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| We took a red eye flight from SLC to FL. Although it was a short night with little sleep, we were grateful to not tag on extra days away from the kids for travel. |
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| We arrived in FL and passed through customs. Waiting to board the ship. |
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| I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the ship was incredible! It felt like a nice hotel more than a boat. |
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| Ready to hit the waterside! |
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| This was our view at our table every night at dinner. |
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| Mark with some of his family. From left to right: Mark's dad, mom, sister, bro-in-law, bro, sis-in-law, and Mark. I am leaving names out to respect their privacy. |
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| Mark's sister had these tees made for his parents. We thought they turned out cute! |
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| Hot cocoa and star gazing. |
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| Sunrise in Mexico. |
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| On the pier and headed for adventures. |
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| Our excursion for the day was a private island by speed boat. There were kayaks, hammocks, water trampolines, etc. yummy food (OH! The guacamole!) It was so relaxing! |
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| I cannot describe the beauty. The ocean was clear and a turquoise color. The sand was white plus blue skies most of our week. |
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| Funny sign #1. These were the bans on the water trampolines. Anyone know what a "third age" person is? Haha. |
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| There is a "before" picture down at the bottom of this post. This is the "after" of what we looked like after the speedboat rides to and from the islands. The driver would gain speed then suddenly spin cookies. It was such a blast! |
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| We could check board games out. Here we are playing jenga (from Mark's view). |
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| Pulling out of Mexico and heading to Belize! |
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| Funny sign #2 |
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| How did the chicken get to Belize? Chicken tender...hahaha. We thought it was cute. Belize was one of our tender days. (For those who don't know what that means: the boat has to anchor out in the deep rather than pull right up to the pier. There are "shuttle boats" that take people back and forth to the land and the ship). Here we are on our tender heading out for more advents. |
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| We had about 1 1/2 hours of bus riding both ways for our excursion. It was really eye opening to see the widespread poverty. It truly tugged at my heart and stirred both gratitude for how blessed we are and also rededicated our efforts to helping others around us improve their situations. |
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| We had an exciting excursion in Belize. It was a combination of zip lining through the jungle and into a cave, caving, and tubing in the water. Helmets on for the cave portion, swim suits on for tubing... |
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| Mark all harnessed up for zip lining. |
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| Neither of us has zip lined before. Part of me was a bit jittery as I stepped up to be harnessed to the line. Once I zoomed through the jungle, it was all exhilaration from there. It was a blast to have activities we would't normally be able to do with all our "little helpers" at home. |
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| Doesn't that look amazing? |
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| Tubing in the cave. (A river runs through it.) |
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| This was our yummy lunch: "bamboo chicken" AKA iguana. Seriously. |
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| And here was our view while we ate. BEAUTIFUL! |
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| Our view of the harbor when we woke up in Rotan, Honduras. |
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| For our excursion we did "SNUBA" (pictures a few below). The snub made Mark motion sick, which was so sad. :( At his encouragement I went off to snorkel while he sipped a 7 up. |
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| Here was our SNUBA (a combination of snorkel and scuba diving). It was a underwater scooter. This scooter was put in the water and attached by a rope to a plastic buoy filled with air (so it won't sink). A scuba diver would signal us to take a deep breathe, shut our eyes, and aim to go from up underneath like pictured above. They would guide us to make sure we got in and out safely, then stayed with us as we snuba-ed. It was crazy...incredible...just unbelievable. The closest we could have gotten to scuba diving without the training and licensing. |
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| Sitting side saddle. |
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| I was selected to participate in the hasbro games game show. It was a blast. My team won and I even got a mini scrabble game out of the deal. |
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| Our view of the harbor in Great Cayman. It was my turn not to feel well, so we rested up. |
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| Mark's parents had an anniversary cake at dinner complete with candles and everyone singing. |
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| The joys of curly hair and humidity. :) |
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| My friend had me borrow this shirt. It's says "it's all about me." As she put it into my hands the night before we left, she encouraged me to just go and enjoy myself. Sometimes, especially as a Mama of four, it can be really hard to go out of my way to put myself first. I have learned a lot over the past few years that an investment in myself is an investment in my family...that as I care for myself well I can then care better for my family than when I allow myself to be run ragged. By the end of the week I felt so refreshed. We both did. Even though I have done well to put myself first by scriptures, prayers, yoga, eating well, etc. this is the most renewed I have felt since before Shipton's pregnancy. Thanks for the encouragement, my friend. You were right. And thanks again to Mark's parents and my step-mom and dad for caring for my babies at home so I could enjoy just being a wife for the week. |
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| Starting to get packed to head for home. |
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| Our last night we had planned a surprise party for Mark's parents. Mark's job was to "entertain" them (AKA keep them in their rooms) while we got everything set up. Here we are leading them to the party. |
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| I posted way more on FB than here, but his sis-in-law arranged for a cake and brought one of her beautiful cake stands she made. |
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| Mark's bro and sis did a cute narrative in his parents's own words of their meeting, dating, and marrying. |
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| Mark's sis in law and bro (not pictured) sang some beautiful songs. "When I fall in love" had us all in tears as we considered on the reality that we are working for: building an eternal marriage. How much more meaningful that knowledge is (and how much deeper it has sunk) in our 11 years of marriage. I cannot imagine how tender it will be in another 4 decades together and with even more life experiences to draw us closer to Him together. |
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| Mark's sis wrote a clever poem for the occasion. |
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| We collaborated with several siblings to come up with a game to play together. His bro lead the group in playing the "truly wed" game (after the newly wed game). It too was cute. |
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| The girls playing |
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| Most of the boys playing minus Mark (taking the picture) and his bro-in-law and one bro. |
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| His sis in law presented a book she had complied of a letter/note/picture from every member of the family (including grand and great grandchildren and all of the inlaws including grandchildren-in-laws). |
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| Sunrise back in FL. |
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| Off the ship, through customs, and on the bus headed to the airport. It was a long day of travel, but so much more fun with my best friend. |
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| Funny sign (to us) #3. Thinking about our red eye flight the previous week. |
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| We had professional pictures on the cruise. I am excited to get these printed and framed! |
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| Mark with his parents and 5 other siblings. |
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| Another picture of a picture. The "before" in Mexico. It was so iconic with the ship in the background and we looked pretty cute we just had to purchase this one too. |
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| Also a picture of a picture, but perfect for the waiting picture frame. |
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| This is a picture of a picture, so not as high quality, but too cute to keep to ourselves. This was formal night #1. (Above was formal night #2). |
