EPIC week

We are back from our wonderful week on the EPIC, and I am ready for another! We started our heavenly 10 day holiday driving down to Miami to pick up my dad. After some last minute shopping and dropping my mom and dad at the hotel mister and I had a nice dinner with his friend Alistair and some drinks to start the vacation off right!

Saturday morning we boarded the ship and said goodbye to Miami!

NCL EPIC

bye Miami!

My dad had been traveling from Africa for around 22 hours and with being on planes for that long he caught a bit of a cold. The first night of the cruise is the pub crawl (which we had all been looking forward to) but my parents decided to skip it so my dad could rest a bit. I was sad they missed it, but Sean and I still crawled away. They take you to 5 bars for 5 shots plus a few other games which includes beer. I never do all the shots but it is still really fun!

Pub Crawl 2011

We had two days at sea to lounge around, relax, read and hang out by the pool. Our first stop was in St Maarten. We took a cab to the french side of the island and enjoyed a beautiful beach and the sun! We all managed to get a little sun burnt even though we were all wearing sun screen. It was a beautiful day with great views and the water felt amazing! Later in the day we did a bit of shopping and mister and I had lunch and a drink at a cute place on the beach.

Mister and I in St Maarten

Me and my Dad looking at some shops

Our next stop was St Thomas, lots of fun shops to look at and beautiful scenery. After all the time in the sun the day before we opted for shade and a yummy lunch at a restaurant with a great view. 

Us being silly

St Thomas

Our final stop was in Nassau. I was most excited about this stop because I have always wanted to see the Aquarium at Atlantis. I am so glad we went! It was pretty expensive for a pass just to see the aquarium but there were so many awesome fish and critters it made for a day of fun. The best part was feeding the sting rays! After Atlantis Sean and I went and explored the straw market and found a few things to bring home including two large wood masks, a pretty bracelet and Christmas ornaments. My family always gets an ornament for each trip so every year when we put up our tree we can look and them and remember the fun times. I have always loved this tradition because that way you don't just buy something that will clutter up the house and you always have it to look back on. I also love that Mister and I have done this for all of our trip so far!

love the manta rays

fun fish

mister feeding the sting ray

my turn!

mamma with the sting ray

giant chair

Here are some other highlights of the trip:

I LOVE towel animals and this one won my heart

So many photographers all over the ship, couldn't resist this picture!

We won another bottle of champagne in the casino!!

At the Cirque du Soleil dinner theater

Beautiful parents

Taking Yahtzee really seriously

cheezin it

All in all it was a wonderful week and I am really sad it is over. My parents head back Wednesday morning and I probably won't see my dad again until around Christmas. I will get to see my mom in July, but that is it for the rest of the year. I am so grateful we had this time, and really happy they got to spend more time with Sean and get to know him more. 

We are now back to work and counting down until our next trip in May!

xoxo

holiday

Tomorrow morning I will be driving (let's be honest, sitting in the passenger seat) to Miami with this guy

and this lady

to meet this guy

so we can all get on this ship

and hopefully not get busted for this like our last neighbor

and have fun times like this

So forgive me, but this little blogger is going to be MIA for a week. I will return with lots of pictures, stories and hopefully not a sun burn.

While I am gone, please go to this site and do a trivia question everyday! It donates kibble to pups in need - if you are really feeling awesome, click on free kibble kat above it and donate to kitties too! I do both every morning and hate that I will be missing a week.

xoxo

mamma's here!!

My mommy got here Friday!! With all the crazyness that has been the past couple of weeks I am so happy she arrived safely. Friday night mister and I picked her up from the airport and then we went and had dinner. We were all fairly tired so we had a pretty early night. 

2005

 Saturday was a wonderful day. We woke up and mister went to work on his car while the girls went to get pampered! Mom had an hour long facial while I had the most wonderful pedicure ever followed by the OPI gel manicure. It is pretty much the same thing as the shellac manicure that is really popular right now. The only difference is with the OPI version they still file your nails down. I am a nail bitter unless I have had my nails professionally done, and even then they always chip after a few days so I was really excited to try this out for the first time. It claims to last 3 weeks so I am hoping it at least lasts until after our cruise! Topped all that off with a mini facial as well. Can you say spoiled?! I was in girly heaven.

London 2009

Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner with Mister's mom and Glenn. It was really nice to have my mom meet them and get to spend some time together. Also enjoy a pretty fantastic dessert and I cannot believe left overs still exist. Having some when I get home tonight. Mister kicked my butt at Wii tennis per usual but I actually won bowling!!!

London

Sunday was the best day yet. Seven hours of shopping with my mom. There is just nothing in the world better than a fun day of shopping with my mamma. Really any day with her is pretty fantastic, but shopping days are the best. Mom did really well and found almost everything on her list, surprisingly target was a total hit with some awesome summer dresses. I fell head over heels in love with a pair of jeans from H&M unexpectedly. I have been on the hunt for some good boot cut jeans, as much as I love my skinnies some days you need a good boot cut and H&M had the perfect ones, plus a really cute top and wedges! We also found some great things for my dad and some pants for Mister. When the mall closed (that's right, we shut it down!) we met mister and his dad for a delicious dinner at Buca de Beppo. Love me some carbs!

Paris morning

3 more work days and we will be heading to Miami to meet up with my daddy and going on a cruise!!!!!! Counting down the hours... 

Has anyone been to St Maartan, St Thomas or Nassau and feel there is something that cannot be missed? We are working on excursions and any advice is appreciated!

Full of love

I hope everyone had a wonderful hearts and hugs day!! Since I seem to have misplaced my camera charger I have not been able to upload the pictures of the wings that we made last week, or the cookies I made Sunday. I am going to make that a priority tonight, but until then I figured since yesterday was a day for celebrating love, today I will talk about things I am loving!

To start it off I am loving my favorite flowers that Sean sent me yesterday!

I love our Magic Bullet. I know you have seen the commercials and thought it was silly, but we use this thing every single day. I have a delicious fruit protein smoothie for breakfast every morning, and after the gym Sean makes shakes. It is the most convenient thing in the world and is super easy to clean. Sean thought I was silly for getting so excited when I won the deluxe version at my work Christmas party but it really has made life wonderful and delicious!

I am a very loyal mascara customer. In high school I was a BADgal lash by benefit junkie, then I moved on to Cargo's Texas Lash and remained there for years. I loved Texas Lash because it creates tubes on each eyelash and did not flake off onto my face half way through the day. I apparently am a freak when it comes to mascara because it always ends up everywhere but my eye lashes by the end of the day (it drove my mom insane for years, just ask her!) but with the individual tubes they stayed on all day. Well, last week I decided to try something new, insert my other love for the week, Too Faced Lash Injection. I have a few too faced products that I have been avid users of for a few years so I figured the mascara was worth a shot, and it's great! It is also a few dollars less than Texas Lash!! 

 

 Friday I met a friend at the mall for some browsing and happy hour, while I was waiting for her I made the mistake of allowing myself to venture into anthropologie. Big mistake. I knew it was not going to end well. I could live there and never leave. They have the most amazing aprons, like hundreds of aprons I would like to wear everyday. Adorable measuring cups that look like coffee cups. My favorite book in pop-up form. Owl cookie jars. Essentially, I knew it was a bad idea, but I went in anyway, and now I will spend the rest of the week drooling over the website.

 

Although there are a few other things I am loving, I will end with the best one. I love that in 38 days I get to see these faces!!!!

Hope you have a great day full of things you are loving too!!