Mothers and Daughters Gone Wild: The Sequel

This is one of those recaps that has been a looooong time coming. Some background:

My Granny had three daughters, and they each had a daughter, and the 7 of us get along remarkably well for family. :) We genuinely enjoy being around each other and planning reasons to get together, along with the rest of the family.

So way back in 2007(ish) we got the brilliant idea to go on a Mother/Daughter trip, complete with custom shirts. To Amish country. And we had a ball, as probably only our family could in Amish country.

We had talked about doing another trip off and on over the years and when Brian and I went to Snug Hollow for an awesome weekend away I realized it was the perfect place for our next Mother/Daughter trip. It is quaint and country and out in the middle of nowhere and we all tend to like those sorts of things.

So our weekend started out meeting at Granny's house. She was in a perfectly coordinating outfit, as always.

THEN someone produced this picture of the seven of us circa 1991. AMAZING. I really need a copy of this framed in my house.

Did we ever determine where we were/what this was for? At Mentor Baptist? For a Mother's Day Luncheon?

 Then the sisters took this pic:

Which always reminds me of this pic: 

Then once we really got going and picked who was riding in which cars on the way there, we stopped at the cemetery to put flowers on my grandpa's grave. 

I happen to really like cemeteries so I thought it would be a nice time to tell the family, and Papa too, I was pregnant. Only about 8 weeks at the time but I wanted everyone to know on the trip that I was going to be joining their mom club (I was the only one on the Mom/Daughter trip who wasn't yet a mom!).

Granny and I at Papa's grave.

As I was going through the huge album of photos from the trip, I went through a whole section of all the games we played. You are welcome, family, for not posting any of those pics. And especially not any of the getups we were wearing!!

I'll skip to the cabin we stayed in, which was a little further away from the main house, but was really perfect for all of us. It's beautiful and had plenty of space to sleep 7, sit around and talk and play games, cook, etc.

Looking from the back towards the front door.

One of the beds.

The kitchen!

The view out the back of the cabin.

The porch swing and other side of the cabin.

We always eat in for one dinner and cook a meal together on our trips. We love to cook! This time it was a crockpot roast with carrots, onion and celery, and mashed potatoes and gravy etc. It was delicious!!

We had slow cookers going all day while we were in Berea. 

The table set for dinner!

They gave me this cute little menu flower holder (that I still use!!) as a thank-you for planning the trip.

YUM.

The first night we ate Barbara's dinner at the main house. If you've gone back to read either of my other posts about Snug Hollow you know the food is amazing. I didn't get pictures of dinner the first night but you can bet it was delicious. Here was breakfast!

I'm suddenly starving.

After breakfast on our main day of exploring we took all our same combinations of mothers and daughters and grandma and granddaughters and sisters and cousins pictures that we did on the last trip. In our matching shirts of course!!

Mom and daughters

Grandma and Granddaughters

Sisters

Cousins! 

What a good lookin' family!!

This was a very relaxing weekend with some very wonderful women! Now, we just need to get the timing right for the next one so all the women who have married into our crazy family, and all the other women cousins, can FINALLY join us too.

And, I have an idea for a small excursion/activity we could do this spring/early summer. Not a trip, but just a fun afternoon or evening together. I'll keep you all posted. :)

P.S. Just thought I'd throw out there again that you are welcome to shower me with gifts for only picking flattering photos of all of us to post. :) 

Our Pre-Baby Cruise

I feel like I'm going to be doing things a little backwards around here for awhile as I remember things I would have documented and didn't over the last year and a half when this blog dropped off the face of the planet.

Brian and I went on an awesome pre-baby cruise over Thanksgiving in 2011. I'm not sure how many people we really told that it was officially a "pre-baby" cruise, but it's a good thing we were intentional about that purpose because exactly a year later I was on bed rest while Archer tried to escape early.

We really didn't enjoy our honeymoon. Which is sad and bums people out so we really just don't talk about it in general. This was a sort of redo for us (we should have done a cruise in the first place!!) and it was amazing and perfect and everything we could have hoped for. I was a bit worried about ditching the family for such a major holiday but it was so nice for it to be just the two of us, and not worrying for once about fitting in family from all sides in a few short hours.

Let's get this show on the road! Ready to leave the dock.

We went to Grand Cayman, Haiti and Jamaica. They were beautiful. And it was especially nice to enjoy the heat when it was cold and rainy at home.

Grand Cayman. After lunch we decided to walk back to the ship.  In case you are ever in this situation--cruise ships are huge. Which makes them look really close, even when they're far away. We had to walk literally miles to get back. Whoops!!!

Our lovely friend Katie was in the middle of living on the island for 2 years. We met up for lunch. It was one of the most awesomely random things I've experienced. Who gets to have lunch with a high school friend in Grand Cayman?! 

Big ship. FAR AWAY. 

We visited Dunns River Falls in Jamaica. We did NOT hike up the falls. That's way too much effort.

Brian DID spend a lot of time playing with camera settings to get the water to look like this. Nice work dear!

Pretty little lizard. 

Haiti in the background. Beautiful! This is Royal Caribbean's port so it's all been built up and developed by them.

Ready for a day by the water!

We didn't actually ever get IN the water, which is always a-ok by me!

We RAN from the boat to get one of the much-coveted hammocks, thanks to a tip from a dinner table member!

There is a giant zipline that goes over the water. We just watched people fly down that screaming all day.

The other favorite part of cruising--dressing up!! I brought WAY too many dresses. Like, twice as many as actual nights on the boat. And shoes. So many shoes. Next time I will remember how terrible it was trying to get everything to our room from the dock and I WILL pack lighter.

Fancy pants.

This dress has been a part of so many things!

As has this one!

He's so handsome.

You can't forget the towel animals. Who doesn't love towel animals?

I love that he used my sunglasses. 

A turkey in honor of Thanksgiving day!!

And wine. We picked a wine package beforehand with a set number of bottles so it was all taken care of when we got there. I definitely over-estimated how much wine two people can actually drink in a week when they're also having cocktails by the pool during the day! But it was a nice challenge regardless. :)

It's also nice being surrounded by fun things to do on a gorgeous ship. You never have to worry about whether or not the hotel is going to be as awesome in person as it was in the photos. :)

The sky was amazing in Haiti that day!

Our ship just looked so beautiful!

Brian finishing up rock climbing on board.

The promenade where all the shops are.

The beautiful dining room. 3 floors!!

You also get the most beautiful sunset photos when the weather cooperates. On one of the last nights we stayed out on deck reading way after the warmth had left to play with the camera and get sunset photos. It was definitely worth it!!

Cold! But I was finishing up an excellent book (something there is TONS of time for on a cruise!) so it wasn't all that bad. :) 

We can't wait to try another ship and a fun new destination or two (and add on another night or two!) for the next cruise. And the whole time we were gone we kept saying "Wouldn't this be so much fun to do with another couple?!?!" So friends, think about it! Carpool down to Florida or a closer port. A week in the sun. Good company, awesome food, great drinks. What's not to love? Definitely my preferred method of vacationing now!