cruise, part 2

On Wednesday we were in port, this time in Puerto Rico. I again woke up early, went out to the balcony (ask Spencer how happy he was with how "loud" I was every morning as I waited for him to wake up) and watched us pull in. It was big-city looking. We had chosen to go to the rainforest on a tour that morning, and Brian and Camille were going to go zip-lining but changed to our excursion after rain was in the forecast.

It DID rain in the rainforest, but it was pretty and my smart husband had packed an umbrella. We could see so far from the top of the mountain, and it was nice to have a break from swimsuits and sunburns for the day.

Spencer started doing this every single time we took a picture...

We also visited the fort in San Juan, and old San Juan. I was really excited about old San Juan, but it was SO HOT and after we got our souvenirs I was pretty much done.

It was also waaay past lunchtime. We took a few pictures, ate at authentic American chains (Subway and Wendy's) and then it started POURING. We headed back to the boat and I got excited for our next destination...this destination was the entire reason I chose this specific cruise.

But back to our Wednesday... we had made reservations to eat in the steakhouse that night. None of us was super impressed with the dining room. It was fine, but nothing spectacular. I'm glad we went to the steakhouse, because the food was MUCH better than the dining room. Except for my meal. I chose lobster ravioli and it was super gross. But the cheesecake was amazing, the caesar salad was fantastic, and the service was perfect, which totally made up for the gross ravioli. Everyone else was very happy with what they got.

This is what 14 oz of cheesecake looks like, in case you were wondering.

On to our next stop...Turks and Caicos (Grand Turk)!

I have heard such phenomenal things about this place, but it is SO expensive to get there/stay there, so when I saw that the cruise went for a day I realized this might be the only way we could set foot there. Our port stay was only 6 hours (11 am-5pm) so we knew we had to make the most of it.

We pretty much ran off the cruise boat and headed outside the gates of the property where we knew we could rent vehicles. We had thought of renting mopeds, realizing the island was pretty small (about 6 miles total) but there were only 3 and they looked more like real motorcycles. So, we rented a Jeep instead, which was really fun. Brian drove, since he has more recently driven on the wrong side of the road.

The guys we rented it from pointed us to a beach where we could rent Hobie Cats, which was Brian's only real desire the entire week. We headed a few miles away to Pillory Point Beach, which turned out to be a great choice. On our drive you could not help but notice the poverty all over the island. I realize this is common on Caribbean islands, but it just seemed like the biggest dichotomy ever...on one side of the car were THE most beautiful beaches I had ever seen, and on the other were the most awful-looking shack homes ever. There were donkeys and wild animals everywhere, the roads were awful (thank goodness we didn't do the motorcycles), and it was just so dirty.

We got to the beach and I was greeted with this. Oh man! It really was this gorgeous, if not more. Definitely the most beautiful beach/water I had ever been to.

It was a resort, but it was a small one, so the crowds were minimal. Right as we got here they announced a snorkeling excursion and we decided to go for it. They would take us out to "the shelf," a section where the ocean floor dropped from 20 feet to 7000, just like that. It supposedly had amazing snorkeling. Before I realized what we were doing we were dropping anchor (Spencer was) and I was in the water. I got panicky for a minute because the fish were literally bumping into me and touching me, thanks to my husband, and to Brian...who were feeding them right next to me. My mask and snorkel were both leaky so once Spencer traded with me (love him!) it became so much better. We wanted to see more cool stuff so we swam a bit away from the boat and the masses of people that had come from the cruise boat on catamarans.

Once we got away a little bit I really enjoyed it. We saw huge schools of fish, made up of over 200 fish, swimming perfectly together. We also saw a sting ray! Beautiful. I know the lady in St. John told us Leinster Bay was the best snorkeling ever, but here in Grand Turk it was pretty darn amazing. We never did see a sea turtle because I think there were too many people. We were glad we didn't come with the cruise excursion...because they ALL had to wear life vests the whole time. :) (Brian and Camille used their new underwater camera and told us they would email us a few good ones they got of us here, so I'll put those up when I get them.)

After snorkeling was done we went back to the beach to hang out. It was just so pretty, and while we had intentions of beach-hopping in our Jeep, we couldn't yet peel ourselves away. Brian got to rent his Hobie Cat. We were all apprehensive to sail with him because he said he thought he knew what he was doing and it had only been 10 years since he took sailing lessons... Camille, being the supportive wife she is, went out with him and once I saw him zipping that boat all over I realized he had had us fooled. We all got a turn, and it was a lot of fun.

Camille and I got pina coladas - the best one I have EVER had, and just relaxed for a while.

We gathered some coral and shells that had washed up in abundance, and decided to head off.

We drove to the lighthouse on the other side of the island, where the water is even more gorgeous (too rocky though), and read about how it is in debate if Christopher Columbus actually landed here instead of Hispaniola. We rushed back to the port with about 20 minutes to spare, in order to shop a bit. We met some people from Utah while getting back on the ship, who we (meaning Spencer) had a run-in with the next day...

We definitely had a hard time leaving Grand Turk. It ended up being the most perfect day. I was so tired that night I barely made it to dinner, but we were just so happy with how it had gone. What a beautiful place.

cruise, part 1

Several months ago Spencer and I were talking about going on a vacation. A real vacation (NOT a trip). We figured now was probably a good time because it's just getting harder and harder to leave, and more busy with callings and the kids, etc. I looked into going to Mexico or Puerto Rico but Spencer reminded me that his idea of a vacation is definitely not sitting on a beach or by a pool for a week. Oh yeah. Of course! So I started looking into cruises. And I'm glad I did. You stay in the same place every night, food is taken care of for you, with your only decision being what to eat, and you see lots of destinations. With our only problems being slight seasickness, missing the kids so bad, and Spencer almost getting into a fight with a Ute...it went off without a hitch!

We convinced our really good friends to come with us and that perhaps was the best part of the whole trip. Having a group of 4 was perfect for shows, dinner, as well as the excursions. Brian and Camille had to cancel their trip to Cancun in January at the last minute, so this was their replacement trip. And they were the perfect travel buddies. If Camille didn't have Brian and 4 boys at home, she would make the perfect cruise director!

We flew my sister and her baby out for 6 days to watch the kids, and flew her husband out for the weekend with the hopes that it would be more of a fun vacation instead of a working trip. (I reminded her a few times that kids come one at a time for a reason, and going from 1 to 4 wouldn't be that easy.) We were off early in the morning for a full day of flying to Miami.

We got in that night and went to our hotel, which had pretty good ratings online. It was almost midnight when we pulled up, and the place was such a dive. But it was too late to do anything, and we weren't subjecting our kids to the nastiness, so we endured. The next morning we went down for breakfast, which was in the adjoining night club. We got the giggles a few times as we enjoyed looking at the velvet staircases, the dancing poles, and everything else that made it out of our comfort zone.  Fun times in Miami. Spencer wanted to get up and dance but I made him hold back. (I took a picture but it was too dark and didn't turn out. Use your imagination.)

We met up with our friends at the port and hung out, waiting for embarkation. Getting on the ship was quite an ordeal, but we were lucky and were on the Panorama Deck - deck 10. We had a balcony, which turned out to be totally worth the extra $200. We webcammed with the kids one last time for a week, and as we pulled out of Miami we explored "Serenity" - a child-free zone at the front of the boat. We just relaxed on the huge hammock. It was nice at first to go be in a quiet place, but by the end of the trip all I wanted was to be around kids.

Do you like my toes? I got so many compliments on them! Someone even told me she recognized me by my toes. :) My friend sells these (tons of different styles) and they are awesome.

Our first stop was Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. It's an island owned by Carnival, and I imagine it is just gorgeous. At least it seemed that way from all the postcards we saw. To us, it was a rainy and stormy mess! We had to be tendered from the ship to the small port, and got off because we had planned a snorkeling excursion. Luckily we went in the water briefly when we got there because the rain just got harder and harder and we finally dragged our soaked bodies back to the tender boat. That was pretty depressing, and Camille and I worried so much that the rest of our trip would be equally as disappointing. Oh, and the excursions were all cancelled.

Oh the irony of this picture...because we couldn't wait to leave.

Monday was our first of two days at sea. I was so nervous when I woke up (at 6:30, every single day) and nervously peeked outside. I was so thrilled to see sunlight! I ran out to reserve deck chairs (which turned out to be a smart move) and we spent almost the whole day outside. There was a big screen, and music playing all day. Camille and I even went down the waterslide. The boys just watched us - can you believe that? I read almost the entire book of The Hunger Games while I soaked up the sun and occasionally hopped in the pool. We also played mini golf and the boys played dodge ball and knock out. Spencer won two medals and I gave him the task of getting one more before the cruise was over...since we have 3 kids and 2 medals just wouldn't cut it.

(the waterslide was salt water so i really wanted to avoid my hair getting wet and sticky)

Tuesday was our 2nd port day, but really our first since the Bahamas was such a disaster. Again I woke up to sunshine (hooray). We had a great plan to catch the ferry from St. Thomas to St. John and spend the day there.

On the ferry we ran into some ladies who gave us the name of a bay on St. John I had never heard of, but they swore it had the best snorkeling in the world. Leinster Bay. First we headed to Trunk Bay, and snorkeled there.

The beach was gorgeous and the water was beautiful but the snorkeling was just ok. We grabbed lunch, convinced a taxi driver to take us to Leinster Bay (hard to get to) and worked it out with him that he would wait for us exactly 1 hour so he could get us back to the ferry to St. Thomas in time.

We had to walk a mile in to where we could get in the water. In fact, my shins hurt the next day from speed-walking in flip flops. We saw deer and goats. We got as close as we could to the little island (Watermelon Cay), dropped our stuff, and took off for the snorkeling. It was gorgeous. We saw way more fish than we had in Trunk Bay, but we had no fins and we were tired from all the swimming, especially in the strong current. Camille ran into another snorkeler who told us the time and we had to book it back to shore and get back to the taxi in about 10 minutes. It was crazy, but oh so worth it. I even got to (had to?) see a jellyfish. When I was in St. John 16 years ago I saw lots and lots of jellyfish so that will always be what I remember about that island...

Our taxi driver was there when we needed him to be, and didn't charge us extra for waiting. He got a nice tip.

We hopped on to the ferry to St. Thomas, did a little shopping there, and ran back onto the ship. I remember being exhausted that night, and that's about it...

One thing about our ship was that the entertainment was phenomenal. Not only was our 26 year old cruise director so much fun, and so great at her job, but the singers and dancers were really great. We loved the shows almost every single night. The comedians weren't as good but that wasn't a huge deal as we didn't feel comfortable going to most of their shows anyway. Camille brought some card games so we would do that at night when the entertainment wasn't ideal (rare; only 2 of the 7 nights).

emma's talk

*I just found this in my drafts but want to publish it, even though it is now 6 months later...

Spencer will forever claim that the best Sunday of the year is the Primary Program Sunday.

Emma was asked to give a talk on forever families last October, for the primary program. She did fabulous, of course. Here it is:

Nine years ago my mom and dad got married in the temple.They were sealed, which means that we will all be together forever.  I was born, and then Tyler. My baby sister Macie died right before she was supposed to be born. It was really sad. But it would have been more sad if we didn’t know about Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation.We had lots of talks about how we will all be together again someday.

On the drive to the cemetery on the day of the funeral I started singing “My Life is a Gift.” Everyone in the car started crying. Our lives do have a purpose and began in heaven. I will live there again, with my entire family, including Macie.

I’m grateful that we can have families and be sealed to them in the temple. One day I will be married in the temple too.

The chapel was silent. I don't think I've had a prouder moment.

I know there is a hole in Emma's heart, longing for that little sister.  She told me a few weeks ago that it's ok if she doesn't have a baby sister...but then she asked for a fish instead. I love that girl of mine.

Easter and spring break

Our kids always get the Friday before Easter, and the entire following week off for Spring Break. This year we took the motorhome out for one night on the weekend and because we missed the local egg hunt, the Easter Bunny brought the eggs to the campsite!

It took Tanner a minute to figure it out but he caught on quickly and has been saying "candy" pretty consistently ever since.

We made the big kids wait inside for a minute until Tanner figured out what he was doing. They were hovering like vultures...

I know the grocery bags are super trashy (ha) but we were in the motorhome and it was all we had...

Don't you love watching your kids discover things for the first time? It just doesn't lose its novelty, even when it's discovering something as simple (or unhealthy) as Easter candy.

We spent several hours at the beach, where each of the kids did their own thing and had a lot of fun. The weather was gorgeous. Nice...considering all the rain we've had lately. Tyler is so different from Emma and Tanner. He is so fun, and I have learned to just "go with it" with him...and he's much happier in his very own element.

Here is our traditional Easter picture in front of our bright pink azeaelas. I stuck Tanner there and told him to say "cheese" and he did! Maybe we're past the screaming for pictures stage...? I sure love his face. And all of their faces! The fact that his face was even clean is a reason to celebrate. And...you can't tell me this isn't the sweetest picture.

I taught the lesson in YW that day and treasured the hours I got to spend preparing. I made up booklets for everyone about the last week of the Savior's life (events, etc.), split into the different days. We also showed some of the church's new Bible videos, and because some of the girls recognized someone in those videos it kept their interest even more.

Rain has kinda dictated our week. We went to the beach again on Monday, during the one clear/warm-ish day. It is pure heaven to let your kids out onto the huge sandy playground, where they are happy and entertained for hours. We took a risk and headed to a mostly-outdoors discovery museum yesterday (and stayed dry! - phew)...the target age was probably about 2-5 so no one had the fabulous time I was envisioning. Tomorrow we finish off the week with an indoor pool/waterslide trip. I love having these kids home...it makes my job of entertaining Tanner so much easier. And they are so enjoyable! Can't wait for summer!

junk room turned toy room

March was a big RE-ORGANIZE month for me. I still don't quite know what got into me. I went through closets and shoes, trying to cut back on the clutter and on the crap. We have been in this house for 3 years now, and before that we had moved at least once a year. Moving was my way to de-clutter before, so I needed to do something about all the 3-year-accumulated stuff we had.

We have this great room between our kitchen/dining room and the garage - a HUGE laundry room. One side was always for the laundry stuff and the other was for junk. We had a couch that pulled out to a bed in there but it has only been used ONE time in 7 years so we decided it was no longer necessary. And by "we" I mean me. Spencer had his "office" in there as well, but with how often he works from home (almost never), I made the executive decision that he did not need an office.

We had two desks in here, so we got rid of the big one. We got rid of the couch, bought this 5x5 storage shelf thing, and moved the toys out of the kids' rooms (their rooms were ALWAYS messy) and into our new toy room. Spencer was sure the novelty would wear off but it hasn't! Tanner can often be found with his cheek on the floor, pushing trains or cars around. The kids play with pet shops and Legos in here now.

Before:

And the after...

I put a cork pinboard on the side of the shelving unit and decided to make it a little cuter. Spray paint!

The best part is having a toy room off my kitchen!! They ("they" meaning Tanner) can see me, and they still feel like they are close to me or next to me and aren't missing out by being on the other side of the house in their bedrooms.

I love it!