Our Dancing Queen

Faith has always been our little dancing queen. For as long as I can remember Faith has danced to the beat of any music. Ever since the girls got the stage she has watched her older sisters and she will get on the stage every chance she gets. She absolutely loves the stage, and just lights up when she is on it. I have been trying to get her on video for a long time. This still wasn't her best performance, but I have to say it is pretty cute.

Last stop... Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

Our last port of call was Grand Turk. Although very beautiful it was the most undeveloped island we stopped on. What a simple way of life and the people are so happy!! We could learn a lot from this. Ryan said it reminded him a lot of the Philippines. Hurricane Ike hit there about 6 months before, and you could still see the devastating affects of that. The cruise lines have dropped a lot of money on the port, there is a nice beach and pool area with a flowrider and then a lot shops and don't forget.... Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville! We took a taxi downtown looking for some shopping and when we got "downtown" we realized downtown was about 5 multi colored shops with cool native products. We looked around and then spent the rest of the day at the beach. More snorkeling for Ryan and Craig..... more sun for Amanda and I.

St. Thomas

Next stop was St. Thomas, part of the US Virgin Islands. You could definitely tell this island was territory of the Good olde U.S. of A. We were able to get Subway.. my favorite!! While on St. Thomas we booked an excursion and went on the BOSS underwater scooters. It was awesome! They were little scooters that you rode on about 10-15 feet under the surface that had big bubbles(that make your head look tiny..enjoy the pics lol) that your head went up in and you just breathed normally. They took us out to an island off of St. Thomas to a place called Turtle Cove. The name Turtle Cove comes from all the Sea Turtles(obviously). According to our guide there was a certain type of grass that grew in that cove that the turtles eat. The under water scooters made it possible to get up close and personal to sea life. After our scooter tour Ryan was able to snorkel in the cove for about and hour. He saw some huge sea turtles, stingrays, and even a barracuda. The Turtles were not at all afraid of humans. A few of them surfaced right by Ryan while he was out snorkeling. Definitely one of our favorite stops!

Formal Dinner Night #2

As mentioned on an earlier post there were 2 formal dinner nights on the cruise. Here are some pictures from that night. Dinner was always fun! Ryan especially enjoyed it... not only because of all the great food, but many of the workers on the ship were from the Philippines, and our waitress (Jovy) each night at dinner was from the Philippines and even more exciting then that, she was from an area that Ryan served in on his mission. He really enjoyed the opportunity to speak the language again. It was funny to watch their eyes light up as he would begin to speak as Cebuano is not a very common language... especially not from a big American guy. (Cruise Tip from Jenny and Ryan.... If you go on a cruise be sure to book one with "anytime dinning" that way you can eat your schedule, not theirs.) It made it much more convenient.

St. Maarten/St. Martin

This was the second Island we stopped at on our Cruise. St. Martin is the smallest Island in the world to be controlled by two powers. Half of the Island is owned by the Dutch and the other half is owned by the French. It was cool to be able to see the 2 different cultures on one Island. When we got to the island we decided to rent a Jeep so we could travel around the island at our own pace. Ryan loved driving the Jeep... I think he misses his Jeep. We drove around to the French side of the island and spent most of the day at Orient Beach. It was BEAUTIFUL! We love white sandy beaches and the water was so clear and blue. We had to be careful what parts of the beach we frequented as you know the French.... clothing optional beaches are common. This island was one of our favorite stops as we were able to para sail. It was awesome to be floating that high over the ocean and take it all in. The water was so clear that from up there we were able to a sea turtle swimming below us. Para sailing is a definite must do if you ever get the chance. Later that day we did some shopping downtown before boarding the ship. What a day!

"Will Walk for CHOCOLATE"

Faith finally started walking on her own tonight. She has been walking against things or holding on to something, but tonight we pulled out some M&M's to bribe her. She is like her mother.... she will do almost anything for chocolate. Especially M&M's!(Notice her tounge going in and out at the first) Good job Faith we are proud of you! Let the fun begin!

Formal Dinner Night #1

There were two formal dinner nights on the cruise ship. It was actually really fun to get all dressed up for dinner and eat fancy food. Amanda and I were turning heads everywhere we went on the ship. At first we thought it was because we looked so good (lol) and then we realized that it was because our dresses were so modest. :) I actually wore shade t-shirts under my dresses because they were sleeveless. "Were not in Utah anymore Toto" I guess you probably don't see shirts under Spaghetti straps/sleeveless dresses very often elsewhere? Later that night on the ship they had another Dance party. Ryan was asked to be in a Hula Hoop contest....He thought that since he could do it on the Wii at home with 5 hoops that he could "represent" on the ship....not so much. Practice makes perfect babe!

Princess Cays, Bahamas

Princess Cays is off the Southern most tip of the Island of Eleuthera. It is an island owned by Princess so we had the island all to ourselves (and the other 3492 passengers on the ship) It was a really chill day. They had a bunch of beach activities and a big BBQ. We spent most of the day lounging in the sun listening to the live music played by a few of the locals. Craig and Ryan did some snorkeling while Amanda and I worked on our tans. They were serving drinks in coconut shells carved like monkey heads. I just had to have one! What a fun day!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter Sunday today! We woke up and had a great breakfast with the girls. Dad got to hang out with us all morning because his Sunday meetings were cancelled today. We had a great day at Church. There were some great talks given today about the Atonement and the Resurrection. What a blessing each is in our lives. Tonight we had a BBQ with Justin and Michelle's family and Clay, after which we took a nice walk over to the park and enjoyed the beautiful weather.....I hear it is supposed to snow this week. Yikes! Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter Dresses. As you can see they are pretty camera shy...? :) We hope you had a great Easter Sunday!

The Love Boat 2009!

On March 29th it was our 7th wedding anniversary! To celebrate we went on a cruise with our great friends the Philipps. We went on the Crown Princess and sailed the eastern Caribbean. We left from Fort Lauderdale Florida on Sunday and spent the first day on the ship heading to the Bahamas. We loved the ship! Cruise liners are massive. It it just amazed us that it could even float. There was tons of fun things to do always and not to mention FOOD.... FOOD..... and more FOOD!!!(Right up Ryan's alley) While on the ship they have all types of dance lessons, live music, magic shows, illusionists, comedians, movies, musicals, etc. In the middle on the top Deck of the ship they had a huge Movie screen(movies under the stars) that they showed movies and concerts on. We watched some good movies and the Tina Turner Concert.... man can she shake it for her age!!! We spent a lot of our time during the day on the ship soaking up the sun and sipping on Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris. Then at night went to a nice sit down dinner (did I mention there was a lot of food?) and then did some dancing. There was a club called Skywalkers on the top deck and we pretty much ended every night up there dancing until 1 in the morning or so. Good times were had by all. Thanks to our Parents for making it possible for us to do this as they took great care of our girls while we were away. It was so nice to get away and celebrate our marriage that started 7 short years ago. It was awesome for us to be on a 10 day date and give each other our undivided attention 24/7 as it is easy to forget what it was like before kids. Stay tuned we plan to blog more on each one of our Island stops real soon. Next stop Princess Cays, Bahamas!

Oh golly "Miss Molly"

Introducing "Molly" the newest member of our family. She is a teacup Maltese. She is 10 weeks old and weighing in at a whopping 2 pounds. Both her Mom and Dad are only 4 pounds so we don't expect her to get too much bigger. The girls absolutely love her, but why wouldn't you? Faith just sits there and grunts at her and trys to rub her face on hers. Tish(our pug) is making it known who is boss, but for the most part has been really patient. Here are some pictures....she is tiny!