Post Cruise and Birthday Ramblings

It's my birthday! Huzzah! Click here for photos of me when I was thin. And cute. I'm still cute, just not as thin. I was also young(er). And had only four kids. I barely remember those years! I mean, me and all my oldness, now.

I'm officially in my mid-30's, eh? 34 is not that old. But it's older than 33! And it's closer to 40! And let'sssssss move on. The kids and my amazing SIL were awesome and cleaned the house for me (!!!) and made me a gorgeous Skor Cake (with Butterfinger bars instead of Skor bars) for tonight. (Have I mentioned how much I appreciate and love my SIL? No? Well, I do!)

I went onto Facebook (full caveat: I reactivated my account, but I still haven't been on until today) to see some birthday greetings per a friend's instructions and found a conversation about how I've left Facebook and how I'm missed. Awww! Right!? So nice. I like some good FB birthday greetings.

Okay, onto something else: Our Cruise.

We were in the Gulf of Mexico for four days and the adventure goes thusly:

Wednesday:
*I flew into Ft. Lauderdale with some of Brandon's co-workers and their wives; Brandon flew in later that night from Orlando (he had been in Orlando on business).

Thursday:
*Brandon and the others had an exec meeting at the Hollywood office and some of the wives and I ate breakfast and walked on the beach. Soooo nice.
*Took a shuttle to the ship! Got on the ship. Dropped off our luggage. Ate. Emergency drill. Had fun. Dressed up. Dinner.

Friday:
*Was lazy all day (and watched a few shows --an ice skating show and a cool one a la Cirque du Soleil. Is that how you spell Serk doo Sohlay?). Got a little sunburned, but not much. Watched a movie. Shower, dinner.

Saturday:
*Cozumel! We usually just get off the boat when we cruise to Mexico and simply find something awesome to do (find locals to take us snorkeling, rent a jeep to go sightseeing, etc.), but we were really lazy this time and just booked a cruise excursion. It was still fun! We took a catamaran out a ways and jumped into the ocean and snorkeled for an hour. We saw lots of fish, turtles, and a sting ray --it wasn't the best snorkeling we've done, but it certainly wasn't the worst! It was nice. Then the boat took us to a beach, fed us lunch, and we napped on the sand. Well, in chairs. But still! Sand, sun, blue water? Sigh. Then it was back to the pier, shopping, back on the ship, eating, showering, dinner.

Sunday:
*Lazy day! So much sleeping. Seriously. So much. We did a ton of reading, too (and on Friday). I read:
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (LOVED it. Absolutely devoured it. It's for Book Club and I'm excited to talk about it next month!)
The Longtime (And at One Point Illegal) Crush by Janette Rallison (This was a fun short story I bought for my Kindle. I love Janette Rallison!)
The Ordinary Princess by M. Kaye (one of my favorites from childhood)
A Timeless Romance Anthology, Winter Collection, Six Historical Short Stories by Sarah M. Eden, Heidi Ashworth, Annette Lyon, Joyce DiPastena, Donna Hatch, Heather B. Moore (Very sweet stories; perfect for your romance fix. Only problem: It's too much if you read them all in a row. Read one, and then come back to another one on another day. I read them all at once and by the end I was rolling my eyes ---something I normally wouldn't do whilst reading these types of stories! I'll need to read them again to appreciate them more!)

*Then we saw a show (Saturday Night Fever. It was... meh. Dancing/singing was amazing, content was not), shopped a little, went to dinner, packed.

Monday:
*Ate, got off the ship.
*Drove to Brandon's office in Hollywood; did some work, I met a bunch of people.
*We drove around Hollywood Hills a bit and some of Hollywood.
*Airport; flew to Atlanta.
*Missed our connection. We had 35 minutes between connections, and our plane had sat on the runway in Ft. Lauderdale for about... 30 minutes. So, when we landed, we had 10 minutes to get to our flight. We finally got off the plane as our flight was leaving. Blerg. We ended up getting on a later flight, but we had to sit in the airport for 5 hours. Luckily, 2 of the other couples from work/the cruise were with us, so it wasn't boring. We had dinner and talked, so what could have been awful was actually fun. My SIL was already planning on staying one more night before heading home, so it was okay.
*Landed just before midnight Utah time, drove home.

And here are a few photos from our trip! We only took a few. And none of them are when we're dressed up all fancy. Ah, well!

 

Ft. Lauderdale Beach!


 

Our ship and leaving Ft. Lauderdale

At the Ice Show

 

On the Catamaran, leaving the Pier for snorkeling!

    
On the beach. Who doesn't love a good beach? I love a good beach. Sigh...

It was a great trip! FYI: If you ever think you should go on a cruise somewhere, do it. Skip on Carnival and go on Royal Caribbean (or another line) and go somewhere warm, eh? Although I'd love to go to Alaska next time (hint, hint, Brandon!).

And now I shall enjoy the rest of my Birthday! By doing laundry! Whoo-hoo!