I love penguins!

I'm on my third busy day away from home.  I think I've just about gotten back into the routine of being out at sea, but boy I miss home.  The BEST thing I did while I was home this time was get some new stuffed friends for the kids and I.  Trent and I had a date day at Toys-r-Us where he picked out a huge stuffed penguin to be our new hug buddies.  I had this idea that if the kids and I each had the exact same stuffed animal, we could all hug our animals and it would be like we were hugging the person we missed.  So Trent and I walked out with 3 big penguins.  One went to the ship, and the other two headed back to the boat to make their homes in the kids' rooms.  I told the kids that I'd hug mine every morning and night, and that if they did, too, it would be like we were hugging each other.  I've hugged that penguin about 70 times since we got underway and somehow, it helps!