Donald Duck (a.k.a Tanner)

Last week was a such a fun week! We got to watch Tanner at his best be the star of the 3rd grade Disney program as Donald Duck. He wowed the audience with his moves and made everyone laugh throughout the program. I think he is the most handsomest Donald ever!!! Well, I better be careful saying that since Bryson was Donald 4 years ago.
Tanner and his friends...
Singing and dancing to "We're all in this together"
It was so fun for Tanner to have friends and family come and watch. Thanks Kristen for bringing up your kiddos. Blake you were right, "This was the best musical EVER!"
And the famous last scene from the program is when Tanner gets hit from falling balls while everyone yells "Duck, Donald, Duck!"

Chillin' in Cozumel

The food on a cruise is great, but by the end of the week, I was so excited to eat something different! Paul and I love, love, love Mexican food! So we were super excited to eat at this little Mexican restaurant after shopping all morning. I love shopping in Mexico and feeling like I'm getting a great deal. I wish we had had more time for that, even though the guys were more then done when it was time for lunch.

After lunch we finally got to go snorkeling. Paul was so excited to try out his new underwater camera. We got a ton of video clips on it, which I am not going to post, but pretty cool!

We went out by boat to 3 different locations to snorkel. It so fun to see all the different kinds of tropical fish. I was holding out for a sea turtle, but we never did see one.

Paul "hanging lose" at the bottom of the ocean in Cozumel. Note to self: Next time when we snorkel, we will bring our own gear. It is a little gross using rental stuff, even if it has been cleaned.

Jama'n in JAMAICA

Jamaica was beautiful! This is our cruise ship in the background.
I decided that Jamaicans are very good at selling ANYTHING! From hand-carved coconuts (showned above) to "something special I have for you in the back of my truck" (weed) to "I made this for you" items (made in China)...they tried to sell everything! I did get a fun Coach bag (handmade in Jamaica I'm sure).
Ahh, do you recognize the little black sign above? The Church is true! Its always fun to see the church other places, we even ran into missionaries in Mexico.

My favorite part of Jamaica was hiking Dunns Falls. Here we are all are before the hike, trying to stay warm in the cool water. At first I was freezing, but once we started hiking, it felt wonderful.

Paul having fun sliding down a rock and I'm doing the famous Crystal Light plunge.

Here are the guys trying to be funny, looks pretty cool though, I have to admit. Then, the girls and the end of the hike.

Haiti - our first stop!

I know what you're thinking... Haiti? Seriously? Yep! That was our first stop! This part of the island was not affected by the earthquake and it is Royal Caribbean's private beach. I was happy to find that the ship was bringing a bunch of supplies for the victims in Haiti. But, I admit, we did have mixed feelings playing and enjoying the island while we knew there were people suffering not to far from us.

Here is a picture looking out over the island, isn't it beautiful?

We played in a beach volleyball tournament while we were there. We had a blast! Our team got the gold medal. I guess all the years in church volleyball payed off!

Just chillin with my good lookin' hubby! We were twinners in swim shirts. I got fried the day before and decided I better be careful.

However, I couldn't get enough of the warm sun. The girls all laid in the sun while the guys laid in the shade.

Listening to the locals sing us their songs. They were making out pretty good in tips because we were all worried about how the earthquake may have affected them.

I saved the best for last... Paul and his friend Corey did this amazing zipline that started high up in the mountains and came over the ocean, then landed on a little strip of land. The zipline was 1/2 mile long! Incredible to watch, and Paul said it was worth every penny. I decided I would prefer to spend my money on a spa treatment.

Cruising the Caribbean

Paul surprised me on Christmas with a Western Caribbean cruise for our 15 year anniversary. We left our boys with with my brother Ryan and his cute wife Karen, who did a wonderful job! I actually was very impressed with myself for not worrying too much about the boys while I was gone because I knew they were having a great time.

We had a great time! We had some of our good friends with us: the Bergs, Chappells, and the Mills. This was the first day on the cruise when we all had our warm clothes on still, but by the next morning, we were laying out and soaking up the sun. I couldn't could enough of the warm weather!
The ship was the Freedom of the Seas. It was totally impressive! We are standing in front of the entrance to the Royal Promenade. This was the "main street" of the ship with shops and restaurants on each side. This is where they did the parades and dances as well.
Here we are enjoying the warm weather and catching up on People magazine, yes a guilty little pleasure.

This is all of us on the last night of the cruise with our Waiter and Waitress. They were awesome! Even though I called "Kumar" our waiter, Lumar for half the week and then Zumar for the other half, he was still nice to us. We ate way too well and came home with a couple of extra pounds.
Here are the Dodgeball Champions on the boat! They was awesome and took home the gold. There cheerleaders did a pretty good job cheering them on too.
Here is Paul in his glory getting ready to take somebody out.

The Wave Rider was so fun to watch. Paul did great on it. Infact, they video taped him and showed it on the boat as one of the highlights of the week! I wish I could watch Brady and Karen do this, they would ride some serious rides with their surfing knowledge.

Formal night in the dining room, I wish I would have gotten pictures for you Cory of all the yummy food. You would have been impressed! My favorite was surf and turf night with the lobster. However, Paul obviously can't eat shellfish, he ended up having a reaction and we had to get him some Benadryl.

Our all time favorite treat there was the lava cake. Yum, yum, yum! Our waiter was so nice, that he requested laval cake another night just for our table. I better get going, I have some serious running to do to work off all of our treats!

My next few blogs will be about our stops in the Caribbean ...