I spent a few days in Southern Utah in October.  William was turning 25, so I needed to celebrate with him:)  It turned out that NaKya went on a trip with her mom and sisters and I was able to sit with Addie while William went to school.  It was a great trip...most of the pictures I took are on my phone.  Hopefully I'll get them transferred to the computer and then on the blog.  Christine and I met Papa at Grandma's grave.  It was a beautiful night and we had a nice visit.  Good times together.

 I had a couple of great reasons to head south to Austin in late September.  Brandon was in town with his girlfriend Christina and it was Dad's 72nd birthday!  I drove down, had a nice birthday lunch, took a few pictures and then headed back north.

It really was a great little trip!  I hadn't seen Brandon since his high school graduation in 2007.  Now that is sad! He's doing great!  I loved being with Dad for his birthday as well...I think I might make this a yearly tradition.

 Back in September, Jennie and I took a short 3-night cruise to the Bahamas...It was the 10 year mark of our annual September Girl's trips! We spent the night in Orlando and took off from Port Canaveral, FL.  This is a shot back at the port as we are leaving on a cloudy, balmy day.

 Not wanting to pay the high prices for soda on the ship, I packed my own:)

 I had been holding out for some carrot cake for months...literally.  This was my reward.

 A beautiful day in paradise. We were pulling into Nassau, The Bahamas.

 Off the ship and ready for some shopping...we just wanted to buy some post cards and mail them to our families...with local stamps.  We found post cards, but the stamps were never found...so we mailed them on the ship with US stamps.  Not as fun, but the best we could do.

 We loved talking and walking around the decks at night.  So very peaceful.

 Here we are on Coco Cay...Bahamas...this is Royal Caribbean's private island.  For the beach lover in me, it was perfect.  We were there early and enjoyed the sunshine, warm water and soft sand...a storm was moving in, so we headed back to the ship a little early.

There is no dock near the island, so the visitors are "tendered" in on small boats. The cruise line has this process down to a science.  It was an added bonus to take this little ride.

There is something about the deck of a ship that warms my heart! I love being on a big ship out in the middle of the sea! And this ship had a big outdoor TV screen.  The only bummer was, they played random sports like cricket or whatever...I was hoping for some movies under the stars...oh wait, this wasn't a Disney cruise....but it was a blast! Here's to another 10 years of traveling with my dearest friend!