Jeff's Wedding!

Over Memorial Day weekend my cousin, Jeff, married the love of his life, Mary! Eric and I wouldn't have missed the wedding for anything, but it just so happens that it was in Omaha, Nebraska (less than 3 hours away from us). Eric and I road tripped out there on Friday afternoon and made a mini vacation out of the trip.

Friday night we did a session at the temple. It was great going to a temple that we've never been to before! In less than a year we'll have one in Kansas City.

My mom and little brother flew in late Friday night for the wedding.

Jeff and Mary coming out of the temple!

What a happy couple :)

My cousins Amy and Larissa, and Larissa's new husband Kyle.

My cousin Carin with her baby, Sarah.

The wedding party with 3 of my cousins in it (the groom and the 2 groomsmen on the right). Don't they look sharp?

Most of my cousins with their families.

After the bride and groom took their pics, Eric had to have his own little photo session.

After the wedding, we all ate lunch then headed west a couple hours for the reception. It was fun hanging out with all of my cousins. Kyle and Jeff (Carin's hubby) thought it was funny to stand next to me because I'm so short.

They are really focused on cutting the cake. It's not as easy as it looks! And it's not one of those things you think about when planning a wedding. Haha.

I love this guy (Eric too)! He deserves to be happy more than anyone I know. Congratulations Jeff and Mary!

Heading out after the reception.

We had a blast hanging out with my family. I don't get to see them enough so I love when weddings come around. Too bad the next one won't be for awhile...

Cayman Islands

This is the final cruise post! I know, the time has finally arrived.

Going back to day 3 of the cruise...we spent our first port day in the Cayman Islands. Like all of the ports, it was beautiful and the weather was excellent. This was also the only day that we splurged on an excursion through the cruise ship. We thought it would be a good idea because we were able to do 3 different activities.

Our first activity was a visit to the turtle farm. If you know Eric, you know he is obsessed with the color green. Consequently, he automatically loves turtle because they are green.

We saw some big turtles that we couldn't touch because they would bite us. Then we saw these medium sized turtles that we got to hold. It was my first time ever touching a turtle. Not as scary as I thought it would be :)

They were actually really funny. When you held them, the turtles would flap their little hands like crazy and smack us. Luckily it didn't hurt. And if you stroked the bottom of the turtle's neck it would calm down.

We got to feel and lift an actual turtle shell. You could see the vertebrae on the inside of the shell--which Eric liked. He's such a nerd like that! But I love it because I know that he'll enjoy his career as a chiropractor!

We even got to hold little tiny turtles. How cute is that!?

Our next stop was Hell. Really. There is an actual town on the Cayman Islands called Hell because of this dead coral in the background. It's just a tiny town.

Tourists like us get suckered into these places. But we enjoyed it! We even sent our moms post cards from Hell for Mother's Day.

I don't think this picture was technically taken this day, but look how cool my husband is! Hehe.

The last stop on our island tour was swimming with the stingrays. We hopped on a boat and rode into the ocean about 20-30 minutes until we came across a sandbar that is home to a TON of stingray. Eric and I think the stingray stay put because they know they will get fed by tourists.

Eric jumped at the opportunity to feed the stingray some squid. He was also the first in the group to hold the stingray. Unfortunately, I have been too lazy to scan all the pics from our water camera. I keep telling myself I will, but it hasn't happened yet!

I was next up to hold the stingray. I was definitely scared to hold it at first because they have a stinger on the end of their tale. Our guides kept saying that we have to hold our arms firm but not lift the stingray up too high or else they might sting us. This made me scared to lift at all, so the first couple times the stingray just slid right through my arms! Eric was a natural, of course.

I was still a little scared of them, but I sucked it up and kissed the stingray. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad we did it.

The creepiest part of the day was walking around or just standing in the ocean and feeling something against your leg. You'd look down and there would be stingrays swimming all around your feet. A stingray scared me that way one time, so I started panicking and stepping in place and I almost stepped right on one! I was so scared I'd make a stingray mad and they would sting me. I'm such a baby! :)

Before we boarded the ship there was a water station on the dock. Look at these cool paper cups...they have handles!!

And this sums up many of our evenings on the cruise as well as some of our days at sea:

SCRABBLE!! Oh how I love this game!

Eric and I had a good cruise. As you can see, the Cayman Islands was my favorite day and Mexico was Eric's favorite day. We will probably end up going on another cruise one day...but next time we will be sure to bring friends and family along! I think it's one of those things where the more people there are, the better it is.

The Bahamas

Day 6 of the cruise was another day on the ocean. We definitely needed it because we had 3 days in a row of destination cities (I still need to post my favorite day). I think if we do another cruise, we'll try to split up the port days more. 3 in a row is EXHAUSTING!

We had PERFECT weather the entire cruise. The only problem with that is you get burnt before you realize it. Exhibit A:

We relaxed all day at sea. I had to fit an elevator pic in here somewhere :) It was a little disappointing that there wasn't a mirror on the ceiling.

The next day we stopped at Princess Cays, Bahamas. I've always wanted to go to the Bahamas ever since the Mary Kate and Ashley movie way back when! It was gorgeous as you can see. This was a private little island so we had a beach day.

Eric and I trying to get our tan on. It was a little difficult with our burnt bodies!

One day I'm going to get a really awesome camera (probably when we have some kiddos) and start doing photography. For now, this will have to do. I LOVE the sun peeking through. So pretty.

After a long day in the sun...

We enjoyed the food (enough) on the cruise, but near the end of the week it was all tasting the same. We still liked to try every dessert we could. This night we loaded every dessert up on a plate and brought it back to our room to relax.

Here are our room pics! Obviously this is after we had been in the room awhile. Because every time we left, it would be spotless when we returned. I could get used to that :)

One more cruise post and then time for some other stuff!

Cozumel, Mexico

Day 5: We stopped in Cozumel, Mexico! This made Eric very happy being back in Mexico (even though it wasn't quite Mexico City).

We purposely didn't plan any excursions in Mexico because we wanted to take in the culture. We were going to go see some ruins, but the good ones were too far away. We'll see them next time we're in Mexico. And at the rate we're going, that should be in 2 years.

I love these human statues. They are crazy still! We gave him some money so we could see him move. I just kept waiting and waiting and then finally he did something (Maybe he waved. I can't remember).

Eric's highlight of the ENTIRE cruise can be summed up by this picture: tacos al pastor. You can't find these tacos very much in the US, so this was one thing Eric was sure to hit up. We found these tacos by asking the taxi driver where to go. It turns out this was pretty much the only place that offered tacos al pastor at that time in the day. And yes, the building is shared with a clothes store! That just makes the tacos THAT much more legit.

One thing I learned thanks to Cozumel: I would be a very ugly Mexican woman.

Eric would be okay as a Mexican. I think I should get him this outfit for church. What do you think?

We had a small photo session in the middle of the shops. I LOVE the background. This is exactly what it's like in Mexico (from what I've seen).

After we were all tired and hot, we went back to the ship, got cleaned up, and ate some dinner.

Then we went to a comedy show and saw Anthony Griffith (not to be confused with Andy Griffith). This guy was pretty funny. It was his audition to be a regular on the cruise line. I think he passed! We even talked to him for a bit in the airport because he was on our flight home.

It was a good day in Mexico. And who knows, maybe we'll end up living there one day. Mission President?

Roatan, Honduras

I don't have all my pics from day 3 on my computer yet, so I'll get back to that. Day 4 of the cruise we stopped in Roatan. I have always wanted to go zip lining, so when I heard that Roatan had a course, it was a must! Eric didn't share as much enthusiasm for it, but he was still up for it.

Right when we got off the ship we walked around a little. Once we passed the shops, we came across a zip lining course. I am so glad we didn't go through the cruise line, because they wanted to charge 4 times the amount that we paid in Roatan!

We got all our gear on and went on a car ride to the beginning of the course.

The only scary part of the entire course was the first line. As I was approaching the end, the guy who was supposed to catch me acted like I was going way too fast and he couldn't stop me. It made my heart race because I didn't know what to do! It turns out it was just an act and he does it to everyone. It made for an exciting first run.

The other nerve wrecking part of the trip was that we had to hold on to the line on some of the runs (like Eric is doing in this picture). I was the most nervous because our gloves had a couple little holes in them. I didn't want the rope to touch my hand!

Zip lining was very relaxing. I don't think this course was the greatest. The runs were pretty short and very horizontal, so I just took in the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, the only animal we saw was a pet monkey. We were speaking to another couple that had been before, and they went on a course with a 4 story drop! I would LOVE to do that.

We had a great time getting out and about!

But next time we will check out the course first. I need an adrenaline rush!

The guys were great. They were all so fun and helpful.

We were sweating after zip lining, so we headed over to Mahogany Beach. It is a private beach for all the cruisers! It was beautiful, of course!