Bermuda - Day 7

We were very excited about our plan for Bermuda. We had decided to rent scooters and tour the island. We hadn't reserved them ahead of time, so in order to make sure we got some we booked it off the boat at the earliest possible moment and were the first people in the scooter office. The boys (who were the designated drivers) were safety briefed and then we were on our way.

Sean and Sarah knew of a rail trail that we could take to see some of the sights. It was a cool trail with little traffic and beautiful scenery. It was on this trail that we came across Fort Scaur. After walking the wrong trail through some fine Bermudian's backyard, we got oriented and found the cool old fort with interesting catacombs. Here is Matt looking at the cool cannon:

And Sean, Sarah, and Matt in the never ending catacomg tunnel:

Then we braved the streets of Bermuda on our scooters to tour downtown Hamilton and the beaches along South Road. On the way we stopped at Dobb's Hill Lighthouse:

Our last leg of the journey we toured all of the beaches on the way to the famous Horseshoe Bay beach. There wasn't much swimming involved due to the infestation of Japanese Man of War Jellyfish - whose sting is supposed to be highly painful. Nevertheless, all of the beaches were incredible. Some fun pictures from Horseshoe Bay:

Sean offered Sarah his shirt and she forgot to take off her helmet to put the shirt on. I still laugh every time I see this picture.

We kept chastising Sean for getting too much sun. This is him showing us how much he cared what we said!

Bermuda is beautiful and we have decided that it is a future destination for a fun family vacation because our only complaint was that we didn't have enough time to see everything!

Fun on the Ship

Me attempting to win the ship's Karaoke contest: "Princess Popstar"

Matt and me waiting in the Princess Theater for one of the shows to start

Matt and Sean in their twinner outfits waiting at the designated meeting spot

One of the fabulous desserts we ate - the sampling of all things dessert-like was my favorite aspect of the cruise

My favorite picture of Sean and Sarah - those crazy kids.

Formal night.

Crazy Antigua Pictures

Sean pretending to make a phone call

Me being an anchor

Matt working it

Me "sexy posing" on demand

Antigua

Day 3 On Antigua we didn't exactly have a game plan - so as we walked off of the ship and were inundated with taxi drivers looking for customers we found Choci who offered to take us on a tour of the island and drop us off and pick us up from the "best beach" on the island all for the same price as our one taxi ride on St. Thomas - we decided it sounded like a pretty good deal.

Our first stop with a National Park with a fort on the top of a mountain with an incredible view.

Then we went to the Naval Dockyard, which was also very scenic. We toured the museum and learned some of the history of the island and then spent some time taking crazy photos of each other. After one silly pose we adopted a "friend" who must have been entertained by our antics enough to follow us around. He offered to take our picture:

We also shared a cab with some crazy characters that had some interested comments as we continued on our tour through the rainforest and past the many beaches. One couple was from New Jersey and to them seeing a cow in a pasture was like seeing a lion on safari. It entertained me. It was really cool to see the pineapples and bananas growing like crazy among the foilage of the rainforest.

We spent some time on the beach, trying to stay out of the sun and then went into town for a little shopping. I think we bought one thing between the four of us and then went back to the boat.

Antigua was beautiful and ranks second in my favorite ports.

Sarah

At Sea

Days 3 and 4 On our days at sea, we spent the majority of the time eating and relaxing. Our favorite spot on the ship was in the back. We would lounge in our chairs and watch the sea stretch out to the horizon. The boys would swim in the pool with the crazy cold water and the girls would read celebrity news magazines in their lounge chairs.

Isn't Matt adorable?! I think he smiles the biggest when we are on a cruise!

We would get dressed up for dinner and some partying, but we wouldn't last long. Our only really late night was staying up playing "Pass the Popcorn" in our cabin.

Matt and I had pull down beds in a cabin that could potentially sleep four with two bunk beds. It significantly affected the "get out of bed without bumping your head" factor.

Some of our favorite things about our days at sea include:

-Seans Ultimate Kid's Package drink card = all the virgin Pina Coladas you can drink!

-Good shows with the drawback of sitting by annoying people

-The "Movies Under the Stars"

Our Big Trip - Day 2

Breakfast: Day Two. When Matt and I went on our last cruise, my family ate breakfast every morning at what Sean and Sarah lovingly called the "Belly Buffet." They veered us away from that and introduced us to eating breakfast in the dining room. It had all the luxuries of the belly buffet without the belly bumps and competitiveness. Nice. Can you tell our favorite thing about cruising is the food? Matt and all you can eat go together like peas and carrots!

So, now that the boys have full bellys (as pictured above) we could head out to our first port: St. Thomas!

Here you see Matt and I in front of our Cruise Ship: The Carribbean Princess. For our day in St. Thomas, we decided to bask on the beach. After some taxi craziness because we were caught off guard by the outrageous rates, we headed to what we were told was the best beach to snorkel at: Coki Beach. Our taxi ride there was interesting as our taxi driver wanted to avoid traffic and took us straight over what seemed to be the highest hill on the island, using outrageously steep and seemingly treacherous roads in order to speed us to our destination.

It paid off - an adventurous taki ride meant more time at the beautiful Coki beach. As promised, the snorkeling was memorable (according to Matt who spent literally every minute of our time there in the water). The drawback of this particular beach was having natives approaching us every five minutes to try and sell us something - a beach chair, a towel, an umbrella, drinks, drinks, and more drinks - and then, when they could bait us, they resorted to attempting to get us high by smoking weed right next to us in hopes that we'd lose our senses and spend the money. No, I am not being facetious!

The girls had hoped to get a little shopping in, but since the price on the taxi ride was so high, we just headed back to the ship when we were all sunned out. On the way back we were greeted by the indigineous iguanas. They were not afraid of people in the slightest as you can tell by Matt's proximity!

That evening was the first formal night on the ship. Sarah has some great pictures on her blog if you visit the Sean and Sarah blog link on the blog roll. I have some from the second formal night that I will post when I get to that point...

We loved St. Thomas, but more islands awaited and so we bunked in our cabin that night in anticipation of more tropical treats!

Coming up: Antigua Day 3...

Our Big Trip - Days .5 & 1

So, about 10 weeks ago, Matt and Sean found a deal that just couldn't be passed up on a cruise that they had both requested for their 30th birthday present. It was booked and eight-ish short weeks later Sean and Sarah and Matt and myself were in the airport awaiting our flight to San Juan via JFK.

Red eye flights are not the easiest, but a few short blinks and some terrible New York airport customer service later - we landed in San Juan.

I was orange with joy to be on my way!

Before our ship sailed, we had some time to wander around Puerto Rico. Our first stop was an old castle, ur uh....something. It was historic. I'll say that much.

This was the crew deciding if we wanted to pay the entrance fees or not. Yeah, um....we didn't. Hence my lack of knowledge on what, exactly, we were visiting.

This was a cool old cemetery outside of the castle.

After leaving the "Castillo" we walked the streets of Old San Juan. It was a pretty city. I was, personally, a little too worn out to truly appreciate it charms. My favorite memories were the little street fair we visited and ate cheesy pizza empanadas and barbequed pork on plantains.

We did visit the Capitol - the building in the picture above - which was beautiful. I did enjoy that. But, I was very ready to get on the ship by the time we left there. Funniest memory of the day was hailing a taxi about five minutes from the ship and then being abandoned by the taxi driver for twenty minutes while he bought some CD's from his church. What? I was like: "This is terrible customer service! GET ME TO THE SHIP" kind of thing. My first and only anxiety attack of the trip - I think...?!

The first night on the ship I helped myself to the karaoke mic and we ate our first of many wonderful meals....

More to come on Our Big Trip...

Easter Weekend

I forget that when you upload photos, it reverses them - so these are in backward chronological order! My Dad was able to get tickets to conference this year - so Matt and I were blessed with opportunity of attending the Sunday afternoon session. It was so beautiful. It has been about 6 years since I have been to Conference at the Conference Center. The Spirit there was amazing and the time flew by so quickly! I was so grateful for the chance to be there.

Prior to Conference, the Easter Bunny was able to visit our house and we went on the hunt for our Easter baskets Sunday morning. It was fun to experience Lucy seeking out her basket and picking up the eggs in the egg hunts she went on Saturday. She is a serious riot - quick to pick up on things and entertaining to watch! I love his picture of her in her bunny ears!

On Easter Saturday, we attended the annual Clark family Easter Egg Hunt. This is typically held out on Stansbury Island - but the weather didn't cooperate so here is a family picture in Dave and Amy's backyard. The girls absolutely loved the afternoon we spent with the Clark family. Emma did not want to leave and asked if she could stay at "the fun house!"

Lucy enjoyed the Easter Egg hunt and came home with quite the load! The Clark family hunt is fun because all of the kids walk away with loot. Earlier in the day on Saturday, we went to the Farmington City Easter Egg Hunt. It was...freezing! And there were A LOT of people there! I was very worried about our girls walking away without a single easter egg. Emma did okay:

Mom did a little tugging and pulling through the crowds of the older kids. What made the hunt even more fun was that it was sponsored by Lagoon, so we walked away with four or five stuffed animals. It really made us feel like winners.

We had a great Easter weekend - and hope you did too!

Emma Scoots!

The entire last week was spent celebrating the birth of our now four year old Emma. Can you believe how big she has gotten! Her grandparents gave her a scooter for her birthday and she has literally been riding it everywhere! From bed to the bathroom to the kitchen to her friends house. I can't get her off the thing! The best part was, immediately after opening it, she said "Mom, I need a helmet!" I had not mentioned a helmet or even thought about it, but she was obsessed so we had to go to the store and get her a helmet so she would ride her scooter.

She seriously loves the thing. And we love her. She is a unique individual - always moving at her own pace and sometimes existing in her own world. She has always been the sweetest, most genuine little girl. We love having her in our family!

Here is a video of her on the scooter:

Happy Birthday Grandma Marilyn!

So, we are probably two days late now - Africa time. But, we don't mean it any less!

Happy Birthday Marilyn!

The Awesome House

This is Matt and Joel's awesome house. (Note: this post is not a sales pitch. I just love this house and am very proud of how it turned out and I want everyone to see it!)

This is the view from my favorite feature: the porch off of the Master Bedroom upstairs. It looks out onto a very cute park and would be an incredible place to watch Lagoon's fireworks from.

This is the Master Bedroom. See the door in the right corner - that is how you access the porch mentioned above.

This is looking into the Main Living Space from the kitchen. My other favorite thing about this house is how big it feels even though it is a Cottage Home - what Matt calls a "detached townhome."

And this is the beautiful kitchen. I can't even express how in love I am with this house. Matt and Joel have done a great job. It's available if you want to buy - but I have to say I am 100% dying to live in it myself! Emma is a little attached to it as well. The other day when we had just returned home from the store, she threw a little fit: "Mom! We're not home....We live in the RED HOUSE!"

Cupcake Crazy

Some of you may be aware of my obsession with cupcakes, some may not....BUT, you will pretty soon be exposed because I just bought this little book and am sooooooo excited. I spent all last night reading every recipe and have decided that I will now proceed to make every recipe, page 1 to page 287. Cupcake exploits. And, I think it will be fun to blog about it, like in Julie and Julia. No, I don't expect a movie to be made, or even that anyone will read about it - but I can't wait to get started. I'll link the blog so if you want to read about this crazy new pursuit, you can. Anyway....cupcakes at my house every day if you want one! Oh, and if you invite me to dinner, you can expect that I'll bring cupcakes for dessert!

Busy Birthday Blog

It seems like I have been a little blog-neglectful ever since I got on Facebook. Curses. I should be better. I just don't have much to say or any photos to post - due in part to the loss of our computer, but also due in part to me being "the busiest person (you) know." That is what Sarah told me today! What's funny is that I don't know what I am busy with. I just...am.

This last weekend I will admit to what kept me busy: Matt's Birthday and work. We had Farmington's Got Talent on Saturday, which went remarkably well. It was the first show I ran tech on, Erik helped me out on that. I didn't realize how much of a "techie" I am! I think I just love theater and everything that means. I wish I could post video of the girl who won. It would make for some serious YouTube uploading. She was 10 years old and slight of frame belting out "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls (Yes...the one that got Jennifer Hudson an Oscar) and she WAILED. It was awesome. She is scheduled to perform at Festival Days, so come and be amazed.

More importantly: Matt's Birthday. It was a big one. I am wishing I had a fantastic picture of his handsome face to have on this post, but I just don't at the moment. I will, however, list for you...in honor of him turning the big 3-0,

30 Reasons Why I Love Matt:

He can build me anything

He will clean the kitchen

He does the dishes

He knows anything and everything there is to know about cars

He is patient

He tells every little detail of a story

He will cook with me

He will eat and compliment almost everything I cook

He looks good in whatever he wears

He will go after what he wants

He is a good driver

He keeps me level-headed

He gives people the benefit of the doubt

He always has something good to say about others

He is a worthy priesthood holder

He works hard to be a good husband to me

He is very well-built and nice to look at

He plays the piano beautifully

He is a good father to Emma and Lucy

He likes to spend time with me

He makes me feel good about myself

He will watch chick-flicks with me

He is a good brother and son to his family

He gets along with my family

He still surprises me

He plays with the kids

He likes to make new memories with me

He will talk me to sleep when I can't get to sleep

He loves me for all the weird little quirks that make up who I am

Yea for Matt!

And yea for me recommitting to blogging. Hopefully you will hear from me again soon!

Christmas Morning

Yea, yea...I know I am way behind.

Our Christmas morning was fun. Santa splurged and get Emma and Lucy the kitchen Emma has been asking for. Along with the kitchen, Emma also got everything on her list: an umbrella, a pizza, and a tinkerbell thing. I love the picture of her with her umbrella (see below). You can just see the joy on her face when Santa listened and delivered!

Most memorable moment was having Emma walk in and wonder "Mom...did you buy me this kitchen?" "No, Emma - don't you remember what today is?" "Mom....did Santa buy me this kitchen?!!!!"

Lucy was still a little too young to understand exactly what was happening, but she is dang cute - don't you think?

You have never seen a three year old more enthused with the Christmas spirit than Emma was this year (to this day the only songs she sings are Christmas songs!) She talked about Santa, the elves, baby Jesus, jingle bells, Christmas trees, candy canes - literally NON-STOP. It was amusing to me that the morning of the day she had been so anticipating she had completely forgot what was going on!
To truly illustrate Emma's Christmas spirit, watch below: