The Big 10!

Keith and I got married ten years ago today at Riverchase United Methodist Church in Birmingham. Beautiful day...beautiful marriage....beautiful man.

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Keith and I went on a cruise earlier this month. To give you a little background, Keith had traveled pretty extensively when he was a kid. I had not. He had been to Alaska, Europe, the Caribbean, and Israel. I had been to Washington, DC, North Carolina and Florida. Oh, and I did fly to Michigan once. My sister was headed to debate camp there (Yes, we were nerds--but it totally paid the bills, ok?). Since my dad worked for Northwest Airlines, we all flew her up to the University of Michigan. That day, my dad drove us across the border to Canada so that I could say I had been in another country. To top it all off, I was totally giddy about it, but I was a pretty goofy kid. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I had a great childhood and got to experience a ton of amazing things. We were just not big travelers outside of the Southeast.

When Keith and I got married, he was determined to change all that. I was determined to have kids. So Keith's global traveling plans have not been fully realized, but we have been to the Caribbean twice now. Progress! And one day, Italy! Sigh.....

Here's the story of our anniversary trip. We headed out in late May to Georgia to be there for my little sister's high school graduation. Since our move to Texas, we only get home about twice a year, so it was great to get to be there for her special day. The day after graduation, Keith and I headed to the Atlanta airport, while the boys spent a fun and exciting week with Nana and Pop-Pop.

We got to the Atlanta airport and hit our first snag. If you have never been to the Atlanta airport, let me assure you, it is huge! In fact, unless the stats have recently changed, it is the busiest airport in the nation. So we were pretty concerned when we realized Delta's conveyor belt system, the operation that gets your luggage from baggage check to the actual terminal, was broken. YIKES! We had arrived two hours early for our flight, but still....That is one busy airport and there were random bags stacked everywhere. We explained our issues to the ticket agent… how we were flying to San Juan to catch a boat leaving at 8:00 p.m. and how much we would really love for our luggage to leave with us. She helped us get our luggage directly to a cart headed to the terminal, but that was all she could do. We decided not to worry…surely it would work out, right?

We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico later that afternoon and boarded the Adventure of the Seas. It is a beautiful ship filled with all sorts of amazing amenities designed to make a stay-at-home mom forget about her day job.

Not the best picture, but it's hard to get far enough away to shoot the whole thing...this was taken out a bus window in Curacao

I mentioned that we arrived in San Juan on Sunday. Our luggage unfortunately did not. To add insult to injury, we would be without luggage for 2 days, since our first day was “at sea.” They kindly reassured us that our luggage would meet us in Aruba on Tuesday. Royal Caribbean was incredibly supportive and stayed in contact with the Delta authorities to get the issue resolved. They also gave us these handy-dandy hygiene kits (note contents below), a free tux rental for Keith (which would have gone nicely with my Capri pants and sleeveless shirt—the only clothes I had at that point) and free laundry services.

The only toiletries we had...note the black ponytail holder I made from ripping
the elastic band out of our luggage...how MacGyver of me!

We were bummed. Here we were on our big romantic 10th anniversary trip with no luggage, no formals for formal night, and did I mention that I had no makeup, shampoo, swimsuit, Chi or other girly vacation essentials?!? Keith had a few outfits in his carry-on (because despite what he may tell you, he IS the smart one). I had shoes…five pairs of shoes, only one of which actually matched my only outfit. : ) Once we pulled ourselves together, we bought me a swimsuit and cover-up in the onboard shop. On Monday, I ate breakfast in my only outfit, wore a swimsuit for the rest of the day while they laundered my only outfit and got it back to me in time to wear it to dinner. Needless to say, we skipped formal night on Monday. : )

Port One: Aruba
When we arrived in Aruba early Tuesday morning. Keith and I were scheduled to go snorkeling on a yacht. We headed off the ship that morning half-excited about the days events and half-focused on praying that our luggage would be there when we got back. Seriously, a girl can only go so long without proper makeup and hair care. If I had wanted to go au naturale, I would have planned an anniversary cruise to Survivor Island. But I digress…

In Aruba, we were met by a very interesting bus driver with fake dreads and a big floppy hat. We would have taken his picture for you, but alas, our camera was in our luggage. : ) He drove us to the beach, where we boarded the Mi Dushi, a Swedish ship built in 1925. They took us snorkeling at three different sites around Aruba, one of which was a shipwrecked German WWII vessel. They also fed us lunch onboard and gave us time to enjoy the ship’s rope swing. Keith and I both had fun swinging off the side of the boat into the water, along with a 75-year old woman who rode the swing twice by herself before riding one of the crew members piggyback on her third trip. She said that by the time you were her age, you either learned to enjoy life or learned to be content being miserable. What a lady!

After our fun day, we were tired, but anxious. We hurried back to the boat to find luggage!!!! Woo hoo!!! Since our bags would not have made it to Puerto Rico in time, they took a detour to Miami enroute to Aruba. I have never been to Miami, but I guess I can mark that one off the list since my underwear has now been to Miami. Surely that counts.

We missed our luggage so much that we photographed it. How sad!

Port Two: Curacao

Wednesday morning, we arrived in Curacao. The architecture there is super-colorful. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. But enough about the landscape…today was Jet Ski day!! Having never been on a jet ski before, I was pretty excited about the adventures ahead. I wasn’t nervous since Keith has driven one before, plus they promised us a safety lesson…ha ha. The safety lesson consisted of “here’s the on switch, and make sure you don’t let go of the kill switch.” With that, we were off, but we had a great time. We got to ride over the open ocean and through the coves on Curacao. We even saw some mangrove trees…reminded me of Harry Potter. We also stopped and snorkled for awhile.

Post Jet Ski Fun!

Port Three: Dominica

Nope, it’s not part of the Dominican Republic. Dominica, which the locals pronounce “Domineeka,” is mostly covered in rainforest. And it is GORGEOUS!

There was a day at sea between Curacao and Dominica, so we headed out for the day pretty well-rested (read—Misty and Keith were super lazy on Thursday). Our adventure for the day involved riding a bus to the top of a mountain and tubing down a river in the middle of a rainforest. Even the bus ride was completely breathtaking. I can say without a doubt that this is the most beautiful place I have ever been. After we tubed down the river, the bus took us to Emerald Pool. The waters at the Emerald Pool are legendary for adding 10 years to your life. Not sure if that’s true or not, but I do know that these healing waters don’t minimize fine lines and wrinkles. At least not immediately anyway : )

More shots from Dominica….so gorgeous!!!

The Emerald Pool

Port Four: St. Thomas
I’ll be honest, by Saturday I was waterlogged. Keith and I were scheduled to take a small yacht to nearby Buck Island to snorkel. I was not relishing the thought of snorkeling again. After all, this would be our third time in a week. But Keith assured me that St. Thomas has some of the best snorkeling in the world, so off we went. Our boat was pretty small. Since the other couple didn’t show, Keith and I got the boat to ourselves, with our friendly captain, Carl and his teenage first mate. Since small boats lurch more in the waves, I was pretty sick by the time we got to Buck Island. But I resisted the urge to nap below deck and jumped in the water. It was beautiful! The first mate, who I am convinced was part fish, swam around and brought different creatures from the ocean floor up to the surface for us to see . We got to see hundreds of different fish, sea urchins, starfish and my personal favorite…A SEA TURTLE!!!. The wonders of God’s creation were just blowing my mind. Here’s St Thomas….again, gorgeous!

Sunday, we returned to San Juan to catch a plane back to Atlanta. By that morning, I was itching to get my arms around my babies. It was an amazing trip and it meant so much to Keith and I to be able to get away for awhile, but momma was ready for her boys. That’s why it was that much more difficult when we got to Atlanta and our luggage did not! SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE!!!! So we were a little delayed getting home and the boys were asleep by the time we got to my parents house. The luggage was delivered to my parents’ house the next day.

Here’s to 10 years with the man of my dreams….