Queen of Diamonds

I think it's official...our little Brookie is growing up! She entered the Queen of Diamonds beauty pageant this past weekend and had a great time! She wanted to do it last year, but chickened out. She decided she was really going to do it this year and finally did it! She was nervous, but she did a GREAT job. We are so proud of her. She won 2 awards! She won prettiest eyes...which is SO funny...she told me she looked like a drag queen after I did her eye make-up! Funny huh?!? Maybe mommy knows something about putting make-up on! She really does have beautiful eyes though, she gets them from her DADDY! The big award she won was the Sportswear Queen! They gave 2 big awards that night, one was the Queen of Diamonds and the other was the Sportswear Queen. We teased her that since she didn't have to really talk, she might have a chance! :) Guess we were right! Good job Brookie! We love you!!!

Her sportswear costume, she was a golfer. She had a pink golf club, cute huh?!?

When is Chase going to quit being goofy in pictures?!?

Our Mini-Moon!!!

Me and Jared just got back from a FABULOUS little "mini-moon"! We had so much fun being together just the two of us. We have taken several trips with friends over the past few years in February, but decided to go alone this year. We had a blast just being together with no distractions. We didn't even get sick of each other! Shocking! :) We left on Saturday the 21st and drove to Jacksonville, Florida where we stayed the night on Jacksonville Beach. We went to dinner and met up with some good friends of Jared's, Jim & Stephanie. It was really great to see them and catch up on all that they've been up to. On Sunday we drove to Daytona Beach and met up with Jared's mom & dad (they were in Orlando on business). We had a really nice time walking around and had lunch there. Then we drove down to Fort Lauderdale and stayed the night there. We went out for dinner to a really cool place in downtown and had a great time just walking around all the neat little shops. The next day (Monday) we got up and headed over to the cruise ship port. We got checked in and explored the ship. We couldn't get over how BIG and COOL the ship was. It was a Royal Carribean ship, the Navigator of the Seas. We've been on Princess and Norwegian, but this ship was much bigger. We couldn't even feel the ship moving, it was great!!! The ship had so much to do...a rock wall, an ice skating rink, inline skate course, mini-golf course, golf simulator, basketball court, 2 pools, several hot tubs, Johnny Rockets, Ben & Jerry's ice cream! It was a great ship. We were at sea all day on Tuesday. We slept in ate a huge breakfast and laid by the pool. They had a really cool contest by the pool that day, a sexy leg contest...MEN ONLY! HILARIOUS! You should have seen some of these men! That night we went to dinner and met the people we were assigned to have dinner with. We had never dined like that on other ships and we were nervous to see who we were going to be eating with for the next 5 nights, but it worked out great. We were at a table with 4 other couples that were all really cool and fun to be with. We actually ended up hanging out with them several nights. On Wednesday we went to Cozumel. We went into town and shopped and had lunch there. "Little Miss Piggie" got some great souvenirs! JEWELRY! Jared is SUCH a generous husband, what can I say?!? He's the BEST! Thursday we went to Belize. We took a snorkeling & beach expedition on a Catamaran. We got to see some beautiful fish while we were snorkeling. After that we went to a BEAUTIFUL island in the middle of the Ocean and laid out and enjoyed the sunshine. Friday we were at sea all day and the boat got into Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday morning. We drove all the way back to Atlanta, about a 10 hour drive! We had a really nice time just talking and being together without the kids. We really missed the kids all week though. The kids are DYING to take a cruise and we really want to take them too. We are trying to find a good deal on one and take them this summer as our family vacation. We'll see!!!
Some of the people we met on the ship and hung out with.

Laying by the pool on the upper deck of the ship.

The little island in Belize that we hung out on for a few hours.

Another picture of the island in Belize.

This picture was taken in the middle of the ship, this was called the Promenade. It was really cool, it had little shops and restaurants in it.

This was in Cozumel.

Jared and the Mariachi band that played "Cielito Lindo" while we ate lunch. Aye, ya, ya, ya!

Me and my honey.

Me and Jared at dinner one night.

Me & Jared in Daytona Beach.