.take off .12.03.16.

The day we left on our cruise was fairly busy. Mom, Dad, M and J came into the city earlier in the day to drop off Tia and Mia with Grandma M.

  
While I was still at work Dad called me and asked me to go get a "Kuny Sack" from his office, he wanted a second one to carry the hydroflasks in. 

Although useful, these kuny sacks are ugly, and lets face it, they aren't blog material. Dad didn't agree with my opinion of the bag whatsoever, in fact he was quite offended when I told them they were ugly.

I had to make special arrangements to leave work on a Saturday, so unfortunately by the time I got to the city Grandma M and my girls had already gone home. The next few hours before catching the flight were spent packing and repacking suitcases. You'd think with a years notice for this trip I would be more prepared, but here I was a few hours before my flight, shopping around for a suitcase. I started to run short on time so I decided to just use a duffel bag. Dad was unimpressed with this choice. He complained constantly about my bag not having wheels.


Finally we were at the airport and ready to board our red eye flight to Toronto.

I tossed on my eye-bra, the neck pillow and wrapped myself in a blanket. I took a "help me sleep" pill and passed out before the plane took off! According to my family, and my fitbit, I didn't move once! Not even when Jaydon crawled over me to walk around the plane.

Everyone else didn't sleep at all on the plane, by time we made it to Toronto they were exhausted. We picked a spot near our gate and they quickly all settled into their personal nests.

M curled up on the ground and quickly passed out. 

J crawled under dad's bench and passed out face down in the neck pillow. 

Finally we got to board our plane to PUERTO RICO!! We were all so excited! 5 short hours and we would be in the beautiful caribbean sunshine!

Mom and I took a "help me sleep" pill so we would be well rested when we landed in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately there was a problem with the plane and we had to get off and wait a few hours for a new plane.

We made our way to our new gate where everyone quickly fell asleep again. I was wide awake so I enjoyed my time laughing at the ridiculous ways everyone was sleeping, and of course taking advantage of their helplessness by taking pictures of them.

For obvious reasons, we were refereed to as "The Sleeping Family". Finally we got a new plane and were on our way to the Caribbean!

.cruise reveal .11.25.16.

About a year ago my mom called me and asked me to book vacation for the following December. At the time I was working a schedule of 10 days in camp and 4 days at home, and any vacation time had to be booked well in advance. I quickly scheduled the time off and asked mom why I needed it for so far in advance; she told me it was for a family trip she was planning and hung up the phone. A few months later I discovered we were going on a Southern Caribbean cruise!!! For an entire year I had to keep the cruise a secret from my siblings!!! I tried my best to sneakily coax my sisters into buying bathing suits a few weeks before we told them about the cruise.
I even went as buying some Passport covers while I was shopping with M, Telling her they were simply gifts for my roommates. 

About a week before we left, Mom discovered that T's Passport was expired!! Luckily we were able to convince T to come to the city for a "family visit" so we could sneakily get her passport renewed. I thought for the "reveal" we should watch "Christmas with the Kranks" and then telling them that we're also "Skipping Christmas" and going on the same cruise the Kranks were going on. Unfortunately we ran out of time and resorted to Plan B. 

I love Christmas sweaters, and I also love picturesque pictures for my blog. We told the family that we were going to take a "Family ugly Christmas sweater picture". That way I could film their reactions without it being noticeable! We had a fun evening giggling at Mom and Dads ridiculous sweater. 

Mom had found some cute sunglasses in the mall and convinced the girls that it would be fun to wear in the Christmas picture.

Enjoy these family picture outtakes!!

Featuring dad wearing my sunglasses hahah

.nyc solo trip .10.17.16.

For the first time this trip I woke up before 11am!! Mostly because I only had the morning left in New York!! I drug my suitcases down 10 blocks to the luggage storage place I used previously, and then hopped on the train to go walking around Central Park. It was my last chance to enjoy a bit of sunshine before heading back to the snow storm that awaited me back home.

 When I sat down on the train my stomach immediately began to rumble. Instead of grabbing my usual pumpkin muffin from Starbucks, I decided to stop in at "The Brooklyn Diner". I sat at the bar and watched Good Morning America while sipping my orange juice. I had cinnamon raisin pecan French toast and it was absolutely amazing!! Good thing too because it was extremely expensive, 19.50 USD for 3 pieces of toast! Yeesh!

  

The Diner had a interesting complimentary mouthwash dispenser. Some how I couldn't bring myself to use it.

Dad was disappointed in me for not going to the restaurant from Seinfeld for breakfast. Luckily it was on the north side of the Central Park so I decided I would go snap a few pictures of it to send to dad before heading over to the park. 

Before walking into the park I stopped to get a pumpkin spice for my stroll. While I was waiting for my drink I asked the barista where he got his "I  PSL" button, then he took it off and gave it to me!!! How sweet!!

I walked around Central Park for hours exploring all the beautiful nature. It's amazing how much wild life actually lives in the park, including turtles and raccoons!  It's a interesting phenomenon to cross a street and be in a the concrete jungle after just being in a nature wonderland. 

One thing you might not know about me is that my all time favorite TV Show is Friends, which was based in New York! Fun fact: None of the episodes were filmed in New York, they were all filmed in L.A. but the building that central perk is in is an actual building in Manhattan. Being a huge fan of the show I couldn't come to New York and not go see it!! 

Just down the street was the building that Phoebe lived in, so I strolled over there to see it as well.

Here are some other beautiful apartments that I saw along the way.

As I walked back to my train station I realized that I hadn't bought any souvenirs the entire time I was there!! So I decided to go to Times Square one last time to get some T-shirts. When I picked up my suitcases I was already cutting it short on time, so I quickly ran as fast as I could with my "Suitcase Train" to the 42nd street port authority train station. I ran around the train station desperately  looking for the "New Jersey Express Train" when suddenly I realized that I was in the wrong station. I actually needed to be at Madison Square Garden station! Luckily I was able to quickly hop on a train to take me to the proper station, as I ran off the train I scanned the screens for the next train to Newark Airport; there was one leaving in 5 minutes! I bolted to the kiosk and made it to the train with 2 minutes to spare! 

When I finally made it back to Canada it was around 2 am. It was freezing cold! I hailed a taxi to take me to my snow covered car, and he sped off without letting me pay.. It was extremely out of character for taxi drivers, but oh well. I shoveled my car out of the deep snow and started my 3 hour drive home.

Turns out they opened a new section of the highway, so of course I missed my exit ramp. Instead of being patient and driving to the next exit a few km's down the road, I instead decided that I would just make a quick cut through the ditch onto the other side of the divided highway. My car immediately sank into the dirt as I drove off the highway, but it was too late to turn back, I was determined to make it to the other side. 

Obviously I was unsuccessful. A few civilians stopped to check if I was okay and to try to help me get out, but after assessing the damages they decided it best that I just call a tow-truck. Just as I sat back down in my car to dial a tow-truck 2 cop cars pulled up...

Four husky men hopped out and immediately came to talk to me. Instead of scolding me for going off the road they immediately asked what they could do to help. I told them I was about to call a tow-truck but they insisted that that try to push the car out before calling in an expensive tow company. With two officers pushing on the back, one stationed at the passenger window, and the remaining officer directing me, I managed to get the car unstuck and back on to the other side of the highway. Unfortunately for the officer pushing on the passenger side, the front tires sent mud flying as I floored the engine in an effort to make it to the other side. He was completely soaked in mud. 

I thanked the officers for their tremendous help then began my long drive home. When I finally got to my parents house I slipped off the driveway and got stuck AGAIN!

 It was 6:30 am at this point so I just abandoned the car in place and went inside to cuddle with Tia and Mia before drifting off to sleep.