Post date: Jul 13, 2011 7:13:21 AM
WOOD BADGE BEADING - My first eagle from Wood Badge completed her ticket! I went down to Yuma with Barbie for the Ocotillo District Roundtable to present Silvia her beads. It was so fun to see so many familiar faces from Wood Badge and to feel that Wood Badge spirit again. I’m so proud of Silvia, and it gave me a chance to see a couple more eagles and harass them about their own ticket. It made for a long night of driving, but was super fun and I’m so thankful Barbie was willing to come with me!
VISITORS - Grandma & Grandpa Gage stopped by to visit us at the end of their road trip. They spent just over six weeks traveling across the country and back. We enjoyed their visit and hearing all about their trip.
GOING TO WORK WITH DAD - November 11 (our anniversary) was Take Your Kids to Work Day at PwC. So Bret flew home from LA the night before so he could take the girls. Kristen & Laura were both so excited to go. There were someone from the zoo that came and brought a snake and some different animals. They ate donuts in the morning, painted picture frames, watched a movie and then had pizza for lunch. Now they think that is what dad does at work all the time.
10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CRUISE - Where does the time go? We celebrated our 10th anniversary by going on a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise. It was AMAZING! I know I won’t remember it all and it’s too much to recount here, but I’ll try to do a condensed version. We’re so thankful for Grandma Dee that came and stayed with the girls while we were gone. We went on Princess Cruises and sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale. So we flew there on the 13th and used some of Bret’s Marriott points for a nice hotel near the beach. We walked around that night, found a place to eat and across the street they were doing a “movie at the beach”. Sunday morning we took a taxi to the ship terminal and waited in lots of lines to get on the boat. We spent the first few hours unpacking, exploring the ship and doing a little scavenger hunt that sent us all over the ship. Because we were celebrating our anniversary, they had put up balloons outside our room. We ate lunch and that evening when they left it was quite the party. There were two other couples at our dinner table, Jerry & Robyn and Phil & Hillary, and it was great getting to know them.
The first day we stopped at Princess’ island in the Bahamas, Princess Cays. It was beautiful! We just walked up and down the beach, ate at the barbeque they provide, and looked at the little vendors. We didn’t bring any cash with us and were bummed because there were some very cute little purses that the girls would have loved. So instead we just took a picture of the purses. The line to get on the tender back to the ship was long, so we walked to the other side of the island, found some empty lounge chairs and laid down. We actually fell asleep and Bret was so worried that we would miss the last tender. I wasn’t worried, but we did make it back on the last one. It was fun watching them lift the tenders back onto the boat too. That night the entertainment was an a cappella doo wop group that was really good.
St. Maarten was interesting. We learned about time shares the hard way. But we got a taxi ride around the island and a $50 gift certificate to a store that just sold junk. (We got an ornament, a shell, postcards, cookies and a bracelet.) We had heard about the chocolate being really good so we got some, but I wasn’t all that impressed. Give me Sees any day. I found a black skirt at a shop since I was feeling a little underdressed at dinner. We called home before getting back on the ship and I got to talk to Kristen & Laura which was so fun. Loved hearing their sweet little voices.
St. Thomas didn't feel quite as weird as St. Maarten; at least it’s a US territory. We went to the post office there to buy stamps and it took forever just like regular government places. Then we found a nice bench in the shade to sit on while I wrote all the post cards (and Bret took care of some work calls) and then we were able to mail them from there. We had planned to walk back to the ship, but after forgetting a free watercolor print we had gotten earlier (where we sat down across from the post office) we didn’t have enough time. So we got a taxi back with about 8 other people and the whole time the guy kept saying “Ruby Princess”. But it was quickly apparent to us after a few turns that he was going the wrong way. There was another Princess ship in port that day at a different dock. We were practically there before he turned around to get us to our ship, and we were tight on time, then of course traffic was bad. We were a little stressed, but we made it back in time. And we got to see more of the island.
Early on day 6, we got up to watch the sunrise. There were several other people out to watch it as well, but very few wives were accompanying their husbands. It was super early, and we stay up late. We stopped in Grand Turk and we went snorkeling. Poor Bret felt sick and didn’t do it for too long. It was really fun to be swimming and see all the fish though. He sat on the beach while I snorkeled around. Then we relaxed a bit on the beach then got back on the ship. We ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri and pina colada and enjoyed those while lounging on the deck above the pool. We also got burgers and fries and watched Toy Story 3 on the big screen above the pool. That night at dinner we got our anniversary dessert. Which was just one more in addition to the 12 other dishes of dessert at our table. We were by far the most indulgent table when it came to dessert. Although it was still a little disappointing. Most things we were just wanting to try, nothing ever hit me as totally tasty, not even their cheesecake.
We had two days that were entirely at sea. We’d sleep in, eat breakfast (Horizon Court) then see what was going on around the ship. We learned some ballroom dancing. We did the Cha-Cha and Waltz classes and caught a glimpse of the Merengue. We did Wii bowling, which was my first time ever playing on a Wii. I did pretty well my first time and made it into the finals. We played ping pong, worked out in the gym (just one time), and spent hours walking around the ship to check things out. We didn’t do the elevators so that was a lot of stairs we walked up and down (which was probably a good thing to make up for all the food that we were eating.) On the second day (first at sea day) we were on our way to dinner and there was a photographer in the hallway that wanted us to take pictures. We thought she’d snap one real quick, but 10 minutes and how many poses later, we finally got to dinner. We attended a little talk/show about shopping and I thought their #1 piece of advice was hilarious, “If you see it, and you like it… buy it!!” We bought a little book that had coupons in it, mostly for jewelry stores for free stones, necklaces, bracelets, earrings or whatever. So at the different islands we went around collecting all that fun stuff. I can’t believe how expensive jewelry is! And both St. Marteen and St. Thomas seemed the same with the streets lined with jewelry stores. The entertainment on board was great. From the shows, comedians and singers, we enjoyed it all. (With the exception of the night that Bret was feeling really sick. He sat through it, but never looked up once. Poor guy.)
On our very last day we made it into the dining room for breakfast. Then we waited until it was our turn to disembark. I know some people are anxious to go, but we were just enjoying every last minute on the ship. We had a great room steward who took great care of us (even helped me put a treat on the bed for Bret after he turned down the bed one night.) Our waiter and assistant waiter were good and we were just overall impressed by all the staff.
We took a taxi to the airport and then had a direct flight home. The girls were excited to see us, but I think they wanted to see what we had brought home for them. As much as I love my girls, this was the best vacation I have ever been on. It was very relaxing and stress free. A friend of mine said “when we all go as a family we call it a trip, when it’s just us without kids, we call it a vacation.” That is so true. Luckily for me, Bret loved the cruise (despite being a little sick) and I think we’ll definitely be going again.
CHRISTMAS DECORATING – I know you’re thinking what happened to Thanksgiving, but if you know me well, you’re probably not too surprised. We always get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, and it is usually the last of the Christmas decorations to go up. But it had been one thing after another and then with the cruise, I hadn’t even started to decorate for Christmas. We went and picked out our tree at Walmart, after going to two Christmas tree lots that were not opened yet. The girls are really good at picking out trees; we usually get the first one we look at. We got it up then finally decorated it on Sunday. Bret was working in LA in November and December and was only home on the weekends, so we had to take advantage of having him home. I finally got all the Christmas decorations up and even did the lights on the outside. I felt like I was so far behind in decorating, but I think I was still done by the first week in December.