Author: Bo

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Vacation Day 6 – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

I had the most fun in Jamaica, it was the best excursion we did. I have no pictures from the first part of the excursion because we were hiking up the Dunns River Falls and were totally soaked, good thing I left my camera in a locker! We met some friends who had an underwater camera and took some pictures of us, we just need to hook up with them now and try to get the pictures!

Enjoy three of the most popular attractions in Ocho Rios – the world famous Dunn’s River Falls, the Sky Explorer chairlift, and Jamaica Bobsled on this comprehensive adventure!

On this excursion you will:

  • Follow your guide as he leads you up 600 feet of cascading water.
  • embark the Sky Explorer chairlift for a fun ride up 700 feet through the tropical forest canopy.
  • Climb into the specially made bobsled and hold on as it plunges through 3,280 feet of twists and turns down the mountain.
  • ride on the Sky Explorer chairlift to the bottom of the mountain where a bus will take you back to your ship.

Pretty scenery at Dunns River Falls

The chair lift

I love the different shades of blue in the water!

us on the chair lift

View of the ship from the chair lift

At the top of the mountain getting ready to bobsled down!

In our individual bobsleds ready to go!

Climbing back up the mountain in the bobsled

up…up…up

Flea market on the pier

singin jamaican tunes on the pier

back on the ship

our dinner buddies Shawn & Jenn

Us at our last dinner on the ship

Bo had a goal for food. This night, he ate a full prime rib dinner (best prime rib I’ve ever had) ….

an order of french fries & ranch …

and a grilled flat iron steak dinner. When we got back to the room later that night, he polished off 4 – BLT sandwiches making the count for the 7 day cruise 21 BLT’s. That’s right, Bo ate 21 Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato sandwiches in 7 days.

These were our dining attendants Gus (goose) & Made (mahday) . They were both from Indonesia, married and had families back home they only got to see every 8 months. They were the BEST, so much fun, we miss them already!

We put our zoo out on our bed to get 1 last picture.

Then bo murdered all our animals :(


It was an amazing vacation, we had a wonderful time and were totally refreshed!

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Vacation Day 5 – Grand Cayman

We didn’t do too much in Grand Cayman, just walked around and looked at the shops and checked it out.

Downtown streets


We found an ice cream place and had local ice cream, I had apricot which had huge chunks of actual apricot in it, soooo tasty ….

and bo had 1/2 banana, 1/2 pistacio… ick. But he loved it! I think we paid $9.00 for 2 single scoop ice cream cones. OUCH!


Us on the pier

The ship didn’t port in Grand Cayman so they had water taxi’s come pick us up right off the ship and take us to shore. Here’s bo on our way back home.

The water here was amazing, crystal clear turquoise blue colored, so pretty.

And you can see the swirls of color from shallow to deep here.

Our ship from the pier.

A pirate ship we passed by

Fresh out of the shower back out on the balcony again!

The show this night was put on by “Puck” a hypnotist… I have never really believed in hypnotism so I thought I’d give it a try to see what happened and volunteered!

I was quickly moved to the end of the row after he had started (because I was laughing) then kicked off stage back to my seat because I was unable to get myself into hypnosis and was cracking up the whole time at the people next to me “falling asleep” and landing on my shoulder. It was far more fun to watch anyways.

Here we are at dinner in the dining room

Bo got a chance to try out Karaoke … it broke glass. Just kidding, he actually did really good but his partner Shawn had apparently never heard the Pearl Jam song they sung so it was AWFUL.

Our towel sting ray to add to the zoo!

We went back out and partied yet again. We had a colors party that night, depending on what level of the ship your room was on, you were assigned a color. We went lounge hopping that night in honor of our color (white) and partied hard dancing and singing all over the ship. In the end on the very last night, another team passed us up and took first place.

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Vacation Day 4 – day at sea

Day 4 we didn’t do too much… dink’d around on the ship, played in the casino, just pretty much hung out. We did go to a juggling workshop, the show from the night before had jugglers and a guy who ate fire and they put on a juggling workshop the next day so we went to that.

I’ve always been able to juggle, I may not have the best form but I’ve always been able to do it, I remember learning to juggle with scarves in PE class back in elementary school. Bo learned I think for the first time and did pretty well!

He also participated in the bean bag toss game they had pretty regularly. Sadly, he didn’t win but he did do well!

Day 4 just happened to be FAT TUESDAY… that’s right … Mardi Gras!!! We did get off the ship in Grand Cayman and went walking around and to all the shops but we didn’t do an excursion. And I didn’t get any pics. Bad girl I know. It was PARTY TIME back on the ship though. They had Karaoke going on outside on the Lido deck showing it on the big screen tv so we thought we’d check that out for a bit (bo was in the pool watching with some friends we had met).

Then it was back inside for the actual Mardi Gras party where Bo earned LOTS of beads and horrified MANY people in the process as you can see below.

He thinks he’s “all that”doing the rave in the hallway wearing someone elses hat.

The other 2 couples we met on the ship, Levi & Jess our next door cabin mates & Shawn & Jen our dinner buddies we sat at the same table with.

Where else would we be on the ship than at the casino!?!?

Shawn & Jen our dinner buddies.

Yet again… at the casino. Bo plays a bit more wreckless than I do, that’s his whole casino budget for the day and 3 match play tickets he earned on 1 spin of roulette. That was gone in about 16 seconds so he sat and watched me play blackjack for about 3 hours after that.

The boys

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the towel animal that night…. sad :(
And our 3rd towel animal. So cute! Roland was our room steward, he was great, always made sure we were taken care of and kept bringing the animals at night!

We started a zoo…..

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Vacation Day 3 – Cozumel, Mexico

This was the excursion we did in Mexico:

Feel the adrenaline rush through your body in this extreme boat ride to Isla Pasión!

  • Experience incredible acceleration and high speed maneuvers, including 360° turns at 60 MPH, as Twister skims along the Caribbean waters!
  • After your thrill ride, you’ll arrive at a secluded beach where you can enjoy its amenities, away from the crowds.
  • Enjoy a complimentary Mayan lunch buffet and open bar during your stay at Isla Pasión.

The boat ride was a kick in the pants! I got scared when we got on board and had to strap in with seatbelts like race cars but it was a blast! It was about a 30 minute trip to and from the island and we probably would have been LESS wet had we swam there!

We arrived on the island and had Mayan buffet for lunch and hit the open bar!


We ate and drank then found some hammocks in the shade and took a nap for a bit. Then we hit the beach!


We relaxed here too and didn’t do much of anything but enjoy the sand and sun and beautiful water.

And returned to the ship (via the twister boat) to our second towel animal!

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Vacation Day 2 – day at sea

They have photo opportunities all over the ship so you can stop anywhere and have your picture taken professionally, it’s great!

On our last cruise, they let us take pictures with our own cameras at these places also but not on this cruise.

They charge about $25 per picture (and you can get about 20 pictures per night) so we didn’t purchase any. I took pictures of the pictures they had taken until they told me that also was not allowed so this was all we got for our professional pictures!

This was our crazy, insane, FUN cruise director “Butch” teaching a dance class. He was SO MUCH FUN! Jon Hiebert, he was YOU with brown hair!!!

This was another hip hop dance class Bo partook in… he didn’t do so well :( But it was fun to watch!

Us in the piano bar, that’s a blast, there’s a guy in the middle of a round bar who spins around playing a piano and singing and everyone joins along pounding on the bar and singing!

Goofing off in the piano bar

Bo is far goofier than I am.

Here’s the whole room

Us on our balcony


And the wake from the ship, we sat out and watched this forever.

Oh and me on night 2. It was formal night so we got all dressed up and went to elegant dinner. It was lobster night so I ordered 2! (yup, for real) But I had been getting sick earlier and couldn’t quite make it all the way through dinner so I gave my lobster dinner away to the guys eating with us and ran back to the room and spent the rest of the night throwing up and spinning in bed. After 2 sea sick pills and some sleep, I was ready to go again the next day. SUPER bummed they never had lobster dinner again though. :( I got sea sick on day 2 of our last cruise too…

Our first towel animal… so exciting, I love these!

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Vacation Day 1 – travel day

Bo and I worked all day Friday then got home, cleaned up and headed out to the airport. We flew all night long, didn’t get much sleep and after a layover in Atlanta, GA, made it to Ft. Lauderdale, FL Saturday morning. Bo’s family was at the airport to pick us up and take us to the port in Miami and we spent some time with them.

They took us to this amazing cuban restaurant, I don’t even remember what we ate but it may have been my favorite food of the entire vacation! It’s a toss up between the cuban food in Florida and the Jerk Chicken in Jamaica. But man this was good and we had a blast hanging out with his family for a few hours.

We made it to the ship RIGHT on time and got to our room which was perfect.

Here is our balcony…

And the view from the balcony in port in Miami.

We had an aft stateroom so our balcony hung over the end of the ship, we spent a lot of time on the balcony watching the wake behind the ship and the MANY lightning storms going on around.


We decided to explore the ship a bit and take advantage of some picture opportunities.


I figured I’d make Jamey proud and try some Sushi. It was pretty good, I’m not much of a fan of seaweed but it was tasty and I ate most of it!

They have Vegas quality shows each night on the ship and we went to most of them. They have singing, dancing, comedy, hypnosis, etc. This was some dancing from the first night.

Then we crashed out! We were exhausted and slept for quite a while. More from the rest of the week later, I’m still trying to catch up on sleep and fighting whatever cold I caught so it’s nap time for me!

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Garden Progress

I am so excited to get started on my garden and start growing yummy things! I have a long way to go before that happens but I got step #1 complete today! Dad came over this morning and unloaded all the bricks to make the garden bed into a heap in our backyard and I spent the last hour transporting them and setting them into place.

Step #2 is to moss kill all the bricks and surrounding area then #3, fill the center with topsoil that we have in a pile on the other side of the house.

I’m not going for perfection and beauty (obviously), I’m just excited to plant something and see if it grows. I have 1 book from the library so far and am waiting for my “Square foot gardening” book to arrive since I only have about 20 square feet I need to use them wisely. Anyone know what to grow in October in our area????

Thanks for the bricks and the delivery dad!

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Anniversary

Bo and I had our 1 year anniversary last month on the 19th. We watched our wedding video again and had a good laugh, it’s great, I’m so glad we have it to watch every year for the memories! Then we headed up to Seattle to our favorite place to eat: Benihana!

Here he is sitting outside the restaurant looking cute

Not a good picture of the water, but it was out there!

The viaduct … I love the blue sky, green trees and busyness of the city

Finally at Benihana, our chef made our fried rice in the shape of a heart for us…. awwwww :)

Then he wanted to pose so he could be on the internet too!

We had a blast. We can’t wait to go on our cruise next month which we have been waiting for since our honeymoon as our actual anniversary gift to each other. Lots more pictures to come after that! We’re so blessed to have made it a year, we said after only 3 months that if it weren’t for God we’d have been divorced already and we’ve improved our marriage tons since the, we still have a long way to go though!

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Unfortunate Afternoon

Here’s the readers digest version of my afternoon yesterday. I’ll try to make it as short as possible. My PLAN was to get off work at 4:30, go to a store in Federal Way to get some scrubs, hit a drive through on my way home for dinner since Bo was out working late, get home by 6:30, eat my dinner and start scrapbooking for a couple hours until Bo got home. What ACTUALLY happened was a different story:

I went grocery shopping on my lunch break, 2 items on the list of things to buy, I forgot 1 of them.

When I got off work, I forgot the 1 item I bought earlier inside so I had to go back into work to get it putting my nice relaxing evening schedule behind before it even started. :(

I made it 3/4 of the way to Federal Way and realized I was supposed to pick something up at a friends house at 4:45 (it was about 4:50 now) so I had to turn around quick and race back to her house. I took the next exit off the freeway and figured i’d pull a u-turn at the bottom of the exit to get back on in the other direction. But I U turned a bit too far and ended up driving back up the offramp in the LEFT LANE! I noticed when there was a car coming at me head on, threw my truck in reverse and backed back down to the entrance again. Completed the U turn correctly the 2nd attempt and made it back on the freeway headed WEST (i was supposed to be going east)…. I forgot that a U turn at the bottom of an exit ramp on the freeway does NOT get you back on in the opposite direction… UGH

I finally got turned around headed east (back to maple valley to get to my triends house on time) and she said she would just bring the stuff over that I needed since they were leaving. So I turn around again, get back WB on the freeway and back headed for Federal Way. Now I realize I don’t have my purse… it’s back at work. So I get turned around, head EB again towards home and text Bo. He offered to bring me our debit card that he had and I said yes so I had to turn around again to meet him in Federal Way… I take the exit off the freeway, U turn at the bottom and get back on headed EB again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (supposed to be going WB now). I text Bo and say nevermind, forget it and resolve to driving back to Covington to get my purse since I can’t figure out how to drive the right direction on the freeway for some reason. He calls me to see what’s going on and as I explain to him all that just happened, I start crying… then sobbing. I’m telling him “I’m so stupid! I feel like a hamster in a wheel wasting time and running all over the place not getting anywhere!” then I start chuckling and laughing a bit, still while sobbing then hysterically cracking up while crying to him laughing saying “it’s not funny!!!” sounding like a complete lunatic I’m sure. How could he not laugh while I’m sobbing and hysterically laughing at the same time crying “It’s not funny!!”

I get back to work, get my purse, make it out to Federal Way only to find they didn’t have any scrubs I liked or wanted. Head back home. Get a text from Bo that reads “what are we doing for dinner” which in man language translates to: “What are you cooking me for dinner?” ruining my plan of hitting the drive through and scrapbooking… I let him know I will cook dinner for us and pack lunches for tomorrow and go back to the store again to get milk to make Tuna Helper (we both actually like that). While at the store I remember the other item I previously forgot and picked that up too. Make it home about 7:15 and start cooking. Make 2 boxes of Tuna Helper so there was a lot for Bo for dinner and lunch the next day. Finish cooking, try it and realize it tastes funny… I added an entire head of fresh broccoli but there was something different about it… finally figured out I forgot the tuna!!!! Wow. I amaze myself.

Decide to call it a night, take a shower and go to bed. Wake up to Bo yelling at me “Wake up, Kari, hey hey hey!!!” and realize that I’m screaming and yelling (at my dad) in my dreams but apparently loud enough for the neighbors to hear so we both wake up. I startled Bo awake to the point that he wasn’t going back to sleep so he brought the computer into bed with us to play video games while I tried to go back to sleep. (He smoked my score at FB Bejeweled Blitz). After about an hour of tossing and turning, I finally get back to sleep (I woke up at 2am so it was about 3am now). I vaguely remember Bo kissing me goodbye this morning then wake up to my alarm which had apparently been going off for over 20 min and I slept through it. JUMP out of bed, throw on some clothes, try to peel my eyes open as I hop in the driver seat of my truck and straight for the coffee stand! Make it to work right on time with coffee in hand and hope to have a better day today!