Today Broc and I went to register at Bed Bath & BEYOND. Thinking it was going to take no more than a half hour or so, we went in with empty stomachs and smiling faces. We walked in and expected to get right with the scanning but the customer service rep Samantha, took us into a designated office specifically for gift registry. We listened to a whole presentation about fine china and luggage. We got more information in that half hour with the her about wedding registry than we thought existed. She took us on a tour of the store and pointed out to us that the section with measuring cups, ice cream scoopers, and cheese graters lining the wall from floor to ceiling was the "kitchen essentials" area. I thought it was obvious. Samantha was just doing her job. And she was great at it. Thanks Samantha. Here are some of the instruction she gave us...
1. You want to register for 2 to 3 times the amount of people you are inviting to the wedding.
-that put us at over 2,000 items "ideally" to scan. By the end we got to 248.
2. If you scan an item and you want to erase it from the registry just scan the "oops" bar code in the HUGE catalog you received during the presentation.
-With Broc handling the scanner and playing the game "lets see how far away this thing can scan from" We used that "oops" bar code all day.
3. This is your chance to get the things that you really want. Go ahead and pick out the things that are worth most to you and you would want as a gift.
-Broc registered for a new razor and I scanned for the snuggie.
So with these few pointers, we were off. We completely underestimated the time this would take until Samantha found us an hour later in the same area we started in to offer us water bottles. She said "I know how draining this can be". We knew then that we were in for the long haul.
Something that I didn't know is that Broc is kind of obsessed with dyson vacuums. So if any of you people reading this are rich enough to buy us the dyson vacuum, Broc would greatly appreciate it. As we were looking at the more reasonable priced vacuums, I spotted a nice inexpensive vacuum that was a light shade of purple. This was Broc's response word for word "Eh..." as he tilts is head and squints his eyes "I don't like the color. But I mean... if you'll do most of the vacuuming... I'm game". Lets just say we registered for an orange one.
We were furiously scanning items to try to get up to the 2,000+ suggested so that when we returned back to Samantha, she didn't think we were retarded and indecisive. We scanned some pretty interesting things including a grilled cheese maker, a single egg frying pan with a handle shaped as an egg with chicken features, a movie projector, Christmas garland, a crock-pot the size of an orange and the already mentioned snuggie. The items that barely missed the list in fear of embarrassment or actually receiving these items were the magnified toenail clippers, the "erin" heart keychain, the pig shaped kitchen timer, and the strap perfect bra concealer clip as seen on infomercials.
We didn't actually make it to 2,000 items before we were wasted and hungry beyond belief. So you all can duke it out for the 248 random items we did register for. There is actually a lot more BEYOND than they make you think. Thanks again Samantha, those water bottles saved our lives today.
Dad made Lex a necklace
Mom made Broc some pjs
Ashley and Taylor made mom and dad snuggies
Michael made Mitch a gum ball machine
But eventually we got there just in time to wait in line after line. We were going through security and they seemed like big sticklers about what was allowed on the ship. Broc had his butterfly pocket knife on him and quietly asked where he could turn it in and pick it up after the week but the woman quietly replied in almost a whisper "just put it back in your pocket". Ha that made us feel safe. We got settled into our room and then had to go to a safety orientation in the main lounge. The ship was beautiful so we didn't mind sitting in the lounge listening to our South American cruise director give instructions that no one listened to nor understood. The best part was on any announcement over the loud speaker he would finish with "ciao for now! woo hoo!". 
We just walked up and down the streets and in and out of shops most of the time. It's a beautiful island and Broc fell in love with it. We ate lunch on a street bench and Broc couldn't resist feeding the dozens of pigeons. He threw a milk dud on the floor and almost killed one! Seriously I thought after having that big hunk of chocolate and caramel goodness jammed in his throat he would just eventually just tip over dead. Oh Broc. So mature. Love him though. 
Day #3
We went back to the ship early that day because it was so very cold. We got the first season of Boy Meets World for our wedding so we watched that in our room for like 4 hours straight. We had dinner that night at the same table with the same waiters with the same people but a different menu. Everything was so good!! The pictures were posted that night of the formal night the night before. Broc and I walked around for forever just laughing at most of them because of how funny some cruisers can be. Then we hit up the 24 hour ice cream bar before going to bed.
So with these few pointers, we were off. We completely underestimated the time this would take until Samantha found us an hour later in the same area we started in to offer us water bottles. She said "I know how draining this can be". We knew then that we were in for the long haul.
