December 2023

 Again, no pictures. And again just a quick catch up on our holiday. 

When we got back from our cruise, we had a very busy weekend. Our friend/neighbor Dom was graduating from USF, we were throwing him a party, and Olivia was coming home the same day! So, it was a dash to go to graduation (in which Dom had the COOLEST cap- because I made it from him, and it lit up!), decorate and set up for the party, and then running to TPA to grab Olivia (who luckily was on time), and then coming back for the party. 

So, that was a day. And then, Olivia was home! She was here for about three weeks, which was just lovely to have her around. We tried to squeeze in lots of different activities. We had a 'fake Thanksgiving' where we pulled out the table cloth, did a turkey, and even had pie. We were able to pick out our customary ugly Christmas tree, get our Chinese take out and pizza, play all the Christmas games (I still made a punch board with activities and a Christmas Bucks auction), and even have her help finish putting up the lights. We also made a trip to the Budhist Temple, and spent the evening at the Nebraska Mini Mart (after a failed attempt to see the boat parade). 

Oh, the lights- they were gorgeous this year- and so much work- but we literally got them strung across the whole end of Blue Spring Drive before the curve. 22 houses (and only one opt-out). Everyone came together with lights, or money to fund the lights, extension cords (and the use of their electricity), ladders, and even freshly baked cookies to keep us going. We got to meet more people down at the 'north end' (hi Dayna!), and we even had a big block party in ours and Vince's driveway to celebrate when they were all done. Later, some of us went on a Chistmas light bike ride and all decorated our bikes, blasted music, and brought Bailey's for a toast. So fun. Blue Spring is the absolute best of people. 

We also went out to celebrate Mike's birthday- we went to dinner along the water over in New Port Richey, and had a campfire in the driveway to celebrate. Olivia was like 'what is happening?!?' you know, with all the get togethers with people. 

Asa and I somehow found time to squeeze in our normal Disney Christmas day- where we saw the trees at Disney Springs, the Gingerbread concoctions at all the resorts, the new lights and garden in Epcot, and Magic Kingdom's main street all decorated. We finished up the evening back at Disney Springs being 'snowed' on, which I just adored. 

Christmas was all our usual stuff- Santa Pancakes, Seafood dinner, presents (the tree was in the front room, which was a little different- but it was less of tree and more of a bush, so it fit best out there), and general playing games. The big present this year for Calib and Hayden: tickets to see Fall Out Boy in March (spoiler alert: we just went this past weekend, as I'm writing this- and it was AMAZING!) 

And then, in a fun turn of events, the Sattler's decided to come visit for a few days (sans Gwen who didn't want to spend all that time driving for just a few days here). But, Cort, Holly and Garrett decided to surprise my mom by coming down here too. Mom comes down nearly every Christmas, though this year her plane was very, very delayed. I think she ended up landing around 5 am when it was supposed to be midnight. 

Anyway- the surprise went well, and then we spent four days going to the beach, playing games, going for walks, looking for a 'wild suburban alligator' (which we never did find), and eating delicious food. We went to the beach, the aquarium complete with snowball throwing, and Busch Gardens. We ate at Ulele, grabbed an ice cream flight at Sparkman Wharf, finally hit up the Flan Factory (Cort's favorite food), and even ordered a giant pizza from Hawkeyes (who are finally back open!) 

Before the Sattler's left, we made sure to show them around the Clubhouse. And even though it was 50 degrees, we swam in the heated pool,  complete with winter and santa hats, and snuck all of us into the mens sauna. We played some tennis, and we took them to Whit's to get some ice cream. 

All in all, a great couple days- but oh so busy! Olivia flew back home to Phoenix the following day, but grandma stayed through the new year. We did a Costco trip, and had a low key new years. I will note, I promised Hayden I would finally get to fixing up a better ladder for their loft by New Years, and I finished with like three hours to spare. So, you know. I kept my Waterstraut promise. 

Next up: Happy 2024! 

Allure of the Seas: Holidaycation

 Alright, blog readers, here's the deal: for months I've been unable to upload pictures to my blog! Even Blogger hasn't been a help. In the meantime, I haven't blogged at all- which is so weird, because how does anyone know whats going on at the Waterstrauts without it? Well, we have been really busy (Life is just so full in the best way lately), so here's my plan.. I'm going to speed through what the last few months have been like- in word form only. Someday will I hope to add pictures? Sure! But, I need to get caught up ASAP because our next month is absolutely jam-packed (and I am in no way exaggerating). 

So lets rewind all the way back to November- when I last left off on the blog. Asa and I were getting on a cruise ship! And one of the big ones too: Allure of the Seas. 

It's not a new itinerary: we went to Nassau and Coco Cay and back on our four days, but we were so excited to get on one of the BIG boats. Sure, it's the oldest of that big gigantic class (Oasis) but we got it for $210 per person, and that is just insanity! Of course, it's not as good as the free ones we've had (and have coming up!), but still, you can't beat that. And we've kind of landed on a trip for the holidays instead of gifts, so this totally fit the bill. We sprang for the coffee package, and the key, so we could get into all the activities early and it was so worth it. 

Allure has all kinds of stuff including ice skating, rock climbing, mini golf, the flo rider, and even a zipline. We did it ALL. Sometimes more than once. I even got up on my knees on the flo rider, which I was super excited about. 

Of course there were usual activities- but most of them had their own home places instead of being in various lounges. Karaoke had it's own venue- as did the comedians. 

We hardly did any trivia on the boat because there was so much else to do (though we did make it to 'Disney name that tune'). We watched their production of Grease, which was awesome- but nothing like the aqua show that was just AMAZING with divers, and acrobats all at the ships aft. 

We learned on this ship to go to the casino early for bonus money, and we learned how to cash in our rewards for our first Platinum trip on Royal (thats their loyalty levels- our new tier came with half off wine, and free money to gamble with in the casino). We turned that free money into $40 real dollars and then used that to buy our half off at the 'Rising Tide Bar' where you order your drinks and then the bar 'rises' from the indoor prominade to the outside Central Park area. That's right, there's a whole outdoor park in the middle of the ship. 

We lost long stretches of time in that park. Besides the delicious roast beef sandwiches at the Park Cafe, they also had chess sets and a fun bar out there. (While we didn't have the alcoholic drink package, I did get one for non alcoholic drinks). There were lots of mocktails, smoothies at the gym, and milkshakes for me! Plus frozen drinks at the pool. It's a package I would totally get again. It was my splurge since I did so awesome at a market a couple of weeks earlier. 

We also loved our location of our room- an inside space on floor 7 right by the stairs. We were just between the coffee and Boardwalk on deck 6 (a place with a carousel we rode every single day), and the Central Park area on deck 8. The Boardwalk even had a hotdog place Asa was really fond of. 

Of course there were all our cruise favorites. Desserts. Towel Animals. Mega Breakfast. Christmas Decorations. Ping Pong. Swimming (even when it was so cold nobody else dared get in the water but us-- but we really wanted to swim in ALL the pools). We listened to music, ate a delicious dinner at the upcharged Mexican place, and of course snorkeled in Coco Cay. 

I will say, our trip to Coco Cay wasn't our favorite. I mean, it was fun- we did some snorkeling. But, the water was really rough when we were there- so rough our kayak tour out to see starfish got cancelled. And I didn't feel comfortable going out past the rocks- so just some smaller fish. We did get some non alcoholic drinks, and finally made it out to the bar floating in South Beach. 

In Nassau we only got off the boat because the new port was done and we wanted to see it. It is really nice, but it seems so 'Americanized', like subdivision ish- like they had to fix the port all up to American subburban standards. I don't know. It's nice- it just isn't super authentic- but I guess that's most cruise ports. You need to get a little out of there to really see what the place is like. 

We didn't want to be off the boat too long anyway- there was just SO MUCH to do on the boat, and we were like 'who knows when we'll be on one of these big boats again', so we wanted to cram it all in. We logged at least 20,000 plus steps on the boat every single day, just trying to fit everything in. 

So, while I did absolutely love my time with Asa- it was just four very, very full days. I thought once I went on one of those big boats, I would be sad going back to smaller boats. But the reality is, they're both so much fun- just different kinds of fun. And, the smaller boats are much more laid back, there was no Deck 4 shuffleboard to be had on Allure. In fact, no shuffleboard at all on our trip. While they do have one behind the aqua theater, it was never open. 

Now, the big boat is awesome, because I never once felt it move. We'll see how a small boat goes for me soon, because as I write this, it's actually March (even though I'm going to post it as a November blog), and Asa and I are about to take our free NCL cruise to Mexico. It's out of Tampa, and that means boats have to be small enough to fit under the sunshine skyway. 

Either way, I'm hoping for ping pong and shuffleboard, drinks by the pool (NCL gives you 'free at sea' with the drink package included-just pay gratuities!) Plus, a whole new set of ports. God help me if we don't make it to Roatan for whatever reason. We have the COOLEST excursion planned. But, that's for another blog. I gotta work on catching up! 

Next up: It was a SUPER busy December. I'm just going to roll it into a huge blog to get caught up. 

Thanksgiving 2023

 Lets get caught up on the Thanksgiving blog before Christmas! Usually Cort's fam is down here around that time. But, they were able to come the week before, whcih still made for big crowds at the theme parks- but less crowds. This time, instead of Disney, we met them at Seaworld. Hayden stayed home, but Calib came along. Highlights included the sealion show, and the penguins. It's a real cool area, that we throughly enjoyed. 

Also, remember last fall when Garrett passed me up and was the tiniest bit taller than me? Yea. Now look at us. 

After a long day at the park, we swung by Disney Springs on our way home for some Chicken Guy. 

Hayden passed a class, and had a friend here to celebrate! 

I still miss Ellie something fierce, but Etta snuggles and Hoodie Phenom help. 

Thansgiving morning, Asa ran the Turkey Trot with Dom and Mike. 

Teresa invited us over for Thanksgiving, which was good because it was just weird here without Olivia, plus no Ellie. So, I was happy to have a change in tradiation. Plus, the food was all delicious. And the company was great. 

Calib spent Thanksgiving weekend in Ohio going to the Cavs/Lakers game with Jake, while we just kept hanging out at the Harvisons. We spent days organziing lights, hanging by the fire and eating leftovers, while Calib enjoyed the frozen tundra at bars, and games, and chillin at Jakes house. Pictures to follow: 

Oh, and then on Saturday we decided to set up the lights, or at least start on it. We had ambitions to make the long strings of lights go from the front of Blue Spring back to Doms house, so we had some extra helpers. We provided everyone with Mickey Waffles, and Nando made us all mimosas to get everyone in the holiday spirit before tree climbing commenced. 

And even those who didn't serve as ground crew, or tree climbers (which is basically just Asa and Marcus), contributed. Thanks cookie Teresa! 

We finished up the day with a celebatory trip to Culvers with everyone. 

Since it was getting cold, I did get Etta an early Christmas gift: some pittie pajamas! 

Sunday commenced with more Calib and Jake in Cleveland/Columbus, and a taco party. We even got Candace and her kids to come- taco count contributions have been stellar this year. (Spoiler alert: we passed the record with three weeks still to go)> 

And after the game, and after the rain, we went out for some more light hanging. Because, that took up like three weekends. We walked the street at the end fo the day to see how far we'd come, and we made our goal not only to Dom's house but to Jens! A shoutout to everyone who let us climb trees, and contributed lights and or power outlets/extenstion cords. 

Next up: Asa and I went cruising on Allure of the Seas to get in the holiday spirit!