No...I'm not dead!!! LOL

Okay...so we have been on hiatus for the last few weeks and now I finally returned to civilization and get to share with you why.

Shan and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary this year, but unfortunately, our anniversary is in wedding season, so we weren't able to celebrate it. But we did decide to treat ourselves to a wonderful, kid-free, anniversary cruise in the Caribbean!! (With a little help from reward points from our debit card! WOOHOO!)

So this post is going to be severely pic heavy, but I hope you enjoy them!

So this just seemed like the right place to start. You can take the photographer on vacation, but you can't completely take the photographer out of her! LOL


While we were pulling out of port, there was an unmanned rocket launch just a few miles away at Cape Canaveral. So of course, I had to pull out the big camera and the longest lens that I took (my 50-150mm) and snap away. So here are 2 shots I got of the rocket. (The second one is very cropped in, so it lost a bit of quality from that.)


Now for the amazing part....after those rocket shots...I never pulled out my big camera again!!! We used our waterproof point and shoot for the rest of the vacation and it felt great to just be a couple and enjoy a relaxing vacation together and to not have to be photographers! (Don't get me wrong...I love being a photographer, but sometimes I need to be reminded that I am also a person, a woman, a wife and that I have many other interesting facets to my life!)

So what a better way to start out a Caribbean cruise than with a couple of frosty drinks! Thought this was a cute shot!

At our first stop, one of the most pressing things that needed to be done was some downtime with my hubby in a hammock on the beach! Can you think of a better way to spend a December day?!?! I can't! Here is a shot of our view while kicking back and cuddling in the hammock.

Here is another cute shot of the two of us on the beach!

We got to go snorkeling as one of our excursions from the ship and it was awesome! The fish were everywhere and beautiful. They would even follow us while we swam as if we were the lead fish!! LOL There were times that it actually freaked me out a bit because when I was trying to swim I was kicking schools of fish and hitting them with my hands just trying to get away! But overall, it was a very neat experience. They definitely weren't afraid of us. (Oh...and I found out halfway through the swim that the lifeguard at that beach had been feeding them which is why they stuck around! LOL)



Now if any of you have met my hubby or heard me talk about him, he is affectionately known as our "Resident Geek". In fact, on one of our photography forums, he is known as "The Nerd Husband". And sad as it is to admit, if you have ever heard the song "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic, it fits him in some ways and now after this trip, it fits him in another. We got to take rides on Segways! If you don't know what a Segway is, it is a 2 wheeled scooter that you ride on standing up. It looks like it would be hard to do, but after about 5 minutes of practice, it was really easy! Here is a picture of Shan on his Segway! (Be watching his MySpace page...it will include this pic and the theme song "White and Nerdy" very soon! LOL)

I thought I would include a couple of night shots. The first is our Ship at night while we were docked and then we set the timer on our camera, set the camera on a cement retaining wall, and stood very still to get a shot of us together at night with the ship in the background! (BTW...I am not pregnant...I just look like it because I ate enough for 10 on the cruise everyday! Dang them and their great food...available 24/7!)



One of the activities that we could do on the ship was to climb the rock wall. The rock wall is the highest point on the ship! It was really cool and I was surprised that I was able to make it all the way to the top. (I am not the most athletic of people! LOL) Here are pics of Shan and I climbing the wall.




Of course, what would a vacation be without cuddly little animals?!?! Ours found us every night on our beds when we came back in the evening. This one was my favorite! (And yes...he is made of towels!)


And now we have reached the end of our vacation. The last night of the cruise, a storm rolled in. But before it did, it gave up this awesome image over the port side of the ship. There is nothing quite like seeing the sky open with the sun streaming in over a blank slate of water! It is awesome!
So that was our vacation in a nutshell. We had a great time. Got to talk as adults and enjoy being husband and wife for a week and really recharged our batteries! We decided that 5 years between vacations is way too long and we are going to need to do this on an annual basis! Hope you enjoyed seeing our vacation. Sorry we haven't been in touch in awhile, but disconnecting from the world for awhile is a great way to find your soul again!

Steph