How I Spent My Christmas Vacation Part Two

So we left off with pedicures and our first night on the ship. It involved dinner, some karaoke and an early night in bed. Traveling always makes me tired and the sound of the ocean from our balcony put me to sleep quickly.

The next day consisted of lots of eating, reading, lounging and exploring the ship. No pictures because they'd be super boring. :-) We had a balcony stateroom and honestly spent most of our time while on the ship, on our balcony. I could never take a cruise without a balcony!

Our first port city was the island of Roatan, Honduras.

See those dark clouds? The weather was crappy for my first day in a foreign country. :( Our excursion was cancelled because of it and I was so disappointed!

these guys freaked me out:

So, Randy (Mike's step-dad) organized an island tour for us. Here are the guys trying to negotiate with the locals:

But before we went on the trip Mike & Rob bought a few hand rolled cigars:

So we started off the tour with the East end of the island. The poverty was unbelievable. Seriously. This was stuff I'd seen on tv or in pictures but never in real life. There were stray dogs everywhere- and you guys know what an animal lover I am. It was so hard to see, I can't imagine living in those conditions. Needless to say I don't have pictures from this side of the island.

Our tour guide then took us to the West end of the island-- the touristy side. And it was stunning!

our ship is in the picture above. It had started raining again, but I was determined to get a picture with Mike:

and yes, he wore his McLovin shirt in Honduras and people asked about it! haha!

We made lots of stops on the island tour and each place was prettier than the last:

I could stay here for a while:

We then headed over to Tabyana beach:

The clearest, warmest water I've ever seen! I really wish the weather would have cooperated because our excursion would have been amazing. We were supposed to Snuba. It's a cross between SCUBA & Snorkeling. Oh well, maybe next time!

After a full day in Roatan, we headed back to the ship. I headed out to our balcony and took this shot:

look at that beautiful water!

And finally, a shot of the sunset as we sailed on to Belize.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation Part One

We always alternate the holidays with our families. This year it was Mike's turn so we spent the holidays with his mom, brother, sister, step-dad and grandpa on the Norwegian Jewel. We flew to Miami on Saturday, December 19th. I'd never been to Miami before... and what can I say, I wasn't impressed. I've seen far prettier beaches and far cleaner cities, but that's okay. We were only there for about a day and a half.

We had to haul our butts up to the Northwest Arkansas Airport (teeny tiny local airport) at 4am on Saturday. We first flew to Charlotte, NC to hop on our connecting flight to Miami. I'm such a dork, but I was giddy over the fact that we got to walk off the plane like this... it felt very old Hollywood to me. Haha!

After two flights we landed in Miami late that afternoon. We decided to explore the city a bit and ended up down at the bay. We had a great night of listening to live music, having a few drinks and a great dinner. We found a nice photo op with a giant tree and posed for a few pictures:

Oh and did I mention it was cold and windy? Annoying. And I never once saw a Golden Girl or Dexter. Fail.
Early Sunday morning we all met for breakfast and then headed over to the ship. Mike and I had been on a cruise before so we knew that space was at a premium in the staterooms. We packed well- only one bag a piece and only the essentials. Mike's mom on the other hand didn't get the memo! LOL I love this picture of his family and all of their bags.

 and Mike & his brother Rob before we boarded the ship:

As soon as we boarded the ship we headed to the Spinnaker Lounge- our favorite bar on the ship.

Shortly after it was time for the safety drills. Mike's Mom & Step-Dad:

and the two of us:

Mike's sister Natalie and I had appointments for pedicures at 4:15. Little did we know we'd have this view as the boat left the dock:

ahhhhh, it was perfect!

My next post I'll talk about our first day at sea and our first stop- Roatan, Honduras. :-)

My late Christmas Greetings

This card was the winner, and arrived in a few of your mailboxes. :-)

I am editing pictures like a mad man, I took about 400 on our vacation! It really was an amazing trip and I'm working on a few posts all about it.

Sorry for the absence!

I've been out of the country for the past week--- here:

 and here:

and here:

and I spent lots of time here:

full post with details and pictures to follow! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

coming to a mailbox near you...

I'm finally finished addressing our Christmas cards! I thought it would be fun to post one of the cards that didn't make the cut. I loved this design, but my friend Allison gave me so many adorable choices that I ended up going with something else.

So here is the runner-up!

She's so talented! I'm convinced she could quit her day job and just make cards all day long!

Cleopatra or a Sexy Russian Spy

this is how Mike described me when he saw my new haircut!! haha! The good news is that he loves it and I love it and I'm so glad I just went for it! :-)

My stylist used these as our inspiration pictures. We knew we wanted the happy medium between the two pics:

I've got enough to donate to Locks of Love and will be sending it off ASAP. I cut off about 12 inches of hair! Craziness.

and just for fun, this was my reaction when I felt how short it was!

Cutting It Off!

I've been growing out my hair since October 25, 2005. That was the day we got engaged (at 1:30am!) and I knew I wanted my hair long for the wedding. Last night I saw a picture of a cute short hairstyle and thought- "omg, adorable! too bad I can't do that." Wait, why not?? Why am I forcing myself to have long hair?? So I decided, screw it-- I'm chopping it off! :-)

I've been gathering lots of inspiration pictures and I'm still not sure which direction I'm headed but here are some ideas:

maybe Izzie, but with my bangs:

or Hayden:

love all of Jeniffer Love Hewitt's:

maybe this, without the weird side bangs:

LOVE Katie Holmes:

this is kinda cute:

and this is probably my favorite... but am I brave enough??

and this is the last time my hair was short-- this was taken June 2005. Crappy picture but omg I loved this haircut.

Weekend Fun in Fayetteville

Some shots from a quick trip to Fayetteville with my friend Amy. We hit up the farmer's market, had some yummy greek food for lunch, went to an art fair and the Fayetteville square.

Christmas at night

I was walking the dogs tonight and snapped a few pictures of our outdoor decorations. They're simple, but the make me smile!

sorry guys

but I'm going to have to turn on the comment moderation for a little while. I'm being inundated with annoying spam comments lately and I'm tired of it. So at least for a little while you're going to have to type the little nonsense words to prove that you're a living breathing human. :-) Thanks!!

The tree is up!

I put up the tree yesterday. I had an electrician come out last week and install an outlet specifically for the tree. Laugh if you want, but it's the perfect spot! Last year I had to stuff it in a corner that would fit just because there was no outlet-- so crisis averted this year. :-)

We use an artificial tree- one that we purchased a few years ago when we lived in Tulsa. It's 7.5 feet tall and super skinny. It worked perfectly in our last home, but here we have the space for a big ol' tree! Mike has already agree that we'll pick up something bigger at the after Christmas sales.

I made the garland out of some vintage Christmas decorations I got at an estate sale. I'm still working on the ribbons for the garland.