December

Day 1: Well we left for our flight feeling pretty good, the first plane of three was really small, and there was an annoying little kid in front of us (figures), but luckily it was only an hour. We were both hungry by the time we landed, and had a three hour layover in LA, but it went by surprisingly quick.  The flight to Dallas was long and we were ready to be done, they were worried our bags wouldn’t fit because the plane was full so they checked a bag for free, I was paranoid it’d get lost, but we found it in Florida when we landed. We waited about 25 min at the airport then took the shuttle to the dock.  We had sweats on from being in Utah and were dying of heat when we got here! We waited about 40 min or so and got on the ship, but we couldn’t take our bags to our room until 1:30 which was an hour and a half away! 

We ate lunch and sat on the deck all sweaty then checked into our rooms. We changed and walked around the ship for a while, I was sad because my clothes are tighter than when I packed them, but we took a nap and I felt a lot better, especially because 80% of the people on the ship are extremely overweight haha! We slept until about 7 and then went to the Lincoln dining room, ours for the week, other than the lido deck.  Preston had a steak and I had fried chicken. We met some really nice people from Chicago that ate with us, then there was an announcement that someone was being picked up by the Coast Guard, which was pretty exciting, after we ate we went on the deck and laid in a hammock and watched the helicopter come, it was pretty interesting!

Day 2: Today we ate breakfast at the lido deck because we didn’t want to dress up (formal day).  The food was okay but not great.. kinda a let down.  We laid out in the hammock again on the serenity area (adults only wahoo) and tanned a little, going to the whirlpool once in a while.  We went to the Lido deck again for lunch but didn’t really like anything we had, so we decided to go to our nice dining area even if we have to dress up from now on.  After walking around some more we took a nap for a few hours and got dressed up for dinner.  Tonight for dinner we had shrimp cocktail/alligator for an appetizer! The alligator didn’t really taste like meat.. it was super weird, but not gross.  Preston had lobster and prime rib and I just had prime rib, followed by melting chocolate cake.  It was all super good, we can now officially say we’ve had lobster! We met a really nice young couple from Miami tonight, they just got married Friday, how fun! They offered us to come to their suite and check it out and have some champagne if we wanted later, weird. haha.  

Day 3: Today was our first stop in the Cayman Islands.We ordered room service, then took the boat over to the island.  It was so hot for 8 in the morning! Our tour was to swim with the stingrays and snorkel, go to the turtle farm, and to "Hell".  Well stingrays and snorkeling was canceled because the water had a strong current supposedly, so they reimbursed us for that portion and we went on our way, we got a little tour on our way to Hell, the driver let us stop at the beach and it was so nice! He said the water was cold to them, there was a cold front, we thought it was so nice! Gas there was 8 dollars a gallon in US dollars!! "Hell" is just these cool rocky dried up coral type things, we took some pics and sent postcards to our parents.  We also got some cool shirts.  After we went to the turtle farm and got to hold baby turtles! It was so much fun. We also saw huge ones as big as 550 pounds, it was the coolest thing ever. Next we went to a rum store and sampled some rum cake.. we didn’t like it. But we got to go out by the water and take some more fun pics.

We went back to the dock and walked around the shops a bit but didn’t get too much, they didn’t have that good of prices and it seemed to be the same stuff at every store, by the time we were done shopping we still had almost 4 hours left before the ship left, so we were heading down toward the beach when we stopped in this little shop who rented snorkel gear for 10 bucks and you could use it as long as you wanted.  We swam around and didn’t see too much, the water wasn’t very clear. We saw some cool blue fish and capers  I guess they're called? They were like 4 feet long, it was freaking me out, they were just staring at me! There was a “shipwreck” out there too, just pieces left of it, but it was still pretty cool, the water seemed WAY salty, it was killing our eyes and mouth, and I got a bruise on my face from my mask being too tight.

Day 4: Today we went to Mahogany Bay to a private island. We got there and had a place to lay by the beach, do unlimited snorkeling, and hang out.  The island was teeny, but so fun.  They have a bunch of different animals there that they get injured and nurse back to health and let in the wild, or keep if they can't fully recover.  We saw an ant eater that someone tried to cut his head off, there was a big scar, and three of his legs were broken when they got him, so sad! He was so cool to see and pet.  Next we saw a baby alligator that was born blind, sad. Preston held him! There were also monkeys, cheetahs, parrots, and turtles.  We did a thing where we got to swim with SHARKS! It was the coolest thing I've ever done.  It was a section of the ocean cornered off and we just got in the huge pen with the instructor girl and they were feeding the sharks, a couple of them rubbed up against me.  There must have been 10, the longest being about 8 feet long. It was so crazy! there were also stingrays.

Day 5: Today we took a Mayan Tour and City tour of Belize. It was fun but again, so hot! We climbed up a ruin and it was so high! It was way cool to see everything, It is a very poor country and was sad to see the conditions people lived in.  This was the only stop we didn't get in the water in. We shopped around and got back on the ship after.

Day 6: This was our last stop in Cozumel.  I think this was the most fun place we went to by far.  We went down to a park where we went kayaking in clear kayaks, it was cool, there is a christ statue in the ocean that we rowed over of him with his hands raising up to the heavens, he is made of copper and it was awesome to see! Next we went back to shore and got our snorkel stuff, this was the clearest snorkel spot of all, it was amazing! we saw a sea horse, and a stingray, among other cool fish

Preston got sick toward the end so we didn't do much on our last "sea day" and the airplane ride home was terrible. We got to the airport at 11:45 ish and our plane wasn't scheduled till 4, but ended up getting delayed until 5:10, leaving half an hour to get to our transfer plane in LA. We had to check one bag in Miami, it was barely too big, I was worried about it getting lost and sure enough, it never made it on the LA plane. It just got here Monday night at 5. Of course all of my underwear and pills are in that one. I hate checking bags.  Today Preston was really sick and throwing up so we took him to the clinic and they wanted to give him two bags of IV fluids, it took forever, and he's been sleeping ever since, they also gave him stuff for his stomach and it knocked him out.  The worst part of a vacation is coming back to reality.

We are both slowly recovering from our sicknesses.  We had a great Christmas! Preston ended up getting called off, so we went to church at his parents' ward, then went to their house for some breakfast and opened up some presents.  They got us some way nice sheets and cookware, oh and a heated mattress pad!! Whoo!  We hung out for a while then brought my mom some food, she was stuck at work.  We went home and opened up our presents, then went back to his parents house later when his grandparents came over.  His grandma got me the ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid! I can't wait to use it!! She also got us clothes we picked out earlier in the month.  So sweet :) Here are some pictures:

Larry quite enjoyed that box.  We bought ourselves a home theater sound system for our living room and a tv for our bedroom. Merry christmas to us :) 

So appropriate for him !

YAY! I love my kitchen aid mixer, and love getting things for it :) 

Things I got. Boots, shoes, jewelry, t-shirts, the biggest loser for kinect, active 2 for kinect, a yoga mat, a robe, my mixer attachment, and the nativity part of the willow tree scene :)

Preston got t-shirts, a grilling cookbook, hats, a few different xbox games, a yoga mat, helicopter, rubix cube type puzzle games, t-shirs, a kinect, and some other little things like gum, massager, etc. 

On Monday we came to my parents for Christmas with Jeff and Averie.  We had a nice Christmas dinner and then opened our presents, I was so excited to give mom all her stuff I couldn't hardly wait! 

Mom made me a blanket from squares of fabric from my grandmas blouses and old buttons, I lOVE it. It reminds me of her and now it's like I have a piece of her with me!  We are so lucky to have such great families! 

It hasn't really snowed all winter and last weekend when I went out to my car I found this in a matter of a few hours! Crazy. If only it would either stay like that, or just be warmer.. 

We saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the end of December. I got tickets for Preston for Christmas and he was so excited! We got seats 11 rows back and it was awesome.

^ see the monsters eyes and teeth? cool! :) 

Larry has officially gone insane and we can't ever sleep anymore. He's going in the bathroom from now on when we sleep. Crazy cat...I got a grant for tuition finally and it was just over half of my one semester.. which is frustrating. I was hoping it'd be more. We're both doing good though, our classes are pretty hard, but it will be worth it, and we are sure working hard!