The 25 year gift!

We stayed a little low key for our 25th year, our friends Chris and Mary came out the day after and us girls had a spa day at Green Valley Ranch Resort, Oh, I highly recommend that place! We soaked and saunaed and steamed ourselves dizzy, then we had pedicures, after all that we met the guys for a fun dinner at The Elephant Bar, after dinner we moved to the bar where we finished the evening watching the Kings hockey game on TV and laughing ourselves silly!

The one thing I requested though, was to have a professional photographer take our photos to celebrate 25 years. You see, we never had a real wedding, not the big fancy, take photos, etc., type wedding. We ran up to Lake Tahoe with my best friend, Deb, and his best friend, John, and we got married at a chapel and came home, we did get a few photos from them off a regular camera.

So I finally got my "real photos" after 25 years!

I chose Jamie Rubeis Photography She is local here in Las Vegas, she did a great job! I also splurged a little and had my hair and makeup done by Carynn Angelique another local here, she is an up and coming actress and makeup artist. Wonderful people all around!
Thank you for making my day special!

So here are my 2 favorites, thanks to my hubby for putting up with me and all the crazy stuff I make him go through! He was a real trooper considering it was over 100* outside that day!

Let's take a break...

I interrupt this vacation to bring you some goodies...
Let's see, I found a cool summer recipe on pinterest, tried it out and we can not get enough of these little frozen nuggets: Frozen peanut butter banana chocolate bites! Yum, great little snack when you come in from the pool and you are over heated!

Did not realize I chopped off the bag top, it is Ghirardelli brand.

Cut bananas, spread some peanut butter, freeze for an hour.

Melt chocolate, dip frozen banana, freeze another hour, put in a sealed bowl in freezer and enjoy whenever you want!

I also sold my Nikon J1 and bought a canon powershot sx510hs  hoping I will be able to use this camera, I am camera illiterate. I just cannot figure them out. going to work hard with this one.
I had fun making a camera strap cover, now it will be nice and soft on my neck! thanks to www.diaryofamadcrafter.wordpress.com for the tutorial!

Pink elephants and a pocket for the lens cap, too fun!

 

I have been enjoying my pool, summer is in full swing and the water is great, jump on in! I sit and rest my feet on my Rock turtle I made, he is fun addition to the pool!

Hope you are taking the time to enjoy the warm weather and the fact that we only have one life to live, so you better get busy living it!

2nd Stop...Tallinn, Estonia

Our Excursion: Town and Country life
We start out by bus to a farm called Esko, they started out with 8 cows and now have over 800, here they produce milk, cheese, and dairy products. We got to sample the cheeses, and yogurt. Very delicious!
After running amok with the cows we headed in to town where we stopped at a local families house to have coffee and cake with them, how fun! The house was very interesting, lots of wallpaper and a very tiny kitchen. The cake was made by the grandmother and was so delicious! Layers of pastry with rhubarb, the coffee was very good, I love coffee in Scandinavia, very strong and delicious!
From the home we headed into the old town, where it is very medieval. Gothic spires, ancient bell towers and winding cobblestone streets, it was so beautiful!
Back to the ship for dinner and wine,
Next stop:
St. Petersburg, Russia!!

Cows! They smell. No seriously, they smell really bad!

Who cut the cheese?

Christy pointed out that this cow has a heart on it's forehead! Too cute!

Mr. Estonia and his daughter, name was changed, well, I can't remember their names.

Loved this chest in their home! Notice the wallpaper? It was everywhere!

Keeping warm the old fashioned way!

Jeff and our peeps having coffee and yummy cake!



A fortress in all it's medieval glory!

Overlooking Tallinn! Gorgeous!

Back on the ship it was 70's night, we disco-ed down with Topi and his crew dressed as the village people!
It's fun to stay at the YMCA in Funkytown!!!

1st stop Sweden!

A cruise ship that was following us into Stockholm.

First stop on the cruise:
Stockholm, Sweden, our excursion:
To tour the Archipelago and have lunch!
The harbor opens up to 24,000 islands, the Vikings passed through these waters long ago!
We toured a little town called Vaxholm, crossed the water on a bus that was on a ferry, to Rindo, a short drive to Varmdo where we had a wonderful lunch on a farm called Siggesta Gard, there were horses and ponies, and goats and chickens. We ate salmon, potato salad, coffee and cookies, and Ligonberry juice, yum! Back on the bus to Gustavsberg Hamn  (Harbor) they have a porceline factory, I loved Sweden and the water and the boats!

Street signs in Vaxholm

My first time on a bus on a ferry!

Love the food here

Ligonberry juice is like cranberry juice but not as bitter

Christy and Jeff with the horses

I love little harbors

The Factory, it was real hot in there

They showed us the history of the porceline bowl

The harbor sign

Back to the ship, dinner at 6 and then wine and good music in the bar by a great piano player named Roxy, he sang some good ones and always sang Christy's requests!

Next stop: Tallinn, Estonia

25 YEARS!

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary. 25 YEARS! Wow, what an amazing time it has been, through tears and laughter we came through it all.
The hard times, the lean times, the times we just weren't sure what we were doing. But we got here and we are closer then ever, a strong bond between us. We know each other fully, we can read each others thoughts, we know when to give each other space, when we need to hold each other close. We enjoy life a little more, he has his race cars and son and grandson to race with, I have my scrapbooking and travels. We are apart but we are always together. I can't imagine my life with out him, and he loves me with a passion, even 25 years later!

Today I wish I could play the guitar, I would sing him this song, it says all I need to say.....

You're The One by Tracy Chapman, not the one from Shania ( I hate the USA but give me your money anyway) Twain! It is not surgery sweet, sappy stuff, this is real tell it like it is words and music, it says it all....I love you honey bunny, thanks for all you have given me including your heart, You're the one for me...
(I know it is a pain to click go to you tube, click to say skip ad, but it is worth it....

More Copenhagen!

Our Hotel-The First Mayfair

We stayed in Copenhagen for 2.5 days, we had wonderful weather, nice and sunny, we walked the streets took a bus and harbor tour, we saw The Round Tower, Rosenborg Castle, Tivioli Gardens and so much more!

The Round Tower

Rosenborg Castle

Oh, we got to see the crowned jewels, they were on exhibition there!

We had an amazing dinner at Les Troi Cochons. It took about 3 hours to eat, they take their time there, no cell phones out, everyone talks to each other, they get dressed up for dinners, it was so nice to see, makes me cringe to go back to eating in the states.
The meal started with appetizers, then soup and salad, then the main course, then dessert and espressos...it was fabulous. We will never forget it! All the freshest of ingredients!

The mermaid, with about 100 tourists climbing all over her!

The harbor tour from the hop on hop off bus was a highlight, we cruised for a good 1.5 hours. We saw where people live right on the canals with their boats, so beautiful. We also saw the Little Mermaid, unfortunately, this was our biggest disappointment, Christy and I are water signs, and we love the mermaids and anchors and etc...but there were so many people running around this and climbing on it and just being rude and disrespectful. They should have a viewing platform and you can take a picture and move on, but no, it was not a good experience, but at least we can say we saw her in person!

cruising the canals

Saturday arrived and we got to the pier, and boarded the ship, that evening we had a wonderful meal in the dining room, table 108, Melvin and Ni were the wait staff for us, nice people, they spoiled us rotten every night at dinner!

Next stop Stockholm, Sweden!

Scandinavian Cruise 2014

I am back from my cruise! It was amazing, loved the Scandinavian countries.
Our itinerary was:
May 20-24 th, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Board the cruise ship May 24th cruise until May 31st. 7 days.
We saw Stockholm Sweden, Tallinn Estonia, St. Petersburg Russia, Helsinki Finland.

Royal Caribbean, Legend of the Seas Ship.

This was a smaller ship, perfect for first time cruisers, for us now being 4th time cruisers we need a bigger ship, we get bored on the smaller ones now! But I highly recommend start out small so it is not overwhelming. Work your way up to the big ships!

This was a wonderful trip, Copenhagen was fabulous, you walk every where, shopping, food.
We stayed at The First Hotel Mayfair (The Clarion Mayfair when we booked it)
Wonderful place in walking distance to all the attractions. They fed us a wonderful buffet breakfast each morning.
Had a bar area and seating areas to relax after a long day of sightseeing, I highly recommend this hotel!

I will post for a couple days to show what we saw each day....but here are some pictures to start you off with:

Our hotel, bikes are the preferred transportation mode in Copenhagen they are everywhere!

Tivioli Gardens, must see when in Copenhagen!

Beautiful architecture everywhere!

The Viking Lounge on the ship!

A ship in Tivoli Gardens.

Ten days of traveling, I am exhausted but Happy I got to see some of the most beautiful countries in the world!

"Get busy living or get busy dying"
Jackie