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!