Utah Trip 2016

Brooke and I did another whirlwind trip to Utah last week for a wedding of our good friend.  We took Taylor and Sylas with us and were actually surprised at how well they did with all the driving we did on our trip.

The wedding was at the Provo City Center Temple.  What a neat place!  There is a visitor's center that looks like a gazebo that the kids were able to wait in.  When we came out we got a picture of the kiddos in front of the Christus statue in the visitor's center.

Miss T had a melt down or two.  I love crying pictures but don't like the drama that goes with them!

My nephew waiting by the fountain.  He had a great time walking around the edge of the fountain.  He would get off whenever he came up on somebody and walk around them and get back on.  Except for me, he asked me to move every time.

The newlyweds with the groom's parents.

I love this family.

I grew up with them and the easiest way for us to explain who we were was saying we were cousins.  It was wonderful to be able to go and share in the joy with them.

Miss T was just taken with Kristen.  She wanted to talk to 'the bride' so after about an hour there was a good moment to snag a hug and a picture.  My nephew declared that he was going to marry the girl in white the next day.

Miss T loved smelling the flowers and wanted a billion pictures of it.

The next day we went to Grandma Lynne's and got to enjoy the backyard.

I love this jumping shot!

Miss T in the playhouse.

They loved being able to swim in the pool!  We had been bribing them with a swim since we left on  our trip and 3 days later it finally happened!  We spent about 3 hours playing in there.  Once we had enough (big) people we made a whirlpool for old times sake!

We ended the trip up at our Aunt and Uncle's house in Park City.  We enjoyed a day of shopping and little bit of visiting.

It was a great trip and I was glad to be home but wish we could have spent a little more time each place we stayed.

Lights at the Leg

We were able to get out and do a few fun things with Daniel's family at Christmas.  Seeing the lights at the Legislature was one of them.  I had my camera and was able to capture a few of the things we saw.  Some are too blurry to share as the flash ruined the picture but my hands aren't always steady!

T loves her Gramps.

This is what I get when I try and sneak a picture.

This is what I was going for!

The kids loved playing in the snow!

After listening to a song sung by a choir in the Leg we went out and had some hot chocolate and cookies Grandma brought.

Grandma and Gramps in front of the tree.  It was too dark here to not use a flash!

Family photo Christmas 2015.

Cruise 2016

Daniel and I will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year so we wanted to go on a fun trip.  Western Caribbean Cruise fit the bill.   We sailed out of Galveston Texas with the Days, Daniel's best friend from high school, and enjoyed a great week in the sun!

There are a bunch of pictures and I will only caption a few of them.  Our stops were Roatan Honduras, Belize City Belize and Cozumel Mexico.  At the end of our week I wasn't quite ready to come home but it sure is nice to see the kids again.

First night on the boat as we set sail.

Daniel tried out the climbing wall on the boat.  It was on the top deck and offered a great view.

Daniel also tried out the Flo Rider.  It was pretty busy so he only had one chance on it but did fairly well.  He wished he could have tried it a few more times to really get the hang of it.

Jacob and Erin enjoying the ice cream and books.  We did this most of our time at sea.

The first formal night.

The building says "Monkey La-La Zip".  It was a zip line that went over the water.

Our excursion was to a private island that had a dock that ended right at the reef which made for some great snorkelling.  I sat and read on the beach while everyone snorkelled as I can't breath when my face is in the water.  Pretty much my ideal day!

The island had replica ruins, an animal reserve and a swimming pool so there was no shortage of things to do while we were there.

Daniel kept chasing the iguana as it ran away from him.  This is one of many that we saw on our trip!

In Belize we took an 1+ hour bus ride to a restaurant and then took another 1+ hour boat ride to some ruins call Lamania which was amazing!

The boat ride up to the ruins was pretty amazing.  The driver was going 40mph winding along the river.

There is a Night Hawk sitting on the branch.

Snake Cactus wrapping around the tree branch.

The Jaguar Temple.

This is the 'Jaguar' on the temple.

The ball court, or half of it.

The main temple.  There is a staircase that was built to the left that goes most of the way up the temple to allow people to climb to the top.

From here we could hear the howler monkeys in the jungle.  They used the sound of the monkeys for dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.  Unfortunately you can't hear them in the video because of the wind.

Standing in some of the houses.

A little taste of the boat ride.

We visited Tulum when we stopped in Cozumel.

The far left has a depiction of a God (Heavenly Father), the middle has a descending God (Jesus Christ) and the far right is blank (Holy Ghost).  We found these ruins really interesting and would love to go back to explore some more on our own schedule! 

After visiting Tulum we had a beach stop and lunch at a private beach.

There were natural springs that emptied into the ocean and we kept trying to swim and stand in them.  Daniel and I left when we felt a few little stings, nothing major.  Shortly after that Jacob got stung by a jelly fish on the back of his leg and it got caught when he jerked his knee closed.

Final time getting back on our boat.

Towel Gorilla.

It was a great trip and we were sad to come back to the snow but it is great to be home again.