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Thursday, December 29, 2016

Dance text

Getting texts like these from my students make me so happy. I have the best students! 

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Christmas 2016 #2

Christmas 2016

Labadee Haiti #3. 12/16

Labadee Haiti #2. 12/16

Labadee Haiti 12/16

Touring Bahamas #5. 12/16

Touring Bahamas #4. 12/16

Touring Bahamas #3 12/16

Touring Bahamas #2 12/16

Elevator on cruise ship 12/16

Christmas Vacation




On the 17th we left early in the morning to start driving towards Miami. Steve had gotten back from his work trip to San Jose in the middle of the night and I had been home with the kids all week without him, not feeling well, taking care of the kids, work, and getting ready for our trip. So it was a tough drive for us. We made it to Tallahassee on the first day. The second day we made it to Miami. It looked like a pretty cool city and we decided to spend time there when we got done with our cruise. The weather was gorgeous and we were all so excited!
We had two family cabins. One of our cabins had a private balcony and that made the cruise so much nicer! We loved that!

Sunset over Miami as the ship was leaving.

Our first dinner together on the cruise. The meals were awesome. The service was too. We had a great table all to ourselves by a window.

We awoke the next morning docked at Nassau Bahamas. It was another gorgeous day and we were all in the best of moods.
I had three different t-shirts made for everyone for the trip. We all wore one of them this day.  
This is the ship interior. It was an incredible ship.

When we got off the ship, we met a man who had a van there for us to give us a private tour of the island. We all piled in the van and headed out for a few hours.
Sam was obsessed with coconut treas.

First our tour guide took us to these beautiful garden grounds and told us about them.    
Then he took us to one of their forts on the island.
Then he took us to meet some of his friends who sold seafood on the beach and shined and sold conch. He got a conch out of it's shell to show us.
And Steve, Cessie, Johah and Andy were all brave enough to try the conch spine.  
Not so tasty.
  
He cut open a couple of coconuts for us to try as well. 
Next he took us to this beautiful staircase that had historical significance.  
And then he showed us a quiet beach that was nearly vacant.   
And he took us to a little shopping area too that was not crowded, nor have pushy salespeople. I caught Becca taking this selfie with our tour guide. He was a great guy and everyone really liked him.
When we left town, we had left Sonic with a doggie sitter. She sent us frequent photo and video updates during the trip and we loved getting those!
The next day the ship was at sea all day. On the third day we were in Labadee Haiti. It was soooooo beautiful!!!! We were all in heaven!
    
We swam and ate and played on the island for a few hours. Everyone had a blast.         
The sand and water was perfect.
           
It was a magical day.
But then our trip took a yucky turn.
I had been sick for about a week before we left town, and I wasn't really getting better. I had a sore throat, chest pains, horrible headaches, and overall fatigue and weakness. On the 4th day of our cruise, I was in bed the entire day. I took some medicine to get myself out of bed long enough to eat dinner with the family. But I couldn't sit through dinner. I couldn't sit up any longer, or hold my head up. Steve had to get me back to our cabin where I slept all night and awoke not feeling much better. He had to get help and a wheelchair to get me off of the ship as it was the end of the cruise. We ate breakfast in Miami and started driving towards Tallahassee. But I couldn't make it more than a few hours of driving and we stopped at a hotel someone in central Florida. I went to bed and slept until the next day (Christmas Eve), and was getting worse. Steve took me to the ER where we had the worst hospital experience ever. We left without any solid answers, but at least had an antibiotic. I spent the rest of the day in bed again. And Christmas day too. So our Christmas sucked. I felt so bad for the kids. Our Christmas's are usually ghetto, but this year was extra ghetto.
The kids were all excellent sports about it though and I was so touched by that.     
And all I got was a few cruddy photos too. It was sad.
The next morning Steve took me and Cessie to the airport in Orlando and we flew home while he was a saint and drove the rest of the way with the kids home.
Cessie and I arrived home on Dec. 26, and the rest of the family on Dec. 27th.
I have been in bed most of the day for nearly 7 days now. And I think I am starting to mend. But unfortunately, Steve is now pretty sick too.
So it was the best of times. It was the worst of times.