Sisters Disney Cruise!

Gail and I took a Xmas themed Disney cruise to the Bahamas while she was visiting. We left on the Magic from Miami, the same ship Mike and I were on this Summer!

On the first night we went to the cute Xmas tree lighting ceremony...

And on our first day we docked at Castaway Cay where we spent the day drinking cocktails at Serenity Bay - the Adults-Only beach:)

We saw a curly-tailed lizard...:)

Gail actually won at the fantastically fun Disney Bingo!

And at night we loved the pirate show and fireworks:)

The next day we went on our first glass-bottomed boat tour of Nassau and took a walk around the town too...

And then headed back to the Adults-only pool for some more cocktails:)

Thanks for coming Gail - it was a perfect trip!

Swimming with Manatee

Gail visited for the first time in a year this month! As soon as she arrived, we headed over to Tampa to pick up Maddy and then onto Crystal River for a girls' day out swimming with the manatees. It was really cold and we had to get up at 5am but we all agreed afterwards that it was soooo worth it:)

Iceland - part two

We flew priority class to Iceland which was totally amazing - particularly given that we were still feeling unwell...

For my first meal in days, I had a traditional Icelandic Christmas dinner - it was delicious!

We stayed in an apartment right in the downtown area of Reykjavik...

But even though it wasn't crazy cold (right around freezing), the winds were so icy and my chest infection made being outside really difficult...:(. I did manage to get out for breakfast one morning with Gail though which was really nice...

And we booked the famous Golden Circle tour to see some of the sights and learn a bit about Iceland...

We saw where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet...

With only 4 hours of light a day in winter, it never really feels like daytime. It's a haunting and mysterious place...

At the end of the day, we saw the famous geysers erupting:)

And then back to bed again:(. For the New Year's Eve celebrations, I stayed in the apartment on my own. Luckily the fireworks were everywhere and I got to see a bunch right outside the front door!

On our last morning in Iceland we went to see some of the sights of the city...

Iceland is an amazing place, but I'll be honest, I was relieved to get back to the warm air and get to see a doctor. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon and ready to start the new year over:)

U.K. - part one

We left for the UK on the 23rd December but I had developed a chest infection by the time we arrived on Christmas Eve:(. We did manage some fish and chips on the first night though...little did I know that's the last time I would eat for the next 2 days...:(

I did manage to get out of bed once to take a little walk down to the pharmacy to stock up on meds...

But other than that, Mike and Maddy got sick too so we all stayed in bed and missed Christmas and Boxing Day altogether:(. We did manage to get up for our anniversary for a couple of hours...

And I went to see princess Skyla and meet Sasha for the first time:)

Maddy went  to Manchester for a reunion with her Critter Care family - we saw snow...well kind of...

Right before we left, we had a lovely family get together at Steve and Kayleigh's new place:)

Brief but sweet:). Until next time...and hopefully we'll be feeling much better next time!