Nothin' Better Than a Cruisin' through the Caribbean!

On Saturday, Jan. 16th we left the kids and headed to the airport. We knew the kids would be in good hands with Isaac & Candalyn, Myra & Shane, Aimee & Matt, and Grandma Sherri & Grandpa Kent.
We met up with our entire group at the Atlanta airport. This included, Tom's parents, Teresa & Dell, Bryce & Sara, Maren & Tim and us.
Then we were off to Puerto Rico! Bryce had served a mission in Puerto Rico and had fun returning back.
When we got there ours and Tom's parents luggage was nowhere to be seen. So we got an "essentials kit" to get us by until our luggage showed up.
We then headed to our hotel. We had one room for eight of the ten of us to share, so we slept people everywhere... Mom, Dad, Sara and I in the beds, Tom and Bryce on the floor, Maren on the chair and Tim in the tub.
Our luggage showed up at 1:30am.
The next morning we went to an LDS church. It was such a neat experience. The church was small and the "halls" were all outdoors. The classrooms and Chapel were indoor though. It was a beautiful building.
The spirit was so strong as I sat in that meeting. I didn't understand hardly a word (it was all in Spanish), but knowing the church is still the same thousands of miles from home, and knowing it is the true church no matter where you are in the world was a huge testimony builder.
After, we headed to the our cruise ship, Carnival Victory!
While Tom and Bryce took the rental cars back, the rest of us went on board. First thing we did... eat in the buffet!
After the guys got back, we wondered off the ship to see El Morro, an old fort in San Juan. Little did we know we were there during some huge festival. The streets were packed with people, and it started to rain.
By the time we made it through the crowds, to the fort (which was closed anyway) and back on the ship, we were drenched!

The next day was our first port, St. Thomas (we had a stop every day on the cruise). Most of us went to the beach, where we saw a lot of lizards, big and small.

The guys often put on a "gun show" for the camera.
The water was pleasant and the beach was nice and hot. We also did some shopping (which we did at every port).

Dell and Teresa tried to find places for Dell to fly with his parachute, so we didn't see much of them on the ports.
The next day we stopped at Dominica. This island is known for its beautiful rain forests and natural pools. We headed through one of the rain forests to the Emerald Pools. It was a bit cold, but we had fun swimming in the natural water with the picturesque waterfall behind us.

We also drove around the island and got a great tour from our taxi driver.

That night we got to dress up for our first formal dinner.
It was also fun to see which towel animal was left in our rooms each night.


The next day was Barbados. This was our favorite beach, the sand was like warm brown sugar powder.

The next day went to St. Lucia. We decided to take a kayaking shore excursion with Bryce, Sara, Maren and Tim.
We also hiked up to an old fort.
This is one of our tour guides, who was a little odd.
Even though we had a stop everyday, we made the most of having fun on the ship too. We did Karaoke, ate, played games, ate, golfed, played on the waterslide, slept, enjoyed some of the cruise shows, and ate some more.
We also enjoyed another formal night.



Our fifth stop was St. Kitts. There wasn't much to do here, so Maren and I decided to get our hair braided.

The last stop was St. Maarten. We did go to a beach but it was on the French side of the island. Some people even forgot their swimming suits (don't worry, we left ours on).
We also found a store called The Yoda Guy. It was full of neat things from one of the artist that worked on Star Wars and many other movies. I guess he lives in St. Maarten.
Sadly, the week was over. We were back in San Juan again. We attempted to see El Morro again, only this time with much better luck.
And of course, a trip would not be a trip without a visit to The Hard Rock Cafe.
Tom and I were the only ones heading home that day. The rest of the family was staying a few more days. However, we got stuck in the Atlanta airport for hours because the airport had been shut down. We were supposed to fly out at 9:30pm Atlanta time, but did not end up leaving until 12:30am! We were very tired.
I did take a minute to go talk to Elder Bednar and his wife while we were waiting. They were also on our flight.
Finally, we made it home at 3am (which was 6am Caribbean time), slept a few more hours, then got up with the kids at 7am to give them hugs and their souvenirs.
It was a perfect vacation, relaxing, pampering, playing, fun!

A.A.D.D.

Today I had a true case of A.A.D.D. (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder). This is when you start one project, but then get int erupted by another project so you never finish the first project. Also known as "if you give a mouse a cookie" syndrome.
I got up, got Lily of to school, then started to get myself ready for the day.
Then started the laundry.
Cedric had gotten up so early that I put him down for a nap at 9am.
Then I finally ate breakfast.
However, I have to be doing something while I'm eating, so I decided to start writing my talk for Sunday while I ate my breakfast.
While working on my talk I remembered I needed to clean the bathrooms. The best time to do this is while Cedric's napping.
So as I was leaving the computer to go clean the bathrooms Tom called saying I should go to Redbox.com to reserve a movie, "Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs". The kids wanted to see it and there was only one left.
Just then Cedric woke up.
So instead of cleaning the bathroom or reserving the movie, I finished getting ready for the day and we took off to go get a Redbox and to Walmart.
After shopping I had to put the food away, but the boys were hungry so I got busy feeding them.
While eating my lunch I started working on the preschool evaluations I had tested the preschoolers on this week.
Then Lily came home from school.
(Still working on evaluations)
Then Lily's friends came over for a play date.
Cedric was getting fussy and needed another nap, so I went to put him down. However, his room was a mess from Lily's friends so I got busy helping them clean up.
Then I put Cedric down for a nap and Tom called.
Going in my room I remembered I was supposed to be doing laundry.
So I went to switch the laundry.
However, I could hear Cedric crying so I decided to take the clean laundry up to our room and to check on Cedric.
Meanwhile, I had the other load of laundry half in the drier half in the washer.
While I was upstairs I decided to quickly fold the clothes so they didn't get wrinkled.
Then my neighbor showed up to pick up some of Lily's friends.
I finally finished switching the laundry.
Then I started putting away more groceries, but I remembered Cedric was asleep and I still needed to clean the bathrooms.
Lily and her other friend wanted to watch a movie, so I told them they needed to clean up first and I started helping them.
Then I went up to clean the bathroom and saw the laundry on my bed and went to get the next load.
Then I started putting away more groceries.
Then I went to clean the bathroom, but the kids needed more help cleaning up.
Then they were ready for their movie.
I finally made it up, got the cleaning supplies out and was about to start cleaning when...
Cedric woke up!
I took him down to watch the movie with the kids.
Then Lily's other friend's mom showed up.
Then I went to clean the bathroom and it ended up taking me an hour and a half to clean both bathrooms because Cedric kept fussing, or getting into things while I was cleaning.
Jeff fell asleep watching the movie.
When I finally finished cleaning the bathrooms it was time to take the boys to get their haircuts.
I woke Jeff up (at 5:15pm) and dropped the boys off with Tom at the hair dressers.
Then I headed home to finally clean up lunch so I could make dinner.
Then I got a call from my mom and went upstairs to talk and saw the laundry.
I started folding laundry again.
Then I came down and finished cleaning up the kitchen.
Then I made dinner.
Right when dinner was ready my mom showed up to go over clothes for our family pictures tomorrow.
We decided I needed to go buy me a new shirt(long story).
Then we ate dinner.
Right after dinner my sister called to see if she could go with me to get the shirt.
So I left Tom and the kids and went to get a new shirt.
Then we stopped off at her house and I borrowed some of her clothes and jewelry.
Then I got home and showed Tom the clothes.
I needed a necklace for my new shirt, so I started looking at my necklaces.
Then I decided to finally blog about my day.
So it's now 9:30pm and my talks not finished, the kitchens still a mess from dinner, I haven't finished preschool evaluations, there's one more load of laundry still in the drier, there's laundry on my bed that needs to be folded, there's toys still out and the kids still need to go to bed (they are watching "Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs" for the second time). Not to mention the things I haven't even started yet today, cleaning the fish tank, going over my lesson for Sunday, getting things ready for next weekend, but that's another story.