We're back. It is happy and sad. I'm so glad to see my kids again. It was really really hard being away from them for 8 days. I'm sure it was really really hard on their grandma's also. So we are all very happy being back to normal. I am even loving sitting here by my fire, with my christmas tree all lit up watching the snow fall outside my window. It is just another type of heaven.
However, I also loved sitting on my beach chair, watching the beautiful blue-green carribean waters lap against the powder white sand beaches. I loved being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of our boat on the waves. I loved swimmig with sea turtles and seeing all the wonderous colors of the tropical fish. I loved walking up and down the beach with my sweet husband, collecting all colors of sea glass. I loved not having to cook or change dirty diapers. I loved being able to read 3 books in 8 days.
We departed from Puerto Rico,
It was neat to see Old San Juan with it's cobble stone streets and old buildings. But we were both very tired after flying out on the red-eye.
Stop #1 St. Thomas
Beautiful. It reminded me a little of Hawaii. It had hills covered with green. White houses with red roofs dotted the hills. The city was fairly clean. Magen's bay was one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. We snorkeled and saw tropical fish. I even saw some squid. We saw a huge Iguana come right up to us on the beach. freaky.
Stop #2 St. Maarten
Also, amazingly beautiful. We went to Orient beach which was just the perfect carribean postcard picture. But as we walked the beach we began to realize that there were even more sights to see. On the end of the beach we were alarmed to see a man about 60, fully naked standing there for all the world to see. We, averted our eyes and continued a few more feet slowly realizing that he was not the only man displaying his... uh... well, ...you get it. I guess we had wandered into an adults only, all- inclusive resort. There wasn't any sign or indication that we had gone too far, the scenery just suddenly changed. The funny thing about it was that no one was under the age of about 60. No one had a body worth showing off. All of the women I saw had at least 50 or more lbs to loose. The men... I can't even say. I tried not to look. I felt like they were flashers and I was their victim. I got the heck out of there as fast as I could go.
We spent the rest of the day on a nice safe beach a hundred yards down and felt the carribean breeze. It was awesome.
Stop #3 Antigua
We took a taxi to Turner's beach because they said there was good snorkeling there. The beach was beautiful just like the others. This one was nice because it was out of the way and there were hardly any other tourists there. The snorkeling was just okay. We were starting to realize that you need to go to a coral reef that doesn't have a beach if you want to get really good snorkeling. But we saw some neat fish and enjoyed the lack of crowds. There was one local there who was trying to get us to buy some Conch shells from him. He was missing more than a few teeth and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have passed a drug test if he was given one. Because there wasn't a lot of tourists, this one wouldn't leave us alone. Finally, Burke gave him a couple bucks to get lost. We loved walking up and down this beach because it had a lot of sea shells and sea glass. We spent an hour finding the most rare and beautiful sea glass to bring home with us.
Stop #4 St. Lucia
Wow. I kept thinking the islands would get worse as we continued on but St. Lucia was my favorite. It was very large and was covered in rain forests. There are not as many beaches on this island. It is volcanic and is more mountainous. It was also a little rainy so we decided to take a tour with our friends and dinner partners Steve and Kim. We drove all over the island seeing Banana plantations, interesting little fishing villages, waterfalls, boa constrictors, and a volcano. We had a great time seeing the sites and they tried to teach us to speak English like the British.
Stop #5 Barbados
Okay... so I like the name Barbados, It sounds very exotic and romantic. But... it was not as pretty as the others. All of the other islands had mountains. This island's highest point is probably 20ft. But the beaches.... Wow. The beaches were all amazing on all of the islands. This one was just like the rest. This was the warmest of the stops because we were very close to the equator. But it was heaven. When you would get to hot, you could just step into the water which was probably 75 degrees. It was incredible. We were at a very beautiful beach and could see lots of tour boats about 100 yards out. We decided to put on our snorkel gear and see what the fuss was all about. They were feeding sea turtles and we got to swim with them. We could grab their shells and swim with them. It was amazing!
Last day aboard was a day at sea.
We slept in. Ate whatever we felt like, Lounged by the pool. Watched our friend Sean win the belly flop contest. (Santa Clause took a close second.) It was great. What a fantastic trip.
But now I just get to enjoy the other side of heaven. Cuddled up on the couch watching Nemo with my kiddos while the snow falls outside my window.
Life is good.
We have had a busy busy christmas! I haven't had time to blog since our cruise so I have lots of pictures to post.
Drew looked very handsome in his christmas sweater.
Proud momma Haylee and baby Tristan
My cute Mommy and Daddy
Grandma played christmas songs with the kids. They love the piano.
Me and my honey.
Mason was finally old enough to like decorating cookies.
My sweet girlie with her antenna pig tails
Mason with his vision impairing eyelashes
On Christmas eve I gave my brothers some advent calendars I had made for them. They were a little cheesy but we had one just like it growing up and it just doesn't seem like christmas without being able to open the ornament of the day. I made one for myself also and Mason loves it!
At last... Christmas morning!!
The pictures speak for themselves. Santa cam and the kids got lots of loot. Even though we missed our Shields family in Boise this year, it was nice to have our own little christmas morning. We loved it. Merry, Merry!! 
