Thankfulness Series - Abbreviated

Sooo... last year I think I was a bit overambitious with my Thanksgiving series. :)

Every day this week, I'm going to post 3 things I am thankful for, and I would love if you would join in and tell everyone what you are thankful for in the comments!

Also, look out tomorrow for my next cruise post!

Today, I Am Thankful For...

1. Salvation in Christ!!!

2. My Family

3. Our Home, and the countless times we have hosted people...

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Anniversary...

Happy Anniversary to the best parents EVER.

To year #12 - God's richest blessings as you continue to grow closer to one another and to the LORD.

On their wedding day...

Last month on our cruise.

Our Disney Cruise - Day 2 - At Sea

Again, there was not much going on, because we were not in a port yet! :)

This day was our day in the "rotation" to have a Character Breakfast. Basically, the characters go around the dining room and you get a chance to get pictures with them.

Goofy, Minnie and Pluto came by our table. I had my 50mm lens on my camera (which is manual focus - autofocus for that lens is not supported with my camera!), thus the photos are not quite crisp.

Our servers made us napkin hats! Dad was Peter Pan...

Grandma wasn't too thrilled with her napkin hat. :)

Mom got the same hat...

I was transformed into Pocahontas.

After breakfast, we went aft and took pictures. This is the wake of our ship.

(taken by ship's photographer)
That night was Formal Night, so of course, out came the formal dress!

Our Disney Cruise - Day 1

And here begins our series! This is the short version of Day 1.

This is our lovely ship, the Disney Wonder. (this was actually taken in Grand Cayman, but the surroundings of our home port weren't that pretty). 11 decks, 964 feet long, and holds 2,700 people.
Commanded by Captain Fabian from Argentina.

A few hours after boarding and a safety drill, we had a little "Going Away Party".

So, we had some singing and dancing...

And of course they had to include these guys. :)

Needless to say, we were a teensy-weensy bit excited. :)

Leaving the port.

I will dedicate an entire post just for the food. :)

That's all for now. Not a whole lot happened on the first day, anyways.

Stay tuned in a few days for Day 2!

A Week Ago Yesterday...

This is what I was looking at...

This is part of the island of Cozumel, Mexico. It was one of the ports we stopped at on our Disney Cruise!

Don't worry, this is not the only picture I'll post. I will probably end up doing a miniature series... but I won't post all 1,500 pictures :) Stay tuned, and have a blessed weekend!

I Love Lightroom

So, this picture was taken at a wedding this last week...

I really like the picture, and I was pretty sure I could fix it in Lightroom... I tried to recover it in color, but the blue tone was just overpowering. So, I think it looks pretty good in black & white! If I mess with it much more, the overexposure returns. (I know it's still dark but it looks better to me.)

And, if anyone has any tips, do comment, please?!

Toodles...

A Fun Art Project!

Last week, some of our friends went on a vacation. While they were gone (with their permission), we painted a mural on the wall in their daughter's room. She is turning 8 on Sunday, and this was to be one of her birthday gifts! Here are some pictures of the process.

First, we started by projecting the picture on the wall and tracing it.

First we did the tree, and then the mama and baby horse.

Unfortunately, we did not measure twice and trace once. They were way too small the first time. So, we erased from the wall, flipped the picture, and traced again.

Then, Catrina started painting the tree, and Allie & I started on the horses.

Allie painting mama horse's forelock.

Mom painted the lovely leaves, while Trina fine-tuned the tree.

Trina added in a little ladybug. :)

The finished product!

And, as the finale, here is her AWESOME reaction. :) (We hid our signatures in the grass and the tree branches.)