Vacation

Bill and I went on a 10 day cruise for our 10th anniversary.  my mother was kind enough to stay at our house and watch Katie so we could go.  It was an amazing trip.  We left from Bayonne NJ - it was a little cool and damp but that quickly changed when we headed south.  It seemed like a tight squeeze under the Verrazano Bridge.

 Good bye NJ. Again the weather leaving was over casting and VERY windy - although its hard to tell in the lower photo.

 This is the "peek-a-boo" deck.  Below is the boats control room.  Bill spent a time there every port we came into and left.  He was fascinated by the controls and they had a close up of the maps that he could follow along with.

 What a good looking couple :)

 Ahh Bermuda - this was our first port of call.  We didn't have anything planned for the day. It was a short day here 12 - 4.  We did get off the boat and walk around the town - Kings Wharf.  Very nice place.  We went into the Glasswork store where they were making glass vases at the time.  We picked Katie up a glass heart and had it engraved for her - it was cute.

 The beach was clean, the water was clear - but it was still cold.  I am glad we didn't go scuba diving here. We picked up a rock from every beach we visited for Katie ( she loves to pick up rocks)

Us on the heliport on the ship. 

 Heading into St Maarten - second port of call. Beautiful port.  Here we sailed on the America Cup winning 12 meter - Stars and Stripes - it was awesome. Then we walked around the town a bit. We were here from 1 - 7  and I think we enjoyed it very much

 Welcome to St Maarten.

 On the 12 meter we not only had a great time but we had to work also.  Bill worked the two winches in the back and I was a main grinder - needed help with that. One of the crew helped and he spun them so fast I couldn't keep up with him.

We were actually in a race with another 12 meter.  Twice we came so close I thought we were going to crash.  I am sure the captains keep it that way to make it more exciting for us "tourist", but it was still very exhilarating. Here is a picture of the other boat - which we were actually crossing in from of them when I was taking the photo.   Below is Bill at the helm on our return home.  We lost the race but it was only by inches.Definitely one of the highlights of our cruise!

 After our exciting sail we had enough time to walk around the town.  We were told that if you are going to buy jewelry that this is the place.  There was a TON of jewelry stores.  We picked up a free charm bracelet for Katie.  We "walked" on the beach - this was as close as we got to the water.  It was pretty hot that day and we wanted to stay in the shade, but we were able to find a nice rock  for Katie.

Third port of call - Puerto Rico.  We only had a few hours here : 8-1.  Here we went on a Zip Line through the forest, this was the one thing that I had wanted to do.  I did enjoy it but not as much as I thought I would.  It was an exhausting climb to the site and then I was too concerned about either not ramming into the tree at the end of the line or spinning around to enjoy myself.  Bill did great with it.  The water was not as clear by the docks.  We did not make it to any beaches here - I hear they are nice though.

 Ready for zipping! The video is Bill zipping through the forest.  Unfortunately I do not have his full trip, I had to put my camera away and get ready to follow.  There was a total of 8 lines - so that is eight trees I could of ran into.  Only hit the mat on one of them :)

 Port #4 Labadee Haiti - Royal Caribbean actually owns this part of the island. This was the only time we actually went swimming in the water.  I wish I had brought my mask and snorkel - next time. Weather was perfect water was crystal clear.  The only bad thing about this place was the locals trying to sell you something every 10 feet.

 The decks on the boat - total of 3 pools and 8 hot tubs.  Sometimes it was hard to find a chair to sit in.  The only bad part about this was the smoking section.  We made a note not to walk on the right side of the ship on this deck - cigarette smoke - yuck!!

 Inside the royal promenade - hard to believe this is the inside of a ship.  The had some shopping a few pubs and some entertainment in this section.  Every day they had some special sales going on.  I picked up 2 nice jewelry sets - one for me and one for my mom.  They had great shows every night in their theater, some awesome after hours parties and some interesting trivia games. Met some great people.  All in all a great time.  Can't wait to go again, maybe next time we will bring Katie - maybe :)

Bathroom

Old bathroom with blue and white walls and wallpaper border

 Border removed

 Finishing touches with flowers

 Still need to finish off this wall.  Want to put vases over the flower stems and paint them. 

 Also painted the kitchen wall.  The black is magnetic paint.  It was very think and heavy to paint and made the room very dark.

 Magnets worked well.  Katie had fun with it.  I was going to put up chalk board paint on top but we went with dry erase paint

 Here is the finished product.  Still holds the magnets too.

Catching Up

I know it's been a while since last posting - (they changed the eBlogger format also which is making this harder also)

Katie has lost to total of 6 teeth so far.  Here she is with the last one barely hanging on.

 And it's gone.  Makes it very difficult to eat corn on the cob.  Hopefully they will come in before

 We have been doing a lot of crafts.  We made soap last month - good clean fun!
Tye dying was fun - not too messy.  Our first attempt didn't come out well, I think it was poor dye. Our second attemp was a lot better.

 Success.  Will definately do this again.

 She is enjoying wearing her hair up.  Lately its been the side pony - so 80's

 Quick trip through DC.  Katie said to Bill "Daddy did you know there is a building on the back of a penny and in that building is a
 statue of Abraham Lincoln - I would like to see that!" So we stopped on our way down to NC ( she spent spring break with Nana and Papa).  We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and went to the National Museum of Natural History.

 Katie has been studying penguins in school.  She knew this was an Adele penguin.

 We redid her bathroom.  Used to be blue and white with dolphins.  I had to remove the wallpaper border and prime the walls - I did that while she was away.  She picked out the purple ( it's really purple)

 I am glad she went with a slightly more adult theme.  We picked flowers - I was afraid it was going to be Barbie.  I will try to paste some more photos if the finished product.

Holiday Spirit

We have been decorating for the holiday. Katie and Bill worked on a gingerbread house - it was delicious :)
We are making paper snowflakes.

Then hanging them on the windows - its the next best thing to real snow.

We got our Christmas tree last weekend - Katie did an awesome job decorating it.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Katie singing " OH Chrsitmas Tree" and dancing while decorating. She is definitely in the Christmas spirit

Thanksgiving

We headed south for Thanksgiving - NC to visit mom and dad.
Maggie is now 10 months old and here she is pointing a butterfly while we are out taking her for a walk.
Katie and Maggie had fun playing. Maggie loves to give kisses.

Katie and Grandpa fishing off the boat - not very successful but had fun.

We took the boat out for a sail. Katie does so great walking around on the boat - no fear at all. Here they are having a snack on the boat - mom,Katie and Emma ( the dog)

Emma loves to go sailing

Captain Bill and hi First Mate Katie

Enjoying the sail.

We stopped in Virginia Beach on our way home to visit Bill's sister and her family.

Katie got her first guitar lesson.

Cousins had a great time cheering on the Dukes to a victory.

Katie and mom blowing on the conch shell and playing on the dulcimer.