Catching up...

Errolyn started volleyball and Logan started soccer.  Both are doing well and Logan is the star goal scorer as usual.  General Conference was wonderful, especially Elder Holland's talk about depression.  I'm not depressed or anything, but was at one point in my life and know many people who are... so I bet his talk was extra inspiring.  But honestly, Elder Holland could read the phone book and I would still feel extra inspired... lol.  Maybe not, but he's such a powerful speaker, no matter the topic.

So, three weeks ago, I was starting to worry that we would not have a 15 year Anniversary celebration because of some events we are planning for (we do something big every 5 years).  So, we decided to celebrate a couple of months early.  We found a super cheap cruise to the Bahamas and booked it.  We hired a young single adult in our ward to babysit the kids all week, and Carol came over a couple of evenings to help.

The cruise was SO wonderful!!  The first day, we flew to Orlando and then took a shuttle to Port Canaveral.  We sailed on Royal Caribbean and it was great!  The first night Mike and I started getting a little sea sick so we tried the sea bands we had brought and they did nothing.  So, we took some ginger capsules I had brought and they worked wonderfully.  We kept up on our ginger and were not sick the rest of the trip.  Actually, I'm more sea sick now that I'm home... lol.  I have been having vertigo ever since the cruise and still feel like I'm rocking... hopefully it'll go away soon.  Anyway, I won't go into every single detail, but we attended a lot of the live game shows or trivia games on board, we ate way too much (Windjammers, Park Café, and the My Fair Lady Dining Room were all free and had good food), and we relaxed.  The boat was quite large and it was so peaceful to sit on the top deck and watch the waves and talk.  It was very relaxing and fun.

The first day we took tender boats to Coco Cay, a small island owned by the cruise company.  We went snorkeling which I am not very good at.  We saw some really cool fish and jelly fish.  After that we walked along the beach.  We had been worried about the Tropical Storm earlier in the week, but it didn't affect us at all and the weather was just beautiful!  We found some hammocks and laid down and eventually fell asleep... but not for long.  I had just drifted off when a rooster (I had no idea they were on the island) walked up right in front of my hammock and crowed really loudly.  I was so startled from my sleep that I screamed and leapt from the hammock, getting my foot stuck and frantically trying to free it.  When I realized what had woke me up, Mike and I both laughed.  I'm convinced the rooster is either mean or has a good sense of humor because it then walked over to the next set of hammocks and did the same thing.  It was funny to see the other couple who had been sleeping leap up from their hammocks too... lol.  Then we played in a volleyball tournament which was fun and then got back on the boat.

We got dressed for formal night and had a good evening.  The next day we docked in Nassau and took a group taxi to see some of the historical sites there.  We saw a couple of forts, government buildings, this really cool 5-star hotel that had gorgeous gardens, Queen Anne's staircase, the Atlantis, and some local shops.  We didn't enjoy seeing the Cuban Cigar making room at the hotel... it stank and Mike and I left the group to wait outside.  We ate lunch on the ship and then came back and went shopping for souvenirs and I got my hair braided with corn rows on top and beaded braids in the back.  It was fun!

The rest of the trip was filled was a lot of relaxing, eating, having fun, and just spending time together.  Mike also did some bungee jumping thing and climbed the rock wall.  We had a wonderful trip!  We flew back with Mike's airline points and Carol brought the kids to surprise us at the airport which was nice.  I sure missed them a lot!!

Now that we're back, I'm in the thick of the Messiah and am now planning a multi-faith choir for next June.  I had to cram all of last week's English work into the previous work so I could take the week off.  This is the last week of my English class and then I begin my Speech class.  I also have started teaching violin lessons at the Middle School during the class periods one day a week, so that's been fun.  Cameron went on a big 5-Stake Scout camp-out this last weekend to celebrate 100 years in Scouting.  President Beck, the general YM President was there.

Saturday night we all went to Mike's company party.  They had booths all over the place with different kinds of food and games.  The three soccer fields were covered with moon bounces, rock walls, zip lines, etc. and the kids all had a great time.  Afterwards we drove to the roof to watch the fireworks.  Cameron went to a leadership meeting and fireside last night with Pres. Beck again and enjoyed hearing him speak as well as seeing his friends from the other wards.

I think that's it... whew.  :)