Friday in Nassau

Friday morning Andy & I were up and headed to breakfast so we'd be ready for our excursion. Here is a picture of our breakfast spot on the VERY B A C K of the ship! It was really a neat place to eat and catch the views as we were getting closer to Nassau.



We arrived and met our group. It was time to be off to a boat that would take us to Black Beard's Cay. Andy & I had visited there before on a previous trip and loved it. We didn't add the stingray swim last time because it was an added fee, this time it was all included for about $35 or $40. You spent 3 hours at the beach, as much time as you wanted in the water with the rays (feeding them too), snorkel equipment, lunch (grilled hot dogs/hamburgers/chicken with chips and drink) and it was a 20ish minute boat ride there to and from.

Note: For those who Disney cruises and think of doing the ray thing at Castaway, I don't recommend it. If you have the choice between doing it in Nassau & Castaway, do it in Nassau @ Blackbeard's! We went and looked at the area in Castaway. Not NEAR as many Rays, you only get an hour in the water with them too! You pay more money (like $45) to have less time with them and less of them. Nuts! Spend your time @ Castaway doing other stuff!!



Oh, you know you're in the Bahamas when you see .... Starbucks right? Crazy -



We did the swimming with rays first thing, awesome! I was sooooo glad we chose to do it this time. It was one of (if not #1) favorite all time excursion for us both. We LOVED it!!! Andy was able to snorkel with them all he wanted. I'm not a snorkel fan, but I was able to hang out with them all I wanted in the water. They are amazing and social creatures. It was like being in a room with tons of cats! The rays rub on your legs, touch your legs all the time and swim between your legs. It's crazy. They are all "manicured", no barbs. (They say it's like cutting your finger nails, it's something they have to do often. There are BIG rays and tiny rays, every size in between. There are oodles and oodles and ooodles of them!!

The Island....




When we fed them we had to get down on our knees in the water. They came around and gave us squid to feed them. I was under the impression we'd get a PIECE of squid, WRONG. They were handing us WHOLE squid (eyeballs, 8 "legs" and ALL)!!! Eeeewwww... that was the worse part. We held them under water, near the bottom. The rays came and swam over our hands, sucking the squid out of our hands. It was like a vacuum, very cool!! The rays would SWARM around you when you had food, they were all around you front/back/side. It was awesome!!!




We had a blast and didn't want to leave. When we were boarding the boat and talking about how awesome it was someone working on the boat asked us if we wanted to stay. He said that they'd be back in an hour to take the last group back to their ship. The Carnival guests came an hour after us and didn't have to head back yet. Our ship wasn't leaving until much later, so we said sure we'd stay. He gave us extra tickets to get something to eat and drink again. (free) We were thrilled!



When we boarded the boat to return the 2nd time we thanked the gentleman and gave him a big ole' tip!



Friday night was also Pirates IN the Caribbean night. How much fun is that??!! We love the pirate "show" up on the deck, so fun!! The fireworks over the ocean, well... you just can't describe how amazing it is!! We dressed up a little but the pic I took is HORRID. I was 100% sad that we didn't get a pirate Mickey or Minnie picture. Andy promises to dress up more next time and do a picture right!



(Notice Mickey on top of the screen after he "flew" across the ship?!)



Did I mention I think it should be required that everyone go on a Disney cruise at least once??



This is just a boat we saw on the way to Black Beard's and I thought it was fun with their clothes hanging out there!!




Goodbye Nassau, until we meet again. (Which knowing us wont be long)

((There's a neat picture of us holding a ray. It wont scan right now, so I'll it to it's own post later))

Stuff:

I had to take another trip "time out" to share a few things from school! I wish that I could share pictures with you of my actual class and the fun things we do!! Since I can't, this will have to do!

We went to the fair this past Thursday, which also happened to be my birthday. I had the kids 110% convinced that the ENTIRE preschool was going to the fair just to have a birthday party for me! It was so fun! They were so excited and I over heard a little friend in the hall tell another child "you know we're all going to the fair tomorrow b/c it's my teacher's birthday". So sweet- We had a ball, it's always one of my FAVORITE field trips. I guess b/c it's the beginning of fall to me when the fair comes to town, I love the farm animals and the kids are so excited about our first field trip. The class gave me a gift card for my birthday (Barnes & Noble, FUN) and they each made & brought a birthday card. Here is a picture of my wall in the room where I hang things they make for me at school or "letters they write to me" at the writing center.



I also have one of my favorite art projects of the year hanging in the hall right now. During bear week the children paint GIANT bears with finger paint, it's so fun (and MESSY)! The bears are laminated, big ole wiggle eyes and felt noses are added. They are too cute! They are holding paper picture frames the kids colored that have a photo of them with their bear in it! There's a sign on the wall that says "God made me BEARY special"!!


We also have "Donuts with Dad" tomorrow. Here is a picture of the gift we made for Dads! The kids drew a picture to put in the frames for tomorrow. I'll take a picture of them with their Dad though and then send it home for the frame. They also answer questions about their Dad and I give the Dad a copy of that. They are HILARIOUS!

There you go, just a few fun things from preschool!

Planet Earth

I have to get off the subject of my vacation for a moment. Have you seen the Planet Earth shows on TV?? We have caught a couple of them here & there. I am 100% obsessed with them. They take my breathe away, intrigue me to no end and make me stop and remember how awesome our God is! I told Andy that I wanted them for Christmas for sure and he ended up getting them for my birthday. (Like my vacation wasn't enough, silly boy) The first night we watched the "Ocean's Deep" episode. Unreal, the things that live down there miles and miles below sea level. It is mind blowing. Then last night we watched "Shallow Seas" again, amazing!

The fact that God could have just thrown a few species of fish & mammals it the ocean & called it a day. Instead he made millions of kids of fish, mammals, plants, organisms. They all work together to live & thrive. The beauty is in the details. The episode brought tears to my eyes on a number of occasions, silly huh?! We live in a beautiful world, beauty in places that we never even realize!

The episodes are: from pole to pole, mountains, fresh water, caves, desserts, ice worlds, great plains, jungles, shallow seas, seasonal forests, oceans deep, saving species, into the wilderness & living together. I can't wait to watch jungles tonight!

I HIGHLY recommend every household invest in the DVD set. I think it should be a "must see" for anyone after the age of about 10 or 11. The man who narrates makes me think I am at EPCOT in an area there. I am sure younger kids would never sit through the hour episodes, but older kids should see them too! If I were a science teacher, I'd have them in my curriculum for sure! There are all these amazing things that I'm learning!!!!

Each episode also has a 10-15 minute "diary" at the end. It shows & tells how they got some of the amazing shots for that episode. It's good stuff!!

Edit: Wowie! Just watched the Jungle episode. I have to warn that it's rated R due to frolicking frogs! HOLY MOLY~ Did you know that frogs only hear the sounds made by their same species? In the jungle the bugs & insects who make noises time it so they are making their sound between the others. The 6:00 Cicada (sp?) "sings" exactly on time though. There is a family of chimps in Africa that has 150 family members, the biggest known group. They fight and then EAT the enemy chimp families!! Ok, I'll stop. You really MUST watch these though!

(Now back to your regularly scheduled vacation stories)

Thursday

After breakfast and packing the last few items, we were off to Port Canaveral. We arrived for check in about 12:45 and it wasn't overly crowded. I think other cruise lines seriously need to check into how Disney loads & unloads, they have it down to an art that works! We were in the terminal, checked in and stepping on board all within about 45 minutes. We were able to use the "Castaway Cay Club" line b/c it was our second Disney cruise, BUT we watched people in the other line and they were at the counter at the same time we were. Both lines were moving quickly and smoothly!

You have to love stepping on board and them saying "Welcome Tanner family" and everyone clapping for you, too funny! It was time to drop stuff off in the room before finding lunch. We were excited to find a yummy dessert tray from Jo (amazing, thanks again) and Mom & Dad had a cheese & fruit tray (also amazing and yummy)! We had a big ole' bag of free stuff from being in the Castaway Club too! And yep, that's sparkling apple cider, come on.... you know us!

We found the lunch buffet and stuffed ourselves silly yet again. They had strawberry soup on the buffet and I was in heaven. (It's typically my favorite appetizer and served one night on most ships) We walked around to check out the ship before heading back to the our rooms and seeing our luggage already there, fast! We grabbed the life jackets and were off to the safety briefing. (Gotta love that Disney let's you meet inside in an area for the spill instead of standing outside on the decks in the hot sun stuffed together and melting with those life jackets on)

Then Andy & I went to book our excursion in Nassau down at the desk where there wasn't a soul in line (how amazing is that in itself) and it took all of about 3 minutes. (Though if they are crowded it would be good if they would adopt the "book excursion" on the TV in your room thing that other lines have) We were then off to the sail away party.

Bon Voyage

Before you know it you've walked around the ship and it's time to get ready for a show & dinner. The "Hercules" show is a hoot and we loved it more this time than last. The up to date jokes are HILARIOUS and the cast is so talented! We had a few minutes for looking in the stores before heading to dinner.

Our servers, JoJo & Diana, were the BEST we've ever had on any ship!! I was anxious to remind them of that on many occasions. They were very quick, very personal and generally rocked! We truly enjoyed getting to know them better through the week!



After our late dinner Andy & I were tired and headed to bed, we needed to be up and ready to go fairly early in Nassau. Mom & Dad watched the "newlywed" game show and had a ball!

Wednesday

We ate breakfast and spend the morning repacking for our cruise. It was rainy and we waited until most of the rain left as well. Then we were off to the Magic Kingdom around noon. We went to Ray's Cafe or whatever it's called in Tomorrowland. Cute alien in there, didn't even know he was there. For some reason we've never eaten there, strange but true. We had lunch and were off to conquer the Magic Kingdom.

We rode Buzz (again), saw Monster's Inc. (I want to love it, but I just don't), saw "Carousel of Progress" and I let Mom talk me out of People Mover. (ugh) We moved on to Peter Pan & Small World in Fantasyland. Then on down to Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree and a Jungle Cruise. We did a little shopping and it was time for supper.

We had reservations for Crystal Palace! We've all eaten there several times before and are already booked again for October. The food's pretty good and I'm a big Winnie the Pooh and friend's fan. (I know, I know ... it's true though!)

It was a great day. The rain really cooled the temps down thank goodness. We packed alot into our day since it wasn't even a full one. I went back and "forced" a Minnie Mouse ice cream bar down even after all the other food. Ugh! But, you HAVE to use those snack credits, right?! We all came home with ALOT of rice crispy Mickey's!!! YUMMO~ Nothing like it for breakfast at home.



For the first time ever, I leave WDW with a smile on my face. Andy kept trying to make me cry with "When you wish upon a star...." and "goodbye Mickey"... He just couldn't make me sad though, I told him Mickey and the magic were going with us! He says "oh yeah......"!!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was spent at the pool after breakfast. We decided to wait until a little later in the day to head to EPCOT. We ended up at the park a little after noon. It was cloudy on and off, thankfully that kept the temps down a little. And Mom & Dad were able to use our tickets (that came with the package deal) and get in again without paying extra. I'd wondered about that alot and it was nice that they got to use them! (afterall, we didn't need them... he he he he)





Mom & Dad enjoyed "Nemo" for the first time, but still missed Turtle Talk! I really wanted them to see that, but we missed the show just starting and didn't want to hang around too long. We did get to see them feeding the fish in the "Nemo Like" aquariums and it was pretty neat! Then we moved onto the Land and Dad's favorite ride. (The boat ride through the green house. Dad & Andy rode it 4 times in a row while Mom & I saw the last show of "Food Rocks" before it went away, several years ago.)

*I have to share a story: It's not exactly posting public worthy, if you think about it .. ask me to tell you about the land boat ride story!*

We got fast passes for Soarin' for that evening (the line was over an hour) and were off to visit our Imaginations. I LOVE Figment! He wasn't out for a visit and that made me sad. Moving right along and into an afternoon rain shower, we decided to use our first snack credit. We went different ways to pick a snack and sit for awhile under a shelter. The rain passed and we parted ways. Mom & Dad headed to the Universe of Energy (ugh) while Andy & I went to Test Track.











We ventured into Mexico and took a boat ride. Skipped a boat ride in Norway b/c it was having issues and the line was backing up. Then moved into China to watch the movie there and walk around some. Then it was time to head to Germany and get ready for dinner @ Biergarten.





Dinner was fantastic. I enjoyed it MUCH better than the first time! I tried all sorts of new foods and loved most of it. The show was fun as usual and Mom & Dad enjoyed themselves too. We never made it to the other half of "the world". It was time for our fast passes to Soarin' and we weren't about to miss that.

Mom & Dad LOVED their first Soarin' fight!! It is for sure one of our (Andy & me) favorite things to do in all of WDW now!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! (Thanks to the guys & girls who assured me that I wouldn't get sick that first time and told me to ride it!)

We were tired and called it a night. I couldn't believe Dad was tired enough to even skip a ride in "the golf ball" as he calls it. It was another great day!

Monday

We got up and had breakfast before heading to MGM. We were at the park by about 9:30ish and on a roll. Mom had to take the wheelchair and she wasn't thrilled about that, but it worked out just fine. We saw the "Little Mermaid" show, too cute!

We did the animation walk through thingy, including the drawing class. We drew Donald Duck and I still think he's the hardest that we've drawn so far. I would have stayed for a few more classes, but they were ready to move on. I LOVE that thing, it's my favorite!! We saw Frozone in there as well. I wanted to stay for Mr. & Mrs. Incredible, plus Remy ... I didn't get my way.

We rode "The Great Movie Ride" and then it was time for our lunch reservations. We made our way over to "Mama Melrose's" for lunch. YUMMY!! Again, we were stuffed and not a single one of us finished everything. Appetizer, meal and dessert is just ALOT of food for anyone!!! (especially at lunch, wowie!) We moved on to "Muppet 3D" and then the "Walt" walk through thingy. I LOVE that movie in there!!

We skipped "Backstage" b/c of the line being about 45 minutes. All the other lines were about 10 minutes and we just didn't want to stand out in the HOT sun that long. Rock n Roller was down for rehab and since we were stuffed from lunch, we decided Tower wasn't a good choice. We wanted Mom & Dad to see the Stunt Show, but it wasn't going on again for about 3 hours. We decided that half a day was long enough in the heat and we were outta there. It was near impossible to get out of the park, everyone was lining up for the parade. So we saw the parade (which I LOVE) and were off.

We spent the afternoon by the Goofy pool. It was a great way to wind down! Mom & Dad stayed at the pool longer and ate dinner at the resort. Andy & I got ready and were off for an evening at the Magic Kingdom. We rode Buzz (again), Jungle Cruise, Pirates and something else... I can't think now. We saw part of the electrical parade (my all time favorite part of any Disney trip, though I still miss "Spectromagic") while we ate a quick burger and then called it a night.

Fun Scenes around the Magic Kingdom!




Spot the hidden Mickey-

Awww, I love this one!

And this one...

How cute is this? The Pumpkin People (as Amber is calling them) are everywhere!

Fall decorations with temps around 89 was kinda strange. Still, I LOVE fall and the decorations!
Very very cute!!

Sunday

On Sunday Andy & I headed to breakfast about 8:00 and were just sure we could eat quickly and still make it to the opening of the Magic Kingdom if we hurried. Wrong! Eventually we'll make it, not this trip. We did get there by about 10:00 though and were so excited to see the Haunted Mansion in all it's refurbished glory. I was sooooo excited to see the park already decked out for fall & Halloween. I wish we could have done the "Not so scary party", but that'll just give me something to look forward to for next year!

We thought that it would be closed to "others" since the sneak peak was for annual pass members. Not true, it was open to everyone and we just had a quickie by pass line. It was fantastic!! The new things fit in perfectly, nothing is taken away from the "classic" ride. What is changed only adds to the experience and I give it two serious thumbs up!!

We visited with Horace and we rode Big Thunder Mountain. We bought a Brer Rabbit book and rode Buzz! I kicked Andy's rear too, might I add!!

Then we headed back to the hotel for lunch with Mom & Dad. Then it was serious pool time for the afternoon. With the big pool closed, the smaller one was packed. It was a great afternoon in the sun though.

Then we were off to Cape May Cafe @ the Beach Club and that's always fun! Andy & I LOVE that place too! It rained while we were eating and waited for it to stop so that we could walk around the Beach & Yacht club and the Boardwalk. We'd walk outside and start around the path, then it would rain again. We eventually decided to call it a night and head on back.

Saturday

We had a very easy 7 hour trip down on Saturday! Check in was easy squeezy at All Star Sports and our rooms were super close to "the fun"! We were sad that we weren't able to use the "big fun" pool that was right by our building, it was closed for a rehab. Such is life and the Goofy Baseball pool was good to us.

Our rooms were fantastic. They had already done the refurbishment to our section of the "Surfs Up" hotel and we had brand new rooms! New carpet, new paint, new furniture & new bedding. While the bedding was a little itchy, the paint & carpet a little smelly ... we really liked what they were doing with the place. It was in serious need of a rehab when we were there in May and it was due for sure!

After check in and unpacking it was time to head to Olivia's for dinner. Our very first experience with the dinning plan and HOLY MOLY! You just can't eat that much food, but boy did we try. My Dad has been saying "I almost hurt myself that first night" because he tried to eat everything! We kept saying SERIOUSLY, we can order appetizers, meals, drinks and desserts .. it's ALL FREE??? Are you SURE?? Tip included... and it's a hefty tip. Amazing, FREE~

A special shout out to Terry again for introducing us to Olivia's!! Man, that place is so darn good, cute cute place and easy to get into!! Cheesy potatoes are what I live for at that place, the key lime tart too ... wowie zowie!

And thanks to Jo too, you did good work girlfriend!

After dinner we headed back for turning in early on night one!

Mom & Dad at Old Key West, outside of Olivia's.

Who is headed back to Disney World on Saturday for 5 nights?
Who is just as excited about this trip as they were about the past 3 already this year?
Who has reservations already made for the October trip?

Who leaves next Thursday for the Disney Cruise? (again)
Who CAN NOT wait??

He he he he he......

August Reading

August ends with me reading only 9 books, that's surely down from the previous summer months. That's a grand total of 48 books worth of summer reading!! What a summer. August was busy & obviously I started seriously getting ready for school and became busy, busy, busy. I guess my reading will continue to go slowly as school stays busy, I crochet a baby blanket or two, I return to cross stitching and life marches on.

My top 3:

(because the others were all trashy romance)

3) "Up Close & Personal" - Fern Michaels. She's always a super favorite author. Typically it's romance with a little mystery or suspense thrown in here and there.

2) "Savannah Comes UnDone" - Denise Hildreth. It's one of the series I started in July. My FAVORITE author of the summer!!! I will read her three books in the Savannah series again very soon!!

P. 9 "I couldn't have been more thankful than a 75 year old Southern woman on beauty shop day"

P. 47 "I'm going to stomp you into the pavement, you little sucker!" screamed the woman who was too ladylike to say butt only moments before...."

1) "Savannah From Savannah" - Denise Hildreth. The one that starts it all. I didn't read these in order and it didn't change my life. But... I'd recommend that you start, well.. at the beginning with this one.

P. 57 "I have never passed a bookstore without going inside; it's sacrilegious"

P. 315 "Why can't some people just leave well enough alone? Attack me, talk about my clothes, make cracks about my flip flops, I don't care; but for heaven's sake, when they talk about my mamma, they leave me no option."

P. 314 "In his heart a man plans his course, but God determines his steps."