How I Spent My Christmas Vacation Part Six & Seven!

Last cruise post!!!!!! Are you excited??

So last time I posted, we were enjoying Christmas with some sunshine, drinks and a formal night. December 26th for me is usually spent driving all over town hitting up all the after Christmas sales. This year it was spent on a private island in the Bahamas. Don't hate!

We woke up to lots of fog-- pretty and kinda creepy out in the middle of the ocean:

A few hours later we docked at Great Stirrup Cay- NCL's private island. We knew we wanted to snorkel, and the water and conditions couldn't have been better!

ahhh, toes in the sand! I miss this.

I had a few too many strawberry daiquiris from this little beach side bar:

Mike & Rob had some giant nasty beers while we waited in line to get back on the ship. Yuck.

The next two pics aren't great- but I thought it was kinda humorous that Mike and I accidentally dressed in coordinating colors for dinner that night. Ha! Yeah, we're that couple.

And that concluded our last night on the ship!

The next morning we woke up to this view:

We were back in Miami. Boo.

We all had breakfast together and starting saying our goodbye's. Mike's family was leaving before us, so we all gathered for some pictures in the ship's atrium:

Mike and I wanted to do a cheesy pose using the ship's props- they loved this roman column thing and tried to incorporate it in all of their formal pics. Funny thing is, I actually really like this picture (you know, minus the column and the tacky marble wall)!

Mike's family left and we decided to have one last drink at one of the ship's bars:

We headed back to the room and waited to be called over the intercom. We used the ship's transfer service to the airport. It was awesome because we didn't have to worry about our luggage until we landed in Arkansas that night!

Mike decided to use the balcony one last time for some reading.

and I just had to share this picture because it shows off the messenger bag I had made before we took the trip. I found the seller on etsy and she was fantastic to work with. I have a post later this week that tells just how fabulous she is. :-)

 another random pic-- we called this guy Jorts (you know, jean+shorts=jorts!) the entire cruise because he seriously wore them every day. Sometimes with a black mesh tank top. Not kidding!! LMAO!!

and one final picture from Miami International airport. I kept joking that I was so disappointed that we never saw a single Golden Girl or Dexter.

do you like the "gritty" effect I put on the picture?? haha!

So that's it! We survived my tedious vacation posts. And it only took me about a month to do it all. It really was a great trip. I cannot wait to go back to Belize, was pretty disappointed with Miami and made some great memories with Mike and his family. All in all, a pretty awesome Christmas. :-)

because these are so fugly they're precious

I photograph Jack Bauer more often than most of my friends photograph their human children. He's just too damn cute and ridiculous. Love him!!

check out that Elvis lip!! 

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation Part Three, Four... and Five!

So I figured I better finish my blog posts about our Christmas vaca before I forgot about it. I know it's not the most riveting thing to read, but after all this is kind of like my little diary and I know I'll want to look back on this stuff! So, here we go!

Our next stop was Belize. This place is absolute paradise. Our favorite stop on the cruise. The people are so friendly. the water is perfection, just lovely! But, our excursion on this day was spent cave tubing- so I didn't bring my camera. Boo. Our favorite stop and not a single picture! Oh well.

After our long day in Belize, we celebrated Mike's 31st birthday on the ship. They were having a "White Hot Party" at the biggest bar/club so we went and had too many dirty martinis and danced the night away. So fun!!

I threatened Mike that I was posting this picture even if he made a stupid face... I kept my promise!

Mike, warming up his sweet dance moves:

doing his best Don Draper with his dirty martini:

 After Belize we sailed on to Costa Maya, Mexico. It was Christmas Eve and we spent the day at the Kohunlich Mayan ruins. Simply amazing!!

Here we are on the bus heading to the ruins:

and some random pictures of Mexico as we drove toward the ruins:

Can you tell it was about 250 degrees outside?? So hot.

The coast line there was kinda rough, definitely glad we didn't do a beach day!

The next day was Christmas! It was a day at sea so we spent the entire day laying by the pool, sipping tropical drinks and reading. It was heaven!

But first, we sailed by Cuba!

Here's Mike, getting some sun and relaxing.

and my toes!

That night was formal night on the ship- we got all dressed up and had a fantastic dinner.

 I just have one more post to do and we'll be finished with the cruise stuff. It was sooo much fun (and I still have my tan!!) haha!

Gorgeous.

I stumbled across this photo shoot last night-- they took two models: one "regular" sized and the other plus sized and had them shoot in the same outfits. I think plus sized model Crystal Renn is stunning. 

and I thought I'd add this pic in-- it's old but I still love it!

Great Minds

I just came across these today-- I can't believe the final season is almost here!!

 as always, you can click to enlarge. (and as always, that's what she said.)

I'm sure there are all kinds of hidden little things in there since the Lost people are sickos and love torturing us with clues and whatnot.

Two of my other favorite shows, Battlestar Gallactica & The Sopranos (may they both R.I.P.) also did the whole Last Supper thing:

'09 Wrap Up

The last few days of 2009 consisted of friends, family, dressing up, having fun and feeling really blessed. 2009 has been a pretty phenomenal year for us and I'm hoping 2010 is even better!

Yay for 2010!