January is NOT our favorite month...we tend to do not a whole lot this month and we tend to have to do some mass organizing after the busier holiday months that come before January and this month has been no different! The high of the month was Jons' birthday his 40th this past week. We booked the chef's table at the Moorings and had a special dinner made just for us and two other couples by the Chef at the club. It was amazing! Pictures coming soon. Two weeks from now we also have a special trip I booked for us almost two years ago....we are going to St Lucia for 5 days and mimi and papa are coming (thank you in advance) to stay with Jackson and Sarabeth. We leave Sunday the 9th and will be home Saturday the 15th. We decided both of us turning 40 in a matter of 6 weeks apart as well as our 15th anniversary coming up in May needed to be marked. We are slowly getting things in order despite the chaos of a full kitchen re-model going on! The flooring is in, they tiled the full bathroom off the kitchen last week and cabinets are 80% in as of Friday1 Its starting to look like a kitchen and we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. With this project we first had a lot of actual structural stuff done to the house including siding, new impact glass windows and doors for the entire kitchen room and Sarabeth's bedroom which is above the kitchen and then that involved insulation as well. We are finally now on to the actual kitchen remodel plus the bathroom and pantry.
Pictures coming soon!!!
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Monday, January 13, 2020
Norwegian Escape Holiday Cruise!!!
***Scroll down to read about December in our house, and Christmas morning posts!
We spent some time at home this past weekend getting caught up on things at home and at work after two glorious weeks off at Christmas and New Year's time. The fun of our cruise is wearing off but we still have our holiday tans and memories of so much fun and we are actively looking forward to our summer trip we have started to plan...…….news on that later. Its going to be amazing and is taking lots of planning.
On this trip we decided rather last minute in October to upgrade to the Haven which is like a ship within a ship. Its so hard for us both to take time off, we work double time before and after a trip as no on else fills in or does our jobs while we are off being self employed so we decided it was worth the splurge and we were not disappointed! We had private access along with just about 150-200 other people to the special suite Haven area with our own bar, restaurant, pool, spa and sundeck and lounge area and a concierge and staff dedicated only for Haven guests. We booked the only room in the Haven that sleeps 4 or more people (can sleep up to 6) which is the two bedroom family villa. It was baxically like a mini condo when you walked in you were in the living room with a fridge, bar area, special espresso maker and large tv and desk and sofa area (sofa is a bed too if you need it) and then the balcony. To the right of the walk in area was an interior kids room with a pull down bunk, couch that folded out to a double bed, full bathroom and closet and another tv. THE KIDS LOVE THEIR ROOM!!! It was so worth it for them to have good sleeping space on a week long vacation and proper places to put away their stuff and a place for them to lounge when we were just back in the room, plus the second bath was a bonus as everyone is getting bigger! We also had a master with two closets, a king bed, vanity, and an amazing master bath with double sinks, soaking tub over looking the water and a walk in fancy shower with a full window looking at the water and separate toilet area. I could have just spent the week in the room it was so nice!! Our stateroom attendant was also extra attentive and the best part...we got a butler that came with the room and she could get food from just about anywhere on the ship at any time and boy did we use her services!!! On other cruises we have learned room service is your friend when traveling with kids that don't want to sit through long fancy dinners but just want to eat and go to the kids club. It also comes in handy for later night snacks for folks like Jackson that take meds that wear off and then they are suddenly STARVED.
From priority boarding to priority disembarkation at each port and at our final destination in Miami at the end of the cruise the extra amenities and services the Haven offers are worth every penny. Our first day on board we had a sea day traveling all the way from Miami to Belize. Our first stop was in Belize where we did zip lining over the beach, Jack, SB and I, (SB wanted to do this so bad and was finally tall enough) and we also rented a pool side cabana here and had a very fun day at Harvest Caye. It was surprisingly HOT in Belize, like summer hot in Florida just standing there you began to sweat! I was really surprised by that. Our next day after Belize was a stop in one of our favorite islands that we have only been to once before, beautiful Roatan Honduras. Here we enjoyed probably the most fun day of the trip at Little and Big French Keys. We met some kids (30 year olds) from Chicago and had a fun day enjoying the sun, fun and beautiful aqua water, and the kayaking, and ziplines and animals that the place had to offer. We saw monkeys, tigers (not native and kind of sad actually to see) and all sorts of lizards, fish, etc. Our next stop was Costa Maya in Mexico and while this is a really neat place ( we saw the Mayan ruins here a few years ago on a spring break trip) Jackson had a bought of either the noro virus or food poisoning on New Year's eve the night before and so we decided just to stay on the ship on this day to enjoy the larger ship amenities with most of the 5000 guests OFF THE BOAT for a few hours while the boat was in port. We were pretty tired by this day too so a low key day on the ship was just what we needed. Our last port day was a stop in Cozumel Mexico and here we did the Cozumel beach buggies and snorkel and beach excursion. We had a lot of fun riding around in an automatic (it really had a clutch that Thank God Jon could drive) little beach buggy convertible and we also had a snorkel stop and a lunch and beach stop. It was a little windy so thank goodness only Jack and I snorkeled...we felt like Olympic swimmers when we finished we were totally exhausted but we did get to see some amazing fish and coral...you just better be able to swim this was NO novice snorkeling experience. The last day of the cruise was another sea day as we motored back to Miami. We spent the weekend at home unpacking and trying to assimilate back into the real world ahead of work and school. The kids were lucky enough to still have Monday off and had another day with our babysitter to just relax and play with the things Santa brought.
Here are some pictures from our holiday cruise, a first for us!!
We spent some time at home this past weekend getting caught up on things at home and at work after two glorious weeks off at Christmas and New Year's time. The fun of our cruise is wearing off but we still have our holiday tans and memories of so much fun and we are actively looking forward to our summer trip we have started to plan...…….news on that later. Its going to be amazing and is taking lots of planning.
On this trip we decided rather last minute in October to upgrade to the Haven which is like a ship within a ship. Its so hard for us both to take time off, we work double time before and after a trip as no on else fills in or does our jobs while we are off being self employed so we decided it was worth the splurge and we were not disappointed! We had private access along with just about 150-200 other people to the special suite Haven area with our own bar, restaurant, pool, spa and sundeck and lounge area and a concierge and staff dedicated only for Haven guests. We booked the only room in the Haven that sleeps 4 or more people (can sleep up to 6) which is the two bedroom family villa. It was baxically like a mini condo when you walked in you were in the living room with a fridge, bar area, special espresso maker and large tv and desk and sofa area (sofa is a bed too if you need it) and then the balcony. To the right of the walk in area was an interior kids room with a pull down bunk, couch that folded out to a double bed, full bathroom and closet and another tv. THE KIDS LOVE THEIR ROOM!!! It was so worth it for them to have good sleeping space on a week long vacation and proper places to put away their stuff and a place for them to lounge when we were just back in the room, plus the second bath was a bonus as everyone is getting bigger! We also had a master with two closets, a king bed, vanity, and an amazing master bath with double sinks, soaking tub over looking the water and a walk in fancy shower with a full window looking at the water and separate toilet area. I could have just spent the week in the room it was so nice!! Our stateroom attendant was also extra attentive and the best part...we got a butler that came with the room and she could get food from just about anywhere on the ship at any time and boy did we use her services!!! On other cruises we have learned room service is your friend when traveling with kids that don't want to sit through long fancy dinners but just want to eat and go to the kids club. It also comes in handy for later night snacks for folks like Jackson that take meds that wear off and then they are suddenly STARVED.
From priority boarding to priority disembarkation at each port and at our final destination in Miami at the end of the cruise the extra amenities and services the Haven offers are worth every penny. Our first day on board we had a sea day traveling all the way from Miami to Belize. Our first stop was in Belize where we did zip lining over the beach, Jack, SB and I, (SB wanted to do this so bad and was finally tall enough) and we also rented a pool side cabana here and had a very fun day at Harvest Caye. It was surprisingly HOT in Belize, like summer hot in Florida just standing there you began to sweat! I was really surprised by that. Our next day after Belize was a stop in one of our favorite islands that we have only been to once before, beautiful Roatan Honduras. Here we enjoyed probably the most fun day of the trip at Little and Big French Keys. We met some kids (30 year olds) from Chicago and had a fun day enjoying the sun, fun and beautiful aqua water, and the kayaking, and ziplines and animals that the place had to offer. We saw monkeys, tigers (not native and kind of sad actually to see) and all sorts of lizards, fish, etc. Our next stop was Costa Maya in Mexico and while this is a really neat place ( we saw the Mayan ruins here a few years ago on a spring break trip) Jackson had a bought of either the noro virus or food poisoning on New Year's eve the night before and so we decided just to stay on the ship on this day to enjoy the larger ship amenities with most of the 5000 guests OFF THE BOAT for a few hours while the boat was in port. We were pretty tired by this day too so a low key day on the ship was just what we needed. Our last port day was a stop in Cozumel Mexico and here we did the Cozumel beach buggies and snorkel and beach excursion. We had a lot of fun riding around in an automatic (it really had a clutch that Thank God Jon could drive) little beach buggy convertible and we also had a snorkel stop and a lunch and beach stop. It was a little windy so thank goodness only Jack and I snorkeled...we felt like Olympic swimmers when we finished we were totally exhausted but we did get to see some amazing fish and coral...you just better be able to swim this was NO novice snorkeling experience. The last day of the cruise was another sea day as we motored back to Miami. We spent the weekend at home unpacking and trying to assimilate back into the real world ahead of work and school. The kids were lucky enough to still have Monday off and had another day with our babysitter to just relax and play with the things Santa brought.
Here are some pictures from our holiday cruise, a first for us!!
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