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Alaskan Cruise 2022: Seattle + Day One 🚢⚓

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This post is about our flight to Seattle and the first day of the cruise. We got up very early, so we would have plenty of extra time if anything should go awry. We got McDonald’s breakfast from the drive-through and drove the two or so hours to Orlando Airport. There we took a shuttle from the parking lot, and in no time at all we were ready to board the first of two flights to Seattle!

Orlando Airport was busy, but everything moved speedily along, no delays, no issues. With that said, we also did not have much time to spare. This was a bit of a bummer, as while we were in the TSA line, I saw the Universal store and almost lost my mind: it was full of Jurassic World stuff! I was unable to go in, but I did have *just* enough time to have my picture taken with this fantastic statue of Blue! It was so cool.

In what seemed a blink of an eye we were on the plane. This was the only time I had a window seat. I really hate flying, the takeoff and landing scares me a lot. So I was definitely apprehensive, and basically crushed our partner’s arm until we were on the air.

On the one hand I was happy because Christopher, our partner and I got to sit together during this flight. That was a big relief for me. But we were also on the very latest seat: we could not recline our seats and we smelled the bathroom all the way to Denver. Still, we were going on a cruise! So we were smiling all the same.

Here are all the pictures I took during the flight:

I bought a little snack at the airport which I shared with my guys:

Our partner was SUPER uncomfortable in his seat, it was so cramped and he was tired. Christopher played on his Switch a lot.

As for me, while I’d brought plenty of things to entertain myself with, I could do none of them. I was too excited (and occasionally scared by the plane). It felt like forever, but eventually, we landed!

To go from the mid 90s to this was mind-blowing…

Next flight –to Seattle! This time my sis in law got the window seat, but I got to sit next to her, and she let Dante look out of the window:

I hadn’t seen my sis in law since Christmas (I think?) and I missed her so much!

Airborne again! Lots of mountain views on this flight.

During the takeoff and landing, it was my sis-in-law’s turn to be crushed by me as I sought comfort. Soon, this flight, too, was over, and we were in Seattle. Mount Rainier in the distance!

After landing in Seattle, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden, and then walked around a really pretty mall. Eventually everyone but our partner and I returned to the hotel. We still had energy so we kept walking, I bought a present for Christopher and a coloring book for myself, and our partner bought macarons for everyone and a really pretty truffle for me that looked like a jewel.

(Seattle was actually VERY hot, which was unusual. This would make our last day in Seattle, on the day of our return, even weirder, because it would be cold as balls then!)

I was up early the next day. I showered and changed into my nautical outfit for the day. At the time I bought this sweater, I felt it was so expensive (over $40) and by this day I had already enjoyed very much the times I wore it. But for this day alone it would have felt worth the money. Not only did I match with Dante, but I got SO many comments on it! I felt very cute.

Everyone was already downstairs having breakfast, except, of course, for my sleepy men. Actually I think my sis-in-law was upstairs in the shower. I’m not sure. This day was a blur.

In no time at all everyone was downstairs, all bags packed, ready to take our shuttle to meet the ship. We were actually super early and did not think we would be able to board yet, just check in. But it turned out leaving ASAP was a great idea because we boarded as soon as we got there.

Anyway here’s Grandma and our partner as we waited for the shuttle. This photo makes me a little sad now. In the photos of this day Grandma still looks happy and energetic, but she would get so sick later during the trip. 😞

Shuttle is here! Off to the dock! The shuttle smelled a bit funny.

I always find docks really cool. Interesting things are happening everywhere and everything feels larger than life.

We saw our ship from really far away. It was so massive!

The closer we got, the more surreal it felt. The ship is a floating city!

I took a couple of photos after our shuttle dropped us off. We gave our luggage to NCL staff and then it was off to check in.

A kind fellow tourist took this photo of us in front of the ship. Like this, it hardly looks like a ship at all. More line an apartment building behind us.

After check-in, we got out room keys! We would use this constantly to get all food and drinks during our stay. It says “welcome back” because our cruise was canceled twice. But it’s actually my first time.

Once we checked in and after a slight delay due to my paperwork (I wasn’t able to get my passport in time) the fact that this was actually happening became real. I pretty much dissolved in tears on my mom in law’s arms after holding all my excitement and worry in for so many months. She cried a bit too. And then we were given our group boarding card and sat to wait!

Very shortly after we were inside. Those moments stepping into the deck are unforgettable for me. What a feeling! And inside, it was so massive and sparkling. This is a brand new, barely used ship, and it showed!

The views of the water were already stunning to me, and we were still docked… I was certainly going to be plenty more stunned, particularly the next morning!

I took lots of pictures as we walked around. I’m sure I looked like a very dumb tourist, clutching my teddy bear, open mouthed and snapping pictures of everything.

Dante loved looking out the windows, too. It was so pretty, even though we were still docked:

In the beginning we sat around waiting a lot, as my mom in law talked to guest services a bunch of times to get some things sorted out. We were also still waiting for our luggage at this time.

Since our rooms were not ready yet, we decided to go have our first meal on the ship!

We ate at The Local Bar & Grill. This was the most lackluster food option aboard, we only ate one meal here. But we didn’t know that when we sat down, and the view from where we sat was great, so I was excited!

Slowly as we ate the ship became busier and busier. Eventually it was announced that everyone was on board, and still, the ship did not feel packed, which was nice.

By the time we were done with our meals, an announcer let us know that our rooms were ready, so we went to check them out.

The rooms were very comfortable and cute. The beds were hard though. But the view from the balcony was amazing!

After checking that we had our luggage and all was good, we decided to meander around the ship. At this time, we were still docked. It was very hot.

They had a model of our ship next to the Garden Cafe. It was very pretty and detailed!

We just kept walking around, snacking, drinking, and sitting in random places. We were relaxing but also waiting very excitedly for the journey to begin.

When it was almost time, we went outside to huge comfortable couches, got fresh drinks, and waited there.

And then we were off! It was time to say goodbye to Seattle and its heat.

Once we were officially at sea, we went directly to dinner.

The restaurant we ate at was called The Manhattan. It was a lovely meal.

There was more sitting and waiting around after dinner. I’m not sure what we were waiting for here. We might have gone to a show on this first night, I can’t recall. We went to many shows during the trip. Magic shows, comedy shows, musicals.

The day began to draw to a close. We were exhausted! For me, this was the prettiest sunset of the trip. Most days sunset and sunrise was kinda weird. Night would usually only last a few short hours and not get too dark. The sun wouldn’t set until 10:00pm and would begin to rise at 3:00am.

It began to cool down pretty fast as the hours went by, and we went to bed to recover and get ready to enjoy our first full day aboard. That’s coming on the next post!

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Other Toys, Outfit Of The Day, Scrapbooking And Journaling, Selfies, Trips And Outings

Rainy Day Outing! 🌈☔

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Hello, everyone! I had a really lovely outing today. It was raining hard (a tropical storm is passing by this weekend) so Christopher dropped me off at Dollar Tree before work, and I took a car back. It felt so nice out with the rain. It was early, too, and I’d gotten up at 6:00am so most of my chores were done when we left the house shortly past 8:30am. I felt very happy and light.

This was my outfit for this rainy day! 🐸☔️ I didn’t actually take my Build-A-Bear bearlien with me, but I held them for the photo because I love them so much.

I was rocking a bit of subtle pride with my new Pride month kandi necklace and pan socks. 🌈✨💕

I only went to Five Below and Dollar Tree, but I found SO so many things, I was so very happy!

On a weird random note, I saw this at Five Below. You’re welcome. 🧀

(I really wanted to know if they tasted like cheese, but not for $4.00.)

After shopping there and at Dollar Tree, I went inside Publix for a small lunch and ate it outside watching the absolute downpour and reading Twitter. 🍗🥤

Then I came home with the groceries and all my treasures, which I’d like to share with you now. First in my haul is this whole bunch of Arthur stuff! It’s all from Dollar Tree.

I intend to paint the suncatcher with Poscas, and probably the canvas too. Some stuff is for relaxing, one of the books is for my library, while the other two are for scrapbooking. Might use the Colorforms for that as well.

Next, and one of my favorite things, is this massive variety of playing cards and flash cards:

Cards such as these are one of my favorite scrapbooking/collage tools! There’s Disney, Fisher Price/Little People, Dr. Seuss, Crayola, animals, dinosaurs, nature, and more!

Next, here’s some Arthur and Berenstain Bears puzzles!

Believe it or not I use this for scrapbooking as well. 😁

More scrapbooking supplies —a few cute greeting cards; rainbow, snail and space squirrel cutouts (can you imagine my luck?!) and a little book with very nice pages for making my collages:

These next ones were very interesting and I had never seen them before. Fantasy, dinosaur and space felt scenes by Crayola! 🌈✨ Will probably be used for scrapbooking as well.

Here’s some cute stickers ✨💕

Next is this dry-erase pocket. I wanted it to hold my daily to-do list!

Which, by the way; looks like this:

And now… for the real treasures… the Jurassic World Dominion goodies!!

Finally, FINALLY found some!! 😭💕💕💕 The photo speaks for itself! There’s a mini dry-erase board, a velvet art poster, figurines, a towel, Captivz eggs, and stickers! Here is a close-up of one of my favorite finds:

And of the Kinder Joy “egg”:

The figure in the Kinder Joy egg was honestly a real disappointment but I was still so excited to find it anyway. A much better prize are these coins from the much bigger eggs I shared recently, which come with some really good gummies too!

The coins are just like the Mario Wonder Ball ones (same company). Heavy, real metal. Beautiful!

I’ll end this photo set with a final pic of Squeak, the candy warden! 🐊🌈✨

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have a very lovely evening and weekend!

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Dinos, Trips And Outings

Shark Valley Misadventure! 🐊🐢🌈

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Hi hi, everyone! This was a pretty good week –and with this post my blog will be finally caught all up! It was certainly eventful, and I’ll go into the mishap that occurred on Saturday which I mentioned on Twitter –so, let’s get right to it!

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday we had tickets for Studio Ghibli Fest 2022, which begins with Ponyo. I really like that movie, but if I’m honest I was most excited to get to to take a photo with the Jurassic World Dominion display!!

Literally my entire outfit (shirt, backpack, the blanket I brought to keep warm) and my coordinating colors were Jurassic… can you tell I’m hyped? Haha…

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

Just odds and ends from Wednesday, starting with a lounging Rosie…

Sometimes I find that our partner has been screwing around with my dinosaurs. I found Bumpy on my Brachiosaurus’ head:

My big Ankylosaurus was trying to rescue his friend…

On my recent Target outing I came across a little Jurassic World lamp in their cheapy toys section! 😁

🌈 Saturday 🌈

And now… oh boy. Now to Saturday’s events. We’d been talking about heading to Shark Valley for a while, especially since I’ve never been in the Everglades proper, and I wanted to see gators so badly. So I was pretty excited to go, as it was put to me “for a couple of hours”, even if it was at the hottest time of the day, in an area with NO TREES. At least not for most of the way. I can handle this, I thought. And in truth, that much I could handle.

Let me start by saying that our partner insisted I leave Jello behind and instead bring water. I wasn’t worried –I had my hat, it was only for a couple of hours, I wanted to carry Jello for pictures. Anyway, he brought water, I brought Jello. That was my first stupid decision –though again, I’d been a bit bamboozled. Stay with me here.

We could rent bikes, he says. I’m picky with bikes, so I demur. This is my second stupid decision, one on which I changed my mind less than a mile into our walk, after I was informed that we are, in fact, going to walk FOURTEEN miles, at noon, with a stop in the middle that has shade and water. What?!

But at this point, he doesn’t want to go back to get bikes, and this would be one of his stupid decisions. Another of mine was not being more insistent. But he promises me a National Park passport as a treat from the gift shop, which closes at six, and I’m a sucker for a treat in exchange for being a good girl, so common sense is promptly thrown out the window.

We press on, as I am not yet in too much pain, and way too distracted by turtles, birds, SO many gators of varying sizes…

…and flowers…

…and insects:

We get to see a gator hunt something (a turtle, a fish?) doing the typical gator roll, mere feet from us. A huge thrill! I also get close enough to a softshell turtle to touch it (of course, I don’t). It was massive, the size of a small dog. We were very entertained.

As we continue walking on an asphalt path with no shade and under blazing sun, I bitch and moan that I know my limits: I cannot walk more than, max, six miles at noon with no water, in Florida, in the Everglades, in the summer. But he insists, and hey! I’m a people pleaser. I bitch and moan and cry, but ultimately I’m a people pleaser, just a very whiny one.

By mile marker six, with the observatory shimmering in the distance like a mirage, my moaning and whining has turned to tears and mild occasional hyperventilating. The gators are no longer of interest. After some coaxing, I’ve drank all of our partner’s water, told that at our rest stop we can both have more. Jello has become a bit of a drag to carry.

We make it to the observatory only to be met with large “BOIL WATER NOTICE” signs. We are in disbelief, but no matter: there is a tour tram, we can see one in the distance. Surely if we explain the situation they will take us back. Walking back seven miles with no water at high afternoon in Florida, in summer, in the Everglades, is very literally dangerous, especially since we are already dehydrated.

We wait for the tram and I take a few photos of the observatory view, which was indeed breathtaking:

Even from this height you can spot multiple large gators in the water.

We come down as the tram approaches, and upon explaining the situation, we are told that it is a paid tour. They do not care about our problems. Our partner asks if they have water, we cannot continue without drinking water, which we were explicitly told was available here. The tour lady tells us they do, for a dollar each. We have no cash.

It is baffling that to us park employees would behave in this manner with people in a bind, especially since we paid a whopping $30 just to enter and walk. But anyway –very reluctantly she gives us two small bottles, and when a tram passenger offers to pay for us, she definitely takes the money. 🙄

So it is time to walk back. And now I really start to cry and I cry for a while, quietly, because I seriously don’t think I can do this. My feet and legs are killing me, my eyes sting with sweat, did I mention we had no sunscreen? I know, real winners. I have one tiny bottle of water that I have to make last for seven more miles, which is one more than our partner had, because I drank his on the way there.

For a while I cry, on and off, having random fits when a wasp or fly gets too close to my head. It is misery. Eventually I am doing too poorly to bitch, moan or cry, a signal our partner smartly takes to feel concerned for my welfare (if I go quiet, you know shit’s serious, because I never shut up) but there is nothing he can do. He was dumb to suggest our situation and I was equally dumb to go for it. We are two dumbasses, and all we can do is walk. And so we do.

The tram passes us, with at least a couple of empty seats. It is the last tram of the day. When it disappears from view, my crying, which had subsided, starts again. Further dehydration, and my water is gone. I no longer care about the promised National Parks passport. I no longer care about the gators, or our partner’s jokes, or even not having water. Everything has stopped mattering.

He decides to play Shrek on his phone, and so we walk for two hours listening to the entirety of Shrek in a strange sort of fever dream.

I text Christopher a few times, updating him on our ordeal. Please don’t die, he says. I tell him I’ll try not to.

At one point I send him this photo, when I couldn’t walk anymore, and our partner massaged my feet for a while:

So many times both of us stared at our smartwatches, counting miles, checking heart rates. Mine, never above 135 even when jogging for three miles straight, eventually reaches 150 and more or less stays there.

Strangely, near the end of the fourteen miles, I began to recover, while our partner was crashing. Nauseous at times, not really able to say much by the end. We made it to the car with just fifteen minutes to spare before being actually locked IN the park for the night (!!) The gift shop had closed –there went my reward! Ultimately I was promised I could have any toy as a treat, which really made up for it.

But to tell you the truth, something else happened as soon as we began to recover, and I mean even as we were driving home. We began to bask in the glory of our accomplishment. It was sort of exhilarating. We did something stupid, surely, that should not be repeated. Water is a requirement, so are hats (he didn’t have one) clothes that don’t chafe, and sunscreen.

But we also walked fourteen miles in five hours, a record for both of us. It sucked, but we didn’t feel as bad physically as we thought we would. And we ACTUALLY did it.

We also knew it was our max: another mile, perhaps another half mile, and I think we would have called emergency services. It really was that bad, you have to understand, it’s the heat. 90 degree weather, perhaps higher, with very high humidity. But that didn’t happen, thankfully.

By the next morning, I’d basically recovered (it took him about another day). But I was ready to walk again, and felt (and still feel) a strange, inexplicable urge to further punish my body in this manner. I’m not sure what to call this. I was miserable. Why do I crave this? Maybe I felt more alive than usual. I don’t know.

I do know we will not do something stupid like that again. But push ourselves like that, and further, in a smart and safe way? For sure. I said I couldn’t walk fourteen miles in the hot Florida sun, at noon and afternoon, in the Everglades, with little water, with no sunscreen. And I did it –we did it.

Who knows what else we can do? I really want to find that out.

🐣 Toys And Special Interests 🐣, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Dinos, My Hug, Other Toys, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains

Mwako’s Here! 🦁🌈

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Hello, everyone! First of all, I want to apologize for my absence/commission delay which I hinted at but did not fully explain. Being sick three times (never COVID but always sucky) having a weekend-long Easter visit with family, an almost week-long visit of my dear friend Mwako during which time I did not work at all, dealing with important travel paperwork AND having my period on top of it all, meant that no commission work got done whatsoever.

I am now back at the tablet and getting things done, so you all will be getting your WIPS and/or finished pieces over the next few days. But before that –here’s this week’s summary!

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday was a special day. It was the Jurassic World Dominion street date for the new toys! Christopher and I made a deal: I could spend up to $200, and anything I purchased would be set aside for my birthday and Christmas. This suited me fine! I went to Target and Walmart and came back with a cart full of things. 😁 Although, the new displays were not out at Target, a very nice employee got me everything I wanted from the back.

I also passed by Five Below on the way back and scored a few nice Super Mario finds!

A Super Mario Easter egg and Mario Kart UNO cards! The UNO cards I plan to use for scrapbooking. I loved that the puzzle below had Bowser Jr. in it!

It was otherwise a quiet, busy day, prepping the house, doing chores, and drawing.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

On Tuesday, it was more and more prepping. I had a lot to do. But I did take some time to myself in the morning, walked to the mall, had a snack there, and bought some pins to decorate my new Galactic Pal bags:

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

Wednesday I was up at 5:00am to finish prepping the playroom. It took more work than you imagine, simple though it looks (lots of lugging stuff downstairs, plus putting the mat together, moving furniture, building the tent –tricky on my own) but I think the end result turned out really nice!

The couch looked cozy…

Stuff for outdoor play!

Ricky Parky had not been down to play in quite some time!

Tomoyo was really interested in all the toys…

At least she couldn’t bite this. She definitely tried to bite other things.

I used my travel pillow as a chair for Cookie:

Everywhere you looked it was colorful and full of toys and things to do, games to play, books to color…

Out of the Jurassic World Dominion release, there were a couple of cheaper dinos that I bought for myself so I wouldn’t have to wait to play with them, such as this cute Imaginext gal. She’s really expressive! You can move her up and down and side to side by the tail, open and close her mouth, and change her facial expression! Her arms move too!

Coloring books and games…

I love this Jurassic World version of TOMY’s classic Pirate Pop-Up game!

My new T. rex friend was looking for trouble…

Here’s Ricky all ready to “pretend” camp indoors!

Bluey was ready to welcome Mwako, too!

Crayons!! 🌈✨

More friends and fun things to do! 🌈🌟🚂 Socks was a little surprise gift for Mwako.

On Mwako’s first night with us, we went to Blue Ginger, a fancy sushi restaurant where the food is served in little floating boats. It was wonderful, I was so happy we got to go because it’s one of Christopher’s favorite places that we can so rarely afford, and Mwako treated us all.

🌈 Thursday 🌈

On Thursday we took Mwako to my (currently) favorite park, Marhham Park. I picked a very colorful outfit, and brought Cookie along on her first outing:

First we did a quick Starbucks run for breakfast at the house.

Cookie tried her first cake pop!

Once at the park it was time to explore. I love this place, with its pine-needle covered floors. It looks kind of otherwordly in places. The more I explore Florida the more I find beauty I didn’t know it had.

Here’s a couple of pics I got of me and Mwako:

It was overall a super nice time. I did at one point get chased by a few bees and really panicked and ran for a long, long stretch, leaving Mwako and my partner well, WELL behind. Later they told me that as I did that, they heard what had to have been a gator jumping into the water, mere feet from us. They said it definitely sounded like something bigger than a grown man.

What makes that a bit scary is that on recent Googling I found out a woman was attacked by a gator during a jog at this same park. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was that same area. 😬 I guess it’s a good thing that I was running!

Anyway, I’ve been doing stops at Walmart/Target/Dollar Tree/etc, and here are some finds. First, a couple of Uncaged Wild Pop-Ups:

A couple of super cute cups from the dollar store, Berenstain Bears and Arthur-themed:

And some Jurassic Wold stickers:

🌈 Friday 🌈

On Friday, we went to Butterfly World. This is truly the perfect time of the year to go! The amount of butterflies was off the chart, like stepping into a fairy tale world.

First, here’s an all-butterfly set of photos. They were just so pretty.

A cute caterpillar friend!

The birds here are very tame and friendly:

This one was taking a little bath:

This one was… feeling territorial?

I didn’t know canaries ate lettuce, did you?

This little guy was tucking in for a nap. 😊

In the museum and insect area, the moths were my favorite, but everything was beautiful and interesting:

Here’s a wriggly mealworm. These guys are small, but they can bite! If they didn’t I might want to have them as pets.

We bought a couple of plants before leaving. An almond bush which was part of the reason behind the trip, and a mimosa plant as a gift for our dear Christopher. 🥰 After Butterfly World, we went back to the house to play some games in the playroom I’d set up.

We played the T. rex pop-up game first. It was lots of fun! I jumped every time. 😅

Then we played Yeti In My Spaghetti for a while, before it was time to set the table for our burger dinner.

I had special fancy dino paper plates for the occasion! I had to get another one though because someone spilled his drink all over me and my T. rex… 😑

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Let’s start this day with a photo of Tomoyo, laying elegantly as she does:

Mwako continued to humor me by driving me to Targets so I could look for more Jurassic World Dominion stuff. So in the morning we were off, first breakfast at Starbucks and then to Target.

I was very excited at this particular Target because it was my first time finally seeing a Dominion display!

Some neat things I saw (but didn’t buy) were this Pokémon themed Labyrinth game by Ravensburger and this Jeep Wrangler R/C car, Jurassic World themed. I was really tempted by the car… 😅

Ultimately, I came home with this super cute Elmo backpack and Jurassic World Dominion set of minis, both of which Mwako was kind enough to treat me to:

Once home, it was time to move on to some backyard fun! Well… back porch fun. We blew some bubbles, for starters, but I don’t have photos of that. It was fun, though. Ricky sat and watched, it had been a while since he came out to play, as I mentioned:

New T. rex was excited to get into the chalk so we quickly moved on to that.

Playing with chalk was so much fun. I never got to do this as a kid, believe it or not. Chalk was something we only had at school, and colored chalk? What is that, anyway? So, silly though it may seem, this made me really happy.

Ricky Parky had a blast too!

The cats were very curious about the chalk, smelling it, rolling in it, and just being generally very interested and wanting to be involved in our playtime.

Rosie was arguably the most interested of all:

I tried drawing Mwako, a snail and a subrosian for Christopher (that one ended up being my favorite):

I also drew one of our house “soots”:

Mwako did a pretty spiffy job of drawing Stitch!

After that it started to sprinkle, so we went back inside to continue our fun.

A pause for more Tomoyo, this time giving me a half-hearted but playful air-swat:

Time to play some more! First some Jenga…

We each had a cute snack. Since today was special, I picked one of my Good2Grow Podz. Grogu is so cute!

I had my veggie chips in my Bluey bowl, not that you can tell…

The movie for the evening was Brother Bear, an old favorite. It’d been a while since I last saw it. We colored with crayons while watching and just had a nice time.

After the movie, Mwako, my partners and I all went to mini golf. That was a lot of fun to do late in the evening! They closed just as we left.

🌈 Sunday 🌈

Today, Sunday, was the last day with activities, since Mwako is leaving tomorrow.

I opened my minis in the morning while having some quiet time to myself. They are so cute!

Look at that adorable tiny carnie, a perfect little chonk:

Being time for another outing, I got dressed up, new backpack and all:

I picked Dusty to accompany me today:

We took Mwako to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park today. This was a lovely setting to take photos of Dusty in, just like Marham Park with Cookie:

Here are some random pics without Dusty in them. Of course I still have to add stickers.

Here’s Mwako looking super cute in the outfit I picked for him to wear. Pink looks great on him, I think!

Our time at the park was fun but exhausting because it was so hot. Once we got back home and freshened up, we sat down to have some “kiddy time” again. First we laid down the Richard Scarry’s Busytown Eye Found It! board game:

It’s a high quality game, with a massive board and very cute pieces:

It’s a collaborative game, either all players win, or the “pigs” win. We enjoyed it, and it certainly has lots of replayability.

At some point, I don’t remember when, I ate this cute chocolate Easter sheep:

After the board game, we played with blocks. It may seem silly, but don’t knock it til you try it. With LEGO, you still have to “think”. There’s something incredibly relaxing about playing with big-ass blocks. Once you let go, all your adult worries melt away, if only for a little bit.

I “play” in a bit more of a conventional manner, making “houses” for my Thomas The Tank Engine Mega Blok figures:

In you go:

Incidentally, I was wearing my bear kigu. It really helps put me in a certain kind of mood when I play with toys such as these. 🐻

Mwako, for his part, is far more chaotic, creating some impressive (and sometimes slightly frightening) creatures:

This here has to be one of my favorite photos of this visit…

HE COMIN’

We drank as we played and ended our evening in the little tent, just laughing and kinda pouring our hearts out to each other in a tipsy haze. This ended up being the most memorable portion of the week for me. It was such a lovely end to the visit, and left me feeling much closer to my beloved friend of now quite a few years, and looking forward to another visit later this year.

I know this was a very long post. If you read it all, I’m so grateful! Hope it was enjoyable. 😊

Cats, Charlie Bears, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Novels, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trains, Trips And Outings, Weekly Summary

Just A Bit Left Of March 🌷✨

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Happy Sunday, everyone! More and more, you can feel spring in the air. Of course, with it also approaches hurricane season, and since it’s Florida, unbearable heat. Still, I try to find enjoyment in the changes.

This was a very busy week. Less art got done, but it was productive in other ways. I felt pretty unwell and cranky on the weekend due to my period and the hecticness that surrounded it, but I’m trying to do my best.

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday I worked on art, on chores, played a little more of my Code: Realize fandisc, and I went out for a long walk. The weather was lovely, I felt pretty happy.

I had a pretty colorful outfit on this day, which included one of the designs I created myself for ODU:

During my walk, a tree I often come across was in full bloom, the floor completely covered in its flowers. It was a pretty sight.

At the store I got a new drying mat since our current one doesn’t really match the kitchen:

And, as it often happens when the spring items come out, I got my hands on two snail items! A decorative towel…

…and my favorite, a little welcome stone! I placed it next to all the other snail things:

I walked for like three hours, and came home starving. So I had a snack of crackers with pate and cheese, strawberries, and a little wine:

I also acquired these hilarious little alien things to have fun with later during the week:

Here’s a little random something from last week which I forgot to share. Diesel arrived! The box he came in is really, really nice:

The face design is wonderful, it’s very encouraging to see how much they’ve listened to customer feedback on the new line.

Next week the others should be arriving, I’m very excited about that.

🌈 Tuesday 🌈

On Tuesday I placed an order for some items I want to bring during the (sometimes quite long) car rides that happen every weekend. My husband and our partner always sit in the front, so I’m a bit bored in the back seat. I do love the seating arrangement, as it makes me feel very small and happy. It definitely appeals to my inner child. But I want to make it more fun and cozy to be there, and to that end, I ordered these things:

I also got a pink trash container (not pictured). The other things, as you can see, are a seatbelt cover (because it really digs into my shoulder sometimes) a lap desk for my iPad/coloring books/sketchbooks, etc, and an organizer with a little tray. You’ll see a bit further down how I used it.

On this day the little aliens or “soots” as Christopher calls them began popping up all over the house:

They are still being discovered 😁

Also, two games arrived. The one I am most excited about is the collector’s edition of Rune Factory 5! And the other one is Grow: Song Of The Evertree.

🌈 Wednesday 🌈

I can tell in retrospective that Wednesday is the day I started to get REALLY cranky from PMS. I think we were all cranky this week, and I feel that it is my own crankiness kinda being passed around like a cold, so I feel responsible. 😞 But good things happened anyway.

First, I have a very cute photo of Kotoko being harassed:

We went to a very flat and blah park on this day. It did have an interesting rock formation, so at least I took a photo of that:

The park was otherwise boring and not one I want to return to. But this was the first time our partner made an attempt at running since hurting his ankle so badly, and the fact that he could do it without issues was a major highlight of the day as it had been a lingering worry all this time.

In the evening, I felt too crappy to make dinner, so I whined my way into having another Happy Meal while the Mario Kart toys are still available, and this was provided, in spite of me being such a pain in the ass this week. It cheered me up a lot.

For the toy, I got Peach!

🌈 Thursday 🌈

Thursday I went on my longest walk of the week. I walked for about three and a half hours. Here’s a squirrel I saw on the way to Walmart:

On the way back, it had started to sprinkle. These crows were eager to drink the drops, and stood with their beaks open and heads upturned:

I got a few things at Walmart. A black dress, a Yu Yu Hakusho shirt for me and a Cowboy Bebop one for Christopher (Walmart is getting to be really good for anime shirts) some bows, a new blanket and a Turning Red blind box:

I was hoping to get Mei’s panda form but I got this… oh well lol.

After I got home we went out to dinner and then to a huge liquor store to get wine for tomorrow.

🌈 Friday 🌈

Friday evening was really nice! It was the long awaited Kirby release day. As soon as Christopher got home, I had a spread of snacks and wine and his coffee all set up.

It was just him and our partner playing co-opt while I watched and drank my entire bottle of wine, but that suited me fine!

Rosie joined us:

The game was my mom’s birthday present for Christopher. He really liked it.

Once they were done playing and my bottle of wine was totally polished off, I went to drunkenly make dinner. I made way too much and destroyed the kitchen in the process, but it was pretty good:

🌈 Saturday 🌈

Saturday was our weekly adventure day, and a LOT of fun! I got to use my new little setup for the first time. Now I can play my Switch without getting car sick:

You can’t see it here, but my little pink trash can hangs from the other seat. I also have a colorful pillow and my blanket in the back seat, and a coloring book in the pocket of the passenger seat. It feels very cozy.

The first stop was lunch. I had a hot dog. Christopher even went to the car to get Mignon for me so I could take this picture. When he does little things like that for me it makes me so happy.

Next stop was a record store, where Christopher bought me this World Of Warcraft soundtrack CD and Free To Be You And Me vinyl record:

We walked around a sorta ritzy but pretty dead mall. It made for some nice liminal pictures:

After that we went to Barnes & Noble. It was a particularly nice B&N, with TONS of toys. I bought this book while we were there:

As a lover of their Seekers bear series, I was very excited to find another Erin Hunter series about bears. But when I began to flip through it, after purchase, I noticed a vibe that was much more Warriors than Seekers. I guess we will see.

When he and my husband came back to find me, our partner had a little flower for me. I later gave the flower to Mignon. Unfortunately for my bunny, the flower had multiple ant residents, which then became residents of Mignon.

After the bookstore we went to a wonderful vintage toy store. I was too tired by this point to get pics, though.

At home I had an early dinner with Mignon and played a bit more of the Code Realize fandisc.

Mignon got into the cookies…

Overall a pleasant and happy Saturday. Today ended up being super stressful though, since our entire house is being repainted. The painters are coming tomorrow, so today was dedicated to moving anything that can be in their way. I also spent hours working on my bookkeeping, for taxes, had cramps all day, and this week I have an appointment with the social security office and I have to pack to visit my mom for her birthday.

It was a cranky and tiring day for the three of us and I guess this coming week may be a bit stressful still. So art may be slower and I may be quieter overall. Please bear with me.

I’ll see you next week with another weekly summary post, or maybe sooner if I can manage to sneak a post in!

Cats, 🐿️ My Life 🐿️, My Hug, Outfit Of The Day, Selfies, Trips And Outings

Visiting Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park

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Today was our sorta-weekly Adventure Day! We went to Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. I liked this park a lot more than I expected from the photos I saw online. And it was really empty, which was lovely and peaceful.

Parks generally make me feel very small, so I tend to wear my kiddy outfits when I go. I took my froggy backpack and wore one of my favorite shortalls, and an ODU print that I like a lot.

I brought one of my stuffies today too, Gumdrop. I managed to make him a bandana before we left the house. Sometime next week I’ll get him some pins for it so it’s not so plain.

We got Starbucks on the way, since it was quite a long ride to the sandwich place where we would have lunch in Downtown Miami. And I had one of my cute snack holders with strawberry and cream gummies that I bought at The Fresh Market.

I had a breakfast sandwich for lunch. It had chorizo and cilantro and lots of cheese. I couldn’t finish it, but it was great!

I was actually a bit upset when I realized where we’d be having lunch. The last time I ate at this place was some three years ago, during one of the worst times of my life, and the experience of that entire day, and the meal itself, was a really bad memory. I felt like I just did not want to be again at a place where I had been so deeply unhappy and trying not to cry through my meal back on that awful day.

But in the end, I’m glad we did eat here, because now the bad memory is pushed away by a much happier one, and I’m looking forward to eating there again. It’s a nice place other than the music being super loud all the time.