Day One of Carnival Liberty Seven Day Cruise

We have been so busy with other things, we haven't really spent much time focusing on our upcoming cruise that we booked months ago.  Nathan booked it for us thinking that after the wedding and due to my dad's death landing on the holidays, that I could probably use it.  He was so right with that!  Still, I did very little planning for this cruise compared to the others so I was a little concerned that it might not go as well as the others have.  I am happy to report that I had no reason to be concerned because the cruise was fabulous.

We headed down to Miami the night before and had family time.  We exchanged Christmas gifts, played games and then we spent the night at Amibr's gorgeous new apartment.  Here is a shot of Daniel and my mom chatting.  I wish I had thought to take more pictures that night, and of the apartment but I didn't think of until bedtime.

The next morning, we were up bright and early.  Ambir took us to the port, which was wonderful!  It saved a lot of time and hassle and we joked that would be our new means of port transportation from here on out if we could pick.  We checked in and sat down in the waiting area.  We had Faster To The Fun, so we only waited about fifteen minutes before we were on the ship.  We loved having FTTF! Best money we spent for the cruise and we will always try to do this in the future.  Not only did we get to board early, we were able to go to our room right away.  So we headed there first thing.  We loved our room this time.  It was huge compared to our two other cruises and it was very bright and cheery inside.

Now off to explore the Liberty.  This is the biggest ship we have cruised on so far and she is a beauty!

We were quickly distracted by the food.  This ship has The Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers.  I read online that both could be busy once we were sailing, so we took advantage of an almost empty ship and tried both right away.  I tried the Mexican food and Nathan tried the burger.  We both thought they were very good!!

After our meal, we went to find our favorite place on the ship, the Serenity Deck.  We found it pretty quickly because it was right by the food.  It was also located right above/next to the Lido deck, so I'm not sure how much serenity there will be due to the noise down below, but we decided to plant ourselves there for the Sailaway Party to find out.

We stayed here through the party, and nope, not much serenity going on but it was still a kid free zone and had gorgeous views so we were happy.  We loved being close enough to the action for the party that we could hear/see it but not have to be in the congested area.  So it was a win-win for us.  Just a bit of the Sailaway Party fun:

After the party, we decided to head back to our rooms and get ready for dinner.  We had Anytime Dining, which we also love.  We have done that all three cruises and hope to continue to do it.  After getting a bit dressed up, we went up one short deck to our dining room and were seated immediately.  Dinner was great, the food was very good and we enjoyed the whole meal.

After dinner we walked around the ship some more.  I loved that there were Christmas decorations up on the ship.  It was so festive.  It was like getting a Christmas cruise without having to put up with the crowd that would be there for an actual Christmas cruise.  We heard Christmas carols being sung, and went to enjoy that and while there we had an extra surprise: snow!  Yes, they had snow coming down from the ceiling which added to the holiday spirit.

When we were done with the singing and exploring, we headed back to our room to chill for the rest of the night.  We knew we wanted to be up very early so we planned to go to bed early.  Our towel animal and bedtime mints were waiting for us.

We can tell already that there will be a lot of goodness packed into this cruise.  We can't wait to have tons of fun for the next six days!

More Family Time

Not only did I get time with my side of the family, but Nathan's side was visiting Florida too.  We managed to meet up with our old travel buddies although they stayed at the Disney Campground.  I drove over to spend a few days with them and had so much fun hanging out with them.  Diana is learning how to do digital scrapbooking so we really had a blast doing that.

Happy Birthday Aunt Shirley

I love it when we visit Clermont, because not only is Aric there, but my Aunt, Uncle and cousins live there too.  We managed to hit the right timing to catch my Aunt Shirley's birthday this trip.

 The guys made a wonderful meal and we enjoyed chatting and watching the game.  Then we watched my Aunt Shirley open her gifts.

 It was a great day!

Archery Range Fun

Since Aric arrived here, he has wanted to try out the archery range.  We finally got down there to try it yesterday.  One of the best aspects of The Villages is that there is a group for almost anything and everything you could want to do, and that means you can try a bunch of new things.

I would not ever think to do archery on my own and even if I had an interest, like Aric, rarely would I be somewhere where it would be so easily available with volunteers willing to teach me.

Since we had all of that available to us, we soaked it up.  The volunteer instructor has been doing this for five years and she was a great teacher.

In the two hours we were there, different groups came and went, so I got to see many different people try archery.  Aric was the most accurate out of all of those people.  He seemed to have a natural talent for it.

I did not seem to have a natural talent for it and worse than that, managed to hurt myself by hitting my arm with the bow string.  Over and over again because I didn't realize how badly it hurt until after an hour or so of doing it.  I would love to try this sport again, without the pain, because I think I'd really enjoy it.

So glad we did get out and try this.  It showed me that even though new things can seem intimidating to begin with, they are great to push the limits of what I think I am capable of and get me out of my comfort zone.

Happy Birthday to Aric and I

I realized on my last post that it was post #999, which means my birthday post is #1,000.  That is a lot of blog posts for someone who did not want to do a blog to begin with!

Today was Aric and I's birthday, and since he took his week's vacation and spent it with us, that meant we celebrated the day together.  We went down to Sumter Landing during the day and ate lunch there and spent at least two hours at Barnes and Nobles looking at all the books we would love to read.  We then walked around and shopped together. As usual, we enjoyed the special golf carts we ran across there.

  We came back home to cool off some, and then headed back down to the latest square and had dinner at City Fire Restaurant and watched Man of Steel at the movie theater there.  It was a nice, quiet day for us but the fact we were together made it a great birthday for me.

The horses at Grand Oaks

While we loved seeing the museum, I think the highlight of our visit to Grand Oaks Resort and Carriage Museum was our time with the horses after we saw the museum.  First we visited one of the many barns, to see if there were any horses in their stalls.  

We did not find any horses there so we headed to the pastures.  There are 400 gorgeous acres at Grand Oaks and everywhere we looked, we were surrounded by beauty and horses.

Here are were some of the sweethearts we got to spend time loving on.

And I just have to share two shots of this beauty.  Can you believe those eyes?!?

She was a sweetie too!

Living the life in The Villages, FL.

Florida Carriage Museum and Paintball

Today we split up and some of us went to play Paintball:

and the rest of us visited the Florida Carriage Museum in nearby Weirsdale, Florida.  I don't know much about the paintball fun beyond seeing the battle scars and hearing talk of a return visit but I got the impression they had a blast.  We had our own version of fun at the museum.

I didn't know quite what to expect when I read online that it was a carriage museum.  I was very pleased with what we did find there.  The collection was even more extensive and interesting than I'd suspected might be there.  

The tour guide did a good job of sharing the history behind many of the carriages they had there and the general history of carriages and driving.

I especially enjoyed being able to share the visit with Brittany.  This is the first museum we took her too and I probably should have warned her that this will be the first of many museums she will see if she is a part of the family.  She said she really enjoyed it, so hopefully that is a good thing for her too!

Happy 4th of July

Earlier this week, we made plans to celebrate Independence Day with Rich and Donna.  That was great news for me because I really enjoy celebrating holidays, and having others around makes it that much better for me.  Last night Aric, Austin and Brittany came to stay with us making my day twice as wonderful.

After the kids arrived, they and Nathan played rook while I started party foods for today.  Today I finished up a few food items, Nathan made pulled pork BBQ and when Donna arrived, she provided three delicious homemade salads to top it off.  We ended up with plenty of good food for everyone.

After our meal, we hung out on the lanai and chatted a bit while the kids played with sparklers.

Next we headed over to Mulberry Recreation Center to play some pickleball.  Miss Ava was so happy that she smiled the whole time.  This is her first visit to the courts since we came here.  Unfortunately we only played one full game and one half game before it started raining.  After Rich and Donna left, we watched a movie together and then ended the night with some Phase 10 fun.  It was a long day, full of fun things and good memories with some of the people we love the most in this world.

Living the life in The Villages!

Abbie and Kaylah's Baby Lambs

Nathan's brother, Chris, and his wife, Katee lived in Arizona when we were out west.  We had fun visiting different places there and even went to the Grand Canyon together.  They have moved back to Virginia since then and now live in the house that the three brothers lived in while growing up.  We knew they had added animals to their space, but I have not been up there to see all that is going on until this visit.

I hit the jackpot when I did go up, because two babies were born that day.  One of them was born minutes before Mom and I arrived and was still all sticky and wet.  What a beautiful thing to be a part of! 

They are all active in 4-H, and shared some of what they are doing there.  Abbie showed us her skills with bracing.

Katee showed off some of the beauties that live here.  It was clear to me that she spends a lot of time bonding with the animals and really loves it.

We can't forget about the chickens.  Well, you really can't forget about chickens because they won't let you if you are anywhere near them.

Every farm needs a great dog and this was one great dog.  I wanted to bring Zoe home with me.

It was so heartwarming to see life and love filling the place that had sat empty for far too long.  Do you think I could fit one of these in the RV?  It could sleep right next to the horse I am wanting to bring along when we start to travel again!  That will be one downside to our lifestyle, no space for the cool animals that the other family members get to own.  I guess I will just have to be content to soak up the goodness of their animals when I visit and be the aunt to both the children and the pets.

 Living the life in VA!