Baby, let's cruise away from here

I have been busy recently editing a video for Father's Day of the cruise and I finally finished on the weekend. I will be posting the video shortly, but I am going to also be posting pictures and details from each port, which I am assuming will take me a long time. The plan is to do a cruise post every Monday {Yes, I realize I posted this on Tuesday instead of Monday, but I will normally posting on Mondays}.


Let's begin with the beginning......


Barcelona, Spain. 
On May 4th we departed the Toronto airport on a 8 hour flight to Barcelona. The cruise did not depart until the 6th so we had an extra day and night in Barcelona to see the city. What we realized very quickly when we got out of the taxi that dropped us off 'just down the street' from our hotel was that we were nowhere near our hotel. It also took about three minutes of pulling suitcases up a cobblestone street that may or may not have been the correct street that we were on one heck of an adventure!

We clearly do not travel light!

Barcelona streets

Park Guell

Park Guell

One of the many flower stands in La Rambla

Sagrada Familia

The subway system - it is a wonder we didn't get lost!

Walking to the port! 

I have 497 pictures from Barcelona so this is only a taste, but I think this provides enough of a feel for the port without being too photo heavy.


Thoughts on Barcelona:
We ran into a few hiccups in Barcelona, from a 30 minute walk to our hotel to churches being closed earlier than normal, but we were able to see a lot more of the city in a more relaxed pace than the majority of the other ports. That being said, I did not really appreciate the Gaudi architecture which was the majority of the sites we visited. I loved walking through the tiny streets and realizing that we were actually in Barcelona! Our hotel was near La Rambla, which is a huge pedestrian street full of vendors and people. We mainly used the subway system around there and enjoyed those streets. It was a great location to enjoy the atmosphere. Maybe it was jet lag, maybe I was just anxious to get the cruise started but I only enjoyed Barcelona, not loved it. 


Next time I will post about Monte Carlo, Monaco! 

A crazy homecoming

This has been a crazy month! As the month draws to an end I am finally finding time to sit down and write a bit,  so hopefully I will be more frequent on the posting. 


As soon as school finished with my last week of practicum  {which was really sad}, Jennifer came home {which was great} and then we packed for a 12 day Mediterranean cruise {which was beyond words}. As soon as we got home our wonderful friends from Alberta where back 'home' for a week, so there was no rest for the wicked. 


Throughout all of that there were sick days, job interviews and babysitting Avelee. Not to mention trying to adjust back to 'normal' life. That is to say, not waking up everyday to eat a buffet breakfast then to visit ports that I had only dreamed of seeing and to go back each night for fantastic suppers and amazing entertainment. 


I am working slowly through the thousands {yes, thousands} of pictures I took, trying to decide which ones to post to Facebook and which ones to put on here. So I am working on it, just slowly! 


Until next time! 

Texts From Dog

As I have just finished another exam and my final one isn't until Thursday, I decided to reward myself and do nothing all afternoon! It was a good way to spend the day, I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, wrote a poem and then found THIS!! 


What is THIS you ask? Well, I will tell you! THIS is only the most hilarious thing I have seen in a very long time! THIS is now my reason for living! (Sorry friends and family! You have been replaced by this blog) THIS is Text From Dog! {INSERT EPIC MUSIC} Ok, I just did a YouTube search for Epic Music, and guess what?! It is really is epic! So play this song and then go back and reread this paragraph, it flows nicely with the music. 

Back to Text From Dog. It is blog that features this guy has received from his dog. I was actually laughing so hard I was crying, just ask Paige! I was cackling in my room so much she was actually starting to laugh as well. This is my favourite one so far.

I am now going to attempt to clean my room as it is getting hard to walk from one side of the room to the other without tripping over something. 

And that's the way it is - Walter Cronkite 

(I am looking for a catchphrase, any suggestions? Since the one above has already been taken, I need something unique and witty, like me. Tell me your suggestions in the comments!) 

Still here!

Final essays and now exams have reduced my available time to almost nil, and while I want to post, it is not high on my priority list. 

This is going to be a random posting, as I have some pictures I have been wanting to post and things I want to share with Jennifer!! 

So get ready for picture overload! 

Adventures with Kirk

Kirk isn't very strong

But I am!! One finger lift! 

 -Jennifer!! When are you coming home??

This is as unfuzzy as I could get!

I don't have time to write any reviews right now but if anyone is looking for some fantastic books to read, I just finished some great ones!

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

The Violets of March - Sarah Jio

The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

And now back to studying!! 

Day 7 of March Photo A Day

YES!!! Posting today which officially means I am caught up! Now only to get caught up on school work...


#6. 5 PM

{And yes, I did move the time back to get this picture!}

I love this clock! Jennifer gave it to me for Christmas and it is the most amazing thing ever!


#7 Something I Wore

This picture is more important than it first appears! Do you see what the picture is of?? SHOES!! Not boots, shoes! Which means it was nice enough weather today to wear shoes! The weather was spooky nice today, without the strong wind it would have been almost hot. But of course, tomorrow it is suppose to rain/snow, depending on what weather you are looking at. At least I was able to wear my shoes a few times in March. These are actually my favourite shoes of all time. I bought them in 2008, right before I went to Europe with Jennifer. They are, sadly, starting to get worn out but I refuse to accept that. 

Running with the shoe theme {get it?? running! with the shoes?}, do you have a favourite pair of shoes? Is there a pair that you refuse to get rid of?  

Photo Challenge Catch Up

I was so happy because I took all of the pictures I needed to take over the weekend and I was going to catch up and feel great. Reality: I left my camera charger in B-ford and my camera was out of batteries. It was quite depressing but now I am going to post the pictures from the weekend and everything will be great. 


#3. My neighbourhood 

Living where I do is something that I know I take for granted. Growing up living on a small hobby farm is an experience that has positively shaped who I am today. There were so many options to chose from when deciding what to photograph that best represents my neighbourhood, from the farms all along the road, to the creek, to the beautiful forests but I ended up choosing the nature trail. My neighbours generously donated a large portion of their land to be made into a nature trail for everyone to enjoy. This picture not only represents the beautiful nature in my neighbourhood but is also a representation of the wonderful people I am lucky enough to live near. 


#4 Bedside

Compared to the other bedside pictures I have seen for this challenge, this is nothing special. But here we go anyways: 
- a lamp
- unscented hand cream that doesn't make my hands break out with eczema
- medicated cream for when my hands do break out with exzema
- Tylenol because I have had a bad headache these past few days
- Kobo covers, depending on my outfit of the day I change the cover [not actually!! I just have two awesome colours that make it hard to pick one]
- Kobo light
- A light thing with a scented shade which should probably have been changed a long time ago
- a bell, Paige has the same one and we have bell ringing competitions every week or so [not really, but doesn't that sound epic?!]
- Valentine's M&Ms that I should probably eat
- random paper clip and sticker for character


#5 A Smile

I had so many ideas for this picture but since March 5th was my darling baby sister's birthday, I figured this would be so appropriate! Happy Birthday Jennifer!!! Your smile is adorable!! 


And now I am caught up! It is a good feeling!

March Photo A Day Challenge

March is going to be a stressful month so I decided that adding the pressure of taking a picture everyday would be a good plan. All kidding aside, I think it will be very fun to do and the best part is that anyone can do it! 


As I am already a day late this is not off to a great start but I have confidence that I can stay ahead of things. 


Here is the list. 

And the first one, UP.

And the second one, FRUIT. 

Have you started this list? Or have you been inspired to join in? 

Let me know!