Thursday, October 27, 2011

Carnival Sensation

Our cruise ship was the Carnival Sensation. It seemed pretty big to us, but we were told by our dinner companions that it was one of the smallest cruise ships they had ever been on (they were "experienced" cruisers).

We did two excursions on our cruise: 1. Snorkeling - which if you know anything about me, you know this was a BIG DEAL! I'm terrified of open water (lakes and oceans). I am also terrified of sharks and whales. When I see a whale tail on TV, I want to puke! No lie! They make me shudder every single time. Bleh! 2. Blue Lagoon Private Island Getaway - this was nice and relaxing. We rented some snorkel gear and played around in the lagoon. We spent the rest of our time lying in a hammock. It was perfection!

The best thing on the cruise ship was the piano bar! When Adam and I were going to school in Lubbock, we went to Louie Louie's Piano Bar. It is a dueling piano bar. If you've never been to one, I highly recommend it. They are great fun! While the piano bar on the cruise ship was not a dueling piano bar, it was still a ton of fun! Our piano player, Adam Saxe, was very talented and kept us entertained each night of the cruise. There's a picture of him posted below. He told us he is often told he looks like Alan from The Hangover. So, he borrowed someone's glasses and sang "The Tiger Song". It was priceless!

Here are some pictures of the cruise.

The main deck.
In the main lobby looking up.

I loved how everything was lit up in the evening!
Looking down on the main lobby. Again, every thing is lit up in the evenings!
Our room was cleaned every evening while we were at dinner. We would return to find a towel animal. This was the only one that we could tell what it was - a seal or walrus.
Putt putt anyone?! We tried to play, but it was too crowded and people weren't really playing putt putt. They were just putting around! ;)
A view of our ship from the boat ride to our private island excursion.
I love lighthouses. They remind me of God's love and guidance for us.
Psalm 18:28 You light a lamp for me. The LORD, my God, lights up my darkness. (NLT)
After our excursion, we walked around Nassau for a bit.
In front of the cruise ship.
This band was awesome! They were singing Under the Boardwalk by the Drifters. One of my favorites!
Another view of the ship.
This is Allen, our awesome waiter that I mentioned in my previous post. Each night the waiters did something different for entertainment. Here they were all dancing to Low by Flo Rider. It was comical!
Us with our dinner companions and Allen.
Adam Saxe - the BEST piano bar player ever!!! He put up with us multiple nights in a row and played all of our requests, no matter how strange they were! He also listened to my ipod to play Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) by Looking Glass. He had never heard of it and was able to play it after listening to the song for about 30 seconds. That's serious talent right there!
Me and Adam on our last night! No, we did not coordinate our outfits. We find ourselves matching pretty often, and not on purpose! :)

XOXO,
Amanda

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Our First Wedding Anniversary

I should start off by telling you a little about my hubby and how awesome he is! I am so proud of Adam and how hard he works. Well, his hard work paid off. This spring/early summer he won an all-expense paid cruise from work. Woo hoo! Actually, it was a prize package that emphasized the cruise, but we had a couple different options. We looked over all of the information and decided that we would go on a cruise since neither of us had ever been on one. Also, we decided to book it as our 1st Wedding Anniversary!!! What a wonderful blessing it was!

Our first wedding anniversary was great! The night before our anniversary Adam made dinner. This wasn't just any dinner either, it was very special. The first year anniversary of our relationship Adam invited me over to his house in our hometown. It was our after our first year of college. He made dinner - salad, teriyaki chicken, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus and dinner rolls. He remembered this all these years later, and made the same meal for our first anniversary as husband and wife! :) Ladies and gentlemen, my hubby is a romantic at heart and definitely a keeper!

After our special dinner we exchanged gifts and ate the top tier of our wedding cake. Okay, maybe not all of the cake. We each only had a couple bites, but it was still good and just as pretty as the day of our wedding!




Most of our actual anniversary, August 14, 2011, was spent traveling. It was the day our cruise left Port Canaveral in Florida. We woke up early for our flight from DFW to Florida, but it was worth it! The cruise ship departed in the afternoon so, we had a little time to explore the ship before dinner. We weren't quite so sure at first that a cruise was going to be for us. There were people EVERYWHERE and it seemed that it was going to be a very crowded week. However, we learned that it's just typical first day hustle and bustle. It wasn't so bad the rest of the week. Don't get me wrong, it was crowded, but much more enjoyable after the first day.

The first night at dinner was fun! Let me clarify, all of the nights at dinner were fun thanks to our dinner companions and our awesome waiter. But, the first night was special since it was our anniversary and my hubby had a little something up his sleeve. Even though it was a casual dinner night, we kind of dressed up to celebrate! Adam had told the staff that it was our anniversary. Our waiter with his two assistants brought out a cake with a candle and serenaded us with an anniversary song to the tune of Happy Birthday. It went something like this...

Happy Anniversary to you, kissy kissy (at which point we had to share a kiss!). This was repeated about three times, with our waiter Allen shoving us together on the "kissy kissy" part. Then we had to blow out our candle together. It was a little embarrassing, but fun at the same time!

Here we are before dinner.

We had a wonderful first wedding anniversary and couldn't be more blessed. I'll post pictures and more about the cruise later.

Until then,
XOXO Amanda