Cruise

We recently returned from a Western Caribbean cruise to Belize, Isla Roatan Honduras, and
Cozumel Mexico. As you will see from the pictures, we had a great time and it was very beautiful!


















We went Snorkeling in Belize. Afterward they took us to a private island where we could drink unlimited Rum Punch (or.....water for us!) There were about 10-15 senior citizens on our boat ride back that were VERY intoxicated. Very good entertainment.















As a matter of fact, I think that a few of these drunken individuals are in the background of this picture.














Isla Roatan, Honduras. Awesome coral reefs!















We wanted to snorkel out to this ship wreck, but we had to reserve this snorkeling adventure before hand. Maybe next time!




























Doug's main goal of our vacation was to take back a number of shells. We rode a lift over the water and Doug found a conch shell that he HAD to have. Security let him take one shell. This shell caused us more problems than we anticipated. First of all, we had to keep it in our room for the rest of the week with the conch still inside. It produced the most foul smell that my nose has every encountered. THEN we had to make it through customs with this stinky shell. You could smell it through his suitcase! Miraculously, the dogs only knew how to smell drugs and not rotting sea creature so we made it through customs. The worst part was driving home with it in our trunk. The smell was so bad that we could smell it while driving, with the shell wrapped in 5 bags in the trunk. All for a stinkin' shell!! He really likes it, so I guess it was worth it :)




























There were hundreds of iguanas laying around in Mexico. This one was really big, but the picture doesn't give it justice. We're still trying to figure out our camera.














Mayan Ruins of Tulum, Mexico














This was the biggest temple in Tulum. It was where sacrifices were made. It was amazing how much work was put into this temple, especially back when they didn't have the resources that we have today.

































































We finished our day in Mexico with some Fish Tacos and Chicken Cheese Quesedilla's and fresh coconut milk. It was all really tasty!!

We're still here!

It's been about 5 months since the last blog post, so it’s about time for another one don't ya think?
Life has been pretty good the last few months. We had a great Christmas in Utah! I stayed the whole month of December for some friends Weddings and Doug joined for Christmas. Our trip back home to Alabama was quite the adventure. We flew out of Vegas, because we had been staying in St. George with Doug's Mom. Long story short, our plane had maintenance problems and we had to stay in Vegas for the night. We were given hotel and taxi vouchers...this is where it got kind of ugly. We were lugging around 4 large bags and 3 carry ons (I stayed for a month, plus Christmas gifts) and so we wanted to get our stuff into the hotel so we could explore the city of sin. Turns out, we gave our hotel voucher to the taxi driver and had 2 taxi vouchers. We spent the rest of the day trying to track down a taxicab driver in Vegas, who had our voucher and didn't understand English. Meanwhile we had all of our bags and no where to stay. (This was New Years day, no hotels were available unless you had a VOUCHER from the airport) It made our trip a little rough, but an hour before our flight we ended up finding our Hotel voucher and didn't have to pay for it. Thanks to Doug calling about 100 times. I am getting used to the fact that something crazy will ALWAYS happen when traveling. Makes things much more fun that way!

Alabama has been treating us pretty well. There was even a little snow storm a few weeks ago! It was nothing compared to snow in UT, but for AL it was a big deal. Word on the street is that it was the biggest snow storm here in 12 years. Pretty much everything shut down for the day because of the snow. They just don't know what to do but put sand everywhere and hope that the snow will melt quickly. It was a lot of fun! My friend Challis and I even took a little run in the snow, just to celebrate.
To put it nicely, the military decided Aviation was not the pathway for Doug. He is now re-branching to the Medical Service and has applied for a Behavioral Medicine program to get his Masters. He'll find out in March if he is accepted, and then we will be moving again if he does. I am still going to school, and won't be done until May of next year. So, things could get pretty interesting here in the next couple months. We're used to the waiting game, we'll just have to see and have faith that everything will turn out how it is supposed to.
Well that about sums it up! Here are some pictures of our recent adventures..they'll explain what we've been up to better than words. They're in no particular order...

Our highlight of Vegas: We HAD to go to the Carnival World Buffet in the Rio. After waiting in line almost 2 hours, we were HUNGRY! We got to the front of the line, and they only had tables for large parties (6 or 7) and not for 2. After seeing about 15-20 people surpass us, we decided to buddy up with the small groups behind us in line. We ate dinner with 5 complete strangers, and we had the time of our lives! The couple on the left got married the night before with Elvis, and the man with the mustache is with his son (right) and son’s wife (left of him). They were hilarious; it was such a great time!


Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma/Grandpa Carlsens