Maui 2012

Maui 2012

Big Bear Aug. 2011

St.Kitts

St.Kitts

Friday, January 20, 2012

SAN JUAN,PUERTO RICO/ST. THOMAS--JAN 12-18,2012

Donny planned a getaway from the cold,snow and yuk of winter and go figure it really hasn't been bad yet. Oh well, we were excited for a break and to feel the sun and warm again. We flew to San Juan, leaving Salt Lake City at 12:55 a.m. Crazy, I know! We got a taxi from the airport to our hotel and it was like a 5 minute drive was all. We changed out of our sweats and into our suits while our room was getting ready. Felt soooo good! I do believe we were in shock though. It's always so weird when it's cold at home. I think it took us a couple days to realize we didn't have to gear up for the cold when we walked outside.

We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel. It was pretty posh!! We had planned to just relax and pamper ourselves while staying here. Mission accomplished! We were quite jet lagged from the flight and since our bed was the coziest ever we slept in until 9am that first morning. We drank our protein shakes and headed for the gym and then a long walk/jog on the beach. Bringing our breakfast food was the best idea ever. Saved us lots of money, and we got to eat healthy!! Our room!

We are laying out by the pool and looking up at this!

This is the beach looking towards our hotel.

We did alot of walking along the beach.



Found a coconut and told Donny to play survivor for a minute!!

I forgot the name of these trees but they are so cool and are all over Puerto Rico.

Our pool was so awesome, too bad we weren't there longer so we could have enjoyed it. We opted to go to the beach instead. They had a big hot tub and that felt good. Good place to go when it decided to rain for 5 minutes.

We found a little local restaurant across the street from our hotel. It was called Mi Casita. We had the special ($6.99 a plate)They use alot of spices that make it taste really yummy and Donny is in love with the beans - puerto rico style!!! I've got to look for some recipes.



This is the only time I got in the pool. I wanted to sit at the bar!!Hahaha!

Making the most of our morning! Sad to say we must leave today.

This plane took us to St. Thomas.It's a prop plane! We loved it. So fun to see all of the other islands before you get there.

Our condo room at the Elysian in St. Thomas. We used our Worldmark points to stay.

Tiny lizard. They are everywhere. When we were in sunday school there was a baby one on Sister Babcock's (Eileen Andersen's cousin) neck. Her husband saw it and got it off of her. Yikes!!



This is the church house where the branch meets in St. Thomas. We met the couple missionaries, (we found out that Sister Babcock is Eileen Anderson's cousin. Eileen's mom and Sister Babcocks dad are brother and sister) Met some employees of El sol who just got there to work, Val Campbell served his mission with Cade Buck..Aaron Ellis was dating Kylie Richardson(know her from the Savior of the World)she is now going on a mission. Anyway.. small world. We ended up staying for all of the meetings.


We drove up to some lookout spots. This is St. Thomas!

We drove up to Mtn. Top and you can look out over Magens Bay and the ocean. They have a giant gift shop up there and we had to be silly with all of the pirate statues they had.

The view is absolutely breathtaking!!


The roads are so skinny and it is literally switchbacks to get up the mountain. Donny did a great job driving on the wrong side of the road. Only a couple of mistakes...thanks heavens no cars were in the lane!Locals gave us the evil eye!!


Checking in at the Elysian.

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

The sunrise at our beach!

Our condo



The pool at the condo. We used the hot tub but not the pool.

Always better to go to the Beach!


Donny walking on the beach.

On monday,Jan 16, we took an excursion on this sailboat over to St Johns at Honeymoon beach to snorkel. They fed us lunch and then we set sail again. Our next stop to snorkel would be in between Great St. James and Little St. James' islands. These islands are straight out from cowpet bay where we are staying. While we were out there we took a pic of our condo's. We saw alot of different fish and 2 spotted eagle rays. They were swimming in a line, one had a stinger and the other didn't. We found out that they are a rare species. They were so cute cuz they had polka dots and we could see them so good! They were right below us.I wanted to see a turtle but we didn't see one.




Iguana's are all over the place too.


Another sunrise pic overlooking Cowpet Bay. Our beach!

On tues, Jan 17th we drove over to secret beach which is just next to cowpet bay our beach, and we snorkeled there too. It was so calm and super good conditions so it was so clear. Saw lot's of different fish! This beach is so beautiful!

This is what I looked at everymorning when I got out of bed!!

We drove over to the Ritz-Carlton next to us on the other side and saw Great Bay.

Some more beautiful flowers at the Ritz-Carlton property.


We were laying out after snorkling at our beach and this iguana just walked right up to us!


These pelicans were pure entertainment! They would fly around and then dive bomb in the water to catch fish. Over and over and over! We found out that because they do this so much they eventually go blind and starve to death and die. So sad.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Great Grammy Faye's 75th / CHRISTMAS 2012

My mom turned 75 this year and we wanted to do something special for her. I took a box of pictures and things she had saved without her knowing about a month ago. I compiled it into to 2 huge binders for her. Cathy and I and Mandy, Kim and Jocelyn came to Mom's house early on saturday morning (Dec.10th)and cleaned out mom's basement and scrubbed some walls and the kitchen for her. We worked like crazy and got so much done! This happened to be the day Kacey got married, so we got dressed up for that and met our husbands and children there. After the wedding, we went back to Mom's clean house and gave her the binders I had done. We all had prepared our own memory of mom-grandma-great grandma and wrote in on a card. We presented them to her and she said later that it was the best birthday ever!!!!! It was a great chance for our family to do service for her... to thank her for all she has done for our family.






We were so excited for Jason,Claudia and kiddo's to come for christmas this year. Christmas eve wouldn't be complete without decorating sugar cookies! Ummmm good!

More christmas eve fun!!!!!



Davis is ready for christmas morning to begin! Can't believe how big he is!! Mandy and Cam came over and went to church with us at 1:00. I always love it when the family comes to church with us.

Tag,Ada,Maddie and Boston loved their pillow pets!!!

Our family getting ready to open christmas presents. Gets pretty crazy but we love it!




Sophie decided to make up her own dance to a toy she got. We laughed so hard at her!!!

Blair spotted Cam and grabbed my camera......we are all jealous of how Cam can fall into a deep sleep with it being loud and crazy around him!

I finally took time away from the kitchen to play with Parker!


These four kiddos got into their pj's and got their blankets and pillow pets and got real cozy for a movie!!

This is how we found Emma...... she thought she had found some chapstick. Turns out they are markers sweetheart!!

Too bad christmas day was sunny and no snow!! Maddie got a new bike and wanted to go for a ride and Ada and Boston found a little patch of snow that hadn't melted and had so much fun!!

On tues Dec 27th we had planned to celebrate the Dec. birthdays in our family by spending the day in logan. We met first at the tabernacle to get our family picture taken. It turned out pretty good considering in was freezing and a couple of the kids had a touch of something...a blow out and throw up just minutes before. Thanks everyone for helping make this happen especially Mandy!!! Love you all!!! We hung out at Cam and Mandy's and let those whose birthdays were in dec. open their presents and then we had lunch at Juniper Inn take-out, in our own special room.

Next, we were off to the fun park! Lazer tag was a big hit!The little kids loved the soft play except our usually brave and no fearing Emma came down the slide a bit to fast, bonked her head and was traumatized for the rest of the time.






Thank heavens Mandy and Cam still had some snow from our first storm. The kids got their snow gear on and played in the snow for awhile. They loved it!


The next day, Mandy brought her kids over to Brody and Joce's and we hung out there. The kids colored and played with play dough. Then we ordered the famous Pizza Plus pizza and breadsticks for dinner. A family favorite!!! We then had to say good bye to Jason,Claudia and family. It is always so sad and hard on all of us. They had good travels both to and from which we were so grateful for. It was a very enjoyable Christmas for sure!!!


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