Self-timed Christmas (cards)

I've been traveling a lot. And scheduling Christmas card family photos didn't happen. We remembered the weather was supposed to get bad this past weekend (and it did) so last weekend, Eric and I decided to (read: Jackie pressured Eric into) take some self-timed photos with the dogs in hopes of getting one for a Christmas card. I mean..."It can't be that hard, right?" (hahahaha.. Famous last words). 

Approximatly 150 photos (seriously) and my leg falling asleep from kneeling in the same position forever and we got ONE with both dogs looking at the camera and us looking normal...haha.. Really, it's not my favorite pic of Eric and me of the bunch, but the dogs are looking so we're going with it. The order is already in for cards. (In retrospect, we really should have bribed a friend to come over and call the dogs names so they'd look and snap a few pics, but whatever. We're self-sufficient). 

We make this look easy. haha...

This one was my fav, but Winston is apparently watching a bird/leaf/tree/squirrel...

And a few demonstrating the hilarity of the day that took us to the above pics...

Winston wanted to face the pool. *sigh*

Forcibly holding Winston down so he doesn't run...haha...

Eric: "I look like I'm strangling Gracie." Me..."No you...well...yeah. You do. Crap. Let's do another set."

Admittedly, it really wasn't that bad. It took us like 45 minutes or so of dedicated efforts and we got a usable pic. Works for me! As a fun part though, we took all these in the backyard of our new house. :) We're meeting with our builder tomorrow to see some plans he's come up with and I'm so excited! They're saying January is ambitious but very doable to start everything. (We sort of got about 4 months behind schedule from where we wanted by waiting forever to get started, but whatever...). I really will post some photos as we start actually DOING something. At this point, it's like "Here's the house we're going to change. Hooray!" haha... But when we get some demo pics rolling and plans, I'll come back and share more.
Hope your work is slowing down in anticipation of the upcoming holidays. I know mine is. (I should really knock on wood as I type that). I guess my work isn't slowing as much as the people who I do stuff for are out of the office a lot more... Lots of very tenured people at my company with lots of vacay time to burn = quiet holidays, I hope. 

Vacation by the numbers

Also known as the "I don't want to get back into the swing of things" post. 

I haven't posted in forever. Let's just forget about that. Eric and I just got back from our first wedding anniversary vacation! We went to the BVI/Virgin Gorda for a week and it was awesome. :) 

4      The number of books Eric and I each read.

0       The number of guests besides us at our hotel for the first few nights! It was the end of their slow season and starting to pick up..but it was a small resort, too. It was super cool (and a bit weird) to be the only people on property...haha). We ended up meeting some other really cool people at the resort, but having it to ourselves for a couple of days was sort of awesome.

5      The number of mosquito bites I have left...and I cherish every one...haha... (In denial vacay is over).

20     Number of times Eric and I said something about moving to the Caribbean, buying a boat, renting a boat, learning to sail, etc. You get the gist. 

2      Number of times our power went out at our little beach cottage b/c of an overnight storm! Crazy!

20+  Number of pina coladas consumed by Eric and me. 

2      Number of hours it took for us to hike (mostly vertically) to another resort for lunch. Views were fantastic, but we later discovered there was a much easier path...haha.. Oops. We're glad we took the one we did, but it was just funny. 

1      Number of lobsters caught on a snorkeling trip!! (Our guide caught it, but we videoed it. That counts). 

200+  Number of GoPro videos we took. I mean they're short clips and you have to take a lot b/c it's hard to tell if you got anything. But still..It's going to take awhile to get through those! ha!

1     Slightly terrifying flight in a puddle jumper from Virgin Gorda back to St. Thomas to get to the main airport to go home. In a storm. With no visibility (even the pilot said there was no visibility). Ferries were all cancelled due to the weather. It was pretty nuts. 

I have no idea how it went by so quickly! I feel like one minute, I was on the beach thinking "Thank gosh it's only Saturday!" And then the next, it was Friday and time to go home. Blerg. Europeans have it right with that whole "holiday" thing where you take off like 30 days..haha.. So thankful we get to go some gorgeous places and I wouldn't trade our trips for the world, but goodness I would love to stay even longer b/c I'm greedy like that. :) 

We both want to explore Europe- specifically the Mediterranean- before we have kiddos, but relaxing beach vacays are just so hard to beat. Who knows. Maybe next year. :)

The thing about traveling is that it makes you want MORE. It's sort of awesome and frustrating in that way. And you meet other people that travel, too. And some of them have boats, etc and just sail for months! And it's like "Sooooo how do we figure that out?!" haha.. So needless to say coming back to work is a challenge. 

Anyway, this vacay was much needed for the two of us. If you've been reading awhile, you know how we love our beach getaways...but this year was just a long year and a relaxing vacay was so very appreciated. I changed jobs and travel a LOT more (40% of my time or so) and Eric's work has been so.freaking.busy. So some months, we've sort of been like windup toys. Just wake up, wind us up and we go until it's time for bed. It's been a GOOD year. I mean, we got an amazing house (updates on renovations soon!), I took a great job, Eric's work, while insanely busy, has been challenging and rewarding. Our families are happy and in good health (despite a slight scare with my mom earlier this year, but all is great now so barely worth mentioning). We are lucky. We are thankful. We are blessed. But good grief we needed a getaway...haha...

I feel so lucky that Eric and I decided to use some of my old travel miles and his miles to go to St. Lucia the first year we dated. B/c I think that sort of set the bar to try to take an annual trip. And it's made me a firm believer that getting away is worth it. Even if it's just a short getaway. Or a close getaway. It doesn't have to be a beach or the Caribbean or a week or two long. Just that down time to reconnect is oh so amazing. :)