10 YEARS

We are so excited to be celebrating 10 years of marriage today. It has been fun, exciting, trying, interesting, fulfilling, and even hard at times. We have both grown a lot through all the experiences and we are excited to see what the next 10 years will hold.

Learned things

A few things learned on vacation...

-When Jamaican people ask you your name and then quickly give you a push into their store, be prepared to run or waste $30 on junk. If you do waste $30 on junk, make sure you double check what you bought; they may sneak something different in your bag. It could be worse than you agreed to buy.

-When the person you are with wastes $30 on junk, DO NOT make them feel worse than they already do. It will make for a not-so-fun bus ride (that was already a little scary) back to the ship.

-When talking to other people that have taken the same cruise as you are about to take, make sure you listen carefully to what they say. At least listen to which country it is they tell you that the beach is just a short easy walk from the pier. If you get mixed up this is what will happen...You will walk by a man with a sign that says for only $4.00 he will take you to the public 7 mile beach. You look at him and smile knowing that is a rip off because the beach is just a short easy walk. You will walk one and a half miles on a street (no sidewalks! keep your arms in or you may lose one) before deciding to turn down a lonely looking street that says there is a beach access. Yes, there is a beach when you get there, but it is all rocky and there is no one in sight. The decision is mutual with the tourists following their "guide" that they should follow the water to find the public beach. That mutual decision is short lived when the "followers" don't think much of the sign posted that says "PRIVATE PROPERTY ALL TRESPASSERS WILL BE ARRESTED". So then you would walk back to another street that would eventually take you back to the main street that you were on 20 minutes ago. Once you get back on that street, you see some other people and ask how far to the public beach. "Only about 1/2 mile and it's an easy walk". HA! Needless to say you will eventually make it to a beautiful beach where you just want to lay down and sleep. And after a fun day you will pay $4 for a nice 3-4 mile cool taxi ride back to ship.

-Listen very carefully to your waiter (strong accent)each night when he tells you what is going on the next day. He may tell you that they are having a midnight barbecue out by the pool and you can wear whatever you would like. If you don't listen carefully you may think he was talking about the next nights dinner in the formal dining room. And you WILL feel silly when you are the only ones that show up to dinner dressed casual.

Some of our funnest moments celebrating 10 years:)

One More

Fun with the cousins...

The kids are loving having some of their cousins here. We have hardly seen Trevin at all. He and Owen were always busy playing over the weekend and now Trey is here and they are making up new games to play. Meryn has been having a good time with Malia, Meredith and now Avery. Although, they are all very strong willed girls so it can get interesting at times. Brendon and Caleb took turns driving the tractor pulling the wagon. They loved giving the younger kids rides. Needless to say they are all sleeping great at night and the boys are having a hard time getting up for school. Their spring break was last week, but all the cousins have it this week. It sure is neat to have cousins so close and have them so close in age.

Skating

We took the kids skating today since it's their last day of spring break. They had so much fun and were exhausted when we left. Only a few wipeout's and bruised bottoms. I didn't even attempt to go since I don't have Aflack!

Soccer '07

Caleb, "taking a knee". Why do we have to take a knee, daddy?
It turned out a little blurry, but I thought it was so awesome to see them congratulate each other and tell each other how well they did.

Trevin ready to kick off.
He nailed it!
Caleb protecting his brother.
Brendon booting it after saving a goal kick.
Leave me alone Daddy!!

The spring season started today! It was another exciting start. Trevin is a lot more aggressive than in years past and really attacked the ball. Brendon played goalie for the second half and made some incredible saves and didn't allow anyone to score on him. Caleb played full back and saved Brendon a lot of work by attacking and booting the ball down to the other end of the field. Man is it exciting to watch them play and to see how far they have come.

We took 450+ pictures. So here's a few more!!

Could she be any more beautiful??
MMMM Lobster night....
Eating breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe. What a beautiful view....Susan of course!
Center stage in the theater with Marisa.
Passing a Carnival ship in the Gulf.

Matt and Marisa looking HOT for a formal dinner night!!
Having fun on the outside deck. It was so beautiful.
Susan at the Dunns River Falls in Jamaica.
Wastin' away again in Margaritaville.....
Beautiful sunset in the Caribbean sea.

Leaving Galveston to celebrate our 10th anniversary.
The indoor Solarium saltwater pool.
Not yet Matt, you hold your breath before you hit the water!
Midnight "snack" at the all night buffet. I don't think we ate one time because we were "hungry".
Just some random hottie roaming the ship. She seemed to follow me everywhere though. Maybe I've still got it? Oh ya!!

Marisa and Susan as we leave Galveston.

First day. Waiting for luggage. Isn't she gorgeous!!

More Cruise Pictures

Having way too much fun!


Shopping on the boat

Doing the "drill"

Our Cruise

Well we kept so busy on the cruise, we have lots of catching up to do. It was such an awesome trip, we had so much fun but missed our kids a bunch! The first three days were at sea and then we made our first stop in Jamaica. We went to the Dunn's River Falls and climbed the waterfalls. We did some shopping that we didn't really want to do after that...Very pushy people, but we learned quickly how to say NO in the future.




The next day we stopped in George Town, Grand Cayman where we decided to walk to the 7 mile beach. Well after a long 3 mile walk we finally made it there (of course there's a story behind that one). We swam and hung out on the beach until we felt fried. We then found a taxi to take us back to do some more shopping before heading back to the boat.



Our third port was Cozumel, Mexico. We went power snorkeling and had a blast! I was a little nervous at first but had so much fun once I got used to it. I was a little sick from swallowing so much salt water:) I obviously wasn't a pro at it, but learned quickly all the little tricks, like keeping that tube thing out of the water. Greg was right at home being in the water. He dove down and swam on the bottom taking pictures and having all kinds of fun with the machine.
After snorkeling we went shopping some more and headed back to the boat. After eating out in Jamaica we decided to just eat on the boat the rest of the stops. It was just safer that way and tastes a lot better too.


We were never bored on the trip and had a blast with our friends Matt & Marisa celebrating our 10 year anniversary together.