Anniversary/cruise Part 3, this is the last one I promise:)

Part 3: this is the last post I promise :) Grand Cayman, "at sea", and Miami excursion

Grand Cayman was super exciting too.. I have been there before and I remember the water being the clearest color of blue that I had ever seen and it didn't disappoint, still as beautiful as ever!! There is soo much construction going on and the island has GROWN a ton since I was there last. I think we need a vacation home there, the market is hoppin' and I keep hearing things about "off shore accounts in the cayman's" ... haha:) Kaj and I were just going to catch a cab to the "7 mile" beach but we met a few fellow Utah couples on the ship and when we ran into them on shore we all decided to do the sting ray/snorkel/beach excursion together.. Lacie took one for the team and gave up her "swimming with the dolphins excursion" to join the fun... Swimming with the stingrays was soo fun, I was a little nervous and didn't really want to get in the water but after a min you kind of relax and its totally fun!! Kaj had a little "miss-hap" if you will during the excursion. They told us we could pick up the stingrays and as we were all trying to find a stingray to catch we turned around to Kaj actually LIFTING a sting ray FULLY out of the water.. Just in case you are wondering that is a "WHAT NOT TO DO MOMENT" :) The guides said that is pretty much the only thing you can do to them that will get you hurt, when they get out of water that is when they get scared and shoot there little stinger at you ;) Luckily Lacie caught this moment ON CAMERA, I should sell them the rights to that photo. I would love to see Kaj's face on a "what not to do while swimming with the stingray's" brochure:) After the stingrays we got to go snorkeling "again", kaj could do it all day everyday so he was excited.. After about 5 min I decided to call it a day, I got in the boat and forgot to take off my "flippers", can you guess what happened next? :) YEP I ate it, FACE FIRST onto the floor.. Good thing most of the boat was in the water enjoying there excursion:) We didn't have time for the beach which I was SUPER BUMMED about but after a long day it was nice to head back to the boat for a NAP:)

I don't want to write about the last "day at sea" I was excited to get home to see the kids but SUPER BUMMED it cruise was over :) I'm sure by now you can guess what we did, well I spent all day laying by the pool. Kaj on the other hand, did some laundry, started packing his bag, got a snack or 2, read a good chunk of the "borne series", talked to guest services about our debarking process which is where he found out we were to late to have them hold our bags till our plane left so he headed over to the excursion desk and booked the Miami excursion: Yay for our over priced "everglades/air boat tour":) he's soo darn productive!

Grand Cayman!!! :)

Grand Cayman, Love this island!!

 Let the sting ray excursion begin

Behind me is Jamar/Lacie, and JD/Jenny.... I was just as scared as those girls when I first got in:) Super fun though!!

Love this handsome lookin man!!

this is the AMAZING MOMENT CAUGHT ON CAMERA :) haha, I love the guy in the back ground pointing and laughing..

Gun show, anyone?

We were on the SLOWEST boat EVER!!! Which is why we missed out on the beach part of our excursion but it did give us lots of time to enjoy the scenery :)

More Iguana's

 

we had to take another catamaran back to the ship and we passed the pirate boat that kaj had been "eyeing" from the ship all day.. He loves things like this ;)

 

 XOXO

 

once we got back on board we sat and watched the MOST BEAUTIFUL sunset I'v ever seen.. I am not a good photographer but I wish I could have captured just how amazing this was !

 

Last morning of the gym, I was a little excited about this (ok A LOT EXCITED!!!)

(I cant remember what was so funny at the moment but I sure do love seeing that smile :)

" Day at sea" I got him to lay out with me for a total of 5 min that morning :)

nothing like laying out in the "Brisk morning air"

Brisk morning air!! AHHH

 

that didnt last long!! The sun was out and I was ready to soak up the last of "the rays"

After he finished being "so darn productive" he hung out with me for a good 20 min by the pool :)

I didnt get any pictures of us leaving the ship because I was to busy crying so here are the pictures from our Everglades excursion in Miami..

 

 

 

Before we even got in the boat we saw plenty of gaters !!!

 

way to close for comfort!!

Our air boat excursion!! He loved it!! I however was not excited about the open canal's and no fences to keep me safe from all the gaters!!

the air boat went right over all the grass and lily pads.. pretty cool actually

we went into a few coves and our guide told us all about the animals that live in the everglades.. (gaters, bears, deer, all sorts of birds and soo much more..) pretty cool

Beautiful HUGE bird!

This gater needed some lunch :)

and this freaked me out!! It was right next to the boat

it is actually very pretty, until you find out whats underneath all of that greenery

after our boat ride was a GATER SHOW... the only Gaters that are caged and I'm glad cause they were HUGE!!

these however were not caged and they were close enough to touch.. EEEKKKK

Kaj's lucky I got in the picture for this.. I HATE GATERS, probably one of my biggest fears...

These signs were everywhere and it made me crazy nervous..

baby gater, could be cute...

if that bird new how many gaters I saw in that water before we left on our boat ride he wouldn't be standing there :)

Kaj and I had an interesting flight home, our first flight was delayed for mechanical difficulties.. :) we barely caught our connecting flight or at least that's what we thought.. our 2nd flight was also delayed so we got into SLC 2 hours late (1230)  and we were WIPED OUT!! Dad left the car at the airport and the second we got home we relieved grandma of her baby duty and went straight to bed :)

Anniversary/cruise part 2

 Part 2: Belize, and Honduras

Belize was actually kind of a disappointment for me. This just so happened to be the only city that Kaj and I booked an excursion at and I'm SOOO GLAD we did. There isn't much to see when you get off the ship, there aren't any close beaches, or tons of shops to see and the local law enforcement keep a tight reign on where you "can and can't go".. they made it hard for you to be able to just go "explore the city". I guess its a pretty dangerous place to be if your not a local, (and in some cases even if you are a local)... Kaj and I got off the boat around 9 and then took an hour long bus ride to get to our "jungle kayaking tour"... Neither of us had ever done a jungle tour of any kind so we were super excited for this ;) They took us out to our kayaking spot and it had a ridiculously nice resort swimming pool and bar nearby, BONUS!!!.. our tour guide was super fun but I was TERRIFIED we were going to flip so I didn't get many pictures.. There were tree roots that had grown so big and that were soo hard to see, if you weren't careful you could hit one and your boat would tip... (the guide told me, "it happens all the time", BLAH) Kaj figured out how to steer about 10 min in and after that it was AWESOME ( I never really figured it out some for part of the time kaj told me to "just enjoy the ride and LEAVE MY PADDLE IN THE BOAT".. haha)!!!  After our hour long Kayak excursion we got to hang out at the pool for a while and can I just tell you HOW BEAUTIFUL this pool was, they even served us a local meal: Beans and Rice, chicken, and cooked plantains YUMMMM!!!

Honduras was the exact opposite of Belize.. :) When we first got there I was blown away at how BEAUTIFUL it was, it has rolling hills that are a BEAUTIFUL green, and absolutely beautiful crystal clear water:)... Next vacation I want to spend a WHOLE WEEK in Honduras!! :)  We went to the beach that was just right off the dock, they had a chair lift that took you down to it but kaj and I decided to walk since it was such beautiful scenery:) Once we got out to the beach we headed to the far side where it wasn't soo crowded. We picked a spot that was nice and quiet:) Kaj snorkeled once again while I laid in the beautiful white sand!!! Kaj doesn't like boundaries all that much so he got in trouble for going out to far.. He decided to come back and we found a nice little spot to go paddle boarding!! This might have been MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING ALL TRIP...   I LOVE PADDLE BOARDING :)

loved that the background was green, fit right along with our jungle tour :)

we had to take a catamaran to the shore

Bus ride to the jungle, our tour guide told us a little about the island and showed us some of their money:) We learned 2 major things about the island: They have a "serious gun problem", at least that's what our tour guide said, "young boys get into fights and they turn to guns. Sadly there are alot of killings. We don't have a high crime or drug rate around here though"  maybe that's why they don't let us "explore" the city. and 2nd the guy that discovered Belize left there country  something like 1.5 million dollars. He told them they could only life off the interest of that money and they still have money left from that original fund :)

These are the kinds of homes you see when you get into town. There isn't a high unemployment rate and there are "no homeless" people. Families live in what they can afford to build and you are expected to take care of your family pretty much until you die. That means that there isn't a need for unemployment or nursing homes over there. I think our tour guide said there is 1 nursing home with about 57 people that live there, but it is considered an embarrassment to put a family member in a "home".

our walk into the "jungle", very pretty :)

crazy picture, its one of the few i got on the boat.. :)

we started down a narrow and finished down this narrow canal

but about half way into it the river widens and it was super fun!! This was our tour guide, she was 34 single and has never left Belize.. she was super awesome!!

game: "spot the iguana" .:) they blend in soo well

I loved all the lilly pads and flowers in the river

more iguana's, this one is one of the bigger males. He lives in a hole on the other side of the wall with multiple wives.. NICE..

OOOOOH YAAAA, this is my kind of pool!!! I will have one of these in my back yard, please ;)

they had beautiful trails set up around the pool and into the jungle..

but we spend MOST of our time right here!!!

he was actually totally good with "just sitting" by the pool today :)

I will take a little yellow chair next to my pool if its not to much to ask ..

 

out morning ritual. Kinda nice to be able to go to the gym together.

 good thing we got our picture taken at every port ;)

 

Loved how green it was !!

rolling hills over the WHOLE island :)

 

beautiful water and beach right as you get off the ship.

since I didn't get to see a "sea turtle" this one will have to do

SHIP WRECK, or random boat on the beach.

SERIOUSLY this was my FAVORITE THING all cruise!

we had soo much fun and I'm pretty sure that was a "cheat board" you couldn't fall if you tried .

I would go back to this island in a heart beat.

 I Love tropical flowers

these were one of my fav's cause I've never seen one before.

 

we couldn't leave without getting a "coconut water", it would have been good except for it was COMPLETELY WARM... BLAHHHH

 

 

 

Seriousy I was SOOO SAD to leave this island!!

 

and Kaj was soo sad he didnt get to go explore all of the ship wrecks that were right off the shore:(

 This is also the spot that Kaj's eye got really bad.. He had been complaining about it for a few days but didnt want to see the on board medic beccause it would be soo expensive.. When we got home he found out he had a HUGE ulser.. :( ....(poor guy)