Lost Time

Wow! I have a lot of time to make up here on my blog. If you read through, you'll see I added a lot (don't forget to hit 'Older Posts' when you get to the bottom of the page. Lots of new stuff continues on..) Still have to add pics from summer trips to Chicago and Montana, as well as pics from Nathan's first day of school and a trip to the local amusement park and county fair, but plenty to look at in the meantime....

Walking in my shoes

A favorite activity of Meline's, as you will read below....

Shoe Fetish

Meline's shoe fetish started at a very early age. At this point, she picks out the shoes she wants to wear each day. If she finds a pair of shoes close to a pair of unshoed feet, she'll try and put them on for you. And you can often find her walking around our house with my shoes on. Here's a pic of her in my flats....

And here she is wearing my boots (one is on backwards as you can see!)

Meline's Favorite Hangout

You'll often find Meline here in her favorite hangout reading a book, playing with a toy, or sipping on her bottle. She greatly appreciates us keeping a plant potter, without plant, at her disposal.

Nap Time

For the first (and only) time, Meline fell asleep mid-snack...

Bad Hair Day

We all have them, right??
I think Meline just realized what she looks like!

Things Meline Likes to Wear

Sunglasses are a new favorite to wear around the house...

We got this headlight for a camping trip and Meline also loves walking around the house with it on. (She also likes hiding under the blanket while wearing it. A very neat effect!)

Anniversary Cruise

Alrighty, 5 months have passed. Its about time I get these pictures up....

Michael and I are starting to create a tradition of traveling somewhere fun for our anniversary. Last year was Vegas. This year was a Southern Caribbean cruise. We left out of San Juan, PR and visited Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Martin, and St. Croix. Here is Michael relaxing in San Juan the evening before our cruise ship left!

Breakfast on the Balcony

One of the things I was looking forward to was room service and breakfast on our balcony. Here's me working hard to prepare that first cup of coffee in the morning.
Here's Michael relaxing and enjoying the view!

The Many Faces of Michael

Hard to pin a good man down.....when you want to take a good picture, that is....

Nope, try again....

Ah, there we go! :-)

The Many Faces of Michael...Part 2

Point a camera in Michael's direction and you never know what you'll get.

Surprised (scared??) Michael

About to hurl/just saw a really bad play from his favorite sports team??

Yeah, I don't even know where to begin with this one...

Uh huh! I see... hmmm... very curious indeed!

You can't handle the truth!

Ah, there we go.... Nice Michael.... Only took 6 tries.... :-)

Cave Dwelling in Barbados

This was one of the highlights of our trip. We booked this excursion through the cruise line and so I expected it to be very touristy (lighted pathways, easy terrain). I couldn't have been more wrong! It required us to don some really unattractive hats (and yes, I am way overdressed for this adventure)

Rappel down into the cave

Avoid the creepy crawlies (and yes, that is as big as it looks).

Sludge our way through water

Crawl and crouch through narrow passageways

And then rappel our way back out

Despite appearances, it really was fun!

Pretty Pics from the Boat

Saw a couple of rainbows on the trip


Along with some beautiful sunsets

Days of the Week

I thought it was very cute that all of the elevators were identified by the different days of the week (e.g., the Monday elevator, the Tuesday elevator) until (about 3 days into the trip) I realized that all the elevators had the same name each day. This was actually to give passengers an idea of what day of the week it was. Very easy to lose track of when you're on vacation! So today, it was Monday....

Pics of the Boat

Here is a picture of our boat "Serenade of the Seas" in port.


Here's a pic of our balcony.


Here's our room.

Here's a couple of pictures of the atrium.

Ziplining in St. Lucia

Definitely my favorite island of the bunch. We were really looking forward to this outdoor adventure. Here are some pics from the tram ride up to the top of the zipline course.

Here's Michael in action!

And now time to go back down. We could see so much of the island from here!

Ziplining in Action

Here's a video of me on my last zip!

Antigua

Next stop, Antigua where we enjoyed a calm day at the beach.

Here's Michael relaxing and enjoying a magazine.

Towel Creatures

The room attendants made little towel creatures for us each day when they picked up our room. Here's a sampling.... Interestingly, none of them ever looked like 'typical' creatures...you know, rabbits, bears, ducks... Instead we got crazy remote control holder towel...

Funky monkeyish hanging towel.....

Scorpion towel?????

St Maarten

Here's a picture of Maho Beach.

Here is a posting of all of the planes that are scheduled to land at the airport by Maho beach.

Here's a pic of the port where our cruise ship (and 2 others) were docked. Our ship is the one furthest to the right.

Plane Landing in St Maarten

One of my highlights was visiting Maho Beach at St Maarten. The airport runway starts right where the beach ends so the planes go right over your head when you stand on the beach.

We saw a couple of propeller planes land. Unfortunately, we missed the landing of any of the big planes. Here's a pic that I got off the web of a 747 (I think?) landing. Amazing!