The Cruise - Part 2

So the whole reason for our cruise was to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

On July 14, the big day, we found these balloons outside our cabin.

We were in St. Maarten that day.

We had not gotten each other gifts for our anniversary. But be found out that the big thing in the Caribbean is shopping for diamonds. So Greg took me shopping for a new ring. It took three stores but we finally found the perfect ring. I knew it was the right one because it made me cry. We also got Greg a new watch.

At dinner that night they brought us a yummy chocolate covered cake and sang to us.

This was after dinner and dessert. We took a couple bites and took the rest back to our cabin. We snacked on that for the rest of the week.

It was a great day and a great way to celebrate 20 wonderful years with my best friend.

The Cruise - Part 1

Ok, time for some cruise photos.

Here is our ship, The Emerald Princess.

Oh how I loved this boat. This was our first cruise, so I don't know how other ships or cruiselines compare, but we loved Princess. Our cabin was small (especially the bathroom), but we didn't spend much time in there anyway. The food was amazing. And it was a calmer crowd than some cruiselines. There were nearly 3500 passengers on board, but as long as you avoided the main pools (we went to the adults only pools) and the buffet at meal times, you never felt crowded.

We were loving this vacation from the beginning. Here we are as we set sail from Ft. Laurderdale.Our first port was Princess Cays (Princess's private island). We did a snorkeling excursion. That was fun, but the water was so salty it burned your eyes and gagged you if you got any any your mouth. I know the ocean is supposed to be salty, but this was REALLY salty! For this port only the ship was anchored and we were boated to the island.

There were two formal nights. Here we are at dinner for the first one.

We had "anytime dining" which means we didn't have a set time and table for dinner. The first night we ate at a table for two, but for the rest of the cruise we we shared a table. We got to meet lots of interesting people. Sorry, but I did not take pictures of the food. But it was always beautifully presented and delicious.


One of my favorite place on the ship was the International Cafe.

Yeah, you could get yummy treats anytime you wanted!

And one of our favorite activites for the week was ballroom dance classes. Sorry, no pics. We were both dancing! We learned the some very basic steps for the Merengue, Cha Cha, Rhumba, Waltz, and Tango. So much fun!

That's enough for today. More to come!

Family

I always enjoy every minute I get to spend with Greg's family. I seriously love each one of them. One morning we all went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel where our niece Hannah is working for the summer. Isn't she adorable?


Here's a group shot. Wait, where's Grandma? I think she went to the restroom.

Oh here. She's back now.

We spent a day at King's Dominion (an amusement park) with our niece Tammie and her husband Daniel. They are so fun to hang out with. (We'd love to go on a cruise with them someday.)
The park was fun, but it was so HOT that day. There was a water park, but it was so crowded we had to wait in line for everything including the lazy river.

But the boys did manage to stay cool! (Don't know who that other kid is!)

I think Zach is done.

And here is Tammie's daughter Faith wearing the dress and hat I knit for her. It was hard to get her picture. She's always on the move and fast!


And in adoption news...

We signed the foster adoptive parent agreement yesterday which was the last step in the paperwork/homestudy process. We should get a call next week from a placement worker to start the search for a little girl who needs a family.

Birthdays and Baptisms

The first day of our vacation was very special. We celebrated the 80th birthdays of Greg's parents and the baptisms or Jonathan and Benjamin.

But there was some lake fun before that.

Greg's dad has baptized several of his grandchildren and baptized Zachary several years ago. Now Jonathan and Benjamin were ready. Greg prayed over each of them, then Grandpa baptized them. It was special to be able to do this with the family. Greg's brother-in-law Bob read some scripture and Tammie's (niece) husband Daniel who is a pastor prayed to close our little service.Then it was time for cake. Dad's 80th birthday was in May. Mom's is Christmas eve. But we decided to celebrate while everyone was together.

I'm so privileged to be a part of this family.

Ok, that's all I've got for today. I promise I will get to the cruise eventually.

Hello from St. Thomas

We are in St. Thomas today so my iPhone works and I can send you all an update.

Some of you noticed my blog was down. My gmail/google account was hacked or something so it was locked up until I fixed it today.

Our cruise has been amazing. We will NOT wait 20 years to go again. We've been eating and dancing and shopping (new diamond ring!) and eating some more and having the time of our lives.

We are going to enjoy our last three days and then it's back to reality. And our boys. We do miss them.

Robin

Vacation Time!

I took a break this morning from laundry and packing to get a pedicure. I need pretty toes for our cruise!

We leave tomorrow morning for a week with the family in Virginia, then Greg and I will fly to Florida for our 20th anniversary cruise. Can't wait!!!

American History Get-Away

While on vacation, Greg and I got to leave our boys in the capable hands of their grandparents for a couple of days. Two whole days all to ourselves!

We found an adorable bed & breakfast in Williamsburg (Magnolia Manor) and visited Jamestown, Yorktown, & Colonial Williamsburg to see how early Americans lived.

This is a scale replica of the Susan Constant, the ship the residents of Jamestown came over in in 1607. It's not very big!

This guy explained to us how accurate the weapons of the Revolution were - NOT.


We arrived in Colonial Williamsburg just in time to hear the Declaration of Independence being read - quite insiriational.


I got to watch Martha Washington knit a stocking! (She was kind of a slow knitter, but maybe that was because she never stopped talking about her famous husband!)


We love our boys, but it sure was nice to get away!

2 pages done...

I started scrapbooking our vacation pics today. Here's what I've got so far.



Two down, ? more to go!

Babies and Puppies

I don't really know where to start in blogging our vacation. So I'm just going to start here.

One of my favorite parts of this vacation was getting to love on my 6 week old great niece Faith and spending time with her mom, my niece (really Greg's niece) Tammie. And her son Owen is pretty adorable too! Tammie was 12 years old when we got married. I was only 20 - so not really that far apart in age. We've always had a special relationship.

Here we are.


And here's Faith.

Zachary and Jonathan liked holding her too (So did Greg). Benjamin didn't want anything to do with her!



2 1/2 year old Owen loved playing with Jon and Ben. He was fascinated with Ben's Gameboy.


The boys enjoyed all the animals at David's (Greg's brother) house including 3 cats (who Jonathan was very allergic to) and Chewy.


Someone was always holding him!

Although he loved all the attention, we was glad to have his master back.

Greg's brother David was in the hospital the first week and a half we were there. He had back surgery to repair a compressed spinal cord. We were happy when he came home too!

More to come...

We're back!

We got back from our Virginia vacation last night. Today has been filled with laundry, grocery shopping, catching up on everything. I'm just itching to blog and scrapbook all my photos, but I'm out of time today.

Here's a few of my favorites real quick. There will be more to come.

The boys with their grandparents

Greg was attempting an optical illusion.

My great niece Faith - loved cuddling her.

I love this one of Greg at Yorktown.

This is the life!

I'm enlarging and framing this one. I feel like an actual photographer!