He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Honeymoon Do-over

This past July, we celebrated our 20th anniversary. So hard to believe, right?!  During the first month of our 8 months in the states, my sweet husband planned a do-over anniversary cruise for us.  Although we would not call ourselves "cruise people" (that's an interesting people group for sure!), we definitely liked the easiness of a cruise- all things included, no major decisions to be made.  It was definitely what we needed for this season of life.

Why a "do-over"?  Weeeelll, although it took me several years to admit it (every girl wants her honeymoon to be idle, right?), our honeymoon was a bit less than perfect.  Let's just say a July 29th wedding plus a cruise landed us right smack in the middle of hurricane season in the bahamas-Hurricane Erin plus our Carnival cruise boat didn't make for the best combination.  We were unable to make 2 of our 3 ports of call due to trying to avoid the eye of the hurricane.  Hundred foot waves came crashing over the 10th level of our massive cruise ship, barf bags were placed in each window and anti-nausea medication was passed out at the information desk instead of excursion info.  Of the 2600 people on board, during the 2 day storm, less than 100 at a time showed up for meals due to motion sickness and fear.   Shows were cancelled, midnight buffets indefinitely postponed.  Our "friendly cruise director Larry" came over the intercom every so often to reassure everyone that yes, we were still frequently changing directions in an effort to avoid the hurricane, and no, we would once again not be stopping at our port of call, but not to worry, Field of Dreams was playing on an endless loop on our in cabin TV.  Not kidding.  That was the only movie choice for 3 days straight.   I would like to think that if this had happened in 2015 instead of in 1995, I could have raised a big enough stink via social media to get a little more out of it than we were offered.  Carnival offered 2 nearly broke college students a great deal.  Book another cruise within 6 months and get $50 off!  Wowzers.  Thanks.

All that to say, we needed a new cruise memory.  This time however we were a little older and wiser...  January instead of July.  7 day cruise instead of 4 day cruise.  Caribbean instead of Bahamas.  It turned out to be a great trip.  The perfect bit of relaxation during a very hectic season of life.

Here are some of new cruise memory's with a few original honeymoon shots thrown in for fun...

We discovered a new favorite beach town in Key West, Florida.  Picturesque and perfect...
  

And, oh my word. The key lime pie and conch fritters.  To. Die. For.

Second honeymoon ship...
First honeymoon ship...

In addition to Key West, we also stopped in Cozumel and Grand Caymans.  Both beautiful.



Not a drop of rain on the second honeymoon.  Beautiful sunsets every night...

First honeymoon- missed ports of call and clouds.  Lots. of. clouds.

We tried a snorkeling excursion at the last port of call that they tried, but the water was too rough to really do much.
How young were we?!
We spent a lot of time in this little cabin and not just because it was our honeymoon- there was nothing else to do on the ship except wait for the unchanging announcement from our "friendly cruise director Larry"- his voice still runs through my head!
At least for our second honeymoon we upgraded to a room with a balcony which apparently also included nightly towel animals...
Finally a day of sun back in 1995- taking advantage of the deck of the ship...
20 years later, enjoying a poolside movie at sunset...

The selfie has evolved a bit since 1995.  Back in the day, you held the camera out with your arm hoping to get your faces in the frame, and assuming you were both mature enough to look normally at the camera, you might have a decent picture 2 weeks later when you get the film developed...
At least today, you both can see what you're getting...
And this time what we got was the perfect cruise experience. Yay for do-overs.  

And for those of you who may be feeling a little bit sorry for Jason who I've clearly said is not a beach person, don't worry, when our actual anniversary rolled around in July, we had a little fly fishing get away at a friends cabin in Heber Springs.  We were so relaxed there that I managed not to take any pictures (at least that I can find now!).

Happy Anniversary to us!

Cape San Blas, Florida

As I said in the previous post, I've always been a Gulf Coast girl when it comes to the beach.  Grew up going to Destin followed by Orange Beach/Perdido with an occasional Gulf Shores trip thrown in there with college friends.  This year, though, my brother found this little gem of a place for our extended family called Cape San Blas (pronounced blass like glass).  Here is the website for this amazing place- much better description than I can give!  It's a little peninsula out from Port St. Joe-miles and miles of undisturbed beach featuring TONS of shells, amazing sunsets, miles of state parks to explore etc etc etc.  As a beach lover, i felt deprived that I had never heard of this place!  
  




And yes, we went just a few weeks after returning from Myrtle Beach.  Not a bad deal.  
My sweet husband is always very accommodating to help me get my beach fill even though it is not admittedly his favorite way to vacay... (He would choose mountains, fly fishing etc).  Thankfully at this vacation destination, fishing is a big deal so he was able to try his hand at fishing in the surf.

Kids loved giving the fishing a try too...


He finally had luck on the last day and brought in about 20 salt water catfish one after the other, but otherwise not much luck in the surf.  On the St. Joseph Bay side of the peninsula, however, he had a little more luck...
...bringing in this saltwater cobia- much to the delight of the kids (and a local fishermen who offered to take it off our hands before we knew what good eating cobia are supposed to be...)


Also, on the bay side, where we spent an afternoon, the kids had tons of fun seeing more wildlife.

Maddie found this gorgeous conch.  I don't think I had ever seen the orange-ish critter living inside.  

The kids were also delighted by the starfish and hermit crabs crawling all around the bay.



Jason also got to break in his father's day present- a new inflatable kayak.  It was the perfect place to break it in.

Both in the bay...


And the ocean...


Truly, this was the perfect place-fishing and biking and kayaking for the non-beach bums.  And, beach for days, for those of us who could do nothing but sit on the beach for 8 hours a day for weeks on end.  
Our morning set up...
Lots of sand to play in.
Dig...

Bury...


Build...
These 2 loved all their together time...

One of the favorite games of the younger cousins was "1,2,3"- basically holding Annie's hands and jumping in the surf.  One would think they might tire of this.  They did not. 
They did learn to venture off on their own.  Anabelle became pretty fearless as she watched her cousins and sisters...

Fun times had by all...



There was even some pyramid attempts.  That didn't really go so well...

Let's do a line instead...
One of the beauties of our little beach destination was the scarcity of restaurants, commercial property etc.  There was one place just down the street that we went to several times and loved- Coneheads.  As with most things on the Cape- beautiful sunsets...
This little man taking it in.  Love him.

Love them all...




John and Liz were told to duck...
So we could get this picture of Annie and Da and the grands...

And of course, no beach vacation would be complete without the required family pictures...
Getting ready...

All in all we got some great pics.  Thanks to Nan (my sis-in-laws mom), our fearless photographer!
Love these girls so.



And this guy...
Amazing beach vacation!
Hope we'll be back soon!

And of course, we always take a bit of the beach with us.  Sorting through our latest shell collection...