Cruise 2011...

With such a belated Spring, a cruise was a huge delight this year.  We left on April 13th for a 10 day cruise to the Eastern/Southern Caribbean!  It was so great to see the sunshine!!  I just can't tell you how happy it made me feel!  We were aboard the Princess Star, which was a lovely ship (just like our Grand Princess we had sailed on with our kids).

Our first stop was in the Bahamas, at Princess Cays...

It was a fun first stop, with a lot of relaxing in the shade for Brent, and some sun and swimming and food...then back on board to our next destination, St. Thomas.  Usually, I have not much loved being in St. Thomas, but this time, we took our snorkel gear and headed to Paradise Beach.  Wow...what a beautiful beach, with some really fun things to see while snorkeling.

I saw a huge starfish, and swam a little ways with a sea turtle...we also saw this cool iguana on the beach.

 

We ended up in a cab with a little family from Beaverton, Oregon, The Watts...who, turned out to be LDS and a cute little family that we spent quite a bit of time with, snorkeling and hanging out on the ship.  They were awesome, and so much fun!

 Chris,   Joe,   Ivan,   and   Elaine    

 After snorkeling, we took a little drive around, a lot of things we had already seen, and a quick stop to the linen shop...and then back on board to our next destination...Dominica...our favorite always!

This year, since we had toured Dominica previously a couple of times, we decided we would go up to the tram and take a ride through the rain forest.

What a beautiful sight!  So many different trees and ferns, and flowers and follage!

A look out over the River Gorge.

At the top, we got off the tram and walked down a ways, across a huge suspension bridge and through the forest, then another amazing ride down, way up on top of the tram with a whole different view!

We really enjoyed the tour and once again, found more reasons to love Dominica!

Our next destination was Grenada,  which we had toured previously, and we were in the mood for a little down day, so we got off the ship just shortly to smell the spices and do a little shopping.  We bought some fresh nutmeg and a few things like that, and then just spent the rest of the day on the ship watching movies, and eating!!

Our next stop was Bonaire...we have never been there, so we were excited to see something new!  When the ship docked, it was a very different view from all the previous islands...which are mountainous and green.  Bonaire was FLAT!

Still very green and pretty...and lots of awesome beaches and coral reefs for snorkeling!  We heard it was the best in the world for scuba and snorkeling...so we teamed up once again with our little Watts' family and headed to Eden Beach.  (The locals called it Bongo Beach, and said it was the BEST for snorkeling!)

It was a little overcast that day, but still the snorkeling was awesome!  # 2 best place for us...(#1 has to be Longhouse Beach in Kauai!)  I think if the sun had been out in full force, the colors and fish would have been even better, but they were amazing, and a very fun day on the beach!

Brent will kill me for this picture, but I thought it was cute!  His funny little smile when he's eating...

Then of course...on to Aruba!  It's been 12 years or so since we've been there...and wow has it changed!  We decided to take a tour of the island...which was fascinating, but after I saw the beaches, I kinda wished we had just gone to the beach for some snorkeling...they were Awesome!

We stopped at some cool rock formations...

And we saw this cute little church out in the middle of the cactus...

We also visited the California Lighthouse...

I was impressed by how clean everything was, and how sharp all the houses were painted and taken care of.  We saw so many amazing houses...

 And the strip by the beaches had some pretty impressive hotels...

 And the beaches...again...very AWESOME!

Then it was time to get back on the ship for a couple of days AT SEA!!  Which was really a great two days to lay in the sun...watch some shows...eat a TON of food and just relax! 

 We opted this year to take a tour trip when we got back into Ft. Lauderdale, before going to the airport for the flight home.  We took a great Airboat ride through the Florida Everglades and saw some great alligators, complete with a little alligator wrestling...

And then we went to the Flamingo Gardens for a tour of the botanical gardens and the beautiful flamingos and peacocks there...

It was a wonderful 10 days...so very blessed to be able to go and spend time with each other, we are so spoiled!!

Spring Break!

It was so fun to have Trisha and Ali and Grant come down from up north to spend their Spring Break with us!  We had planned some fun things for the week.  Little did we know that Spring Break would include a couple of snow storms along the way!  They weren't too sure about everything when they saw the snow...SPRING??!  But we took off for Salt Lake anyway, and much to our delight...Katie and Clint and the little boys were able to come also and meet up with us!  So we spent a few days at Grandpa and Grandma Hamblin's house...messing things up and running in and out!!  They were good enough to let us all crash there, whenever, and make us lots of food, that we didn't finish up...and also take us all out to Golden Corral for dinner our last night also!!  Thank you for being our Bed and Breakfast and for putting up with all our mess!!

Monday was spent just getting there...we had to stop along the way at Smith and Edwards, and Tai Pan...and Clint had to do some tiling before they could leave...but we all met up Monday evening at Grandpa and Grandma's.  Then Tuesday morning, we all took off for Hogle Zoo.  The sun was shining when we left...but it was still pretty chilly!  It was okay with jackets on, and we managed to have some fun and see quite a few animals along the way!  The kids had fun playing together and looking at all the different animals.  Grant and Corgin got to ride in their own little zoo safari jeep...We had a good time and didn't freeze to death!

 

Corgin, Ali, and Grant by the Tigers

 

Corgin was not going to take his eyes off of that Tiger for a picture!

 Ali and Grant checking out the cool giraffe!

The kids all loved climbing on the animal statues all over the zoo!

 We had a great time there, and then got to go have a wonderful lunch together and visit and eat to our hearts content!  Then Clint and Katie took off to go to Ikea and do some shopping, but we wanted to take Ali and Grant to Temple Square, since they had never seen it.  We had a great time there looking around and touring things.  Ali took a ton of pictures...she was really INTO it all!!

 

Ali and Trisha were also able to go down to the Bountiful Temple where Grandpa and Grandma Hamblin work, and they met them for a tour.

 

On Wednesday, we had a fun filled shopping day to include Target and Kohl's...but had an anticipated trip to Chuck E Cheese!!  Grant was so excited he could hardly stand it!!  Aunt Katie got a picture of the kids with Chuck E Cheese...

 

Thursday brought about one more shopping spree at Kohl's and then on home for some hair appointments and dinner with Grant and Ali's other grandma...Grandma Nelda.  It was so fun to have them here, and its always fun to spoil the grandkids, or maybe it's grandma that's spoiled!