I had a dream last night that we had boarded the ship and I had already lost track of the kids, I didn't know where my room was, I couldn't find it because I kept running into dead ends on the ship, and then I realized I had forgotten our birth certificates so we couldn't get off the boat in port.
I suppose I'll have 55 more dreams about this until we actually do board.
Glad your kitty-baby seems to be a bit better - I hope the improvement continues.
The cruise dream - my suggestion to you is to get passports for all of you asap. Traveling with and keeping birth certificates in order is for the birds ... and you never know when an opportunity to go somewhere really special may present itself and without passports, you may have no options.
The other caveat - which you may already be aware of - you MUST have a notarized letter from the father of your minor children giving you permission to travel with them in order to be allowed take them out of the country.
When our two daughters were younger, we all used to travel to Mexico every February for a month or so - but as the older one entered high school, she and her father (my husband) would join the younger daughter and me a week or so later, as it became harder and harder to miss quite so much school. I had to have a notarized letter from him to take the one child, while he had to have a notarized letter from me to bring the other, even though we are not divorced.
I know you will have a wonderful time on your cruise - I hope you get to have lots of fun and also relax a bit!