Caribbean Cruise - Grand Cayman

Many of you may know that Troy and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this October. We decided (well, I informed Troy) that we would be taking a week long Caribbean Cruise. I thought I would share some photos from each of our stops.

Stop #1 - Grand Cayman.
This is a picture from our ship. It is a beautiful island.

There was a pirate boat in the harbor. I thought that was pretty cool (despite the fact that it was filled with a bunch of American tourists). It looked cool from afar.


This is our ship, the Carnival Valor. It looks like it is tilting to the left because all of the fat people had to sleep on the left. Makes sense, right? You should have seen the chaos when the ship turned around and all the fat people had to move all their stuff to the other side of the ship. Not pretty!

This was the most "touristy" of our stops but there were still plenty of gorgeous beaches and warm water to snorkel in. Can you see that large group of people headed toward the sea of blue beach chairs? Those are people from our cruise that paid $40/each to go to the same beach we did. We just hopped in a taxi and said "take us to a nice beach." I guess we didn't get the beach chairs BUT we didn't have to "stay between the cones" either.

Troy is making some snorkeling preparations.

Now for the floating part. Troy is a very good Floater. Another hidden talent that we weren't aware of. I have now captured it on film for all of our posterity.

On our 10 mile walk back to the ship (we like to think we were "sight seeing"), we saw some cool green lizards. I took a picture. There are two of them. Can you see them both? Fun little game, don't you think? At this point, Troy had decided I was completely insane. Who chases lizards through a hedge? Me.

After leaving the beach I started worrying that perhaps I hadn't taken enough pictures of the white, sandy beaches. So, the only place I could still find some of it was....on my feet. See the pretty white sand? I didn't want anyone to miss it. I hope this picture fills any voids the previous pictures may have left.

While walking, we decided we were hungry. We looked to and fro for some authentic Caribbean food. Thank goodness we found some. Caribbean Whoppers are slightly more expensive than American ones. Still quite tasty.


By the time we got back to the port we were soaked. It rained and rained and rained from about mile 6 to mile 10. It had been a long time since we took a walk in the rain together. I think it was a very sweet, romantic (and perhaps chaffing) experience for at least one of us. Ahhh, the memories!


Love you, honey. Happy Anniversary!
(more photos to come)

Bug Buddies...or so we thought.

The other night Troy and I watched a show on TV. It was titled "Bug Wars." There were all of these disgusting bugs that had incredible abilities. You know, a spider that could jump 3 feet. The equivalent of a human jumping 3 stories up into the air. There were other bugs with spiny legs that held their prey while their monster jaws and sharp blades cut them in half. I got so excited about the disgusting little things that I even pushed the 'record' button on the DVR. The finale of the show got me thinking about some pictures we took of our daughters recently. Apparently the Praying Mantis is one of the most lethal of all bugs. It can eat some sort of desert cricket by pulling its legs off and then eating it from the inside out (still alive, of course). Had I known all of these interesting facts about said "bug" I would not have allowed my daughters to play with them.



Now that I know all of the "facts" I will not be allowing such mindless and dangerous play. We are so thankful that all of our girls legs are still intact and that they were not eaten alive!

Mullet

My dear little Aeva had a mullet. Sad to say, but true. Something had to be done. I grabbed my scissors and went to work. How hard can it be? It is only 5 inches long for Heaven's sake. Dum-du-dum....drum roll, please. Here are the results...

and from the posterior angle....

and we also have a lateral view.

Good thing we have a portable DVD player. I can get away with murder while my child's brain is being sucked out minute after minute. God bless technology (and candy. I love them both equally).

Running Man (and woman)

This past weekend we went to our first ever St. George Marathon starring Troy and Kati Haun.
We started off with a little pre-race drive of the course. Here they are at the starting line the day before.

Now for RACE DAY! This is at mile 16. They looked awesome! They didn't hang around long to talk to us but we did manage to grab a photo.

Here they are departing. Giving a few high-fives to the crowd. After all, we work very hard to DRIVE around the course and cheer them on. We deserve every high-five we can get.

The night before I took a little time and made a few inspirational posters to hang up along the course. You know, things to make them feel inspired (and a few things to make me feel good about being lazy). Here they are for the rest of us non-runners to enjoy.

Too bad I didn't think of any of these quotes myself. At least I took the time to find them. Not much else you can do from 26.2 miles away.

After mile 16 we headed for the finish line. We got in perfect position for some wonderful finishing shots. Finally, we saw them come around the corner. I threw the camera to my mom and I headed down to the front for some close ups on our video camera. Here is our first attempt at a picture. You know the one that shows the 2 triumphant runners with tears streaming down their faces...

Oops. I think that is a picture of the bleachers. No Troy or Kati in that one (hilarious).

Try number 2 resulted with this...

See the girl in the pink and the boy in the gray shirt? Yup, that is them. I didn't get much better on the video camera. Apparently they decided to "speed up" a bit at the end and it threw off our whole camera plan. Crappy digital cameras with those 15 second delays. Next time I will jump over the fence and demand that they stop and smile. This will have to do for this year.

Here we have Ms. Kati post race. Lookin good.

And Troy, popsicle at the ready.

Tricia, Kati's friend, also ran in the race. I am a proud wife, sister-in-law and friend. This is something I never dream of doing. I am glad I was there to share it with them. I commit to being a dedicated clapper for as many of them as they want to do. Go Team!

Here we have the devoted fans. My mom who is always willing to come along and her sister Holly. Thanks for coming! The more babysitters, I mean cheerleaders, the better.

And four more fans. 3 little ones and 1 slightly larger. Way to go, daddy! You worked hard for their popsicles. Totally worth it.

To top it off, a few pictures from the ride home. A little blurry but I was trying to drive simultaneously. Pretty good considering I didn't look back.

By the way, Arby's 5 for 5 does not exist in Fillmore. Very disappointing.

All in all, a very nice trip. I hope they sign up next year so that I can enjoy a weekend full of sun, smiles, amazing people, and my family. Nothing better than that. Run, Troy, Run!

Double Piggies

Aeva's hair is finally long enough that we can try something new. Our first attempt at "double-piggies." She isn't so sure at first...

Almost got it...

There's my baby...got the smile!