Family Travel Life:: The Sun

I have an Instagram page where I share my photos of our travels around the US and Caribbean. You can follow me @familytravel.life if you'd like. I've had a little bit of a passion for photography since high school. I had an apprenticeship through my art teacher, and that confirmed my love for photography. In the years after college, I was a second shooter for weddings for several years, and I've done several weddings myself. I'm not super into wedding photography, so I never pursued that. Over the past year I've been trying to figure out what some of my passions are again (after being so busy being a teacher, then having two kids within a couple of years), and photography kept coming up. I decided to start the Instagram page to share some of my travel photos from the past ten years. Here are some of the photos. 

In the summer of 2012, Dave was working in Buffalo, NY, so that's where we lived. We were on our way back to Buffalo and stayed a night in Mackinaw City, and woke up to this view out of our hotel room. We both wanted to cancel the rest of our trip back and instead enjoy this scene all day. Of course that didn't happen, but I'm so glad I have this photo. 

I know I've shared both of these photos already, but I wanted to put them on here because all of my photos I'm sharing are sunrise or sunset photos. A few weeks ago on the debarkation day of our cruise, we woke up to this spectacular sunrise. 

I couldn't stop looking at it and trying to snap photos from different perspectives. Love. 

That first full day on the cruise, we got to see this cool sunrise. 

On the last full day of our cruise, this pre-sunset scene unfolded off the back of our ship. 

I've already seen many sunsets from my mom and dad's driveway and street. I can't resist that sun going down with the palm tree in the forefront photo. 

On our way to Florida last time, the sky to the west of us lit up with fiery red and orange colors. The hills turned blue. It was such a treat, at 75 mph. ;) 

Two years ago we saw this soft hazy sunset as we left St Maarten on a Caribbean Cruise. 

On that same cruise we got to watch the sun disappear behind the steep hills in St. Thomas. 

This is somewhere in the Caribbean. I can't even tell you when it was, but it was off the back/front/side of a cruise ship. :) 

Last winter we had a birthday party for my sweet little nephew at sunset at Fort Myers Beach. To this day, it remains the best birthday party I've ever been to. 

Three years ago, Dave, Aiden, and I went for a quick trip to Washington, DC. One of the best parts of the trip was seeing the sun streaking through the trees onto the sidewalk. I love that late evening low light. 

Then this happened! 

A year and a half ago, I couldn't resist capturing these colors as they painted the sky over Iowa. Another one through the window at 75 mph. 

One of my favorite places to watch a sunset is at Dave's family's camp. Seriously, can you beat these views? It'd be hard to. 

Lake Superior sunsets are always different and usually gorgeous. 

Another shot through the window, this time traveling a little slower. If you cross the Ohio River from Indiana into Kentucky around sunset, you'll rarely be disappointed. 

And finally, some photos from our walks in Louisville. 

Okay, now I realize that's a lot of photos for one post. I'll simplify next time. Thanks for reading and have a great Wednesday! 

Weekend Recap:: My Alma Mater

We had a fantastic weekend! Even though it was an hour short, we packed LOTS into the rest of the hours. 

I love Lake Superior. 

It was muddy outside, so Anders got to take out his new mud boots! Auntie Anna got them for him for Christmas and he finally got to wear them! He was delighted, and he knows how to put them on himself. #winwin Plus they light up! Big thumbs up from Anders! 

I told Aiden to show me his flannel shirt, so he did. Sort of. 

My two big boys were so happy to be at "ours Big House" as Aiden says. We were happy to be here too. It's been awhile. 

I've taken some of my boxes from my mom and dad's house, and I've needed to go through them for awhile. On Saturday I spent a few hours going through old papers, ribbons, notes, and photos. So many photos. This is one of the sweetest that I came across. In 2000 (my Junior year), we went to Disney World with our band. We fundraised for several years, then took two big charter buses and drove 26 hours straight to Disney World. The only thing we had to do while we were there was a parade in MGM Studios (as it was called back then). Here's Sally and me all set for the parade. #wearyourplumestoday 

On Saturday evening, Dave and I went to the Michigan Tech hockey game with my mom and Heidi. Tech won the game and the playoff series, and after the game there was a trophy presentation for being the WCHA regular season champions. They found out they won the regular season while on the bus ride home from a game the previous weekend. They could finally celebrate properly in front of the home fans after they won the game on Saturday night. 

It was fun to see. Tech hadn't won since 1976. Heidi, Dave, and I all went to Michigan Tech while the hockey team wasn't very good. I think one year they won 2 league games. My dad played for Tech back in the 1970s when they consistently went to the NCAA tournament. 

The coach invited the fans to come onto the ice to celebrate the big moment. Dave convinced us to go down there for it. 

Such a cool thing to witness and kind of be a part of. 

On Sunday morning, my boys got all dressed up for church. Anders loves his new church coat and this hat. All day he wouldn't let me take the coat off, and if his hat fell off or went sideways, he was quick to fix it. He's one, you guys. Seriously. 

I mentioned to the boys that I'd like to take a couple pictures on the porch before church. We were going out to the van and Aiden reminded us. "Front Porch to take pictures, Momma!" :) 

Look at them posing, smiling, and looking! Probably the best photo I've ever taken of my two lil guys! 

We tried getting one of them standing up but this is how it went...

On Sunday evening, Heidi told us to go out so she could watch our boys. No problem! ;) We went to our go-to restaurant, a local Asian place called Bambu. We were reminded why it's our favorite place. Their Chicken Pad Thai is on par with the best we've had in Toronto and New York City. Every time. Yummm! 

We got back to Heidi's and our big boy was ready for nigh-nigh in his new firetruck jammies. 

That was a busy weekend, and so much fun! 

Carnival Breeze Recap Day 6:: At Sea

To see our day in Florida and the first two days on the ship, go here. 

To see our first port day in Jamaica, click here. 

To see our second port day at 7 Mile Beach in Grand Cayman and all ten of us all dressed up, go here. 

To see our last port day in Cozumel, click here. 

On Friday we had our last day aboard the beautiful Carnival Breeze. Unfortunately, it was a little chilly and breezy, so it wasn't the best day to spend out soaking up all that great Vitamin D from the sun. 

We read outside on the lanai deck (5). 

We had a leisurely lunch, spanning a couple hours with different people. Here's Dave coming back with one of his specialty lemonade floats. (Or is that two?!!) ;) 

Since it wasn't so nice out, we went to the hilarious Love & Marriage show. It's like the Newlywed Game, where couples are asked questions and are supposed to  match answers. There was a couple married for 48 years, and two couples married only a year or two. All three couples at one point or another gave really funny answers (unintentionally of course).  

For the second time on this cruise, we enjoyed a nice hot sauna. No pictures of that, but then it was time for dinner. We were both a little sunburnt. 

This string trio entertained us while we waited for dinner. 

Our table was near the back of the ship, and while we were eating, this started happening out the back window. It was such a gorgeous sight to see! 

Here's all ten of us again, plus our three waiters. These three served us dinner every night and went out of their way to give us an enjoyable meal. I think we were the only table to get coffee with our meal. Usually it was served for dessert, but our waiters realized they had some big coffee drinkers on their hands so they filled up those cups! 

We ended the last day of our glorious cruise up on ten, visiting and eating some pizza. 

These last three pictures aren't from Friday, that last full day, but they were from when we were still on the ship so I'm going to share them on this post. We woke up early on debarkation day (Saturday) and saw a gorgeous sunrise. 

Our cruise vacation was perfect! We were able to relax completely because my sister Heidi was watching the boys and they had a great time with her. We had fun fellow cruisers with us, so we got to socialize a lot. We had great stops in beautiful places and nice weather. The Carnival Breeze is a super nice ship. It really was perfect! 

Friday Favorites:: All the Parks

Today is another edition of Friday Favorites, hosted by Andrea. This week went by so fast and I can't believe it's Froday already! We had some great spring weather all week, and after a cold winter, warm is my favorite. :) 

Most of my favorite moments were at the parks we went to. On Sunday, we ventured to a new park across town and both boys had to swing with Dave. Anders rocked this hat off and on all week and got so much attention! All the ladies love his hat! 

On Tuesday, we took advantage of temps in the 70s and went to a new playground right by the dog park. Aiden was a little timid at first, but he warmed right up after he checked out the little slide and the big slides. 

He was too nervous to use the big boy swing, but when he got in this one I think he realized how silly it was. He conquered the big boy swing later in the week. 

These two pictures are from the second park of the day on Tuesday. My sweet boys playing so hard as the sun was going down. :) 

On Wednesday morning, we met two friends at the dog park playground. A few weeks ago we met a mom and her son who is just a couple months younger than Anders. She invited us to the park with her friend (and her daughter) and we had the best time! We have been living on the road for over three years and I've never had a friend in one of our away locations. It was so fun to have adult conversations during the day, and the boys loved playing with new friends. Or rather, playing near their new friends. Haha :) I can't tell you how hard it is to meet good people when you move around a lot, so I'm extra thankful for these new friendships. 

Aiden was practicing the alphabet and Anders was rubbing his finger on something shiny. Haha! 

Thursday morning snuggles with Anders made my day! Look at that huge grin! 

Aiden took out his monkey backpack to pack it for a little trip we are taking, and Anders was so so jealous. I had to let him try on the backpack. I almost started bawling when I saw this picture. Look how proud he is!!! I've never seen this smile before, and he looks so.grown.up. I think this is what he is going to look like when he goes off to school in twelve years. That's how long I get to keep him at home with me, right?!! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! We have some fun plans so I have a feeling it's going to fly right by.