St Maarten

Early in the morning Jake took off with most of the group to head out for their zip line, and ropes coarse excursion. Leaving me behind with Sadie, Alyssa, Riley and Erik.  The girls, Erik and I headed out to shop while we waited for the rest of the group to finish with their excursion. We found a bunch of fun shops and ended running into most of our group while we were out and got to do a little shopping with them. Shortly after we meet up with them I decided to head back to the boat to find Jake. He had gone back to look for me =0) After a few adventures we meet back up, Jake took Sadie back to the room for a nap, and told me to go enjoy the last couple hours on the island. I meet back up with the group, some were swimming and laying on the beach and others were shopping. I joined in on the shopping for a bit and then headed back to the boat.

 This island was my most favorite of all. The views were breathtaking!

Stunning!

St Thomas

All 9 of us cousins got to go snorkeling together in St Thomas. We had so much fun and drank a lot of really salty salt water. Jake kept reminding me how much saltier it was than Hawaii. How is it that all the water is connected and one huge body of water and some water is saltier than other areas of the water. I just don’t get it. Anyone know? Anyway, we saw fire coral, sea urchins and varieties of fish and then we meet our friend CASPER the barracuda! 

 The boat captain says that this fish is friendly---- do you see those teeth. YIKES! I vote he’s not my friend. One bite and you would be missing a chunk!

Grandma and Grandpa Jones and Great Aunt Kristie and Great Uncle Erik hung out with Sadie and took her shopping with them. After we were done snorkeling we headed up to the shopping area to meet up with them. As we were crossing the street to where they were shopping, Brittany decided to take a mud bath in the street gutter so our shopping was cut short and we headed back to the boat. =) poor Britt, always the adventurous one! HAHA

Coco Cay Bahamas

 Our first stop was Coco Cay Bahamas. The beach was beautiful, white sand, blue water, and the perfect temperature for hanging out on the beach and relaxing. We got Sadie to play in the sand, at first she was a little unsure of it and then she joined in on the fun!

 While on Coco Cay my cousin Alyssa found this cool shell… to her surprise inside lived a hermit crab! YIKES! It was fun to watch everyone “play” with the shell/crab. I was a little freaked out by the creature so I stayed a safe distance away =0)

Cruise!

We just got back from an exciting trip! We went on a cruise and then spent a couple of days at Disney World and Universal Studios. 11 months ago when we began planning this trip it seemed like it was so far away, when the time arrived for us to start packing it was surreal. We had an awesome time, this is one of our top favorite trips. We had so much fun! 14 people, 8 days on board a floating city, 3 days in Orlando, lots of fun, laughs and 1000 pictures later (no I didn't take all of this pictures but all of us together took all of those pics)!

For now I will blog about all of the fun things we did onboard the ship... This trip is going to take up a ton of posts and blog space =0) We were able to cruise with Royal Caribbean on one of their biggest ships, Freedom of the Seas. On this boat there was so much to do! We had a rock climbing wall, flow rider, splash park for Sadie, pools, hot tubs, ice skating, and casino.

 Jake and Sadie admiring the boat. We watched a ton of semi trucks drive up to the boat and load TONS of cargo onto the ship. Made me think about all of the food and fun that was awaiting us!

 Here is some of the group hanging out on the top deck of the ship watching everyone on the flow rider. This was one of the biggest hits on board. There was always a line of people waiting for a turn.

Dodgeball Competition. 

 Kiddie Splash Park

 Pool area

So I spent way to much money on Bingo. We went to one game and I was one away from wining $4500!!!! So I spent more money again.... and.... welp... didn't win but it was sure fun playing!

I'm still alive, PROMISE!

WOW I haven't posted anything in over a month! REALLY?!? Well my absence must show you a little of how my life has been lately =) Chaotic to say the least. For the past 6 weeks straight we have either had friends and family in town visiting or we have been out of town! We haven't had a weekend to ourselves. It has been a ton of fun visiting and catching up with everyone. We still have 4 more weeks of visitors and then I don't know what we are going to do. It will be weird not having people around! So as soon as I get a minute to myself I will begin posting about our BIG family vacation!!! Here is a teaser picture for your enjoyment =0)