We went on a boat...

I am slow updating my blog and writing about our AMAZING cruise to the western Caribbean. We had so much fun and it was definitely hard to come back to the winter wonderland of Utah.

I am making a book of our pictures so I don't feel like posting a lot on here. I will leave a short account of the highlights.

Tampa, FL- We flew to Tampa on Saturday, Jan 14. We decided to fly down a day early in case inclement weather or traveling delays kept us from arriving in time for the cruise. High points from FL-- we ate Indian food at a restaurant that was attached to a gas station. (surprisingly good)
The next day we walked around a park and got on our ship. As soon as we boarded, we started our week of eating and enjoying the sun and good weather.

1st day- This was our first day at sea. We mostly laid out and ate. We also all got a bit of sea sickness due to the windy conditions. We all took dramamine and slept for most of the day. (which was ok because we all needed the rest) We also met our awesome dinner waiters: Arturus from Lithuania, Budy from Indonesia and Walter from India. We became quite good friends with Arturus and I miss him!!

2nd day- Grand Cayman
We were excited to get off the boat and visit a new country! We were supposed to swim with the stingrays but sadly we couldn't because of the wind and waves.
We went snorkeling instead and we all got stung by jelly fish!
Grand Cayman was very expensive and the service was lacking, but it was ok because we loved all of our other stops.

3rd day- Cozumel, Mexico
I was shocked how much i LOVED this island. We rented scooters, laid on the beach, admired the gorgeous blue water (prettiest I've ever seen), viewed Mayan ruins, drank Coca Cola Light and spoke Spanish to the locals (they even understood me!!!)


4th day- Belize City, Belize and Altun Ha (Mayan Ruins)
We had an awesome tour guide here and mostly spent the whole day at the ruins, which were quite cool. The local vendors were quite aggressive and this was our hottest destination!

5th day- Roatan Island, Hondouras
This place was gorgeous!! Brody and Ryan enjoyed scuba diving while Kristen and I enjoyed the beach, waveless ocean and chatting with the locals. We want to go back and vacation there. We also rented a car there--which made me kinda nervous--but we survived the skinny, potholed roads that lacked signage. We even made it back on the boat in time !

6th and last day--this was another day at sea. At the point I was pretty tired of the boat and the food, but was so happy about how much fun we had and my new bronze skin!

I am happy to say that I have now visited 11 countries!

Happy 2012!

Our New Year's Eve happened in three parts...

Part 1
Brody has been sick lately, but not too sick to wake us up early to ski! He got a GoPro camera for Christmas from his dad so we thought we'd test it out. We have some comical pictures of my attempts to figure out how to work the camera.















The snow was awful because we have had absolutely no snow this whole month! Like I've said before, I am totally ok with that, but it does not make skiing very fun. We still had as much fun as possible and took a few videos. I'll post some someday....

Part 2
We haven't seen our friend Peng and Rachel FOREVER. so happily we met for dinner at a Thai place. We always have so much fun with them and leave each other, thinking "Why don't we hang out with them more often" James also joined us. We ate tons of yummy Pad Thai, curry and spring rolls.





Part 3
After dinner we headed over to hang out with another group of friends. Joseph and Lindsey (who we met through Kristen and Ryan) invited us over to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately I was tired and didn't feel much like getting ready. I need to remember in the future that I always need to get ready the night that I plan to take lots of pictures...it really helps with the turnout.

We didn't have any hats, beads or noise makers, so we made these white paper hats seconds before the ball dropped..it was the best we could do at the last minute. When the ball dropped we toasted martinellis and watched fireworks from their balcony. They had a perfect view...we didn't even have to get cold. All and all it was a fun celebration. Happy 2012!!


Today I am eating pierogies and kielbasa to officially celebrate and get some good luck for the new year. I am supposed to be eating sauerkraut, but I am not a fan so I'll have pierogies instead to remind me of johnstown.