Friday, September 19, 2014

Summer Break

School has started which means summer break is over & fall will be here before we know it! But before it gets here, I need to update you all on what we did this summer...

We played in the Splash Blast!


We went to the library a couple of times to play chess with one of Alex's friends from preK.

And to read & check out books.

We painted.

We went to the mall & rode the merry go round.

We went bowling with CiCi

and look who won!
(Yes, I'm such a bad bowler that my 8 year old beat me! Lol!)

We went to Bounce Zone

and to the Beaumont Art Museum


the Fire Museum





and the Energy Museum.



We went to a birthday party for Boone & Charlie & Emery



and to another party for Alex's friend Ryan.


We went to the pet store (my version of bringing Addy to the zoo when it's too hot outside!)

(Look at these lizards snuggling. Isn't it just the cutest thing ever!)

and to a Disney Pirate & Princess show at the park in Sugar Land. It was awesome & it was FREE!





Addy went to Brownie Rocket Day at Brazos Bend State Park where she turned a water bottle into a rocket. 


And then took it outside & launched it! It was a super cool event!

We went to Vacation Bible School at the Harvest United Methodist Church in Sienna. While the kids participated in the bible school, I volunteered in the 2 year old class!

Alex doesn't like to try new things & so he was nervous about going to VBS. 
It took me 20 minutes to get him out of the car on the first day.

But once he went in, he had a great time!


Addy, on the other hand, had no problems going in the first day.

She had such fun every day

and had this awesome girl as her teen helper all week!



We bought ice cream from the ice cream man!

We celebrated my 35th birthday!

And the best thing all summer was that we got to see this girl, Addy & Alex's older sister Maryse!

It was a fun & relaxing summer break which made me sad to see it to end!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Cruise to Cozumel

The 1st weekend in August, Nick & I went on a 5 day/4 night cruise that went from Galveston to Cozumel and back.

We left our house Thursday morning & made it to Galveston with a little time to spare. So we ate a yummy lunch at The Spot before heading to the port & waiting in the forever long check in line.

Once we made it onto the ship, Nick & I explored a little. We found the gym & while we were there checking it out, we entered into a raffle for spa treatments. Then we met up with my sisters. We hung out with them for a little bit & then headed back to the gym for the raffle. And guess who was the very first name drawn? Only the luckiest man I know, Mr. Nick Strickland! He won a 30 minute head & shoulder massage! 

And then we had to hurry back to our room to get ready for our first dining experience aboard the ship.

We had a nice long table at the very back of the Paris dining room

 with this awesome view!

Since the food was all free & you could order as much as your heart desired, I decided to try out some things I wouldn't normally eat. So I ordered escargo & duck. The escargo was pretty tasty! The duck, not so much.

And I had this molten chocolate lava cake for dessert (along with like 3 other things.) It was one of the tastiest things I ate all week!

During dinner, the ship's magician stopped by our table & preformed a couple of tricks for us. 

After dinner, we changed into our swimsuits & hung out in the hot tub with some of our group for a couple of hours. 

And since I had really enjoyed the magician at dinner, Nick & I went & watched his Up Close Magic show in the ship's library later that night. He did several cards tricks & a cool rope trick & then some mind reading/prediction type tricks. I was super impressed!

The next morning, Nick & I got up & went & worked out in the gym. The gym was at the front of the ship which gave us a great view while working out!

And then we consumed all the calories we burned by eating these fabulous tacos from the Blue Iguana for breakfast. (My #1 favorite food on the boat!)

And a burger from Guy's Burger Joint for lunch.

We spent most of the rest of the day laying out by the pool 
& playing trivia games.

It was dress up night in the dining hall, so we decided to skip that & we ate dinner at the buffet instead.
Then we had a couples massage.
And then we watched Divergent outside on the top deck at the Seaside Theater.

The next day was Saturday which was Cozumel day!

The boat docked early, around 9 or 10 am I think.


We got off the boat & walked through the Puerta Maya port


and then took a taxi to Paradise Beach.

The water was beautiful! So blue & clear.



Nick & I went kayaking & paddleboarding

and we played on all these water toys. 
The launch pad thing is a lot harder than it looks!

And Nick & I tried our hand at some Divergent style boxing on the trampoline.

We had to be back on the boat by 4, so we headed back to the port around 2 & did a little shopping. Well, all I did was window shopping. I didn't end up buying anything, except for a ceramic cat that I knocked off the shelf & broke.

At 6, we had dinner in the dining hall again.

Again the view was wonderful, but the water was choppy & I started to get a little seasick.

Even though I was still feeling bad, I didn't want to just go to the room, so after dinner, we went to the main showroom & participated in the Battle of the Sexes

and watched the Liars Club show.

It was about 9:30 pm at that point, so we decided to go to bed in hopes that a good night's sleep would help me feel better.

Unfortunately, I did not sleep well at all & was still feeling bad the next morning.
I was hoping that a little exercise might make me feel better, so we got up & went to the gym.
(But that didn't help either.)

After the gym, breakfast (tacos again!) and a shower, we met up with everyone for some trivia games. As you can see, we dominated! Our group won the One Hit Wonders trivia & the TV Theme Songs trivia. Jared won the medal playing the Bean Bag Toss & I got the third ship on a stick trophy for singing the first verse of Ice Ice Baby! (And yes, there might be a video of that floating around somewhere, lol.)



We pretty much spent the rest of the day eating

 watching shows

and playing games.
(This checkers game was missing 2 of the pieces so we used peppermints instead, lol.)

I had a headache & felt pretty bad that whole last day. I had another night of horrible sleep where I could feel every rock of the boat on my pillow. So I was pretty excited when we docked on Monday morning.

Unfortunately, I still felt bad all day Monday & Tuesday. So on Wednesday I went to my doctor & she told me that I was experiencing a migraine (for 5 days!!!) that was more than likely caused by the change in altitude. What really sucks is that I had my migraine medicine with me on the cruise but I didn't take it because my migraines have always had a loss of vision at the onset & this one didn't. I didn't realize it was a migraine, I thought I was just seasick. 

I had a nice time on the cruise, minus the pounding headache for 2 days. The beach in Cozumel was beautiful & it was really fun getting to spend some time with my sisters & brother in laws. But I prefer adventure & hiking & being outdoors to watching shows & playing trivia games. So I've decided that cruising is not for me & I won't be going on another one.