Utah. Good times.

We went down to Utah last weekend for a couple reasons.

#1: To see divalicious Erika strut her stuff in her cheerleading recital.

#2: To check out little Baby Bausten as he made his way into the world. Cute guy!

#3: And to put in a little face time with the rest of the fam and do all sorts of fun things...obviously!

Utah, it's always good for some fun!

Vamp lover

Over the weekend we went at saw Robin Hood (just eh). Nothing compared to the previous one, but that's not the point. The point is, one of the previews was the newest Eclipse trailer. It was the best part of the theater experience. It looks so good and I cannot wait to see it.

Yes, I am a Vamp groupie, and just know that all the rest of you Vamp lovers are dying to see the trailer as well. So, without further ado...

This Guy

Love him. Can't imagine my life without him.

Another year older, another year wiser and as good lookin' as the day I met him.

Scratch that. He's even hotter.

He's not much into celebrating his birthday. All he wanted to was to go to IHOP. Really.

Gotta love this guy.

Ship stuff

Last of the vacation pictures...just some shots of our days on the ship. Miami was rainy and cloudy the afternoon we left, but that icky weather didn't last for long.

Hands down, the best thing about the ship was our stateroom. We'd booked a mini suite, but were extremely surprised to find out that we'd been upgraded to a larger one once we'd gotten on board.

Our balcony was H-U-G-E. Our room was on the back right corner of the boat so the balcony wrapped all the way around our room. We were so spoiled with amazing views!

Isn't he pretty? And aren't I a great photographer? I did the sunset myself. ☺

Each night we'd come back to our room and there would be a towel animal of some kind left on our bed. One night we came back to this little guy, which the maid had put Rob's Cozumel hat on...we thought it was funny! One night on the ship there was a big watch show and Rob just couldn't decide which watch he had to have. Sweet guy that he is, he sprung for one for me as well.

Random, late night self portrait in the karaoke lounge along with a ship side sunset.

So, maybe you've noticed the abundance of thumbs up shots of Rob? Well, I'd made the mistake of telling him that only old people give the thumbs up sign, so he proceeded to give me a thumbs up in nearly EVERY picture I took on this vacation. Yes, he thinks he's funny.

For dinner there is assigned seating, and you dine at that same table each night. When we'd arrived on the first night we discovered that we had a booth rather than a large table, which mean that we'd be sitting across from another couple and we'd be forced to talk to them, and only them. We were certain that we'd be sat with a weirdo couple, but were SO lucky to have the best couple ever placed there instead. We had such a good time with them and still keep in touch.

Every night at dinner the waitstaff put on a show of some sort. One night it was an Italian song, another night they danced to some bootie shakin' song, another night it was a rave kind of performance...glow sticks and all. It was always entertaining!

Arriving in Miami early in the morning and a little bummed that the cruise was over. Hopefully we'll be back soon!

In the Keys

Our hotel in the Florida Keys was right on the beach...literally. Walk out the door, and there is the sand. Within minutes of arriving we donned our snorkeling gear and headed for the beautiful water. Only, it didn't last for too long. Once we got into the water it wasn't too sandy, so it was a bit rough on our feet to get out into the good snorkeling area.

We trekked on for a bit, but ultimately decided to head to their pool instead. Rob practiced his snorkeling breathing and I choreographed a new water ballet. ☺

My favorite part about Key West was the sunsets. There are a few points on the island where they have nightly sunset celebrations, which when I heard about it, I thought was weird. Then I witnessed the sunset, and totally understood. Absolutely beautiful!

You can see the crowd gathering along the water...more continued to fill up the dock as the sun got further down. Then once the sun is down everyone applauds and there is music. Really fun! The piece of land that is shown in the sunset is where a bunch of celebrities have homes...Oprah, Hulk Hogan, Shaq...I forget who else, and I forget the name of the island.

There was a LOT of street performers, and they were really good! Rob really liked this Great Rondini guy. He has people from the audience put him in a straight jacket and chains, then he escaped. He's got quite the little comedy act going too! There was a performer who had a dog that would collect bills from the audience and then bring the money back to his owner. The dog was wearing shorts too...pretty funny!

There was an area that had all these busts of people who were from, live or might have influenced Key West. Here we've got Ernest Hemingway and Dwight Eisenhower...oh and The Smallest Bar in Key West.

One of the street shops had a guy that made shapes out of wire. He did it with some tools and torches right on the spot. I almost picked up this little guy, but decided that I've already got a cute one at home. We also tried out some Cuban cuisine. It was alright, but not great.

This sign was on the wall of the outdoor seating area and an Asian couple came up and asked where they could purchase their tickets to Cuba. They didn't quite understand why they would use this old sign as decoration. It was comical!

We didn't take pictures at the southernmost point, but this replica we found in a gift shop is close enough, right? 90 miles to Cuba!

The Key West Museum of Art & History had all of these funny statues outside. Some were a little risqué (and funny), but I try to keep things PG here. ☺

Rob fell in love with the weather and the humidity and swears that one of these days I will give into him and we will move to Key West. Perhaps, but I wouldn't bet on it. It was lovely though!