Cruise Part 2

So finally, I will give you part 2 of our trip. So fitting seeing as the cold weather has arrived and I can dream and be reminded of the beautiful summer days and nights of our vacation spent on the beaches of the Southern Caribbean..

Gotta have a cute feet picture overlooking the waters... of Barbados!!!

Laura and I in the back of an open Land Rover, about to explore the island of Barbados.. "Off-Roading Style!"

My honey and me before we left for the off-roading trip with our funny islander tour guide!

Just a cool shot I happened upon as we sped through the town of Barbados..

A church at the top of a hill over-looking the back side of the island of Barbados.

The "back side" of the island, where the waves are so big that swimming is not allowed. It was beautiful with all of the huge rocks.

Another angle... All of the rocks are natural.

Teeny-tiny Laura and me underneath one of the rocks. We snuck over there bare-footed and nearly sliced all of our toes open. Because it is so rough on this side of the island, there is no sand, just broken up rock.

Us girls, before dinner one night. Kinda blurry of me, but perfect of Laura. Weird.

Caleb and me, blurry but a cool shot.

The next day, in St. Lucia. We went zip lining through the rainforest, which was an absolute blast! Plus, we got to wear really cool harnesses and hard hats!

Us in front of a MASSIVE tree.

The beautiful hills of St. Lucia as we took a gondola ride down the mountain.

Us.

Leaving St. Lucia... By the way, the "unleaded" beverages were cheaper than the "leaded" ones on the ship, and just as tasty. We didn't actually order both of those beverages, but apparently the waiter who didn't speak English didn't understand our English and thought we wanted two. Oh well. It's vacation and they were quite tasty!

A cool shot of the runway. I'm sure lots of very rich people fly in on their private jets to this runway. I can dream...

Shane and Laura.. so happy they decided to spend a week with us! =)

Us before dinner. Trying to get every couple shot possible. AND, we didn't have to bug a stranger to take our picture and settle for a mediocre one because we didn't want to offend said stranger because their first attempt at taking our picture stunk. Can anyone relate??

Ahh... MY FAVORITE... ANTIGUA!!!!

Just so beautiful. We did an all day catamaran trip where we cruised around the entire island, snorkeled, ate a fresh grilled lunch off the back of the boat, and baked quite nicely in the sun. Fabulous!

A boat slip on the island of Antigua.

Beautiful waves crashing on the rocks.

Us, well baked and tired from a long day of snorkeling and playing.

The mountains and beaches of Antigua. AMAZING!!

Sunset picture as we headed to St. Kitts. Sad to leave such a beautiful place.

The fake happy smile. Love it.

Us girls nearly getting blown over, and struggling for a good picture without our hair in our mouths. This was the best one of about 20. Love the husbands for enduring the photo session.

Us, burned, but dressed for a night of fun... The midnight buffet was this night!

Posey prom pic. Killing time until midnight when we can join the masses for the picture taking, dessert eating extravaganza... Well, we partook in the picture taking, but were still full from dinner and would have to wear a swimsuit the next day, so we abstained from dessert.

The midnight buffet begins. Our boat made out of cheese.

Incredibly artistry with sugar, butter and chocolate.

Watermelon Native American (I am so P.C.) =)

At St. Kitts, being silly girls in the phone booth. But it made for a cute pic!

More of us. We decided to forgo the beaches and just walk around town. We kinda wish we went to the beaches, but had a good ol' time just romping around town and not having a real agenda.

Token pic with the ship.

Our last night. Sunset picture. Memories. Ah.

A random island that is inhabited. It looked like a cool little island.

Enjoying the "unleaded" beverages one last time in the special cups. We saved them, and brought them home, only to find them broken. Oh well.

All in all, we had a most glorious vacation with our friends and are anxiously awaiting the next trip. We have tentatively scheduled our next big vacation. Stay tuned to find out... And I promise it won't be a month before I post again.

Exhausted!!

SOo... Here's just a quick update for you! We had a CRAZY BUSY day, but got so much done! We literally had a 12 hour work-day, leaving before 8 a.m. and not getting home until after 8:30 tonight. But wow, what a productive day! And for starters, I must give a few shout-outs to the rock-stars of the day. Geary, Caleb's step-dad and remodeling extraordinaire, came through like you wouldn't believe. He helped us rework the moulding on the tops of a few cabinets, helped us pick out a painters rig so we could spray the cabinets, helped us finish prepping the cabinets for paint, probably sprayed 4-5 coats of primer, helped us sand down the primer and prep the cabinets for paint and then sprayed a coat of the cabinet color. And that's just the stuff I saw, I know there was so much more he did that wasn't in my plain sight because I was working on other stuff. Next shout-out goes to my parents, Richard and Debbie, who were amazing. They came over with their yard materials, fertilized our yard, prepped both of the bathrooms for paint (taping, etc.), sanded down the wood in the bathrooms that had texture on it, filled holes, painted the ceiling, painted some walls, put up some sheetrock, put up some concrete backerboard and SO MUCH MORE!! Wow.. It was a crazy day, but it was so productive! I am most excited at this point about our cabinets, they look amazing! I can't wait to share them with blogworld, but it will have to wait because they are not finished. That's all for now. Sorry it was so short and no pics. You'll have to wait until next time!

Archways and Cabinets

Thought I'd change it up and put the pictures first... I'm gettin' wild and crazy on you... Or maybe I'm just going crazy from this project... Or maybe I was already crazy.. All of the above are possible! Enjoy!

Archways (view from inside the kitchen into the dining room) and our sweet workers who just prayed before eating pizza! How amazing is that???
The master bathroom, ready for tile... Does this make anyone want to volunteer to help us tile?? Hehe..
From the left: First inset is the new washer/dryer closet, Second Inset is the space where the fridge will go, Third Inset is the space where the pantry will go
Archway (view from the hallway into the living room and entry way)
Cabinets... LAAAAA! (imagine the sky opening up and beautiful music playing!) I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my new kitchen and can't wait to cook! Who knows what this lady will whip up with all the new inspiration?!?

Two fun things in our home are in the house and make such a difference! It is starting to feel like a home! And we are starting to feel the pressure to get the house done in the next 27 days... AHH! Pray for us as we try to do our best to get this home finished with quality and that the Lord would truly direct the time schedule over the next few weeks and that God would send us contractors who want to work for free, or at least cheap! Here's what is on the books for this weekend:

• This weekend: Painting another coat on the kitchen ceiling, filling all the nail holes in the cabinets, sand all the filled holes, vacuuming the cabinets until they are 100% saw dust free, tape the kitchen, tape the windows, caulk all the corners to prep for paint, seal the room off from the rest of the house, spray the kitchen cabinets (courtesy of our FABULOUS STEP-DAD/FATHER-IN-LAW Geary) with primer and paint... you can pray for hot and dry weather, rip out all the door frames and trim throughout the whole house, finish peeling up the "hopefully not asbestos tile", paint the master bedroom and 3rd bedroom, paint the bathrooms, finish tearing out the wall paneling, take all the paneling out to the garage, fertilize the yard, hope we can revive the grass, spray the kitchen cabinets with final coat (hopefully it will be ready!!!), tear out all of the duct work through the entire house, and not lose our ever loving minds!

Soo, is there anyone out there who watches HGTV like it's going out of style and really want to take a crack at some DIY home improvement? Or even better, we got any closet tile experts willing to sacrifice some time to help us out? We really aren't afraid to be beggers at this point! Haha... I'm kidding, unless you really wanna help! I hope this gives you an idea of the craziness that has ensued at our casa. Well, if I can tell you anything, I will tell you this. None of the pictures I have posted throughout the whole process have done the home justice. The before pictures didn't show how bad of shape the house was in and the after pictures don't show how beautiful the house is now. Hopefully once we are in the house and it is done, we can throw a big party so that you guys can all come see the fruit of the labor of us and our friends and families and everyone we either paid or thanked for their help on our project. It will be all worth it. Well, that's all for my novel this evening. Say a prayer for us as we enter the home stretch!