Towel Appreciation Post

Y'all, now that the ship is done, I wanted to just show all of the towel animals that we had this week. I love so much that they make you a new towel animal when they clean your room every day, it's just the best. I loved them all.

So great, I wish I could make them too!

Final Day on Ship

Today was our last day on ship, and unfortunately, it was just storms all day! We had so much boat rocking this morning that I actually got seasick - first time in my life but oh man we were in some rough waters. But I got a video of the boat rocking up and down, and then a video of one of the pools on the boat dealing with the rocking.

Then we just had storms and rain all day, it was wild.

So, probably not the best day to end on, but at this point, we just wanted off the boat so badly, we were just sick of being off land haha. On the plus side, we played some bingo and I won $25! My first time playing and I made some money, so great.
Tomorrow, back on dry land for good!

Grand Turk

Today we had grand plans to hit up the beaches of Grand Turk. Unfortunately for us, it didn't work out so well. There was a storm that we encountered last night that rocked the boat hard all night - as we were sleeping, (well I was awake for this bit of course), I would feel the front of the boat rise up out of the water, so it felt like I was being lifted up off the bed. Then, I could hear the THONK of the boat hitting the water, and then I would be pushed down into the bed, it was WILD. So, because of all this storm business, the water was rough this morning. Our day of beach turned into about an hour of beach because of how rough the water was, it was too tough to try and swim in there. But hey, we did our best, then went back onto the ship and enjoyed some sun and water there instead, alas.

The water was a nice clear color at least

But you can definitely see how the rough waters were going

I took this after we got back on the boat, the sunset is providing some good light.

 I also snagged this as we were leaving - the emptiness of the beach compared to when we arrived was so crazy.

Puerto Rico

Today was my second visit to Puerto Rico. The plans we had today were to just tour the island, hit up some forts and just look around. We got there in the AM, and headed right to Fort Morro.

Very old - first fort in Puerto Rico and if I remember correctly - made in the 1400/1500's.

 They have guard towers all over the place, of course we had to pose.

After the fort (visiting it was so HOT, it's like, 1000 degrees here today when the sun is out) we headed out and just wandered around the city. Back to the famous cobble stoned streets.

I very much love that the buildings around the island are all so colorful! 

After the city walk, we then went to another fort just a few miles down the road - fort San Cristobal, it's pretty much the same.

 After this fort, I think we just found a delightful bakery for a snack and then head to head back to the ship, lest we get left in port. I loved today - history is just the best to get to look at in new places.

 Here's a view of the fort as we left the island, so giant.

St Thomas

Today we made our way to the beautiful St Thomas Island. Today we went to a private beach called Magens Bay Beach, it was so nice!

 Husband brought his goggles, so he spent a lot of his time just down under the water haha

It was so nice here! The taxi prices are exorbitant (I feel like they can do that in touristy areas because hey, we dummies will pay) but otherwise, it was way awesome! The water was great, the waves were awesome and it was so nice.

Dominican Republic - Amber Cove

Today was our first stop (after a day at sea yesterday in which we just played games, hung out in the sun, generally boring things) and we are at the Dominican Republic! Specifically, the place we docked was Amber Cove. As far as I can tell, it's a port made just for cruise ships and nobody else comes here. Since we had been advised that unless we were leaving on a ship-sanctioned excursion not to leave the area, we just decided to have a swimming day at the pool that they have there. It was pretty nice, they had slides and a zip line (for major money, oy) and a float up bar that of course I didn't go to haha.

Here we are just as we are getting off the boat: 

I feel like each port place has the obligatory sign of the name of the place, there was no way I was waiting in the line to take a pic in front of it, so I just snagged one.

 Here's what the pool looked like - it was like 4 interwoven pools and a splash pad and then chairs as far as the eye can see.

After we were at the pool, we walked around for a bit and took in the sights. There's a beach near the pools, but you can't get there and you can't swim in there, which is too bad. 

It was a great time! Nice and warm and the water felt great all day. Of course we've all left with a bit of a sunburn, but hey, that'll just turn into a tan!

Byeeeeee Miami

As the ship was pulling away from the harbor, we stood on the front of the boat and snagged pics as we left. Bon Voyage!

Hello, Miami!

Y'all, it's time for a fun vacation. A bit ago we were invited on a cruise by some friends, and this weekend, tomorrow, for exactment, we leave on it. We flew in on an overnight flight last night and got here this morning. One of the people we're going with snagged these pics from the roof of our AirBNB, with his fancy iPhone camera, and I just loved them.

His camera takes awesome night photos, it's so great!
I'm so jazzed - we leave for the Caribbean tomorrow!

A Clean Fridge is a Happy Fridge

For the last week, every time I look in the fridge, I see how dirty it is. There's crumbs everywhere, there are rings from the containers, oh man, the thing is a mess. So finally today I was like, hey. I have some time, I'm cleaning it. I realize now I should have taken a pic of it before I cleaned, to show how it looked. But now, it looks like this!

OOoooh! Aaaaaaah! 

And then I decided to take a pic of all the food on the counter, just for no reason, actually. But yay! It's clean! I'm proud of the work I did and now can't wait to see how long it takes to get dirty again hahah.

A Boy tries Nutella

Today, Epifanio tried Nutella for the first time. I had made his brother Nutella toast, and then wanted to see if he liked it. The answer is: maybe? I'm never sure if that baby likes anything, he makes no faces to indicate, so it's anyone's guess.

Epifanio Just wants a Root Beer

Today I was drinking some root beer, and then I started to hold Epifanio. He immediately tried to grab my drink and I was dying. So then, I was like, okay I'm just going to record what happens next, and we are blessed with this video.

I was surprised at the force with which he hit into my head haha I loved it so much! What a fella.

Gecko Approves

When I take a pic of Oli, he usually throws up a thumbs up, showing his good times. 

What a dang cutie.

Dinner with Epifanio

Tonight we went out to dinner with family, we went to Chili's. It was Epifanio's first time sitting in the high chair at the restaurant, and I just loved it so much, he had a blast and I enjoyed watching him try to be a real human.

 This was taken right before Darth scared him and I can't stop laughing at him.

Making Cards in the Nick of Time

I realized today that card swap is this upcoming weekend, so I had to get my bum in gear and make some cards! After a really long afternoon of planning them out, they were finally made.

 I found a card similar to this online and online it looked really cool and awesome! When I made it, it ended up looking really...gloomy. Ah oops, mistakes are often made in the card game, but I'm just sticking with it at this point.

As you can see, this was made in two forms. (only one is made in the white/flower one). This card evolved as I was making it, and changed after I put the first card together. Then I realized the yellow looked a little better and I didn't want to waste the materials, so I just left one card different, and I can keep that one, no worries haha.

Tickets, get your tickets here!

For Christmas, I got a shadow box that you can put tickets into. It's something I've wanted for a while and I finally got it! Huzzah! So yesterday I put the tickets into the box and then mounted it onto the wall. I love it! And I thought I would have too many tickets (what with my RSL season tickets for many years) but no, it fits perfectly, with room for loads more.

Love it! And love to have my memories on display like this.

A New Year Drink Surprise

Last night, I went to dinner at my cousins house. We had planned to have Martinelli's, and her husband had put the bottle in the freezer to get it a little chilled before we drank it. Then when we opened it, this was happening:

This happened for a long while - it was wild! Then we were able to get a little bit out and they were mostly slush, delicious. Enjoy the science of that, everyone haha.

New Year, Same Me

Happy New Year Everyone! I thought I would do my standard post of checking last years goals and seeing how I fared. Okay now, last years goals:

Running every day
Reading 15 books
Graduating college
Less processed sugar

Now let's see how I did!

Run every day - yes! Still continues! And I ran 1633.1 miles last year! Which is an increase over last years 1541.4, yeesh. There has to be a stopping point haha.

Reading 15 books - I did! I actually read 23 books! What a shock!

Graduating college - I did! I'm done! I finished!

Less processed sugar - I did super good on this for about 4 months and then alas I sort of fell off the wagon. Shoot.

Okay now, goals for this upcoming year -

Running every day (streak is now up to 1655 days!)
Reading 20 books - I think its possible, but didn't want to jump by book goal up too much just in case
I'm gonna try again with the sugar goal, and keep it going for longer than 3-4 months. Gonna go the whole year, we've got this!

Good work all of us, whether or not we reached our goals, hey, at least we tried! And we can always do better.