Sunday, April 29, 2012

Caribbean, Vacation

It took forever to up load these, so I am going to write all about it later. I will just say there is a reason it is called Paradise. Above is a picture we took on the shore of Half Moon Cay, of our ship, and of us when we first got on the ship waiting to go to sea. Below is a picture of me looking past my feet at the most beautiful beach, well all the beaches are beautiful over there. We just got back and I'm ready to go again. Our first stop was Half Moon Cay, we spent the day on the beach laying out and swimming in the ocean. We were always up early and some of the first of the boat. When we got there we hiked all the way over to the other side of the island, for the most part it was just us. We did go back in for food, there was a big bbq on the island. We also played some beach volleyball, and hiked over to the other side and checked out the lagoons.  


Hiking around the beach


This is a picture looking back at the beach on our way back to the ship. We didn't spend to much time there until later on in the day when people had cleared out. After lunch there was a reggae band playing, we rented floats and played around in the ocean while they played. 

Us in the morning, we booked a trip into ATLANTIS for the day. We had about and hour and a half to kill before the shuttle left so we went into town for a little. 


Me, pretending (or not) to be the karate kid. I love funny pictures. Right when we got to Atlantis we went to their beach first. We rented sea doos and went out in the ocean for a while. We took it down the coast and checked out all the famous peoples homes. We also went out to a few small islands off the shore.


After the beach we went into the Atlantis water park, and the Dig. First we walked through all of the outdoor aquarium. This suspension bridge goes over a bunch of different kinds of sharks. 



Steve is looking out at the aquariums. 




Steve is saving us. The shark tunnel is starting to collapse. 


Here we are going into the Dig. This was really cool for us because, James Williams, I grew up babysitting their kids 3 times a week, from the age of 17 on. I love their family like they are mine. I called him when I got home and thanked him for doing such a great job. My understanding of the Dig is that it is designed to look like the, "Lost City of Atlantis." It is also the largest aquarium in the Bahamas. I think I should have had a free trip here, seeing as how I was watching their kids, while Rachel and James were taking trips over, while he was designing it. Although, James went over a lot more than Rachel. He is the architect and engineer of, "The Dig," and it was worth the trip, it was beautiful.  





Remember I like funny pictures. Everyone else was sitting on the benches under all these different types of sea helmets. I told Steve to stand up and put his head in there. Then I did it.


Flying with the flying fish

Fun shot of Steve on Paradise Island , laying out by one of the pools in the water park.



I took this picture for James. That's the symbol  of, "The Dig,"  just right outside one of the entrances.


After Atlantis we headed back into Nassau, to tour around the town. We went to the  Festival Place, and the Straw Market. The Straw Market was fun, that's were all the locals and vender's are trying to sell you everything.

Our next stop was in Lucaya. We were of the ship early, went straight over to rent a scooter and off we went. We made about an hour trip through the whole island, which was a great way to see everything, downtown, how they live. We made one wrong turn and decided to pull over to look at our map. A taxi driver pulled up next to us and said, "don't stop here, never  on the streets of a neighborhood. Only on the main roads." We got our bearings straight and didn't have another problem driving. We made it to the National Park in Lucaya, hiked all around explored two caves and then hiked to the other side of the island to a totally deserted beach. We spent a couple of hours there, hanging out. Then we 
















Last month or So

Happy Valentines Day, sure do love my family. Just to sum up the last month. Basketball ended, baseball and softball has started. The kids started about 3 weeks ago, Steve and I start this week. We will average about 5-6 games a week. If you need to get a hold of us we will be at one of the ball parks.
Dallin thinks he is so funny. It was the day of school pictures, Dallin thought it would be cool to take a magnet and make his ear look pierced. Have to admit I think he is pretty funny. Eliza has been old enough for activity days for a while now. She loves going. It is a group of girls from 8-11 from church who meet twice a month and do activities. There last lesson was on modesty. So the girls dressed Eliza in a modest prom dress made out of newspaper.


Good old pinewood derby. This year was tough. Dallin took 4th the top 3 go to Districts. This is his last year to do pine wood derby. To bad people cheat. the kid who won last year showed up with his winning car this year. I did say something to the cub master but he was to shy to say something. I just wish people would have some character and follow the rules. 


Spencer was out on the deck one morning just hanging out. Went out to check on him and he was busy filling up Lucy's water bowl, taking his dolphins for a swim.

EASTER EGG HUNT
I have wanted to do this for a few years now but one year it snowed , another it just didn't happen. This year I was encouraged to have one by some friends. I spent about a week cleaning up my yard. We have a open back yard, that means that the deer, elk, ducks, geese, dogs, and whatever else will use the lawn as a bathroom. I filled about 18 large black bags full of poop, leaves, and pine needles. Come Easter Egg Hunt time my yard looked great. It's a good thing too, there was around 100 people in my back yard. We hide around a 1000 candy filled eggs. I sectioned it off into 4 groups. 1-4, 5-7, 8-10, 11 and up were out in the forest. I have no pictures off Dallin because the older kids just took off. Oh well remember he is becoming cool like that. 

Just a small section of my yard. The whole thing looked like this.


Spencer's first BIG hunt. Of course as expected he was more interested in finding out what was inside than gathering up a bunch of eggs.


Eliza knows the drill, she even had her route mapped out in her head. She headed straight for the stream, (it's dry right now) and started loading up.

From what I hear, I will be doing this next year, and every year after that.