Dreaming

A few weeks ago, Ben and I went on a 7-day cruise with my parents on the Carnival Dream. It really was a dream - hard to believe!! If you've never been on a cruise before, pictures don't really do it justice - it's like being in a fabulous hotel with floors of shopping and food courts and lounges and pools and theaters...constant entertainment and eating! This was the 2nd cruise Ben and I have been on (went on one with Ben's parents in 2006 I believe it was), but it was still thrilling!

Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

Stopped at Nassau in the Bahamas on day 2. Took a ferry over to Paradise Island...

...walked along the most beautiful beach...

...and toured the Atlantis, an unbelievable resort there that you could easily stay at for vacation and never need to go anywhere else!

Day 4 started with a 2-hour seaweed wrap, scalp massage, and foot massage at the spa - I won the package at a raffle the first day on board!!! I did that first thing in the morning and finished up on time for our stop at St. Thomas. Did some browsing around all the jewelry shops. Took a catamaran out an hour to Buck Island and did a snorkeling excursion around a shipwreck.

The boat ride was the best part...the snorkeling was a lot of fun (crystal clear water, saw some colorful fish, the shipwreck of course, and a sea turtle), but not the best snorkeling spot I've been to. Still worth the excursion though!

Stopped at St. Maarten (the Dutch side) on day 5. Took a ferry over to the beach and rented lounge chairs and an umbrella for the day. Most amazing coconut smoothies ever. Gorgeous water (which Ben stayed in most of the time) and fun view of all the cruise ships in the background:

Did some shopping around the cute little streets before heading back:

The days at sea included eating:

18-hole putt-putting (you will all be glad to know that I came in last place every time we played):

Water sliding:

Shopping around the many levels of the boat:

Laying out by the pools:

...and just enjoying the ride!

For all the rest, check out my photo gallery!

Mom's Birthday

Mom's birthday was January 7th (yes, I'm way behind in blogging, as usual). We went to lunch at this adorable little place called The Village Anchor, then went to Jenn's house for cake and fruit dipped in chocolate and white chocolate fondue. It was delicious and so much fun! Only got a couple of pictures. Isn't my mom beautiful?

Christmas with the Kuhls

Family; elaborate wrapping; late-night discussions; wine; the Fishery; brisket; Twister; zip lining in the mega cavern; a fabulous dinner at Corbetts; dinner discussions; #benology; coloring; manners; "experience" gifts; North Point Online; searching the house for lost items; missing Ellie and Noah and wishing they could have made the trip; shopping; Penn Station; pet peeves; presents; purses; sweet potato casserole; piano; spiritual discussions; Midnight in Paris; Chick-Fil-A; Christmas with the Kuhls, in a nutshell. Lots of pictures (couldn't narrow them down)...enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day

I got a Snuggie!

It's about time! :) I also got tons of craft supplies and a huge shelf to hang to organize all my crafts (future blog post to show the results of said shelf). In that picture I was trying out my 12 new scissors with different patterns. Santa did good!

Ben got clothes (including jeans 2 sizes smaller than before! woohoo!), some workout clothes, and some paintball gloves. Looking back now, that seems sort of boring...but new clothes when you lose weight is always fun, right?

We had Grannie over for brunch, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures! Ben did the cooking (bacon and eggs) and I set out the homemade cranberry muffins my sister made me along with the homemade apple butter from my cousin Ryan...easy peasy for me, and delicious!!!

We had my parents over for a roast dinner. We started with a little cheese tasting (I made those labels with a punch that makes those shapes - another Christmas present from Ben!). And I just noticed that you can see my blue dutch oven (compliments of the Kuhls!) with the roast in it in the oven.

We played euchre, ate dinner, lit a fire and played Mad Gab (one of my parents' new presents). We ended the night going to the movies and seeing Mission Impossible, which was awesome! Had a great time and a nice, relaxing Christmas day!

Christmas Eve

I can't believe it has come and gone already...but Christmas was once again amazing this year! It started with Christmas Adam (day before Christmas Eve) at my aunt's house with my extended family. Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house with my immediate family. By the way, we used credit card reward points to get a new camera, and this was day #1 of using it...so by default the pictures will be somewhat better, but still not living up quite yet to the potential of the camera!

So to summarize:

We had lots of snacks and homemade candy to much on before a great bbq dinner...

...lots of presents to open of course...

...some relaxing...

...playing with new presents (the guitar is actually Jenn's present from Scott! now we all have one! :))...

...some pool time in the basement...

...pictionary (any guesses as to what Scott is drawing here?)...

...and of course, our traditional treasure hunt at the end of the evening, which led us all over the house, and ended with money wedged underneath the footstools in the living room.

Don't be fooled, this is no easy treasure hunt! We got stumped for a long time on a couple of them, and all of them are tricky...it's my favorite Christmas tradition!

P.S. - Scott was drawing "fig leaf" in pictionary...the guys guessed leaf, so he wrote that word out, but they barely came up with fig leaf before the timer went out...hilarious!