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

Father & Sons Campout (revised edition)

Josh was a great helper building a log-cabin style fire on the first evening.

Three very tired boys after a 3 mile very steep incline/decline hike.

Adam and the boys on Chimney rock.

Before arriving Chimney Rock we passed Wolf Rock.

The old saw mill at Owen's Creek

Ok, so Adam said he would finally post something on my blog, but seeing as how we're leaving on a cruise soon and he's busy with tests and things like work, it seems I'll have to post again, even though I wasn't even there for this particular occasion.

The short of it, the boys all went on a campout during the Father and Sons annual campout time frame. I don't know where, but Adam says it's close to Gettysburg. There's an old saw mill, um...lots of rocks...fire building...tired hiked out kids...gorgeous views...I think there might be tents involved?

I really know nothing about camping, but they had a blast. Enjoy the pictures. Maybe one day Adam will fill in the gaps. :)

So here are the gaps...

We arrived at Catoctin National Park on Friday evening after a very long "are we there yet?", bumper to bumper, "how come those cars are going faster than us?" All the boys helped gather fire wood, while I unloaded all the equipment. We set up the tent and the rest of camp and had foil dinners to eat. The first night was perfect weather, no jackets required and the boys stayed up unitl about ten waving flashights and glowsticks as if they were Obi-wan and Luke, or Anakin.

At the break of dawn, Josh whispers to me that he has to go potty, I tell him he knows where the bathroom is or that he can simply step outside and relieve himself in the trees next to our tent. I thought that the morning air would have been chilly, but it was perfect. We had a fast breakfast and headed off in search of a good fishing hole. Fishing started out with all boys carrying their own fishing pole. I had a lot of frustration helping them all fish and not being able to cast my own line into those fish filled waters. Oh well, teach a man to fish, feed him for the rest of his life. After a couple hours of tired boys and no fish, we returned to the campsite.

We had a fun nature hike that trails Owen's creek. Josh and Bryson found a fallen tree stump that resembled the "Boogey Man", I guess you have to know what he looks like to find a stump that looks like him. (sorry no picture Mr. Boogey Man) The saw mill is always a must to visit. This mill was built sometime in the 1800's. The boys had lots a energy right about now and it really shows in their faces with them sitting on the log.

After lunch, I really wanted to take the boys on a hike to test their limits. I thought a 3 mile roundtrip hike would be a good trial run... little did I know that the hike to Chimney Rock was mostly uphill. When we arrived Chimney Rock, Josh saw some rocks and says,"that's it, just rocks, we came all this way for this?!" We rounded the corner and this amazing view was revealed to us. The boys loved jumping around the rocks and getting close to the edge of a 30 foot drop off. On the return trip we had plenty of water breaks and time to rest those weary legs ("I'm too heavy to carry myself").

Of course camping at a creek we got some play time in the water, freezing water. There were other junior campers about the same ages as Bryson and Grant that joined in the fun. As we left the creek and went back to our site a park ranger drove by and reported a lighting storm was going to hit the area all night. We picked up camp and tried to dry off wet clothes before the rain started. The boys started playing kickball and Bryson kept running into the undergrowth to retreive the ball. I'm guessing that's how he got poison oak this year. That boy, I think that we could go camping anywhere that has no poison plants of any kind, and he would find those plants just to say hi and that he misses them so much and that they can play together and have so much fun and when it's time to go they can give him something to remember them, a nice big rash all over the face and one ear.

Finally the rain and lightning arrived. We sat in our tent and watched the walls light up with each crash of lightning. Josh was a little scared after we discovered that the lightning was getting closer, we were counting the time between the sounds of the lightning, but it finally left us alone. But the rain came down as hard as the drummer from your favorite rock band. I wore earplugs to keep out the sound. All the boys fell asleep fast, they we tired from a long day.

Sunday morning we woke early to a wet campground and slightly cold air and ate mountainman breakfast (hash browns, sausage, and eggs all cooked together). We broke camp and packed everything up. Catoctin National Park is only one hour from our home, so if your looking for a good camping trip for the family, this is the place to go. Next year we are going to see the Cunningham Falls, supposedly the biggest water fall in the state (for Maryland it may be pretty small).

Happy camping!

Mother Daughter Weekend

Nona and I had the bestest time together while the boys camped out this last weekend. We usually don't get much one on one time together, so it was a real treat. We started off by doing what girls do best...SHOPPING! Then we went to the Hannah Montana movie and had a dinner of Nachos, Popcorn and Twizzlers. mmmm I was pretty impressed with the movie. Nona loved it! She also loved that we stayed up WAY past her bed time.

We started Saturday with cartoons in bed. We cleaned and organized the house together. In our house we work hard so we can play hard, and we did. After we got the house ship shape, we went out to lunch with my best friends and their daughters and ate very fried, greasy food, followed by a little brownie obsession.
We then did some crafty things and played outside with friends. Later, we tried to learn the Hoedown Throwdown. Go ahead...give it a whirl.



Overall, it was a pretty awesome weekend. The boys should go away more often.

I Spit on Them! pleh

Hey friends...it's that lovely time of the month again. I have a story for you.

Exhausted...just taught my first Kick class, then immediately after hosted a luncheon, then immediately after picked up Bailey from school. Come home, boys fell asleep on the way home, dump them on the couch, I crash with them. Josh and Nona lovingly take their sweet time walking home from school so I get an extra 20 minute nap. Feel tons better...UNTIL

Verizon Fios guy

Nona, "Mommy! Someone's at the door for you."

I stumble to the door. "oh" grrrreaaat

I say, "You just woke me up, please go away."

"But ma'am, we have an awesome new deal."

"No thanks."

Gives me his 20 min schpeel anyway. Doesn't seem to care that I look like I'm going to vomit and I look pretty pissed off and I keep shushing him because SOME people in my house ARE still sleeping.

Finally gets me to sign up for an installation date, but I recall another guy giving me a better deal so I try to look up the paper work. While I'm searching out the three free months the other guy offered me, he's already setting up my stuff by phone. This pisses me off. Sure I signed the stupid form, but I didn't really mean it.

I walk back to the door FUMing. He's still jabbering away on the phone. I know I can get a better deal but he's not budging. I'm frackin tired and PMS has kicked into Turbo.

Still ignoring me...big smile on his face. woohoo, I got a sale. Screw the lady with sleeping kids and looks kinda demonic at the moment. Oh, lady you're back. "They'll be wanting to talk to you to finalize things in just a moment." yay.

5 minutes later...jabber jabber

"Hey, you. I'm tired. I'm PMSing. YOU. NEED. TO. LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW. Cancel my order and GO AWAY!!!"

"But lady they're almost ready." calm...detached. Obviously doesn't know women.

"GET OUT NOW!!!!"

I slam the door.

geez lady

Yeah...I get a little irrational.

I would have spit. yes..putewee. Take that Verizon.

Run it, Light it, Hide it

Story #1: Run it

I went with a group of fantastic women to the Frederick 5K last Friday night. It was my first race, and I think I did pretty darn good. 30 minutes, coming in right behind Joanna. Of course we couldn't touch Crissy and Saundra. They each got first in their age brackets! Way to go! I kinda wanna go run another now. I know I could go faster. I was fiddling with my ipod for the first 5 minutes which I'm sure took off quite a bit of time.

Story #2: Light it

Little Baby G (aka Grant) loves candles. Well, I have a couple candles on our Dining room table right now and they smell fantastic, so when Grant asked me to light them, I thought, sure! I went into the other room for a minute and he came running in crying, "Mommy, Hair...Hot!" Sure enough, the smell of singed hair wafted through the air even before I saw the fried ends of his bangs. Poor Baby G, You think he learned his lesson? We'll have to wait and see.


Story #3: Hide it

We were at the park yesterday, just chillin in the swampy mess of a playground while the rain cleared for a minute or two. Grant was swinging and Bryson was going up and down slides jumping over the huge puddles that awaited the unsuspecting at the foot of each slide. Getting caught up with trying to keep Little G dry, I lost sight of Bryson for a second. Sara N fortunately (or unfortunately) had been keeping an eye on him.

"He's under the playground."

"Where?" Oh...

Sure enough, Boo was squatting, just out of my line of sight with his pants down.

"Don't look at me!!!" came his exasperated cry.

Nope...not pee.

Luckily, for me, there was a relatively clean ziploc baggy on the ground nearby (thank you litterer) that allowed me to safely remove the stinky mess.

Who needs a dog.