boy...perfect fort...snowballs lined up along the front inside (look carefully on the left)...
Look at this cute girl...Wants to be like her brothers...here is her fort with all her snowballs on the right...
And then my Jared who is taller than Gramma Jeanne! Doesn't give a flying flip about a fort he just makes snowballs to plummit his siblings with! Now before the war I have to remind Jared that the other two are smaller and this is not a baseball game! This kid can pitch (fast balls-really fast, curve balls, change up's and the list could go on) Here is a video of the war...keep an eye out for Jared's snowballs flying by (and remember this is him NOT throwing hard) FUNNY!
Time for a glass of wine and Day 3 of the Disney Cruise! How often do you have a whole day? It's like the Breakfast Club...I love that movie....classic! Sidetracked...sorry...it doesn't take much...but really that was a great movie! (Such an 80's girl)
It was now time to get dressed up for our formal dinner! YEA!! I love dressing up, Laney loves to dress up...my big boys HATE it! Drew on the other hand loves it! I think for him he is just in training for his future...you know the red carpet, Academy Awards, Tony's...just the usual for him :) Jared was a broken record..."I look like a MONKEY!" "Hey Mom...I look like a MONKEY with a tie on!" but they go along with it because they love me and IT'S the RULES! 
This was Mulan and Drew was out of his chair fighting right along with them...I am pretty sure he was born in the wrong century in the wrong country...but I am thankful God made him wait!
This was the Lion King selection! Awesome...sorry about the reverb Daddy!
It was amazing to watch how they "parked" this gigantic boat.
This nice couple asked if we wanted them to take our picture...
It was about lunch time and time to get the kiddos and head to one of the restaurants on the boat for lunch. We picked up Laney first and she filled us in on how she made Flubber in the science lab just like the movie and that they played the movie while they were making it. Drew went to an animation class and learned how to draw some character but informed us that it was not as easy as it looked. Good call Drew! Jared met us at lunch at the coordinated time and had been hanging out with his new "people". I can't remember all the kids names except one kid who wanted to be called Skittles! Funny...so Jared informed us that they had hung out in their room, went and got some food (fries and ice cream), then played some hoops, got more food and soda, hung out in the room some more, got more food, then played ping pong and more hoops and the he was "starving" and ready to eat some good lunch! GEESH...Growing 11 year old boys. We fed our starving children and headed off the boat to see what kind of shopping fun could be had in Key West. Here is a picture of the boat as we got off on the pier.
Had to take two pictures to get the whole boat.
So we shopped and the kids liked looking in the stores for souveniors. The only thing they didn't like was having to follow mommy into the jewelery shops...I tried to explain that when your on cruises you like to buy cool jewelery. They totally didn't get it but I didnt' find anything uber cool in Key West anyway. We headed back to the boat after a few hours. We knew that we needed to be on the boat before sunset because that is when the crazy's head out in Key West and Paul and I didn't want to have to explain their eccentric life styles...we were on vacation after all. Once back on the ship we wanted to go to the pool with the kids. Drew was looking forward to chilling in the hot tub watching the big screen tv. We had fun at the Goofy pool...Daddy swam with the kiddos while mom lounged on the side. We jumped in the hot tub a few times and watched a discovery show about fish...not sharks...which I thought was a good call by the Disney people. After a little swimming Jared was done in the pool and on to bigger and better things with "skittles" I assume. He was off and running and I hollered out "be back in the room by 5:30" as he bolted down the hall and gave me the signature preteen "ok" wave as he blazed to the elevator to head to the room to change. We also had a fun visit with Goofy and his son Max. Here are pictures of the afternoon.
After some fun in the sun we got a snack (they had so much awesome food all the time but I must say my favorite was the fresh fruit and pannani sandwiches..yum). It was time to head back to the room to get ready for the evening.
Dinner was amazing again!! Once dessert was served Jared was off again to eat the ship out of their supply of ice cream and french fries and to tear up on the basketball court. We told him he had a curfew of 12:30. Can you believe that! Lucky 5th grader! Delaney went to her class and got to do Toy Story Boot Camp and crafts and Drew headed off and got to have a pizza and ice cream party. Tough life for them I know! 
About midnight we remembered we had children. I guess it was a late night with a fun filled day. This is my tukered out Kindergartener!
It was about a 50 minute ride to the port and we go over a bridge and all the sudden there it is the "Disney Magic"! Everyone on the bus starts cheering. It was awesome! We went inside the terminal and we made it through check in (WHEW!!) and then it was time to wait. We got there about 10:30 and check in super quick (Disney knows what they are doing) and boarding was going to begin at 11:45. They had lots of tv's and cartoons running so the kids didn't mind and there was a big model of our ship. A friend came out to visit and Delaney got her very first picture! 
Then it was time! They began boarding by group number. It was going to be a full ship (3,000)...Even in November! We were group six and the kids were so excited to get on the ship not to mention we were all hungry. That cereal didn't really do the trick. Did they just say six...Drew yells from the tv area..."Come on mom it's our turn...Let's move it!" 
We made it! I never thought this day would come. We are on the ship and they herd everyone to two of the restaurants for lunch! It was of course an awesome buffet but the best part had to be seeing Jared's eyes. Food as far as you could see and 15 desserts to chose from. It was an eleven year old's "happy place!" We ate overlooking the water then headed out to check out the ship. They let us know that our rooms would be ready by 1:30 so we checked the ship out and here are a few of the pictures.
This is the very top deck "10"...The whole ship was beautiful to say the least. Here are some picutres of the main lobby. The whole ship was decorated for Christmas! These are pictures of the rights side with the tree and staircase and the left with the staircase where the characters would visit all day long...
Here is a picture of the view...If you squint your eyes you can see the NASA launch pad (that was pretty cool....more pictures of the ship to come in the next posts...it would overwhelm you with awesomeness if I did it all at once :) )
Just a little info on the staterooms...First of all they were HUGE...For those of you who know cruise ships these are so big! The couch turns into a bottom bunk bed and if you look straight above the couch you will see a white metal outlined. That is the top bunk and each night while you are out they would set up the kids room with the bunk beds!! It was so great!
Here is the other side of the view. They had a ton of drawers and closet space and they had 20 or so hangers...so much better than the normal 2 you get. On the left of this picture you have a shower with a sink and then another seperate bathroom and of course the fruit plate which was a constant in our room for snacks...Yum!! Our luggage was due in the room by 4:30 so enough time to get ready for the night of fun ahead.
The pool was calling our name as was the 24 hour ice cream! There were 3 pools up top...The Mickey Pool was only 2 feet deep and for all kids....then there was the goofy pool (Drew's favorite) it had two jacuzzis, the rectangular pool and then a huge TV screen...then there was the adult only pool (one of my many happy places) but we will get to that later. 
It was finally time for the ship to leave and the "Adventures Away" deck party...All I can say is Disney knows how to throw a party and everyone with in a five mile radius knew it. What you will see below is the goofy pool with a deck on it and all the people surrounding it! It was 45 minutes long and we danced and had so much fun. The movie clips are short and give you a little taste of the fun...so pause the music player and have a listen because it really brings "Disney" to life!!
Then we headed to our first big evening show which was the "All Aboard...Let the Magic Begin!" show. It was awesome and I didn't bring my camera...Sorry...But the evening shows were amazing in a huge theater. After the show we went to dinner. We had the second seating at 8:00. Our server was Beethoven from the Phillippines and his assistant was Walter from Chile...Jared loved that he could order anything he wanted and we didn't bat an eye. So Drew got shrimp and Jared got a huge steak and baked potato. Laney liked the kids menu and had mac and cheese (homemade of course) They were great and lots of fun...you will hear more each day as the kids love the experience of excellence (It could cost them more than college to feed them the foods they now "love"!) After dinner we went back to the room and the kids found towel animals and just LOVED them!! They looked forward to turn down everynight because what was better than towel animals, a clean room, and chocolate every night!
