Happy Thanksgiving!

Adam and I decided that now that we are married, it's time that we divvy up the holidays, since we were used to splitting up on the major days and each going to our separate families for the main part of the holiday and meeting up for bits and pieces.

After much arguing and debate, haha, we finally decided to give my family Thanksgiving, since I've missed getting to do the Black Friday with my mom and Kelsey since they moved. So Thanksgiving day after I got off work we headed down to Springfield and got there just in time to eat...and eat some more....yum.

After food we scaled the sale ads, planning our route for Black Friday shopping. We were hoping to get all of our gifts done in one day with the good sales, and hopefully have the deals be at the place we had wedding gift cards to since the wedding took most of our money for the year.

We planned our route for the morning and my mom, Kelsey and I headed out bright and early...well not so much bright, seeing as the sun wasnt up, ha, but we headed out early and left Adam to sleep and watch Skye. We hit up Kohls, Target and Kmart before the morning was done and braved the insane crowds, but came out with every item we went in for so it was worth it.

Saturday we headed to Branson to Silver Dollar City to see the Christmas lights- apparently they are ranked in the top 10 in the nation, so we had to see them. They were pretty neat, and it wasnt freezing cold, so we were able to enjoy it.











Back home Sunday with a ton of leftovers!

Freeport, Bahamas

Last stop on the cruise was in Freeport, Bahamas. It was alot calmer than Nassau and definitely much smaller. They also had a straw market, but nothing at all to the extremes of the day before.

We were only docked here for a few hours, so we spent the time walking around the area and getting tiny souvenirs for people. There wasnt much to do here, but it definitely was pretty!

It was the last day on the cruise, and we were bummed to have it be over. Although we didnt get to do a whole bunch while we were there, it was just so nice being able to relax and not worry about work or getting up early or really anything. Next time we are definitely saving anough money to do an excursion though- I want to go snorkeling!

Bahamas!

Our second stop was in Nassau, Bahamas- home of Atlantis! While we only saw Atlantis and didnt actually go there, Nassau was very pretty...and very different. The people there are very, well, pushy and we couldnt walk two feet without someone trying to sell us something!

Aside from admiring the crystal blue waters, we braved the straw market, which is like this massive craft fair type thing where tons of people try to sell you knock-off designer purses. It was really crazy, people trying to get you to buy something left and right and bartering prices and wow. It was a bit overbearing.

Again, we didnt do any excursions but we had fun walking around and seeing all of the touristy shops and taking in the sun. It was all so pretty!

Cape Canaveral, FL & Rocket Launch!

Our first stop was in Cape Canaveral, FL- home of NASA! And lucky for us, NASA was actually launching a rocket the very same day- and it just so happens that the cruise port is prime viewing area! We were super excited- Adam and I both love space and NASA and were actually bummed that we werent able to do any excursions- Kennedy Space Center would have been high on our list. Lucky for us, they actually cancelled all of the excursions to the Space Center that day because of the launch, so we didnt have to feel too badly. :)

So we stayed on the ship for a while to catch the rocket launch and unfortunately for us and everyone else on board, the launch was delayed...and delayed....and delayed. It was rather frustrating (and annoying). Finally, just when we thought the window of time would run out and we would miss our shot to see it, there it went!

This strip of road was FILLED with cars by the time the rocket went. Apparently this is a popular spot because the view is unobstructed!

Waiting for the rocket. Sooo hot outside.



Obligatory picture waiting for the rocket.


Rocket!

It was so cool, definitely worth the wait, and the heat. Speaking of heat....who knew that Florida was THAT hot?!?! Sooo hot.

Anywho, after the launch we hopped off the boat and took a shuttle to the area Wal-Mart and FINALLY got a new digital camera! Now we could stop carrying around our pro one or taking the crappy cell-phone pictures. I was very happy.

That was about all that happened in Florida, haha. Since we didnt do any excursions there wasnt much else to do around the port, so we stayed at Wal-Mart for a bit and then headed back to the boat to relax.

Cruisin' Time!

After spending a few days in Baltimore we were super excited to finally be getting onto the cruise. It didnt help matters that the last couple days we were there it was cold and raining- we were definitely looking forward to the warm on the boat.

We got to the checkin pretty early, expecting the line to be ridiculous. It was long, but we got through it pretty quickly and they actually started boarding early, so we didnt have to wait too long to actually get onto the ship. We were happy.

Once we got on, we had about 3 hours or so before we could actually get to our room because they were cleaning them and getting luggage ready and whatnot. So we headed to the FOOD! Mmmm, all you can eat food.







Then we headed up to the deck, Adam REALLY wanted to try one of his cigars (ew) and sit on the deck in the lounge chairs. So we spent the next couple hours or so just relaxing on the deck. It was pretty amazing.










Finally we got to head to our room!! It was alot bigger than we expected it to be, and the first thing Adam wanted to do was go out to the balcony. Haha, yeah, it WAS pretty cool.






Then we were off!


Bye Baltimore!!





We had alot of fun on the ship. Adam's favorites was the formal nights, he really loves getting dressed up! Haha. I was a fan of BINGO! Yes, BINGO! And The sunsets over the water were really pretty. I'm definitely happy that we had a balcony room!

Here's some pictures from the duration of the cruise. I'll put our ports in their own posts!






Dancing Waiters! At dinner every night they would all stop and dance to a song. This was our girl.