Cruise Album!

I've decided to show a vacation album from the first page to the last, and this was one memorable vacation. 

We cruised to the Bahamas on the Norwegian Gem, and it was our only experience with Norwegian Cruise Lines. We had mixed feelings.

Do you remember the swine flu epidemic? Shortly before we left on vacation there was even a cruise ship where most of the passengers ended up with this dreaded flu and the ship was quarantined. We were scheduled to leave on a Saturday and on the Thursday night before Caleb was up all night vomiting. Saturday morning as we were getting in the car to leave for NYC, Dave asked me where we kept the Pepto Bismo. Not a good sign . . . . he reassured me he was fine . . . . he was coming off of night shifts and his stomach was a little off.

While we were waiting in line to board the ship, we were asked to fill out a health survey asking questions like, have we been sick with stomach / intestinal issues, or been in contact with anyone who has. Dave took my survey and filled them both out. He looked at me and pointedly said, "Caleb wasn't really all that sick the other night . . . ."

That night Dave did not want to go to the dining room to eat. That should have been my first clue. Then he said we should all go to bed early and "rest up". He never did that the first night of a cruise - he loved to explore the ship. So far we had not left the cabin. Did I see that red flag? Nope . . . 

In the middle of the night, I woke up alone in bed. Poor Dave was horribly sick with the stomach bug . . . on a swaying cruise ship. I felt so bad for him! But at the same time I had to go into survival mode. I squeezed around Zach's portable crib and climbed into Caleb's twin side bed with him. We didn't need both adults sick. 

Fortunately, by the next morning, Dave felt 100% better. We ate a huge breakfast at the buffet and headed out to explore the ship. The boys we none the wiser, and Dave warned me to "tell no one." There were warning sign all over the ship about swine flu and staff stationed at the doors of the dining room to pump hand sanitizer into your hands before heading to the buffet. We kept our secret and went on with our vacation . . . but that was a memorable first night on board.

Scrapbooking Tips:

Because I do no scrap chronologically, my albums do not have a cohesive theme. When I finish my layouts I put them in albums according to chronological order. However, when I do vacation albums, I do scrap in order and tend to settle on a theme or certain look. There are a couple of reasons I do this. It helps me get the album done faster, and it gives me a couple albums with a cohesive look and theme. 

As I post the album pages (in order!) you'll notice a couple of things:

• I use the same template over for certain pages. Each time I scrapped a layout about the various Port of Calls, I used the same look. This saves a lot of time. I also like how it defines each of the different stops we made.
• I try to limit the paper lines I use. I like purchasing paper and embellishments in packs. I love it when the guess work is taken out of the paper picking. I tend to find 1-3 paper lines I like and leave them out for the duration of the vacation album scrapping. Seeing some of the same patterns over multiple times, helps achieve a cohesive look.
• I love having multiple photos on each layout! I take way too many pictures not to fill the layouts up with photos. I usually do a minimum of 6 photos for a two page spread - there are exceptions, but not too many. I want the photos to stay the focus of my scrapbooking.

I hope you enjoy seeing an album from start to finish. As I look back, I can't believe how little the boys were. Sometimes I thought we were crazy to travel with such little kids, one with a major disability, but I am so glad we did. Every moment is precious and it was worth all the sacrifices we made. I would not go back and change one thing. The boys will be able to look back and see how much Daddy liked to travel and find adventures, and how much he wanted to give them the world!