My Newest Friend & Pet: Meet “Bubbles the 3rd”
Bubbles 3 now comfortably at home in my kitchen!
Jake came home from doing errands one day and this little guy was there to greet me. The first pet we ever had as a married couple was a red and blue beta fish named “Bubbles”. He hung out on the counter top in the kitchen at our apartment. We have not had a beta fish for a long time because we have other tanks and they are the type of fish that really need their own space and tank.
I am a big fan of animals and little critters, however, I don’t enjoy the maintenance part of fish tanks. Thankfully Jake handles that piece for me. I make sure Bubbles is fed and entertained, but otherwise Jake does any tank cleaning. Yes, I have conversations with my fish while cleaning or cooking in the kitchen! He is hard to get a picture of because he is either hiding or won’t stop moving. He is a beautiful red and blue long fin beta. Bubble the 3rd has even learned my tap means “time to eat”! Bubbles is the only pet that I get to feed consistently, the girls all feed and care for the all the other pets in the family. Bubbles is my cooking and cleaning buddy when Jake and the girls are not home or around!
Travel & Vacation: Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of Natural History
Standing at the banister looking down on the elephant and floors below.
The girls were thrilled to go to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. Brina especially loves anything associated to animals. Since we did the Smithsonian Institution of National Air and Space Museum yesterday we thought this will be a great next adventure. Thankful for some fun times together!
Touring the National Museum of Natural History
OOOOOOOUCH Karlie! This one has a lot of teeth!
Brina and Jake checking out the armadillo shell!
Doing their names with stamp calligraphy
Having fun exploring with my Brina Bee
Brina reading the sign and soaking it all in
Learning more about animals
Wow! Some cool looking animals!
One big giraffe
Checking out the fun displays
They had a huge elephant in the middle foyer of the building.
Touching a piece of rock from Mars…..fascinating!
Karlie thought this rock was so cool
Whoa….look at those rocks!
The Hope Diamond is a 45.52-carat dark blue diamond. It has traveled from India to France to Britain and now the United States. The Hope Diamond is also described as the “most famous diamond in the world.”
It looks like the elephant is coming toward them!
Super excited to visit the Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of Natural History
Vacation: Swimming with the Turtles in Barbados (Part 2, Pictures)
We had a blast spending time on the Caribbean Island of Barbados this year!
Here are a few pictures of our adventures on the island!
We made it to Barbados! Welcome to Barbados! Jake and I near the Welcome sign at Barbados, which is our last Caribbean Island before heading back to Puerto Rico! We are ready for the fun adventures today. When we stood at this sign we had no idea how many memories we could pack into one day at the beach on Barbados!
Clouds gathering on Barbados! The big puffy clouds eventually turned into gray rain clouds, but they did not damper our time at the beach. It was actually neat swimming in the ocean and hearing the pitter patter of rain drops clicking on the top of the water. Yet another adventure I had never experienced before. When you grow up in Kansas, the majority of your water experience is on lakes not at the ocean because you are so far away from any ocean beaches. Actually the first time I saw the ocean was when I got engaged to my man, Jake, in Aruba (which is another amazing place to visit).
Cute little pink and white cottage clothing store on Barbados. This is another “princess” looking cottage we took a picture of for Brina who loves anything pink and princess. She is our “girly” girl who loves princesses, babies, and animals. Although we missed them during our excursions it was nice to snag a few pictures to share with them. They loved that we thought of them during our adventures away.
Beautiful Blue Monkey beach at Barbados. The water was BEAUTIFUL at Blue Monkey beach in Barbados. It was the gorgeous turquoise blue that you could stand in and look down to the bottom of the ocean and see your feet. The dark patches under the water in the picture above is where we saw the most colorful fish snorkeling and it was in a spot we could touch. It was nice to relax, swim and look at the colorful fish swimming all around us.
Swimming and snorkeling! For Christmas Jake got me a waterproof, shock proof camera that we were able to take into the water with us to capture some of the fish to share with the girls. Here are a couple of the fish we encountered near the coral as we were swimming just off the beach at Barbados. If you look closely you can see another fish down in near the sand in the corals.
We had beautiful fish swimming all around us. This type of fish we saw several times. I am not sure of the name but it was pretty with its face turquoise blue, a couple black stripes, and a golden yellow body. We had the opportunity to see a lot of different fish but with us swimming, but the fish were moving quickly so it was hard to capture all them.
Beautiful fish off the beach of Barbados! This was probably one of my favorite ones that we seen next to the beach. It was really beautiful almost rainbow striped with vibrant colors (taking its’ picture under water doesn’t do it justice but it is the closest we could come).
Turtle swimming right below us at Barbados! I cannot express how much I enjoyed swimming with the turtles in Barbados! It was such an amazing experience to be swimming right beside a huge turtle, beautiful and peaceful at the same time. I could literally reach out and touch the turtles. Turtles really are awesome swimming and it was almost relaxing just watching them glide through the water. I hope to do this again some day!
A couple of sting rays swimming right underneath us! Two sting rays were swimming together right beneath us. Wonder if they were a family! We seen them several times always near each other swimming. I didn’t get as close to the two sting rays but it was very excited to see them swimming with us.
Hey Friend! Words cannot explain how excited I was to swim with the turtles on Barbados! Gorgeous turtle swimming right in front of us. I never thought of turtles as beautiful animals until this experience in Barbados. We were blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy so much of our wonderful creation from animals to plants and so much more during our trip. Karlie is our girl who loves sharks, rockets, planets, matchbox cars and animals. She was so excited to see this turtle and amazed that we could be swimming with them. She had two questions for us after seeing this picture – She wanted to know why we couldn’t bring it home with us to put him in our turtle tank, ha! Her second question was “Did we get to swim with any sharks?”
A sting ray scooting along the ocean floor right below us! One of the sting rays swimming below us on the ocean floor. Simply amazing!
Josh and Amber flipped their jet ski, opps! I had my first experience riding on a jet ski in Barbados as well. It was all I could do to hold on and not fall off when we were racing across the ocean so there weren’t as many pictures of us ON the jet ski’s. Shortly after we got on the jet ski’s I look over at Josh and Amber riding and see Amber hanging off the back followed by a crash and a flipped jet ski. Although difficult we managed to get the jet ski flipped back over but they had to go into shore to get another one to ride. Thankfully, we only had to do that once. It was pretty funny sight to see though!
Mom and Dad relaxing on the beach! Mom relaxing in the shade and Dad sunning himself after getting wet jet skiing. The tide was moving in during our time at the beach so Mom, Dad and Becky thankfully rescued our backpacks, shoes, water bottles and other stuff from floating out. To this day I still don’t know how we didn’t lose something with the number of times we were chasing sandals in the current and moving the canopy back.
Beautiful flowers in Barbados! Beautiful flowers to welcome and wave us goodbye on the island of Barbados. They thought the rain was refreshing and delightful as much as we did. You can still see some of the rain drops on the flowers and leaves!
We had a blast on Barbados! Swimming with the turtles, sting rays, snorkeling and jet skiing were amazing. The time flew by so quickly! It was a great day with family! We created a lot of neat memories and had the opportunity to enjoy new experiences. I highly recommend Blue Monkey beach if you ever get a chance to visit Barbados!!!
A Vacation To Remember series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Go with a good attitude and looking for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Vacation: “Catamaran Adventure” on Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Part 2 – Pictures)
We enjoyed visiting the beautiful island of St. Maarten!
Here are some pictures we took during our excursions that day!
A map of St Maarten in the port! When we got out at each port there were maps of the location and usually a lot of people offering to “help” us see the island. We had our excursions planned the day before so it allowed us the freedom to say “No Thank You” to all the offers. Plus one of the many benefits to going on an excursion that was through the cruise line was that they guaranteed that you would arrive back on the ship in time or they would hold the boat for you. When you go on an independent excursion if you don’t make it back to the port on time they just leave you!
Mom and Dad in St Maarten! Mom, Dad, Jake, and I walked through the town. It was neat seeing all the different shops and talking with the people that lived on the islands.
Spending time together in St. Maarten! (Jake & Bridgette) It was difficult getting a picture near signs without having other tourists in the middle of the shot. This sign was further on away from the port so we were able to get pictures without a group of random people being in it. This picture was taken on the edge of a little park in Philipsburg.
Huge private boat docked at the same port! We were told that it was Steven Spielberg's boat! This boat was huge and docked near our ship, it was Steven Spielberg’s boat (or so we were told)! You know a private boat is big when they have garages on their boat for smaller boats!
Snorkeling near St Maarten, somehow I was one of the first people in the beautiful water! Snorkeling was a fun adventure! It always takes some time getting use to the gear but everyone had fun swimming around!
We saw some schools of Black & Yellow striped fish and pieces of metal during our snorkeling adventure! Our camera is waterproof so Jake was able to bring it into the water and take some pictures of the fish. They were a little harder to see with all the sand in the water but we still found a few.
We saw several beautiful and huge boats on our excursion! We saw some amazing ships while on the catamaran. I had no idea that there were so many private boats. It was a beautiful place to visit.
The airport was so close to the beach it literally looked like the airplanes were landing on the beach with all the people! It was really neat watching an airplane land in St Maarten. The plane really looked like it was going to land on the beach with all the people.
Helicopter that had crashed on the port....now retired! We saw this helicopter on the port on our way back on the catamaran. It had a rough life that ended in a crash and was being stored on the pier. We knew our little one who enjoys cars, trucks and planes would get a kick out of seeing this one.
One of the Beach Taxi Boats going back and forth all day! If you are planning on going to the beach these Beach Taxi Boats were a great choice. You could ride them as much as you like all day for $6. They went back and forth every few minutes. You could spend the morning at the beach go to the boat for lunch then come back to the beach and hang out for the rest of the afternoon.
A Vacation To Remember series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Go with a good attitude and looking for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
