carribean cruising...

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary on a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise!!! AmAzInG!!! We had the time of our life...We left out of Ft.Lauderdale, Florida and from the first step onto the ship until 7 days later, it was like living a dream...leaving us planning for the next time we can go cruising again........

This ship was amazing! 10 swimming pools, 6 restaurants with endless food, non stop entertainmant and so many people who are just there to have fun. This is one of the pools that at night they put covers on the lounge chairs and there is a huge screen that we watched movies under the stars. So amazing!!
Don't forget Safety Training Drill. Imagine thousands of people walking around in these orange life jackets with whistles attached to them.
Our First Stop was to Princess Cays in the Bahamas. It is Princess Cruise Line's own private Island. When we got off the ship they were carving pictures in watermelons. This was a pretty laid back island where you could do all sorts of water activities, shop in the little stands that the locals had set up and just have a relaxing day.
Fun Beach with a beautiful view of the ship
Ben and Kristy
Everyday on the ship they had a BINGO tournament and the Jackpot got bigger each day that it was not won. We thought we would give it our best shot!
Our next stop was to Ocho Rios, Jamaica... This was a beautiful island that we spent a few hours on. Due to some island unrest on the other side of the island we were advised on the ship to be very careful and not go anywhere alone while we were there. We had first planned on just exploring here but after some thought we decided that we would do a excursion with a group of people. We took a tour bus to Dunn River Falls. They are cascading waterfalls made out of rocks so steep in some places that you had to make a human chain to climb up them. We were told not to take our camera or it would be ruined by the water so we didn't end up with any pictures of the Falls.

Troy and Melanie. Our new friends from Texas! We met them the first day at Sea on the ship. He is a paramedic in Louisiana and needless to say I think Ben and him are two peas in a pod. They were hillarious together. Melanie is going to nursing school in Texas.We spent the majority of our time with them because we had so much fun together. We hope someday very soon to make that drive to Texas to spend a few days with them~! One of our FaVoRiTe stops was Grand Cayman. Famous for their Pirates! We found a tour that would take us on a tour of the island and decided that we would go for it. It ended up being a way fun way to go. We stopped At 7 mile beach and watched a man crack coconuts, The Tortuga Rum Cake factory and had a taste of the famous Rum Cake, The Dolphin and Turtle Encounter, and of course made a stop to Hell... there is a city by that name and we mailed a postcard back to our house from there! Ben and Troy talked the bus driver to stop at the Cayman Island Fire Department to see their truck.

Out of the four islands that we stopped at, three of them had a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We made sure to visit all three. They were all different. This one in Grand Cayman had a waterslide at the restaurant. Sooo much fun!
Grand Cayman Fire Department
Our last stop was to Cozumel,Mexico...this was a super fun place with great souvenier shopping and we did one of our favorite shore excursions. We went to Dolphin Discovery and swam with the Dolphins! My entire life I have wanted to do this and it was all I ever dreamed of. They would not let anyone bring cameras in because that way they can get $20 a picture of you kissing, riding, dancing with a Dolphin! We fell for it and managed to pick up the DVD of the experience as well. It was worth every penny!
Cozumel,Mexico

Our Ship the Emerald Princess... till next time!

Christmas in Disneyland!!

Our Christmas Vacation

Waiting at the airport...

After months of planning, on Christmas Day, Grandma and Grandpa surprised all of the kids with a DiSnEy ChRiStMaS!!! They were surprised beyond words when they all found out. They set up a treasure hunt around the house which made up little clues for the kids to try to figure out what their present. When they put it all together, the neighbors could have heard their screams... We left on December 28th and the fun began...

The First place that we went was to SeA WoRlD in San Diego. We got there in the morning and just before the first Shamu Show, the entire park had a power outage. We decided to get our passes refunded and go back the next day. Just as we were about to leave, the power came back on. We ended up staying that day and going back the next day as well. It was so much fun.
ThE AdAmSoN's.. Jim, Natalie, Lauren, Chloe and Jake

Grandma with Max and Indie

The kiddos in front of the ShAmU VW. So excited to go in and check it out...

All of the Kids waiting in the SpLaSh ZoNe at the ShAmU ShOw. We brought rain ponchos just in case of rainy weather. We had beautiful weather for December and they used them for the splash zone....

After three days in beautiful San Diego, it was off to Anaheim and Disneyland... We Spent the next three days there.

DiSnEyLaNd !!!!!!!

The First day at the Park it poured rain.. We decided to try and tough it out for a while. It sprinkles on and off for most of the morning but the kids were determined not to leave. It wasn't until lunch time that it was a straight downpour. After standing room only in the restaurant because it was too wet outside, we decided to call it for a few hours.. We went back to the hotel, changed in swimming suits, went to Grandpa and Grandmas hotel with an indoor pool and swam the afternoon away. The rain eventually died down and they were ready for more. So back to Disneyland we went.

The Infamous MICKEY Photo spot

This was handsdown the hit for Nephi, Max and Jake. JeDi TrAiNiNg AcAdEmY. Where they were trained as Jedi's to get ready to fight Darth Vadar. We talked to the people in charge ahead of time to find out how these boys could get picked and we were told that the kids with the most energy and excitement were the ones to go up. Well needless to say out of about a hundered kids jumping up and down, Jake, Max, Nephi, Chloe and Tayler all got picked to go up.

Tayler in Training

Chloe Fighting Darth Vadar.. When she got up to him he said " I've been waiting for you" It was perfect!

Nephi waiting for his Training to begin..And all of them when it was finished

At the end of this second day at Disneyland, it was time for the PaRaDe!! Hours of saving the perfect seat was well worth it to see the kids get so excited.

Another amazing day at Disneyland. This was NeW YeArS EvE NiGhT. The park was open until 2am, and yes this part of the group stayed the entire time. We got there to open it at 10 and shut it down. I never thought we would make it almost 15 hours at Disneyland but its a probably once in a lifetime chance to do it, and its something they will talk about for years. It was amazingly packed that day but so worth it to bring in the New Year!

Day ThReE... Our last day here and we spent it at DiSnEyS CaLiFoRnIa AdVeNtUrE.. The weather was so amazing this day.

The kiddos with Mater and Lightening McQueenNephi, Briley and Tayler with WOODY

Meeting MINNIE

You would think that one week with twenty people at some point we could have managed a few entire group pictures.. but this was the only one. Thank goodness it was on Grandpa and Grandmas most faviorite rides - SOARING OVER CALIFORNIA!!!

ThE TeXaS LoNgHoRnS were at Disneyland for the Bowl Game. Nephi getting his picture taken with a few Football players was quite the exciting thing for him.

ThE InCrEdIbLeS!!! Finding Characters was pretty hard to come by but we managed to find a few.dIsNeY's CaLiFoRnIa AdVeNtUrE at NIGHT Waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade

Mom and Dad waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade..

NeWpOrT BeAcH !! Mikaylas highlight of the trip to California was to spend a few hours at the beach. She had never seen the ocean before. It was a great day for the beach, the water was a little cold but it didn't matter to the kids.

Lauren playing in the sand

Kimber catching some waves

The BoYs being BoYs in the sand. Who knows what the were playing but they seemed to think up something to keep themselves busy...

Grandma and Indie playing on the Beach

Thats the end of our wonderful vacation... We love you Grandma and Grandpa.. We will all have so many fun memories that we will remember for so many years.

Veterans Day Parade

We went to Ogden to celebrate Veterans Day with my Grandpa Allred. He is a WWII Veteran and the city of Ogden had a parade to honor all veterans. All of the WWII Veterans that were there were the Grand Marshals of the Parade. It was a great experience for all of us to share this day with them. After the parade, we went to Lindquist Field for a Veterans Program.

Grandma and Grandpa Allred, Mom and Uncle Gregg
Ben's Mom and Step Dad Bill also came to watch the parade with us. Bill served in the Vietnam War. About half way through the parade, someone in the parade took Bill and Barbara to join with them. It was fun to see them be a part of this.

Group Picture

Grandma and Grandpa Allred in the parade

Nephi and Max waiting for the parade to start. They look like a few old men reading their papers...