March 2016 – The Traveling Sitter

Although it is already March of 2016 (my birth month by the way), I want to look back on the places I travelled to in 2015. Near the end of the summer, my friends and family were beginning to call me a gypsy because I was always on the go and visiting a different place.

January

I began 2015 in Texas which wasn’t my home yet, I was just here for a visit with the Beck family. I ended the month with a cruise to the Bahamas with my friend Lisa. It was my 5th cruise and Lisa’s 1st. We sailed out of Jacksonville, Fl to Nassau and Freeport. This was my first cruise without my parents. While in Nassau, I swam with Dolphins for the first time! Swimming with Dolphins should be on everyone’s bucket list. It was an experience I will never forget.

March

The only traveling in March I did was going to Disney World in Orlando with my friend Madison. She is truly my Disney friend. I can see us as 60 year olds going to Disney together. Our Disney trips are always entertaining. We started the trip by going to see the new Cinderella movie at the theater in Downtown Disney. After being in traffic for what seemed like hours, we found our seats with only 30 seconds to spare. We wanted to cry because we thought we would be late. One of the highlights from our trip was meeting two older ladies (they were best friends) at one of the Disney bus stops who showed us what they pack in their “emergency Disney bags.” They were just walking around the park for the day. They said it was doctors orders. After spending a few days at Disney, we went down to Seawalls Point, Fl to visit Madison’s dad. While attempting to paddle board at the beach or should I say get the paddle board in the water, the board decided to attack me and now I have a forever dent in my right upper leg. Our trip will now never be forgotten.

June and July

For all of June and the first half of July, I was in Texas helping out with Chloe (I’m like an older sister to her) and spending time with the Beck family. This is when God started speaking to me about moving here. The end of July, I flew from Houston to North Carolina to meet up with friends from dance. From North Carolina, we drove to Ocean City, Maryland for a dance workshop. One of my dance students were invited to attend and I wanted to go support her.

August

This is the month that I traveled to the most places. I began by driving to Virginia to visit a sweet family and close friend of mine that had recently moved there. I rode with them to New Jersey for a dance competition. A few of the Life Moves Competition dances were invited to the World Dance Championship. While in New Jersey, we took a bus into New York City and spent an afternoon sight seeing. I could see the city from my hotel window in New Jersey. One night at my hotel in the lobby, somehow I ended up winning an unplanned plank contest. I held a plank for 24 minutes and won a cash prize. I went back to Virginia from New Jersey and spent one more night with my sweet friends. The next day, I drove to Cleaveland, TN to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins. While in TN, I drove to Clarksville and stayed a night with the Fox family and I stopped by to see one other family who I babysat for in GA. After, I drove back to my Aunt’s house for a couple more nights then I drove to Belmont, North Carolina to visit the McCotter family who I also babysat in GA. This is when I was beginning to be called a gypsy. I was just going house to house and spending a couple days at each place.

September

This is the month I moved to Texas. I drove half way and stopped in Mississippi and stayed with a long time friend who I call my cousin. I arrived in Texas on September 3.

October – November

I flew to Ga for my best friend’s wedding, my first train ride with my aunt Robyn and the end of the month I went on my 6th cruise with my family. Let me just say, train rides are very dangerous. Anyone and anything could get past security because there is no security. One of the workers didn’t hesitate to ask a passenger for a piece of fried chicken when she smelled it. After she had her chicken, she asked if anyone else had food to share. We had a fun ride all the way from Savannah to Jacksonville. Driving would’ve been faster but we were making memories which was all that matters. My cruise was a Halloween cruise and lasted 8 days. We travelled to Grand Turk, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, and San Juan. It was my favorite cruise EVER!!! The Carnival Sunshine is the ship we were on and it had awesome slides, a rope course, and of course great food. The cruise director, Jaime Dee, was awesome and very friendly. The dancers were all great as well. Grand Turk is definitely my favorite port! You walk off the ship and you are at the beach. I met some very nice crew members as well. I try to stay in contact with some of them on facebook. Anytime you have questions about cruises, I’m a great person to contact. I flew back to my new home in Texas after the cruise.