Avery and I were away on the first cruise of the summer for a bit over a week.  While we were gone the kittens have gotten so big!  Venus is trim and has long lanky legs.  All three have made great progress, and as I suspected before I went away, they are now ready for freedom in the foster room.  This gives them a lot more to explore and play with, but also some space to romp and wrestle.  Two of the three are of weight so it's time to reach out and start getting their shots and spay/neuters lined up.  I'm hoping to get them through the process quickly as that makes them available for adoption - and heaven knows when they still look like kittens it is even easier to gain interest.

As to our cruise, we were on Symphony out of Bayonne.  A day at sea, Port Canaveral (we stayed on), Nassau (we stayed on), Cococay, and two more days at sea.  This is the same itinerary/ship we will take later this summer.  The ship is Oasis class, so there is plenty to do.  Avery barely made the cut on height at 4'4" (52") and was able to ride the flowrider!  She enjoyed it when it wasn't split during busy times.  As always she was loving the rock wall.  This time our neighbors were onboard, so she had someone to ride slides and get in the pool with.  She's treading water and swimming quite well, so it's also the first time where she could get in the pool w/o me hovering (the pools are too deep for her to stand (fun fact about cruise ship pools).

Cococay was delightful as always.  Girl wasn't as interested in the free slides as she has been in the past, and wanted to focus more time on the Oasis pool where she swam back and forth and we worked on her stroke and breathing.  I'm very excited for another week of swim team practice and her first swim meet as a result!  It will be nice to have an official first time on the 25 free (which is likely to be her only event).

Food was ok.  That's something that has been going downhill for years.  Specialty dining - this is the first time I've done a 3 night package.  Chops was quite good.  Hooked disappointed me compared to having it on Icon, everything here was so bland.  Izumi was yummy again.  I also had credit for Playmakers from booking this package - which surprised me, making my last day snack free.  I do like their garlic fries, and now I've learned how good their pork sliders are too!

Back to work this week - and a bit of business between swim practice/meet, Church and Zero's vet appointments, a massage appointment, and now a hair appointment.  I realized right before we left for vacation that Avery's hair is knotting easily and causing her trouble to properly tend to on her own.