Date 57 - I'm Glad I Picked You!

Date: Sunday, September 23, 2012
Type: Seasonal, Double Date
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani

Its fall! You know what that means? A whole lot of fall type dates starting with this one. I got this idea from my sister, Michelle. After she mentioned plans to go apple picking I wanted to do that too.

I looked up some apple orchards near us and found one in Medina. Our friends Tasha and Bobby live in Medina so I asked if they wanted to join us. Of course they said yes, and we met decided to meet there.

Once we got there the lady who owned the orchard had some information and instructions to share with us. She said there weren't very many apples this season because of freezing temperatures in May. Her orchard was lucky and still had some apples. It was $1.30 per pound and each couple got a bucket to share. The orchard was pretty big, and it was quite difficult to find good apples. Adam and I had a much easier time than Tash and Bobby, but we were less picky. They ended up with about 3 pounds of apples and Adam and I had 7!

After apple picking they came to our apartment to hang out for a little while. I decided to make an apple treat for everyone. Tash and I made cinnamon apple roll ups. They were super easy to make. You need two apples, 1 can of crescent rolls, water, butter, sugar and cinnamon. I had all of the ingredients already. It took about 10 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to bake. While baking they made our apartment smell delicious. They tasted as good as they smelled, just like mini apple pies. I will definitely make them again someday!

Overall, it was a fun first fall date of 2012!

Date 56 - Here Kitty, Kitty!

Date: Sunday, September 16, 2012
Type: Family
Cost: $$
Planned By: Dani & Adam (but mostly Dani)

I have been wanting a pet for a long time. Adam really wants a puppy. Because we live downtown in a small apartment I thought that was a bad idea. I told him we should get a kitty. He's never had a cat before so he insisted on saying no. I begged and pleaded for about a week and I was really bad on Saturday. I made him look at the Cleveland APL website. He thought the kittens were pretty cute. Somehow... still not sure how... he changed his mind and gave in to all my nagging!! I couldn't believe it.
                                            
So we went online and looked at all the kittens up for adoption at the APL. We found one we really liked. He looked very poised in his picture, he was four months old, and he was already housetrained.

We assumed we were definitely going to come home with a kitten so we went to PetCo and got all the supplies; litterbox, litter, food, treats, comfy bed, toys and a scratching post.
                                            
When we got to the APL we didn't have much trouble finding him. He looked just like the kitty in the picture and was sleeping. He wasn't as playful as the younger kittens, but we took him out to play with anyway. He did not want to play. He just wanted to run away from us and go back in his cage where he felt safe. So we put him back and looked at the other kitties. We kept going back to him though because we actually started to like that he wasn't meowing and begging for attention like the other kittens. He started to warm up to us a little, and we just decided to get him and hope for the best!
                          
His birthday is March 10 which means he's actually six months old. I think the APL was trying to pull a fast one on us and make us pay the kitten price. Doesn't matter though because we thought it was going to be $95 for a kitten and in reality they had a deal going on and it was only $33 for a kitten!! We gave the APL a $17 donation a long with it. They gave us a cardboard carrier and a bag of food, and we were on our way with our new kitten.
                          

We decided to name him Obadiah Neubauer, but we call him Obi. He meowed all the way home. Once in the elevator and out of the car he was much calmer. When we set his box down in the living room and opened it up he looked around and quickly got out. He was very curious and not afraid of anything. Unlike at the APL, Obi really likes to play and cuddle, he especially likes to cuddle with Adam on the couch. He already likes his bed although at night he prefers to sleep with us in our bed. He is pretty well behaved and is getting used to us being at work during the day. Obi is a sweet little kitty and now we are all a happy little family!

 

Date 55 - I Need a Vacation!

Date: Sunday, September 2, 2012 - Sunday, September 9, 2012
Type: Vacation
Cost: $$$$$
Planned By: Dani & Adam

Adam and I went on our very first family vacation. We decided to take another cruise because we had such a good time on our honeymoon and they are relatively inexpensive. We had quite and action packed vacation on the Carnival Pride, but I will just give you the highlights.

Day 1: We drove to Baltimore where the ship was leaving from. We went straight to the buffet and hung out on the lido deck. We had our first dinner that night in the main dining room and it was as delicious as I was expecting. That night at the Welcome Aboard Adam was chosen to perform on stage. Every one on stage had to be married and really love their wife. There were 5 men on stage and each had to demonstrate their best Tarzan. Adam was the best.. and not because I'm biased, but because he yelled like Tarzan, did a somersault and swung from an invisible vine. It was awesome. The other guys just yelled like Tarzan. It was up to the audience who would win. It was down to Adam and another guy. Sadly, this guy had like 30 very loud family members in the audience and won.

Day 2: We spent a lot of time in the sun. I entered the Master Mixologist competition. I chose to make a Sour Patch Margarita. I called it "My Sour Sweetie" and it was delicious. It has 2 oz Tequila, 1/2 oz melon liqueur, 1/2 oz triple sec, 1 oz sour mix, 1 oz orange juice. I didn't win but I got a free drink and a coupon for $5.75 off another drink! Totally worth it.

Day 3: Adam and I participated in the Digital Scavenger hunt. There was a list of stuff to do around the ship and gets pictures of it. We won that one. We got Mardi Gras beads. We also went to a meet and greet with Cruise Critic forum members. We got an open bar for an hour and sat around and talked with some nice people. It was fun!

Day 4: HARRY POTTER WORLD! One of the main reasons we took this cruise was because it stopped in Port Canavarel and we really wanted to go to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was amazing and totally worth the outrageous price. We loved it! We went on all the rides, walked through all the shops, ate at the Three Broomsticks and got a beer at the Hogs Head. We also had time for the rest of the park which was great because there were a lot of cool rides!

Day 5: We explored Atlantis and Paradise Island in Nassau, The Bahamas! Neither of us had ever been to the Bahamas. It is a beautiful island. Atlantis was huge. We spent most of the time in the Casino where Adam finally found a casino game he liked, machine black jack. He was really good at it, too. Cabbage Beach was just around the corner from Atlantis and was a free public beach. There were tons of cruisers there. It was a beautiful beach. We swam and laid out. After being beach bums we went to Senor Frogs and participated in the party! That night on the ship I participate in Super Star Live karaoke. Super Star Live is karaoke with a live band. I sang California Gurls by Katy Perry. It was really cool singing with band, but I think I was a little out of tune because I couldn't hear myself over the band.

Day 6: The ship landed a Freeport on Grand Bahama island. We were only there until 1:30 in the afternoon so we checked out the shops in the port and hung out on the ship. We relaxed most of the day and then that night was the second formal night. We got dressed up, went to all the available ship photographers, and went to dinner. We loved pretending to be models during the entire cruise. We probably took around 100 photos and only chose to buy one from this night. After dinner we went to two comedy shows, one family friendly and one adults only. I got a picture with one of the more famous comedians, Rob Little. I was pretty excited for that, and he was hilarious!

Day 7: Our last day and it was entirely at sea. We started out the morning by watching the cruise director's morning show. I called in with the phrase of the day because I know they send you something and we wanted to see what it was. We went to the towel animal folding demonstration and two shows in the Taj Mahal theater, Broadway 2.0 and Carnival Legends. These two shows were our favorites of the week because they were less showy and more spontaneous and fun. We also took the Gally Tour. The Gally is where the dining room staff prepares the thousands of meals. It was huge! We played mini golf, laid out, relaxed and enjoyed our final day of vacation. After dinner we returned to our room to find our prize for calling in to the morning show. It was a 24K Golden Plastic Ship on a Stick!!!!! The thing we had been trying to get all week! Adam got one on our previous cruise so we were determined to get another one. Mission Accomplished!

This vacation was amazing. I couldn't have asked for anything better. We had a wonderful time and met some really nice people. I would totally recommend a Carnival Cruise to everyone.