Wow! Hard to believe how fast the time has gone! Seems like just yesterday that I was getting us ready for our cruise!
Independence of the Seas, a very grand name for a very average ship. Much larger than any ship we have ever been on. Common areas are beautiful, Joe nailed it when he said he instantly thought about the casinos in Vegas. Thought the walking would get to me but other than a few times of having to stop and rest, I did pretty well. Our room was a balcony and had tons of storage.
Saying goodbye to Ft. Lauderdale from our balcony. Long story short, we had a super trip, saw some great places and found out that cruise leased peninsulas are definitely not meant for folks who don't like water sports and/or zip lining! Being us though, we found plenty to do that we did like, saw some great shows, ate way too much food and spent a few bucks in the casino!
Always wanted to go to Margaritaville, Joe had the Cheeseburger in Paradise and as for me, sorry B, I ate Mr. Grouper. "What time is it? It's time for lunch"! We did do some sight seeing as well. We met a lizard and a turtle, we even each held a turtle! Found this great fort, which was a patch of gravel and a canon. Went to Hell and out back saw this iguana, thought it was fake but turned out it was just very green. Had some jerk seasoning and tried plantains, YUM! At the private beach, we liked the view and the sand and the gorgeous sunset as we left to head back to Florida!
Being the great planner that I am, I gave us an entire day at home prior to the arrival of my lovely daughter and her family from up North! Needed to have the two girl grand babies here so I would have a perfect set of four, two boys, two girls, all cute and adorable and willing to be spoiled rotten! That being said, we did Christmas in several phases and during that entire time I did not get one decent picture of all four babies together at the same time with smiling little faces. Go figure!
Fun times, Santa came to Grandma's and left some extra presents Christmas morning. We also spent some time over at Aunt H's house and had some good times there as well. C and her momma helped decorate the tree, baby A spent her time laying around, B, O, and C loved having the picnic table to sit at, eating at it was another story! Two little red heads, O and C, had to get a shot of them together and of course B and C at Grandma's racing to get to the tree! Over the course of the week we all had plenty of time to visit, eat, drink and even sent the girls' folks off to the movies not once but twice as one of their gifts! Us grandparents call that a win-win, they were out from underfoot and the girls were ours for a few hours with no interruptions!
All in all, can honestly say this was one of the best times I have ever had at Christmas, couldn't of been any more fun! Kudos to all of my kids, their spouses and good friends that are just like family. Combined we had one hell of a time! Hope they all feel the same way...
As for New Year's Eve, believe it or not Joe is the one who stayed up and I went to bed at ten. But, I did have B spending the night and knew that I was going to be up early in the am. As far as I am concerned the best way to start the New Year is with a cute and adorable little boy grinning at you going "awake"! We then had a great morning playing with him and getting him all wound up before his Daddy came to get him. You're welcome!!
Happy New Year to one and all, hope that 2015 is even better than 2014 and that all of you have a healthy and happy year full of good things, here's to nothing but silver linings!
P.S.
Check out the Smiley360 page if you want to see how I roped Joe in to doing a mission :)
