☼ St. Thomas ☼

Our next stop was the island of St. Thomas! What a gorgeous area! We wanted to rent a scooter here very badly, but we were instantly talked out of it once we saw the roads. They are crazy! Huge potholes and vertical slopes-not to mention the crazy drivers! We felt it was better to be safe-well sort of, because we took a local bus (we were the only whites on the bus) to Sapphire Beach. What a day! We pretty much just snorkeled and combed the beach-which was SO much fun!

Carnival Dream was docked right next to Carnival Freedom (Which was our Honeymoon ship!) Crazy!

Sail Away!

Evening Sunset

    After waiting 74 days, from when Brian surprised me with our 2 year anniversary get away, the day finally arrived! We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Orlando just after 9 am and took a shuttle to Cape Canaveral to board Carnival Dream. We were close to the first people on the ship and quickly set out to grab some lunch and explore.
    We had a pretty sweet little set up on our 14 deck "floating city." We had plenty to do and keep us occupied. Mini golf, water-slides, comedy clubs, shows, dancing, basketball courts, swimming, and of course lots of food options.      And before we knew it the next day had arrived and we were getting ready to explore Nassau Bahamas.      We rented a scooter and took off for our own tour around the island.This was probably the top favorite thing that we did on our cruise. We took the island at our own pace, stopped at whatever beach or site we wanted to see, would swim for a bit (we brought our own snorkel gear) and then take off again for another drive around!

We had lots of fun with our underwater camera haha

We felt like celebrities for a bit there- we had 3 different people ask to take pictures with us-random?

 I was even given a bouquet of island flowers from a man saying, "Prettiest lady I've ever seen, mon!"

    And then first formal night! We had awesome dining seating each night.. right by the window and at our own table! It was wonderful! A table across the way with a family of about 12 someone "adopted" us. They were awesome! All from Georgia and Tennessee and just fun people. Each night they'd save us seats at the shows and loved chatting with us ha! It was great!

Our cute waiters brought out our dessert and sang "Happy Anniversary" to you!

      And then on to Monday! Monday was our first day at sea, and our day to really relax from school and work-rest up on sleep and the wonderful soft serve ice cream (my favorite).

Heaven's Tree

   I found a tree that will line Heaven's paths! This tree is right by Lake Michigan's beaches and I am completely in love. I wanted to just lay in the petals that littered the walkway and grass (I would have gladly, if it hadn't been wet from the rain). I really really REALLY want a tree like this in my future home! It's like walking under a fairytale!

I've got Competition ツ

   So it's a proven fact that Minnie loves Brian. She follows him around the house. She comes flying down the stairs when he gets home each day, and she crawls all over him when he sleeps.     It's the last week of Brian's FIRST YEAR OF MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!! He has finals all this week! This is what Minnie does when Brian is studying.. I think I've got some competition don't you?

It's a countdown until our cruise.. This weekend people! We are SO excited!!!!!!! ツ

Becca&Stew

    Yay!! Friends came to visit us! It was a busy-party kind of week. We dropped them off at the metra to take into the city while Brian and I had work and school, and picked them up after! They got to explore the city by day and party all night!

This amazing young lady is heading on her mission in a month and a half to Paraguay!

Sleep OVER!!! (sorry for the blur!)

Then a sad goodbye at the airport.. See you two at Becca's Farewell! Miss you already!

Rabbit Remembrance

    I was sitting here thinking about the date today.. It felt pretty significant for some reason though I could not figure out why. Then it hit me.. A year ago today is when Brian and I returned home from a short walk to find that the rabbit that we had recently rescued/adopted only weeks before had given birth to 9 baby bunnies! Surprise!
   What started as a nightmare to how these babies were going to survive, what we were going to do with them, where to put them (the cage barely held the mama), trying to keep them quiet from our landlord and the neighboring kids.. turned out to be one of the most exciting unexpected adventures Brian and I have had. We were always so excited to rush home from work and studying to see those cute little babies grow. They got cuter! (As shown here and here)

    Anyway.. Tuesday night my friends Rebecca Tanner and Stewart Ulrich came from Utah to visit! They're exploring Chicago while I'm at work and Brian's at school, and then we party hardy all night. It's going to be hard when they leave.. I feel like they brought a little bit of Utah with them! Oh how I miss Utah! It's really fun to show of Illinois and point out all the fun things there are to do here!

 We leave on our cruise in a week and 2 days.. I'm kind of really just a little bit super excited.