It's hard to imagine...

It's hard to imagine 80 degree weather in the middle of November, but not when you're in the Caribbean! Stephen and I just spent the last week soaking up some sun and almost forgot what time of year it was. We couldn't imagine that it was 30 degree here in Utah while we're enjoy the palm trees and sun. We had such a fun time with my family on our week long cruise. You get my mom and dad, all my brothers and sisters and their spouses away from the kids and the party begins. It was great! Cruises are definitely a fun way to travel! I must warn you though, this might be kind of a long post. Since I'm using this blog as my online journal. I've included a few pictures that I've got. (My camera died the first day) sad...but there were plenty of others to document our adventures. I just haven't gotten any of their copies yet.

We flew down to Florida on Saturday, and met up with my two brothers and their wives who are living in Texas, and New Jersey. By the time we got our luggage to the hotel room it was late and we were hungry. Well the only restaurant with in walking distance was Taco Bell. The next day was Sunday and since we didn't have to get on the boat until that afternoon, we found a ward close by. It was great we saw alligators roaming the canals close by the church. I also ran into a good friend from my Orem ward who had just moved down there with her husband who's getting his PHD. (It's amazing how small the world is within the church.) It was great to see her and chat. As we boarded the boat that afternoon, the festivities were ready and waiting. I think one of the things we got the most out of this trip, beside all the beautiful places we saw, was all the good food we ate! Yumm. I would say that we all gained a few extra pounds. We decided though, that since we don't drink, we EAT!

That next morning we woke up in paradise. We spent the first day at Princess Cays, Bahamas. It was a small island, and we had to load up into the "tenders" or the life boats to make it to the island. That day we mostly played in the water, went snorkeling and soaked up the sun.

Tuesday was another day on the boat. It was so fun a bunch of us went to a ball room dance class, we watched a magician, played in the hot tub, played miniature golf and most importantly slept in and relaxed.

The next day we were off in St. Maarteen. This was also a tiny island where part of the island is French and the other part is Dutch. A few of us decided to rent Mopeds for the day. This was quite the adventure. We had a blast riding around, getting lost, and trying to find our way in a place that doesn't believe in using stop lights. It's a good thing Stephen was driving. We ended up finding some ruins from a Hurricane that hit about 10 years ago. It was weird to see a swimming pool filled up with sand and building knocked down to their foundations. We also found a beautiful beach, but we're kind of nervous because we heard most beaches on this island were nude. As we got closer to the water, I don't think I have been so relieved to see that everyone was wearing a swimsuit. With that we jumped into the bluest water I've ever seen and snorkeled. I did however see my first jelly fish, which really scared me. I was done being in the water after that.

Then on Thursday we landed on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas. We did an excursion that day and rented a catamaran(Sailboat) and sailed over to another island. Where we again put on the snorkeling gear and snorkeled some more! (I don't think I could every get tired of this!) We saw some beautiful coral, sponges, fish, some more jellyfish and even a sting ray. On our way back to the boat, we did some shopping!

Our last day at port was on Friday and we spent the day at Grand Turk. Here Stephen and a few of my brother who recently got certified for Scuba Diving, went out and did a couple of dives. There was a 7,000 ft drop-off a couple hundred yards off shore. They went and explored about 70 feet down under. They had a great time exploring the world down below. While they were off scuba diving the girls went shopping and relaxed on the beach. This island had just been hit by a hurricane in the middle of October. They had just planted 100 palm trees the day before we arrived. We also found some amazing conch shells. They were the biggest seashells (at least 2-3lbs a piece) I'd ever seen! There were loads of them scattered all over the beach. We spent half the morning finding seashells and more we found the more we wanted to take home. On our search my brother Matt found a coconut still in it's husk. It was pretty funny to see him try to break it and crack it open.

On Saturday we spent another day on the boat heading back to Florida. There was always so much to do on the ship. My favorite was we were able to go on a tour through the galley (kitchen). It was amazing to see how and where they prep to feed 4,000 people 3 (or more in our case) meals a day. I loved going and getting breakfast and then bringing it down to our stateroom and eating it on our balcony.

It was so hard to go back to work on Monday and face reality after such a fun and relaxing trip. It was great to spend some time with my brothers who I hadn't seen in over 6 months.

Cami & Rodney

I can't believe it's already November, last month went by way too fast. We had a great weekend. Although it was Halloween, we didn't get into much of the festivities. We had Stephen's family staying with us. They were here for a quick trip this weekend because his cousin Cami got married on Saturday. Stephen's sister Meghan came out on Wednesday and his parents arrived on Friday. We had such a blast hanging out. We spent many hours staying up late laughing. I'm lucky to say I've got great in-laws. We had a fun time and even spent a little while up at our cabin. Although it was a quick trip. We seemed to have happened upon a huge owl that it living right close to our cabin. It was so amazing and big. We wished they didn't have to go so soon. On Saturday, we spent the day with all the wedding festivities. It was a great day and I always love going to a live sealing and it was neat to do one in the Salt Lake Temple. We are so excited for them!