To explain the bruises and scratches...

My kids have been having a lot of fun this summer. It's just too bad they sustained injuries throughout most of it. Again, I promise we don't beat our kids.
Just to catch you up on some of our summer fun. Here is Josh at the Cub Scout Bike Rally. He raced a good race and felled a good fall? Yeah, he got beat up pretty bad after a collision with another biker. A couple days later, he was playing on a merry go round park apparatus and fell yet again wearing a swim suit, so scratches all up the side of his ribs. Poor guy.

Here's yet another reason our kids have been getting new scratches. Look at the cute little kitty! This is Dot. See the dot on her little head? She's a sweetie. The kids love her, despite the scratching, biting, etc. I don't know if she loves us yet. Hmmm. Grant can be kinda scary.Bruises here we come. Who knew you could get so beat up going down a hill at high speed down a bunch of plastic? We (meaning Adam) had a ton of fun connecting several slip 'n slides to max out our hill side enjoyment. Yeah, one is never enough. Especially when the kids start their pre-slide run at the mailbox 25 meters away. Here are a couple of pics and a video I'm sure you'll enjoy.

A little giddy

I am a huge fan of Vampires. Yes, the Twilight Series (minus the horrible first movie), Moonlight, Trueblood, Buffy, you name it. Where did it start, you ask? Well, I was 14, browsing the book shelves at Borders and I came across some YA fiction by LJ Smith. The Vampire Diaries became my favorite books and I read them over and over again. Yeah...not Little Women or Anne of Green Gables, sorry ladies.

So, when I found out that the CW was taking on my favorite childhood books for their Fall Season, I admit, I got a little giddy...I may have even giggled. I did not however run around screaming like crazy adolescents.

Here's the teaser. It's like Twilight, only I'm sure the acting is better, directing is better, music is better, and by golly, the boys are fantastic eye candy.

Our FABulous Cruise!

The picture roll has begun. I'm going to try to keep the words to a minimum so you can enjoy this very long journey through our week long cruise to the Bahamas. I've broken the pictures down into 3 categories. Fun on the ship, Fun off the ship, and Fun wearing Formals. So, here we go...

Fun On The Ship

We started our trip in Baltimore, with the Bahamas very far away. So, that meant two days at sea. Cruising with Carnival (the Fun Ship), there were lots of great things to do on board. When we weren't in the dining areas, or watching shows, we were playing games with Aubry and Chris, Adam's sister and her husband. The Great Dalmuti and Settler's of Zarahemla were our games of choice. Competition is fun. hehe

Here's us in the card room.

Every night we got a new little towel animal. Hello Mr. Bulldog.

My favorite thing. Just relaxing on the deck. Laying out or just feeling the wind on our skin.

Oh, my other favorite thing. Eating yummy gourmet food night and day. I'm surprised I didn't get a picture of us at the 24/7 soft serve ice cream, because we spent a lot of time there. We had prime rib, lobster tail, giant shrimp, duck, yummy soups, not to mention all the desserts. The chocolate melting cake had to be my favorite.

Here we are with Nicart and Di, our fabulous servers. They were hilarious and very accommodating. Every meal was excellent thanks to their expert recommendations and prompt service. yay! Oh. I can't forget the Carnival fun slide. Adam with all the little kids. Hearing him go down the slide, yelping and giggling was not a sound I'll soon forget .

We also saw a variety of entertainment from dancing and singing shows to ventriloquists and comedians. All were very entertaining. We also spent a few nights singing Karaoke. I ventured out and did my very first number ever! Woohoo! So, Carnival definitely lives up to it's name. Fun ship all the way.

Fun off the Ship

Our first stop was on Grand Turk. A fabulous little island with lots of history. We ventured out on a rented golf cart and manged to see pretty much the whole island. Then we hit the beach and snorkeled for a while. It was beautiful.

Lighthouse on Grand Turk.

Our next stop was Carnival's own Half Moon Cay. A private island with soft white sand beaches and crystal clear blue water. We spent most of the day snorkeling after an hour out on a kayak.

Perfect picture moment. Love it! Yes...the water is that clear!

Posing and being silly.

Ooh! Freeport was next. We went off the beaten path a bit and took a chance with a trip to Paradise cove, also known as Dead Man's Reef. We had the whole spot to ourselves. We went kayaking and then snorkeling. A lot of swimming. We took a lot more pics. You can see them on Facebook.Here's Adam swimming with the fishies.

Fun wearing Formals

Two of our nights were formal nights where we got to dress up and feel like royalty. It was awesome! A big thank you goes out to Sara N for finding these ridiculously awesome dresses! She did have to go all the way to Utah to find them.

Anyway, every formal night came with photographers and a variety of backdrops. It was so fun taking pictures. We must have taken hundreds, but these were our favorites. We even won a free 16x20 canvas of one of them. Can you guess which one we picked? Hope you like.





Thanks for sticking it out til the end. We will definitely be going on another cruise. Talk about self indulgence at it's best. Totally worth the money. We weren't even home 2 hours before Aubry and I were looking up our next cruise on the internet. Any suggestions?

Oh...and I can't forget to thank my brother Jake for staying behind with the kids. He did an awesome job. I'll never forget the big hug I got when I walked in the door. "Ariella! Thank you for coming home!" teehee