You + Me = Us Through The Years November 21, 2012

This Thanksgiving will be #9 for the hubby and I. It is strange how time flies by and gets away from you in a blink of an eye. It seems like yesterday we were going on our first date and being all bubbly eyed at each other. I was organizing my photos and thought it would be nice to put together a time-line of the “us.” A lot of has happened and changed since it all began in 2004. Hairstyles and colors gone bad along with different clothing styles. I giggles a bit at some of them. Well, here is a walk down memory lane.

2004

Our first date after talking for 2 months 🙂 This was taken in the parking garage in West Town Mall. We went to see a movie but I couldn’t tell you what it was.

2005

We both love the outdoors and here we are camping in the Smoky Mountains

2006

After 2 years of dating we decided to get our own place together. This is us in downtown Knoxville watching Boomsday.

2007

We were cruising to Mexico and the Cayman Island this year. This was my first time out of the country and my first cruise.

2008

We had so much fun, we were off to Mexico, again! This was the year we purchased our first home together.

2009

Here is my brother-in-law and us enjoying our “new” boat

2010

Never skied before or been on a plane. I had a mild nervous break down on the plane and found out that I am not that coordinated to ski but we still had a great time.

2011

7 years down the road we finally say “I do!”

2012

Still happily together as we were in 2004

Our Amazing Stingray Adventure In Half Moon Cay October 25, 2012

I have been a busy bee for the past few days and haven’t been able to blog about our trip to the Bahamas. It was so nice but I want to let you know about what we did there in greater detail in a few different blogs. The first island we visited was called Half Moon Cay. This is an island own by the Carnival Cruise lines and is 98% a bird sanctuary and the other 2% is made for tourist activities.  It is a petite island but spending the day on a 5 mile private island in the Bahamas with perfect weather, you will not hear me complaining. We spent our first hours on the island swimming with stingrays.

Very relaxing video of me snorkeling

We have done this before in the Cayman Islands and had the time of our lives so we wanted to do it again. Since, the island is so small it isn’t hard to find where you should be going. We had to take a small open air bus to the beach area where the Stingray Adventure was held. On a side note: In the Cayman’s we took a small boat to a sandbar in the open ocean where stingrays like to hangout and we did this about 1 month after Steve Irwin had been killed by one. People thought we were nuts and maybe we were but we didn’t care it was so enjoyable. However, on Half Moon Cay they keep the string ray in a roped off beach area where predators couldn’t harm the rays or the people. I think they just like to keep them from escaping but they didn’t seem to mind it. They get feed all day and nothing can bother them but the people I guess.

This was me trying to “adjust to the environment”

Once we got off the bus, a middle aged black lady with a Jamaican accent told us what should anticipate from the rays and what equipment we required then she pointed us to the changing room and the lockers (big closet that didn’t lock.) We got our snorkel gear, life vests, and water shoes on and head to the beach. There was a different instructor lady with the same Jamaican accent waiting on us at the beach. She told us (small group of 6) to get in the water and not to step in the sand because the rays where hidden under it. You should drag your feet and not step but I didn’t have to worry about this because I couldn’t touch anyways due to the high tide and maybe a tiny part on my height. After we got use to the water we snorkeled around area watching the movement under the clear blue waters of the lagoon. Now, I am not going to lie and say I jumped right in like a fish in water with the massive rays. It took me a minute to adjust to the environment, it can be overwhelming at first but after 5 minutes I was swimming right along with the fishes.

This is us feeding the rays

Not only did we see stingrays but there were thousands of jelly fish in the water. The instructor told us they were not dangerous and they didn’t bother me. I swam right with them and not one sting. Along with the jelly fish there were starfish, sea cumbers and many different types of typical fish. Near the end of the adventure, we were allowed to feed the stingrays some raw squid, yum. They have extremely powerful mouths and suck the squid right out of your hand. We swam and snorkeled for over an hour. It was so much fun and well worth the $40/person. This is a must do exciting activity in Half Moon Cay. Tip: Make sure you have an under water camera.