Day 4: St. Lucia

S T.  L U C I A

St. Lucia was such an adventure! Although we didn't book any excursions with the ship, we still all really wanted to Z I P  L I N E.

This was definitely my favorite adventure we had! 

They natives kept on making fun of me because of my strange comments!

It was so fun!

We have tons of videos, but for some reason they didn't transfer from the Gibbs computer.

So enjoy us in our gangster gear:

It was so fabulous! We took N I N E different zip lines right over/through the 

R A I N  F O R R E S T!

My favorite part of all the days was walking out of the ship for the
 first time and seeing the island we were!
H O L Y   G U A C A M O L E! 

Seriously some of these sights are straight up breath taking! 

St. Lucia was definitely one of my favorites to wake up too!

I mean, L O O K  A T  T H A T  W A T E R!!

That night we came home to our usual towels folded in crazy characters, but this night we came home to our favorite characters of the trip!

We got H A N G I N G   M O N K E Y ⇡

&

Katie and Shawn got 

S E D U C T I V E  R A B B I T ⇣

After dinner that night, we went to the dance club where we spent the night dancing to the best of the 80's!

This may have been Michael's favorite thing we did on the ship!

He L O V E S 80's dancing! 

The first song we listened to was something they don't play at Area 51, but as soon as they played a song he was used to, it was right back to his normal dance moves! It was like a switch in his head! I loved watching it happen!

General Conference October 2013

General Conference weekend is a big weekend for most L D S members. 

For our family, this conference was extra special!

My sister, Juli and her boyfriend, Jeff decided to tie the knot a few weeks prior and although my sister isn't one to have all the attention, she had a little family B B Q. 

This meant that 2 of my sisters would be able to travel back to Utah to celebrate! 

I love these ladies so much! 

Most of mine and Michael's time was spent bouncing between family conference traditions. 

It is surprisingly very difficult when both parents live less than 5 minutes apart!

We were able to spend the first session with my family, then run to Scera Park for the 

S E M I - A N N U A L  R I D I N G  U L T I M A T E  F R I S B R E E  G A M E. 

Oh no, they don't mess around either. 

(Sorry for the poor quality)

Then it was back to my parents house for the BBQ!

We were able to see so many family members we haven't seen in so long, and even got to do a special musical number for the beautiful couple. 

I  W O N T  P O S T  T H E  M U S I C A L  N U M B E R  F O R  F E A R  O F 

 S C A R I N G  O F F  A N Y  P O S S I B L E  R E A D E R S!  

YOU ARE SO WELCOME!

...but here is a picture of Mike playing badmitten...

:)

No he is not posing... I am just awesome at capturing the moments that matter most!

Hooray for time with family, and for hearing the words of the prophets! 

Hair

Mikey always explains to me how long, luscious, and beautiful his hair was in high school, and I do not think that i
 understood the reality of it until a friend posted this picture of him on facebook:

H E  I S  A  L I O N!!

Look at it! It is huge! 

It has now become his life goal to convince me to love the locks... I'm not so sure it is going to happen! 

I will admit that that hair is pretty impressive!
If nothing else I am happy our kids will have our thick hair!

Day 3: Barbados

B A R B A D O S

Barbados wasn't my favorite island. I would by lying if I said it was.

It was really pretty, but the natives were so overwhelming, you had to walk forever to get some peace and quiet!

Today we got off the boat and headed to find a taxi. 

Right from the beginning you are bombarded by taxi drivers screaming at each other trying to get their vans full! It seriously felt like we were fresh meat and they hadn't eaten in weeks.

Although the taxi ride was stressful, this view made up for it.

Unfortunately, it was 2 seconds of bliss before we were surrounded by people asking to rub aloe vera on our bodies! We ended up ignoring them and getting on our snorkeling gear as quick as possible! They told us that if we swim out pretty far, we would be able to see S E A  T U R T L E S! 

So we did, and were able to see 3 of them! 

They were my favorite thing to see while snorkeling!

Such magnificent creatures!

Upon our arrival back at the beach, 

Shawn told us that if we walk a little ways down, 

we wouldn't be surrounded by so many people. 

So we did and basically had our own private beach! 

If you ask Michael what his favorite part of the trip was, he would tell you it was snorkeling! We couldn't keep this kid away for more than 10 minutes! He loved it so much! 

His back was the only thing that burned from being above the surface of the water most of the time! He was like a little kid! Cutest thing ever!

 Finally some peace and quiet on our own little beach.

 This is where we would spend the majority of our evenings. 

We had given up on the shows at this point and were completely content spending our time here!

Basically if we weren't dancing at the club, we were disturbing the peace with random outbursts of frustration!

Day 2: Sea Day

D A Y  A T  S E A

After such an adventurous day on St. Johns, all of us were looking forward to a day to sleep in a little bit. Lucky for us, we had booked rooms on the inside layer of the ship meaning we didn't have a single window in our cabins. 

It could have been 1:00 in the afternoon when we woke up and have absolutely no idea. 

Needless to say, with the rock of the ship and the completely undisturbed darkness, sleep came easy.

Day 2 was our day to stay on the ship.

We were traveling to the most south island (B A R B A D O S) we were to visit on our trip this day.

We slept in a little, got breakfast, and headed to the highest deck for some miniature golf.

Yep. M I N I A T U R E  G O L F. On a ship. In the middle of the ocean.

Crazy right??

This is just on the deck of the ship... Nothing but open water for miles!

I can definitely see why people thought the world was flat!

Once we got up there, we heard they were doing a "H O L E  I N  O N E" competition.

Michael and Shawn both entered, but neither of them made it very far!

The first guy to hit made it in with ease...

He looked like he was retired and had tons of time on his hands to golf though.

Although Michael and Shawn didn't stand a chance, it was still fun to participate in some of the onboard competitions! 

Bless their little hearts...

After a not so competitive competition, we headed down to the lobby to play 

S C A T T E R G O R I E S with some fellow shipmates. 

The worker leading the game was from the United Kingdom and had such a thick accent! Katie and I found it to be so entertaining!

He was really fond of the term "S Q U A S H Y." 

We were also drinking smoothies that I guess looked like alcoholic beverages because he kept telling us to remember to keep it clean like we were going to use inappropriate answers... 

We were the least of his worries. 

The drinks we were drinking though were generally made for little kids, 

but look at how cute they are:

Once Scattergories finished, we continued on with Charades. 

It turned out that only the 4 of us wanted to play so naturally we picked boys vs. girls.

G I R L S  W O N  B Y  A  L A N D  S L I D E!

It wasn't even a competition really, but they boys put forth a valiant effort! :)

Then it was up to the Lido deck where they did the hairiest man competitions. 

They used the term S A S Q U A T C H  to describe this man, but personally, I don't think the term does him justice!

I give you our winner...

That evening was our first fancy evening on the cruise ship. We had a couple, but I only took pictures from the first. O O P S!

This is a picture of us at dinner! 

They served us the most expensive meals on the fancy evenings!

I got to eat Lobster again! YAY!

All throughout the cruise, they ask you to take probably 1,000 pictures. 

We generally turned them down because they would place people in the 

M O S T  A W K W A R D  P O S E S  E V E R!!

Here is our version:

T O T E S  S U P E S  A W K S

We ended our night in the dance club where we went absolutely crazy!

We ended up clearing the dance floor.

I guess everyone was so impressed with our moves that they didn't feel worthy to share the floor with us! :D

Day 1: St. Johns

These next couple of posts will be all about the cruise...

That's right, I said P O S T S.

We saw so much that I couldn't possible sum it all up in one post!

 First thing is first. 

T R A V E L I N G

After looking at flights online, Katie Gibbs (M I K E' S  S I S T E R) found it would be significantly cheaper to drive to Vegas and fly from there. As nice as it was to save the money, it made traveling E X T R A long!

We left Saturday afternoon and drove to Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom's house in Las Vegas. 

They were kind enough to let us stay there the night instead of having to pay for a hotel room. 

We woke up early the next morning and caught our flight to Miami, where we caught our connecting flight to Puerto Rico!

Everyone on the plane slept except for me. 

Literally... 

E V E R Y O N E!

It was miserable.

Once we finally got to Puerto Rico, we were shuttled to the 

Carnival Valor which was our incredible ship!

Believe it or not, this was one of the smaller cruise ships!

Once we were all checked in, we went to the dining room for dinner, 

and spent the evening exploring the ship!

Here is a little of what we saw:

This is on the Lido Deck. 

They had pools up here, hot tubs, a mini golf course, and even a track!

This is the other view of the Lido Deck. 

Yes, this is a water slide...

This is the main lobby!

It was crazy extravagant!

D A Y  T W O: S T.  J O H N S

Technically we ported on St. Martin, but since it is the busiest port in the Caribbean, we decided to take a ferry a little ways across the ocean to St. Johns. This ended up being a splendid idea! Once arrived, we got a taxi to a beach that was supposed to have fabulous snorkeling. 

These pictures are from the ride from St. Martin to St. Johns.

G O R G E O U S.

We were absolutely stunned!

The water was crystal clear and breath taking. 

We had never seen anything like it.

Not sorry about the gorgeous entrance to the beach!

Once on St. Johns, we took a taxi to the beach. 

Probably one of scariest car rides of my life! They drive on the opposite side of the road, and are the most aggressive drivers I have ever seen!

It felt like we were going to die when all the sudden, we pull up on this:

P U R E  P A R A D I S E

It was overwhelmingly beautiful!

It is kind of unreal to think that places like this exist!

I may or may not have made my sister-in-law say a prayer with me to thank Heavenly Father that we were able to be in such a beautiful place!

Today was also Katie and Shawn's wedding anniversary! We had no idea they would be celebrating with us until the night before!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

After spending the day in paradise snorkeling and soaking up some awesome sun(BURN) we returned to the ship to shower and get ready for dinner. On the ship, they assign you a table and a waiter that will be with you for the length of your trip.

Meet the team:

Actually I have no idea who these people are except for the one in the black vest... He is our waiter, Juan. Dinner was one of our favorite parts of the ship. You order as much as you want! Michael would always order at least 2 starters, 1 entree, and 3-4 desserts every night! 

They would also do little dance performers! 

Hence the blurry picture. ☟

That night we attended one of the shows in the theater there. It was the worst performance we had ever seen. It was as though we were watching an elementary school play... but D E F I N I T E L Y not as cute. 

Basically we fled the theater as quick as we could and ended up on the deck to play some

  D I R T Y  M A R B L E S.

This is how we felt about the shows on the ship... 

(K A T I E  A N D  I  K I C K E D  T H E I R  B U T T S  T H I S  R O U N D  O F  M A R B L E S.)

The 2nd Law

Before marrying Michael, my knowledge of music didn't extend very far.

I generally listened to whatever song was on the radio.

I always wanted to have a better knowledge of music, but I never knew where to begin!

Lucky for me, I married into the most musically inclined family I N  T H E  W O R L D!

They all sing, play multiple instruments, and

have a basic knowledge of every song ever released.

Needless to say, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world of music!

For those of you who don't know Michael, he L O V E S attending concerts. 

In high school, he would attend concerts as frequent as possible.

I on the other hand, am not so keen on being shoved up against random strangers with their sweat all up in my grill. 

However, knowing Michael's love for them, we try to go to as many as we can!

In order for us to attend these concerts, 

we have to compromise and get the seat tickets.

(I don't appreciate being shoved against a bunch of strangers as much as my dear husband.)

Last weekend, we attended M U S E,  T H E  S E C O N D  L A W.

Yes, the picture is poor quality, but oh well!

Both of us were very E X T R E M E L Y impressed with the show that they put on!

They had a laser light show, and all sorts of crazy things going on the entire time!

It was a perfect way to enter into our cruise week!

2 3

It is so hard to believe that Michael is a whole T H R E E years older than me!

I always forget until one of us has a birthday!

August 31 is Michael's birthday, and I really wanted to do something special for him!

I always get extremely stressed out when it comes to birthdays because I want them

to be so special!

The idea came to me 3 weeks prior to his Birthday:

A  L I T T L E  K I D  P A R T Y.

It was brilliant! How had I not thought of this before?

I was off on preparations! 

I talked with my Mom and planned a couple of activities, 

bought prizes for the games, and went crazy figuring out what decorations I needed!

T H E  D A Y  A R R I V E D!

We stayed up the night before cleaning and setting up the classic birthday party decor.

Streamers, balloons, and a birthday sign!

Not only was this Mike's birthday, 

but it was the debut of our apartment to most of our guests!

Here is the final product!

We had party hats too!

Even Frank got into the festivities!

He is so T O T E S  A D O R B S!

When everyone first got there, we had pizza and just let everyone get to know everyone.

You know, let them get real C O M F.

Then, the games began!

First, we played P I N G  P O N G  B A L L  D R O P.

In this game, players have to hold the ping pong at their nose and attempt to drop the ball into the mason jar below. Players had to drop 6 balls into their jar.

We had 2 groups of 4 compete, then the winners of the 2 groups would face off in an ultimate death match!

Jill Garlick and I were the ones who had to face off!

It was such a tight competition, but in the end, she beat me by 

O N E  S E C O N D!

Next was P I N  T H E  T A I L  O N  T H E  D O N K E Y!

As you can tell, our donkey is E X T R E M E L Y  G O R G E O U S!

Michael drew this bad boy the night before, and it was perfect!

We went through everyone who came, but Becky Hubbard came out on top! 

I don't have a victory picture of her though! :(

Our final game was T H E  T O I L E T  P A P E R  G A M E!

Players in this game must roll their teammate up in toilet paper the fastest.

Who ever finishes their roll first wins!

Gabi and Alex won this particular game!

These were the mummies!

What's a kid's party without a P I N A T A?

We had a lot of fun with this, and it was a great way to end the party!

I normally get really stressed out about these kinds of events that I plan.

I am always nervous that they wont work out and

no one will have fun.

I do know that for this particular party, 

Michael had fun and that is all that matters!

Thanks for coming to the party for those who came!

Thanks for reading!