This blog post is a bit belated, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our cruise!
I was off the entire week of our anniversary so I had lots of time to pack and get ready and just enjoy some time off work. I love the way we celebrate our anniversary. We always make it special. Some people do it big for their birthday or celebrate all month for it but I love celebrating our anniversary more than I do my birthday. I wonder if it's because I am so used to celebrating September 18th-it's the date we celebrated as our dating anniversary so we celebrated it for 6 years before we were even married.
On Monday of that week, Matt was at work late and my mom came down to pick Jax up to take him back to her house for the week but we managed to fit in some Cooper's Hawk wine tasting and dinner before she left. It was great to get to spend some quality time with her.
On Tuesday (our actually anniversary), Matt got off work early and we headed downtown for our dinner reservations at Fogo De Chao. We went there for dinner last year and hadn't been back since. That place is amazing. I think I was finally no longer full from the year before. You get SO much food and it's all you can eat yummy salad and delicious steak. Matt's heaven. He was frustrated at me when he saw how big my salad was because he thought I was wasting my time on salad when I should be eating crazy amounts of steak. Don't you worry, I was able to handle eating it all :).
 |
| Lovely free dessert! It was sooo good. We finished the whole darn thing too. |
 |
A dozen roses from Matt's sweet boss. These were waiting on the doorstep when we got home.
On Wednesday, Matt was off work and we followed tradition by riding the motorcycle down to Southern Indiana. One year we rode all the way down to French Lick, but we've done Oliver Winery for at least 3 years now. The weather is usually beautiful-still warm in the 70's, sunny, and the leaves are just starting to turn. It was exactly that this year. It was what we needed to just get away after working so many hours the past couple months. |
 |
| Pretty sure this lady had never used an iPhone camera before...this took like 3 tries because she kept hitting the wrong button |
 |
Thumbs up for Matt's fab hair-braiding skills
Thursday morning came bright and early. My friend Amber picked us up at the house at 4 am to take us to the airport. I was a little bit sad because I didn't have time to eat breakfast before I left the house, but then I realized that an Egg McMuffin and a Fruit and Maple Oatmeal were waiting for me in the airport McDonald's so I got over it pretty quickly. Our flight down to Orlando was non-stop. I dedicated a solid 2 hours (give or take) to learning the new BodyPump release that I was going to be teaching when we got back from vacay. |
We took a 45 min shuttle ride to Port Canaveral to our final destination...our cruise! We got out of that shuttle and onto the boat and all of our worries and stresses from the hard-working summer were gone. We were one of the very first people on the boat and we bee-lined it straight for the lunch buffet. I was focused on food and putting my swimsuit on immediately after to soak up the sun; Matt was focused on "wow look at that boat" and "I want to see them take the rope off when we leave" and talking all machinery and technology to me. He was sooo interested in the way the ship worked and how we were going to get out of the port etc. Such a man.
 |
| 1st island drink of the trip. The plan was to not buy toooooo many of these...but they were so yummy and Matt's Listerine bottle of whiskey was confiscated so we enjoyed us some island drinks :) |
We brought our bottle of Oliver champagne (from our anniversary trip to Oliver last year and which we saved all year to drink on our next anniversary) on the boat and popped it that first night. It was soooo delicious. It was a Catawba Sparkling Wine. I could've drank the whole thing, but I felt it fair to share with my husband :).
We really enjoyed just sitting out and watching the water as we sailed. It was so peaceful and relaxing...and a little scary that this huge cruise ship was still above water. My paranoid side gets the best of me sometimes.
 |
Breakfast was my very favorite meal on the ship. I loved getting up, heading to breakfast when most people were still sleeping and watching the peaceful water and sun. Oh and they had my beloved Cheerios!
We arrived in Nassau, Bahamas on Day 2. We woke up and the ship was docked. We kind of lazily made our way off the boat by about 3ish. Most people got off the boat right away in the morning so the boat was pretty empty. We took advantage of the quiet pool and relaxed, had some lunch, and then made our way out to Nassau. |
 |
| That raincloud? Yeah it unleashed right when we got off the boat |
 |
| This Disney boat was awesome! |
Our travel back to home was a little less pleasurable than the trip down. We got to the airport WAY too early. Like 4 hours early. They were going to charge us $100 to get on the earlier flight...even though there was room. So we sat in the smallest airport ever (Melbourne, FL) for 4 long hours. They had one "restaurant" inside the security gates, but we found out they only served pre-packaged cold sandwiches. I was starving and that just wasn't going to cut it. After Matt's convincing, we walked out of security and ate at a restaurant that specialized in anything fried. After 3 days on a cruise ship of unlimited eating, we basked in a grilled chicken sandwich.
Jax had been up at my mom's all week and I was really missing him. We didn't get back home until 9ish. The plan really wasn't for me to get Jax until the next day or the next, but I sweet-talked my mom into meeting me in Lebanon so I could see my pup. After traveling all darn day and then another 30 min drive I was so happy to get home and in bed with Jax at our feet.
We had such a great time and the trip was exactly what we needed. I really did feel refreshed and ready to go back to work (well not ready to go back to work, but I didn't feel so wiped out while being there). Not sure when our next vacation will be, but I guess I should start saving now!
