Specific Prayer Request

 We went down to the hospital Thursday to supposedly start Tony's next batch of maintenance chemo. They did a covid test and a blood draw to make sure everything was good to start. The results came back that his liver function is over 3 times what it is supposed to be. So they asked him a litany of questions trying to figure out why (including asking if he got drunk a lot on the cruise boat😂) But they couldn't come up with a distinct reason. So they decided he needed an ultrasound of his liver before he can start chemo. Initially they were going to do the test same day or next day, but then they checked the schedule and their first available appointment is on Wednesday. So right now, the plan is to do another blood test on Tuesday, then ultrasound Wednesday, and then if everything is A ok, he will start the next round of chemo on Thursday. (The doctor did say she suspected it could just be caused by the cold he has right now). 

Now, on to the specific prayer request. They did an extra test while we were there on Thursday. The test is called a chimerism test. They believe there's a chance that some of Tony's original cells started to return and that is why his cancer returned. If that is the case, they can do a treatment called a donor lymphocyte infusion. They would take cells from his original bone marrow donor, and infuse them to try and kick out Tony's cells. They got test results from Tony's original bone marrow donor, and now they have tested Tony. So in 2-3 weeks they should know if this is a possibility. Donor lymphocyte infusions are far less intense than doing another bone marrow transplant, so we would really like this to be the case. 

Disney Cruise

 After rescheduling 6 times, we were finally able to go on our Disney Cruise. We were thrilled that the Kennedy's were able to join us. On Saturday, we took the rental car back to the airport and climbed on a shuttle to the port. 

It was a bit nerve-wracking waiting for our port covid test results to come back, but they all came back negative and we were able to board the ship. 

After a quick meal, we went straight to the pool deck. Swimming and unlimited ice cream are some of our favorite things on the ship. 

 

Then by some fun happenstance, a SpaceX rocket was launching around the same time we were getting ready to set sail, so we got to watch it. 

Then Matthew, Lara and I went to the fancy French restaurant on the ship called the Remy. Tony decided a few weeks before the cruise that he would rather just eat in the regular restaurant with the kids and then get them to the kids club since his appetite hasn't been great and it's an 8 course meal. It was a really fun experience. 

While we were at dinner, Tony and the kids went to see the show in the main theater. It was a ventriloquist/magician. Jack was actually called up on stage and got to help with a magic trick involving a rubics cube. Afterwards, he let jack keep the rubics cube. 

Day 2 we decided to all wear our matching shirts. It was a day at sea and we took full advantage of all the activities. Tony and Kevin did an animation class, Jack and I were part of a game show, and we ended the day with a production of Aladdin. We also enjoyed finding photo ops where they would add digital characters to the photos. Our servers were awesome and learned very quickly that my boys love fruit, so they got an endless supply of it. And since Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness was playing on the ship, they had appearances from Doctor Strange throughout the ship.

Day 3 was another day at sea. We went up to the pool and got some fun Doctor Strange themed photos.

Then we, of course, got ice cream on the pool deck. They had movies playing on a giant screen while we were swimming as well, which is a fun treat. We had Toy Story playing this day. We also popped in for extra fruit on the pool deck around lunchtime. 

Then the kids went to kids club and Tony, Lara and I went to a napkin folding class. It was a lot of fun.

We decided to wear our matching Star Wars shirts this day and we got some really fun pictures throughout the day. The boys loved talking with Mulan, and they were really excited when our server made their menus into an origami bird. 

The performance in the evening was a magician that completely blew our minds. He was amazing.

Day 4 was spent on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. We decided to brave the island in a rental van which turned out to be quite the adventure. We took a wrong turn up a very steep road and ended up burning rubber, getting stuck, and then having to back down the hill. The roads on Tortola are extremely steep. We were given the advice to never go under 40 while going up the hills, which was an added adventure since I was already driving on the left side of the road in an American style minivan. The rental car guy said it's so you can easily peer over the edge while you are driving up the mountain. yeesh. After very specific navigation by Matthew, I was able to drive us to the top of the mountain to Sage Mountain National Park. We went on a short hike to a fun view of the island. It was a bit foggy, but occasional the fog would clear and it was quite beautiful. 

After our hike we popped into the visitors center for souvenirs and banana shakes. While we were drinking our shakes we found an adorable lizard. 

Once we were refreshed, we decided to brave the steep hills again and head for our next destination: Brewers Bay. I had initially wanted to go to Smugglers Cove, but the Rental car guy suggested Brewers Bay and I never ignore a locals suggestion. It turned out to be the right choice because it was absolutely spectacular. We were the only ones on the beach.

The water was crystal clear and we soon discovered that there was an incredible reef a short swim from shore. We first came across an enormous school of fish. And then we saw a barracuda!!

The reef was a real treat. I only got a couple pictures because I was so distracted by the fish. Tony found a really pretty shell and I found a dead sea urchin. We took a good picture of them and then put them back. Fortunately we had brought enough masks that everyone that wanted to got to snorkel out to the reef. 

The other fun thing about this beach was the pelicans. They would dive into the water to catch fish. 

We somehow made it back to the ship in our rental van without any incidents. (the appearance of the rental van should have been our first clue that the roads were treacherous. The passenger mirror was being held on by duct tape, the bumper was missing and there were huge cracks in all corners of the van). But we returned it in the exact way that we found it. 

The fun didn't stop there. It was pirate night back on the ship. We, of course, packed all our pirate gear and enjoyed all the festivities in full pirate garb. 

We, of course, enjoyed our pirate dinner, complete with light up skull cups filled with smoothie. And of course, ample amounts of fruit. Then we actually put the kids to bed and watched Doctor Strange, then got the kids back up for the fireworks and the pirate show on the top deck. Unfortunately, our plan didn't work exactly as planned because Kevin and Jack refused to wake up. They were sad the next day when they realized they had missed out. 

Day 5 was another Island Day. This time we were at St. Thomas on the US Virgin Islands. Matthew and I left the ship early to pick up the rental car, and then we picked up Tony, Jack and Cody. Matthew dropped us off at our zip lining adventure and then headed back to the ship to pick up Lara, Meg and Kevin to head to the aquarium. Zip lining was a blast. Jack barely met the weight requirements to zip alone, and Cody got to take turns tandem zipping with me and Tony. 

On the final zip line, there was no weight requirement, so they let Cody zip alone. He was absolutely thrilled. It was all he talked about for days. 

Meanwhile, Kevin was enjoying the Aquarium with the Kennedy's. He had a great time. They had a unique experience with an Iguana that ended up stealing their table while they were eating lunch. The iguana's are extra assertive on St. Thomas. 

Unfortunately, from the moment I woke up this day I felt seasick. Throughout the entire ziplining I felt like I was going to vomit. So we skipped our afternoon plans of visiting the pirate museum and just went back to the ship. I ended up taking a nap until dinner, but then I felt much better, which was fortunate because it ended up being one of my favorite meals. It was also a super fun night at Animators Palate, where they had us draw figures that they then animated. The kids were especially excited to see their creations on the screen. Kevin's was the green one in this picture. Our servers also started giving the kids plates of maraschino cherries for dessert. They were seriously the best servers ever. 

This was our SpiderMan outfit day. We got another opportunity to talk to Mulan. She is awesome. There was an acapella group performing in the theater this night but we decided it would be best for us all to go to bed early instead. 

Day 6 was another day at sea. They had an open house in the kids club in the morning so I joined Kevin down there. They had a really fun experience with BB8.

Jack and I went mini golfing at the back of the ship in the middle of the day. It was pretty windy but it was still really fun. The ship was going especially fast this day. I also wanted to throw in one picture here to show you how they had the boys beds configured. During the day this was a couch, but then at night they would switch it into 3 beds. We also got accidentally upgraded to the family deluxe verandah room, so that was especially nice. 

Then they boys got to meet Repunzel. And during dinner they ran into Thor when they went for a potty break. 

That night was the performance of Frozen. We always went a half hour early to every performance to make sure we got good seats. 

Our final day of the cruise was spend on the Disney Island, Castaway Cay. Tony, Jack and I got to go parasailing, which none of us have ever tried so it was really fun. They actually strapped all 3 of us into it at once. Jack was definitely a bit nervous but he really enjoyed it in the end. Parasailing is surprisingly peaceful and quiet. 

After parasailing (Kevin and Cody were in the island kids club while we were gone) we went all together to the waterslide. 

During lunch I think the kids ate at least 10 mangos total. They also loved the unlimited island ice cream. We also got some really fun pictures while we were ashore. 

Once back on board we changed into our matching Marvel shirts. The boys wanted to go up to the pool deck for more fruit, and one of the employees stopped by our table and turned the napkin into a dog that he had the twins feed with fries. They thought it was hilarious. Everyone was seriously so nice on the ship. Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that Jack got special permission to attend either the kids club or the tweens club. He enjoyed having the choice and still went to both after he was given the option. 

The performance this night was Believe. I volunteered to stay with a sleeping Meg since I needed to re-pack our stuff and catch up on sleep myself. 

These last 2 pictures are of our matching marvel shirts, and then Kevin and I got pictures in our matching Disney sweaters that my friend Jamie made.

Overall it was such an amazing trip. We had great weather, and had wonderful interactions with everyone on board. The ship was a little over half capacity, so it didn't feel too crowded.