Our Cruise

We had so much fun on our cruise and believe me, I tried to narrow down the pics, but still posted a lot! It was so cold on our drive down to Miami. Everyone was in sweatshirts and pants at all of our stops and as well as getting on the boat on Monday! The wind was blowing pretty bad too, but I was determined to be in a bathing suit! I was cold, but still in a bathing suit! We got on the boat really quickly, ate lunch and hit the pool deck!

Look at how "beautiful" the Miami skies were for our first day


Setting Sail around 4:30

Taking a pic with our first towel animal... "Wally"

Day 2: At sea.. As you can see the skies were just as bad this day. We slept in, took a nap (trying not to blow away) on the top deck, decided to get lunch in the dining room instead of the buffet and just hung out! Not too much of a bathing suit day!

Formal Night: Girls Got Glamorous!

The Boys

I had Anna Maria do Brandon's Bday on Formal Night. They brought him his dessert with a candle and sang to him! She made him wear this napkin as a hat before she put them on him as "Boobies"... He was pretty embarrassed!

Girls again

The Whole Crew... despite the glare

Day 3: Grand Turk: I got a kick out of this sign! It was still cloudy, but trying to clear up. We got a little sun that afternoon

Carnival's Halloween Celebration: Carnival celebrated Halloween on our 3rd night. We packed light, so we opted for Togas from our bed sheets! We got our room steward to bring us some extras. Brandon, Bryan, Jenn and I went wearing Togas! I didn't have a good pic of them in theirs.. maybe Jenn will have one on her blog.

Derek went as a pregnant Nun!! He bought it for Claire, but he opted to wear it instead!

Our Boat: Destiny

Day 4: Half Moon Cay

Carnival's Private Island in the Bahamas

It was beautiful there! We played Volleyball (got beat) and just relaxed and enjoyed the crystal clear water

Day 5: Nassau, Bahamas

We took a snorkeling tour that morning. Here's Bryan in the water still looking at the same fish. Brandon, Jenn and I decided the water was too cold to be looking at the same 5 fish! :)

After Snorkeling

The skies look prettier!

Stopping off at Senor Frogs after a quick trip through the straw market

We saw more than one rainbow on our trip!

We got off the boat on Saturday, hung around Miami and then headed over to the game! Sunday we celebrated Brandon's 32nd bday by driving home and reuniting with our sweet babies that we missed SOOOOOOOO much!

We're Home!

Ok, so we are home from our amazing trip and I've got much more to do right now than post, but since MY TIGERS are soooo awsome I have to post about them! We planned our cruise around Clemson playing Miami in Miami as soon as the '09 schedule came out and boy, I'm glad I got to see that game in person! It was one of the best and most nerve wracking games I have ever been to! We are so proud of our Tigers for playing for 4 plus quarters and bringing home the amazing win! Oh yeah, and the Miami fans were so mean!!! Most of them anyway! Here's the few pics we took on Saturday! More cruise pics to come soon.

If you are looking for me... Look here!

I will be MIA for a while. Carribean post when I return~!

Bittersweet

We closed on the Greybriar House yesterday and handed over our keys to a very nice YOUNG girl that seemed so excited to be buying such a wonderful little house. As glad as I am for us to have sold (in this market) it was so very emotionally hard! We got our last things out of it on Saturday and mom helped me clean. I thought Brandon and I would pop back into it the last few days before we closed, but he told me that was it, that we weren't coming back to it anymore.. I immediately teared up and then started crying like a baby! I had to walk back in and savor every little memory of that sweet little house one last time before I said goodbye! My mom and dad quickly reminded me that it's just a house, but to me it's so much more. It's where Brandon and I started this little journey and brought each baby home. It's where I spent countless nights pacing the floor trying to get Anderson to sleep as a baby. All of my babies took there first steps there and spoke their first word there! I think about all of our Christmases and birthday parties as well. It holds so many memories that I pray won't fade. As I was walking around to each room I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. Thank goodness everyone else was outside, because I was a mess. A huge MESS!! Also in Anderson's closet I have his measurements at different times of his life written on the wall. That's something I couldn't take with me and that was hard. The buyer's parents also said something to me yesterday about how special that was... and of course I started crying all over again. It's very bittersweet. Now on to making new memories wherever life takes us and wherever we settle down!

Boo-tiful

To get you in the Halloween mood, here's my little boo-tiful goblin (if I have to say so myself)! She's sporting a custom made shirt by my mama!!

Carowinds

We are leaving for our cruise in a few short days, so what better way to end up our weekend than to devote an beautiful (overcast) fall afternoon to our children! I'm still trying to figure out how I will make it 8 days without my little ones... So....

We spent the afternoon at Carowinds with our favorite family of five!

Aubree enjoying her favorite activity.. sucking her thumb and playing with her ear

Grayson must have thought they needed and extra worker for the new coaster

Holby's and Us on the Dora Train! The kids don't care that they took the whole story of Dora out of the ride.. I'm being really cheesy, b/c the guy that took our pic told us to say "cheesy boogers" and I couldn't get over the fact that he just told us to say "boogers"

Aubree likes the train

Riding the carousel

I think you can actually see Grayson saying Cheese in this pic!

Daddy's Girl

The Boys.. no we didn't mean to dress them alike

The Girls

Mena deep in thought

Oh yeah, I guess I have to mention that the big kids (mommies and daddys) got to play a little too! The hurler used to be fun when I was 19.... man I'm old!

SNAKE

Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!! Friday night as I was going to hang the boys curtains in their room downstairs in the new house, guess what greeted me at the bottom of the steps.... A baby copperhead!!!!!!!!!!!!! PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was screaming at the top of my lungs to Brandon and he had the CD playing so loud he couldn't hear me...... PANIC!!!!!! He finally heard me. He was such a hero and "took" care of it for me! I was crying and wanting my old house back and a refund of course, but that's not possible. We moved in on Saturday thanks to the help of the Holby's and Grammy and Papa... We couldn't have done it without them. We took some major precautions against anymore little visitors and gave our landlords a call as well. They had only seen one in the house in 12 years.... Oh I'm sure! I made Brandon go look for snakes downstairs all night on Saturday while the boys slept... I just need to relax. Anyway, we put mothballs everywhere and invested in some Snake-a-way for any future guests that aren't invited. I'm dreaming about snakes every night, so needless to say I'm not getting much sleep! I also have a zillion boxes to unpack as well. I just don't know where to start! We won't be staying here more than a year and will be looking for something a little less wooded! Sigh.....