An Addition to the Family

Our kids have wanted a hamster for months. Steve and I discussed it and decided it might be fun for them. So Katie came home from school a month ago, so excited, because "Katie H." had brought her hamster to school that day and announced that they had baby hamsters at home that they were willing to give away to a good home. So I called the mother and confirmed that the offer was true. She said she needed to connect a vet and make sure she gave away the babies at the right time, but assured me that she had our phone number on her caller id and would call me when the time was right. We proceeded to go off track and waited for the call. I finally got a call from Katie's teacher. She told me that Katie H.'s mom was trying to reach me, but had lost the phone number. I called Katie H's house and found out that they had given away all the hamsters. They had tried to save one for us, but because they couldn't reach us and id not want the hamsters making more baby hamsters she finally had to give away the last one. My Katie was so disappointed.
Then Daddy saved the day. Monday, the kids went bowling with me and when we got home, daddy had a surprise for us. Upstairs in our old fish tank was a little teddy bear hamster. For the first week we had to be content with just watching the little guy. That first night we realized that its little wheel needed oiling after listening to the squeaking all night. The most interesting thing has been Daisy, our dog's, reaction to the addition to our family. She will sit upstairs and just stare at the tank. We have had people knock on the door and she doesn't even react. We all think she is trying to figure out a way to get to that hamster. Hopefully she will not succeed and us find her with the tank over turn and a guilty look on her face.

CARIBBEAN CRUISE: 5th Port Aruba

Aruba was our last official port.

Steve got up out of bed a little early to get together with his scuba buddies while I indulged in sleeping in. That was the cool thing about being in a room with no windows. I actually could sleep in if I wanted.

I disembarked and waited for Wendy, Beth, and Stacey to go to our excursion, which was a submarine ride. We got on a boat, which sailed us to the spot where we would be boarding the sub. We waited patiently until the sub surfaced at which time the boat we were aboard maneuvered until it was next to the sub.

Then we began to crawl through the hole that would lead to our seats. Everyone had a port hole to look out as we began to submerge.

We did not seem to have to go very deep before we were seeing fish and coral. We attempted to take some pictures, but like most things it just did not photograph as cool as it actually looked.


We got to see a ship that had been intentional sunk, but neat all the same. The deepest we got was down to 131 feet.

After the submarine voyage was complete we got back on our boat that took us back to shore for one of my favorite things…SHOPPING. We walked along and looked in the little shops that lined the road. After an hour or so of shopping, we headed back to the ship to meet up with our spouses and to hear how their scuba dives had gone. I found Steve in our room, waiting patiently for me.

Once we shared a quick story of the first half of our day we disembarked again to walk around and shop Aruba.

We got back to the ship a little early so we could get showered and dressed for our final formal evening.




I have to say we ALL cleaned up pretty well.

CARIBBEAN CRUISE: 4th Port Bonaire

If I gave you a map would you be able to find Bonaire?

Prior to booking this cruise I had ever heard of Bonaire, so I was not quite sure what to expect. I got dressed in my bathing suit and some shorts, assuming my day would be spent sitting on the beach. Packed up my snorkel, towel and book. The 1st priority of our group after we disembarked was to find out where to go so the scuba people could do their thing and we beach people would have a good place to lie out and read our books.
A cab driver told us about Bongo Beach and said that it was our best option for snorkel, scuba and sand. We needed to use 2 cabs to get there. The scuba-ers found where they could rent their equipment and made all their arrangements while Wendy, Stacey, Beth and I laid out our towels and began the soaking up of the rays.
It took the scuba-ers (l-r Ken, Steve, Derek, Nanette, Chris, Sandra & John) a while to get organized before they headed out to the water.

Stacey and I decided to put on our mask and snorkel and see what kind of sea life there was to look at along the shore. I was pleasantly surprised…there were so many fish of so many different kinds…small…big…colorful…black and white. I love snorkeling. It is so peaceful in the water. Even if there are people snorkeling around you once you are in the water looking at the fish, it is like you are all alone. At one point I could actually hear one of the fish nibbling on the coral. That was awesome.

The guys came back about an hour later and were quite excited about what they had seen. They needed to eat some lunch and take a break before going for their second dive. After an hour they got their second tank of air and headed out for another dive, leaving us land lovers to continue our baking.

Stacey and I went for a second snorkeling dip. We tried to convince Beth and Wendy to join us. Wendy seemed pretty firm in her opinion for staying dry on the beach, but I think we were close to having Beth join us, but she did not. Once the guys came back from their second dive, we did not waste anytime packing up our stuff. We only had an hour and a half before we needed to be back on the ship and there was still souvenir shopping that needed to be done.

We took a cab to the shopping area of town. We quickly unloaded out of the cab and began to do our shopping. I bought a couple of things for the kids and visor for me. Steve got his traditional shot glass. I found a cute shop that had clothes and jewelry. It was fun to just walk around and browse with Steve. We did not spend much of the day together because he had been off scubaing.

We all had dinner together again in the DaVinci room. The food was okay, but the chance to all sit together and chat was a lot of fun.

After dinner we caught a show called the Marriage Game, which was a take on the Newlywed Game. It was quite funny. Following the show we hung out and talked before heading to the buffet and commandeering 2 tables to play games at. The guys played Poker while the girls played Taboo. It was a mellow way to end our day.