cozumel, mexico...

our last port of call and our last excursion was cozumel, mexico. we took a 30 minute boat ride on a terrible, terrible boat to cancun. it was rocking like nobody's business! nicole was getting a bit sea sick then a lady in front of us started throwing up. needless to say, we moved seats. i definitely wasn't feeling good, but nicole just about lost it. although, i have to admit... it was kind of a humorous situation... the people that were working on the boat were walking around with water and food in the beginning and then about 10 minutes into the trip they started walking around with little black barf bags... they've got it down to a science! haha... i think the worst part was knowing that we had to get back on it after our excursion was over!

 

i have some funny videos... they don't really show you how freaking ridiculous this boat was... but still. i'll try to figure out how to get them on soon!

after that we had a 20 minute drive to rio secreto! the secret river! it was an amazing adventure! it was a wet cave system, rather similar to kartchner caverns- only we got to swim in this cave! yep, you read that correctly... we were swimming in a cave! it was fabulous! once we got to the park, we got our aqua shoes on then we had to rinse off (to get the oils and junk off our bodies), then we got our wetsuits, life jackets & helmets with little lamps on them. i wish SO badly we could have taken our cameras in, but we weren't allowed to. we did get buy one picture of us in there that they took, but nicole has that... so i'll add that later. anyway... it was fabulously fantastically fascinating! our guide was really cool and loved his job... we saw some 3 inch catfish. we drank the pure cave water... we might die, but it was worth it. our guide was telling us that there is only 10% of the cave available to the public for tours and that the other 90% was protected. it really was such a cool experience though! i'm so glad we got to do this excursion!

afterwards, we got a few minutes to walk the shops and go to the beach... it was positively amazing how beautiful the water is down in cancun- no wonder it's so popular!

 

these dudes were playing volleyball on the beach... one took a picture for us and it wasn't till afterward when we were looking at the camera that we realized that some other dude was behind us. haha...

after a not as wretched boat ride back to cozumel, we jumped back on our ship to get ready for dinner. i opened our window and saw this....

for some reason, it was really funny to me that day. haha... there were hundreds of people on their balconies waving to us as we left the port. it was another carnival ship... this one was "legend" and kept following us around the whole week, maybe we were following them. haha... but either way we were always at the same ports together! and then... a beautiful sunset over the ocean. sigh. what a sight!

final day at sea....

we slept in a little bit on our last day at sea. we ordered room service for breakfast (per usual) and then we went and got a couples massage together. it was kinda funny... but still fantastic, who doesn't like massages? haha...

that last day was also the ship's chocolate extravaganza... although, it wasn't very extravagant... it was more of a mini all chcocolate buffet. haha.... definitely still yummy though!

that last dinner we took pictures with our table-mates. we had a mom & daughter from alabama (they were SO funny! and we ate with them every night). 2 girls from puerto rico also joined us for a few nights. this random dairy farmer was cruising by himself and was at our table for a few nights too. i thought he looked a bit like gob from arrested development! it was funny.

ps... nicole & i got virgin lemonade & strawberry daiquiris. mmm :) 

our servers were iputu & noel... they were awesome! all of the servers did a song and dance every night... they were a hundred times more fun to watch then the actual cruise shows!

last day...

alrighty... so our crazy awesome trip has finally come to an end. we woke up much too early to our room service knocking dude knocking on our door.

i think we might have done the disembarking thing wrong. we didnt want to have to get up super early so we decided to disembark by "zone" instead of just taking our suitcases and leaving earlier. so we had set out our packed suitcases the night before and they took them away. we were supposed to be off the boat by 9.45 am i think... our flight was at 1.30. we didnt get off boat till 10.45 then then customs kinda took a long time then there was a killer long line for taxis so we ended up taking a shuttle bus thing instead. we didnt get leave for the airport until 11.30. we might have been freaking out a little bit (thinking we were going to miss our flight... we had heard rumor that the miami airport was ca-razy on sundays!) well... we finally got inside and there was a giant and awfully slow moving flight check in line, so some sweet american airlines lady opened a computer just for us... we made it through security and to our terminal just a few minutes before we started boarding. phew! it was a tad stressful, but everything worked out! :)

 we had a layover in dallas... we really only had to wait 15 minutes or so. then we were headed home to tucson. nicole's boyfriend sean picked us up from the airport and we headed to his sister's house for dinner. and then i finally made it home (which, by the way, had christmas lights up... it made me happy!)

it was such a fantastic & memorable trip! it was such a blast to get to have this time with nicoley! it's crazy how fast it went by... but i really did love every moment of it (well... except that yucky boat ride in mexico.... haha!)

thank you to nicole for this 

amazing caribbean cruise! 

i sure do love your guts, kid! 

:)

cruisin...

holy shamoley. nicole & i got back from our fantastic cruise to the caribbean tonight... i plan on blogging tomorrow, but i have a lot of pictures to go through! haha... so here are a few teaser pictures to hold you over.

it was an amazing beyond amazing trip & i am pooped!

sigh... i still feel like i'm on the boat. how long do you think that will last?

 

merry christmas to me!

so. i got my christmas present early this year!!

as seen by the counter at the top of my blog, nicole & i are going cruising in the caribbean. my camera was getting old and i was ready for a new one... needless to say, santa decided to be a peach and grant me my christmas wish early this year! i got a panasonic lumix dmc-fh20 and i love it. it is fantastic! and i cannot wait to go take hundreds of pictures in the grand cayman islands and belize and honduras and mexico.... sigh. just a few more days! ps... just so everybody is aware i'm going to have a wicked hard time concentrating at work this week! lol!

this is my camera....

she's a beaut!

anyway... here are some random pictures that have been taken thus far...

haha... hayley & i were eating smarties tonight. i have no idea what this face is, but its making me laugh out loud every time i look at it. what a goof!!

::

now for a little game i like to call "whose eye is it anyway?" 

and begin.

did you figure it out?

:

:

:

1 ... dad

2 ... kelsey

3 ... me 

4 ... austin

5 ... mom 

6 ... me again 

(it was a trick... but i needed one more eye to make the grid even. haha.)

thanks for playing!!

:)

fish die...

fish die belly up & float towards the surface. is that their way of falling? just wondering....

anyway. i did a commissioned painting for my cousin... he really liked my other fish painting, so i figured i would use that as inspiration for the new one. he wanted a big painting to put above his king size bed. so this one is is 2 - 18x24's & 1 - 18x12. kinda huge... kinda simple, but absolutely fantastic. i'm pretty much in love with it.

fall festivities....

so... i had to work this weekend so i didnt really go to any halloween parties, i didnt dress up & i didnt even carve a pumkin. kinda lame? yeah, maybe so... but i did go to the corn maze out at buckelew farms last weekend [ps... it was also austin's first date! :) he was too cute! and it was fabulously fun!] and then last saturday we went to nightfall out at old tucson studios. i dont ever remember going there before, it was fun... not quite as scary as i expected, but it was still fun! anyway... here is the one picture from my halloween adventures. [hopefully adrian will post pictures of halloween before christmas gets here... lol].

::

 

alrighty... so. halloween is over and it is time for thanksgiving... which means i get to redocorate! woot woot! i'm kinda a fan of thrift stores & diy right now if you hadnt noticed. lol... here's the whole shebang then i'll tell you about my wicked good deals :)
 

i'm in love with this sign... it was a $2 frame from a thrift store, $2 worth of scrapbook paper from michaels, and rusty wire from dad's shop. i had the ribbon and twine already. a cheap adorably cute thanksgiving sign for $4... not too bad, eh?

$3 for these candlestick holders... way cute. then i just used the paper covered balls [plus twine] from this project.

 i used the hurricane lamp from this project and wrapped a candle from the dollar store in the twine i already had... i dont have a picture for the little frame yet, soon enough though. and it will probably be one of hayley [much to austin's chagrin, haha]. and then i got this funny little cheese dish [does anyone know the actual name for it? not that it matters, i love it anyway.] it was $2 too... heck yes.

 

mom got this cute turkey from kohls for super duper cheap too, but i cant seem to recall how much, but it was a wicked good deal. 

how cute is our seriously cheap thanksgiving decorations?! 

i love them.