five days at sea

yup, that's right. we did it again! this time last year we went on a five days bahamas cruise to celebrate our second anniversary. and this year, we decided to go yet another time. :) this time, we were celebrating our third anniversary! three down, a million more to go, iA ;)

we would be sailing from jacksonville this time around, instead of south carolina. we drove in on monday morning, and made it just in time for embarkment.

the next five days would be spent on the carnival elation, which we found to be a lot newer than the fantasy, which was our ship from last year. the first day at sea was spent getting familiar again with the cruise ship, finding our way around, and learning the schedule of events happening on board. 

elegant night is always my favorite! everyone gets to dress their best for a nice formal dinner. and they have photographers all over the ship to take professional pictures. :)

husband surprised me with this! a few free things for my birthday :) found this when we came into the room that night after dinner

 the third day of our cruise, we stopped at half moon cay for the day. this is a private island owned by carnival. it was the most beautiful lagoon. the water was the perfect temperature, and it wasn't very deep. there also wasn't crazy waves. for someone who is scared of water and can't swim, it was ideal lol. but just in general it was such a pretty little piece of paradise that i didn't want to leave. i'll never forget this day!
another cool thing was that our ship was anchored in the middle of the ocean and we were brought to the island on a ferry :)

day four was in nassau, bahamas. because we had already explored the city on our last cruise, we didn't spend much there. we walked around a bit and got some nice pictures but then it was back on the ship for us. the free pizza and ice cream was calling our name! ;)

 ^^the lido deck. our favorite spot :) we'd spend so much time here. during the day and lots of random late nights :)

 ^^cruise director and his assistant! these guys made the cruise that much more fun. they were so funny

 ^^life size chess, anyone?

^^one of the entertainment nights consisted of 'guess that song'  in which the cruise director, alex, asked saad to dance to michael jackson lol. this was such a fun night :)

i never thought i'd enjoy a cruise as much as i do. a lot of it has to do with saad. he makes it all so much fun :) i loved spending that five days with him, disconnected from the internet and just making some amazing memories together. i'm already wanting to do it again! maybe we will soon..iA ;)

a few short days in the city..

here's another throwback to one of our trips to new york city and jersey. to be honest, the weather was horrible. it was wet and cold and not much fun at all :/ but still, we managed to enjoy it as much as we could. the food, of course, made it worth it! ;)

we hung out in times square, ate halal guys and kati roll. i had insomnia cookies which was the best chocolate chip cookie i've ever had in my life. we walked central park, climbed a rock, and took some selfies! also, we visited rutger's university to eat from one of the famous grease trucks. 

p.s. i swear i took more than that one outfit for the entire trip..lol. :/

my twenty-sixth birthday..and an update

hey guys! so i know i've fallen so behind on keeping up with the blog. there's been SO much stuff going on. we're currently finishing out the month of ramadan, alhamdulillah, which means a little bit of down time to focus on ourselves a bit. but we've been quite busy the past few months with some traveling (which you will see in some later posts) and some pre-wedding events for the husband's younger sister. not only that, but one of my best friends is getting married at the end of august, and my sister just got engaged recently! there is a lot of celebrating to look forward to so i can't complain :)

i'm going to throw it back to my twenty-sixth birthday which was on may 3rd!
as always, there was a midnight surprise from my in laws. those never get old :)

and now, for the presents from the husband, and my sister. also, a surprise that i wasn't expecting!

 ^^two dozen red roses from him. so pretty!

 ^^he surprised me with these! had them delivered to the house :))

 ^^presents from him! 

^^close up of these because wow, they'r so pretty <3 the bag is a creamy white, and the wallet is pastel pink. i'm in love with these

 ^^gifts from them :))

 ^^half ways through this book already!

 ^^i love morphe. some amazing eye shadows

^^and a gift card to buy more make up lol

for dinner, saad planned a dinner for the two of us at atlanta's revolving restaurant at the westin! this place was awesome. the food was delicious, and the views were amazing! we got to get all dressed up and be fancy for the night ;) 

 ^^wearing the dress he got me :)

 ^^that bag though ;)

 ^^used my new morphe pallet! 

this was one of my favorite birthdays yet! i'm so blessed for saad, for his family and for mine. thank you to them for making the day so special for me. <3

and here's to being twenty-six! still can't get over the fact that i'm not sixteen anymore. can't believe that was ten years ago! i never imagined i'd be where i am today back then. but i'm lucky and blessed that this is my life :)