Why am I smiling?

Take a good look at this photo. Why do you think I'm smiling? Why am I hugging on Craig? Could it be because I'm on a cruise in the Caribbean with my wonderful husband? Could it be because we are on St. Maarten, a beautiful island? Could it be because we are posing in front of our amazing cruise ship? Or....... could it be that Craig just bought something and he's carrying it in that bag? And could that something in the bag be for me?????

The last thing I expected to come home with from our cruise was the camera that I've been dreaming about for the last 6 months. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this camera. It's a canon T1i, SLR, 15mp, and it shoots HD video too.

Now you know why I was smiling in that photo!

Our Cruise

We had a wonderful time on our cruise! Back in Feb. Kay and Roger invited us to join them on a 7 days Caribbean cruise in Nov. The time finally arrived and we really enjoyed it all! Trying to go through all 500 photos and pick out a few to show you is nearly impossible........

We had 4 stops, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Grand Turk and Princess Cays (a Princess owned Bahama island).

Just like everyone talks about who have been on cruises... the food was wonderful, the sights were fantastic, the entertainment was awesome, the ship was magnificent.... and they treated us like royalty!

The first 3 days we had really rough seas from Hurricane Ida. Even though we were 500 miles from the hurricane we still had the winds from her. I was really surprised at how much our ship rocked around, so much so that you occasionally you needed to grab onto something to stay standing. As long as I kept Dramamine in me I was fine and didn't feel sick.

Of course I was hoping to see some whales or dolphins. We didn't see any whales but we did see some dolphins jumping along side the ship.

On Grand Turk we took a small boat ride out to a reef and snorkeled. It was soooooo beautiful. I could have stayed there all day.

On the deck pulling into Grand Turk.

On the dock at St. Maarten.

Our ship docked one evening.

This was the view from our balcony at night.... breathtaking!

Nature Reserve in Lakeland Florida

Some friends of Kay and Roger (Craig's parents) told them about a nature reserve in Lakeland Florida where they enjoy visiting. Knowing I would like this place we went on Saturday afternoon. What an amazing place! Wow, I would love to live close to this reserve so I could visit more often. The name of this place is Circle B Bar Reserve. If you ever get to Florida and have an opportunity to visit here it is a must see.

The reserve is over 1200 acres and used to be a cattle ranch. In 2000 the land was acquired by the county and they are returning it to it's original state as a nature reserve for wildlife. There is just something special about seeing an animal/bird in it's natural habitat. All the photos you see in this post were taken at the reserve and all the birds were wild.

I just couldn't get enough of this place. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon so we only had a few hours of daylight before having to leave. There were a lot more trails and areas to see that we didn't get to.

This guy was my favorite! His head was featherless and all scaly. I looked him up and he's a "Wood Stork", the only north american stork and he's only found in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.

I've never had an appreciation for wading birds. I guess mostly because there is rarely such birds here in Michigan but after visiting this place I have a new fondness for them. They are beautiful!

There were a lot of hawks flying around.

Even bald eagles were there! The trails to their nesting area was blocked off so we couldn't get very close to them.

Rosetta Spoonbills.

Looking forward to my next visit to the "Circle B Bar Reserve", whenever that shall be.

I'm Back

Hello my faithful blog followers. I know you are feeling neglected these days. But do not give up on me. I throughly enjoy my blog and do not intend to stop blogging any time soon. I know it's the same old song and dance but time seems to be flying by. Jordan's senior year keeps us hopping from one activity to another and we are relishing every moment of it.

The latest news around here is that we just got home from a 10 day vacation in Florida and the Caribbean. We went on a cruise with Craig's parents. It was wonderful. I'll spend the next week blogging about our trip.

We had a couple of days in Florida before we left on the cruise and Kay and Roger had a few wonderful things planned for us. Early Saturday morning we went on a 90 minute airboat ride down this amazing river and lake. Weeks ago I had mentioned that I really wanted to go on one of those rides when we came down and Roger did his homework and asked around about where the best place to go would be. We were not disappointed!

I have a new appreciation for Florida's beauty.

This was an abandoned airplane that had been on the lake since 1979. Our guide had us walk out onto the wing for a photo.

My photos do not do it justice. Every turn we took was breathtaking.

We saw a few small alligators and our guide kept apologizing for not seeing any larger ones. Little did he know that seeing an alligator was not a priority to me..... I was much more interested in the birds! And they were everywhere!!!!

It was truly a gift.

Cruising on a big ship on the big water

Sorry for my lack of posts lately. We've been crazy busy finishing up marching season and cross country with Jordan and a million other things in between. But the good news is....... we are leaving tomorrow on a much needed and anticipated vacation. We are flying into Orlando tomorrow and then Sunday leaving Fort Lauderdale on this beautiful cruise ship. Craig and I are going on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise with his parents. We've had this cruise booked since Feb. and it is finally here. Craig and I have never been on a cruise before so we are really excited to experience this. Supposedly the ship has wi-fi so I will be taking my laptop along. Check back for updates. Hopefully I'll be able to do some postings.

My New Friend

Meet my new friend... The Red Breasted Nuthatch. I've always had the White Breasted at my feeders but never the Red Breasted until this fall. I was so excited to see him a few weeks ago. Best I can tell I have about 3 of them visiting me. I was able to get outside this afternoon and get a few shots of him. I hope he stays around all winter.

We haven't had a very good fall weather wise. Cold and rainy! The nice days we've had have been few and far between. So consequently I haven't been able to get outside with my camera like I want to. In less than two weeks Craig and I are leaving on our long anticipated Eastern Caribbean cruise. I'm so looking forward to warm sunny weather and lots of photos of unusual birds on the islands that I've never seen before. Oh... I can hardly wait.

You gotta try this stuff

I just recently discovered "Yes to Carrots" products..... and I am hooked! I don't usually plug products on my blog but I had to pass this one along. Jordan used the shampoo at a friends house this past summer and came home raving about it. She looked it up online and encouraged me to order some for us. I wasn't in any hurry as I am used to buying my Suave at $1.49 a bottle. Yes to Carrots shampoo and conditioner is approximately $6.50 a bottle at Target. Well, we tried it last week and I think it will be hard for me to go back to Suave. If you want to treat yourself to something really awesome buy yourself a bottle of the shampoo and conditioner. The smell is wonderful and your hair will feel so soft.

They have many other products as well, including lotions, make-up, etc. Click here to view their website. I enjoyed the hair products so much that I just ordered some hand cream to try.

The Rivers Edge

You may remember this photo that I took and posted a few weeks ago from my visit to a local bird sanctuary. I also posted this photo on Facebook and a friend of mine from work (Yvonne) took the photo and did a drawing of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see the drawing this morning when I logged onto Facebook.

Yvonne is very talented. I wish I had some of her talent. She titled the drawing "The Rivers Edge".