Happy 2nd Birthday Rachel!

My mostly sweet little girl is 2 today! Wow, it sure goes fast. She is in full force whining, but is otherwise a pretty good girl. The first picture was taken this morning before we left for the gym. She likes to hold her own bag and of course, wear her sunglasses. She is pretty good at getting her flip-flops in herself and can get her shorts on, but just needs helping pulling them up in the back.

She was playing night night naked, but at least I got a good smile from her.

Cozumel and Craps

Sunset through the window at dinner


Breakdancers that Matt saw while I was doing other more fun things



This is the view from the dock at Cozumel. There were two Carnival ships.

Our dinner table. We ate dinner at 6:00 with the same group each night. They were great and so much fun! We enjoyed getting to know them with 4 dinners together.

Because you sit at the same table each night, we got the same serves as well. Daniela (on the left) is from Croatia and James (on the right) is from Jamaica. They were really great and made dinner more memorable.
Starting with the Captain's Dinner and then each night after, the servers all sing and dance for a song. It was always silly and pretty entertaining to watch. Daniela told us she doesn't like to do this.
Here is my craps teacher, Dinetti. I don't know how to spell her name and it took us a few time to get it right. Her and Phil live in St. Pete. Phil spent much time at the craps table and I had been wanting to go the casino. I didn't have anything in mind to play, so we started where Phil was heading.
The above picture was from the first night when Matt was at the breakdancing show. After learning most of the game, I decided to play. Unfortunately, you can't really just start with a small amount. I put in $20 and that was lost pretty quick. I put in $40 more and after about an hour total, I had lost my $60. I had a much better understanding of strategy and what I needed to do to actually win money though. Matt came into the casino and wasn't too upset that I lost $60. That night, he had a dream that I won $1500 in the casino so he said on our last night, we would go back. That is what the rest of the pictures are from. He gave me $60 to start with and that again lasted about 45 minutes or so. He gave me $20 more. We had a great few hours off of that money! I got some really good rolls and was dubbed "Lady Shooter" by the dealer. We had a guy that looked like Dale Earnhardt that had some lucky streaks too. I actually was in the positive for a long time. You know you should stop at that point, but the whole table was having way to much fun.





I only lost $25 between both nights in the casino, but it was totally worth the fun. Matt is grateful that the nearest casino doesn't have a craps table.

The Bluest Waters in Grand Cayman!

As we left Tampa Bay, the water is this ugly color of brown, blue, and green and smells awful. I didn't really notice the color of the water until a day later and it was all blue. Then, you approach Grand Cayman and it turns that beautiful color of turquoise that you see in postcards. Amazing. What do they do different than Tampa Bay?

We had met a couple from Orlando that morning for breakfast and we decided to explore the island together. We were not doing an excursion, but had heard of a place called Hell and were curious. We rode the public bus system (Toyota minivans manned by crazy drivers) for $2.50 each way.

There were things with Tortuga all around and Matt thought this was cool. I only remembered Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean movie.




A plumeria in full bloom that smelled wonderful.

So, we made it to Hell and it isn't really anything to see. The three pictures are literally all there is to it. Supposedly, all of the rock is leftover lava or something and I do admit, it looks dark and bleak. They had a little Satan figure (I don't know what the other person is) and I found it somewhat amusing.


They have a post office where you can send postcards from Hell. It is actually postmarked with Hell. We didn't do this, but Matt thought it would be funny to send a postcard to the pastor. Maybe next time.

I don't know why these are blurry, but Matt took them. There were four other cruise ships there at the same time.

This is taken from the deck just above all of the activities. We typically stayed away from the pool because it was always crowded and full of kids. We liked the top two decks for tanning (not burning).

Cruising-Our Room and Towel Origami

Matt and I recently went on a 5 day Carnival cruise. We had such an awesome time and felt it was the perfect type of vacation and just the right length of time away. In case you are wondering home small the cabin and bathroom are, here are some pictures. We got an inside cabin with no window/porthole, but really liked the darkness for sleeping. Matt started watching the cruise channel and he saw how they would fold the towels into different shapes. He really wanted a bulldog, but we never got one.

Our room, after a few hours of inhabiting it. The cleaning crew was amazing and came in twice a day to straighten up and replace towels, etc.

Shower to the left and toilet to the right. Nothing more.


Scorpion Towel
Mama and baby walrus (we think)

A heart for the last day. We also got an elephant, which was interesting.

Play Night Night

One of Rachel's new games is to play night night. She climbs in our bed, lays down, and then pulls the covers up to her neck like she is going to sleep. Too bad she doesn't lay still though.

Picnic at the Park

Lauren, Hannah, Kate, Rachel, and I headed to Davis Park one morning and had some beautiful weather for a few hours. Just some cute pictures!

Bok Tower

I don't know if that is the correct spelling or not, but Mom and Dad offered to take Rachel and I up there on a Saturday. Mom wanted to see the azaleas in bloom and they were beautiful! Rachel had a great time looking at the plant and flowers and just being able to roam a little. It was not crowded, which was great. It was a little chilly that day, but still awesome weather. There were two swans that some people were feeding, but we kept our distance and one tried to nibble off some guys foot. We then found an area with lots of fish. I don't know what kind they were, but some little boy offered some extra bread to Rachel so she could feed them. At first, she tried to eat the bread herself. She liked feeding the fish though.








I will try to post again tomorrow because I am really behind and catch up my blog.