Showing posts with label cruise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cruise. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2013

7 Quick Takes {14} Vacation Edition

Going to do this a little differently this week and recap our vacation. Might be boring (and LOOONG) for others to read but I want to write it down before I forget. Feel free to skip the wordiness and just look at the photos:) 

(don't say I didn't warn ya!)

1. The day before and day 1 of the cruise. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and were checked into our hotel by 11:30 am. Conveniently enough there was a Chipotle right across the parking lot were we managed to scarf down our burrito (bowl) quickly before heading back to our room for a nap. Since we left our house at 3:15 am (!) that morning a nap was definitely needed. Once our nap was over we walked down the street and boarded a water taxi that gave us a nice little tour of some of the rich and famous' homes that sit right on the water. We stopped by the mall to pick up a new pair of shorts for Seth and then headed down to an area that had lots of restaurants. Yum!


Heading out for the evening in Ft. Lauderdale 
Water taxi - a great way to travel

Delish burger and fries at 11pm. Yes, please!
We made it to the port by 11:00am the next morning and we were on the ship and headed to our first meal by 11:45. The ship was gorgeous and the food was yummy as usual. While exploring the ship we stumbled upon a tour of the spa. The tour ended by having a  lady give you a neck and shoulder massage for about 5 minutes. That's all it took to sell us on a couples massage. And it was AMAZING! Keep in mind they do automatically add in a huge gratuity and we probably wouldn't do this again because it was super pricey but I definitely enjoyed. 


Just watching a little titanic before heading to the port. A bad sign??

The boardwalk. Complete with a carousel and donut shop:)
Happy happy happy!

Baller!
At dinner that night we met two of our table mates for the first time. A super sweet couple named Russ and Julie (name twins) who are about our parents age and from Utah. After gorging on food we went to the the middle of the ship to watch an ice skating show that was pretty impressive considering how small the rink was. We swung through the ships casino for a bit of gambling before heading to bed at a decent hour since we had our first island stop the next day.


We may or may not have contributed a lot of quarters to this machine.


2. Day 2 of the trip. Sunday we woke up and got dressed for touring the island of Nassau, Bahamas. We walked around the island for a bit before taking a taxi over to the huge Atlantis resort. The casino stole a bit of our money before we headed out to the beach where we swam in the crystal clear blue water before heading back to the ship for another meal. Since we were only at the island until 1:30 we wanted to be sure that we made it safely back to the ship before it left. Being on time has never been my strong suit and those ships don't wait!


Hey, awkward!
I wish Kansas had a beach.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool where we met a super fun couple from Indiana, Jack and Deb. They had purchased the all you can drink package and were super nice to keep ordering us extra drinks. Let's just say it turned into a pretty fun afternoon and a nap was needed before dinner:) 

Another couple, old enough to be our grandparents, joined us for dinner that night, George and Ida. They had moved to the U.S., from Hungary, 56 years ago but still had an accent like they got off the boat yesterday. They were a nice enough couple but always seemed to find something to complain about. Our show after dinner that night was a comedy show that was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen. All 3 comedians were spectacular and didn't seem to care one bit about being politically correct. The highlight had to be when the very round comedian danced just like the snowman on the old school version of Rudolph. Pretty sure people peed their pants laughing so hard. 


Hey mr. crocodile....
....and eskimo??
3. Day 3 was a sea day so we slept in, ate tons and spent more time at the pool. I went to go see the show Hairspray at 2:30 which was absolutely incredible. I told Seth he would probably hate it since he's not much into musicals so he took a nap. Once the show was over I decided to go on a run. Probably because all I had done up to that point was eat. I managed to run the 2.4 laps around the ship that equaled a mile and then speed-walked a few more for good measure. 

The motivating signs as you ran. 
Our show that night was before dinner and it was a dive show at the aqua theatre. Basically a cast of super talented and past olympian divers did a show where they dove into a tiny pool from heights up to 57 feet! They also included some synchronized swimming and pretty cool trampoline skills. This show was pretty awesome. Then we ate dinner:)


Seth LOVES taking photos and I told him if he didn't
take another one I was using this. You're welcome Love:)

4. Day 4 we stopped at the beautiful island of St. Thomas. We took a taxi over to Megan's Bay which is supposedly one of the Top 10 beaches in the world. I have been there several times before but it is still gorgeous even if it crowded with tons of people. We ran into Jack and Deb again so we hung with them a bit. There's a nice little bar right on the beach that makes the strongest drinks in the world. My long island iced tea was basically straight alcohol so I enjoyed laying on my towel soaking up the sun for awhile:) On our way back to the ship we stopped at an overlook to snap a photo with the beach in the background. 


Apparently people take photos with donkey's?
Megan's Bay
Paradise!
Once we made it back to the ship we made a giant plate of nachos and then jumped in the pool for awhile. More dinner and another show with different comedians that night. 

5. Day 5 was spent at St. Maarten. One of our favorite islands. You leave the ship and walk to the pier where you take a water taxi over to the beach and shopping area. Somehow while weaving our way through the throng of people trying to rent us jeeps and braid my hair we got suckered into a timeshare presentation. The lady promised it would only be an hour, we could tour a beautiful resort, and then we could hang out on the private resorts beaches for the afternoon. Plus you would get a $150 credit to a jewelry store were Seth was going to get a watch. Lies. We went on the tour which took 2 hours and 15 minutes! Then when we went to the jewelry store you couldn't use the credit on a watch and they basically just gave us a necklace I will never wear. To drown our sorrows we hit up the beach where Seth had a few beers, we were offered drugs and we negotiated a better deal on riding a jet-ski for an hour. They let us ride for a little over an hour before motioning us back in to the beach where we soaked up some more sun and dug for shells in the ocean. 

Gorgeous infinity pool I wanted while touring the resort.
This is where we jet-skied. Pure amazingness! 

Approximately 12 photos later and this is the best photo. 
After returning to the ship we again gorged ourselves on nachos and hotdogs before taking a nap before dinner. #fatkids. We had no show that night so we explored the ship more and played the "Deal or No Deal" slot machine in the casino. 

Before dinner. Sad it's fuzzy since it's a normal smile from Seth. 
We can just pretend I ate salads for every meal. 

6. Day 6 was another sea day where we literally spent hours at the pool soaking up the glorious sunshine and planning our next couple of meals. Not much else to report besides going to see a show where people went flying through the air everywhere you look. We also went to a fun game show called The Quest where we enjoyed watching a drunk lady be one of the contestants.   



Dancing with balloon man.
The diving pool.

7. Day 7 and our last day floating out on the ocean. We spent our last day much like day 6 soaking up the sun and dreading leaving our floating paradise. At dinner our waiter, along with a few others came over with a (3rd) dessert to sing me Happy Birthday since my Birthday was in less than 2 hours. I have no idea what the dessert was and it honestly didn't taste that great but it sure was pretty:)





We left the ship at 8:30 the next morning and headed to the airport where we got delayed in Chicago for awhile before returning home. Since it was my birthday (and we had no food at home that didn't require cooking) we stopped to pick up some good ole' Kansas BBQ and a redbox movie. Hello 27!



Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I Gained 5 Pounds

I'm BAAACK!! 

In case you didn't notice I've been MIA the past week, I would like to point it out now (P.S. thanks to Kala for providing the one and only post while I was gone). Seth and I got home from our cruise Saturday, which also happened to be my 27th Birthday. Dang, I'm old. 

I'm pretty sure I'm still recovering from a fantastic trip and a long fun-filled 3 day weekend though, so I don't have a whole lot to ramble about right now. 

Here's a few highlights from the vacay.

  • I gained 5 pounds because I ate approximately 7 meals a day (minimum). 

  • I was a terrible blogger and only managed to take photos of a couple meals. I was too busy eating them. 


  • The long island ice teas they serve on the Beach in St. Thomas are straight alcohol. Nothing else. This girl was duuunnnne.

  • The free donut shop on the ship could have caused a lot more damage if they had been Krispy Kremes.

  • Our ship made other ships look like toys when we were parked next to them at port.
    This photo doesn't even do it justice.
  • We were offered illegal drugs no less than 3 times while visiting St. Maarten.
  • I ran 2.4 laps around the running track on the ship exactly one time which equals 1 mile. Then I ate more food.
  • I somehow managed to spend $0 on souvenirs but dropped way to much change on a couples massage. 
  • No matter where we were going we managed to end up on the wrong side of the ship 9 times out of 10. It was huge. That's what she said.
  • I thought about work 0 total times until we got back to KS and I realized no tornadoes had passed through the area to destroy it. 
  • We saw lots of itsy-bitsey-teeny-weeny-bikinis on not so itsy-bitsey-teeny-weeny people. And WAY too many Speedos. Unless your an Olympic swimmer, the answer is NO to the Speedo.

And finally...
  • Two different people asked Seth and I if we were brother and sister. No, and WTF?

I hope to write more about the trip later in the week. I'm sure it will be all the extra stuff you find incredibly boring, but I want to remember it when I'm old. So, feel free to read and roll your eyes or skip it and come back later:)

One very important final note:

MY HUSBAND FINALLY LIVES IN THE SAME HOUSE AS ME!!!! 



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Friday, August 9, 2013

7 Quick Takes {12}

1. In 15, count them, 15 days, I will be setting sail on a boat more glorious than the Titanic. Icebergs not included, praise the lord. The amount of fun and sun and food to be had is about to get crazy. Don't be surprised if I return as an unrecognizable tanned whale of a human being.


Before cruise Julie

After cruise Julie

2. Today's my brother Joe's birthday. He's 25, which is a big deal considering almost seven years ago we thought he might not live another hour, much less long enough to see another birthday. Someday I will get around to writing his story but for now you can watch a video about him on youtube. Happy Birthday little brother that doesn't read my blog so he will never see this!


3. In my quest to be a little healthier (who am I kidding? did you see yesterday's post?) I've decided to quit drinking pop. I'm already hating life. Please explain to me how that sugary sweet little can of carbonated heaven can sink it's extra sharp nails into my taste buds and make me want to drown myself in corn syrup. Why is this so hard?!!! 

4. All my dreams have come true! Sophia Grace is going to be in a movie! Why has this taken so long?? If you don't know who Sophia Grace is you should google her and watch every single video she is in 1000 times. NOW. I just want to "honey I shrunk the kids" this girl and put her in my pocket. 
Girl after my heart right there. 


5. Do normal people get excited about going grocery shopping or is it just me? I had to stop into the store last night to pick up some puppy food (how does he eat SO MUCH?!) and I just wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS! All the pretty packaging and salty, sweet, and savory things just calling my name. Sale things anyway. I eat too much to not shop the sales. My store had so many good sales and I just wanted to buy them all and spend zero dollars. I'm convinced I was 500lbs in a previous life (again, see yesterday's post). Lets hope those pounds stay in that life. 

6. I think I'm sick. My DVR arrived on Wednesday and I installed it Wednesday night. Pretty sure the Dish customer service guy wanted to kiss my feet because I was nice to him. I've been there buddy. (Side Note: Don't be mean to CS people. They hate their job more than you hate them.) Anywho...it's Friday and I have yet to record a show. Ummm...wtf. I did use the pause feature so I guess I'm not a total DVR failure.  

7. To my mom. Since I know you read this, this is your warning. If you ever want to see them again, you should probably hide the new Milky Way bites that you have front row center in your freezer. And that doesn't mean putting them in the garage freezer. I know your hiding place and you need new ones. Also, I have no self control. You're welcome in advance. #fatkid

Linking up with Conversion Diaries:)

Love ya like a fat kid loves cake my little blog readers!


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Friday, August 2, 2013

7 Quick Takes {11}

Zippety-do-da it's F-F-F-Friday again!

Which means, you can find me linking up over at Jens

1. I always get so ridiculously excited for Friday's and I don't even care. It's also August which just happens to mean it's my Birthday month!! Hopefully I don't get too annoying because my Birthday isn't until the 31st so I get to drag it out for the whole month. Seth just loves it when I do that:)

2.You know what else this lovely little month happens to bring? A vacation! And boy do I need it. Seriously, it has been way too long. I'm considering trying to talk Seth into moving to Europe so we can get 6 weeks of vacay like they do over there. Somehow I don't think this will be quite as easy as the DVR was. Anyway, one week in the beautiful Caribbean should tide me over for a couple months. 

3. I'm making pickles this weekend! Canning them that is. I've been stockpiling all of my little pickling cucumbers for the past week and I'm hoping they turn out okay. Canning just makes me feel like a little Betty Crocker. 

4. I have what I like to call a Love-Hate relationship with paying bills. I hate paying bills like water and electric because I know they are never going to go away. Ever. I do love that they are relatively small bills though in the grand scheme of things. I hate paying bills like my car payment, Seth's student loans and the house payment because these are much larger bills to pay. However, I do love knowing that someday these bills will be paid off and we won't have to pay them again. Plus what's not to love about transportation, education and home sweet home? #AmericanDream

5. Every year, since graduating, I can't help but suppress the smothering feeling of wanting to go back to school every time the back to school supplies hits the shelves. I seriously love and always loved school. Those beautifully sharpened pencils, stark white notebook pages and un-chewed pen caps get me Every. Single. Time. Maybe someday I'll go back for a teaching degree so I can stay in school the rest of my life while bringing home a paycheck. Enjoy it while you can kids. Before you know it you will be wishing for nap times and dreaming of the day when your biggest decision was the slide or swing-set. 

Stay in school, you fool.


6. I think I've previously mentioned that my mom is a nanny for a little one year old girl named Charlotte. She is pretty much adorable as can be and my mom texts me a photo just about every day of Charlotte's OOTD. Let's just say this girl has some seriously cute clothes. Since she's not mine I don't want to post photos of her but trust me. Anyways... here's part of the text convo from my mom that makes me smile:)



7. I stopped by my Grandma's yesterday during lunch. Her garden tomatoes haven't turned red yet so I dropped off some of mine for her with some additional produce. Conveniently enough she had just finished baking bread and gave me a loaf. Warm-out-of-the-oven to-die-for homemade bread. I guarantee Grandma has given out thousands of loaves of bread in her life and I have had many of them. However, a lot of them are frozen (cause it freezes beautifully) and I have to wait for them to thaw. I forgot how amazing it is straight out of the oven though. Grandmas are the best!

Some of my haul for the week.

Carb gold!



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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I'm on a Boat...

...everybody look at me cause I'm sailing on a boat!

In 39 days I will be packing up my flippie-floppies to board this...


...with him...


...for a second honeymoon/birthday/Seth's finally moving home celebration. 

We will be doing this....

...while relaxing...


...here...


...here...

...and here.


I know we will try to win a little money here...


Eat tons of food like this...

...and desserts like this...

...while enjoying buffets like this... 


Most likely see some shows like this...


...or maybe fly high like this...


...and probably even do a little people judging watching. 


And all of that is only the tip of the iceberg of fun! (iceberg: Titanic, get it?)


In only 39 days I'll be sailin' on a boat!

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