I Feel Like I Am Doing Alot of Catching Up...

So, I originally started the blog as a way to keep a record, so that someday someone could look back on this and maybe think that I did some fun or cool things with my life. I think the only way that is actually going to happen is if I actually write on the blog.

The summer is almost 2/3 over and what have I done? A lot of nothing. Ha! Not really, but some days it feels like it.

I did turn 40. Yikes! Remember when your parents were 40? Well I remember thinking how OLD my parents were, and they were younger than me when I was 13. (In case you don't know, that's how old my girls are, at least for another three weeks or so.)

I am trying to embrace the fact that I have another decade under my belt. How about a look back at some of the highlights of my 30s?

• I became a vegetarian
• I participated in 3 3-Day Breast Cancer Walks
• I ran three marathons
• I ran ten half marathons
• I did four sprint triathlons
• I did one Olympic distance triathlon
• I had 2 knee surgeries
• I had Lasik eye surgery
• I had my appendix removed
• I fell two times while running
• I crashed my bike once, and fell over on my bike once
• I survived elementary and middle school with my girls
• I survived the loss of Lucy, our first four legged baby
• We gained two other four legged babies
• We bought a new house
• We tossed around the idea of having another baby (What were we thinking?)
• My girls decided they no longer wanted to share a bedroom
• We became debt free
• I discovered that indie rock is my music of choice and saw Wilco four times in concert
• I learned how to bake really good chocolate chip cookies
• I learned how to bake and decorate pretty fabulous sugar cookies
• I took a cake decorating class
• I discovered that I love Chicago
• We went on our first cruise
• I had my first, and only, tequila shot (30th birthday)
• Celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary

Well that I all I can think of right now. I don't think that is all I did in the last decade, I sure hope not. I do know that I am not the same person I was when I was 30 and I am proud of who I have become in the last ten years.

Here's to the new decade and all the adventures that are in store for it.

WIAW, Cruise Food...

It's been awhile since my last WIAW post, and I decided I needed to recap some of what we ate on our cruise. Let me first day that the food was amazing, Disney sure did a good job.

I would have felt a lot more guilty had I not gotten up and ran five mornings of the week.

First I'll start with breakfast. We ate at the buffet all but one morning, when we had breakfast with Mickey Mouse.

I liked the eggs better when I had them made special for me. Not pictured is the watermelon I ate at every meal I could.

Carson's favorite breakfast was Mickey waffles with bacon. The waffles were good, I preferred them to the French toast.

Post long run breakfast. I ran three miles four days in a row, but after I missed a run on Thursday I decided to have a long run on Friday so I got six miles in. The watermelon and grapes were good, I still don't like grapefruit even on vacation.

Lunch at the buffet was similar to this each day. A little bit of everything. I love having a salad bar every day, the chickpeas were something I always consider adding to a salad but never did before now. The girls loved that they could have chicken strips or pizza for lunch every day.

Dinner each night was pretty fancy, the service was excellent. There were always vegetarian options, but I had some selfish during the week.

Caesar salad at dinner.

Lentils with portobello mushrooms.

Grilled shrimp appetizer at Parrot Cay.

Creamy mushroom soup.

Lobster at Parrot Cay, I forgot to get a picture before taking it out of the shell.

Creamy tomato bisque at Lumiere's the last night.

The highlight of each meal had to be dessert. I am a huge fan of dessert, and think most meals should end with something sweet. Even with all the fabulous desserts we visited the soft serve ice cream station multiple times a day.

Each night they offered a trio of desserts in case you couldn't decide on just one.

Chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream.

My favorite desserts usually have chocolate in them. I can say I was never disappointed with dessert.

At dinner each night the menu had a few recommended alcoholic beverages. The best part of the cruise was that we didn't ever have to drive anywhere.

The girls liked the banana and vanilla smoothies they could order at dinner.

Each day there was a drink of the day. The Mai tai was my favorite.

It's a good think I wasn't counting calories on the boat, I might not have been able to sleep at night. Oh what I would give to have someone to cut up fresh fruit for me every day.

I can't wait to go on another cruise.

 

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Disney Cruise Day 7...

It hardly seemed possible that it was our last day at sea and we were headed back to Galveston and the real world. If you missed the other days you can find them here.

I got up and went for a run, and then the girls and I headed up to the buffet for breakfast. Josh headed to the spa for a real shave. It was amazing, I don't think his face has ever been that smooth.

We hung out at the pool for a while and watched Chicken Little on the big screen. When I was hot and ready to jump into the pool for a bit, Josh and I left the girls at the big kids pool and jumped in the adults only pool. It was so nice there! It was quiet and the chairs were more cushiony. I could have spent the whole week there.

We headed down to watch a game that was a lot like The Family Feud, and then I went out on deck 4 to just relax in the breeze. Carson came out to check on me and she said I was asleep that's how nice it was out there. After my short nap I headed back in where Josh and the girls were playing movie quote trivia. We would have won to if Josh had listened to me on a few questions.

Afterwards, they were having the final bingo sessions of the cruise. Bingo is a lot different than when Josh and I went with Granny. We had an electronic bingo card so all we had to do was sit there and yell Bingo if it told us to. The big pot was up over $6,000 and some little girl won it. Oh well, but we so would have booked another cruise if we had won.

Our last dinner was back in Lumiere's, where we ate on our first night. They brought out all the chefs at the end and then all the waitstaff came out with all the flags of their countries. I cannot say enough about Yudi and Patricia, they took such good care of us all week.

After dinner we went to the final show, and then made our last trip to the soft serve ice cream machine. I don't know what Cam is going to do without her three ice cream cones a day. We packed up our big suitcases and then Josh and I headed out to an adults only trivia game. It was pop culture but it was kinds cheesy so we didn't stay long.

The boat made it back to Galveston pretty early and my only complaint is that when the boat was pulling into port, or dropping anchor, it is quite noisy. After one last trip through the buffet line for breakfast it was time to kick us all off the boat.

What a great week. We get so busy in our everyday life that we don't all get to sit down and have most meals together. It was nice to be able to do that for a whole week. Maybe next time we can be sure and have some cousins with us so we can take advantage of some more of the adults only activities on the boat. It was a fantastic trip, one I hope my girls never forget.

Now back to the real world.

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Disney Cruise Day 6...

Our cruise was almost over. You can see the recap of days one, two, three, four and five.

Thursday was out last stop in Cozumel, Mexico. We set off from Costa Maya later Wednesday night and arrived in Cozumel early Thursday morning. Since our planned activity meet at 8:45 there was no running on the ship for me, I just couldn't get up before the sun.

We got the girls up and got everything ready and headed up to the buffet for breakfast. Seriously, I would kill to have someone willing to cut up fresh fruit for me every morning. The watermelon on the buffet has been amazing.

We meet up for our excursion and headed off the boat. We were going on an underwater exploration, Josh convinced it would be a real submarine. When we got there, it was right next to another Carnival cruise boat, it was a regular boat with windows down below.

I was surprised by the number of very small children in our group. A small confined space where you are going to look out the window at fish and underwater sea life just doesn't sound like the type of thing that would keep small children entertained for the hour or so we were down there, and it wasn't.

We saw some fish...

Afterwards, we headed back to the boat and did a little shopping on the way. We got back on the boat and grabbed some lunch. We decided to go to the pool since there were lots of people still off the boat, and we hung out for a little while and watched Mulan.

Dinner was semi formal and we were back at the Parrot Cay, they had lobster on the menu tonight. After the boat took off from Cozumel we have had rough seas. All through dinner we could feel the boat rocking, and even during the show. It has been so nice to not notice the boat all week because this would not have been so fun all week.

There was an alligator waiting for us in our cabin.

Tomorrow is the last day at sea before we get back to Galveston on Saturday morning. It doesn't seem possible that the week is almost over...

 

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Disney Cruise Day 5...

I have done a horrible job of finishing my vacation recaps. You can see days one, two, three and four here.

It's about 10:30 on Wednesday morning. I am sitting in a comfy lawn chair on deck 4 watching the ocean go by. It's a bit like being on a moving sidewalk. This is the deck that I've been running on and the sun is on the other side of the ship. There is a bit of a breeze and its not unbearably hot.

 

We are on our way to Costa Maya, and we should be able to see land pretty soon.

Josh and Carson were signed up to go on a dune buggy excursion. They headed out but were disappointed when it got cancelled early because a storm came through the area they were headed to.

Camy and I headed to the dolphin swim excursion. It was amazing. The storm came through where we were but we were already in the water and it was just raining. It was actually warmer in the water than out of it. Maybe those dolphins were peeing in the pool.

We both got to kiss the dolphin, get a kiss in return, dance with the dolphin, give him a hug and go for a belly ride. Our dolphins name was Quinto and he was amazing. If you ever have a chance to do this, you should. It's not something you will ever forget.

We got back to the boat and discovered that Josh and Carson were already back so we got cleaned up and went to play some games.

Dinner was back in the Animator's Palate. We were a bit more casual than the first time.

We had a small incident at dinner. Camy got a little gagged on her chicken and threw up. I guess it's not a real vacation until someone pukes. She said she didn't want anything for dessert and that's what she got.

Our waiters were awesome the whole week.

We went to the show after dinner and had a little lobster in our room afterwards.

We only had a couple days left so I'll get on those recaps. I am sure you can't wait to hear about the worst excursion ever.

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Disney Cruise Day 4...

My recap of events on our vacation are pretty slow in coming. You can read about days one, two and three if you missed them.

I had high hopes for getting up and getting a run in early. I was up before 7, and got to feel when they were dropping the anchor off Grand Cayman. We are at the back of the boat, I can't imagine how loud it would have been in the front.

When I got up to Deck 4 I was disappointed to see that they had the track blocked off at the front of the boat. I guess when you are dropping anchor they don't want people running through the area. I headed to the fitness center and had a view of Grand Cayman while I was on the treadmill. My three miles weren't too brutal with the view.

We hit the buffet for breakfast, I just love having someone else to make my eggs for me. We fueled up and headed back to our cabin to get ready to go ashore.

We had signed up to go to Seven Mile Beach for the afternoon. Grand Cayman is our only stop that we had to take a boat to shore.

Apparently, they don't want to disturbs the choral reef, that reef seemed to prevent big waves at the beach we went to.

Even without the waves the beach was beautiful. The water was crystal clear, and the beach was beautiful white sand.

We spent a small fortune on a bucket of Heineken, and some fried foods from the bar. I got too much sun, got a little tipsy on the bucket of beer, and then packed it up and headed back to the boat.

We even saw a real pirate ship on the way back to our boat.

We got checked back in on the boat, got through the medal detectors and headed back to our cabin to clean up. Carson was the only one that got a nap, the rest of us watched a little tv. We had already planned to go to the buffet for dinner so we took out time getting ready.

It's pirate night, and we didn't bring any pirate gear. The buffet was a sit down dinner tonight, which kinda bummed us out. I would have pictures if I had actually taken my camera to dinner. The rum soaked chocolate cake i got for dessert was amazing. Camy was not impressed though. Because my kids have to have self serve ice cream before and after every meal, we got cones after dinner.

Now we are hanging out in our room and it will probably be an early night. They are supposed to have fire works later but I am worn out from the sun and might not be able to stay up that late.

Tomorrow we will be in Costa Maya.

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