Friday, March 25, 2011

The Caribbean!

We decided it was time for a vacation.
We headed off to the Caribbean for 10 days -
without Josh.
It was much needed, and full of fun and relaxation,
but we sure missed our little man!
We traveled with our friends Blair and Vanessa,
and Vanessa's two sisters-
we all shared pictures, so this is only a 'few' that I have!

Monday March 14th
St Thomas and St John

We docked in St. Thomas early Monday morning, got a taxi - and headed for the ferry to St. John. After spending much money - and experiencing some tropical rain - we discovered the most beautiful beach . ever .

The Taxi Ride to the Ferry


Toes in the sand - HEAVEN -


Nick enjoying the crystal blue water


Paige and Vanessa Snorkeling
It was amazing.
Lots of fun plants, coral, and fish.
of course - all the pics are on a under-water camera
waiting to be developed.





We'd like to move here. How about you?



St Thomas



Tuesday March 15th
At Sea
We relaxed. Ate food. Napped. Read.
And had a formal night.
Aren't we so pretty?




Wednesday March 16th
Barbados
In Barbados, we took a 5 hour catamaran trip.
Snorkeling, Beaches, and ...
Swimming with Sea Turtles!
It was great!
But all of those pictures are on the under-water camera!
The Barbados Coast


Us on our Catamaran!


Our Towel Animal that night -

Thursday March 17th
St. Lucia
In St. Lucia we took a rain-forest tour
-via -
ZIP LINE!
It wasn't as 'cool' as we expected,
But we still had fun.
We didn't dare take our camera on the zip line -
but in hindsight - we should have.
(sorry Nick!)


Cool House in St. Lucia.
Everything was painted such cool colors


This is how they keep track of Cows on the island.
with a leash!
After the Zip Line -
I went back to relax and read on the ship.
Not Nick . . . He went Shopping!
The group found a small flee market
and underneath one of the tables,
discovered the cutest little boy...
His grandma let our group carry him around for awhile.
Nick said he was darn cute,
but it made him miss our little man more!

Cute Little Girl playing the steel drums!



Friday March 18th
St. Kitts
In St. Kitts we hired a taxi driver,
to take us to a beach,
pick us up,
drive us around town,
and then drop us off to shop.
Our beach was called
"Ship-Wreck"
There were tons of MONKEYS!!!
Here is one enjoying some sugar-cane!


Nick, trying to figure out where the heck he was!


Our Taxi driver picked us up from the beach,
and gave us a tour of the island.
Blair, in our group, asked if the island had Mormon Missionaries.
(Blair asked that everywhere, because he served in some of these islands)
Our taxi drive said yeah - they have a church!
He asked if we were 'Mormon'
and took us to see 'our church'
It was so small!
But so clean, and cute!
There were some boys playing in a
large Mango tree in the church's yard.
They shared a mango with us.
It was delicious.


Enjoying the Sunset on the Ship



Saturday March 19th
St. Maarten
In St. Maarten, we rented a jeep - and explored the island.
St. Maarten is half french,
and half dutch.

On the French side,
we found a cute little shop
that served French food, candies, and pastries.
We were in heaven.
We also stumbled upon the ONLY
nude beach on the entire island.
Lucky Us.

The water ...
is amazing!

Nick - enjoying the view


Our last night -
being served, pampered, and stuffed with deliciousness.
This is our waiter and his assistant.

Our last towel animal,
we forgot to take pictures of all of our animals -
but they were all very cool!



Sunday March 20th -
San Juan
On Sunday we disembarked the ship.
It was the fastest, most organized thing I have ever seen.
We were off the ship, bags in hand, in 10 minutes.
It was amazing.
We had the entire day in San Juan.

We rented a car, checked into our hotel,
dropped the bags off, and set out to explore!

With all 6 of us in our rental, and Paige at the wheel ...
our first stop was the rain-forest.

On our first - pull off site -
Nick found a large leaf...
Go Figure!


The flowers were so pretty!
And so much greenery!


While we were driving through the winding roads,
it started to rain.
HARD.
It was amazing.


This was all dry, and then within seconds,
the waterfall.
Watch out for Flash-Floods!


I always knew something was up with Nick!

We stayed in a hospital.
No Joke.
Our hotel, the Howard Johnson,
was on the 4th floor of the hospital!!
How ironic!!
But... it only had 2 queen beds.
So we pushed them together...
and tried to sleep.
Monday March 21st
Home Sweet Home

We flew out Monday morning -
well at least we were suppose to!
We opted to take a later flight,
for $650 vouchers apiece for a later flight!!
AWESOME!!!
We got home around 2am -
and promptly woke up Josh!
He just kept starring at us,
rubbing his eyes,
saying 'Dadda?'
and laughing.
It was a great vacation,
but coming home to this cutie pie -
was the best part!

A HUGE thanks to Paige's sister Aubrey, and her Mommy - for taking care of Joshy!
He was spoiled rotten! We are so lucky to have you!



5 comments:

Susan S said...

Fabulous pictures of an amazing vacation. I"m going to show my son, Matt, who served in Martinique and Guadaloupe on his mission. I know he will be very jealous. So happy for you.

Anonymous said...

How fun! We did the sOuthern Carribean cruise recently. I also noticed that the farther south we got the bluer the water got. Love your pictures...your baby is adorable. Congrats!

Derek and Lisa Larson said...

Looks like you had a blast! I'm so glad. We'll have to get together sometime :)

syerke said...

Looks like you had a fun time! One question? What was worse...6 people in 2 queens...or 4 people in 2 twins?

Julie said...

I'm living the dream through your post! :) p.s. love Josh's souvenir!